Performed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Urban Bush women displayed African American culture and traditions as well as the struggle that came with African Diaspora, migration of Africans to America and later on to the world, through expressive dance performances. For many members of the audience like me, it was difficult to understand the story of the dance performance.  Only in the end did I realize that there was no plot. Without sufficient introduction in the beginning of the performance, Urban Bush women confused its audience.

Instead of focusing on the theme of the performance, I decided to look at the dancers, persuading myself that it was not as dull as it seemed. Penetrating on the struggle of many Africans, the facial expression of the dancers matched the tension of African descendants, battling to accept the heritage and adjust to the new culture. For the most part of the performance, individual performances weren’t as fluent as group performances. The female dancers were often times too dramatic in their interpretations of the meaning of tension. To show internal conflict, the female dancer did not have to show the contortion of arms and wild movements.

Though I felt I was exposed to a different genre of dancing performance, the Urban Bush Women did not affect me. I would recommend the dance performance to people who wanted to see the dance techniques. But the theme of the performance was no where to be found.

The theme of my collage is childhood. Though I came to America when I was 11 years old, I still have fresh memories of my childhood in China. What I remember the most was the old culture of China that helped to shape the person I am today, especially my elementary school. Separated from my parents, I lived in the city alone for the four years before I came to America.

In my collage, I chose to include the old Chinese reading textbook used for elementary school students. Though the textbooks today have become more standardized, the textbooks I used were artistic and more descriptive of the learning topics. The old textbooks also served as communist propaganda because most of the topics in them were memoirs of soldiers who sacrificed their life during the Chinese revolution. The old textbooks also included a fabricated role model “Lei Fun” who was used to promote philanthropy. I also had a multi-functional pencil box that had a pencil sharpener, erase, mini calculator, and ruler. I remembered that I purchased one of those on the collage for one yuan.

Pledging to be loyal to the party and reciting the little handbook, I was among many of my classmates who were granted the right to wear the red neck scarf. The red scarf symbolized the first time I was labeled as a communist. I hated the red neck scarf because I would always lose it. I bought a hundred of them over the course of three years in elementary school. We also had a bureaucracy in school, where everyone was in the same class until graduation. For every month, a group of ten students were required to present a theme on the blackboard, placed in the back of the classroom. I was assigned to write all the Chinese characters on the blackboard, though later on I was criticized for my rusty penmanship. Though I was timid in class, I would be punished by my teachers and told to write a sentence 100 times after school.

In leisure time, I would play marbles with my classmates. While the students today are more occupied with their electronic devices, my classmates and I never were more involved in physical activities such as badminton. The cotton candy in the collage was worth approximately 5o fen  It was inexpensive and the seller never needed extra customers because it was popular around school.

All these memories from elementary school in China are permanent reminders to me that I lived a life which many people today in America have never experienced.

Vincent's collage

When I envisioned the two words “Cultural Encounters,” what came to mind was the metaphor often used to describe America – the melting pot of all cultures. What better way to represent a country than its flag? I took a more direct method in going about replicating this melting pot; I wove together the American flag using tidbits of other cultures throughout the world, resulting in a flag, while unique in its design, is very much the flag that I grew up to love, that is, the United States of America.

Originally, I was going to attempt the flag replication using different ethnic foods, but I abandoned that idea because I thought basing the spirit of America solely on food would not have been the best representation. Instead, I opted to use a variety of different cultural components: national flags, common everyday clothing, and cultural foods, anything that identified with a specific culture. In addition, I wanted to throw in some element of the Olympics as a reference to the global unity of cultures, hence the Olympics logo in the bottom right. There is also a poem written by Karen Lynn Vidra which I decided to throw in the mix because the last line particularly jumped out at me: “the world, as one, will win.”

I asked for some feedback from my peers, and none seemed to recognize my collage as the American flag. I associate this to the fact that my “stripes” are not all horizontal. The seven vertical “stripes” was an idea I ultimately used because having them go horizontally would’ve made them appear very much distorted. Furthermore, the large space in the bottom right is the final thirteenth “stripe,” an idea that none of my peers recognized.

I tried to stay true to America’s red, white and blue, in that I used components that were color specific to the original flag – red for red, white for white, blue for blue. While the collage might first appear as a rainbow-turned flag, each piece of culture will eventually show off its distinctions. However, it is those exact distinctions that help draw us together. It’s like making soup, we have all these different ingredients that contribute to an overall taste, and if we miss one ingredient, we don’t have the same soup; if we miss one culture, we don’t have the same America.

{slight technical difficulty. just turn your computers 90 degrees}

I like to make pretty things
Involving sharp teeth and butterfly wings
There is a scene of a lovely girl
Blowing balloons around the world
From the picture fantasy sings

All throughout our world vandalism can be found almost anywhere.  We may have to look a little harder and dig a little deeper, but no matter what anyone tells you, vandalism is always around.  Whether it is graffiti on the wall of the corner drug store or defacing a park bench, vandalism is a crime that has been plaguing places all over the world for years.  This crime can be especially seen in the five boroughs of New York.  Living and growing up in Staten Island, I wanted to focus on the ever-growing problem of vandalism around my home.

When I first began my photo-hunting expedition, I struggled with finding a theme to photograph.  Then, all of a sudden, this idea of photographing vandalism soon came to mind.  As a little boy growing up in a condominium complex riddled with graffiti and broken swing sets and slides, I was never allowed to play outside.  I never experienced the park literally less than a block away from my own home.  The slides were always damaged and the swings unsafe and full of graffiti.  At such a young age, I didn’t truly understand why I was never allowed to play there but I always wanted to.  I figured this topic of vandalism would be a perfect Street Photography theme, since I have much experience with it.  I don’t want this assignment to come off that I live in a terrible neighborhood.  My parents are hard working Americans that only want the best for their children, but sometimes it is impossible to escape acts of vandalism.  As it was previously stated, vandalism is everywhere whether you live in the apartment complex down the street or the most expensive house on a private street.

The photographs that I chose to take each have its own special meaning and message in it.  I wanted to show not only the large, obvious signs of vandalism, but the small, less noticeable ones as well.  My goal was to educate the public that vandalism is something that has been around for a long time and doesn’t seem to be going anywhere.  My tactic for finding vandalism was driving around in my car with my camera ready to shoot.  Surprisingly I actually found some great spots on my first photo shoot.

I wanted to capture the vandalism that hit very close to my home as a child.  I started my expedition a mere fifty yards away from my front door.  As I previously mentioned, there is a small park designed for young children.  Sadly the teenagers that resided within the vicinity of the park felt it was necessary to destroy swings and slides for amusement.  The few pictures I took of the park truly show the devastation that vandalism had on my condominium development.  After I was satisfied with the pictures around my home, I hit the road in order to find examples of vandalism a little further away.  My friend agreed to help me with the project in that he would drive and I would take pictures of whatever I felt would help me reach the goal I was trying to achieve.  Red lights gave me the opportunity to snap still photos of graffiti all over Staten Island.  When we stopped for a dinner break at Outback Steakhouse, I was shocked to see the amount of vandalism in the parking lot.  One picture I captured shows an upside down handicap parking sign.  This just goes to show that there are some people on this world that don’t have respect for the elderly and disabled.  It is bad enough these people are at a disadvantage, but now they have to get embarrassed.  One thing that had me worried was what I looked like taking all of these pictures on Staten Island.  Ever since September 11th 2001, people have become especially weary of what is going on around them.  I wondered to myself if I looked like a terrorist taking pictures in order to plan an attack.  Yes, it is a terrible thought, but it makes sense and I even received a few dirty looks.  I didn’t bother to attempt to explain that it was a project for school.  The people would not have believed me.

There is one photo, the last one in my Microsoft Powerpoint presentation, that signifies what has to be done to stop this growing problem of vandalism in Staten Island and all of New York.  I titled the photograph “Stop and Stare” because that’s exactly what needs to be done.  People and police of Staten Island have to stand up against these vandals and put an end to this epidemic.
This street photography project not only has helped me to become a better photographer and enhance my originality, it has also given me a newfound respect for real photographers like Jeff Mermelstein and Susan Meiselas.  I can only imagine the looks of disgust and disapproval they receive each and every day they take photographs.  They do it because they love their occupation and they are truly artists behind a camera.

I titled my collage “The Cage” because I feel that there are two different parts to me. This duality is demonstrated by my mixed use of media and dimensions. I choose first off to put a set of red lips the same proportions as mine. I feel that they are literally the feature that stands out the most in mean and I betray most of my emotions by twisting and scrunching them up by turns. I choose a woodcarving I made to symbolize my ability to create something beautiful out of a simple block of wood using my hands and a chisel. It serves as a pedestal of sorts for my lips as my creativity holds up my sensitivity. 

I choose to include a packet of “sazon goya”, chamomile tea and a basil leaf as a tribute to my Hispanic heritage and personality, both spicy and calm. I have a blue triangle on the bottom to represent the stability that I hope to attain. I have a band of iron to symbolize my strength and my straight back. This hold up the “Calm” Tea in a paradox of sorts. The virgin Mary is included because I am in the process of trying to connect and relate to religion. A print of a set of eyes from Sweeney Todd is right above my lips because so much emotion can be revealed from the eyes. They are the portal to the soul. I included a plastic surgical glove to thrust its fingers out from the cage bars symbolizing my desire to attain some measure of freedom. The bars aren’t very strong in fact they are made of a very luxurious chenille and lace. They hold back but hold everything together. 

Finally the background is a combination of only three colors, platho blue, alazarin crimson and goldenrod acrylic paint. It is my reference to my most recent, and I believe final, artistic love, painting. By mixing these three closely primary colors and components so many permutations of color and shape were made. This is my maturity and my mutability.

Sorry, but the burned version wasn't registering in the scanner

A supposedly wise man had once said, “What makes any endeavor worthy of pursuit is not that it will uphold our original prejudices but that it will enlighten us.” I often limited that ideology to science, which I considered to be the only field where such drastically different results could be yielded.  After having done this project, however, I believe that one’s worldly prejudices can be just as easily changed with genuinely insightful thinking.
When I first started working on this collage project, I intended to address the social gaps that have forever plagued our economy and are now becoming more and more pronounced.  The phenomenon is rather simple:  whenever the economy does extremely poorly, the poor and semi-rich are driven to the ground while the elite, or the richer of the rich, are driven further into the skies.  As I was working on somehow adapting my collage to represent this theme, I came across a picture of a businessman looking absolutely horrified.  In his eyes, I saw the same insecurity for the future that people often associate with poverty.  It is no surprise that such expressions are now commonplace, seeing as how the bloody marauding and pillaging that now occurs at Wall Street leaves no one unscathed.  What was surprising was that I started to see further similarities.  When I saw an athlete in celebration, there were people next to him celebrating just as much.  When I saw poor people trying to recollect pieces of their lives in the midst of destruction, they had that same fear and anger on their faces that the businessman did.  When I saw a model, I realized that she was nothing were it not for the people who would try to emulate her look.  When I saw a cartoon mocking the loss of a sports team, I realized that such losses could mean an end to their career, which leaves them worth just as much as those people struggling to survive.  While the relationship may change from time to time, what’s certain is that neither side’s concerns are less real or terrifying than the others.
To complement this symbolic kinship, I eliminated all color from the picture and kept one standard color scheme throughout the collage.  I then created a schism using that very color scheme so as to make obvious just how self inflicted these differences are.  I also kept the copy slightly off-center, so that the white background can keep the white to black levels fairly even.  Finally, to give this a timeless feel, I used fire to burn the edges of the paper and dipped it in tea to give it an old feel.
What’s most depressing is that, despite such similarity, neither side particularly likes the other:  the rich see the poor as what they don’t want to be and the poor see the rich as what they should be.  If we were only content with our place in the world, there would be no reform, but no contempt either.

There is a circle of American pictures and items placed around the center of my heart. Around the circle of American items, I have another circle of Chinese items. I purposely positioned my collage this way because I feel that I am closer to American culture than to Chinese culture. The shape of my entire collage is of a circle because of the shape of the symbolic ying-yang to represent peace and the unity of both cultures incorporated into my identity.

Although I was born here, the presence and habits of my family remind me of my roots – of where I come from. My family is very traditional and possesses qualities of the stereotypical Asian family. Every weekend, my aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents gather and wait in crowded and bustling dim sum restaurants to hopefully grab a table big enough to seat everyone, hence the pictures of dim sum, tea, food, and chopsticks. Meanwhile, every Sunday, my family and I make it a habit to eat an American dinner like pizza. Clothes also differ between the cultures. Although as a child I have been forced to wear the traditional bright red clothing, I have only agreed to it once. However, I do admire the beautifully detailed dresses and elaborate ch’ang-p’ao’s that women wore in ancient China. We celebrate holidays like Christmas and Thanksgiving, holidays that my parents have come to adopt, and Chinese New Year, a holiday I always look forward to.

Despite the differences in holidays, clothes, food, and language, I still embrace both American and Chinese values as en entity. Like the ying-yang, both cultures mesh into one to create my identity and overcome my very own cultural encounter.

When I first sat down to put my collage together, I wanted to choose images that represent the way people see me.  Swimming would have been predominant, but beyond that I couldn’t think of anything else to put on it.  After deliberating for a long time, I decided to narrow the focus of my collage to represent things in which I believe.  I figured people see me all the time, but my beliefs are very rarely seen.

The bright orange text that reads, “Change is inevitable.” undoubtedly attracts the viewers attention first.  The strength of the text and its contrast from the background symbolizes very well how strongly I believe in change.  Simply being thrust into a new environment like college, with new people, will cause change in a person.  Even if you can’t feel or see it, the way people act changes you.  The things people say, can change you in the smallest ways.  Even though the Good/Evil meter points to evil, I believe that the person to which it refers can change and make the meter read “Good.”

The next objects that succeed in grabbing the viewer’s attention are probably the numbers 1, 2, 3.  They are deliberately not arranged in a triangle to represent the lack of stability that we face in life.  Everything is uncertain.  Nothing lasts forever.  The numbers 1, 2, and 3 represent the rules by which I live my life: 1. When you make a promise, keep it.  2. Anything at all for the one you love.  3. Don’t ever stop.  These rules, however, are not set in stone and are subject to change.  At any moment, something can happen to change me and I can decide that promises are not important.

The Chinese character is my last name, Wong.  Literally translated, it is the color yellow.  In ancient China, yellow was the imperial color – only the emperor could wear that color.  Now, it’s one of the most common Chinese surnames in the world.  Even the world changes, eventually.

Finally, I placed a series of buildings merging with the top of the forest to represent humanity’s shift from rural villages to urban centers.  The mechanical spider represents humanity’s progress towards a more tech-oriented society.  In the future, I believe that society will be extremely dependent on technology.  Things that we can’t even imagine right now will be possible.  The world will not be the same.  People will not be the same.  Change is inevitable.

            I knew, even before I started, that for my project to have any effect at all, I had to show a multitude of areas. I knew that I would have success on major avenues with construction activity because many of these ads are found on the temporary walls of construction sites. The ones that instantly came to mind were 6^th (Avenue of the Americas), 5^th, and Broadway. To show a little diversity I knew that I should also go over to the West side around 10^th and 11^th. I also knew that it would be wise to really vary my pattern by going downtown by the Bowery. I also knew that I should vary how I took the pictures. I would take some shots in which the whole length of the ad wall would be capture and then I would take others that were close ups of individual sections. I did not want to have the same shot every time. I had to make sure to vary how I took them because more often than not the ads would be the same and I ran the risk of being repetitious.

            As I began to walk around Manhattan snapping pictures of entire walls of ads I found myself realizing how often I actually see these without actually registering that they are there. I found walls with the same ads repeated multiple times in blocks. The walls were completely saturated with advertisements for one thing or another, whether it was a new movie or an upcoming concert. I also discovered that these same advertisements were repeated throughout the city. It was staggering to fully comprehend just how many of these ad walls there are. I also made sure to find a few shots of those construction sites that did not want ads posted along their walls. They would have signs imprinted that would say “Post No Bills”. I wanted to document clearly that not every company or organization wanted to be conduits for mass advertising.

             Throughout my quest to locate these obtrusive displays of advertising, I saw that many people simply ignore them and I am among these people. At the same time I understood that the goal is not necessarily to hope that people will notice one specific ad, but to blanket the city in them so that by sheer force of numbers people would have to pay attention sooner or later. The reason that I chose this topic was because I realized that it is an every day part of life, but one that goes largely unrecognized. More often than not, I will not even notice that they are there but eventually through repeated encounters it registers in my head and that is the whole point of this tactic. I wanted to show that, for good or bad, these advertisement walls are a part of our everyday lives.

             As I traipsed around Manhattan, I discovered that I enjoyed snapping shots of city life. I liked the idea that I was documenting something that is tangible and real. I believe that this project has given me a better appreciation for photography as an art. I now understand the thrill that a photographer gets from snapping a shot and realizing that it is his or her ideas that made that unique view of real life possible. Photography is something that I have discovered that I have an interest in and I hope to pursue it later in life. One thing is for certain; I will never look at another advertisement wall the same way again.