Muncie Big Read Artistic Competition
Date: February 25th, 2016 (Registration); February 29th., 2016 (event)
Time: 6 P.M.- 7 P.M. (event)
Location: Ball Room of the Ball State Student Center
Fee: Free, open to the public.
Sculpture
By
Michael Hutchinson
Winner of the Muncie Big Read Artistic Competition
The far left side of this piece might suggest a modern skyline - smooth clean lines, and organized manner - just what a citizen might hope for in the community in which they live. This section of the sculpture might be analogous with the futuristic American city of which Guy Montag was a citizen and "fireman."
The middle section of this piece might represent the realization by Montag that he was living in a dystopian society. From within the seemingly idyllic community generates a more sinister side - one capable of, and dedicated to - the burning of books; the totalitarian rationalization for attempting to control the masses by controlling knowledge. (Note: the city's clock/timer/firehouse thermostat is set at 4:51).
The far right side of this piece represents the only hope - in this story- for the survival of literature and knowledge. Guy Montag eventually flees the city, and connects - in the woods - with a reclusive group of intellectual renegades, who - as we know - devise their own method of preserving and passing along the knowledge of which their government had deprived them.
If only I could say What I see
By
Juli Thorson, PhD
Professor of Philosophy
Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies
Ball State University
Muncie, IN 47306
USA
Special Recognition Award, Muncie Big Read Artistic Competition
Philosopher Kristie Dotson argues that communicating ideas, and especially ideas that you believe, requires a linguistic exchange. You must publically say your ideas in some form, but as important, there must be an audience that can hear your testimony. “Hear” requires more than properly functioning auditory apparatus. In Dotson’s words, an audience “hears” testimony if the audience meets the dependencies of a speaker. (Dotson, 238) Communication requires that the testifier speaks what she truly believes and that her dependency on the listener be met, i.e., the listener takes the testifier to be a knower, (i.e., part of the knowledge community). To be a knower is to be worthy of being listened to. Oppressive structures mess up linguistic exchanges. The testifier, the one speaking, is dependent on the one listening for communication to occur. The testifier is silenced if the listener fails to meet this dependency. Silencing results from listeners failing to identify the speaker (testifier) as a knower. In this case, the testifier can speak truly, but the listener believes the speaker not to be a knower. Hence, knowledge is not communicated. We can also silence ourselves in an oppressive structure. This kind of testimonial smothering occurs when the speaker knows the listener is unable or unwilling to hear, so the speaker smothers her own words. She doesn’t even speak her truths because she knows there will be no linguistic exchange.
Although we don’t call it censorship, testimonial silencing is a kind of censoring, and censoring is a kind of silencing. This is illustrated in Fahrenheit 451 by the way non-readers behave and the way they set up the expectation of silencing any discussion of books or the idea they contain. And although we don’t physically burn books, nor do we murder those with ideas different than our own, we do silence them in a multiple of ways, especially if those we silence are on the down side of power.
I wanted to illustrate the silencing of multiple viewpoints. They are multiple ways of envisioning reality; some better and some worse. If we silence discussion, we cannot discuss what is better and what is worse. Hence, we cannot attempt to make moral progress. I capture these ideas with a portrait of a woman with multiple eyes, and yet, she cannot say what she knows.
Art Project Explanation
By
Lance Winkler
I split the piece into three sections; Explicit Media Nudity, Actual Nudity, Implied Media Nudity. I choose blue as the background color for the Media’s nudity because blue is regarded as the color of acceptance. The words in the Media sections have a green outline around them for several reasons; it makes them stand out and makes them more visible, the outline is thick enough so that the color is visible, and the accepted words are green which we associate as good. In contrast the Actual Nudity words have a red outline to symbolize bad. There are words that represent the truth and are words that are as common to hear in a nudist setting or magazine as are the media’s words in a media setting. The words are darkened and smaller to show how their voices are quieted by the much larger Media words but they are still ever-present and refuse to fade into the black background that is nothing. The background for the Actual Nudity is black with red slashes. Black so that the slashes are more apparent and red slashes to represent chaos, danger, and negativity.
The Actual Nude images have the ‘inappropriate’ parts blurred out because they are ‘indecent.’ The Media’s Nudes are not blurred out because that is deemed as acceptable nudity and has been published in respectable and established magazines such as Vogue, Vanity Fair, and ESPN. The Implied Media Nudity is all on one side because it is showing how they expect people to look. Even the nude pregnant woman is nude yet has no nipples, vagina, or body hair. The entire piece tries to be inclusive by having both males and females in the Media’s section and in the Actual section. Whites and blacks are represented to try and show diversity.
The puzzle pieces represent that the Media is trying to censor out Actual nudity and only have their version of nudity available. It will get close and will work somewhat but the pieces do not line up perfectly so the two sides will never be able to fit together and completely censor the human body. Much like no matter how much the government tries to censor books it cannot work and the people will always find a way. The two sides of the media are moving inwards to try and fit together as evident by the half covered photograph of the nude man.
The Media is trying to tell the people what to think and not letting people decide for themselves. They tell people that being publicly nude is dangerous, wrong, and is detrimental to emotional development yet they have no way to prove any of this but the public is just accepting it because that is what they are being told. Once people experiment with public nudity they realize that what they have been told has been a lie. Guy Montag was much the same way when he finally read a book and then realized he was living in a dangerously oppressive society.
The Actual Nude images have the ‘inappropriate’ parts blurred out because they are ‘indecent.’ The Media’s Nudes are not blurred out because that is deemed as acceptable nudity and has been published in respectable and established magazines such as Vogue, Vanity Fair, and ESPN. The Implied Media Nudity is all on one side because it is showing how they expect people to look. Even the nude pregnant woman is nude yet has no nipples, vagina, or body hair. The entire piece tries to be inclusive by having both males and females in the Media’s section and in the Actual section. Whites and blacks are represented to try and show diversity.
The puzzle pieces represent that the Media is trying to censor out Actual nudity and only have their version of nudity available. It will get close and will work somewhat but the pieces do not line up perfectly so the two sides will never be able to fit together and completely censor the human body. Much like no matter how much the government tries to censor books it cannot work and the people will always find a way. The two sides of the media are moving inwards to try and fit together as evident by the half covered photograph of the nude man.
The Media is trying to tell the people what to think and not letting people decide for themselves. They tell people that being publicly nude is dangerous, wrong, and is detrimental to emotional development yet they have no way to prove any of this but the public is just accepting it because that is what they are being told. Once people experiment with public nudity they realize that what they have been told has been a lie. Guy Montag was much the same way when he finally read a book and then realized he was living in a dangerously oppressive society.
Muncie in 150
By
Richard Yencer
Writer, reporter, and business owner.
Our story about Middletown USA found in Muncie IN 150 talks about now and then, along with some tell all and hope for the future. There are points in Muncie's history that show despair like the great flood of 1913 and Ku Klux Klan marches in the 1920s that reflect the bleak future offered by book burning in Farhrenheit 451.
The giving of business and government leaders that work together for a better quality of life promise the bright future for the community and future generations.
Muncie Big Read Group Projects
See how some of our organizers successfully promoted and organized the Big Read activities (These organizers attended the Ball State University Immersive Learning Course entitled Organizing Adult and Community Education Programs and promoted and organized the Muncie Big Read activities):
Group 1: Ashley Pilmore, Deb Howell, Wafa Alrasheed, Abdulmajeed Alomayri
http://edac632groupone.blogspot.com
Group 2: Desiree Soptelean, Kyndra Haggard, Debbie Shidler
http://edac632group2.blogspot.com
Group 3: Spencer Matheny, Mike Burks, Kelly Neal
http://bsuedac632group3.blogspot.com/
Group 4: Jillian Simmons, Brent Baumer
http://edac632group4.blogspot.com/
The Big Read Immersive Learning Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1I7uM7_PHAY
This video was produced by Robbie Mehling
Production Coordinator, Immersive Learning
Office of Entrepreneurial Learning
Ball State University
Muncie Big Read Workshop, organized by Ashley Pilmore, Deb Howell, Wafa Alrasheed, Abdulmajeed Alomayri
Workshop video 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hN_ulmpjnPM&feature=youtu.be
Workshop video 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBoxDWAO2Uw
Group 1: Ashley Pilmore, Deb Howell, Wafa Alrasheed, Abdulmajeed Alomayri
http://edac632groupone.blogspot.com
Group 2: Desiree Soptelean, Kyndra Haggard, Debbie Shidler
http://edac632group2.blogspot.com
Group 3: Spencer Matheny, Mike Burks, Kelly Neal
http://bsuedac632group3.blogspot.com/
Group 4: Jillian Simmons, Brent Baumer
http://edac632group4.blogspot.com/
The Big Read Immersive Learning Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1I7uM7_PHAY
This video was produced by Robbie Mehling
Production Coordinator, Immersive Learning
Office of Entrepreneurial Learning
Ball State University
Muncie Big Read Workshop, organized by Ashley Pilmore, Deb Howell, Wafa Alrasheed, Abdulmajeed Alomayri
Workshop video 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hN_ulmpjnPM&feature=youtu.be
Workshop video 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBoxDWAO2Uw
You can find all the Big Read videos, materials, and news in Blog.
Pictures: