Aileen Foley
Arts Scholar
Pentathalon Fall 2020
As an experiential component of College Park Arts Scholars, I attended a selection of five art events during my first semester. These events ranged in art mediums and each sparked dialogue among my peers.
Pan's Labyrinth
#film
On Sunday, September 20th, 2020, I watched Pan's Labyrinth, a film directed by Guillermo del Toro, on Netflix. I enjoyed this film due to its excellent direction and artistic value. Something that made this film very interesting was the inclusion of a realistic storyline and a fantastical storyline occurring at the same time. The costuming, animatronics, and CGI utilized in this film to create the various mythical creatures were also very incredible and beautiful. One that stands out to me is the costume of the faun, which looks incredibly lifelike.
Howl's Moving Castle
#film, Arts Scholars Event
On September 26th, I joined some of my fellow Arts Scholars to watch Howl's Moving Castle, directed by Hayao Miyazaki via Zoom. I thought that this film was very beautiful and well-directed. The score of the film went very well with the beautifully animated visuals. The story was also very interesting and kept me wondering what would happen next.
Dorian Electra's My Agenda Online
#music
I watched and listened to My Agenda Online, an online concerted hosted on Twitch by Dorian Electra. This concert included various other artists, like Count Baldor, Sega Bodega, and That Kid. The concert included the guest performances with performances by the host in between. I thought that this digital concert was very fun and both visually and musically appealing. I also found that Dorian Electra's ability to put on an entertaining event and performances during the time of the coronavirus very commendable.
Art in the Age of Instagram
#presentation
On November 15th, 2020, I watched "Art in the Age of Instagram", a TEDx talk by Jia Jia Fei. In this presentation, Fei speaks on the digitization of art and how although some people find it harmful, it can be a good thing. She argues that the digitization of art can be helpful in making it accessible to more people than ever before and that posts on social media can encourage more people to come to museums to view works of art. She uses James Turrell's Guggenheim light exhibition as an example of social media helping a museum gain more visitors. I think that the argument of social media helping artists and museums is very relevant in the age of COVID-19 because although museums have become less accessible, the internet can allow for works of art to be viewed from one's home.
In the Beginning: Media Art and History at the Hirschhorn
#visualart
On December 13th, 2020, I viewed this online exhibition showcases works of art that use various forms of media to depict history, split into three chapters. The first chapter includes works that are done using video, such as a found-footage film that the artist created as an autobiography of events that occurred during his life. The second chapter shows performance art that reflects on history, such as a video of someone creating and then destroying a sand installation, representing the impact of urban development. The third chapter uses computer-generated imagery and animation to showcase historical events, such as an animation showing presidential assassinations. I found this online exhibition to be incredibly interesting and effective in displaying history through modern mediums of art. This exhibit would have been much more immersive in person, but I am glad I had the opportunity to view it online.
Pentathlon Spring 2021
Promare
#Film
HBO, Saturday, February 20th
Promare is a 2019 film produced by Japanese animation studio Trigger and directed by Hiroyuki Imaishi. This film follows a story about humans that gain the ability to control fire, known as the Burnish, and the firefighters that are tasked with controlling their flames. The Burnish are oppressed by those who do not have powers and are forced to live as outcasts of society. Some Burnish form a group called “Mad Burnish” to retaliate against their oppressors. The two main characters of the film are Galo, a talented firefighter, and Lio, a very powerful Burnish and the leader of the Mad Burnish group.
This film is very beautifully and intricately animated. It combines uniform 3D animation with very fluid and flashy 2D animation. Every frame of the film was clearly thoroughly planned to maximize its effect on the audience. One interesting detail that I noticed was that the film uses a triangle motif for the Burnish people, showing their flames as being made out of triangles, and the humans without powers are represented by squares and rectangles. The use of these motifs help show the disconnect between the two groups of people represented in the film.
I greatly enjoyed this film due to its interesting story and its unique and powerful animation.
NPR Music Listening Party: Julien Baker’s ‘Little Oblivions’
#music
YouTube, Friday, February 26th
I attended the NPR listening party for indie musician Julien Baker’s new album, ‘Little Oblivions’. During this livestream, after the entire record was played, Baker answered audience questions about her music.
‘Little Oblivions’ is an indie rock album that showcases Julien Baker’s ability to tell stories through her music. The record starts with a powerful rock song, “Hardline”, with very expressive and personal lyrics. The album also has some gentler tracks, like “Song in E”, which contains the soft yet impactful accompaniment of a piano alongside Baker’s emotional vocals. One of my favorite songs on the album was “Favor”. I really enjoyed how Baker harmonized with her background vocalists in this song.
During the audience question and answer segment, Baker spoke about the definition of “raw” in the context of music. In her previous albums, her music was mostly acoustic and did not have much production work. ‘Little Oblivions’ contains more production. When people describe music as “raw”, it could mean that they are speaking about the emotion of the work, or the unproduced quality of the work. Baker argues that music that does have more production work is not any less powerful or authentic as music that has little.
Graham Shaw - "Why people believe they can't draw"
#presentation
TED.com, Tuesday, March 23rd
I watched the TED talk, “Why people believe they can’t draw” by Graham Shaw. He begins his presentation by asking his audience if they believe they can draw. Most of the audience does not believe that they can draw, so he shows them how to draw a variety of simple cartoon faces. Through Shaw’s presentation, I learned that drawing can be a very important tool of communication. For example, he shows that a simple drawing of people in a boat could convey that “we are all in this together”. He also showed that drawing can help boost self-esteem. For example, he showed stroke survivors how to draw, which showed them that they are still capable of creating art, even if they have physical or mental limitations.
I found this presentation very inspiring. Through his work, Shaw is able to show people that their perceived incapability of completing a certain task can be completely wrong and that they can do many things that they have once thought that they could not do. I think that this can be applied to not only drawing but also to almost any skill. For example, I want to learn how to make music, but I have not tried yet because I thought that I just was not capable of it. However, with this new perspective, I have gotten from this presentation, I think I will try to start learning how to do so soon. The importance of using drawing to communicate ideas can connect to my major in computer science. Drawings could be used to better understand complex programming concepts. I also found this presentation similar to Arts Scholars events where we had guest speakers come in and teach us how to create art, such as the zentangle workshop.
Color Me, Stress Free
#visualart #ArtsScholars
Zoom, Friday, April 9th 2021
I went to the “Color me, Stress Free” Arts Scholars event. During this event, I was guided to color a mandala as a form of art therapy. We were asked to choose a word that describes our “happy place” at the beginning of the activity. I chose the word “safe”. We were then asked to use this word to guide how we colored our mandalas. I used pink and cool hues such as blue and purple to complete the task. I found the act of coloring the mandala very relaxing. I liked how I was able to color my mandala as I wished instead of having strict rules on how I should color it. I learned that taking my mind off of the stressors in my life and doing a simple activity such as coloring can be very rewarding as it is not stressful. I also found this event similar to the Zentangles workshop I completed during a colloquium in my first semester of Arts Scholars. I also learned that art therapy could help me relax when I feel burnt out by my computer science major classes. This experience has shown me that the creation of art, no matter how simple, can be beneficial for my mental health.
Tokyo Godfathers
#film
Saturday, April 24th, 2021
I watched the 2003 film, Tokyo Godfathers, directed by Satoshi Kon. It is a Japanese animated film about three homeless people living on the streets of Tokyo finding an abandoned newborn on Christmas Eve and going on an adventure to find her mother. I really enjoy the works of this director, and this movie was no exception. This film showed the lives of people living in Japan that are not are not typically represented in Japanese animated media, such as homeless people and immigrants. After watching this film, I am wondering how the artists were able to animate such expressive emotions in the characters. The animation in the film was very fluid and worked very well to add not only emotional value but also comedic value. I am also curious as to how Kon came up with the idea for the storyline from the book, The Three Godfathers, since it puts a creative and non-conventional twist on that story. I found this film unique because it put a comedic twist on many dark subject matters, but did it in a way that was respectful and humanized the characters. This has shown me that it is possible to make effective statements on serious subject matters in a comedic way if done respectfully. Overall, I really enjoyed this film and look forward to watching other movies in Kon’s filmography.
Pentathlon Fall 2021
News Subtitle
Maryland Night Live
#Theatre
Friday, September 17th, 2021
On Friday, September 17th, I attended Maryland Night Live, a Saturday Night Live inspired comedy show at the University of Maryland’s NextNow Fest. I really enjoyed the show because I am a big fan of SNL and try to catch every new episode as it is aired live. I was very impressed by how professionally the show was put together. The show included a live band that played in between sketches, along with two musical guests. They also had both live sketches and prerecorded ones. This event relates to how we have learned about the importance of collaboration and teamwork in Arts Scholars. Similarly to what I have observed and experienced when we have completed group projects, such as the podcast project, the organization of this event clearly required a significant amount of coordination and hard work in a team. There were many important details that had to be considered during the production of this show, such as music, lighting, sound, scriptwriting, and timing. Similarly, when completing the podcast project, we had different members of the group focusing on different aspects of the production of the final product, such as interviewing, recording, and artwork development. I thoroughly enjoyed my experience at Maryland Night Live and hope to attend another show in the future.
Pop Music Trivia
#Music
Friday, October 1st
I attended the Arts Scholars Pop Music Jeopardy event in the Bel Air lounge hosted by Asad, an Arts Scholars TA. I went with my roommate, Zosia, to this event. Through this event, I learned a lot of pop music trivia. For example, I learned that The Beatles are internationally renowned as the best-selling artists of all time. I also learned that Drake holds the record for number of digital copies of music sold. I think that playing games like Jeopardy is a good way to have a good time socializing with others, collect knowledge, and be more engaged in the world that we live in. If I were to do a workshop for my Capstone project, I could use games like this to teach my peers in a fun way. I also think that Jeopardy could be a useful and engaging study tool for the classes I have to take for my major. Studying in the traditional format can get monotonous. Adding a bit of competition and fun to a task that most consider to be boring or stressful can be beneficial to everyone who is involved. Overall, I enjoyed my experience at this Arts Scholar event and am looking forward to attending another.
AAB Open Mic Night
#Presentation #ArtsScholars
Friday, October 15th
On Friday, October 15th, I went to the Arts Advisory Board’s Open Mic Night. Many of my peers performed music, poetry, and comedy. These performances included songs of many different genres. For example, there was instrumental music, songs from media, and pop songs performed by students during the show. There were also multiple stand up comedy performances that were very entertaining. I found the poetry that one student performed to be very profound and meaningful. This event showed me the level of collaboration that students in Arts Scholars are capable of. The event was fully organized by my peers in Arts Scholars that are on the Arts Advisory Board. They rented the room, gathered supplies, and gathered performers. This event also showed me how talented many of my fellow Arts Scholars are. They showed a range of skills and talents during this event. I am interested in possibly participating in the next iteration of this event if there is one. I think that open mics are a good opportunity to showcase a skill that you are confident in. I think that all of the performers were very confident in their performances and I applaud them for using this opportunity to showcase their skills in front of other Arts Scholars.
100 Gecs
#Music
9:30 Club, Washington, D.C.
Friday, October 29th, 2021
On Friday, October 29th, I went to the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C. to see 100 Gecs perform. 100 Gecs is an electronic music group known for their experimental and unique sound. The show started with an opening set performed by Alice Gass, who used ecstatic sound paired with intense and electrifying visuals within the confined venue to unify and bring up the energy of the crowd. She achieved this purely by manipulating the mixer and equipment, not physically performing herself. I could feel the excitement in the room when Laura Les, from 100 Gecs started their dynamic set. The 100 Gecs performance included more physical movement and vocals, while maintaining the element of extremely intense visuals. This created a very disorienting effect for the audience, complementing the obscurity of their music style. In the midst of the set was a performance art exhibit, in which Gecs used drumsticks to violently bang on xylophones until the drumsticks were smashed into pieces. This intermission taught me that a concert does not need to be conventional to be considered music, and there are many unique ways to captivate an audience. I had fun seeing artists I love with my friends.
American Factory
Monday, November 22nd, Netflix
#Film
On Monday, November 22nd, I watched the documentary “American Factory” on Netflix, directed by Julia Reichert and Steven Bognar. It shows the story of how a Chinese automobile glass manufacturing company bought a defunct General Motors plant in Dayton, Ohio, making way for a merge between Chinese and American culture within that community. Fuyao, the auto glass company, hired employees from the surrounding area and also brought employees from China to the United States to work at that factory. There were many struggles, including miscommunications due to language barrier and differing work cultures. There was also a major battle between the American workers and the Chinese higher-ups due to the former wanting unionization. This film showed the importance of working together and trying to understand each other, even if there is a language barrier or cultural difference. This principle can and will apply throughout various experiences I have had and will continue to have in both my education and my career. This film also exhibits the importance of workers’ rights, especially within manufacturing jobs such as automotive glass production, especially due to the increasing amount of automation and decreasing wages in the field. I thoroughly enjoyed watching this film and hope to discover more like it.
Pentathlon Spring 2022
Hereditary
Sunday, February 7th, 2022
#Film
For my first Pentathlon event of the semester, I watched the arthouse horror film “Hereditary”, directed by Ari Aster and released in 2018. I was originally going to attend a concert for this event, but unfortunately, I contracted COVID-19 and was placed in isolation, so I could not attend and instead watched this film on Hulu. Despite the circumstances, I enjoyed watching this movie. I decided to watch Hereditary because I had enjoyed one of Ari Aster’s other horror films, “Midsommar”. I found the themes of the two films very similar, but Hereditary, in my opinion, had much darker tones and was more similar to the classic archetype of a horror movie. Aster’s use of confusing and out-of-place visuals at the beginning of the film, such as when one of the characters inexplicably beheads the body of a bird, create an ominous theme and foreshadow the frightening events that occur in the latter portion of the film. This film may not look like it would connect to my major, computer science, but I think it does in one major way. The attention to detail that Aster put in the direction and creation of the audiovisual elements of this film is inspiring to me, as I would also love to put a similar amount of attention to detail into my work for my computer science classes, as coding takes an extreme amount of detail-oriented work.
But I'm a Cheerleader
Sunday, February 27th, YouTube
#Film
For my second Pentathlon entry of this semester, I watched the 1999 film “But I’m a Cheerleader”, directed by Jamie Babbit. This film centers around a lesbian high schooler that is sent to a satirical depiction of conversion therapy. I really enjoyed watching this movie and seeing elements of the camp aesthetic being used to add ironic value to and essentially make fun of the concept of trying to convert gay people into being heterosexual. Conversion therapy can be a very heavy topic, especially since it is still an industry that exists today. I think that although this film depicts a lighthearted and comical version of conversion therapy, it still raises awareness of its existence and the harm that it can do. The humor in this film does not make gay people the punchline like many mainstream films do, but instead jokes about the outlandishness of conversion therapy. The attendees of the conversion therapy camp wear uniforms in colors that match their gender – blue for the boys, and pink for the girls – which ends up looking ridiculous and adds to how the filmmakers make fun of and question the authenticity of conversion therapy. Viewing this film has shown me that you can create art that is humorous but still tackles a heavy subject in an eloquent and inoffensive manner.
The Hysterics Show
Thursday, March 10th, 2022
#Theatre
For my third Pentathlon entry of the semester, I performed standup comedy with my group, the Hysterics. The Hysterics are an all-women and non-binary comedy group at UMD. I auditioned to join them last semester and finally had a chance to perform in their first in-person show since the beginning of the COVID pandemic. I was very nervous, but I think that I did very well. We were also only expecting our friends to show up, but many more people than we expected came to see our show. Due to the large workload that I have from my computer science classes, it was very difficult to find time to prepare my set for this show. Thankfully, I was able to find time to prepare and help the members of my group put on a good show. This event has helped me improve my time-management skills. It has also helped me learn how to put on a good comedy performance, since this was the first time I had ever done so in front of a live audience. I struggle with stage-fright and things like presentations where I have to stand up in front of a crowd and speak about something, so I think that this performance and future performances with the Hysterics will help me in overcoming this fear and becoming confident in myself when in front of an audience.
Drain Gang
Saturday, March 19th, 2022
Knockdown Center, Queens, NYC
#Music
For this Pentathlon entry, I went to Queens, New York, to a concert to see Drain Gang, a Swedish cloud rap group. During this show in particular, I saw members Bladee, Ecco2k, Thaiboy Digital, and Whitearmor perform. I found the show to be very entertaining. I am an avid concert goer and regularly attend shows. I have been very happy with the recent increase in the amount of live music performances available for audiences to attend, as I really missed going to them during the height of the pandemic. Although the audience was rambunctious, I was able to enjoy the artistry of the show. Each musician had their own solo performances, and then they all participated in their collaborative music. I feel like I can learn a lot about the importance of collaboration through this music group. Collaborative art is often overlooked, but is very important. In the Arts Scholars workshop that I am currently enrolled in, Creating Characters, I am given many opportunities to collaborate with my peers on pieces of artwork like character design or crafting stories, something I am not able to do often. I am also able to work on my own art pieces individually. I think that there is a lot of value in creating artwork both individually and as a team, and although the artwork that I create is very different from what Drain Gang creates, their process of creating art is admirable and something that I can apply to my own work and creative process.
Skribl.io
Friday, April 16th, 2022
Zoom
#VisualArt #ArtsScholars
For my final Pentathlon event, I went to the Arts Scholars Skribl.io session. Skribl.io is an online, competitive game where players take turns drawing a picture that represents a given word and the other players have to guess what word that picture represents. I played with other Arts Scholars over Zoom. I really like this game because of the competitive aspect and have played it many times with my friends, so I was happy to learn that this was something I could do for a Pentathlon event. I am also happy to say that I won the round that I played. Even though Skribl.io is a simple internet game, I think that it is a good example of art bringing people together. In the short period of time I took playing this game, I had fun and used my artistic skills to convey various words and themes that were assigned to me by the game. Art creating community is a main theme of Arts Scholars and I really did experience it throughout my time in the program. I have made many friends and connections and have used my time in the program to expand my knowledge of the arts even while most of my coursework has pertained to computer science and math.
