Category Archives: Uncategorized

Class Notes April 19th

iMovie Workshop

The class was on the appropriate usage of iMovie for the final project for the class. Since it was a workshop, there was no historical analysis or readings assigned for the day. Questions on iMovie were asked such as how to find non-copyright music and how to backup the file. Sharing the iMovie in other forms such as .mp4 or .avi takes a long time, so a student must finish their work before the last moment. Transitions must be simple, no spinning around, and the photo must last at least 4 seconds.

Students may use other forms such as Windows Movie Maker or Final Cut but iMovie can be the easiest way to approach this project so it was recommended. I have used Windows Movie Maker beforehand and it was really tough to edit the video. This workshop hopefully helped people like me who do not know how to use iMovie at all. Audacity is a great tool to record one’s voice and edit.

Key terms:

No key terms.

For more information:

College of Wooster iMovie Workshop

http://educationaltechnology.woooster.edu/imovie-workshop

  • there are free music site links on the website.

Audacity Official Website

http://audacityteam.org/

IS Symposium Blog

For I.S. Symposium I attended two Latin American presentations on Kauke 2nd Floor. The first one was called “More Coffee Please?: The Present and Future of the Coffee Industry in Columbia and Honduras in Light of Oppressive Climate Change,” by Diana Bickmore. It was about how Climate Change is affecting Arabica coffee bean growth in these countries and could be detrimental to the local farmers growing them. Latin America is considered important in this because most coffee production comes from Latin America, and as well as Africa. The second presentation I went to was called “Adopted Across Cultures: A Comparative Analysis of Adoption Attitudes between the United States and Honduras,” by Sidney Irias. Unfortunately, she was not there to present but, I read through her poster. It was mostly saying that people, dependent on their religious, gender, and age had different opinions as to adopting children from the country. An example of the opinions is religious, and Catholic families in the United States would be more willing to adopt a Catholic Honduran if they cannot have a child. It didn’t have an opinion per say on Latin America, but the topic was related.

IS symposium

The first presentation I attended was a project over the coffee production in Honduras,and Nicaragua, and why the major environmental changes occurring are greatly impacting the production of the coffee beans. Both these countries main coffee bean export is the Arabica Bean, which need specif conditions to grow, and with all the climate change, its getting harder to get the conditions needed to grow these beans. She addressed the why the conditions are changing and what those countries plus other major countries could do to help cut down on the pollution creating these terrible environmental changes.
The second presentation I went to was comparing child adoptions in Honduras and the united states. The presenter took a look at how in the united states adoption is more focused on the legal side and is more formal, and in Honduras adoptions are more informal and not so focused on the legality of the actual adoption itself.

IS Symposium

Happy Symposium Day!
I attended Danica’s poster presentation on the effects of LGBTQIA+ legislators on public perceptions of same-sex rights. Her results show that while all aspects of an individual’s identity factor into levels of approval for same-sex rights, having an out LGBTQIA+ member of the legislature does have an additional impact on public perception. She portrayed the Latin American countries in her study as significantly more progressive on the issue of same-sex rights than what many US and European focused scholars/publics might expect.
I also attended Sarah Vonck’s G&IS/Spanish poster presentation on the connection between Ecuadorian environmental policy and the treatment of Ecuador’s indigenous population. Her project emphasized the tension between the demands of political structures and humanitarian concerns of indigenous populations. In discussing part of her data, Sarah focused on her interpretation of primary reports of oil extraction, arguing it is skewed lower than the numbers suggest as the Ecuadorian government wanted to appear to be making environmental progress regardless of the real state of extraction.

Wasteland questions

What are some of the negative aspects of activist art?

Preliminary answer: sometimes the practice of activist art like the kind portrayed in the film is exploitative and can be used to elevate the clout of an artist rather than think of the long term implications of their work and charity.

How does the film add to your perception of life in favelas?
Preliminary answer: I had heard and seen vague documentaries about the poverty, but not seen the human aspect of it. It was intriguing to see people in such crushing poverty attempt their best to be happy and make the best out of the situation. The one scene that really made me sad and showed me how difficult life could be in these favelas was when the boss and his workers cried because he was mugged when trying to come back from the bank with the Picker’s wages and the workers had to get by for a week without money.

Wasteland Discussion Questions

Does Muniz’s work exploit the pickers and if so, can it still have an overall positive impact?

Preliminary answer: I think that Muniz’s work is exploitative to some extent because his interaction with them gives him fame and attention while leaving the pickers themselves to continue living in difficult situations. However, Muniz also legitimately improved the lives of the people he worked with by providing them with the proceeds of his work and by bringing attention to their struggles. The pickers who worked with him also seemed to enjoy the experience, although we should bear in mind that the documentary probably tries to promote this idea. Therefore, I would argue that his work had an overall positive impact even if its primary objective was to promote Muniz’s career and reputation.

How was the portrayal of the pickers significant and what ideas about them did it convey?

Preliminary answer: The pickers are portrayed as having a certain amount of pride in their work in many instances, and a lot of attention was devoted to the attempts of the pickers to organize and improve their situation. Their attempts to educate themselves by reading books that they find and starting a library are also emphasized. In addition to these themes, the documentary focused on the difficult conditions in which the pickers live and their attempts to overcome the challenges that they face. Overall, I think the coverage of the pickers was largely positive and designed to help people sympathize with them as well as to bring attention to their needs.

 

Wasteland/Lixo Extraordinário – Discussion Questions

  • In Portuguese, the film is known as Lixo Extraordinário, or Extraordinary Garbage. By creating an entirely different name for an English speaking audience, how is the film altering its portrayal of Brazilians for a global audience?

Referring to the film as Extraordinary Garbage creates a very different mindset for how the film is portraying the workers. The oxymoron used implies that though garbage is perceived as filthy and useless, there are wonderful and extraordinary people working in the landfill. It paints the workers in a much more positive tone. Wasteland immediately triggers a response of a weakened landscape, filled with useless material. It paints a much more hopeless and bleak situation for the workers, which may work to exploit their situation and cause the final portion of the film to be much more dramatic and unexpected.

  • Why does the film lack opinions and interviews from middle class Brazilians directly?

Though negative reactions from others are occasionally mentioned by individuals  from the Wasteland, no direct communication is documented between Vik Muniz and upper-class Brazilians. This may be an assumption that all viewers of the film enter with preconceived stereotypes that working with trash is carries negative connotations. It speaks to who this film was truly made for. Though it benefits and improves the lives of those working in Jardim Gramacho, not directly speaking to other Brazilians implies that this film was created to show upper-class individuals the lives of those below them.

Wasteland Questions

Q1: Is what Vik doing exploitive/borderline cultural appropriation of Brazilian art?

Prelim answer: I think there is an argument both in favor of him being exploitive and culturally appropriating the art created by the catadores/ACAMJD. In ways Vik is westernizing their art by auctioning it off as something that is not representative of Brazil and not fully acknowledging the real artists. This parallels a conversation about African Art in the western world and how it is presented in the art community. On the other hand, we know that Vik comes from a poor socio-economic background and thus would draw the conclusion that he is not exploiting the pickers, rather trying to relate and remind himself about where he comes from (in relation to the pickers low socio-economic status).

Q2: The Portuguese title of Wasteland translates to Lixo Extraordináro. Is there a significance or meaning in this translation to Brazilians?

Prelim answer: while this may not be directly answered in the film, I am still interested to know if there is meaning for the people of Brazil in the title. Given that certain countries movie distributors can dictate the title used or changed, I am interested to see if there was a reason for using this title for Portuguese speaking countries.

Muniz Documentary Discussion Questions

  • Does having prejudiced views take away from the small good that Muniz’s project did?

This is a difficult question to answer because depends, I think on whether Muniz’s goals were met. I think that his project did good in the fact that his portrait of Tião raised $50,000 for the pickers’ union which allowed them to, after the closing of the landfill, open a library and help people transition. However, he also treated them very condescendingly almost the entire time which can skew the message that he was trying to convey (which seemed to be that they are all unwanted, so it may have helped his message).

  • How do personal relationships affect views overall?

In the film, we see that Muniz does not seem to have a very good relationship with his wife—he talks over her and it is stated that he is going to be in Brazil for three years, yet we only see her once—and his relationship with Fabio seemed strained as well, as though they barely know each other. This inability to be close to the people around him reflect his questionable treatment of the pickers.

Questioning The Wasteland

Q1: Is there an allegory or double entendre in the Wasteland?

It is literally a wasteland because of the garbage. However, there seems to be an underlying metaphor that applies to the people living there, how society perceives them and how they perceive themselves. Many of the pickers are people who have had unfortunate circumstances that led to them moving to the landfill. While many of the pickers take pride in their work, some of them, as well as society, perceive them as garbage.

Q2: Is there an underlying message in the film, revolving around the celebration of things and people who have been deemed useless?

The artist’s work takes the concept of making garbage into art, both actual garbage and people perceived to be garbage. The art says that these people are worth something and that they are praise worth contributors to society.

I think it should also be noted that most, if not all, of the pickers are people of color. While racism is not directly addressed in the film, there is something to be said about the way people of color are celebrated in this film, and how their beauty is brought out.