Finishing the topic of malls really made me happy because we get to start a new lesson. I learned many things about the mall. I’m so happy because our professor didn’t let us take the quiz anymore. If we did, I’m pretty sure I will have a hard time answering the quiz because I don’t get the lesson too well back then. Well, at least now I am confident that I’ll pass the quiz if ever she’s going to give us one.


Malls are place where people always go and have fun. There are malls which will suite rich people and poor people. Humans have already labeled these malls in different names and adjectives. For me malls really define who we are, by that, I meant that part of our personality is shown by the type of mall we go to.


There are different malls: for rich, middle class, and poor. For the rich ones it’s the one called greenbelt. It’s already a micro city which blinds them from the reality that there are still people who are in hunger. Middle class and poor people go to malls like SM because SM malls are for everyone. SM malls are made not to let other people be left out. They are made for everyone.


That’s why even the malls we go to can define part of our personality. It will always have its advantages and disadvantages. All we need to do now is accept every people even though are poor or illiterate because they deserve our respect. Let’s not be ignorant in the place we live in. Let’s be real.

We had only meeting this week due to the suspension of classes and our free cut for our project that’s supposed to be due last Friday. Well, I got my pictures for my project at SM mall of Asia. Well, it was fun and exciting to take those pictures. The discussion last Wednesday was good but not as good as the previous ones. I had a hard time understanding the reading because it was not in English though it’s okay because I get to practice my Filipino comprehension.


Well, I hope to finish our discussion this Monday so that we can move on to the next topic. I hope that this topic will help me understand why malls are very important in the history of our country. It’s our landmark already. And there are plans before that they want to make the Philippines the “shopping mecca.”

We talked about what is nudity and naked means. Nudity is a very complex term because it does not mean no clothes it means a lot more than that. Nudity always has spectator. It objectifies women. And it can also mean power. This is visible in western side of the world. Kings are fond of doing this so that they can let other kings look up to them. It affects the perspective of other men to women because they will only think that women are just for display or fun. They will never know that by doing that women are also hurt and underestimated. It brings no good to both sides. It only harms the other side which is the women.


We watched different nude pictures and paintings. And it helped me compare the women before and now. Women today are much more determined to show their body compared to the past. We compared the east and the west and I can conclude that those who are in the east are much more loyal than those who are in the west. Western people think of nude as power, strength and pleasure. While the eastern people think of it as love, loyal, and equality. It is very lucky to be here, because for me I am more eastern than western thinker. Because I really dislike people who love flaunting their body just to get attention. It is embarrassing to know that most women are like that. Well, since I am not a close minded person I don’t reprimand them for doing that because it’s their choice and they must be responsible if something bad is going to happen to them. I am really interested in this topic because I got to know the differences of being nude and being naked. I got to compare western people and eastern people.

We finished discussing Mona Lisa and we had a group work. It is to make a product or interpretation of Mona Lisa. We had fun doing that as a group we had two drawings because we have too many ideas of how can Mona Lisa be interpreted. After that we need to present what we drew and explain it to the class why we picked that idea. Well before that, we had a free cut last Wednesday because we need to visit the “faces and facets of life.” It’s not my first time to go to the gallery of DLSU but when I was there it was already different compared to the last time I went there. I picked the painting darkness because I love the way the painter painted it. It’s simple but very attractive. I viewed the painting as something like death was coming that’s why it’s painted with black. I also noted that I can see hope in the eyes of the man.


Talking about paintings, it’s really amazing to analyze paintings and relate it to my own life. In relating it to your own you see things differently. You sometimes see things that you never see before, because you’re too focused on one thing. For me I love being open minded because I get to understand what I usually don’t and I get to see different perspectives. It’s a positive effect on me but for some people it’s not. Well, for me it’s up to us how to make it a positive one.

Mona Lisa is such an enigmatic work of art by Leonardo da Vinci. It’s one of his master pieces because it interacts with the subject, it is very mysterious, and it arouses people to ask different questions. It’s a very interesting topic foe me because personally I also want to know who’s the lady on that painting or it is indeed Leonardo himself. There are many possible answers to that because almost everyone who knew Leonardo is making up a story of their own on who’s the woman. After reading what I researched I learned many things about Mona Lisa. I am very amazed to know that the technique used in painting Mona Lisa was sfumato, it is a strategy by making Mona Lisa glow. Leonardo paints a layer of transparent color so that it won’t have any lines when it’s finished. It will make the painting look more realistic. For the landscape behind Mona Lisa it is to represent natures which nurture life and Mona Lisa which gives life. It’s a very beautiful interpretation of the painting. Leonardo painted Mona Lisa in a triangular form to represent manhood, power, strength, and authority. In my opinion, analyzing such a complicated work of art really calls for time because you will never get the meaning of it in your fist glance. I had fun analyzing this painting because this is such a fascinating work of art. I’m looking forward to our next activity this coming Monday because it is something that will motivate us to think deeply.

"PICTURES"

it's been said that picture paints a thousand words, is it true?

are the evidences of a crime?

are the moments we are beautiful?

are the times when we're bored?

are the best moments in one's life?

simple questions that has always triggered me. why do we take pictures in the first place? can someone answer that for everyone? can someone have the answer for that question, that can be acceptable for everyone? what's the main purpose in taking a shot anyway?

personally, i love taking pictures anywhere even if it's not an important occasion as long as I'm with my love ones. before, i care so much about how i look when my picture is taken, but now i usually don't care. why? because it's the memory that's important, it's the story behind each shot. it's not the outcome, but what's behind it.

as we discussed about pictures i started realizing that I'm really thankful to the one who invented a camera. because i get to reminisce my past by looking at those pictures I've taken. i can't imagine the world without pictures. pictures that shaped and affected us.

pictures affected us in many ways: commercials, billboards, TV, and magazine. it helps us decide what to buy or what to like. sometimes it's really dependent on the outcome of a picture or commercial. there are pictures that will really caught your eyes.

for me, i love FASHION so much. and that involves a lot of pictures which advertises different kinds of dresses,tops, bottoms, and underwear. that's why they need to make a picture that can be considered as universal beauty or to be liked by everyone.

well, ending this blog of mine, i can safely say that pictures are not just a one sided topic. it still has it's other side which is the bad side of it. everything has it's positive and negative side and it's up to us what to choose.

This session is the continuation of our last session, we talked about lightning design until the narrative of the story. It was very productive because we get to finish everything.

It was said that low key lightning only illuminates small areas of the frame, which for me is used when the movie is sad. One example would be when Salvatore is in the bed with his so called girl only half of his face was illuminated which conveys a message that he is not the "real"Salvatore he was on that certain scene. Only part of Salvatore is showed which is why the director used that kind of lightning. For music, it's a very important aspect in a movie because it adds meaning and serve as a background filler. Personally, music is such a powerful factor in a movie, sometimes if a music does not coordinate well with the scene, the outcome will not be as beautiful if the music is related to the scene.

Editing is also one of the major components of film because without it you will not finish the film. It must create continuity, dramatic focus, tempo, mood, and control narration. In editing a film the editor must be good at it because it must produce certain characteristics which was mentioned in the first part of the paragraph.

Wrapping things up, a film is such a complicated fieldwhich is always viewed as an easy one, that is why some people wants to prove that being in a movie industry is not just any game any human could play.

In the film Cinema Paradiso, there are different camera positions/ angles that was used to emphasize a character. Here are some of the positions that was used, first was the close up, it was used in the scene where in Toto and Elena where kissing intensely. For me the director emphasized the kissing scene because it's been a long time since Toto and Elena have seen each other that's why the kiss was like, it's to tell us how much they missed each other during the times they were away from one another. Second example is low angle position, it was used when Toto is with Alfredo at the window watching the movie from outside. The camera was positioned low to make Toto and Alfredo look bigger and higher compared to the crowd below. I can really relate reality in this certain movie because as we can see the ending didn't end like the way we expected it. It ended so real, why? Because for me life is more biased than films.


In discussing the elements of cinema, it is said that when we are watching a certain movie, that movie will take us to another world, a world where we've never been to. Well, do all movies have the capacity to bring us to another world?


The activity we did before we started our class really overwhelmed me. At first, i really didn't get what we're suppose to find, but after a few minutes i started understanding what's the game all about. It is about language, communication, and understanding each other. In films, the director must be very good in expressing what he/ she wants to let the viewers understand, because if it is not that understandable then like the activity the viewers wouldn't understand the real meaning of the movie.


"How can we define what a good director is if each and every one of us has it's own view of what is good and bad?"

"Living here day by day, you think it's the center of the world. You believe nothing will ever change. Then you leave: a year, two years. When you come back, everything's changed. The thread's broken. What you came to find isn't there. What was yours is gone. You have to go away for a long time... many years... before you can come back and find your people. The land where you were born. But now, no. It's not possible. Right now you're blinder than I am. "

One of the famous lines used in Cinema Paradiso by Alfredo. It is really a beautiful line, a line that can really make viewers ponder profoundly. Just like what happened to me, it really affected me. It's not just some pick up lines because it is seen in reality. That quotation has also something more behind it if we will really read and think about it deeply. It is not just some kind of quotation. To summarize what i said, it is a line that stopped me and made me think about important things in my life.

We finished watching Cinema Paradiso last Friday, it was really beautiful, we discussed about doing our movie critic, i'm really excited about it because i get to watch another movie and then to learn how to critic a movie. We also watched the DLSU-Chamber at Teresa Yuchengco, they are soooo good, i really enjoyed watching them i love the instrument that sounded like water, it's so cool and unique, it's the first time i saw that kind of instrument. I also learned a lot about music, it's an advantage for me because i play the piano and i also sing. Watching them play as a group, really soothes my emotion, as they play i started thinking of what we did in our synchronize swimming last term because it is somehow related for me, to be part of the group you must really know each other's gesture so that you will know when to start or to stop without making any noise. Another thing, when i was in high school i also play in an orchestra which is why i know some of the basic background in being part of an orchestra. I hope to learn more about what art is all about.

This week in HUMAART we watched Cinema Paradiso, I've never even heard of that before, but it felt like that I already knew it. There's something in the movie that relates me to it. The first part of the movie was quite boring, but the rest wasn't. I enjoyed watching it because it really made me think about what will happen next or if Alfredo really died because of the fire. There are scenes that really caught my eyes because it was something unusual for me. One example was when the teacher is harassing the student because he can't answer the problem correctly. For me, it was so wrong to do that to a child because it can damage him physically and mentally. Overall I really like the movie.

Toto is the kid who loves helping Alfredo in making the projector work. Toto is such a diligent and bright kid, he worked his way in being the new guy who's in charge of the projector. He did what he wanted to do even if there are many hindrances and barriers to it. That's why I can relate to him, because for me I believe that we have the right to do what we want to pursue in life as long as we don't hurt anyone along the way.

The first week of this art class gave me an overview of what to expect to this class. At first, i really didn't know that HUMAART is an art appreciation class even though it was obvious. when i first heard that it was an art class i was a bit nervous because i'm not a creative person that's why i don't like art classes, not that i don't like art itself, i know how to appreciate it but i don't know how to create one. We discussed about how to know if it's an art or not, i really surprised with it because since elementary i didn't know that it has to pass some kind of qualities to be called art, at least now i know. I really like this class because we interact well as a class. It's a two way relationship. I also learned a lot from the graded recitation because it widened my knowledge about how other people define what art is. Even if this section is not a block section we as a class is going along very well.

The presentation of the dingbats really amazed me. It really triggers my mind to think of the answers very well. For the 7up game, it is really fun and enjoyable because as everyone was having fun we get to review our math skills. The comic presentation really astonished me. It's really attention-grabbing because of the different ways to present a comic yet the same meaning.

Wrapping things up, i really enjoyed every session we are having in this class primarily because every session teaches me something new, something that i never though i could ever learn in an art class. I am also happy because our professor is someone who is very approachable especially when you have a problem about her class. I hope to learn more in our other seesions.