Last week I watched a few episodes of the show called prison break. In the show, one of the characters,TBag had an amputated hand. There's a scene where the TBag is offered a new prosthetic hand, and the scene exploits his emotions. At the same time, in my opinion that scene relates to Serlin's reading of Engineering Masucilinty. The prosthesis is baited to the character as a chance to be "whole" again. Earlier in the show, Tbag also talks about how he lost his hand, and makes up a story of how he was a war veteran. The reading was related to the War Veterans, and how there was a medical need to fix some one with a disability. The show often exploits TBags struggle of wanting to have a normal hand and some aspects of the mental affect it has.
That is very interesting! I agree, sometimes a mechanical replacement is not enough to make the amputee feel whole again. This might be due to the mechanical and foreign aspect of the material, but it also might be due to the realization of what had happened to the individual. Thus, it is not uncommon to see amputation manipulating the mentality of the individual. I have also seen many characters in tv shows acting in this way.
A couple of days ago, I was browsing through Facebook, and I noticed an article of a woman marrying a train station after being in love with object for approximately 36 years. This article stated that this woman, Carol Santa Fe, insisted that this form of sexuality and identification is similar to any other form of sexual orientation. She was quoted by the article saying that her attraction to such object "is just like being bisexual or lesbian". The article further highlighted in the boldly printed title that she connects with this object mentally. This article and its topic correlate with our reading, "Loving Objects" by Jennifer Terry, where individuals with "Object Sexuality" are often exploited upon by the media. Carol's identification with "Object Sexuality" and her justification for this correlates with the many others, as stated in the reading. They connect with their objects spiritually, mentally, and emotionally, thus they see their attraction as similar to other kinds of love. In the reading, these type of individuals also discuss how their love for objects are different from fetishes, where it only the utilization of objects as substitutes. They see these objects as being able to reciprocate their love. Additionally, Carol also stressed about how she is not "crazy", further implying the social stigma on these individuals. Furthermore, through reading this article, I sensed the author's disbelief in the idea of Object Sexuality, thus further highlighting the issues that the society hold against individuals that are outliers. Even though it might be hard to understand such identification, I think that a chance and an open-mind are needed, so as not to place judgments or societal expectations on these individuals. The public is often curious of something that is against the norm, but this curiosity can turn into a form of discrimination against a particular group through the sensationalization in the media, thus generating incorrect perceptions/ bias images of these individuals.
I agree that the public often likes to sensationalize and poke fun at people that identify as something that they do not see as normal. For instance, on the show My Strange Addiction, one man had a relationship with his car. Although there is nothing essentially wrong with this, the fact that they would label it "strange" already gave off the vibe that his actions are weird and that he should be shamed.
I do agree that object sexuality is not something a lot of people are exposed to and that it shouldn't negate object sexuality from being a real sexual orientation.
I visited Sacramento Crocker Museum last Saturday and spent most time in the European Painting exhibition rooms in which the painting’s traditional and ancient styles are my favorite. There are a lot of scenery paintings in the room and almost look same, because there always mountains, trees and lakes in every scenery painting. However if you observe them closely and carefully, you will found they express different emotions. I took pictures of two similar paintings whose colors and context are almost same, but the details are totally different. One contains a tree whose branches looks hard have unfriendly curls, while the tree in the other seems soft and easy-doing because the branches don’t stretch out to the road. The first one expresses a brave and confident emotion in a straightforward way while the second one seems casual and peaceful. I think these paintings similar to the knots in Strohecker’s writing. The knots are tied deliberately and spontaneously. They reflect the inner thoughts of people who made them. Different people made them in different ways, so the knots demonstrate the diversity of styles of learning. Much alike, the paintings reflect the inner world of the painters, even if they paint the same scenery, the inside emotions are different.
That is very interesting! I think, just like authors, painters have different perspective even when using the same inspiration. This is why art can be interpreted in many different ways. And sometimes, our interpretation of one art might be totally different from the painter's intention. But, that is what makes a painting more interesting to look at.
I went to Paint Night with a couple of friends once. Although we all painted the same scenery, our own personalities, thoughts, and hand stokes were different! Each of us came out with a different painting even though the general scenery was similar. We were drawing a tree with leaves blowing in the moonlight. One of my friend had a different approach and drew the scenery with bright colors to represent a sunset instead of dark, moonlight colors. Overall, it was quite interesting on he portray his drawing.
When reading Let Us Praise Famous Men, in class and in the reading responses we talked about how the set of photographs and the text are complementary; both pieces are needed to paint the whole picture and create a more in-depth narrative of the subjects and their lives. This reminded me of going to an art museum like MoMA and reading the descriptions next to each piece. Initially, I didn't take to much meaning from certain paintings. However, after reading the descriptions, I was able to get a better understanding of what the artists were trying to portray with each piece.
Sometimes, both media (the descriptions and the art itself) are needed in order to present a cohesive product. I think this might be why there are descriptions for each art or paintings. They want the viewer to interpret the art in itself first, before looking at the ideas that drive the creator into making the particular piece of art.
Very interesting observation and I do agree with that. Sometimes art need to convey some words for the viewer to understand. I know sometimes when I look at abstract art, I wonder to myself, what is the artist thinking or what is this suppose to represent. So I do agree that having a small text description with art help our understanding/visualization of the piece.
Just the other week in AMS, we were talking about transitional objects and how they help shape children’s first couple years. Winnicott who coins the term transitional objects describes it as one that goes through your childhood years with you as you grow and lean about the world around you. However, once you reach a certain age, there comes a time when it becomes necessary to get rid or grow up form your transitional object. This last weekend I went home and asked my parents to bring out my blankly which was my transitional object. After searching through the garage we found it in a box tucked away in the corner. When I found it, it was exactly how I remembered it, torn to pieces and faded. What threw me off was that it did not smell how I remembered it to smell. This makes since because it has sat in a garage for 10 years. Seeing my transitional object was truly a great opportunity for me after taking AMS 21. It gave me an appreciation for who I am today.
I have also recently rediscovered my transitional object. The smell was the most important part to me as a child, and the fact that the object has lost its smell kind of ruined it for me. Do you feel sad when you saw the object again after all this time? I think that when I saw mine I felt sad because I saw the object for what it was (torn, smelly, stained, generally gross).
I recently visited the Shrem museum at UC Davis and was excited to see the UCD graduate student projects on display at the museum. There was a little room before you enter the gallery that had a variety of objects on the table. Each one was selected by a graduate art student as a representative object of their art project. The objects did not have a description of their purpose or an explanation of why they were chosen, they were just there to strike the visitors' interests before entering the gallery. I then walked through the gallery to see the actual projects and was excited to finally see how those objects connected to the final piece. One was a small swatch of cloth. This cloth was used to create a lovely dress. Another was a whiskey bottle, which could also be found within the small cabin that a student built inside the gallery. This shows how a small object can represent much more. These objects told the story of the student's project and their interests.
This week’s reading was quite interesting. One aspect I want to focus is on mental institution. During class, Professor Bayles had us do a freewrite on whether the back stories of asylum patients should be considered. I really think a person’s history plays an critical role in how a person behaves and thinks. I understand that there are some people who are generally crazy, but I heard a lot of stories where normal, everyday people are place in these mental asylum and become imprisoned there. And soon, these people start turning “mad” (crazy), which is quite ironic because they are being turn into someone crazy in a facility that’s suppose to be helping them.
In the Hmong culture, there are a lot of superstitions and beliefs of spirits, demons, and ghosts. A lot of the Hmong cultural practices involves Shamanism and calling upon healing through spirituality, with a strong tie between the spirit realm and living realm. I have a cousin who use to be a “regular” kid. After attending a grandparents traditional Hmong funeral that involves traditional chanting (so the deceased person’s soul can travel safely to the spirit realm), my cousin was soon caught up in the spirit realm himself. Today, he’s currently in a mental institution because he asserts seeing ghosts, spirits, demons, mermaids, and other mythical beings. Viewing this in the Hmong cultural perspective, his spirit is closely associated with the spirit realm allowing him to see these things. And this ability to travel between the spirit realm is what makes a good shamen. If you’re interested in learning more, about this phenomenon, a great book I recommend is: “The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down” by Anne Fadiman.
PDF LINK: http://anthropology.msu.edu/anp370-us16/files/2015/05/The-Spirit-Catches-You-and-You-Anne-Fadiman.pdf
Yes, it does seem in the reading that the mental institutions often misdiagnosed the patients' conditions and made their conditions worse.The link is pretty interesting, in my culture we also believe in the superstition of dogs acting unusually when their is a presence of spirits.
That's really interesting! Actually I have heard of that dogs could see something that human being couldn't. If a dog is barking to the air especially at night there might be something unusual.
In my home, we have a lot of different pictures of myself and my sister as babies/toddlers. There’s one photo of my younger sister as a toddler sitting in a bed of flowers. The picture itself is really nice, but it was taken just after my mother’s father’s funeral. I thought about it during our discussion of the way that postmortem photography portrays mourners. The picture was taken by an aunt and given to my mother as a present. I know that my mom doesn’t like the picture all that much, but I’ve always thought it was interesting Just by looking at it you wouldn’t guess it was taken outside a funeral home; its rife with symbolism with life/new life.
This week my friends and I have been conversating about how this is our last week in the dorms. Little by little we have been putting all of our things away. It got my thinking about the presence of absence the new freshmen will walk in and find the little things we left behind similar to what we did. They will think about what struggles we went through why they go through all of their own. The walls are now bare. They look as if we have been all robbed. I think in this sense what matter most is that we put objects up. And now without them these rooms have no life.
I just want to talk about this course in general. It funny I never given this much thought about an object, but this course brought something that I had never paid attention to, even though an object has been part of our daily life pretty much from the day i was born . It made me wonder what else is there as important as an object ,that i have not been paying attention to but taking its benefits for granted as i was to an object. An object can save your life, make your life exciting ,and teaches about different things in small or big scale. For example I wrote an essay about my toy that played a big role in keeping me from a lot of trouble, given the fact I was that energetic kid who never settle down. An way I'm happy with the course material and also great full with my professor and her Ta, Alex who have been great through out this quarter.Thank you!!!
I agree! Very interesting class, never really knew what I was getting myself into but glad i did! Safe to say we all learned more than we knew we would.
As I think about those who's lives were recreated from stories and pictures I feel most of the story is left behind. As I clean out my dorm room, I come across pictures and little things that my roommate asks if they were used for this or that, when he is nowhere close to what was going on in the picture or object found. I feel one can never truly look at something and fully understand completely what happened or was going on, it's impossible. Reminded me of what we discussed in class and even read for homework, I disagree with trying to use to the pieces to put together someone's life, it's not a crime scene.
You're right that it's hard to use a random collection of objects to try and paint a picture of someone's life. However, it is equally as hard not to do that. When it comes to someone that we did not know personally, we want to find a way to relate to and understand that, and it eases our minds when we can attribute stories and meanings to their possessions.
Next week is the last week of the school, its finals week. It also time for me to pack up all my things and move out of Davis. I have shared a lot of memories here at Davis; my first home away from home, my first job, and even my first time having a room to myself. In approximately 9 days I finally receive my degree, something I have to show for all my hard work and dedication to this university. Many of us look at our graduation caps, tassels, and/or our degrees as a symbol of our college career but not in my case. For me it is a comic strip. This comic strip is about a character that embarks a new journey after having picked up a job he knew nothing about. He sits in an office with an extremely confused look on his face. I look back at this comic and it reminds me of my growth throughout my 4 years at Davis. It seems a bit silly but that was me as a freshmen but now I am a prepared as an educated scholar. I now see UC Davis like an object and how when people graduate the institution has loses a piece of itself and loses life.
This week, the This American Life reading was really interesting to me. I've explored empty warehouses with friends in high school, but never an abandoned house. The action of leaving personal possessions to rot only happens under certain circumstances. When Adam described all of the clothes strewn about- and the white dress hanging, it was definitely a sign of bad or unfortunate circumstances.
Households are places where memories are made, and often, safety and comfort is associated with them. I remember one time I visited my grandma's old house with some friends, after the house was empty and pending for sale. My extended family used to spend every holiday there, and I often used to eat family dinners there...It was eery and awkward looking inside my grandma's old house and seeing nothing inside. I cant imagine what an abandoned house looks like, with personal objects rotting inside.
Came back home today and I got to see my grandad, who has alzheimers syndrome. His memory has become weak and often jumble as the years have passed. I found it interesting that had this been a few decades ago ago during the day and age of the Willard Institution, things would have been in a different perspective. Analytical research, observation and understanding of subjects over the years has resulted a better understanding of medical conditions. This made me relate our reading The Lives They Left Behind with the documentation of objects that were owned by the residents of the Willard Institution. The discovery and analysis of the objects found gave a better, or at least a unique aspect to deducting a person. It was through the discovery, analysis of objects, and background research on Ethel Smalls that indicated that she was suffering from trauma, which was misdiagnosed or developed into mental illness. There was a distinction between various types of illnesses. Had the distinction of various illness been more known perhaps our acknowledgement of the Willard Center would be different.
I was watching Family Guy and was able to acknowledge the Stewie's teddy bear Rupert is most likely his transitional object. It's easy to conclude this because he takes Rupert with him everywhere and does not like it when anyone else interacts with him for too long. Even when the toy company had to recall the bears because they posed a health hazard, Stewie was unwilling to part with him. I can also argue that Stewie is in love with him based on a few interactions that we see. In some cases, he portrays his relationship with Rupert romantically based on conversations Stewie has with his teddy. I have always written off as comedy before our class readings but I now know that there are some people who feel romantically inclined towards objects.
I love Family Guy! That is so funny, because Rupert is like his significant other in some ways, and how people can create romantic relationships with others!
As I sit in a classroom at the UC Davis School of Medicine, I notice a few aesthetic choices in the classroom. A lot of it has different meanings, and many of it can symbolize different things. What’s interesting is that it is obvious that they try to pick pieces that are abstract. I leave to go home and I pass through a hallway to get to the parking structure. This hallway is filled with agricultural artwork. Besides the importance we place on agriculture, it’s apparent that we are trying to create a space where the art makes people feel welcomed. I am interested how these objects are placed intentionally to create an atmosphere. When I see the new design for the Memorial Union, I see that they try to make sure that it’s a good atmosphere for diversity. I also needed to use the bathroom, so I head over to the West MU entrance. I liked how there was a space for neutrality. There was a blank sign over the bathroom door indicating that anyone can use the bathroom (I use it all the time). But another a question I have is that, “even though there is an intention of not leaving out people in these spaces, is there ever really a space without any implied feeling?” or is that a space without material objects? Having material objects in place automatically creates some sort of context in that space, so I believe there might not ever be a space (unless there’s nothing in it, and if there’s nothing in it then is that space even significant). Does a space need an atmosphere even?
During this past summer I flew out to the Midwest to visit some my grandmother and some other family. One day during the trip we spent some time going through old family albums, which were full of older relatives that I had never gotten the chance to meet. Dery's piece on photography reminded me of this experience. While these pictures were not postmortem photographs, these people were still trapped in time. For myself and other younger relatives, our only knowledge of these family members would come from the photographs we saw. If we saw our grandfather fishing, we would associate that activity with him even if it was not even something he did often. Photographs of people we have never met can shape our entire perception of them because it is our only personal (in a sense) interaction with them. In this vein, photograph is a bit of a gift and a curse.
Last week I had to fly out of town, and on my way back I was rushing to the airport and trying to get through security as quickly as I could. I ended up losing my earphones and had my water bottle confiscated when going through airport security. From the start of this class, I didn't believe that I had a real attachment to objects, but after losing two objects that I utilize everyday, I have realized that I do have an attachment to my belongings. Not have that exact water bottle changed my lifestyle over the course of the week until I ordered a new one. Every time I drank from my temporary replacement water bottle, I felt incomplete, so I began to drink less water. As for my earphones, I felt like I had to adapt to a habit where I couldn't distract myself from noises from my environment. From this experience, I have learned personally that I have a greater attachment and connection to objects in my life, more than I realized.
When I was looking at old photos of my Uncle who passed recently, it reminded me of learning the idea of when looking at a photo, there's a story behind the man in the photo. The memories and fun times we shared when I was younger can never be taken away. This was similar to the reading of the findings of suitcases and reports found from the hospital.
Last week I watched a few episodes of the show called prison break. In the show, one of the characters,TBag had an amputated hand. There's a scene where the TBag is offered a new prosthetic hand, and the scene exploits his emotions. At the same time, in my opinion that scene relates to Serlin's reading of Engineering Masucilinty. The prosthesis is baited to the character as a chance to be "whole" again. Earlier in the show, Tbag also talks about how he lost his hand, and makes up a story of how he was a war veteran. The reading was related to the War Veterans, and how there was a medical need to fix some one with a disability. The show often exploits TBags struggle of wanting to have a normal hand and some aspects of the mental affect it has.
ReplyDeleteThat is very interesting! I agree, sometimes a mechanical replacement is not enough to make the amputee feel whole again. This might be due to the mechanical and foreign aspect of the material, but it also might be due to the realization of what had happened to the individual. Thus, it is not uncommon to see amputation manipulating the mentality of the individual. I have also seen many characters in tv shows acting in this way.
DeleteA couple of days ago, I was browsing through Facebook, and I noticed an article of a woman marrying a train station after being in love with object for approximately 36 years. This article stated that this woman, Carol Santa Fe, insisted that this form of sexuality and identification is similar to any other form of sexual orientation. She was quoted by the article saying that her attraction to such object "is just like being bisexual or lesbian". The article further highlighted in the boldly printed title that she connects with this object mentally. This article and its topic correlate with our reading, "Loving Objects" by Jennifer Terry, where individuals with "Object Sexuality" are often exploited upon by the media. Carol's identification with "Object Sexuality" and her justification for this correlates with the many others, as stated in the reading. They connect with their objects spiritually, mentally, and emotionally, thus they see their attraction as similar to other kinds of love. In the reading, these type of individuals also discuss how their love for objects are different from fetishes, where it only the utilization of objects as substitutes. They see these objects as being able to reciprocate their love. Additionally, Carol also stressed about how she is not "crazy", further implying the social stigma on these individuals. Furthermore, through reading this article, I sensed the author's disbelief in the idea of Object Sexuality, thus further highlighting the issues that the society hold against individuals that are outliers. Even though it might be hard to understand such identification, I think that a chance and an open-mind are needed, so as not to place judgments or societal expectations on these individuals. The public is often curious of something that is against the norm, but this curiosity can turn into a form of discrimination against a particular group through the sensationalization in the media, thus generating incorrect perceptions/ bias images of these individuals.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the public often likes to sensationalize and poke fun at people that identify as something that they do not see as normal. For instance, on the show My Strange Addiction, one man had a relationship with his car. Although there is nothing essentially wrong with this, the fact that they would label it "strange" already gave off the vibe that his actions are weird and that he should be shamed.
DeleteI do agree that object sexuality is not something a lot of people are exposed to and that it shouldn't negate object sexuality from being a real sexual orientation.
DeleteI visited Sacramento Crocker Museum last Saturday and spent most time in the European Painting exhibition rooms in which the painting’s traditional and ancient styles are my favorite. There are a lot of scenery paintings in the room and almost look same, because there always mountains, trees and lakes in every scenery painting. However if you observe them closely and carefully, you will found they express different emotions. I took pictures of two similar paintings whose colors and context are almost same, but the details are totally different. One contains a tree whose branches looks hard have unfriendly curls, while the tree in the other seems soft and easy-doing because the branches don’t stretch out to the road. The first one expresses a brave and confident emotion in a straightforward way while the second one seems casual and peaceful. I think these paintings similar to the knots in Strohecker’s writing. The knots are tied deliberately and spontaneously. They reflect the inner thoughts of people who made them. Different people made them in different ways, so the knots demonstrate the diversity of styles of learning. Much alike, the paintings reflect the inner world of the painters, even if they paint the same scenery, the inside emotions are different.
ReplyDeleteThat is very interesting! I think, just like authors, painters have different perspective even when using the same inspiration. This is why art can be interpreted in many different ways. And sometimes, our interpretation of one art might be totally different from the painter's intention. But, that is what makes a painting more interesting to look at.
DeleteI went to Paint Night with a couple of friends once. Although we all painted the same scenery, our own personalities, thoughts, and hand stokes were different! Each of us came out with a different painting even though the general scenery was similar. We were drawing a tree with leaves blowing in the moonlight. One of my friend had a different approach and drew the scenery with bright colors to represent a sunset instead of dark, moonlight colors. Overall, it was quite interesting on he portray his drawing.
DeleteWhen reading Let Us Praise Famous Men, in class and in the reading responses we talked about how the set of photographs and the text are complementary; both pieces are needed to paint the whole picture and create a more in-depth narrative of the subjects and their lives. This reminded me of going to an art museum like MoMA and reading the descriptions next to each piece. Initially, I didn't take to much meaning from certain paintings. However, after reading the descriptions, I was able to get a better understanding of what the artists were trying to portray with each piece.
ReplyDeleteyeah its interesting how a text or a picture alone can have such a different meaning, opposed to when they are put together.
DeleteSometimes, both media (the descriptions and the art itself) are needed in order to present a cohesive product. I think this might be why there are descriptions for each art or paintings. They want the viewer to interpret the art in itself first, before looking at the ideas that drive the creator into making the particular piece of art.
DeleteVery interesting observation and I do agree with that. Sometimes art need to convey some words for the viewer to understand. I know sometimes when I look at abstract art, I wonder to myself, what is the artist thinking or what is this suppose to represent. So I do agree that having a small text description with art help our understanding/visualization of the piece.
DeleteJust the other week in AMS, we were talking about transitional objects and how they help shape children’s first couple years. Winnicott who coins the term transitional objects describes it as one that goes through your childhood years with you as you grow and lean about the world around you. However, once you reach a certain age, there comes a time when it becomes necessary to get rid or grow up form your transitional object. This last weekend I went home and asked my parents to bring out my blankly which was my transitional object. After searching through the garage we found it in a box tucked away in the corner. When I found it, it was exactly how I remembered it, torn to pieces and faded. What threw me off was that it did not smell how I remembered it to smell. This makes since because it has sat in a garage for 10 years. Seeing my transitional object was truly a great opportunity for me after taking AMS 21. It gave me an appreciation for who I am today.
ReplyDeleteI have also recently rediscovered my transitional object. The smell was the most important part to me as a child, and the fact that the object has lost its smell kind of ruined it for me. Do you feel sad when you saw the object again after all this time? I think that when I saw mine I felt sad because I saw the object for what it was (torn, smelly, stained, generally gross).
DeleteI have similar experience when I found my old Teddy bear in the garage. It's like I have traveled to the past haha
DeleteI recently visited the Shrem museum at UC Davis and was excited to see the UCD graduate student projects on display at the museum. There was a little room before you enter the gallery that had a variety of objects on the table. Each one was selected by a graduate art student as a representative object of their art project. The objects did not have a description of their purpose or an explanation of why they were chosen, they were just there to strike the visitors' interests before entering the gallery. I then walked through the gallery to see the actual projects and was excited to finally see how those objects connected to the final piece. One was a small swatch of cloth. This cloth was used to create a lovely dress. Another was a whiskey bottle, which could also be found within the small cabin that a student built inside the gallery. This shows how a small object can represent much more. These objects told the story of the student's project and their interests.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis week’s reading was quite interesting. One aspect I want to focus is on mental institution. During class, Professor Bayles had us do a freewrite on whether the back stories of asylum patients should be considered. I really think a person’s history plays an critical role in how a person behaves and thinks. I understand that there are some people who are generally crazy, but I heard a lot of stories where normal, everyday people are place in these mental asylum and become imprisoned there. And soon, these people start turning “mad” (crazy), which is quite ironic because they are being turn into someone crazy in a facility that’s suppose to be helping them.
ReplyDeleteIn the Hmong culture, there are a lot of superstitions and beliefs of spirits, demons, and ghosts. A lot of the Hmong cultural practices involves Shamanism and calling upon healing through spirituality, with a strong tie between the spirit realm and living realm. I have a cousin who use to be a “regular” kid. After attending a grandparents traditional Hmong funeral that involves traditional chanting (so the deceased person’s soul can travel safely to the spirit realm), my cousin was soon caught up in the spirit realm himself. Today, he’s currently in a mental institution because he asserts seeing ghosts, spirits, demons, mermaids, and other mythical beings. Viewing this in the Hmong cultural perspective, his spirit is closely associated with the spirit realm allowing him to see these things. And this ability to travel between the spirit realm is what makes a good shamen. If you’re interested in learning more, about this phenomenon, a great book I recommend is: “The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down” by Anne Fadiman.
PDF LINK: http://anthropology.msu.edu/anp370-us16/files/2015/05/The-Spirit-Catches-You-and-You-Anne-Fadiman.pdf
Yes, it does seem in the reading that the mental institutions often misdiagnosed the patients' conditions and made their conditions worse.The link is pretty interesting, in my culture we also believe in the superstition of dogs acting unusually when their is a presence of spirits.
DeleteThat's really interesting! Actually I have heard of that dogs could see something that human being couldn't. If a dog is barking to the air especially at night there might be something unusual.
ReplyDeleteIn my home, we have a lot of different pictures of myself and my sister as babies/toddlers. There’s one photo of my younger sister as a toddler sitting in a bed of flowers. The picture itself is really nice, but it was taken just after my mother’s father’s funeral. I thought about it during our discussion of the way that postmortem photography portrays mourners. The picture was taken by an aunt and given to my mother as a present. I know that my mom doesn’t like the picture all that much, but I’ve always thought it was interesting Just by looking at it you wouldn’t guess it was taken outside a funeral home; its rife with symbolism with life/new life.
ReplyDeleteWhen we move into a new from an old our old home loses a lot of the emotions attached to it.
DeleteThis week my friends and I have been conversating about how this is our last week in the dorms. Little by little we have been putting all of our things away. It got my thinking about the presence of absence the new freshmen will walk in and find the little things we left behind similar to what we did. They will think about what struggles we went through why they go through all of their own. The walls are now bare. They look as if we have been all robbed. I think in this sense what matter most is that we put objects up. And now without them these rooms have no life.
ReplyDeleteJust imagine all of the things that have happened in just your specific dorm room. Friendships made and lost, long nights of studying, fun times too
DeleteI just want to talk about this course in general. It funny I never given this much thought about an object, but this course brought something that I had never paid attention to, even though an object has been part of our daily life pretty much from the day i was born . It made me wonder what else is there as important as an object ,that i have not been paying attention to but taking its benefits for granted as i was to an object. An object can save your life, make your life exciting ,and teaches about different things in small or big scale. For example I wrote an essay about my toy that played a big role in keeping me from a lot of trouble, given the fact I was that energetic kid who never settle down. An way I'm happy with the course material and also great full with my professor and her Ta, Alex who have been great through out this quarter.Thank you!!!
ReplyDeleteI agree! Very interesting class, never really knew what I was getting myself into but glad i did! Safe to say we all learned more than we knew we would.
DeleteAs I think about those who's lives were recreated from stories and pictures I feel most of the story is left behind. As I clean out my dorm room, I come across pictures and little things that my roommate asks if they were used for this or that, when he is nowhere close to what was going on in the picture or object found. I feel one can never truly look at something and fully understand completely what happened or was going on, it's impossible. Reminded me of what we discussed in class and even read for homework, I disagree with trying to use to the pieces to put together someone's life, it's not a crime scene.
ReplyDeleteI agree i feel like it is immoral act to take pictures when someone is dead, sadly a lot of people in our society do this.
DeleteYou're right that it's hard to use a random collection of objects to try and paint a picture of someone's life. However, it is equally as hard not to do that. When it comes to someone that we did not know personally, we want to find a way to relate to and understand that, and it eases our minds when we can attribute stories and meanings to their possessions.
DeleteNext week is the last week of the school, its finals week. It also time for me to pack up all my things and move out of Davis. I have shared a lot of memories here at Davis; my first home away from home, my first job, and even my first time having a room to myself. In approximately 9 days I finally receive my degree, something I have to show for all my hard work and dedication to this university. Many of us look at our graduation caps, tassels, and/or our degrees as a symbol of our college career but not in my case. For me it is a comic strip. This comic strip is about a character that embarks a new journey after having picked up a job he knew nothing about. He sits in an office with an extremely confused look on his face. I look back at this comic and it reminds me of my growth throughout my 4 years at Davis. It seems a bit silly but that was me as a freshmen but now I am a prepared as an educated scholar. I now see UC Davis like an object and how when people graduate the institution has loses a piece of itself and loses life.
ReplyDeleteI know high school isn't the same as college but I spent four years of my life there so I feel where you're coming from.
DeleteThis week, the This American Life reading was really interesting to me. I've explored empty warehouses with friends in high school, but never an abandoned house. The action of leaving personal possessions to rot only happens under certain circumstances. When Adam described all of the clothes strewn about- and the white dress hanging, it was definitely a sign of bad or unfortunate circumstances.
ReplyDeleteHouseholds are places where memories are made, and often, safety and comfort is associated with them. I remember one time I visited my grandma's old house with some friends, after the house was empty and pending for sale. My extended family used to spend every holiday there, and I often used to eat family dinners there...It was eery and awkward looking inside my grandma's old house and seeing nothing inside. I cant imagine what an abandoned house looks like, with personal objects rotting inside.
Came back home today and I got to see my grandad, who has alzheimers syndrome. His memory has become weak and often jumble as the years have passed. I found it interesting that had this been a few decades ago ago during the day and age of the Willard Institution, things would have been in a different perspective. Analytical research, observation and understanding of subjects over the years has resulted a better understanding of medical conditions. This made me relate our reading The Lives They Left Behind with the documentation of objects that were owned by the residents of the Willard Institution. The discovery and analysis of the objects found gave a better, or at least a unique aspect to deducting a person. It was through the discovery, analysis of objects, and background research on Ethel Smalls that indicated that she was suffering from trauma, which was misdiagnosed or developed into mental illness. There was a distinction between various types of illnesses. Had the distinction of various illness been more known perhaps our acknowledgement of the Willard Center would be different.
ReplyDeleteI was watching Family Guy and was able to acknowledge the Stewie's teddy bear Rupert is most likely his transitional object. It's easy to conclude this because he takes Rupert with him everywhere and does not like it when anyone else interacts with him for too long. Even when the toy company had to recall the bears because they posed a health hazard, Stewie was unwilling to part with him. I can also argue that Stewie is in love with him based on a few interactions that we see. In some cases, he portrays his relationship with Rupert romantically based on conversations Stewie has with his teddy. I have always written off as comedy before our class readings but I now know that there are some people who feel romantically inclined towards objects.
ReplyDeleteI love Family Guy! That is so funny, because Rupert is like his significant other in some ways, and how people can create romantic relationships with others!
DeleteAs I sit in a classroom at the UC Davis School of Medicine, I notice a few aesthetic choices in the classroom. A lot of it has different meanings, and many of it can symbolize different things. What’s interesting is that it is obvious that they try to pick pieces that are abstract. I leave to go home and I pass through a hallway to get to the parking structure. This hallway is filled with agricultural artwork. Besides the importance we place on agriculture, it’s apparent that we are trying to create a space where the art makes people feel welcomed. I am interested how these objects are placed intentionally to create an atmosphere. When I see the new design for the Memorial Union, I see that they try to make sure that it’s a good atmosphere for diversity. I also needed to use the bathroom, so I head over to the West MU entrance. I liked how there was a space for neutrality. There was a blank sign over the bathroom door indicating that anyone can use the bathroom (I use it all the time). But another a question I have is that, “even though there is an intention of not leaving out people in these spaces, is there ever really a space without any implied feeling?” or is that a space without material objects? Having material objects in place automatically creates some sort of context in that space, so I believe there might not ever be a space (unless there’s nothing in it, and if there’s nothing in it then is that space even significant). Does a space need an atmosphere even?
ReplyDeleteDuring this past summer I flew out to the Midwest to visit some my grandmother and some other family. One day during the trip we spent some time going through old family albums, which were full of older relatives that I had never gotten the chance to meet. Dery's piece on photography reminded me of this experience. While these pictures were not postmortem photographs, these people were still trapped in time. For myself and other younger relatives, our only knowledge of these family members would come from the photographs we saw. If we saw our grandfather fishing, we would associate that activity with him even if it was not even something he did often. Photographs of people we have never met can shape our entire perception of them because it is our only personal (in a sense) interaction with them. In this vein, photograph is a bit of a gift and a curse.
ReplyDeleteLast week I had to fly out of town, and on my way back I was rushing to the airport and trying to get through security as quickly as I could. I ended up losing my earphones and had my water bottle confiscated when going through airport security. From the start of this class, I didn't believe that I had a real attachment to objects, but after losing two objects that I utilize everyday, I have realized that I do have an attachment to my belongings. Not have that exact water bottle changed my lifestyle over the course of the week until I ordered a new one. Every time I drank from my temporary replacement water bottle, I felt incomplete, so I began to drink less water. As for my earphones, I felt like I had to adapt to a habit where I couldn't distract myself from noises from my environment. From this experience, I have learned personally that I have a greater attachment and connection to objects in my life, more than I realized.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was looking at old photos of my Uncle who passed recently, it reminded me of learning the idea of when looking at a photo, there's a story behind the man in the photo. The memories and fun times we shared when I was younger can never be taken away. This was similar to the reading of the findings of suitcases and reports found from the hospital.
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