Light

But soft! What light through yonder window breaks? It is the east...and also artist James Turrell. James Turrell, a member of the "light and space" movement starting in SoCal in the 1960s, creates art with only light as his medium. This manipulation of light is not about changing the light itself but more about altering the space itself. According to Turrell, "My work has no object, no image, and no focus. With no object, no image, and no focus, what are you looking at? You are looking at you looking." Turrell describes this sensation as "wordless thought".

The spaces Turrell creates alter reality. One exhibit in particular requires a waiver signed before entering the space, because the sensations are are so strong visitors have fainted.

Turrell is influenced by natural spaces, in particular, the Roden Crater which is an alteration of human perception. Turrell is building tunnels and windows in the crater, manipulating the experience of exploring the crater. He believes this crater represents geologic time. His intervention into the landscape is where human creation meets nature, thus furthering his goal of awareness.



As the offspring of two people who met working on an architectural project, the ability to change space to alter the physical and emotional state of an observer is fascinating to me. Light changes all visual aspects; photography, painting, theater, movies, architecture. Why does Best Buy feel so overwhelming? The lighting. Why is Christmastime so cozy? The lighting. Why is "The Haunting" so ominous? Probably the plot, actually.

But lighting really does influence our perception of, well, everything. Just look at Spanish literature. What would happen if we were in a constant state of tinieblas?

What's Goin' On?

It's February, which usually means my New Year Resolutions are kaput. Kept a journal? Go fish. Stayed organized? Yeah, right. Lost 10 lbs? Not with my undying love for pasta and all things carbohydrate.

But this year I tried to make my goals a bit more accessible.
1. Try veganism for a month (Let's be honest, I love butter and mac-n-cheese way too much for this. But I said a month, which is applicable to any of the ten remaining months. Probably not helping with my goal of not procrastinating, but I'm too far gone on that one already. Not procrastinating can be my resolution next year. Ba dm ch.)
2. Try a new thing every month (Okay, this one I sort of stole from Friends. That show is full of infinite wisdom. Plus I've been binge-watching it for a month. Could I BE more of a second semester senior?)
3. Make a change.

Make a change!, you scoff, holding a fake mustache on a stick to your upper lip and talking in a deep Scottish accent. What do you think this is? Michael Jackson's "Man in the Mirror"?

But despite your fake Scottish scoffing, there are so many simple ways to make a change close to home. And now I will list them!

CHEESY TRANSITIONAL TITLE

A LIST I'VE CREATED ON THIS SUBJECT

Global Engagement
**SHAMELESS PLUG ALERT** Hands of Peace is an incredible organization I've participated in for the past two summers. It's only a little under 3 weeks in the middle of July, and it will change your life. If you can't participate but have a family around this summer, why not be a host family? Or you can donate and support scholarships for participants and the costs of the meals and activities.

Matanya's Hope is another fairly local organization. Their goal is to "save the world, one child at a time". They are looking for donations, from cash to school supplies to jackets.

Good at music?
The Glenbrook Hospital has a lobby for members of the community to perform in. If you go to Glenbrook South, talk to Mr. S in the choral department about signing up for a time slot to represent GBS.

What about theater?
Check out Special Gifts Theater in Chicago, Winnetka, and Palatine. If you have the time to volunteer, they have spots for peer mentors/buddies to engage the kids with special gifts. It's a wonderful organization, and they sponsor various fundraisers throughout the year that you can also participate in, such as 5k walk/runs. (I would walk.)

Computer nerd? 
Try Tab for a Cause, a Google Chrome extension that donates money to with every new tab opened. You can choose where the money goes--education, water, human rights, etc. And you don't even have to leave your house.

Last weekend, I met a woman who designed simple water strips to test the cleanliness of water. People were meant to fill plastic bags with water and leave it out in the sun with the strip of paper in it. When the paper turned color, the water was safe to drink. The materials? Plastic bags. Paper. The sun. The cost? $0.03.

There are so many simple ways to engage your community and your world.  

How Books are Changed for Film and Plays

I recently reread a favorite story of mine, "Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel Keyes. The story follows a young man named Charlie who is born with a low IQ. His teacher, Alice, becomes notified of a special surgery that will increase his intelligence. The story chronicles his thoughts before and after the experiment and shows the toll such experiments can take. Last year I was involved in a play adaption of the story. In order to best get into my role, I watched all the movies adaptions as well as read the book itself. This winter break, I reread the story because I am interested in examining the differences between her messages change throughout different mediums.

This book is particularly interesting because it is written in the form of progress report updates, almost in diary form. This structure is lost in the film and play adaptions. When reading the book, the reader is presented with a near-holistic perspective of Charlie's experiences, but the play and movie lose this perspective, as his thoughts are implied and have to be translated in other ways.

Without the help of voiceovers and with the curtailment of the story into a less than two hour film, much of the descriptive element of stories is lost. However, a visual element is added with scenery that books lack. Many movie directors use colors to set the emotional state of a scene. (See Wes Anderson, who has a different color palette for each film.) Additionally, more emotions are conveyed in close-ups and subtle facial expressions. 

However, in plays, the subtle reactions are even more difficult to convey. Whereas facial expressions, tone, and setting take precedence in movies, plays are all about motion and vocal inflections. On top of that, the instances in which there is a time change or scene change are even harder to convey, and inner thoughts have to be reflected entirely through movement. Take the following passage for example. This was condensed and translated into a monologue used for transitional purposes:

This weekend, I am at the Illinois High School Theaterfest, a convention where the weirdest of the theater kids gather to watch plays and take theater classes. I'm interested to examine how the plays I recognize are adapted, and how subtle details are altered to best convey the message. 

Social Media and Protests

Earlier this year, one of my friends had a dangerous encounter on social media. A picture of one of my Palestinian friends from Hands of Peace this past was posted on a radical pro-Palestinian blog, claiming he was participating in a "normalization" program, citing personal information about him and his family. The Hands of Peace website had to be shut down briefly to protect the privacy of all involved until the incident simmered down.

With the ability to express any opinion with the click of a button, social media has revolutionized the notion of protest. The Arab Spring was the first major instance of online protests, with social media causing a ricochet of pro-democracy and pro-revolution sentiment. This article from the University of Washington states that in Egypt, the number of tweets skyrocketed the week before Hosni Mubarak's election from 2,300 political tweets per day to 230,000. Protest videos went viral, and social media became an easy and effective way of sharing grievance and demonstrating dissent.

A visual representation of the hashtags that appeared this past summer 

 This past summer, I paid particular attention to the Israel-Gaza conflict, also known as "Operation Protective Edge". I was with a group of 40 Palestinian and Israeli kids, and daily we would get news blurbs about what was happening. After a long day of peaceful discussion, kids would go to Facebook and things would suddenly get heated. Simple hashtags such as "#freegaza" and "#prayforisrael" would spark heated debates, with ignorance on every side. Medium did an interesting analysis of social media responses from last summer, creating visual depictions of the overlays of hashtags and political stance of news sources.

An instance that comes to mind is when one anonymous friend of mine, a huge advocator of peace, made a seemingly harmless post saying "I believe in human rights, and I #supportgaza". Yet the post provoked a huge debate of which I witnessed many of my peers partake in. And while the majority of the conversation was civil and intellectually-driven, there were quite a few moments that frightened me. My educated friends were making ignorant claims and blatant generalizations to do anything to advance their point. People were saying things such as:

"When you say that you support Gaza, I assume that you then support the way that they go about things, at least more than you support what Israel does. I may be wrong in that assumption, but to the extent that the English language is reflected in the hashtag, I will assume that."

"Gaza never needed an army since they were never attacked by anybody. This all starts because Gaza has a pseudo military in their terrorist government. Israel would NEVER first strike a weaponless Gaza in a time of peace." 

"That's like saying that special needs students deserve more attention than gifted students because they deserve it more."

Really?!??!?!?!

An image I took from a protest I went to this past summer

Social psychologists say those that protest online are not necessarily inclined to protest offline. Social media is most frequently used to express dissent, but physical protests are for more expressive and less informationally-driven methods of protest. We tend to distance the idea of expressing an opinion online and attending a protest, but in reality the two aren't so different. I went to a protest on the same issue sponsored by Jewish Voice for Peace and Students for Justice in Palestine. This is what I learned:


1. If it gets violent, leave.
"Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me." Or...will they? Throwing stones isn't much different from personally attacking someone. And with a digital footprint, online stones may be even more permanent than throwing literal stones. If you disagree, keep your cool.

2. Do your research.
In the same way that you wouldn't want to be present at a protest that didn't reflect your beliefs, don't engage in an online conversation making claims just to prove a point. In the article from Medium I posted above, I noticed that the repeated phrases were very polarized. It's easy to forget the implication behind words.

3. Pay attention to the people around you.
We tend to think that our statuses, tweets, and pictures are exclusive to us and our friends, and are similar to having a casual conversation. But these statuses are permanent. And who really sees them? I have 794 friends on Facebook. My best friend has 1,349. My best friend's older sister has 2,686. Who are we really sharing our messages with?

Social media has completely altered the way we protest, and in doing so, we need to be cautious of what exactly and how exactly we are protesting.

My Friend Tal

A quick personal story about how one person changed my life.

Meet Tal. She is a sixteen-year-old citizen of Israel, and over the course of the past two summers, she has become my sister.

For the past two summers, we participated in a program called Hands of Peace. (Side note: It's an incredible experience and applications are here!) Hands of Peace consists of face-to-face dialogues with a group of forty American, Palestinian, and Israeli citizens. My family was also volunteering as a host family, so we got to host a girl from Israel. 

Being an only child, I was nervous to live with someone else for three weeks. But Tal and I quickly bonded our first day over episodes of "Grey's Anatomy" and gossip sessions at night. I taught her what deep dish pizza was, she taught me how to say "cake" in Hebrew. We would have sleepovers and bicker over what song we would set as our alarm clock (she selected "Don't Worry, Be Happy" and I, as the anti-morning person, chose "Chacarron Macarron"). We were quickly sisters. 

Saying goodbye

The next summer, I expected things to be the same. But we were right in the heart of the  2014 Israel-Gaza conflict, and tensions were as high as ever. Participants were receiving calls from families saying sirens were going off in their towns. The carefree nights we had the night before were replaced with naps and hushed phone calls behind closed doors.

Tal left a lasting impression on my family. My parents are now very involved with supporting Hands of Peace, and my mom works on the board of directors. The room we set up for her is still just as she left it. My dogs perk up when we mention her name. And my entire world view has been changed by Tal. 

I am lucky to live in a community that is generally supportive of my participation with a program such as Hands of Peace, something my Israeli and Palestinian counterparts don't often experience. For those that I've talked to about Hands of Peace, almost everyone has been intrigued by the program and the stories and experiences I hold. I feel that there is generally a lot of respect surrounding Hands of Peace and its mission, but at the same time I've found a variety of responses regarding whether or not Hands of Peace is actually making a difference.

I've heard people on every end of the spectrum. "Hands of Peace can't solve anything, you're only teenagers." "The Israeli-Palestinian conflict? But you're American." "It sounds fun and all, but don't you all just go back to how you were before the program?" "Yeah, I don't know if I'd do Hands of Peace, it just seems like a waste of time. You can't actually change anything." "The conflict is just too complex."

But what I learned from Tal is that each and every one of us has a voice. We may not face complete support in our communities at home. Some of us may go back to how we were beforehand. We may be Americans, or teenagers, or only one person. But that doesn't mean that we don't have the ability to make a change.

How Improv Helped Me Respond to Change

Over the past three years, I have turned into just about every kitchen utensil. I have held a conversation in Elvish, spent a few minutes as an oompa loompa, developed a personality for a Post-it note, and conducted a few symphonies by playing tennis. For the past three years, I've participated in Comedy Sportz, a competitive comedic improv show in which two teams face off in comedic games.

My team looking fab in baseball pants

Last weekend was the last Comedy Sportz show of my high school career. While I am relieved to not have to wear the baseball team's actual baseball pants any longer, I am going to truly miss everything I gained from Comedy Sportz. I have learned all puns of the words "banana" and "sock" and "lamp". I can name just about every possible answer in the categories "colors" or "movies about magic" or "androgynous names" from playing the games such as Concentration or Left Hand Larry. And how many one-syllable words can I rhyme with the name "Matt" from playing Beastie Rap or Doo Doo Run Run? Probably about thirty.

But most importantly, improv taught me to be flexible. No, not physically flexible (even though it is a sport). It taught me to learn to quickly change respond to the direction of the scene. Improv is all about staying in the moment, adapting to what you are given by your audience and fellow performers. So I offer unto you:

THE BASIC RULES OF IMPROV AND HOW THEY HAVE SAVED MY LIFE OR AT LEAST HELPED ME CONCEPTUALLY REALIZE THAT HOW I HAVE BEEN LIVING MY LIFE IS INEFFICIENT AND COULD BE DONE BETTER

1. "Yes, and"
Saying "no" kills a scene. Saying "yes" lets a scene continue, but adds nothing to the scene. Saying "yes, and..." lets a scene continue and adds a new creative twist to the scene or another variable to work with. In my opinion, this is the best tip in improv. and in life. It not only makes dealing with people more enjoyable, but selfishly, it lets you contribute to a great idea. It also creates room for creative solutions or discussions. For the past two summers, I have participated in Hands of Peace, an organization based in face-to-face discussions about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I found it easier to understand others when I make an effort to follow along and respond to what was being said. Saying "no" or "you're wrong" not only frustrates both parties but doesn't lead to any valuable discussion or change.

2. Make your partner look good
At the end of the day, it doesn't matter if you had a funny line if the rest of the scene went poorly. Improv is all about give-and-take. Additionally, there are no mistakes, only opportunities. It's all in the justification. I am a Peer Group leader, and one of the major things we focus on is the idea of "it's not how high you climb, it's how many people you bring with you". Being a leader is all about synergy and cohesiveness. A dysfunctional environment helps no one, whether that environment is academic or a workspace.

3. Don't ask questions
It is easy to ask "Where am I?" "Who am I?" "What am I doing?" but by verbalizing those questions, I do nothing to initiate movement. Instead of asking "Where Are We Now?", and placing all the responsibility on my partner, I should say: "Look, a yellow brick road! Toto, I think we are in Oz!" It's easy to ask questions, but the challenge really comes with seeking an answer. In actuality, I find asking questions to be an imperative skill. Questions are how knowledge is achieved, and questions are how change is achieved. If no one ever questioned why we have certain ideals, how would there be any social change? But ultimately the basic principle is the same: the questions should be more about what the questions create. Questions would be meaningless if there was never a follow-up to the question. That's part of the reason why this blog exists, it's a way for me to express my questions and explore the various answers of contemporary culture.

If you still think improv is no more than a joke, check out this article by Forbes. The article describes how taking improvisation classes leads to healthier workforce habits and more creative business solutions.

And yes, Comedy Sportz is a sport. I deserve a gym exemption.

Oh! Sweet Nothing

"They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself." Andy Warhol

Clearly, Warhol was not an art conservator.

Earlier this year, Nautilus posted an article titled "Should Science Save Modern Art?" Art conservators work to preserve art in its original form, and chemists have been developing newer, increasingly efficient chemicals to combat the decaying nature of common art materials. But what happens when artists don't want their work to last? The article cites a challenge posed by the minimalist art of Eva Hesse. Minimalist art, art not meant to refer to anything but itself, propelled the usage of non-traditional materials in the 1960s and 1970s. Upon trying to display her 1968 piece "Aught" at the San Francisco Musuem of Modern Art, the head conservator faced a dilemma. She didn't want to alter Hesse's art, but Hesse had intentionally chosen non-traditional materials not meant to transcend the tests of time. Her sculpture "Aught" was built of organic latex, a material quick to decay. According to Hesse, "Life doesn't last, art doesn't last".



A more in depth analysis of Eva Hesse's materials from the art conservator at the SFMOMA.

The Nautilus article raises the interesting question of whether or not art must be permanent. "Great" art is conventionally determined by a piece's timelessness, but must art be permanent to be timeless? And must art be timeless to be great, or is that an outdated notion?

Conceptualism began growing around the early 1920s, and is built on the idea of questioning the nature of art, believing that art is more than the physical manifestation of the artwork. It was the first movement to begin to question the permanence of art. This led to a dematerialization of art, prompting works such as Marcel Duchamp's Fountain and Yves Klein's IKB 79. 

In the 1960s and 1970s, alongside minimalism grew performance art, influenced by the Fluxus and conceptual art movements of the time. Performance art most delineated art from the conventional forms by creating live art, art that had no means of preservation. Klein (above) was a famous early performance artist, questioning materiality in his piece Zone de Sensibilité Picturale Immatérielle. In the 60s Andy Warhol also participated in performance art beginning with his videos with The Velvet Underground.

One of Warhol's most famous performance pieces was in Jørgen Leth's 1982 film 66 Scenes From America. Warhol sits in front of a camera eating a hamburger for a little less than five minutes. Warhol, upon finishing his burger, looks directly at the camera and states "My name is Andy Warhol and I've just finished eating a hamburger".



Warhol's stint in the film is famous, but is that due to the timelessness of the piece or the timelessness of the artists? Warhol was fascinated by fame, claiming that "In the future, everyone will be world-famous for fifteen minutes". Everyone gets fifteen minutes, but only a special few get timelessness.


Check out the Department of Conservation at the Museum of Modern Art for more information on how conservation is done and to see videos of current and past projects.