final class

one of each

Fraternal twins one looks more black one looks more white.

Poor God

Poor God look what people have done in his name


From FindLaw.com:
In June 1958, two residents of Virginia, Mildred Jeter, a Negro woman, and Richard Loving, a white man, were married in the District of Columbia pursuant to its laws. Shortly after their marriage, the Lovings returned to Virginia and established their marital abode in Caroline County. At the October Term, 1958, of the Circuit Court [388 U.S. 1, 3] of Caroline County, a grand jury issued an indictment charging the Lovings with violating Virginia's ban on interracial marriages. On January 6, 1959, the Lovings pleaded guilty to the charge and were sentenced to one year in jail; however, the trial judge suspended the sentence for a period of 25 years on the condition that the Lovings leave the State and not return to Virginia together for 25 years. He stated in an opinion that:

"Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. And but for the interference with his arrangement there would be no cause for such marriages. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix."

That was only 50 years ago.

how fast can I finish a mini-thesis

I was thinking about my last post, and occured to me that there are two ways I can finish the thesis. One, devise an icon that has interantional meaning. Or, two, design a family crest. A famly crest that is cooler than colored stripes. The whole family crest/coat of arms idea came from iconography research. I remembered that in Catholic iconography three bees and the sun represent the Pope Urban VIII. He was kind of a douche, but he was a patron of Bernini.

Children of Men

watched Children of Men again last night. I really love that film. It speaks to so many problems in the world. The problems of global capitalism and the way that our un-intergrated cultures inflame our differences. Inflame our fear of other cultures and thus our fear of those who come from cultures other than ours, immigrants.

On the special features there is a debate about whether the is a problem of national and cultural identity. The divide between first and second generations of immigrant families. The first generation is acculturated to the culture of the native land. The second generation can either adopt both the new and old cultures.

The coming environmental collapse will accelerate the immigration problem and we will see a Katrina style disaster on a global scale. It's frightening for me to think about the what the world will be like by the time I am fifty. I can see a future where the refugees of global warming are treated as lesser human beings.

Again and again I see the solution as merging cultures. Human beings have been "immigrating" for centuries. First from Africa to the middle east, to asia and europe. Yet, this is such a small part of public school curriculum. We need to teach our kids more about the shared global history. And it should be thought in a way that shows how we are all linked not just by history but by the global economy.

I don't understand why it is so hard for people to develop a world culture. Or even a continental culture. When I was a kid we celebrated the holiday's of other cultures. I am not Japanese, but celebrated Boy's Day and Girl's Day. Why shouldn't children in American schools celebrate Cinco de Mayo, Bastille Day, and Chinese New Year.

I have been thinking about DeStijl. DeStijl was supposed to be a new international design style. In many ways it succeeded. But, created this cold cleanliness that has no reference to art history. Maybe we need to back pedal a little and create in a way that is informed by non-western art and design. If you look at art history there were so many simple icons which communicated something deeper than traffic signs.

I'm thinking about taking a stab at this. But, it is quite ambitious for just one weeks work.

Interviewed on featurette:
Fabrizio Eva
John Gray
Naomi Klein
James Lovelock
Saskia Sassen
Tzvetan Todorov
Slavoj Zizek

NOTE TO SELF
buy land in Alaska

some rough drafts

Okay picture 1 is black because it needs an image. The rest are section heads. I will choose one style of section head for the whole book/magazine. I just put a few different examples. I don't want all the section heads to be different.

From Democracy Now

AMY GOODMAN: Senator Akaka, can you tell us about your background, your family background, as illustrative of Hawaii, the population there?

SEN. DANIEL AKAKA: Yes. My family is a local family in Hawaii. My mother was pure Hawaiian. My dad was a mixture of Hawaiian and Chinese. His family came from Fukien, China, in the middle 1800s to Hawaii. And in those days the Chinese men married Hawaiian women. And this is where we come from. And my family now, I should tell you -- Millie and I have grandchildren, and in the grandchildren we have fourteen different bloods around the world. So this is how diverse Hawaii is becoming. And in the case of the Native Hawaiians, we want to bring parity and bring recognition to them and a relationship with the United States government.

BOISE, Idaho (AP) -- The Boise State running back who scored the winning points in the Fiesta Bowl, then proposed to his cheerleader girlfriend on national television, says he has hired security for their wedding because of racial threats.

Ian Johnson, who is black, and Chrissy Popadics, who is white, are due to be married Saturday in Boise.

Since his Jan. 1 proposal, Johnson said, he has received phone calls, letters and some personal threats from people who object to their marriage plans.

"You take it for what it is -- the less educated, the less willing to change," Johnson, 21, of San Dimas, Calif., told the Idaho Statesman for its Tuesday editions. "But we're not acting like we're naive to all the stuff that's going on. We know what's been said. We're going to make sure we're safe at all times. It's an amazing day for us, and we'd hate to have it ruined by someone."

"It's really sad because a lot of people that are probably doing it are the same people who were cheering me on," Johnson said.

A Boise State football spokesman, Todd Miles, said Tuesday that Johnson hoped to put the matter behind him and did not want to discuss it further. Popadics' family said she was not available.

At the Fiesta Bowl, Johnson used a "Statue of Liberty" play to score the winning two-point conversion as underdog Boise State beat the Oklahoma Sooners 43-42 in overtime. The Broncos ended their season 13-0.

poetry

Grr. Typography for poetry is hard.

I am working on the 1st issue of Guernica Magazine

I will definitely need help to get this done on time. Here is our official call of submissions if anyone is interested. We are looking for strong and graphic illustration. If your work is soft and precious, that's not the aesthetic I am looking for. Please forward this to your friends if you think they would be interested.

Guernica Magazine Call For Submissions: Graphic Designers & Illustrators

www.guernicamag.com is an online arts and politics publication featuring essays, fiction, poetry, artwork, interviews, and translations by great writers and thinkers from across the globe. We are currently in production on our first print publication, to be released in September, 2007, and are accepting submissions for illustrators and graphic designers to work with our Lead Graphic Designer. We are not able to pay contributors at this time, but a peek at our archives and masthead will give some indication of the caliber and connectivity of your associates should you be selected to participate. Students and interns are welcome to submit--we look forward to reviewing your work!

"There is nothing quite like Guernica, where you can find an extraordinary bouquet of stories, poems, social commentary, and art. It is always a pleasure to read." —Howard Zinn

links to artists

2) research:
a)who has done work in your area before you?
i.gather samples of the works of these artists writers,poets,filmmakers,psychologists,scientists, etc.

Still work on research:
These artists produce work that explores ethnic identity
Flo Oy Wong
Artists discuss ethnicity
Danzy Senna writes about being biracial, and growing up able to pass
Half and Half: Writers on Growing Up Biracial and Bicultural is an anthology edited by Claudine C. O'Hearn
Rebecca Walker is the author of Black, White & Jewish: Autobiography of a Shifting Self

You Me and Everything We Know features a bi-racial family. The biracial kids just exist as who they are. But, there is no discussion of race in the film.

I'm finally back from the wedding.
I was thinking about the thesis/commercial projects on the plane and reflecting on my trip. A few thought that I had were:

1. This is the craziest idea. Making a font from blood. I admit I got the idea from Ian Curtis of Joy Division, who famously signed his record contract with Factory Records in his own blood. Blood makes such potent imagery. And its often used to illustrate equality, We may have different skin colors but we all bleed red, and family being related by blood. This imagery is made even more potent by the discovery of DNA. In the end, if you strip culture away and think about people as just highly intelligent animals. The only thing that really makes us different from one another is our DNA. My first impulse is to use my own blood. However, I don't think I could get enough from just pricking my finger, maybe one letter, not the whole alphabet. I could use cow's blood, but I am a vegetarian and I'm ruling that one out righ away. There is always fake blood, but I don't think fake blood is quite as potent.

2. When I was at the wedding I tried to think of ideas for my weekly project. Almost every guest (because duh, it's hawaii) was some lovely shade of brown. I was thinking about using those skin shade to create a zine called Blind, or Blur. Referring to the way that people always talk about an ideal society as color blind. I don't nessesarily agree with that. I think we should love our differences. Anyway, I want to replace the colors on a blindness test with skintones.

more drafts

for giggles

Animals have been known to inter-breed. Sometimes offspring are cute and sometimes not.

Additionally, I am hotter than you. An experiment by Gillian Rhodes, a psychologist at the University of Western Australia, showed that participants rated mixed race people more attractive than single race people.

Maybe I should do a lookbook, like Abercrombie, but with models of different races.

Thesis Research

I've been doing research this week on mixed cultures

I learned some really interesting things at the MET about portugual(my mom is portuguese) and China (my dad is chinese). It was the portuguese that brought porcelain to europe. Chinese porcelain designs inspired chinoserie, a whole decorative arts movement in Europe. Sometimes I use pattern in my work and I thought it would be interesting to intergrate this style into my designs.

Portuguese decorative arts, especially tilework, were also highly influenced by the Moors who invaded Lisbon in 711 A.D.

I have also been doing research on this idea of the other and ethnocentrism. The very broad, and loose idea that I had for my thesis was investigating how people percieve me to different that I see myself. I think anthropolgy helps me refine my ideas of different cultures, and how they percieve each other.

I think that part of the reason that we still have racism is that some people still have an ethnocentric point of view. I think most people see their way of living, their culture as the best way, the right way and as long as we continue the see the world through an ethnocentric lense, there will always be racism and there will never be peace. For example, you always hear in the media about how the iraqi people don't understand democracy. I don't think that they don't understand democracy. It's just that our idea our democracy may not work for them. If you can justify anythingif you are convinced that one group of people are different than you.


Another example which I mentioned in class is immigration. I hear a lot of commentary especially from the right-wing media about "those illegal immigrants", "we can't reward those who don't respect the law".

Interestingly, I read that intermarriage lessens ethnocentrism.

I read Karen's portfolio intensive blog and for a reason which I can't really put my finger on it offended me. Maybe I felt she was saying that there is something undesirable about having biracial children. I think why not mix it up. I mean it's been going on for centuries.

I'm not humorless, but the whole post feels unsettling.

This is a photo of my cousins and my grandma. We're like the poster children for multi-cultural america. Obviously this was taken in the 80s. I'm around six or seven in this picture.

more thoughts on thesis

Before you read this you should read my first post about my thesis topic. I've been thinking about my thesis topic. I want to distill in down to something that is not too abstract that it's hard to illustrate graphically. I was thinking about my perception about being biracial and how growing up in Hawaii where is common to be biracial/multi-racial. I know that other people struggle with belonging to one ethnic group or another, but I don't. So the more that I read about it the more I think to myself how not only is it a problem that people percieve me to be one race and not two. But, it also bothers me that I never had to deal with this until I went to college.

I can remember the first time I became aware that multi-racial people got harassed. I was home watching Ricky Lake (remember when she had a talk show) and the topic was biracial families. I remember thinking how weird it was that these people were talking for an hour about their racial background and were getting so worked up about it. Now I could go on and on about the subject. But then I was like,"your biracial big whoop" why are you on TV yelling about it. I know that sounds really insensitive, but you have to remember that as a teenager in Hawaii, I didn't ever consider myself part of a minority group.

Shortly after my brother moved from Hawaii to Seattle and took a class at Seattle Central Community College called Challenging the Matrix. It was a core studies class about examining Social Sciences from a alternative perspective. In that class they had a whole section on racial politics in the United States. He was assigned a paper on his personal experience with racism. He couldn't do it. At that point in his life he had never experienced racism. I have always felt the same. I never experienced racism or prejudice before I moved away from home. I was part of the majority in Hawaii.

I'm going home for a wedding on July 13th. On my visits to home,I never thought about the transition I make from minority to majority. This time I'm really going to pay attention to my behavior and feelings about my status.


Some links about interracial families
http://www.diversitydtg.com/articles/interracial_families.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hapa
http://www.enterprisehonolulu.com/html/display.cfm?sid=176
http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0828/p03s01-ussc.html

Design Inspiration

Some links to design/ers I like
http://joshuadavis.com
http://adbusters.org/home/
http://www.goodmagazine.com/
http://www.treehugger.com/

Drafts

These are rought drafts of my book covers. Part of the story (without giving too much away) is that the characters are different than everyone else. The first half of the book is the main characters recolection of her childhood, and how she slowly became aware of her difference, her place in the world outside her boarding school, and how "normals" will percieve her for the rest of her life.

I'm going to try to work on some handmade type before the next class. I think handwritten type is really personal and beautiful. That style will reflect what is happeneing in the story.










"comes a devastating new novel of innocence, knowledge, and loss. As children Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy were students at Hailsham, an exclusive boarding school secluded in the English countryside. It was a place of mercurial cliques and mysterious rules where teachers were constantly reminding their charges of how special they were.

Now, years later, Kathy is a young woman. Ruth and Tommy have reentered her life. And for the first time she is beginning to look back at their shared past and understand just what it is that makes them special–and how that gift will shape the rest of their time together. Suspenseful, moving, beautifully atmospheric"
--Amazon.com

Inspiration

What am I inspired by. I've always found this question to be hard. My immediate response is always other people's work. I particularly love illustration. Art Department Julie West. But don't nessesarily think that is really a thesis topic. I also am inspired by instrumental music, specifically indie instrumental. Mogwai Pelican Explosions in the Sky Godspeed You Black Emperor Feminism inspires me Kathleen Hanna said it best. SO i guess you could say that gender and racial politics inspires me. I guess that bring me full circle to my original thesis that is racial identity and people percieving you in away that you do not percieve yourself. So maybe a real basic topic for me would be self perception.

here is my assignment for the past week. I have something I have to do today so I will be missing class. I'm not to crazy about these designs anyway. If I had more time I would start from scratch again.















If you click on the thumbnails you should get sent to my flickr page. The bigger size jpgs are on flickr.

Developing the thesis

I was thinking about the thesis project. I had an idea that is a video involving transparent overlays of traditional styles of dress. I think this is something I have to do in aftereffects. But, I no idea how to use that program. Does anyone know if the timeline is similar to flash? I have no idea how time consuming making a short after effects video is. If it is something I should start working on now etc.

I don't know if anyone else is taking other classes this summer but I am and there aren't enough hours in the day. I have class Tuesday&Thursday for a required indesign class at parsons, and then I have this class Wednesday. Plus I have freelance projects. I feel like I just don't have enough time to do projects for either of the classes well. I am so glad that indesign will be done next Thursday. I'll post what I've been working on for this class later today.

photos from my hood

it's like an industrial cathedral

Book

I thought that I could do it, but I don't think that I have enough time to collect enough pictures encompassing organic food, punk rock and pretty boys. I was thinking that maybe I should do something with my neighborhood. I live near a industrial park in brooklyn. There is a strange beauty to the intersection of fading industrial factories and the uprising of the artists lofts. Maybe I could make the book with imagery from that indstrial environment.

This is one of the posters chosen from 25 by the class.

Parents

I don't think that I look like my dad either.

Sample Spread for Guernica Magazine

Poster from Intermediate Typography @ Parsons

That is me and my best friend Kaline. She is half Filipino and half white. We're both from Hawaii. When we are home being biracial is normal. But, when we are in the "mainland" she is classified as white.

That's my Mom.

my first post

For my thesis topic I will probably do something about my mixed race status.


I am half chinese and half portuguese. But, for whatever reason some people can't seem to process mutliracial people in their head. It has to be on thing or the other. Usually, I am immediately classified as asian. And, I don't nessesarily perceive myself that way. I see my self as Chinese (not asian) and Portuguese (not white). It's just really strange for me to know that people percieve me in a way that I don't percieve myself. There's nothing I can do about it. It's just how I look on the outside.

interesting fact:
13.5% of married couples in California are interracial, 10.2% in Washington State, and 8.5% in Oregon. This is compared to 5.9% in New York. http://www.frey-demographer.org/reports/Rainbownation.pdf