In 2011, Kara Walker gave a presentation about her work for The Menil Collection. Walker received her MFA in painting and printmaking from the Rhode Island School of Design. Kara Walker is an accredited artist known for her politically satirical work regarding race and gender. In her presentation, Kara shows her large-scale paper silhouettes of the Antebellum South which question representations of slavery and racism in American history. 

In the beginning of her presentation, Kara explains that she works through various mediums such as drawing, painting, writing, and printmaking. However, her primary medium of choice is paper silhouettes. An interesting thing Kara said in regards to why she chooses to cut paper rather than use other mediums is that she wants to limit her hand when creating art. By this, she means she wants to eliminate the potential for excessive expressiveness which can become relevant in other mediums—like painting, for example. Essentially, Kara wanted to challenge herself to tell a story through forms rather than fully rendered images and paintings. I found this to be very interesting and inspiring. In my own work as an artist, I often strive for realism, but Kara has shown me that realism is not the only way to tell a story. Forms and color are capable of telling powerful narratives that impact the viewer in numerous ways. 

Later on in her presentation, Kara states that she wanted to venture into using film as a medium for her art, but was afraid she would be unable to effectively use the camera. As a result, she began to incorporate projections into her art alongside her paper silhouettes. The images she showed of her work were truly beautiful and powerful representations of slavery. I found Kara’s use of projections to be incredibly effective as the lights and colors became additional layers of meaning and complexity for the viewer to interpret. Kara’s focus on telling a story through creating a series of silhouettes was very inspiring to an aspiring animator because it shows how important key frames and composition is. Kara was able to tell an entire story through three pieces—storyboards, as she referred to them. 

Overall, I found Kara Walker’s work to be very powerful. One of my favorite parts of her presentation was hearing her speak about how her pieces were developed and all the various shows she has participated in throughout her career.

In 2005, David Foster Wallace gave a speech titled “This Is Water” to the graduating class of Kenyon College. Wallace was an American author and English professor with numerous accredited novels and short stories. To introduce the speech, Wallace states that he is not trying to simply give advice to the students, but attempting to teach them the human value of their degrees. 

The first point Wallace makes that I find interesting is how liberal arts programs are often designed to teach students what to think about, but come across as trying to teach students how to think instead. David believes this is insulting to growing minds as they should be allowed to think however they want. Personally, my education at SIUC has contained numerous conversations regarding similar topics as to what Wallace is talking about. I agree that universities should not teach students how to think, but rather give them the tools and knowledge to do so how they choose. A higher level education is intended to broaden the minds of students past a high school diploma, meaning they should be able to think as individuals and share their thoughts as a collective conversation of differing perspectives.  

Another point that Wallace made that I found very interesting is regarding humanity’s “default setting,” which he describes as self centeredness. David states that it is simply not enough to be passionate about one’s work, but a choice to pursue it each day must be made. I find this to be very insightful and inspiring. Each and every day humans wake up and decide what to do with their lives. Sometimes, it is hard to do what one loves, despite being passionate, due to a multitude of reasons. Plus, passion is not the only component to success. In order to be successful, one must choose to harness their passion and use it as a complimentary tool each and every day.  

Overall, I found David Foster Wallace’s speech to be very inspiring and insightful about the value of a liberal arts education. I feel as if I have a better understanding of my own education and a new perspective on how I want to apply it towards my future career.

On Wednesday, October 28, 2020, the Southern Illinois University Carbondale’s University Honors Program hosted a Zoom discussion with practicing artist Benjamin Lowder. Lowder attended SIUC for a year before transferring to the University of Illinois Champaign Urbana to finish his schooling. While at SIU, Lowder was heavily impacted by the philosophies of Buckminster Fuller—an American architect and inventor who attended the university. While at UIUC, Lowder was heavily impacted by the study of natural geometry and spirituality—ideas that Fuller was also influenced by. After college, Lowder began implementing natural geometry into his work. 

Currently, Lowder is working on the Buckminster Fuller Dome home in Carbondale, Illinois. The property was Fuller’s original home and it has now been purchased and transformed into a historical monument in honor of him. The house is being designed by Lowder because of his similar art practices and interests in nature. 

Natural geometry refers to ratios and angles that occur organically in the world. There are philosophies of thought that believe natural geometry is evidence of a greater power enacting consequences on human endeavors. Buckminster Fuller was very interested in such teachings and implemented natural ratios into his work, like the Epcot Dome. Similar to Fuller, Lowder uses the same concepts in his own design work. 

Lowder first gained attention from the art community by building his own sustainable home using the sun’s angles. Lowder stated that no sunlight would penetrate the home on the Summer Solstice because he had deliberately angled the house based on the sun’s location at that time. I find Lowder’s incorporation of nature into his work to be very beautiful and inspiring. Personally, I do not know enough about natural geometry to understand its spiritual elements, but I do find it highly worth researching on my own time. 

Looking to my own work as an artist, I am extremely interested in incorporating more natural occurrences into my art. Regardless of religious affiliations, I believe the majority of people would interpret nature as serene and inspirational. I believe my work would greatly benefit from researching nature’s teachings and using them in tandem with the visual influences of art.

On Tuesday, October 27th, 2020, Southern Illinois University Carbondale Alumni Kris Rey was the star guest of a Zoom discussion regarding her experience as a professional in the film industry. Rey graduated from the Cinema and Photography department at SIUC in 2003. In fact, Rey’s senior thesis film was the first case of digital video technology being used on campus. Prior to this, the department required students to use traditional film techniques to complete projects. 

To this day, Rey has directed four feature films. All of her films have been featured by various film competitions across the country. Her most recent movie takes place in Carbondale, despite being filmed primarily in Chicago, and is titled I Used To Go Here. The film is an homage to her college career at SIU in southern Illinois. An interesting element to Rey’s feature films is her use of improvisation. 

For her first two feature films, Kris had no script written—she relied entirely on adlib and improvisation. Personally, I find this to be very interesting. Writing a script can be challenging as screenwriters must emulate natural human behavior through words on paper. By eliminating a script, the actors are able to bounce off one another and the narrative of the film is completely organic. However, Kris stated in response to a student’s question that improvisation is now seen as outdated. While it was considered to be new and interesting fifteen years ago, the style of filmmaking has become too saturated and is no longer exciting. As a result, Rey’s third and fourth films were entirely scripted with no improvisation. 

One interesting thing Kris stated was that she did not believe the modern digital landscape increased the difficulty for filmmakers to be discovered. Kris states that the same requirements are necessary to get one’s foot in the industry’s door as they were a decade ago: make something that sets oneself apart from the rest, share it, and have the right people see it. Although I agree the requirements are very similar, I don’t necessarily agree that it is not harder to do so. For example, the Internet allows for anyone to produce a film or artwork and upload it. As a result, the entire Internet landscape is heavily saturated with work that is trying to get the attention of someone important. There have been numerous media professionals who have stated opinions in contrast to Kris’ and I agree with them. 

Overall, I found Kris to be an interesting figure to listen to. I mostly enjoyed hearing her experiences at SIU.

On October 13, 2020, Southern Illinois University Carbondale’s Morris Library hosted an event with Michele Leigh and Lora Mjolsness, two specialists of Russian animation. The pair of women have collaborated on a book focusing on the careers of female Russian animators, a demographic that is typically overlooked and ignored by critics and scholars. The book is titled She Animates: Soviet Female Subjectivity in Russian Animation and will be released in the later part of October 2020. As a student studying both animation and cinema, I found this event to be extremely interesting and insightful. 

Three films were presented to the audience with discussions of each afterwards. The films each came from a very specific era of Russian history in the last century. The first film was Krasnaya Shapochka’s Little Red Riding Hood from 1937—the height of Joseph Stalin’s reign. The second film was Nina Shorina’s Alter Ego (1989), depicting the lack of resources and individual identities in the late twentieth century. The final film shown was Yulya Aranova’s My Mom Is an Airplane (2013), which was produced under Vladimir Putin’s presidency and showed how far Russia has come in terms of feminism and international relations. I found each film to be very powerful and interesting in its own way. Personally, my favorite one was the third because of its unique style and creative, yet meaningful, narrative. 

A main component to the discussion was how animation depicted Soviet ideologies and the role of women in the industry as a result. Animation was often overlooked as being for children, meaning animators and artists were able to create work that contained imagery and messages that otherwise would have been censored. I found this to be incredibly interesting as animation was used as a secret form of communication with artists trying to show the truth of their country. Each of the films were heavily focused on the impact of Soviet ideologies on women—showing how conditions have changed over time. I found female animators producing work, despite being largely ignored, to be very powerful and inspiring. The women demanded to have their stories be heard through their work and used animation as a tool to do so. 

Overall, I found this event to be a lot of fun. I enjoyed watching the different films and listening to the discussions after each one. I learned a lot about Soviet Russia in regards to the film and animation industries, something I had not learned in any of my classes. I also learned how women used animation to avoid mandated production rules and censorship to spread awareness about Soviet ideologies negatively affecting their lives and identities—a powerful message. Finally, I was reminded of the capabilities of animation. Despite it being generally dismissed as children’s entertainment, animation is capable of telling impactful stories through subtle imagery and impacting large masses of people in numerous ways.

On Tuesday, October 6, 2020, the College of Mass Communications and Media Arts hosted Keith Knight, the writer of Hulu Original “Woke.” Keith Knight is an awarded cartoonist, writer, and musician working in the creative industry for twenty-eight years. For most of his career, Knight has been working as a cartoonist publishing various comics such as: The K Chronicles, (Th)ink, and The Knight Life. Knight’s work is known for taking contemporary political, social, and racial issues and addressing them through comedy. 

Knight’s most popular cartoon is known as, “This is dedicated…this one black kid.” The cartoon is incredibly popular because it is applicable to any and all marginalized people in America, not just African Americans. I found this cartoon to be very powerful because of the way anyone can relate to it. In America, there are numerous identities that are looked down upon by others, meaning this specific cartoon gives everyone a chance to feel validated and not so alone. 

One of the biggest driving forces for Kieth’s work is his own experiences as a black man in America. Throughout his life, Knight has experienced discrimination and prejudice from white people, which he has turned into the basis of his artwork. Despite his comics being filled with comedy, they are very loaded with relevant and powerful comments on modern society. Personally, I think using comedy to express his own personal story through art is a beautiful way to spread awareness of the shortcomings in America. 

One of the most interesting parts of Keith’s discussion was regarding his comic strip about the “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy of the American military. The policy stated that soldiers and military personell could be homosexual as long as they were not open about it—an extremely unfair rule. Knight, seeing the unethical attributes of the rule, created a comic strip depicting an example of how the policy was negative. Soon after its publication, Keith began receiving letters from military members saying their minds had been changed regarding the rule because of the comic. Months later, the rule was appealed by President Barack Obama and a photograph was taken of the president with Knight’s comic on the desk behind him. This is an example of the power of art. Knight was able to depict the perspective of a marginalized group of people and change the minds of enacting such strict rules. 

Overall, Knight’s story was incredibly inspiring as he reminded me the importance of being connected to modern social issues and using art to express my opinions and enacting change.

On September 25, 2020, the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute of Southern Illinois University Carbondale hosted Mayor Pete Buttigieg for a discussion with Director John Shaw about Pete’s career in politics. Buttigieg is the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, who served in Afghanistan and ran for presidential nominee in the 2020 election campaign. Buttigieg did not win the Democratic nomination, but made history by being the first openly gay candidate to run for the Oval Office. 

To begin the discussion, John Shaw introduced Pete by quickly going over his history and how he initially got into politics. An interesting tangent the two discussed was regarding Buttigieg’s personality type as an introvert. Shaw asks how an introvert is able to go out and talk to other people in order to build a campaign and run for office. Buttigieg replies by stating introverts do not hate other people, they simply absorb their social energy from other sources—meaning he enjoys his alone time to process and recuperate. I found this to be quite interesting and relatable as I, too, am more of an introvert. 

Another part of the discussion I found to be very interesting was Buttigieg’s opinion on the disconnect between military and civilian lives. Throughout American history, there have been periods where almost everyone served in the military, not necessarily by force, but simply because it was required to be considered an elite. As a veteran of Afghanistan, Pete discusses the development of contemporary education and states that people are more focused on education than military service. People with higher levels of quality education, also known as the upper class, are no longer socially required to enlist in the military to exist in the elite society like they once were—an interesting perspective on America’s ever-developing civilization. 

Overall, I found Mayor Pete Buttigieg to be very interesting to listen to as he has a lot of background experience to support his opinions and views. Did I find everything he said to be relatable? No, I did not, but that does not take away from the meaning of his words and the impact of his career on history and society.

On August 25, 2020, the Southern Illinois University system held a Zoom conference titled “Higher Education—A Conversation of Understanding.” The conference consisted of a panel of “experts” from both the Carbondale and Edwardsville campuses coming together to discuss their own experiences with racism and how to better the experience of nonwhite students as a system. One of the major topics discussed was regarding equity and inclusivity. 

Various members of the panel shared how they believed inclusivity could be bettered for students. A major problem in the Southern Illinois University System is treating all students equally. Unfortunately, students of color are often treated differently by administrators and issues regarding race are usually swept under the rug and ignored. Racial biases are clearly prominent in the universities and must be addressed in order to move the system into a new age of tolerance and acceptance. Members of the panel suggested mandatory inclusivity training for all faculty and staff. Personally, I believe this is a good idea that should be implemented. If all faculty and staff underwent mandatory inclusivity training, the odds of creating a much more accepting and tolerant learning environment would be significantly increased. Nonwhite students deserve to have a place of learning where they feel comfortable and are provided with the exact same opportunities as white students. Race does not dictate a student’s ability to learn, meaning it should not affect how they are taught. Another topic that was discussed during the conference was how to report microaggressions and various groups to help students that experience them.