Twitter Expert Connect

My Genius Hour project is on how certain artists like Salvador Dali, Frida Kahlo, Basquiat, and Vincent Van Gogh’s lives effected their art. Though they all have completely different art styles, they all went through many damaging experiences in their lives and I thought it would be cool and interesting to look into how different struggles affect artists differently. It mixes my love for psychology and art and I can relate to some of the artists struggles. Art is a tool for escapism……

For my twitter list, I have added a compilation of 18 professional artists, hobby artists, art professors, art historians, illustrators, and art collectors. I was originally supposed to have 10 people on my list but I progressively had to add more because the people on my list would only post about politics which was irrelevant for my project, so I had to broaden my selection of people, though 8 more people didn’t even make that much a difference.

These people are related to my Genius Hour project because they either studied art, teach art, have been creating art for a long time, or have it as a profession. Even if some of the people on my list didn’t study art, they can tell me about how their lives affected their art. For example, I have an ex-marine corps vet who loves flowers, color, and beauty and said, “After so many years of destruction I feel it’s now my duty to create”. He especially would be interesting to get information from because his art style could have changed between the time that he was a vet and now. And of course art historians know about old art, like Van Gogh and art professors would be able to tell me more about my chosen artists’ art style.

I asked my list members about the relationship between their art and their lives. I couldn’t privately message anyone on my list because they didn’t follow me back but I @ tweeted some people or commented under their art. I have gotten zero responses from the people on my list, the only interaction I’ve ever had with any of them is one person messaging me saying, “Yay! I’m so glad you’re in my world now” but I guess I got too excited and ended up losing hope again because when I tried to start a conversation to talk about my Genius Hour project, but she never replied. In the long run, I didn’t get any information but if I did then I could have used some of what they gave me throughout my slide to show the audience how life affects artist’s lives who are still currently alive.

Nobody responded to my questions, though a few of them liked them, which only proved that they saw my tweet and still decided not to respond. Nobody on my list followed me back either. Because of my lack is responses, nobody could also offer any more assistance and it was physically impossible to continue a conversation that never existed. I have no results but a loss of hope and a note in my head that maybe Twitter Expert Connect just doesn’t work for everyone. I don’t think I’ll be using this process again, at least anytime soon. Overall, I’d give this experience a 2/10. It was nice exploring art pages but I got zero help or information that furthered my research for my Genius Hour Project.

What’s Good, Technology?

     Technology,the branch of knowledge that deals with the creation and use of technical means and their interrelation with life, society, and the environment, drawing upon such subjects as industrial arts,engineering, applied science, and pure science, is one of the most useful and innovative invention created by mankind. It allows us to communicate with people internationally, share/trade/get ideas, learn about almost everything in the world, and stalk people. But, with great power comes great responsibility and many people choose to misuse it in ways to degrade people they aren't face-to-face with at the moment, along with spying, and illegal marketing (dark web).
     One example of a way that people abuse their technology privileges is by cyber bullying. Digital Citizenship is very important because nowadays kids are being exposed to technology at earlier ages without the proper knowledge on the consequences of some of their actions that take place on the internet. Cyberbullying is online harassment, bullying, threats, stalking, and anything that can hurt someone's feelings, which can lead to depression, suicide, paranoia, and antisocial behavior to the victim. The person doing the cyber bullying often feels safe and more confident because they either don't know that person and/or they're not face-to-face, so they can't interpret the victim's actual feelings. Cyberbullying is punishable by law and everyone can see what they post online too, and once something's on the internet, there's no going back, so they can have whatever they posted used against them. The lesson here is always stay safe because what goes around, comes back around, especially if someone finds out that you're responsible for someone's suicide or if you want to get a good job or apply to a school. For instance, during class we had to know and be able to identify what was and what wasn't considered cyberbullying and what to avoid doing. 
     Technology is so amazing because you can always build off of someone else's ideas to make something even better. Video mashups and editing is a great way to do that. Back to digital citizenship though, if you don't conform to the fair use rules then you could be fined. Video mashups are compilations or samples of pieces of media like movies, tv shows, or music videos that can be edited to make something original-ish. Fair use is any copying of copyrighted material done for a limited and “transformative” purpose, such as to comment upon, criticize, or parody a copyrighted work. Such uses can be done without permission from the copyright owner. In other words, fair use is a defense against a claim of copyright infringement. If your use qualifies as a fair use, then it would not be considered an illegal infringement and you go to jail :) A while ago, we had to create a video mashup using music and a compilation of YouTube videos, which we had to apply fair use to so that we wouldn't get in trouble for sampling other people's videos.
    While technology enables us to have fun and explore, we still need to remember to pertain to digital citizenship and make sure we're not abusing our technology privileges.