Author: Jiwon :3

Reading Respose

Below are some of the quotations/phrases from the reading that stuck with me and my reflection/thought of them:

  1. “humanize medi-cine” – I associated the term humanization with ‘personification,’ and personification to my knowledge is a literary term people use when an object (or non-human things) are given human traits, such as a giving a rock a name, personality, or even maybe a detailed family history. When I read the phrase “humanize medicine,” I thought of something similar — allowing medicine to have space for ‘traits’, personalities, backgrounds, etc.. Letting there be a story and experience to coexist with modern medicine would be a great progress towards liberating the ridigity of modern medicine.
  2. “Narrative deals with experiences” – experiences over ‘facts.’ why do we attempt to make things ‘factual,’ ‘objective,’ and third person pov? What makes any of these traits more ‘true,’ and why are emotions and subjective experiences seen as something ‘bad’ and ‘wrong’? 
  3. “Storytelling…sinks the thing [being represented] into the life of the storyteller, in order tobring it out of him again. Thus traces of the storyteller cling to the story the waythe handprints of the potter cling to the clay vessel” – i loved this expression, especially the handprint part. My mom used to have a pottery studio, and she would bring me into the studio. My mom and I would make clay pottery together, and I would watch the clay mold in my hands, depending on the pressure, height, shape, and arrangement of my hands. I think this metaphor just shines light into how narrative medicine can do for its readers: we resonate and percieve them, rather than simply ‘understanding’ the informations listed. A narration is being told, rather than being listed as bullet points. I think it’s cherishable and beautiful that narrative medicine builds a bridge between medical literature and its readers. It truly invites the readers to share, percieve and slowly digest every second of the experience being told.

Week 9 – Rachel and Jiwon

Link: 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/14Klduuyiz0SLlXSSJWZEyxFzrwO-BaRF/view?usp=share_link

Description:

This project is about two characters, Jenny and Jacob, who is having a rocky relationship due to Jacob’s poor communcation skills. It’s shown in first person perspective (Jenny’s phone), and the viewer is able to see how Jacob texts her throughout the day. 

The story begins from 10am, when Jenny wakes up from her sleep and checks her phone. Realizing that she has not received a text from Jacob since last night, she feels angry, which is portrayed by the color red. 

We used colors to convey what Jenny was feeling throughout the day. Her emotions change depending on the type of texts she recieves from her boyfriend Jacob, and this is clearly visualized in color displays of her phone. 

Though no facial expression is shown to show how Jenny feels, we thought that the audience could be ‘trained’ to understand colors as emotions in this narrative. We believe that this is possible with repetition and context clues: audiences can see how Jacob’s messages and behavior directly affects the colors displayed, and since this is repeats throughout the performance, the audience can make a connection (kind of similar to how audiences can connect the dots between different panels of a comic, though the two panels may not be a direct cause-and-effect pictures).

The following are the breakdown of what each color means:

  • red – angry 
  • orange – surprised
  • yellow – happy 
  • green – peaceful
  • blue – sad
  • indigo – bored
  • purple – sleepy

Each of these emotions also presents itself in different time stamps, which are indicated in the performance. 

Code:

We began by experimenting with the in-class code example from class:  Broadcast Text: TextBox, TextReceive. 

We did not alter the sender end of the code, but we tweaked the code in the recieving end so that once a specific data has been sent, it would change the reciever’s environment. 

EX)

socket.on("message", function (data) {
console.log(data);
fill(0);
text(data,width/2,height/2);

if (data == "hello") {
ellipse (50,50,50,50);

fill (255,0,0);}

Once this worked, we decided to have specific inputs change the color of the background: 

socket.on("message", function (data) {
console.log(data);
fill(0);
text(data,width/2,height/2);

if (data == "red") {
a = 200;
b = 0;
c = 0;
} if (data == "orange") {
a = 255;
b = 165;
c = 0;
} if (data == "yellow") {
a = 255;
b = 255;
c = 0;
} if (data == "green") {
a = 0;
b = 255;
c = 0;
} if (data == "blue"){
a = 0;
b = 0;
c = 255;
} if (data == "indigo") {
a = 75;
b = 0;
c = 130;
} if (data == "purple"){
a = 160;
b = 32;
c = 240;
}
});

edited code for the project – https://editor.p5js.org/jiwonyu/sketches/b87we9vgz

(sending code is the same from class).

We also decided to add hearts into the sketch to incorporate another visual metaphor. The various types of hearts represnt the rhythm/tempo of heartbeat Jenny experiences throughout her day, which is dependent on her emotions. Furthermore, as Jenny gets tired and sleepy towards the end of the performance, all of the hearts disappear, representing the decrease in her her attachment and feelings towards Jacob. 

Script:

Below is the script we used to create this performance. It has the cues that we needed, time stamps, as well as the narrations (that is not explictly told in the story). 

script –https://docs.google.com/document/d/1y8bqoCxkdMcrwevQ5i1WtiOiKTwELJwsXw9Bu8514aA/edit

Additionally, we used Premier Pro to edit the screen recording. We added narration via text for a more natural story telling.

Reflection:

  • Having a script helped us organize our thoughts. It’s helpful to just write everything down and digesting them by bits.
  • similarly, figuring one thing at a time and making a mess first. 

 

Week 8

viewer to viewer relationship within a cinematic experience was something that I had not refelcted upon, though I had definitely been affected by it before. 

I remember when I watched parasite with my mom at the movie theater when it first came out. I had definitely felt a level of awe by entering the room full of American (mostly white), when it was a Korean movie being aired. As two Koreans in Indiana, watching a a Korean movie get aired in an American theater + watching a Korean movie with American people felt very shocking, where as this would’ve been normal if we were watching the Movie in Korea. I felt like a part of this group, yet I also felt ailenated (which was a weird feeling, since I was watching a Korean movie, and I largely identify myself as Korean) because we were visibly the only East Asian viewers in the theater. I had felt a sense of stress and uneasiness in this situation. I had kept asking myself, “would these people understand the cultural, historical, societal context of this Korean movie? How would the language barrier work?” 

I definitely feel like I would’ve experienced the movie differently if I was in Korea, watching the movie with a large group of Koreans born in Korea. 

As the movie went on, the sex scene definitely felt a little weird to watch with my mom. In our family (and largely in our culture), sexual topics were almost taboo and were not openly discussed. Therefore, watching a sex scene with my mom made me focus more on my mom, not the movie. I kept thinking to myself, ‘is mom as uncomfortable as I am?’

Reading this chapter helped me isolate the different types of variables of the viewers that might contribute to the Audience Effect: 

  1. race 
  2. history 
  3. culture 
  4. relationships within the audiences – strangers, friends, family, significant others, etc.. 
  5. space (where you are located within the movie theater — front, middle or back?) 
  6. gender

though this list is by no means a complete list of attributes, these points were interesting to reflect upon. 

Furthermore, I really thought the concept of “anonymous others” (page 20) was an interesting concept: some examples of anonymous others is when one watches a film “in (semi-)public spaces such as trains, buses, or airplanes. These co-present otherse hae effects on the film expereince as well.”

The inclusion of “anonymous others” in the definition of audience definitely widened my perspective on what may count as a ‘movie theater’ and who counts as being part of a cinematic experience.  I now see that the person next to me in the train who is watching my screen very obviously mayt be part of the ‘audience’ to my cinematic experience. I had always percieved this person as an intruder of my experience, but upon the realization that there is the ‘anonymous others,’ I seem to be more welcoming of this person to my experience. 

Lastly, I was slightly confused on the difference between “an epistemic and ontological” definition of the word “subjective” that was explained on page 15. 

Week 7

Explain what tone, mood, or concept you have, how you use the light, What type of light source you have, and If there is a timing cue, how did you time it? Any success? Is anything not as planned? What did you observe?

I wanted to try something more experimental. I wanted to do a perspective that is often not used, which is the from the foot angle. I also tried taping my phone to the ceiling and filming how I move my body laying down, but my phone fell after a few seconds and I got too scared to try again. 

I’ve always liked this ‘from the foot’ angle; I remember always trying to draw someone walking in this angle when I was young, but the perspective ratio was so difficult to draw, I always ended up not finishing the sketch. With this exercise however, I thought I could gain a better understanding of such perspective by being the direct object of the video. 

I also wanted to induce a scary/bizarre/eerie mood with the shoot. To achieve this, I turned all the lights off and only had my flash light on (directly from the camera). I also made sure there was minimal eye contact between the object (me) and the camera. I almost wanted myself to look like a huge titan walking around. 

I do wish I had extra hands to do this project; I had to do it alone because I was traveling for spring break. With more people in the project, manipulating lights would have been much easier and actually possible to achieve. I would love to try moving the light around the body/face to capture the different details, textures, and skin of one’s body.

Week 7

“comics … are ideal for exploring taboo or forbidden areas of illness and healthcare” – reminded me of a conversation I had in one of my classes, Critical Experiences, where we talked about how mediums change what is possible to discuss in a project. 

In this discussion, we talked about film v.s. animation. I talked about how in animations (like Rick and Morty), theres a sense of gap between the animation’s world and the ‘real world.’ With this chasm, animations can be more gross visuallyithout the audience feeling too uncomfortable. For exmple, in animation, one may see a person’s head getting chopped off by a saw knife, but as long as it’s in a unrealistic style (or cute), the audience wouldn’t mind it as much as watching a real person’s head getting chopped off in a film. 

Similarly, comics serve as a great tool to discuss a ‘taboo’ subject because there’s a sense of gap between the story and the reader. This is further discussed in chapter 5 of the reading: comics can “control the distance betwenn the author and the reader.” 

Furthermore, I really liked the concept of making the invisible visible in narrative medicine. By creating “their own iconography of illness” and their experiences, their visual stories become so unique because no one experiences something in a same way. 

This was especially true when Dahl’s comics were shown in the readings. The one that I thought was the most powerful was the depiction of a person with herpes. 

Before seeing the images, when thinking of someone with herpes, I focused on the disease itself. I put emphasis on what herpes was — what it looked like, the cause of it, how it can spread, etc.. I also often found myself labeling herpes into a more negative category than it had to be; it felt like a relevation when I read that herpes, at the end, are just another “skin rash.” For some reason, hearing that phrase really changed my view point and snapped me back to see herpes in a different light. 

Then, Dahl’s comics truly enhanced the shifting of my perspective on herpes. They made me realize that with the disease, there is someone who expereinces that illness. 

Dahl’s comics were so powerful in their depiction of what someone with herpes might feel like. It was something I’ve never witnessed before; narrating someone’s perspective with herpes was truly something that was so underlooked and seen as ‘unimportant’ in today’s society. The comics made me self-reflect a lot on my past assumptions and made me realize that narrating experiences are so underrepresented & underappreciated by the society’s emphasis on ‘objectiveness’ and ‘properness’ of an illness. 

Week 5

This project is about my experience with my mother, which occurred on Sunday October 31st, 2021. 

It was a peaceful day. It was my first year in New York City, and I had no plans on Halloween but to go church at 4pm. 

The church that I went to was in Koreatown, and I lived in Brooklyn. The commute would take about 30 minutes, which felt a bit long to me, but I was just thankful that I could use public transportation (because I cannot drive or bike). 

I was wearing my favorite jacket too — a brown suade Veronica Beard Jacket with tassels:

After service, I walked through Koreatown to get to 34 St-Penn Station to ride the 2 train back to Clark st. 

There were a lot of people in Koreatown that day. Especially with a popular show like Squid Game that premiered in the same year, many people were dressed up as Squid Game characters and walking around Koreatown. I looked around, enjoying the scenary as I people watched. I do remember, though, that it smelled so terribled in Koreatown that day. 

I stood in between Broadway and W 32nd St. I was waiting for the pedestrain lights to turn green. ‘Another fun day to remember in New York City,” I thought. 

I came home, I didn’t know what to do. 

I called my mom. That was the only option I had. She would know what to do. She would know what to say. 

“You should’ve been more careful.”

“You were probably wearing revealing clothes.” 

Those were the words I needed to hear.

3 minutes and 18 seconds passed. 

I couldn’t sleep that night.

Week 3

Setting an alarm before bed: 

  1. getting onto bed- I have a higher rise bed, so I need to really use my entire body to get on (more so ‘jump onto’) my bed. I use both my legs and arms to do this part. 
  2. I then lay down on my stomach, which requires my entire body to rotate. I use my arms to assist myself.
  3. I reach for my phone, which is sitting on my bed stand. I do this my using my right arm. 
  4. I grab my phone, which is done by using my right hand and its fingers. 
  5. I bring back the phone closer to my face. I use my arms to do this, and I use my eyes to to look at my phone. 
  6. I tap by phone. I use my right thumb to do this. 
  7. I slide up and press my four digit passcode. I use my right thumb to do this. 
  8. I find my clock app with my eyes and click it using my right thumb. 
  9. I scroll through the list of alarm I have. I use my eyes and right thumb to do this.
  10. I turn on my 7am alarm with my right thumb. 
  11. I turn on sound on my phone with my left hand. 
  12. I lock my phone with my right hand. 
  13. I put the phone down next to my pillow using my right arm. 
  14. I rotate my body so that my back is on my bed. I use my entire body, especially the torso, for this movement. 
  15. I put my head back onto my pillow. I use my neck to do this.
  16. I close my eyes. I use my eyelids for this.

Week 2

I decided to study Matt Romein’s In Triplicate performance for this week’s assignment:

https://matt-romein.com/in_triplicate/.

The performance begins by Romein laughing. Though the piece itself is very abstract, I thought the performance followed the three act structure. The laughing in the beginning serves as an introduction to the piece. Romein is immediately giving the audience what the performance is going to be like: non-verbal and abtract. If Romein started the performance by talking in English,  the audience would expect Romein’s performance to have linear logicality. 

Then, Romein seems to break his character and shouts a sentence, which seem to be a monologue shouting (video time stamp 1:05). This breakage of character throws off the audience, and this serves to create tension. This is where Romein’s performance enters Act 2, where there is a rising actions and the stakes get high. Romein’s aggresive emotions displayed with the dynamic of his voice and his facial expressions definitely create a conflict (combined with his usage of the word ‘fucking’ to emphasize his anger). The tensity of the performance continues to build; at 2:14 time mark, the arch is at its peak with the sounds Romein creates with his voice and as well as his facial expressions. 

This peak is where the performance enters Act 3 (‘crisis’). From this point onward, the piece is at falling action slope, reaching to the resolution/ending. Romein also marks a clear ending to his performance by turning off the lights at where he was standing and walking to the middle of the stage. 

Though the method Romein chose to narrate his story was abstract (medium was non-conventional), I thought his story arch itself followed the three act strucutre. There was a strong emotional appeal in In Triplicate, which was heavily visual and auditory. 

I also thought that the lighting of the staging was very meaningful; the entire venue was blacked out except where Romein was standing and the projected screen, which completely let the attention to be completely focused on where there was light. There was also a very clear connection between Romein as the performer and the screen, which was portrayed through the spacial concept of the performance. Romein being right next to the projected screen helped the audience see both elements in one shot (instead of having turn around or look around), which aided the audience to see the two elements as a whole/group. 

 

Week 1

Content Warning!: Blood

 

This was a visual reflection of this week’s reading. To be honest, the readings were a lot to take in, and I did not find myself articulating and pin pointing specific thoughts and comments. Therefore, I thought a visual reflection of how I felt was the most accompanying method I could use. This illustration attempts to show the idea of an ’embodied story.’ It shows identities within their bodies getting erased in lots of medical narratatives; who’s story does it become once an individual’s identities are stripped away? 

It also shows the incompleteness one may feel after going through what ‘modern’ medicine offers. The figure in the illustration is, quite literally, in complete. Her insides are exposed, and she leaks blood. There are footsteps all over her body. All of these elements unify to show the puzzled feeling one may feel after being utilized as a body of a patient. There is a sense of nothingness left with her. She keeps questioniong, who am I? What am I?