The Missing Link: Part3

Progress Report:
Our progress for week was to start editing the videos we had from our interviews so far. We started with Nidal Kram, from Sudan and Mariah from America. It was very interesting how much time we had to spend on just these two video but then again we didn't have to do much sound editing because the locations for the interviews weresound controlled.We used Final Cut for all the editing.

We are still looking forward to interviewing Professors Skran and Vertinde to add another view to our students perspective.

Time Line:
We hope to edit at least half of the people we have interviewed so far.

Abby Disney: Peace Is Loud

When Peace talks loud, war listens and with both ears. Peace is Loud. Pray The Devil Back to Hell is an amazing, informative and one of its kind documentary of the role women in bringing peace to Liberia. This movie tells a story that had never been told. A story of bravery, dedication, and determination to make changes  in their and the lives of future generation. That muslims and christians can live together by putting aside our differences and embrassing our similarities as humans and also learn to tolerate each other.These women have showned to world that peace is speakable and loud, that is about time the world re-defined the role of women in society.

Interestingly, the women involved in bringing such a change to a country were almost all regular people, market women or better still women who knew no academic knowledge. But the beauty of their actions was to tell African women especially that, they could use their natural, loving and nurturing nature to peacefully end war. After all when the men causes the war , it is women who are left as widows with a family to take care off when they are away hidding or even dead.
Techonlogical advances has help us in most ways document event and time for future records and reference. Without the help of technology there would have been no way that this brutal but again historical moments would have been recorded . As terrible as the situation was , technology provided means of capturing the moments in time.

The Success Story:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7PbhCmBoFY&feature=PlayList&p=E6AB47AB29411369&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=39
As much as this country has experience hell on earth, the people are determined to bring back its country from the ditch back to normal. This process began with a democratic election which for the first time in the history of Africa, there is a female head of state. This a see as an appropriate measure to help them put together the pieces.
The media is helping in educatiing people on the need to forgive and reconcile with each other especially to accept former child soldiers who were influenced and used as tools to commit such atrocities. The child soldiers are also undergoing counselling and education to bring their lives back to normal and to help them forgive themselves and let go their past. This is a wake up call for all countries at war and to women to bring peace to where there is war.

Bourriaud, The Radicant: A Creolized World

" The World is becoming creolized"- Edouard Glissant. " This is to say that the culture of the world is furiously and knowingly coming into contact with each other, changing by exchanging, through  irremediable collisions and ruthless wars-but also through breakthroughs of moral conscience and hope".(10)
The ideal am trying to put across form this short commercial video is the idea of how close the world is becoming. Due to technological people all over the globe are being presented with the opportunity to share our culture and trade.

Art, media, marketing and technology has made possible the for the world coming together as one. The creolization process can be very ruthless when it comes to finding a pure cultural state. One would be amazed how far technology has changed the lives of people who for whaever reason would not have the chance to experience first hand most of the things we take for granted in America and even the bigger towns in say Africa.
Coca-Cola is known world wide but without the help of technology, it wouldn't have been able to assume the marketing/comsumer position it has now. The poor people in the rural villages in say Ghana might not have the opportunity to own a television or electricity for that matter but would have acess to information and be aware with their environment through a small radio that uses battery. How is this possible? Technology

Again, the world has indeed become a globalized village where information flows to and from. Yes there are limitations but honestly we are more informed than say fifty years ago. There are more things to be addressed in the vidoe and am saving it for later.

The Missing Link: Part 2

Progress Report:
With the help of a Sony Camcorder & Canon- SLR Like, Lindsey and I have been able to interview most of the people on our interview list. These interviews are  aimed at getting people to share their personal experinces with technological media as they travel internationally. During this interview, alot of new and interesting information that have came long that hadn't been tought off prior to the interview.
So far below are the list of people we have interviewed this past week.
Nidal Kram - African - American, Sudan

Mariah Mateo - American, Uganda and Sierra Leone

Natalie Fordwor - Ghanaian

David Frempong - Ghanaian

Sarah Ehlinger - American, Sierra Leone

Natalie Gratton - American, Sierra Leone

Harjinder Bedi -  India, American, Ghana,Togo,and Benin

William Meadows - American, Sierra Leone

Chelsey Sand - American, Sierra Leone

We have had some successes and difficulties but in all its been a progressive week in terms of gathering information. Having said this, we are hoping to re-adjust some things like re-phrasing some of our questions and also find a place that people would feel comfortable to be interviewed at the same time would work for us in terms of sound and lightening for a professional outcome.

Buchminster Fuller: Doing More with Less

This is a story of a man whose ideas, inventions, and foresight has changed the world and also created in our minds  a new way of living. Buchminster Fuller believed in the need for all mankind to live as each others' keeper and believing in nature as the reason for our survival. He allowed himself to be tought by nature. He was curious about his surroundings and found ways and all means possible to make the best out of it.

Buchminster was a visionary who pursued life ahead of his time. In my opinion he understood the planet earth not a thing but rather a form. He believed that we all live in a unified system with limited resources and hence, our behavior and actions would affect our future. In other words our future was tyied to each other. Knowing this ahead of his time contributed to him being all eco-friendly and trying to create a one unique instituetion of living in which we will all learn to share space, energy and other natural resources.

Although Buchminster Fuller objected what  people said about him as being as trying to imitate nature, his ideas in terms of designing an ideal house and transportation was a little in line with the perfect habitation. Nevertheless, he had a sense of creativity in tecnology. The name DYMAXION which breaks down to Dynamic, Maximum and Ion proving this by Inventing a 3-wheel auto-mobil and moveable dome houses. Buchminster Fuller was by all standards to me a humanitarian. He had a vision to save his world. He enjoyed his work and tried to create a safe haven for all.

Laurie Anderson: Making Art Ours

Laurie Anderson is a very Creative and unique artist. Her style,approach and use of technological instruments are intriguing. Her sense of immitation to sound and space is what I refer to as making art ones' own.
In this video, she addresses some of the issues facing society today. Finding Solution to our numerous problems which most of the time are solely because of how we view and respond to the world around us. It is human nature to be problem solvers but the question is, have we been able to do so? and seeking things that we hope would quinch our thirst for survival by all means.

There is one thing I find very inspiring about Laurie's work. That is she is very technological even though she admitted to becoming weary sometimes when trying to put together a lot of cords to spark up one thing.There is not thought that what made her even more famous was her "O Superman" commercial among others. She was also creative in her appearance to performances.Her outfit itself was art and described her to some extent.
Technological creativity is a plus and Laurie Anderson took it to higher level whiles applying it to her work.

The Missing Link

Lindsey and I intend to explore the impact of technology on human and social behaviour. The media, with the help of technology has very much succeeded in creating an illusion and misconceptions about the Western world to Africa and vice versa.More importantly, our project is to gather personal information of on how Western Culture has penetrated through the African media sector, and how people from both cultures find a medium like the internet, television and a radio to compensate for their desire whiles away from home country. Our project would also address what Nicholas Bourriaud refer to as Creolization V.National/ Ethnic Identity as means through we share our culture with the rest of the world.

Our Goal is to create a short but quality video that explores at least three major media influences on Entertainment, News, Education, and Politicsin Africa and the Western world.Sharing and or borrowing from each other helps us to value how much our culture means to us.

Materials:
-Video footage of West African interviews
-Audio clips of interviews
-West African music
-Interviews of Lawrentians effected by this multicultural media
-Youtube clips
-Skype?
-Written scripts
-personal stories

Technology -MAC
-Canon SLR-like w/1 hr video footage
-LaCie hard drive
-flashdrive 4GB
-Final Cut
-projector