Leigh - Meme & Readings

My meme addresses the issues the Writers Guild of America [WGA] and Screen Actors Guild–American Federation of Television and Radio Artists [SAG-AFTRA] are fighting against in the film industry. When I made this meme, I laughed at how authentically it portrayed the life writers and actors are currently living as film studios consider using AI to replace the need for manpower. As ‘Memes Are Our Generation's Protest Art’ said, it was therapeutic to make this meme because it conceptualized how I viewed the situation of the industry in a funny way that makes you think.

Readings

Susan Sontag, excerpt from On Photography

“Photographs really are experience captured, and the camera is the ideal arm of consciousness in its acquisitive mood.”

This quote is very relevant today as many of us use our phone cameras to capture the experiences we have in our daily lives. We also use photos to look back at those memories and reminisce. It’s interesting to know how the main idea of photographs never changed but evolved through the technology we use.

“Although there is a sense in which the camera does indeed capture reality, not just interpret it, photographs are as much an interpretation of the world as paintings and drawings are.”

I agree with this quote because I also see photographs as a part of The Arts. Art is a form of expression and documentation of the past. We see this in paintings that capture a country’s revolution or a book/play that captures the cultural elements of its time. Photographs do the same thing, but in a way that relies on the real world to be the paint on the photographer’s canvas. 

Introduction and Chapter 1 of “The Art of Activism, Your All-Purpose Guide to Making the Impossible Possible by Steve Duncombe and Steve Lambert”

“Social movement scholar Marshall Ganz argues that experiences and feelings of urgency, hope, love, anger, dignity, and solidarity are at the core of people’s politicization.” [pg 24]

I didn’t consider myself political until I considered our class discussion. I chose this quote because of its significance to the argument that everyone is political. “Politicization” is a scary word with much history and power. However, Ganz made the word less scary by breaking it down to something simple: a feeling about a cause. This breakdown certainly makes saying “I am political” easier.

“The mayor told him that the citizens of the town, for the first time ever, had petitioned the town government to request something themselves; that a permanent museum be built, and they wanted Jarr to be the architect.” [pg 43]

At first, I didn’t understand how Alfredo Jarr created a form of artistic activism. But this quote made me understand that his demonstration of building/burning a museum was to show the town’s importance of art and being active in your community. There is always something to improve, even if it doesn’t stand out as necessary initially.