Composition Multimedia Project - Anllí

Below is Anllí's project that relates to Headlee's talk through the connections between food and identity. Here is her explanation:

I have decided to cook two different vegan dishes for my Multimedia project: Vegan Chicken Ranch Tacos and Spinach Artichoke and Sweet Potato Hummus. In my first few years of being vegan, I was truthfully shocked by everything I discovered about animal agriculture. How detrimental it is to our health and environment, as well as how inhumane it is. I could not help but think, "Why isn't anyone doing anything? How is this allowed? Why does no one care?" I did not know how to deal with the burden of the knowledge I now had, causing me to angrily confront those around me who contributed to the system. The reason there are so many angry vegan protestors is because a lot of vegans becoming hopeless and want the world to care. A few years later, I learned for myself that some of the time, the problem isn't that people don't care; it's that my angry activism was not working for them. I still struggled not to become overly vigorous when talking about veganism and the effects of animal agriculture. It was not until I watched Celeste Headlee's TedTalk "10 Ways to Have a Better Conversation" that I genuinely saw the significance of having productive conversations, even with those I may disagree with. Therefore, I decided to cook vegan dishes for my non-vegan friends to positively communicate the importance of veganism and how unintimidating it is. I decided to create a PowerPoint to show how to cook my dishes step by step. 

When speaking to non-vegans before understanding how to communicate my emotions for veganism effectively, I would not consider their point of view. I felt that everything they said was an excuse. It only angered me more, making me more confrontational in defense of them justifying the animal agriculture system. In Headlee's TEDTalk, she states, "At this moment, we are more polarized, we are more divided, than we ever have been in history. We're less likely to compromise, which means we're not listening to each other" (Headlee 01:00). Headlee believes that no one listens to each other anymore, our opinions are so strong, we have tunnel vision and cannot see others' perspectives. I also consider this to be true, and it made me reflect on how I was before going vegan. I was not vegan my whole life, and I used to eat animal products every day. I never saw a problem with eating meat until I learned why it was wrong, so I understand the perspective and logic of both vegans and non-vegans. I'm not in a position to judge, and overall, I believe that veganism isn't about perfection but about reducing harm as much as possible. I learned over the years that shaming people for unknowingly contributing to the system is only going to make them have resentment toward veganism. Instead of being confrontational, I can rather inspire people with my cooking to positively share about veganism. Even if I disagree with a person's actions, that does not mean I cannot connect with them, or I think they are a bad person. Headlee expresses that even if there are not many similarities between people, they can still have a great conversation, "I talk to some people that I disagree with deeply on a personal level. But I still have a great conversation with them" (Headlee 02:45). Headlee opened my eyes to acknowledge that if I had chosen to let my differences with people stop me from engaging with them, I would have missed out on meeting many people and changing their lives, as well as my own.

Composition Multimedia Project - Bruno

Below is Bruno's explanation of the project, followed by images that show the development and process of completing a piece of art related to Adichie's talk. Bruno writes - 

In "The Danger of A Single Story" TED Talk by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, she described the limitations of stereotypes and the freedom in seeing people beyond their single story. I chose this TED Talk because it was one of my favorite topics discussed in class. I decided my project to be in PowerPoint format, because it enabled me to show the process I went through to make my drawing. In each slide, I was able to show each step I went through to make it. I specifically wanted to make a drawing showing different people gathered together. From the beginning, I knew the person in the center of my drawing holding the “human” banner would be a drawing of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Since she was the speaker in the TED Talk it felt fitting to put her front and center. 

"The Danger of A Single Story" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie states, “It had not occurred to me that anybody in his family could actually make something. All I had heard about them was how poor they were, so that it had become impossible for me to see them as anything else but poor. Their poverty was my single story of them” (Adichie 3:31). As Adichie explained, we frequently form an idea of people around one concept. We will make assumptions on race, religion, ethnicity, or sexuality because of small characteristics that people may have. We create a single story about others such as; they are Asian so they must be good at school, or Mexican so they love tacos. Another quote from Adichie is, “I must say that before I went to the U.S., I didn't consciously identify as African. But in the U.S., whenever Africa came up, people turned to me. Never mind that I knew nothing about places like Namibia. But I did come to embrace this new identity, and in many ways I think of myself now as African” (Adichie 5:09). Adichie describes what it was like having a label applied to herself. Her American roommate who knew she was African made assumptions like, “I did not know how to use a stove” (Adichie 4:33). It took getting to know Adichie that her roommate grew to see beyond the single story. 

Literature MultiMedia Project - Lina

In American Literature, students created Multimedia Projects that reflected a concept, author, character, or time period they learned about over the course or our semester. Lina found a way to connect the process of baking to our readings by indigenous peoples, enslaved peoples, and US women.

Composition MultiMedia Project - Selina

For the ENGL 1301 MultiMedia Project, students were asked to consider those topics we learned and read about over the course of the semester related to our overarching theme of food, and produce a creative project. Below is Selina's, along with a paragraph from her short essay.

MultiMedia Project - Victor

Victor, a barista at Starbucks, had a unique take on those storied British monarchs - Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots.  Below, he explains his motivation:

"The Starbucks cup. Although it may seem like a simple plastic object, it is a modern representation of socioeconomic status, something that was easily shown in the olden days by the possession of a crown. I decided to depict both Mary and Elizabeth as the Starbucks siren since they were both iconic women, and were known throughout the world, such as the logo of a siren in our days. Furthermore, I went on to show the drastic gap between the queens by drawing Queen Elizabeth on a larger cup, making Mary, Queen of Scots out to be the underdog. I believe this is relevant to the course since it represents a modern world view of royalty and how we’ve come to be able to portray socioeconomic status throughout the world. In addition, I hope to show the difference in power between two women of status by analyzing the letters sent between Mary, Queen of Scots and Queen Elizabeth, along with information from the text."

MultiMedia Project - Angel

Angel created an artistic piece that illustrates the various identities of the narrator in Eliza Haywood's story, "Fantomina." Published in the 18th Century, Haywood's narrator takes on several disguises in order to conduct a social experiment, and to engage in a romantic and physical relationship with a man.

In Angel's work, the narrator controls marionettes of her different identities (a maid, a prostitute, a widow, and a mystery woman) and love interest.  This is particularly striking because Angel reveals the narrator's surprising agency as a white woman in 18th Century England.   

MultiMedia Project - Britney

by Britney

For my project I decided to choose the story of "Fantomina" as my subject of interest. In the story of Fantomina, Fantomina is committing acts which is modernly known as “Catfishing”. The idea that our aristocratic lady is creating disguises to catfish Beauplaisir inspired me to create a modern approach of her experiences. I created a cellular device on a piece of paper and on the screen we see some sort of social media platform open. The social media platform I decided to use was instagram. Instagram is a popular platform where people tend to show themselves off and their lavish lifestyle, although most times not all is what it seems. I chose instagram as the platform for our catfisher because that is where catfishing is commonly taking place. On the screen we can obviously see that the main account logged in is our aristocratic woman that goes by the username of “aristocratic.womxn” and how although she has millions of followers she only has one close friend. To represent her grand status I drew pictures that would recommend places she has traveled. Much like the era of Fantomina wealth equivalates to aristocracy and posting it on the internet proves it. That close friend being her mother which helps reflects off of the novel on how her mother was the only one to help her with her pregnancy.

The second account logged in is “phantom.mina”, who represents Fantomina and has red lips as her profile picture to represent her as a prostitute and seductive, The third profile is represented by a cowboy hat and the username of “_countrycelia_” who is obviously Celia the maid from the countryside. Mrs. Bloomer is represented by a black widow spider with an appropriate username; “blackwidowblxxmer”. The black widow represents how she is a widow, hence the name. The final identity, Incognita, is represented by blue question marks and by the username “incognita.incognito”. In the photo the doll in the yellow dress is our mastermind behind it all laying comfortable in her bed playing with Bleauplaisir’s mind and emotions.