miércoles, 5 de octubre de 2011

SELF PORTRAITS AND SOCIAL MEDIA




1.      Is there a difference between self-portraits we may take of ourselves on a day-to-day basis and those more contrived by artist’s and professional photographers?

The difference between this two types of portraits is basically that the ones we take of ourselves are more for showing ourselves off to other people, it is kind of a narcissistic thing and the portraits made by artists are more elaborated and sometimes they actually reflect something more than the person itself because sometime those portraits convey something to the viewer.
2.      If you haven’t seen the idea of taking photos of yourself as self-portraiture, for what reason do you record your life and times through the taking of self-portraits or, why do you think people in general feel so compelled to take photos of themselves?

Personally I love taking pictures when I’m with people like my friends just to keep a memory of the moment we were sharing. When I take pictures of myself is just because of egocentrism.
I think people take pictures of themselves just to show how they want to be seen by the rest of the world, to show themselves as confident people and sometimes to get some flattery.

3.      One of the sections in the painting article dealt with the self-portrait as self-study.  Could this also be extended to the self-portraits we see in social media?  Are people really studying themselves or, is it still the narcissistic love of our own image?

I think nowadays just a few professional photographers  take pictures of somebody with the intention of transmitting a message, I think the rest of them just take pictures of models to show their beauty. If photographers would want to transmit something they would take pictures of themselves or something like that.

The First Australians




1. The British arrived in Australia in what year?  How does this year correspond to their colonies and activities elsewhere in the Empire?
1788, the year before they’ve lost their colonies in USA

2. What was the original landing site of their arrival called by the Aborigines and what was it renamed by the British?
Australians called it Warang and de British named it Sydney

3.  Who was on the British ship and what was their interest in Australia at the time?
Governor Phillip, they wanted to set up a Britishness that was for Britain

4.  What was the Dreaming or Dreamtime in Aboriginal spirituality?
Is the environment the aboriginal people lived in, and expressed in rituals, ceremonies and paintings. The physic state in which they made contact w/ ancestral spirits.

5. Who was the Aborigine who took on a significant role among the settlers and, later, in England itself?
Truganini


6.  How would you characterize his situation, or, what do you think he was thinking he was going to accomplish?
Because she wanted to know how they lived and how it was and make  a relationship w/ them

7.  How does the British Australian experience of colonization differ and how does it overlap with their previous attempts in North America, which includes Canada Marien, and India?
It differs that the Australian colonization was very violent because Australians were very angry because of the arrival of British people. It overlap because Britain established a colony there.  

8. Bonus Question: What do you do with a drunken sailor?
Put him in the long boat 'til he's sober.
Shave his belly with a rusty razor.
Put him in bed with the Captain's daughter.
Put him the back of the paddy wagon.
Tickle down below with a feather duster.
Tie him to a sheep and call him Taffy.




. A History of Britain: The Wrong Empire





1. What was the British idea of liberty before the Empire began its exploration, colonization and settlement of North America?
It was a reward of years of civil war, liberty was the religion, it means riches and power

2. The sugar plantation became a significant British interest in various parts of the New World.  Why was sugar so important at the time and what were the consequences of this interest?
They wanted it for the tea. British began settling in the West Indies transforming virgin forests. Slaves appeared.

3. Slavery and Empire, what was the relationship between the two and, what was the inherent contradiction between the ideals of Empire and its actuality in practice?
The Empire transported slaves from every part of the British Empire.
The contradiction is that Britain first said there was going to be an Empire of liberty and it ended up being an Empire full of slaves.

4. Describe the conditions of the slave ships.
There was a multitude of black people chained together, there were a lot of smells, and the situation was deplorable, slaves almost suffocated.

5. The conception of death the slaves held differs dramatically from the norm, how so and, do you think there conception of death was justified/justifiable?
Slaves thought death was like returning home, I think the conception is justified because of the conditions they lived in and the way they were treated. I mean if I were them I would think the same about death.

6. General Wolfe´s conquest of Quebec had far reaching results, what was the immediate effect of this conquest and what did it mean for the British?
It meant a loss for the British because the French had victory in both places Quebec and Montreal

7. What was the role of taxation in America and what part did it play in the British losing the 13 Colonies?
Taxation was for earning money

8. What does `no taxation without consent’ refer to or, how were the British using taxation against the American Colonies?
It meant no standing armies,  what meant peace

9.  The Stamp Act became known as the Tax of Knowledge, explain why and how.
Because Stamps were put on news papers, hand bills and official papers, so lawers and educators couldn’t have them

10.  Where and when did the British finally surrender to the American Patriots?
In Virginia in1781

11.  Who was Richard Clive?  What was his role in the British colonization of India?
He was a British military. He expelled the French from some territories of India

12.  What happened in Calcutta that brought such infamy to the British occupation of the city?
Most of its residents made out of the town, they had no food, all because of the British, then there was a battle which Britain won because of Clive.

13.  How did the consistent nature of the French-English conflict assume a conflicting role in various parts of the world always, it seems, to the detriment of the native populations?


14. What role does Rome and the Roman Empire play in the British consciousness in terms of conquering and Empire?
Both used the same ways to conquer their colonies

15.  Are there visible comparisons to be made between the current United States `Superpower’ that has recently lost its defining characteristics of liberty and justice in the pursuit of economy and power, and that of the British Empire, the Roman?  Are we seeing the end of the pseudo Empire of the United States?
I think this 3 “Empires” have a lot in common and actually United States began conquering many countries in the same way they were conquered. I don’t think there’s a difference neither that we are seeing the end of the pseudo empire of US because it is true they do not have the power in many countries as they used to but it is also true that they are one of the most important countries of the world in the economical, political and cultural areas.