Movie - Freedom Writers (2007)

Hilary Swank stars in this gripping story of inner city kids raised on drive-by shootings and hard-core attitude - and the teacher who gives them the one thing they need most: a voice of there own. Dropped into the free-fire zone of a school torn by violence and racial tension, teacher Erin Gruwell battles an uncaring system in a fight to make the classroom matter in her students lives. Now, telling their own stories, and hearing the stories of others, a group of supposedly "unteachable" teens will discover the power of tolerence, reclaim their shattered lives, and change their world.

The Superman Complex

The New Yorker
March 2008

The Comic Book industry and its link to Juvenile Delinquency in America

“It is my opinion,” Wertham told the senators and the cameras, “without any reasonable doubt and without any reservation, that comic books are an important contributing factor in many cases of juvenile delinquency.” The child most likely to be influenced by comic books, he said, is the normal child; morbid children are less affected, “because they are wrapped up in their own fantasies.” Comic books taught children racism and sadism—“Hitler was a beginner compared to the comic book industry,” he said. In his book, he said that “Batman” comics were homoerotic and that “Wonder Woman” was about sadomasochism. He was even critical of “Superman” comics: “They arouse in children fantasies of sadistic joy in seeing other people punished over and over again while you yourself remain immune,” he testified. “We have called it the Superman complex.”

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Practical 8 & 9 - Reflections

If I could go somewhere in the world, I'd like to go to Barcelona.

I used Currency, Accessibility, and Presentation and Arrangement to evaluate AboutBarcelona.com, which is a site that feeds and provides up to date information about touring Barcelona. It has a date counter to show its currency, and also the site provides much information about places of interest in Barcelona, and some events and festivals that happen in the city, and even guides to other cities in Spain.

Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain, and is noted for its laid-back and relaxed lifestyle. I'm very intrigued by its old architecture, some of which are designed by the world-famous Antoni Gaudi, who uses colourful tiles and odd shapes to create his surrealistic monuments. I've always drawn inspiration from his works, and it would be an experience to just actually see them in real life. I guess a great force of influence was watching the movie, "Vicky Christina Barcelona" talking about two girls who visit barcelona. It's beautiful with the sun-baked tiles and relaxed lifestyle in the bar late at night listening to spanish guitar, it is truly a place of ultimate R&R.

Ellen Degeneres speaks about Youth Murder

Larry King, 8th grader murdered by another 8th Grader because Larry confessed he was gay.

Practical 7 - Reflections

Briefly reflect on lessons learnt from this practical:

a. Which criteria did you use to evaluate talkingcock.com? Why did you choose this criteria?

b. How did you feel about participating in the role plays?

Are the facts accurate? Does it use research as a basis? Is there political, ideological, or biasness in the source? Is it a factual site or one that contains an opinion? Are the references stated clearly? Is it free from grammatical, spelling and typographical errors?

A) I used Accuracy to evaluate this site. We're viewing this site from an ideological basis, it seemed like a site filled with opinions and biasness toward political and social events happening in Singapore, and it is important to judge whether it is a factual site, or one of opinion. It isn't a site that gives black and white information, but has been packaged with comedy and humour. Most humour sites such a this one usually poke fun at certain social norms in society, so it is important to double-check through all content to make sure that there isn't a bias/judgmental voice in the information.

B) Our group took the role of being foreigners. And to be honest, it is so much more different to put myself outside of the perspective of a Singaporean. We grew up here, and we take some of the social norms like its nothing; like chopping seats with tissue paper, not stepping over jossticks, illegal to possess chewing gum for a long time, these are things we accept and don't take notice of. But as a foreigner, talkingcock.com did sound like a shrewd and witty site that would make foreigners either appreciate the comedy or be offended by our coarseness.

Practical 6 - Reflections

a. Do you think it is more effective to search the invisible web (databases) than using search engines, meta-search or subject directories? Why?

b. Will you use the invisible web (databases) for research in your own respective Diplomas? Why?


A) I would say all these categories have their pros and cons. The invisible web is less accesible than most other search databases and utilities. We tried TP Spark today, and that has proven to be useful in the sense of how they categorize the results into relevance, author, source and date. This is extremely useful to easily choose results. Some harder to find resources can also be found through the invisible web. Which proves to be extremely helpful

B) Yes. Design-wise, we're always looking for ways to imporve design for society instead of creating mere aesthetics. There are many times live briefs are related to social issues like Singapore's aging population, youth and so on. These topics need alot of R&D and the invisible web would hold many resources for a good foundation of such issues where we can work upon. I think research and development is very essential in many many other disciplines other than design.

Stress

A music video from Justice, re-enacting the life of an America youth gang.