Images/Aesthetic

Alienation
2
11
1
9
2
7
4
5
3
12
2
12
7
2
12
9
9
5
3
1
3
2
12
2 12
7
2
5
10
8
4
4
5
7
12
3
12
5
7
5
12 5
7
6
9
2
9
10
7
5
6
1
8
7
10
1
8
12
4
3
1
4
2
1
4
10
5 2
1
2
5
10
6
12
10
2
1
10
6
5
3
7
3
12
3
11
8
10
Mariam (Lara) Amin Media Matters
Image/Aesthetic Alienation.
For the judgement of taste is an aesthetic and not a cognitive judgement. (Kant 62)
Pre-Media Matters.
As a child, I was into drawing cartoon characters. I would come across
these cartoon characters in printed materials and would decide to bother
my father for a 99 cents white poster board from Walgreens and drawing
utensils, usually color pencils. I honestly cannot remember why I initial-
ly choose these drawing materialsmaybe it was the infuence of my
father who was the artistic adult in the familybut I became used to
these objects. White poster board because of the obvious clarity of my
cartoonist pieces on a light color and color pencils because I dreaded
using pens/markers for fear of the permanent mistakes that I would nev-
er be able to get rid of only by starting all over and crayons were also
dreadful, but not as cruel, only that they never gave me the structure
of color I felt I could derive from the color pencil. With these materi-
als, I would sit on the foor for hours re-creating these cartoons in the
most intricate form of mimicry with the goal of being able to create an
identical twin. Once the piece was complete, I would step back and gaze
at my re-creation, satisfed. I was pleased that the shapes conformed to
the shapes I was copying and my coloring was to my liking, in that, I
kept alignment of the drawn shape with the color pencil, which kept it
from looking distorted (I was adamant to always stay inside the lines).
Looking back at such moments of my artistic life, I have always ap-
preciated my work [and others] for the aesthetic. Even as I have got-
ten older, when I felt my aesthetics began to develop meaning/reason-
ing, it was always at the forefront of why I appreciate a piece of work.

Aesthetically, in this piece I wanted to convey the beauty of perseverance between mother and
child amidst their struggles. The mother adjusting to the unexpectedness of caring and choosing to
be totally responsible for another human being and, the child, longing to stay with this human be-
ing who brought her into the world and getting her to realize that there is a love between them. So,
the use of gold signifes beauty of this evolving relationship and, the black, bold black, refective of
the struggles between mother-child, mother-society, mother-self. To aid in this notion of strug-
gle and strength, the elongated/pedestal stance of the mothers black dress and the patterned curtain
in the background are the struggles falling down on this relationship, but never breaking it a part.
Mother-Child, 2012
My aim for my work is to always establish meaning and intent. Meaning as
to why I choose to do something and intent on placing that meaning there
in the frst. After trying to decipher Kants Critique of Judgement and his ideas
on the important representations of art and the counteraction of Derri-
das notion that it all matters, I have come up with my own term, cognitive
aesthetic. Cognitive aesthetic I am piecing together to represent this sense
of understanding what I like with reason. In a way, it is refective of Derri-
da that in all aspects of our experiences with art various elements come
into play. There is a purpose to the partseven purposes that are not eas-
ily detected at frst or last glancea tracethat brings together the whole
of the image. Establishing meaning and intent. This is how I have created
as a graphic designer and make my opinions of the work I come across.
The In-Between Moments.
Have I found myself confused in how I defne and/or create as a graphic
designer? I question whether I am at the level I thought I was pleased
with? I pose these questions coming of of my critique of my three post-
ers of Plato, Derrida, and Kant. Where does it come into play to con-
sider the Subject when creating a piece? I guess this last question is an
obvious one for designers, since our audience is very much a part of
the pieces we create. Or, maybe it is not as obvious because there are
designers out there in the world who specifcally design for themselves.
They are specifc of their judgements of critique and taste where those
they are designing for are not even considered in the equation; not even
aesthetically. Under these conditions, I am starting to see myself hover
over both ends. Wanting to apply meaning and intent, but at the same
time, caught up in what I want to present to the world. It is all about
fnding that balance. I wonder how this could be applied to Kant, Der-
rida, and Plato? Is balance an important factor in purity of judgement,
in seeing variations in everything, in establishing logic for the good?
October 1, 1960
portmanteau
The Times of 8 Jan. 1897:
The name Nigeria applying to no to no
other part of Africa may without offence to any
neighbors be accepted as co-extensive with the
territories over which the Royal Niger Company
has extended British influence, and may serve to
differentiate them equally from the colonies of
Lagos and the Niger Protectorate on the coast and
from the French territories of the Upper Niger.
Independence, 2009
Post-Media Matters. Part I.
Confusion amasses and it feels like clarity is slowly settling in like when you move to
a unfamiliar country.
I watched a video a while back with the artist Hebru Brantley and he
mentioned how he did not like art for the sole purpose of decoration.
To him, he felt there was no purpose in creating art for art sake. I found
his statement fascinating because I have found myself enjoying creat-
ing decorative art. Although I am not sure if I have a place to fully un-
derstand whether making pretty art is warranted or not, for my own
purposes, I fnd myself using patterns as a form of decorative art that
includes my meaning/reasoning/cognitive aesthetic. In thinking of He-
brus comments and our readings of Plato, Kant, Derrida, and even The
Death of Marat, I refect on my own workpast, present, and future. Can
I create frames with ornamentation that can be at the purest judgement
of taste/aesthetic? Is it ever possible to incorporate all of my varia-
tions into one piece? Can I take all of who I am as a designer and cre-
ate un-infuenced by those designers that have come before me or are
their qualities of work unconsciously inherit within me, even if I have
never seen their work or even know who they are? Going back to my cri-
tique of my posters, I am starting to feel as if it is all a delicate balance.
If I had to decide, I see in Plato and Kant this sense of aligning to some-
thing far greater than our human existence. It is not to say that it is not
possible because we all have our own versions of possibilities, but I fnd
this sense of logic difcult to cognitively place ourselves because we can
never know if this is considered right or wrong. As with Derrida, there
are many [human] factors that will always counteract someones inten-
tions. So, when looking at all that I have written about my work and
how I attempt to understand it from my experience with Kant, Derrida,
and Plato I can defnitely see myself attempting to reach this point of
purity within my creativity. It may relate to what one of the students in
our class mentioned about my frst drafts of combined images for our
poster project, in how, I am relating my work to this desire to please.
As I had mentioned, I sense that I am at both extremes of pleasing for
others and pleasing for my own aesthetic and maybe amidst all of the
confusion this is the most simple, yet meaningful place I need to be.
First Draf Combined Images for Media Matters Poster Project, 2013