On Campus Partners (a Video Short)

My final project is a short that argues for more democratic city planning. Specifically, I suggest that Campus Partners should listen and respond to the student voice. In all honesty, Campus Partners rubs me the wrong way; even if it did reinstate the student advisory panel, I would be unhappy. Nonetheless, small improvements are improvements.

I am the first speaker on the short. Through my narration, I hoped to inform the viewer of basic information about Campus Partners and its agenda. During this segment, I flash pictures of its “achievements.” Logan Stake and Sarah Gange direct the last two portions of the film. Respectively giving personal opinions, they illustrate motivations for wanting to join in this discussion of “revitalization.” During their parts, I show pictures of students of the Ohio State University. By disconnecting the specific voice from a specific body, I hope to suggest that these two voices are common (almost universal) throughout campus.

Finally, I have included links from which I gathered information for my video, and I have cited the source of my soundtrack.

1. The Campus Partners webpage

2. The Ohio State University webpage

3. The University District webpage

4. The Fantastic Mr. Fox Soundtrack:

“Just Another Dead Rat in a Garbage Pail (Behind a Chinese Restaurant)” by Alexandre Desplat

“Kristofferson’s Theme” by Alexandre Desplat

“Stunt Expo 2004” by Alexandre Desplat

Video Project Proposal

Campus Partners for Community Urban Redevelopment is a non-profit corporation; its mission is to “improve the quality of life in the neighborhoods of the university District which surround the Columbus Campus of the Ohio State University.”

One focus area has been High Street; Campus Partners hope to accomplish the following goals:

• Restore High Street as the symbolic heart of the University District
• Re-establish High Street as a vital “Main Street”
• Create a place for new economic opportunities, and
• Reinforce High Street as an environment that supports learning

Campus Partners claim credit for the following “improvements” on High Street:

• South Campus Gateway, which opened in 2005 with a total investment of more than $154 million
• Newport Music Hall opened a night club on its second floor
• Urban Outfitters opened its first store in Ohio
• Starbucks opened a café
• Buffalo Wild Wings opened a restaurant and bar in 2007, occupying a 8,000 square-foot building
• In 2008, Panda Express opened a restaurant

Ohio State has funded the study of high Street with $75,000.

The Student Advisory Board, which had been founded in 1996 to encourage student participation in the planning and improvements for the University District, had been disbanded after the opening of the South Campus Gateway. According to the Campus Partners webpage, this panel dissolved because of a lack of interest. The Campus Partners Board of Directors only offers one seat to a student representative.

 

Campus Partners claims to work in the interest of the University and its students. But how can the board understand the needs and wants of the campus when only one vote represents a student population of 60,000? High Street was meant to be a “symbolic heart” and an “environment that supports learning.” Where is the heart in the Ugly Tuna? What is to be learned from BW3s?

 

I have a few possible angles…

• Argue for more student representation
• Argue that Campus Partners has thus far failed in its mission
• Argue that the University should stop funding this dysfunctional partnership

Notes on the Visual Essay

The pictures of my essay lost detail when I posted them. For the sake of clarity, here is a transcript of the text used in the images:

1. NATIVE CULTURES of COLUMBUS cultivated PAWPAW Trees, which Produce the largest edible Fruit Native to the Continent. They recognized the Superiority of the Flesh of the PAWPAW, which is high in Minerals, Fat, and Protein.

2. Ohio FARMERS and GARDENERS continue this Agricultural TRADITION today.

3. YOU CAN JOIN THEM: Grow, Eat, and Share the Pawpaw.

I manipulated the text with capitalization. I tried to mimic the style used when making official decrees during the New World colonial period. This style also influenced my picking of a font. To further age the text, I washed out its color.

By aging the text, I hope to inspire the reader to think of the past. My story begins with a history; however, it also begins with a modern image. The textual element of the first picture is meant to guide the viewer to visualize the way Columbus looked before Columbus, and ultimately to see “change.”

For these same reasons, I manipulated the light and color of the photographs. I wanted them to look old, as if they were printed on yellowed paper (of course not too old so to be distracting). The lack of vibrancy is meant to invoke a longing in the viewer for an older Columbus, the Columbus shaded by green pawpaws instead of the one smothered by gray concrete.

The last image, however, has a green horizon – which is to suggest that should a culture change occur, Columbus could restore its utopic attributes, and its inhabitants could regain access to the lost Garden.

Of course, this is an ambitous thesis to present in three photographs edited by a novice… but that was the scheme.

“America for Dummies”

I felt the argument from Niaz Mosharraf to be unfair. Although he interviewed American youth and teachers who interact with American youth, Mosharraf did not gather information from the entire American youth population. He also had the authority to edit the evidence from these supposedly representational interviews.

Cultural change, which is what he seems to be calling for, only occurs from the bottom up. If Mosharraf wants the American youth to become more involved politically, he should encourage the youth to start with local government. He complains about general ignorance; well, a general knowledge without specific action is worse.

(Evil) Photographic Essay

This could be a good backdrop for an urban-wasteland

I could set something in those widows/ thought the graffiti added something

This sky could be pretty dark... maybe add some military planes

I don't know... I guess I thought I could make the stain into something/ use the car with the hood open...

One of the goat feet...

And here is a basket of them!

Photographic Essay

I want to present a convincing argument. But in an attempt to avoid sounding sententious, my subject matter is intentionally silly and its portrayal, intentionally embellished. One idea that has contented me is to depict Columbus as the greatest place in the world. To do this, I have photographed the Columbus skyline and some beautiful things I found during the outing. I plan on making the cityscapes fantastic – with rainbows and smiles and lush rooftop gardens.

The other case I thought of making is to show Columbus in a negative light. This idea had not occurred to me until I had reached the top of a fire escape on Gay Street, where I found a grocery basket of goat feet. And, it being so close to Halloween, I thought that casting Columbus as a disturbingly brutal city might be fun.

I do not know if this light will help, or be too hard to work with...

I thought I could add fun things on the rooftop space

This picture seems a little flat to me, but I think I could add characters of different sizes to help allude to dimension

I thought that the bare edifice would be a good canvas... plus the idea of adding something to the Dispatch scrolling marquee intrigued me

1st Draft

http://drop.io/00nltmq#

I haven’t added my background track yet because I wanted to splice in a man’s voice in some places.

Literacy Narrative, again

So this guy I knew refused to use twenties.

“I don’t care for that Andy Jay too much.”

We were looking at a 20 when he said that to me. *tear sound*

That was him, tearing the paper scalp off a green Andrew Jackson.

To be honest, my first response was: “Whoa why’d you do that?” That’s what I said because, it all I saw was a twenty dollar bill. “I hope I can still use this.”

He read the situation differently. He interpreted the 20 to symbolize oppression. Andrew Jackson used the power of his government to ruin lives; ‘America’ uses the power of its dollar to ruin lives.

By removing Andrew Jackson’s hair, he altered the meaning of the symbol.

“Friend, let me reconcile you with the 20” I offered.

“During his political career, Andrew Jackson was an avid opponent to the creation of a National Bank. And though he may have gotten his way in Florida, in the States, a national bank came to be – it came be to be the Federal Reserve, right? So by putting his face on the twenty, I feel like the Federal Reserve just put him in the stocks – to humiliate him, to show him that it works well enough after all.”

“Yea, Jessica, maybe I don’t want it to work.”

Audio Literacy Narrative

What my friend had communicated to me through his irreverence towards the 20 dollar bill was a lesson in symbolism, mainly that: there must exist an author to infuse a symbol with its meaning and that the authority of the author is intrinsically tied to the integrity of the symbol. The US dollar, itself, is a symbol. It is an object of a fiat currency, meaning it is only worth the guarantee of its producer. The Federal Reserve Bank, an arm of the government of the United States, produces these banknotes, which cannot be converted into any substance of real value. It cannot be traded in for gold; it cannot be changed into silver; it can only be exchanged for more banknotes. The power of the US dollar derives from the power of the US government. And the government has decorated its bills with symbols. This ornamentation (words, illustrations, and designs) embellishes the US dollar, reassuring its viewer of the authenticity of its weight.

When learning to read the messages printed on the 20, I suppose that I started with its textual elements. First: the number 20, signifying that it is worth 20 dollars. But what else is fixed with the value of 20 dollars, other than two 10s, four 5s, and twenty 1s? The number 20 is happenstance, and because of its arbitrariness, the bill holder is simply reminded of his subjection to the system, (the market, the economy).

Both names “Federal Reserve” and “the United States of America” adorn the top portion of the bill. In claiming recognition for the creation of the bill, the two institutions simultaneously reinforce the credence of the bill while bolstering their own prestige.

Then there is the official motto of the United States: “In God We Trust.” I couldn’t begin to decipher what that means, and I suspect that if I ever were to begin, I wouldn’t be able to stop. Although I am sure that the intentions of the bill’s editors to include that phrase on the design were honest, I am not sure that any god would intend for its name to grace an object that has come to represent capitalism, neocolonialism.

The two central images of the 20, a portrait of previous president and a landscape including the White House, offer homage to the presidency. Those images seem appropriate enough. But why choose Andrew Jackson? – who during his political career spoke passionately against the development of a national bank, today’s Federal Reserve. And why honor a man who as a general conducted campaigns of ethnic-cleansing and as a politician orchestrated genocide?

The messages of the 20 either confuse me or disturb me. And as an active reader, a critic, I think I will begin to respond, to challenge these symbols…