Cultural Event

I attended most of the anti-war rally on September 29. I left in the middle of the speeches at Hendricks Chapel. There were a large number of people, with many different ethnicities and ages, although the majority was of people who looked over 40. There were a lot of signs. The signs ranged from blaming Bush and Cheney, to being proud of our troops and ashamed of the war, to signs advocating peace. The walk was an interesting mix of a protest and and a walk to cure cancer. People were walking just for walking with the rally and others were protesting while walking. Scott Ritter, Dahlia Wasfi, and Jim Massey were the three major speakers. Ritter is a former UN weapons inspector and Wasfi is a doctor who lived in Iraq when she was a child. Jim Massey is a veteran of the Iraqi war. All of them spoke adamantly against the war and were well received by the crowd. Much of what they said centered around bringing the troops home, how Bush and those who voted for the war are horrible people, and that what we did to Iraq and the people who lived there was wrong. Walking along with the rally was cool, as it showed how people with different opinions could exist together in a country without resulting in violence. That a protest that goes against our government could be held. However the bullcrap that the audience was fed and gobbling up was too much for me. It was unbleievable some of the stuff the speakers were saying. That all of Iraq's problems were linked to our involvement. That Bush and his presidency were evil. It's incredible that they thought that Iraq was better off without us. I don't believe they realized that under Saddam a rally like this couldn't be held. They complain about how horrible our country is for doing this and that Iraq was better off before we attempted to liberate them. I don't see how they could've believed that to be true, but the audience loved it. They were applauding at everything that the speakers were saying. I believe that this is because of the march earlier. People had gotten caught up in the anti-war rally and took on the mob mentality. I didn't believe most of what the speakers said. And for those of you who say that the speakers were there becuase they want people to know the so-called "truth" about the Iraq war, I heard that they were paid a large lump sum to do this. That doesn't sound like speaking for the "truth". After I left Hendricks Chapel, I realized what had shocked me most. Not what the speakers said, but how easily the crowd accepted it as total reality. It was an interesting look at the anti-war movement.

Binh Dan reference

Sontag, Susan (1997). The Image World. pg 2

Binh Dan

Binh Dan's artistic work shows the lasting impact of the Vietnam war in the people and the land. The original photographs that Binh Dan uses in his work showed the effect the war had on people. However Binh Dan's use of leaves and photosynthesis reveals a deeper meaning of what the war meant to the land in Vietnam. The leaves almost seem to echo the photos of the dead in that the land has died along with the people, whether it is in Vietnam or Iraq. The exhibit in Light Works shows Binh Dan's ability to create pieces of art that, as Sontag says in her work The Image World, "through image-making and image-duplicating machines, we can acquire something as information (rather than experience)." Binh Dan shows the impact of the war or genocide in Southeast Asia not only on the people who are photographed but the leaves it is printed on represent the land that has also suffered. Binh Dan's ability to enlighten the viewer to the pain felt by both the people and the land. Binh Dan's work is something that really allows someone to learn something without experiencing it, as Sontag sees the third form of photography to be.

Works Cited

The Quotations Page. 1994-2007. QuotationPages.com. Sept. 3 2007. http://quotationspage.com/subjects/art. href="http://www.quotationspage.com/subjects/art/">

What is Art

1) Of all the definitions of Art my favorite comes from a quote by Andre Gide. He says “Art is a collaboration between God and the artist, and the less the artist does the better.” To me this quote means that art is an inspiration and that the less an artist thinks about how to improve the piece of art the better it becomes. The most memorable experience that I have had with art is when I went to Washington D.C. my junior year of high school. My class visited the Korean War Memorial . The statues were created to honor those that fought in the Korean War. The resemblance of the art to real life was quite impressive. The statues were in a spread out military formation with someone at point (out in front of the formation leading the way). The looks the artist put on the statues’ faces were left to interpretation by the viewer. They looked hauntingly real, all of them with different looks. Some looked scared others determined. Mostly I saw life in their eyes, the artist portraying the real life fear and worry of young men thrust into a place they don’t know to fight a war. The artist successfully let the viewer know exactly what the artist wanted them to see.
2) de Duve’s essay on what is art is an interesting look at what art actually is. de Duve shows how of all the different ways you could look at art, whether as an ET, a historian, an anthropologist, or other viewpoints it is not definable. I believe this to be true. Art is something that to humans is not definable, because of all the different types of art. Considering that Duchamp’s urinal is art, how can anything not be art if someone believes it to be. As long as someone believes something to be art it can be argued that it is due to art’s all encompassing nature. de Duve explains throughout “Art was a proper name” how art is everything and nothing all at once. Art cannot be defined and should never be defined for if it ever is, art will lose its mystique, and its soul.