Round Robin

Part 1

Alayna got herself a camera today. It is bulky and old but it takes great pictures.

Part 2

Alayna went to the park to try out her camera. 

She was following a butterfly with her hefty camera when she tripped over a dog.

Part 3

The camera flew and skipped until landing in the road, Alayna

looked in horror as a bus came rumbling along.

Part 4

Alayna sat defeated on the curb, staring at the 
camera's broken remnants on the street.

Part 5

After grieving for the camera for hours, Allayna realized that though she’d lost thousands of dollars’ worth of equipment, she could now quit her job as a journalist.

As eloquently stated by DJ Spooky in his preface to the Exquisite Corpse, recent advancement in social connectivity is fueling the fires of collaboration; breathing life and form into the masses of information we consume everyday. Despite the increased flow of information, however; collaboration and the art that derives from it continues to be dictated by the unbreakable, universal rules of chance and individual perception. Each one of our blogs displays a spin off of the Exquisite Corpse and evidence of the mentioned universal rules. As a team, we played a game where one individual begins a story, only to be constrained to writing under 20 words and sending the rest to be filtered through the artistic channel of four others. After coming together and analyzing each individual’s justification for their respective part, we were able to not only discover the following insights into how a disjointed story can work together, but also basic patterns manifested in collaboration itself.

After coming together, we each explained our justifications for the parts that we’d played. As a team, we realized that the game had forced us to think about our stories through a lens of communication -- which communication, in and of itself, fits under the definition of a ‘medium’. As a group, we each had to adapt to what the people before or after us in the process chain would add or take away from what we, ourselves, had imagined. Some players were able to adapt quicker than others, while the others were able to adapt more cohesively. This did not become apparent, though, until the game had finished, because there was such a lack of communication.
Therefore, without communication, the stories became more about expressing our personalities and worldviews rather than plotline. The game was challenging. It was hard to release some of our precious creative control into the hands of chaos, but chaos was crucial in preserving the crucial element of purity with regards to our reactions and responses. Most importantly, out of this purity came a story that was more creative and unique than we could ever imagine.

Looking deeper, we as a team felt that our game also helped unlock additional insights into the role of collaboration in art itself. As mentioned by DJ Spooky and class discussion, collaboration as an artform may seem disjointed and Frankensteinian in many regards. Each individual carries their own worldview, which is only accentuated in narrative construction as that worldview seeks to adapt to constraints and filters. Above all, however; these constraints are what make the Exquisite Corpse the artform that it is and the strongest glue that binds our story together. Each part of the story is unique in content, yet similar in which is what made. It stands as a microcosm of art itself, where we merely sample and elaborate off the shoulders of artistic giants who came before. Information and creativity may exponentially increase in a globalizing world, but the rules of artistic creation remain the same; forever dictated by the constraints our game portrayed.

Music Mosaic

"Home" by Light & Motions

"Home" tells the beautiful story of life through distinctive chapters. Each one adding a little bit to the previous one. Sometimes it's a new instrument, a longer chapter, or the volume increases. In the end, it's a gathering of everything and it feels grandiose. The most interesting part was to realize that those chapters, although they weren't all related, were somehow strongly connected together. The title "home" is more than appropriate because it is exactly how it feels throughout the entire song. A familiar place yet in a gigantic world full of surprises.

But before it starts, there was the void.

It is cold and quiet. It almost feels as what it would feel like to stand still in space. It feels alone while knowing that something or someone is out there far away. The cold feels blue. Everything else feels shiny, distant, and unreachable.

Then life occurs. A tickling melody starts. It's a new sound but feels familiar at the same time. 

A transition between now and something greater to come.

The song transitions then to a multitude of bell notes as if something wonderful is happening. 

Things are taking a faster pace and it is a joyful moment.

 It is gradient of events taking you from cold to warm.

Then something magical occurs. Something wonderful with a dreamy touch. It is all coming from the same place and its surrounding the atmosphere.

At this point, the song feels like everything is possible. 

The doors on life have opened to an endless of possibilities. 

The melody has evolved to become an inspiration. It is extremely motivating. 

It says that it is time to move on, to leave home and to do something important and meaningful.

Now it sounds freedom. We can see everything from this point. 

It's like flying. 

Everything is beautiful now. Especially from this point of view. It doesn't matter what it is.
It is beautiful and it makes me happy.

Time has passed and it has been a great journey. Things look great in the past. 

Life is now just a memory. A great memory full of great moments.

Thinking and Writing

Spoiler Art - This article discusses of some key points of Prometheus's plot.

According to director Ridley Scott, Prometheus is the answer to the Aliens series. While it slightly addresses the question, the film goes far beyond explaining the origins of an outer space alien specie. In fact, Prometheus is a shocking subtle reminder of what the human race has become in our days. We are self-centered beings. Some of us are less than others but collectively we have become individuals and societies that care more about our own selves than others. While there’s still a lot of good things happening everyday, the world is in a chaotic state and isn’t getting better.

Prometheus begins with a scientific crew that embarks on a space journey in hope of finding answers to the origins of life on Earth. Fortunately for them, they find exactly what they were looking for but not necessarily for the reasons they thought in the first place. They soon realize that their entire mission is the fruit of an old dying man who is only concerned in finding a cure to his degrading health. The crew members realizes then that they were lied, used, and put in danger to fulfill one man’s desire.

Later on, the film reveals a shocking truth of what perhaps our own creators may think of us. The crew members find and awake an “Architect” — a human-like being who originally brought life to earth. At this point, rather than seeking for answers that could help humanity, they ask him for a cure to save the old man’s life. The Architect, still confused and dizzy from waking up, starts to remember why the human race has become a fallen one. He could see that their selfishness has brought them across the galaxy just to fulfill one man’s wish. The Architect is reminded then of his original mission, to wipe the entire human race. Humanity has become a hopeless case and they must be exterminated.

This is a very particular turn of events but nothing that we haven't seen before. In fact, the Bible tells a similar story during Noah’s time when God flooded the Earth. Things were so bad that the only solution was to start over. As a parallel, the Architects came to the same realization. They have been watching us and have realized that we have gone too far.

As previously mentioned above, our world isn’t getting better. Poverty continues to rise all around the world. People kill each other everyday over different beliefs. Corruption exists in most governments. We take advantage of our planet without really thinking of the future. As Peter Forbes would say, we have come to believe that “earth is a warehouse for our use, that nature is inexhaustible, that we have right to it but no responsibilities.” 

This is exactly what the Architects could see from their distant planet. It is no surprise then that they wanted to wipe us. On the other hand, the film also shows that there is still hope for humanity. When the crew members realize the Architect’s intentions, they do everything to stop him. Some of them are even willing to give up their life for the sake of humanity. This portion of the film brings a more positive note. Although mankind isn’t doing so well, there is still some people out there trying to make it better. There is room for change and we can only do so by involving ourselves in this great story of mankind. Forbes couldn't have said better, that our stories define who we are. The question now is what kind of story we want to be part of.