Kristyn Staley FMX211

Before this class, I have never found an interest in looking into opera. After watching this video, I am a bit more intrigued by the musical talent and emotion opera carries. Howard Gooddall goes into depth explaining a musician called Orfeo who makes a task of himself to travel to this underworld in order to be reunited with his beloved wife. The way he sings and casts this emotion through his piece of art in singing opera is truly beautiful and something that needs to be more appreciated. As time passes, opera has done an amazing job creating an impact on European areas. With this being said, Italy is painted with labels of those involved with opera which in my opinion is why I believe Italy is so beloved because of its uniqueness and its originality tying into opera. Goodall mentions that opera is the parent of the musical and the two exist and thrive side by side. This stuck out to me because it's amazing looking back and being able to relate the two after being provided more i...

Is the universe a simulation? It is hard to say because despite things that we believe to happen to us, we can never truly prove if it is a true experience. It is kind of freaky to believe and truly think about these kinds of things and how the things around us may not even exist. Throughout human life for as long we can recall, all we know is life and death and the constant cycle that we live by. I see our universe like an intense video game and we only have one shot at it before we are gone forever. What I connected most to this thought was the way we experience “deja vu”. This matter is what makes me believe we are in a simulation because that act of deja vu is what I believe to be something somewhere having the same thing happen to them as it occured to me, which is freaky to think about. There is so much out in the universe that we as humans havent even grazed across and with such knowledge of that but also the lack of knowledge maks me strongly believe we are in a simulation.

Free by Louis The Child & Drew Love Genre: Pop I enjoy this genre because I feel it is very relaxing and gives me a happy feeling and vibe! :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xmZ7QcETBY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iLRjFLwRYA

First, I watched A Christmas Carol. There was an older man singing and everyone else was up and dancing around happily. I felt very happy watching it and the way the man sang and projected his voice in such a way gave such an upbeat feeling. The music going up to high levels as he sang also help keep the mood up and bright. I personally love Christmas and all things involved so I was already excited before viewing the clip. Next, I watched the Bernadette Peters Broadway Clip. This clip was a very different theme from the Christmas themed one. It told a story and had multiple singing in it. There was more romantic dancing yet the music was still upbeat. The women sang with attitude and spunk that kept my attention as they were being sassy towards the men that were on stage with them. Although it was not the same song, I noticed that the same kind of instruments from the Christmas themed one were used for the music in this broadway clip as well. This one also felt upbeat and happy as w...

Through the connection of Madame Butterfly, I am able to make a connection between this opera and how I would create a video game. The game would entail characters having to make choices for themselves throughout different scenarios in order for them to try and create their own story for themselves. This will result in every different decision made, will create a new future and path for the character therefore each story of each character will never be the same. An example that can relate back to Madame Butterfly is when Pinkerton is taking her child she can choose how to act upon it by either killing herself out of pity, running away so he cannot take her child, or even beat him up and take all of his children. As each scene plays out there will continue to be a series of choices she or any character for that matter can make and in result will change their entire future off of a simple choice.

After seeing both the animation and the opera of Madame Butterfly, it was easy to see the distinct differences between the two. Through the animation, I noticed that it moved faster but personally I found it much easier to follow versus the Opera. I also noticed that Madame Butterfly had a daughter rather than a son which played a very important role in terms of how the story was told. The animation did a great job using a lot of drama when Pinkerton took the daughter away from Madame butterfly. Through the opera, their use of facial expressions made it relatable to the viewers and is able to make a connection. Personally, I had much more of an impactful feeling at the end of the animation when Madame Butterfly literally fell apart to connect the whole story. Overall I enjoyed how well put together both the opera and animation were and could tell there was a lot of time and effort put into both pieces.

Today we began class by discussing and showing various artists and how they depicted art such as Piero Manzoni, Duchamp, and Andre Serano. They depicted art in their own way similar to the DADA movement. we learned that art is supposed to make you feel uncomfortable and learn something and raise awareness to something. Dont turn away from the art but instead, invite in the uncomfortable. In the second part of class we learned about the first uses of art and the marks they made through the evolution of art. Art is continuously trying to make their mark in history especially with the had paint cave drawing. we also learned about grid drawing and how much easier using a grid for drawing makes your piece more realistic and proportional.

During class we viewed opera and how it has escalated through the years. It is amazing to see how fond people grew of opera and its rise into broadway and how Opera is conformed into such a proper form of music and entertainment. In the beginning, the public did not take opera very seriously. Tickets would run for about one or two dollars and Broadway actually almost ended in the 1950's due to the rise of TV and movies. It also did not help that after 9/11, people were terrified to travel to New York City to watch these shows leaving Broadway just short of never becoming what it is today. some of the most successful broadway shows include Wicked, Phantom of the Opera, and The lion king. I related to the Lion King because when I was younger I was fortunate enough to see it for myself and it was amazing!

Today in class, we learned about Opera. It is interesting to learn what stereotypes are related to opera. One of the stereotypes is larger women, when in reality, everyone can be apart of opera. Opera is mainly if not only singing and using a wide range of vocal notes. It is very different from different musical art because there is not dancing involved, simply the person belting out beautiful sounds. Henry Purcell was a staple of opera. He sang for 3 different kings and was very well known for what he did. Richard Strauss was a composer during the romantic period of opera. He helped create german romance through opera. I never knew this before this class but now I know that opera can also be sang in English, I always thought it was strictly a different language.

Although I missed class due to illness, with the help of one of my classmates I was able to view the cathedrals shared in class. After doing so, I really enjoyed the Notre Dame cathedral and Hagia Sophia. The pictures I saw showed how much details the cathedrals had and how massive they were. So many things implemented in these buildings made them that much more of a rarity and unique, making them important attractions. 

I really enjoyed this class discussion. Showing the buildup from the African tribes dancing and being graceful to being in Greece and fighting to the death as the switch of entertainment to large quantities of people. It was intense seeing the growth of entertainment and what is deemed "entertaining" to humans. From simple dancing to literally killing one another and seeing the escalation one after the other was honestly weird for me to grasp because I never really thought about it until class on Monday but I am looking forward to learning more next week!

I did not really agree with him in terms of technology dimming creativity. Theres a lot of aspects that play a role in whether your technologically advanced or not and how to apply your creativity pull. I agree in a sense that technology has reserved people in how they socialize and interact with other people in a way that can keep them in a box lacking creativity. But I also believe that this growth of technology has expanded and transformed creativity in a positive and beautiful way because theres now an array of "creativity" and not just named if you can paint on a canvas. In his argument with parents working and not being present in a childs life as much as they are in the past because both parents have to work vs. when the mom would stay home with the children while the dad went to work. I actually disagree with that because I came from a large family and my parents own a business and during my childhood they were never around and I never had that true emotional connecti...

Hello, My name is Kristyn Staley. Unfortunately, I was unable to make it to the first class due to catching the flu that has been going around campus. I am a junior majoring in advertising and public relations. I plan to study abroad this summer in Florence, Italy. I am also apart of the women's lacrosse team here at UT so please come support if you'd like! When it comes to this class, I am not sure what I expect out of it. After going through the syllabus, it seems there will be topics and interesting conversations throughout this semester and I think that I will be interested to see what arises and how certain topics and art intrigues or deters not only myself but my classmates as well.