seracourtneyc3

[seracourtneyc3]

Community Curation

For our community curation project, we collected a variety of responses based on the prompt: Send me a form of art and tell me why it's important to you/or what memory do you have tied to it? From the responses we received, we organized them into five main categories. Here is what people had to say:

FILMS

"The first time I saw IT: Chapter Two (2019) I actually only saw the last 45 minutes. A coworker of mine invited me over to their place to finish some movie with their friends, and I was too shy to tell them I wasn’t the biggest fan of horror. At least, I wasn’t, until I saw this movie. The actual film runs for almost 3 hours, but Bill Hader’s character gives a performance in the last 45 minutes that moved me to full out sob, even without knowing the story. Since that fateful night, I have watched IT: Chapter One and IT: Chapter Two at least ten times each, as well as read the novel. The story, while flawed, has become my favorite piece of art, and will be for years to come."

"Little Women, bc I like the book and the movies and the real stories and everything bc I grew up with it and I really relate to one of the characters and I think the author has a wonderful story and I like that it’s just a real story of normal people told pretty plainly but it’s still so heartfelt and exciting and engaging"

"Cartoon/animation. (Like she-ra etc.) this art form [is] important to me because I love the way it allows world building and fantasy to be created with little boundaries and for it to be believable. This art form holds a lot of nostalgia and comfort to me. Often times when I need a form of escapism I can watch something I would watch when I was younger and it provided comfort[.]"

"The worst film, but somehow at the same time it’s amazing. Not good, just amazing.. I can’t explain it. If you haven't, watch it, I don’t recommend watching on your own tho."

"The Prestige is the best Nolan film! I’ve rewatched this movie at least 8 times and I still love watching it and find new things each time. I like all the other mind bender Nolan films, but I think that the Prestige has the best twist and reveal, the best Prestige!"

"Not gonna lie, this scene made me tear up. I’m not even that big of a Marvel fan, but I watched them all and kept up with the movies. I remember watching this in theaters and people were cheering and I was oddly emotional, can’t explain it. Epic scene."\

"My family watches this movie every year around Christmas so it means a lot to me. It’s always a good reminder of the important things in life."

"I’d never seen anything like [Into the Spider-Verse] when it first came out. A friend of mine showed me the film and there’ve been several scenes that I remember to this day, the monkey chant scene is one of them."

"I couldn’t find the exact scene that I wanted! It’s right before the beginning of this clip. My 11th grade English teacher made us watch this movie and I’ve loved it since! She focused a lot on the cinematography of the film and now I always point out the same things to my friends when watching the movie with them. There are at least 4 scenes that have amazing continuity and storytelling: the opening sequence of Lizzy walking, Lizzy sitting on the spinning swing, the scene right before the clip where time passes for Lizzy and the scene where Mr. Darcy walks through the field."

MUSIC

"Me and my roommates sing this song to each other almost every day because all of us collectively agree this movie is one of the best ones in existence so now this song reminds me of them and the movie."

"Spiegel im spiegel, Mirror in the mirror. A masterpiece of minimalism and a go to when I need a break from the world."

"When BTS went to the grammy awards and were the first Korean group to make it. It was so amazing because grammys not dominated by Asians. It was so cool to see my people represented. I'm so proud of them! This is a big step in history."

ART

"I’m literally currently at a museum and I enjoy Greek/ Roman statues because of Percy jackson, memories at boston fine arts museum, the met, and I enjoy classical history. [This is the] sarcophagus degli sposi (pronounced delly sposey, means of the spouses). it’s an Etruscan sarcophagus of a married couple where the man and woman are depicted as equals and they cuddle while the woman shows the man something in her hands. it was one of the only examples of a culture where women and men were seen as equals especially in marriage."

"Duchamp’s Fountain.It’s amusing to me, the impact this piece had in the art world and yet how it’s still widely unknown to the rest of the world. It marks the beginning of Conceptualism."

"Print making because when I was little I would do that crayon Barbie fashion thing and it was my favorite kind of art to make."

"When Nagi scores in Blue Lock. The scene was so amazing it made me love soccer even more. So excited for the anime lolol"

GAMES

"I’ve played Zelda games since I was a kid, it was probably my favorite game growing up. Breath of the Wild came out when I was in college and I hadn’t played games in a while  and the first opening sequence was so exciting and is one of my favorite Zelda moments."

"I waited ten years for this game to come out. The opening sequence didn’t disappoint."

Soulsborne games are my favorite and have played all of them but Gwyn lord of cinder was one of my most memorable moments I had in the entire series. I love how it’s such a serious game but the community has made this into a meme lol

SOCIAL MEDIA CLIPS

"One of me and my brothers’ favorite youtube videos, it’s not famous or important, but it’s one of my favorites “beacuase” of what it means to me and my brothers. We quote it all the time."

"okay so pedro pascal tik tok edits is my current favorite art form because i love the last of us and the story line, but specifically i love pedro pascal. he’s a great human and seeing the edits of him is great."

ARTIST'S STATEMENT

Community can be very important in shaping our relationship to the media. So many media experiences are seen as social-- going to the movies, playing video games, sharing messages, attending concerts, etc. The people you share media with have a direct influence on the experience you have with that media. Many of the responses we collected mention an aspect of community as a reason a certain piece of media is significant to them. Whether it’s tied to a fond memory shared with a loved one, or the basis of an inside joke with a friend, many times media takes on a new significance when we share it with those around us. Community can also expose us to new forms of media, especially through the Internet. When people share their opinions and interests with those around them, it encourages further engagement with that form of media as more people learn about it. 

Additionally, community also impacts the creation of media when artists support other artists. Building fan bases and places for people with common interests to communicate encourages the creation of new media because people know there is a niche for their work. One of our responses cited Pedro Pascal tiktok edits as a significant piece of media. Because there is a community of Pedro Pascal fans on tiktok eager to consume this content, creators are inspired to make it. 

Community can also have an impact on our reception of media when certain communities have a certain response to media. One of our responses mentioned when the K-Pop band BTS went to the Grammy’s being a significant media moment to them because Asians are very underrepresented at awards shows like the Grammy’s. Seeing such a significant form of representation in mainstream media was important to many Asian communities. Because BTS was the first Korean group to make it to the Grammy’s, the media attention regarding this event and the response from the general Korean community encourages people to pay attention. The more people that are talking about it, the more people the message will reach. This concept is described in a different way in Brooklyne Gipson’s Black Girls Are From the Future, where she describes the social media trend #BlackGirlMagic and its effect on the black community. This trend brought many black women together as they supported and connected with each other through social media posts. The positive response from the online community of black women encourages the trend to continue and more black women to add to it, showing how community support can be essential to the creation of new media.