Gated Community

In my Humanities class, Rhetoric, we recently finished our third and final unit “Unity”. In this unit we furthered our knowledge on rhetoric the impact it can have. We studied different situations where rhetoric has been used to inspire, unite, and bring about change. We then focused on the certain devices used to create this unity. Some being  Alliteration, Assonance, Hyperbole, Metaphor, Antithesis, and more. We studied certain passages to really grasp how these devices get used, For example Common Sense by Thomas Paine was a pamphlet that continuously used rhetoric to persuade  independence from Great Britain to people in the Thirteen Colonies. With this we were simultaneously seeing the strong connection politics have with rhetoric. This all led to the eyes of our creative selves to create an art piece that speaks on our mayoral candidate to shine light on what they represent as a unit. I decided to create a abstract collage that is based on the school system to show forth what my candidate is about. I wanted to challenge the idea of abstract as it is seen simplistic and open for interpretation with this I created a intentional theme that simplistically holds analogies to this one fight. As our unit ends I hope you have gained knowledge to go out and VOTE!

GA, "Gated Community", 2018

This piece challenges what a gated community is. The word gated is defined as confinement, elaborating on that it’s not very inviting. Community defined as a group, it can be taken as inclusive to a lot of people, very inviting. Yet, once put together it becomes contradictory, gated community draws the idea of the people seeing education as this untouched community that doesn't play within the rest of the corrupt system when in reality we built a "gated" playground to invite pipelines of prison industrial complex, rigged funds, censorship, military practices, and bordered white walls. This serves as a recording of what has been said by kids, teens, and adults it unites the stories into a collective theme that breaks the barriers that have been made to separate the thought of education being affiliated with Greed of money, power, Luxury or any other market desires. Engravings and recordings have been used rhetorically throughout the years to convince a certain way of living, thinking and being. I was influenced by that concept to visualize my drawing with recording incidents. Theodore de Bry was a famous engraver who depicted the early European expeditions to the Americas. Theodore influenced the European perception of the New World, Africa, and Asia by showing negative illustrations of how the Indians live. The tradition of recording history to your advantage has been successful and will continue to be. My piece carries the tradition of serving a plate filled with the nutrition you need(education) and letting you see it be poisoned(systems). I grounded this piece with lightly sketched lines to show how classrooms create these invisible borders of conformity that subconsciously restricts students to these fabricated dynamics. Within the lines that represent the frame of the school, I started adding concepts that make up the student body and what it does to us. The "RM 102" is a small door that rooted the rest of the chain. "RM 102" represents how schools are designed and structured around the same set up of prisons and manufacture. Organizing classrooms by numbers send a message to the students that the space they occupy to learn isn't for them. Classrooms aren't built to feel connected its just a border that separates another classroom with a different number. This is what lead me to the school to prison pipeline, gravitating with the set up of a classroom I explored what makes up these tendencies reoccurring with the students. Factors such as school disturbance laws, zero tolerance policies, and practices, and an increase in police in schools these were all put in for SAFETY! safety for who? safety from who? We've created a system where we don't see children skills and growth, we have created an inventory of social, economic, racial demographics. We've created a resume for these children to prepare them for their set up pipeline. This chained analogy is a rhetorical device that I used to demonstrate the issue around the structure of cps and its harm it brings. Another rhetorical technique is the strong balance of pathos and logos. Facts can cause an emotional connection when the truth that's being given is destroying generations to come. This piece isn't an exaggeration. This is the system finally bleeding into the walls of the schools and the student lives, the chain isn't invisible anymore. You need to speak up, stop censoring your children in what they are being enrolled in don't let the schools built a resume and choose the path for your kid.

Super Digger

In my STEAM class, Design and Engineering we just finished the first unit called “Stronger” where we focused on the idea of tools by learning and analyzing strategies from history, present, and the future. We studied the three main simple machines; lever, wedge, and inclined plane. Lastly, we studied volume, surface area, work, force, and vectors. We found the connections between all of these concepts, and we found how they can apply to a design process. We then experienced and brought these concepts to life. To do so, the class traveled to Home Depot. At Home Depot we had the opportunity to test out different gardening tools to get a sense of what goes on when picking/designing a tool. As we dove deeper into learning about our tool we started to think for our targeted audience and taking into account the accessibility, the “easy to use”, safety, comfort, reliability, and appeal. By doing so we start to enhance our tool for the better for all people not just the “average person” by looking at the problems elderly people might be facing on the day to day basis with these so called built for everyone/easy to use inventions. The reasoning behind this is to simultaneously create empathy in a way that you put yourself in someone else’s shoes to understand the needs the tool should fulfill for the benefit of all people.

In order to apply empathy and to design an effective tool, research needs to happen. We researched tools and the elderly, in regards to gardening. Our research was done through online resources, interviews, and field work. We even had the opportunity to go to Home Depot where we were able to experience the tools we would be redesigning. This experience was very effective because we also spoke to experts that helped us along the way of getting to know our tool. We then researched the setbacks that the elderly may suffer through because of aging, and how this can affect their ability to garden. There were many online resources that gave advice and tips to the elderly on how to make gardening easier that also aided our new design ideas. Knowing this information and using the tools ourselves was a solid foundation to redesigning an effective tool for the elderly. This gave me a sense of how to approach a new design by going on a process of elimination strategy to create the design to the best of my ability.

The purpose of this assignment is to create an effective gardening tool for senior citizens. We started researching the targeted audience gardening tools tend to be made for. Interestingly enough the majority of gardeners are senior citizens, yet a majority of the gardening tools being sold are not built for the, being that tools are designed for the young and strong. This is unfortunate for senior citizens because with aging comes setbacks when it comes to the things one is able to do. That is why it is a must to apply empathy when redesigning a tool. Empathy is putting yourself in another person’s shoes to understand and share their feelings or experiences. This will ensure that the tool is close to perfect for them.

My partner and I decided we wanted to redesign the pole hole digger that was displayed at Home Depot. One of the changes we made was the “digger” itself by creating a screw like feature with the idea of the corkscrew. The screw is a simple machine that converts rotational motion into linear motion allowing you to use less physical force.

I found this action project to be a great opportunity to work with a new student and share good ideas all around. I found the process pace perfect, I didn't feel overwhelmed in this term because of the accessible sources we had. Overall I learned a lot about the technical and creative process of design and how the audience plays a big part on creating the purpose of the product.