# data[].attributes.body
Task 4

Adidas' pride pack collection, featuring rainbow-colored clothing designed to give voice to the LBGT community, is one of the common examples of brand activism around us. I think the direct expression of a brand's values is one of the ways of brand activism, and the voice of a brand on any social topic is essentially advertising. So this kind of behavior in order to gain visibility distinguishes itself from competitors who don't engage in activism. And with the same values of consumers between more trust, get more loyal customers. For example, some LBGT people may want to show that they are part of this group by wearing Adidas shoes with rainbow colors, which is not an exaggerated but obvious choice, I believe there will be a lot of people like these clothes, because this way of expressing themselves is really great. So I don't think people participate in activism necessarily because they want to change anything, but also because they want to increase their self-awareness, understand the emotional level of others in the activity, and ultimately participate in the overall emotional wave, in order to find some self-worth. Of course, in addition to these examples, changing or becoming a responsible human being is also the meaning of activism, as Alice Walker said:“Activism is the rent I pay for living on this planet”

# data[].attributes.body
This lesson reviewed how to evaluate sources of information and made me more adept at using this skill by watching two real examples. I used to think the BBC was a good source of information when I was less skilled, but now I know that some sources are not so good. I think in future research, I will pay attention to all aspects of an article, especially the bias assessment mentioned in the video, which I think is very useful.

# data[].attributes.body
Why do you think the Guerrilla Girls remain anonymous?

Because they think the identity is less important than the problem.

Why do you think the public response to the Guerrilla Girls’ form of art activism is positive?

Because they are brave enough to speak out against corruption, discrimination and other problems in society. They also encourage the public to come forward and complain, and to start solving problems in small places.

How do you think the art world should respond to the alarming statistics the Guerrilla Girls have exposed?

Instead of trying to solve everything directly, people can start by solving problems in small places around them. You can give people equal opportunity through de-labeling. Even join their work.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Complain creatively. | The Guerrilla Girls | The Art Assignment | PBS Digital Studios

# data[].attributes.headline
Tania Bruguera and her immersive/interactive art

# data[].attributes.subject
Tania Bruguera and her immersive/interactive art

# data[].attributes.body
1. What themes is she trying to discuss and through what methods?

In the first work, she tried to make people peacefully experience the stage of power by letting the police control the audience's behavior, and let people return to their self-consciousness.In the second work, she allows people to participate in the art through different ways, such as heat-sensitive floor, sound, wifi, etc. She hopes to transform the audience into active citizens through this way.

2. How can this type of art impact the audience?

Each kind of art allows the audience to have different degrees of immersion and interaction, to awaken people's feelings in this aspect, so as to get people to act.

3. What are your reactions to these pieces of art and how do they make you feel?

I think her art has a direct effect on people, like a blade penetrating the soul. Because she doesn't tell you what to do, she just shows you how it feels. I think it works so well that maybe in the future I can get people motivated by showing them or letting them experience better things instead of telling them what to do to make it better.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Tania Bruguera – Tatlin's Whisper #5 | TateShots

# data[].attributes.headline
Refelction of comparing Dismaland and Lost Walls

# data[].attributes.subject
Refelction of comparing Dismaland and Lost Walls

# data[].attributes.body
My two favorite works are El seed's Lost Walls and Banksy's Dismaland.

1. Compare styles, type of art, theme,impact.

Banksy's Dismaland is a "dark version of Disney" exhibition made up of numerous installations and interactive art, with themes such as dystopia, anti-consumerism and more. The Lost Walls of El seed are installation art using graffiti, hoping to awaken the national culture.

2. why these artworks interested you in particular?

Dismaland gave me a completely different version of Disney, and I found the idea very novel. And everything in it doesn't make sense, like the peace dove attacking people. El seed's action of walking graffiti in order to awaken national culture and the spectacular paintings produced are respected.

3. how they could inspire or inform your own activist art project idea on campus?

They were all expressing their opinions, and I thought I could also combine national culture and environmental issues. And the example of Banksy made me discover that art can change people's ideas not only through comfortable expression, but also through uncomfortable ways.

Bibliography:

1. Alicia, C. (2015) A new Banksy showing a woman being attacked by a seagull, Banksy’s Dismaland: ‘a theme park unsuitable for children’ – in pictures. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2015/aug/20/banksy-dismaland-a-theme-park-unsuitable-for-children-in-pictures (Accessed: 15 November 2023).

2. Briana, J. (2015) EL Seed’s calligraffiti adorns a building in Algiers, the capital and largest city of Algeria, eL Seed Paints Peace Across The Arab World. Available at: https://allthatsinteresting.com/el-seed (Accessed: 15 November 2023).

# data[].attributes.body
Today, we once again learned about the use of libraries and the knowledge of academic integrity.

As for the use of the library to find information, I think I have a general familiarity with how to use it efficiently. But we can ask Nick for help if we have problems with this in the future.

As for academic integrity, I believe that as long as it is completed seriously and there are no bad ideas, there should be no problems. Unfortunate events that happen by coincidence need to be avoided. There are many tools we can use to check whether we are plagiarizing because of coincidence.

Overall, the review of this lesson strengthened the memory of these two aspects.

# data[].attributes.body
1. What does John Lennon want us to imagine? Why?

I think Lennon wanted us to imagine a perfect world with no contradictions and no conflicts. Maybe he wants the world to be a better place, where there are no wars and people live in peace.

2. how does the song make you feel?

It made me feel warm, like a utopia. The whole song is light and catchy, and it is easy to convey a belief.

3. How do you think the world would be different without the things that Lennon mentions in the song (heaven, hell, religion, countries, possessions etc.)? This is a good chance to practise 2nd conditional! Would it be a better place if these things didn't exist?

If these things did not exist, people might become more united, and there would not be as many things to separate people as there are now, like different beliefs, skin colors, even hobbies, which can separate people and lead to estrangement, quarrels and even wars.

4. How does 'Imagine' qualify as an activist song?

Because the situation he describes is unlikely to be realized, at least for now, he is expressing his protest against apathy, war and so on.

5. The song has proven quite divisive over the years. Some people see it as being a profound message of hope, and others view it as naive and idealistic; what do you think?

I think this utopian world is unlikely to be realized, and even has bad consequences, it may force everyone to have the same preferences, or directly rob people's preferences. But the song is a wonderful hope, at least as a beacon of hope in a world full of contradictions.

6. Why do you think the song has stayed so popular after more than 50 years?

Because he saw this problem of war and conflict, and he brought hope and strength to people with song. And his talent is very good.

# data[].attributes.body
I've been trying to decide between black racism and the environment. Because I think black racial discrimination can find more information, and this topic even in China there are many incidents and controversies. As for the environment, I have done a lot of research in the last project, and have a certain understanding of it, so I can do it more deeply. But I ended up choosing a black topic because I thought it would be more relevant to the design project: it would be relevant to international students. I feel that the way of learning in China is mainly to learn the content directly, but now it is more like a way of learning, which requires more independent research.

# data[].attributes.headline
Chris Ofili's Blue Devils: between black men and the police

# data[].attributes.subject
Chris Ofili's Blue Devils: between black men and the police

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Chris Ofili’s Blue Devils: between black men and the police

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Powerful and deeply uncomfortable new painting expresses the anger and humiliation inspired by ‘stop and search’ at a time when the issue has never been more talked-about

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
No Woman, No Cry is a very large, densely layered painting that depicts a crying woman set among various abstract patterns. The canvas is 2.4m high by 1.8m wide. The woman, who has dark hair and black skin, is shown in profile. The portrait is formed from a thin brown painted outline that is filled with many small dark brown circles. She wears blue eye shadow, red lipstick, a string of coloured beads that sits just below her hairline and a thin black necklace.

Forming the pendant of her necklace is a lump of elephant dung studded with map pins and a black heart shape. The woman's chest bears an area of vibrant red and orange paint, with flame-like yellow forks across its top edge. A series of pale blue tears descends from each of her eyes, all of which feature a very small collaged photograph of a boy's face.

The background is painted with a mixture of pale green and bright yellow. There is a criss-cross pattern under the portrait, which is made up small circles. The dotted lines are punctuated by black heart shapes that appear at the centre of each of the criss-cross diamonds.

Running in four horizontal lines across the canvas, the words 'RIP Stephen Lawrence 1974-1993' appear very faintly underneath its top layer, with the dates at the bottom completely obscured by the shoulders of the woman.

When exhibited, the painting rests on two large lumps of elephant dung which are sealed in transparent resin and studded with coloured map pins that are placed on the floor. The painting's upper edge leans against the gallery wall.

This painting was made by the British artist Chris Ofili in 1998 when he was living and working in London. The title of this work is the name of a 1974 song by the Jamaican reggae musician Bob Marley that asks a female listener not to be sad.

The faint inscription behind the portrait indicates that the crying woman is Doreen Lawrence (now Baroness Lawrence of Clarendon OBE), the mother of Stephen Lawrence. Stephen Lawrence was murdered as a teenage boy in an unprovoked racist attack in London in 1993, and the photographs inside the tears in this work are all images of Stephen.

The work is painted on a coarse linen canvas that was bought pre-primed. Ofili added several further layers of acrylic primer and then covered the entire canvas with light green acrylic paint. He then drew thin lines over it in pencil, before adding the collaged circles that make up the diamond pattern. The circles are small cut-out reproductions of a work by the British abstract artist Bridget Riley.

Ofili then applied the heart shapes in black oil paint and the black dots using rub-on transfers. Following this, he used more paint to write the text across the painting, before fixing the dung pendant onto the canvas with a glue gun.

A polyester resin mixed with glitter, orange and black pigments was then poured onto the work while it was positioned horizontally. The canvas was tipped up before drying, producing runs of resin that are visible around its edges.

Finally, thinned oil paint was applied to depict the woman and unthinned oils were used for the beads and the colours on her chest. Despite the many layers, the overall thickness is still sufficiently thin for the canvas texture to remain apparent through it.

After five years of campaigning by Lawrence's parents, the then Home secretary, Jack Straw, announced a judicial inquiry into the police investigations into their son's death. When it was published two years later the 1999 Macpherson Report found police conduct had been marred by professional incompetence and institutional racism. The report made seventy recommendations, which led to an overhaul of Britain's race relations legislation.

Curator Judith Nesbitt has written that 'Ofili was deeply moved by the way in which Doreen Lawrence's overwhelming silent grief at her son's tragic death had been transformed with each successive interview as she became even stronger in spirit and emboldened to speak with great dignity'.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Audio Description: No Woman, No Cry | Tate

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
No Woman, No Cry is a very large, densely layered painting that depicts a crying woman set among various abstract patterns. The canvas is 2.4m high by 1.8m wide. The woman, who has dark hair and black skin, is shown in profile.

# data[].attributes.headline
Anti-racism activism among Black adolescents and emerging adults: Understanding the roles of racism and anticipatory racism-related stress

# data[].attributes.subject
Anti-racism activism among Black adolescents and emerging adults: Understanding the roles of racism and anticipatory racism-related stress

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
For Kerry James Marshall, the mission is clear: Bring portraits of black life into very white art museums

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Marshall, who grew up in South L.A. before gaining renown for paintings that widen representations of black people in art, will open his largest retrospective here to date on March 12.

# data[].attributes.body
What both paintings have in common is that they depict a city street at night. But "Nighthawks" has characters, relationships, more stories, while the other painting is just a city street.

Their themes are similar: deserted streets. Their colors are also dominated by cool tones. The difference is that Nighthawks uses bright colors for contrast, while the other one uses black to represent the lifeless vitality of the building. The Nighthawks is a realistic painting with many concrete shapes, while the other is similar to the Impressionist painting, combining the traditional Chinese ink painting style with modern architecture.

# data[].attributes.body
Some special public art can be found in my city, but not very often. I think we lack the type of public art that people really want to say something or change something. Because Yunnan is a border province, most of them are murals promoting the government and the country. I think the reason for the lack of public art may be that not many people in China think about what needs to be changed, so as to make efforts. Perhaps China is not so developed in terms of economy and education, people may be under intense work pressure, art is not the most important at this stage.

# data[].attributes.body
What went well?

The time is right, there are reflection and meet the requirements of the design.

What didn't go so well?

Too nervous, there are too many words on the PPT, the tone is flat, lack of animation.

What should you have done?

Practice more, add some animation as a guide, write only the main points on the PPT, get familiar with the process.

What will you do to improve?

Increase the number of exercises to get off script, and modify the PPT to make the transition more natural.

What are the good things about other people?

I think Fengzhao's PPT is very concise without too many words, Dany's design is great, there are different stages, and the interaction with the audience is full, and she adds animation to the PPT to show all the stages of her work, which is very clear.

# data[].attributes.body
The video talks about how to engage audience in a presentation, I think emphasizing key words and not memorizing the whole speech is the most useful for me.Because I have always felt that when I speak English, my tone doesn't change much, which can make people feel boring, and I can change that by emphasizing key words.And another problem that makes my tone dry is memorizing entire speech.Because I was not proficient in using the new language, I used to think about what to say before speaking, so I memorized it in advance. But now I see that it does lead to no change in tone. In the future, I will practice key words before the speech, and try to practice the whole speech without reciting, and control the speed.