Round Robin

The assignment:

"Each student will collaborate on a series of five ‘tiny stories.’ By ‘tiny story’, I mean a narrative (with something that might resemble a beginning, middle and end) of less than 30 words, accompanied by an illustration (drawn, photographed, computer generated, etc.). By ‘collaborate,’ I mean that each student will complete the series’ 1st tiny story, forward it to a second (pre-determined) student, who will complete the 2nd tiny story in the series, who will then forward that 2nd story (NOT 1 & 2) to a third (predetermined) student who will continue the process until each student has contributed 5 tiny stories, each to a different series. Then we’ll see what happened. Artist statements should include a discussion of how form and content, narrative and theme, individual story and series correlate and compliment each other."

1. (Jeffrey) My husband hid some chocolate-covered bananas (my favorite) in our closet--presumably for Valentine's. I found them on February 12.


2. (Garrett) As I started eating the candy, I read the card on the box. The chocolate was not for me.


3. (Daniel) I instantly knew I had made a mistake. My throat burned, my vision blurred, and I collapsed on the ground.


4. (Leo) Now paralyzed, and blind, I screamed for help. But all that came out of my burning throat was “XXXOOLLPZZ.”


5. (Taylor) And when I thought there was nothing left, I saw a speck of light. One little speck of light.


Artist's Statement:

Through adaptations media becomes a game of telephone that both maintains original meaning and gains added significance or nuance from each new creator or iteration. An example that suits this description is the tale of Frankenstein. Some call Mary Shelley’s novel the first modern myth. The tale of Victor Frankenstein and his monster is known by almost all age groups whether or not they have read it. Since its first publication in 1818, it has gone through various changes and multiple mediums to fit the need of each generation. The 1823 play Presumption, or the Fate of Frankenstein introduced a monster that couldn’t speak; the 1931 Universal film Frankenstein cemented the Karloffian image of the creature that holds in our collective unconscious with his flat head, scars, and neck bolts; and the recent web series Frankenstein, MD gives us a female, more sane, version of the creator. The story is still recognizably Frankensteinian, but the myth has morphed since Shelley penned it in 1818.

Frankenstein is like a 200 year old Round Robin.

The reading on the exquisite corpse by DJ Spooky and the Very Short Story tweets combined are a glimpse of what this project is about. The reading by DJ Spooky discusses the vast library of knowledge and information in the world that, as time goes on, continues to increase. As one creates projects of their own, they are taking their prior experiences and knowledge and blending it together to make a unique version. For this assignment, five individuals combined their ideas to craft a story and create a flow of these ideas into one main story. The Twitter account of Very Short Stories was a great example of how much detail can be packed into a short sentence or two. These two readings illustrated how other construct stories and served as a great direction to follow for this collaborative assignment.

The fact that we could not see the complete story while contributing to it created some complications in regards to the final product. There was a definite shift in tone from one short story to the next, not only because of the difference in authorship, but also because of the challenge of transferring the theme or genre of the story by referencing the previous 20 words. Certain characters were lost while others became embellished. In some cases it worked beautifully, in others it developed notable inconsistencies, overall the raw creative contributions creates a captivating whole; There is truly no knowing what happens next.

What felt most unique about this project was its limitations. Normally, after reading a story, I would think that I could come up with numerous ways to continue the narrative and to provide new insights. However, with only 20 words to work with, options were severely limited, and it became difficult coming up with even one option for the story.

Fortunately, as the project progressed and I got to see the incredible directions that my original story was being taken in by the other members of my group, I realized that the project would be both more fun and interesting if I made my stories stranger and more surprising. By the end, that’s what I tried to do.

Music Mosaic: Untitled

The assignment:

"Each student will create a series of 8 - 12 images that visually complement a piece of instrumental music (‘instrumental’ means without lyrics. Also, no film scores. Sorry folks). Images may be drawn, painted, photographed or created digitally, but must be the creation of the student (not thieved from Google Images). Artist statements should include a discussion of how both the form (line, color, composition, etc.) and content (representation, narrative, etc.) of their creations correlate with their chosen piece of music. (Students will also include a link to their chosen piece of music in their blog post.)"

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What strikes me most about Neutral Milk Hotel’s “Untitled” is its unique tone. I tried to capture at least part of the tone in the form I used to visually convey my interpretation of this song. My images are all line drawings made on notebook paper, which I came up with based on inspiration from Napoleon Dynamite. Like “Untitled,” this style of drawing feels very teenage to me—it’s rebellious, cheap, and knowingly faulty. I’m not a great illustrator, so this faultiness is especially prevalent. The song comes across as teenage because it is loud and pushes its sounds and production to the limits, which I also tried to do with my drawing abilities.

Of course, the song has many other facets than this one element of its tone. Like Annie Dillard’s experiences in her “Seeing” essay, I was caught up by inspiration at various points in this song as I listened to it. Most of them were not very profound, but they felt meaningful to me because they momentarily gave me new ways of looking at this song. This song is bizarre, but it’s always been emotionally powerful to me, and these moments helped me realize a few specific ways it does so. Drawings 1-3 deal with the song as a whole, while drawings 4-8 deal with individual segments of the song.

1. One of the most obvious aspects of this song is how overdriven the sound of each instrument is. Each sound feels like it’s trying to compete for the listener’s attention, and in the end, feels a bit overwhelming. I depicted this by writing the words that came to my mind as I listened to this song on top of each other, so that no word is completely readable in the end.

2. This song uses a lot of counterpoint. The result is a holistic, if nonetheless messy piece that feels somehow centralized. I tried to show this centralization in the ball of line in the center of this image, and the various melodies as the forces coming toward it from the sides.

3. Although the rebelliousness of this song is tonally important, it clearly also takes inspiration from other sources. To me, based on the raw, overdriven sound of the song, it seems that it takes inspiration from grunge music. I tried to show this conflicting blend of sound by hand drawing the cover of Nirvana’s Nevermind.

4. The beginning of this song sounds warm, like a sunset, but it is thrown off by the vertical pulse of the organ, which I tried to convey in this image.

5. Although rock organ has been around forever, this song uniquely blends its sound with the sound of the electric bass, which I tried to depict by showing Axl Rose greeting churchgoers.

6. The use of bagpipes in this song is jarring, and in some ways it feels like a perversion. I tried to show this with a bear tearing down its own home—jarring, yet still somehow pleasant.

7. This image is supposed to depict a few small cottages breaking up a city skyline. This relates to the part of the song when the bagpipes come in the second time, which feels like a nice break of acoustic sound amid the clutter of the rest of the song.

8. Finally, the song ends on a sustained note an octave above where it started. It’s not totally comfortable, but it feels successful, which I tried to depict here.

Thinking and Writing: Modern Vampires of the City

The assignment:

"Each student will choose a media text (film, book, comic book, video game, TV episode, webisode, podcast, music video, album, etc.) and write a scholarly essay (of 750-1000 words) in which they make an argument (using the methods discussed and practiced in class) about that text. Students should consider not just textual characteristics (story, theme, aesthetics), but also contextual characteristics (authorship, genre, technology, industry, audience responses, personal experiences, cultural trends, etc.) in their essay."

As I listened to Vampire Weekend’s Modern Vampires of the City (2013) when it was released, I realized that it often touched on themes by referencing other works. For instance, the album is filled with references to religious symbols and texts, and for a while I made it my goal to find at least one religious nod in each song on the album. However, these references were about more than just one topic, and they did more for the album than guide the theme. The album gained enormous critical and commercial success, with a score of 84 on Metacritic, and reaching the number one spot on four US charts. Modern Vampires of the City was able to achieve its nearly universal critical and commercial success in large part thanks to its artful and calculated use of allusions and references. These references exist both lyrically and musically throughout the album, and they come with many different levels of obscurity. However, they are used carefully so as to purely enhance the listening experience, instead of coming off as preachy or snobbish. Through the careful use of allusion, Vampire Weekend gave their third album a significant place in pop culture.

The most obvious references used by the band are lyrical. The lyrical allusion on this album enhances the album’s theme as well as the listener’s ability to have fun with and feel connected to the album. References such as the line “She’s richer than Croesus,” in “Step, are complex and layered to develop theme. This line, for instance, uses this somewhat out of date saying used to show the speaker’s disdain for old traditions. It furthers this theme by being a reference in itself to the myth of Croesus, which is far older than the saying. However, other references are far more obscure, such as the line about Jerusalem in “Finger Back.” This line can be disorienting because it gives an address for Jerusalem in New York City. However, by making an obscure allusion to Jerusalem Restaurant, situated at the corner of 103rd and Broadway in New York, it helps listeners who are familiar with the reference feel personally connected to the album, as though it were written specifically for them. Such references help these listeners to feel connected and part of something more important, thus inviting them to appreciate the album more. Because the album is almost overflowing with allusions, it is almost impossible for a modern listener to understand none of them. Thus, by using references for multiple purposes throughout the album, Vampire Weekend makes the album more appreciable by making it more fun, personal, and meaningful.

The album uses aural references in much the same ways and for much the same purposes as its lyrical references. However, they are probably somewhat more subconscious as the references must be recognized by the listener without Ezra Koenig explicitly stating them. One clear musical reference occurs in “Step,” whose hook is borrowed from Souls of Mischief’s “Step to my Girl.” This is a fairly obscure hip-hop song, and by using its hook, Vampire Weekend place themselves as a part of the indie hip-hop tradition. The song also uses the familiar motif from Pachelbel’s “Canon in D,” a famous classical piece. By linking themselves with various musical genres and scenes, Vampire Weekend makes their album more accessible to people who are already fans of these other musical styles. This certainly widened the album’s fanbase. Of course, like their lyrical references, the album contains more obscure musical allusions, such as the style of “Worship You.” This song seems to combine raga (an Indian melodic mode) raga rock, fast marching, and perhaps yodeling to create a distinctive yet catchy musical style. Like the album’s lyrics, such allusions serve to both develop theme and to bring a more pleasurable listening experience to the audience, which in turn boosted reception and sales.

Merely sprinkling their album with references is certainly not what made Vampire Weekend able to gain such success. Instead, their references are used with restraint and consideration to enhance the listening experience. Musically, this album is perhaps more accessible than their first two. Like Modern Vampires of the City, their first two albums are influenced heavily by a variety of musical genres. However, this album uses these influences with more restraint. This album sounds less influenced by world music—although it still is—and more by rock and pop styles. Similarly, although they use references not every listener will immediately understand, these references do not alienate the audience because they are not central to every moment of every song. Instead, understanding them simply enhances the depth of the songs.

Admittedly, Vampire Weekend could not have had such a successful album based on references alone. Hip-hop music is often known for its heavy use of allusion, but it often cannot reach the same audience as an alternative band merely because of its roots and class sensibilities. Vampire Weekend was able to gain success through their prior fanbase as well as through fairly considerable marketing for a band belonging to an indie record label. Nonetheless, this album could have been a hard sell in some ways, dealing with the uncomfortable themes of spiritual doubt and uncertainty about death, rather than approaching these topics from a simpler point of view. Thus, Modern Vampires of the City’s use of allusion certainly was an important contributing factor in the album’s wide scale success.