Final Blog

I chose to research Skrillex whom is a DJ and Producer. He produces edm and dubstep music and performs at various music festivals and concerts. He has won 8 grammy awards and has had a very successful music career. Not only is a producer but he was formerly in a band called "From First to Last". He was originally trying to be the guitar player for their first studio album but was selecged to be the lead singer after producers heard him sing. Skrillex is just a musical genius who can do it all. He knows different sounds from his background and has used that to his advantage. EDM and dubstep are genres that there is no distinct sound. There is no limit to what can be done in this genre. There's so many different sounds and methods to execute everything perfectly and that is what Skrillex does. His grammy awards and VMA awards show that he is a musical genius and he is setting the path for everyone that is going to come after him. He has so many abstract sounds and is so unique that it is hard not to respect him and look up to him.

Performance Video

I made a video of me making a hookah. When I was a senior in high school I became really good friends with kids who were from Syria and Lebanon. They explained and introduced hookah to me. It is a part of their culture and it was really surprising to hear that they have been smoking hookah since they were 11. It was cool being introduced to a new culture and a way of life. I've been a huge hookah fan ever since and it has stayed with me until this day.

Body Part

I made a flower using my hands and my fist. It did not go as planned; to me the image looks like some type of hypnosis and the fist is the center that you have to look at. If the image was larger and had a lot more components it would have been easier to give off a hypnotic look. Also in regards to my attempt at making a flower, I would not have opened my hands so wide. I did not realize how big my hands actually were. In the future I would try to put my fingers closer together and give off a more narrow look. 

Pixel Photo

I recreated the Arizona Cardinals NFL football helmet. Recreating the pixilated image was fairly easy because sport logos are usually very distinct and easy to identify.

Aeneas and Dido

Aeneas and Dido was a very interesting opera. It was about a Queen who ruled the city of Carthage. Her husband passed away and Dido vowed to never marry another man for the rest of her life. Dido ends up falling in love with Aeneas. The witches intervened between Dido and Aeneas and disguised one of them as Mercurius. They then announce Zeus has made the decision that Aeneas will set sail for Italy immediately. Aeneas fulfills his duty and leaves to Italy. Dido then dies. That was everything that I discovered while watching Aeneas and Dido. Another thing that I discovered is that opera is not just a bunch of people screaming and singing very loudly. If you really pay attention it tells a story but in a very beautiful way. The elegancy of the singing and movements throughout the opera were a lot more powerful compared to a regular play. While paying attention, the story was so easy to pick up and I was not lost at all.

            The “mise en scene” was quite interesting. The stage changed a lot. They were in what seemed to be a bedroom when the play began. They were then in a banquet room welcoming Aeneas. The opera shifted to the woods where the witches were casting spells and disguised one of them as Mercurius. The play then shifted to a scene where Aeneas and Dido were laying together in an open area. In regards to the arrangement of scenery, it flowed extremely well. The scenery was not all over the place. Each place that the characters were, was very important and made a lot of sense.

            A setting that stood out the most to me was when the witches were disguising one of themselves to be Mercurius. I immediately knew that they were witches based on their clothing and the spooky aura of the woods. The mist that was in the air and the full moon gave it a chilling vibe. The way the witches were singing was also extremely creepy. My favorite part was seeing Mercurius walking and floating above the water. His blue skin was awesome and he actually looked like he was some type of super natural being. That part of the opera was easily the best part in regards to the stage and the usage of technology. Production really capitalized on the opportunity to portray the witches and Mercurius.

            I think that the audiences were definitely extremely pleased with the performance of all the actors. Everything was well put together, the story made sense and everyone had to be content with the execution of the opera. All of the characters were good looking people. The singing was great and the scenery was on point. The audiences most likely could have been creeped out by the witches and Mercurius rising from the sea. That was probably what grabbed the audiences attention. Once that part came by I was locked into the opera.

            This piece is important in the chronology of Opera because the advancement in technology really showed. Previous opera’s most likely did not have a blue human like figure rise from the water and walk on water. Opera is usually traditional and does not have a lot of advancement in technology. It’s a natural thing when it comes to opera so there is not much of video enhancements or any technology based stages. Again, when Mercurius rose from the sea.

            If I could make this into a video game it would be very similar to Assassin’s Creed. I would have someone who goes back and time and tries to fix the timeline. In a sense the person who is back in time would have to fight enemies. There would be an army of witches who know that someone is going back in time to stop them from fooling Aeneas and allowing him to stay with Dido. The character learns skills and techniques in order to fight off the army of witches and save the love between Aeneas and Dido. If the game is not required to have the same characters, I would have Mercurius have powers that witches cursed him with in order for the difficulty of the game to be a little challenging. Mercurius would be the final boss of the video and once you defeat him you can be able to freelance the lands and exterminate all of the witches that exist around the world. By making witches extinct, it will prevent anyone from being fooled out of love ever again.

Stop Motion Animation

I used a pair of men's shoes and a pair of women's shoes to showcase kind of a love story. The red shoes which is the "guy" crawled out of their box and went over to the women's shoe box. The red shoes knocked and the white shoes which would be the "girl". He went to go get her and they both walked over and got into a bigger box together.

The Smartphone

The smartphone has been around for 26 years. Prior to what they look like now, smartphone are very compact and can fit right into our pockets. 77% of Americans own some type of smartphone (Andrews, 2018). The first smartphone was the Simon Personal Communicator created by IBM in 1992 (Andrews, 2018). The smart phone cost $1,100 even in 1992. The downside was that the SPC (Simon Personal Communicator) had a battery life of 1 hour. The size of the display was 4.5 inches x 1.4 inches (Andrews, 2018).  In 2007 the Iphone hit the shelves (Andrews, 2018). The 4GB model was $499 and the 8GB model was $599. The display size was 3.5-inches (Andrews, 2018).  The battery life was 8 hours of talk time and 250 hours of standby time (Andrews, 2018). Today, there are phones of all different shapes and sizes. There are phones that could essentially be considered a tablet. There is no limit to what you can do on smartphones. You can play games on your Apple or Android device. You can access the internet almost anywhere as long as you have service. There are video chats, research engines, email, emoji's, face i.d, touch i.d, etc. The list just grows if you go down the list of how many things a smartphone can do today in 2019.

https://www.textrequest.com/blog/history-evolution-smartphone/