Your life in pictures

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• Middelbare school
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• Leerjaar 3

Your life in pictures

Arthur Jafa was born on November 30, 1960 in Tupelo, Mississippi and raised in Clarksdale, Mississippi which was highly segregated at the time he grew up. His mom and dad were both educators. As a child, Arthur Jafa assembled binders full of found images in collections he called "the books.". His work was also inspired by his interest in prominent black jazz music and musicians such as Miles Davis.

APEX

APEX is an 800+ photo-collage about blackness. It is his response to his idea of black cinema. Jafa says, “The mantra is really about trying to force people to think more deeply about what a black cinema might be, and what it might look like.”

The audio-visual features musical figures, as Aretha Franklin, John Lee Hooker, Michael Jackson, and Jimi Hendrix ; animated caricatures such as Mickey Mouse, Felix the Cat ; Sci-fi references such as the Xenomorph from Alien vs. Predator, Na’vi from Avatar, , Hal 9000 from 2001 a Space Odyssey; deep sea creatures and microorganisms; and scenes of violence.

00:22

What does Jafa say about the period he grew up in?

1. He was not very interested in images in the beginning.
2. He grew up with images on television.
3. He grew up with lots of magazines around.
4. He grew up in a visual age.

02:13

Jafa says: I think it is human to recoil from things. What is the meaning of recoil?

1. to flinch back in horror
2. to entertain
3. to instantly dislike
4. to worry about

02:49

What does Jafa say about pictures that show pain?

1. They fascinate him.
2. He recoils from them.
3. He thinks they are the most difficult images to make.
4. He enjoys watching them.

Every picture is shown for about 0.7 seconds. This is quite short. Why do you think the artist did this?

Your life in pictures

Now you are going to create your own work of art. Jafa used 800 pictures in a work of 8 minutes. You are going to create a work of one minute and  100 pictures. This work will consist of 3 parts of roughly 35 pictures. 

1 my life; 2 my passion; 3 my dreams

You can use music, but it is not compulsory. Very often video is deleted because of copyright matters.

My life

Find about 35 pictures that show us your life. They don't have to be personal pictures, but you can also find them on internet. Show those objects that tell us something about your life: maybe type of house, means of transport, pets, siblings, parents. 

My life

Watch the following fragment of 20 seconds.

Then you get one minute to write down as much as possible about this person's life. 

This person's life?

My passions

Find about 35 pictures that show us what your passions are. Do not stick to one topic, but think of more. So you are not just interested in horseriding or football, but you make a list of 4 or 5 things that interest you. If there is one thing that you like more, you can put more pictures of this topic in your presentation. 

My passions

Watch the following fragment of 20 seconds.

Then you get one minute to write down as much as possible about this person's passions.

Passions?

My dreams

Find about 35 pictures that show us what your dreams are. Do not stick to one topic, but think of more. So you are not just interested in a big car or a huge family, but you make a list of 4 or 5 things that you dream of. If there is one thing that you dream of more that the others, you can put more pictures of this dream in your presentation. 

My dreams

Watch the following fragment of 20 seconds.

Then you get one minute to write down as much as possible about this person's dreams.

Dreams?

The process

You must hand in not only your work of art, but also a report in which you write about the process. So tell us why you used particular pictures and why you used more pictures for some topics than for others. Your report is about 750 words long, 250 words for each item. 

Rubric

You can get 1 point for handing in project and report in time.

You can get 1 point for each part of the project.

You can get 2 points for each part of the report.

                                                                                       See Moodle for rubric.