Braving the Distance
Introductory Questions (scroll to bottom for art pieces)
Credits to Kenshin and Sid (my excellent teammates) for assisting me on this resource!
Set II | Beyond Space and Time
Introductory Questions (scroll to bottom for art pieces)
Credits to Kenshin and Sid (my excellent teammates) for assisting me on this resource!
- Do you tend to listen to music or appreciate art (from sculptures to Snaps) by yourself, or is there always an impulse to share what you enjoy with others?
- Looking at human behaviours in the modern society, it is evident that people are always wanting to share their experiences with other people through social media. Being an anime otaku myself, it is not uncommon for me to get an impulse to talk about anime to other weebs. (Anime is art) This is because through sharing our views of art and other concepts, we can establish a decent connection with other people through conversations, allowing yourself to make a new friend. Through sharing what we enjoy, we can also feel connected as well, reducing our constant feeling of loneliness.
- How do different media express emotions like fondness and love in different ways? Is there a best way to evoke them? What about negative emotions, such as dislike?
- To express emotions such as love in music, one can use a specific set of instrumentation and texture. These include song-like melodies (lyrical), as well as many chromatic harmonies and discords, or dramatic contrasts of dynamics and pitch. Sometimes, artists use big orchestras, due mainly to brass and the invention of the valve. To express hate, some may use aggressive texture. I’m not sure if there is a ‘best’ way to evoke these emotions, as artists have the freedom to use artistic elements in order to convey them.
- In what ways can art and music allow people to connect and interact across cultures, or even across time?
- Through art and music, people can share the same experience and talk about their views on it. For example, if I was talking to other weebs about anime, I would talk about how well formulated the plot was, the skill of the character designer and animation studio, and who the ‘best girl’ is. These conversations often get very heated, resulting with new understanding of the person, as well as the topic.
- When exploring each of these selected works, consider the contexts in which they were created. How can art and music reflect the culture and society of the times in which they were created?
- Of course. A christian painting drew in medieval times would be completely different from modern art. These old paintings will have a very religious, cartoonish artistic style compared to a trained artist drawing a portrait. Art during the renaissance are historically significant, such as those by Leonardo Da Vinci and considered treasure; not many modern art pieces these days are as valued as these. The culture and society of the times are reflected through the art made in the time, as artists get affected by the people around them too.
- Is it possible to "own" an doodle, or a melody, or a sketch? To what extent are laws about intellectual property and fair use able to be upheld justly?
- As they say, only geniuses can think of something truly original. So every piece of art is influenced by multiple other factors, such as other pieces he/she has seen/heard, or the trend of the time. Therefore, the question of intellectual property is a difficult line to draw. But I believe it is possible to ‘own’ a doodle, melody or sketch if you have created it with no solid intention to copy someone else’s.
- Art
- The Bus | Frida Kahlo
- A clear painting that demonstrates how Diego Rivera (another very famous post-impressionist painter of the 20th century, as well as Frida Kahlo’s husband) influenced the political attitudes of Frida Kahlo. In The Bus, several people from different backgrounds are sitting side by side in a wooden bench on a rickety bus. There is (from left to right) a housewife holding her shopping basket, a blue-collar guy in his work overall, a barefoot Indian mother who is feeding her baby, a little boy looking around, a businessman holding his money bag and a young girl which might be Frida herself. In this painting, Frida demonstrated her sympathy for the dispossessed. The Indian mother is depicted as Madonna-like and the blue-eyed gringo is a representation for the capitalists. This painting shows how everyday journeys entangle people of different backgrounds and walks of life.
- My Parents | David Hockney
- Painted in 1977, a year before his father died, David Hockney shifted his artwork towards the study of human behavior in everyday interactions. Here we see his mother posing, attentive and graceful, almost as if she was listening to the viewer say something. The father on the other hand, is shown reading a copy of Aaron Scharf’s Art and Photography, fidgeting in his seat as he usually did.
- Nighthawks | Edward Hopper
- Another random entanglement of people in everyday society, Nighthawks by Edward Hopper shows several people, clearly with no relation to each other, in a late-night diner of sorts. It also shows how the artificial lights cast shadows and create effects never seen in daylight. From the light spilling out into the sidewalk to the lines of shadow projected from inside the diner to the outside.
- I and the Village | Marc Chagall
- I and the Village by Marc Chagall was made in 1911, a year after the artist moved to Paris and evokes his memories of his quaint village in Vitebsk, Belarus (an Eastern European country sandwiched between Poland and Russia otherwise known as Byelorussia). Painted in the Cubist style, Chagall’s love of geometry is evident in the sharp lines and beautiful shapes included in the work. This entanglement is actually different to those of past paintings and actually takes hints from Chagall’s Hasidic Judaism beliefs. In the painting, we see a farm animal (either a horse or cow) on the left and a villager on the right. The fact they are staring at each other symbolizes how peasants and animals lived side by side and depended on each other for survival in Vitebsk. The flowering sprig held by the peasant in the bottom center is representative of the tree of life, the reward for their partnership. For Hasids, animals were the link to the universe for mankind, this is represented in the painting through the eclipsed moon in the lower-left and the Earth in the center (large circles).
- Listening Post | Mark Hansen and Ben Rubin
- In the first collaboration work of this resource, Mark Hansen and Ben Rubin appear to have created something from out of a Cold War spy film. Listening Post is an attempt to show the artistic promise of the internet (which in 2002 was still fairly young). A program that selects information from a wide range of chat rooms and other virtual spaces sends them to 231 small cash register screens. Displayed on these screens were quotes, texts and popular topics under discussion in those online spaces. Coupled with speakers and different “acts” where the information changes or wipes completely, Hansen and Rubin were able to demonstrate how the internet truly is an amazing and (at the time) unprecedented entanglement of humans.
- The Oath of the Horatii | Jacques Louis-David
- If you are a history nerd (like me), you probably have already heard of Jacques Louis-David, the French painter who depicted Napoleon Bonaparte leading his army crossing the alps. In this painting, David goes even deeper into history by depicting the historic champions of a feud between Rome and Alba in the 7th century BC. In an attempt to end the war and avoid anymore casualties, each city put forth champions from one family. In doing so, they would ultimately test the bonds of human relationships and bring to light the nasty nature of diplomacy. While Rome chose the Horatii family (the people in this painting all from that lineage) while Alba chose to put forth the Curiatii. Coincidentally, both families were linked by marriage, yet were now tasked to defeat the other in the name of their city and country. Jacques Louis-David portrays the former family swearing to defeat their enemies or die trying. On the right, the women of the family are in grief, already fearing the worst. Sabina, the sister of the Curiatii and Camilla, engaged to a member of the Curiatii both hang their heads in sorrow. In the background, the mother of the Horatii hugs her grandchildren.
- Connected | xkcd
- Ah love, that riddle wrapped within a mystery inside an enigma. In this fairly comical sketch by a contributor to xkcd, a girl and a boy from the current generation are talking to each other. Apparently because they both like the same song, the girl makes a ludicrous claim that no two people have ever been so connected (pulling off a clever pun on how the internet connects us in many ways). At the bottom lies the caption “I’m not sure why we romanticize “young love”. I’m going to venture a guess and say that the message of this piece is that young love truly isn’t that glorious as it used to be. Generally speaking nowadays it just means two people who like the same things, the range of which has been extended thanks to technology.
- Embroidered Family Photos | Juana Gomez
- In Embroidered Family Photos, Juana Gomez uses weaving and the medium of embroidery to show how the themes of genealogy, mythology and biology are evident in the female bloodline of her family. This is done in many different ways and honestly the website is better at explaining them than I will ever be.
- Wynard Station escalators | Chris Fox
- In a rather elegant and sentimental piece of sculpture, the Wynyard Station escalator artwork (otherwise known as Interloop) is a charming underground piece that shows how a window to the past can often evoke feelings of great entanglement. Interloop is a hanging assemblage of four intertwining wooden escalators (of only seven currently in existence in the world today). Hanging from a metro system in Sydney, the work is an homage to the olden days, where people rode these instead of their aluminum counterparts down below (in every sense of the phrase).
- Gemelli (Twins) | Alighiero Boetti
- This almost frightening artwork shows a far more common and close entanglement than the previous ones. That of twins. In this work, Boetti shows twins (or Gemelli in Italian) holding hands and walking down a leaf-covered path. The way they look into the camera is rather intimidating, showing you just how close and alike these two people are.
- The Bus | Frida Kahlo
- Music
- Für Elise | Ludwig van Beethoven
- This is one of the most well known classic romantic pieces to this day. The swinging dynamics and articulation invites all listeners into a dreamy world of beautiful romance and love, as well as a subtle sadness. All those listening to this song tends to swing back and forth (like I am right now as I’m writing to this while listening), due to its aggressive yet tender nature. “Nobody knows who the "Elise" in the title was. She might have been a lady called Therese that Beethoven wanted to marry in 1810.”(simple wikipedia) When playing this song, pianists put all of their complicated romantic emotions straight onto the keyboard, which allows this song to have as much power as it does.
- Habanera | Georges Bizet
- “Carmen, opera in four acts by French composer Georges Bizet—with a libretto in French by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy—that premiered on March 3, 1875. With a plot based on the 1845 novella of the same name by Prosper Mérimée, Bizet’s Carmen was groundbreaking in its realism, and it rapidly became one of the most popular Western operas of all time. It is the source of many memorable and widely recognized songs, notably those known by the popular names “Toréador Song” and “Habanera.” Carmen also is the best-known example of opéra-comique, a genre of French opera not necessarily comic but featuring both spoken dialogue and sung portions. Despite its current reputation, however, it was condemned by the earliest critics, who were unaccustomed to seeing the lives of the common folk, much less the world of gypsies (in Mérimée they are specifically identified with the Roma), smugglers, deserters, factory workers, and various ne’er-do-wells given centre stage.” The sudden change in dynamics from pianissimo to fortissimo is the key highlight of this song. This wakes up the listener from the hazy, relaxing melody by strings.
- Khallini Shoufak | Najwa Karam
- This is an Arabic pop song. The title directly translates in English to “Lemme See You at Night”. Looking at translated lyrics, it is obvious that this is a love song. “Let me see your eyes Which are purer than the water of a spring Let me kiss your cheeks Oh my love”. The relationship to the theme is obvious, as it sings about everyday lifestyle between two passionate lovers constantly thinking about one another.
- Malaika | Miriam Makeba
- The Swahili title directly translates to “Angel”. A gentle melody backs up the tender yet powerful vocal melody in the folk style articulation and instrumentation. The lyrics of the chorus directly translate to “ The money (which I do not have) depresses my soul, I would marry you, angel”. Swahili is a developing African nation. Therefore in the verses, it states “Money, disturbs my heart”. This song is about how money interferes with developing genuine, honest love between two people, as well as expressing the sadness as a developing nation with many limitations.
- The Moon Represents My Heart | Teresa Teng
- This is a Taiwanese love song by Teresa Teng - “The best singer in Taiwan”. It sings about how much the singer loves another person, and her love is compared to the mass of the moon. The metaphor of the moon symbolizes that her love is as large as the moon, but is so far away; she wants her love to come closer. This represents her everyday life, missing her dear partner as she may live separately from her partner. So in the lyrics, she says “You ask me how deep I love you, how much my love is, You think about it, You go take a look, The Moon Represents My Heart”. And so when her partner looks out the window to see the moon, he/she’ll probably see a small moon so far away, yet so bright and inalienable. Also, the fact that it’s the moon and not the sun, relates to the concept of a lover’s night, when good things happen between people. Like many love songs, this also has a slow rhythm and utilizes a soft, strung harmony.
- Ojalá | Silvio Rodriguez
- This is a Spanish song by Silvio Rodriguez, the father of a political folk music movement in Cuba. According to the person who translated this song, “The word “ojalá” doesn’t exist in English. It originally comes from the Arabic “inshallah” – or if Allah wills it. It can be translated as “I hope”, “hopefully”, “let’s hope”, “God willing”, but none of those are exactly right.” The lyrics go “To your decrepit government of death and flowers”, “May something happen soon to erase you. A blinding light, a shot of snow.” This is a protest to the government, wishing for them to be perished by justice, a “binding light”. “As ever, it marks him out as a musician who gives voice to the experience of everyday life and legitimate concerns of many young Cubans. The - if you like - anti-hero of the revolution, Rodríguez has always sung about everyday things, and in the process given voice to a generation of Latin-Americans. We meet in the office of his Havana recording studios Ojalá, named after one of his best-known songs. An Arabic-Spanish word meaning "let's hope so", Ojalá sums up the questioning attitude to life he's held since he began composing with his guitar while doing military service back in the 1960s. By writing songs that capture the doubts, dreams and beliefs of people's inner lives, he has become one of the most influential political singers alive, the man who changed the face of 20th-century song in Latin America and Spain, even if he is still largely unknown in the English-speaking world.”(The Guardian)
- What is Love | Haddaway
- In this 1993 pop song, the singer repeats “What is love? Baby don’t hurt me, don’t hurt me, no more”. This relates to the theme, in the sense that although love is often seen as something sweet and beautiful, being together with someone can also cause pain and anguish in one form or another. The question of whether one can regain their strength and love after that is of utmost importance. Note: Used in Black Panther the movie.
- Everybody Loves Somebody | Dean Martin
- This Jazz song by Dean Martin is about how the world is filled with people in love and how everybody needs a partner to fall in love with. How this relates to the theme, is in the concept of love in the everyday life. Since people are social animals, we are always conversing with others. This causes love and hate to be born naturally amongst us, which we call ‘entanglements’.
- We Are Family | Sister Sledge
- Traditional pop song, singing about how happy ‘we’ are for being part of the same family. Sister Sledge is an American musical vocal group from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Formed in 1971, the group consisted of sisters Debbie, Joni, Kim and Kathy Sledge. That explains the band name, as well as the chorus’s “We are family, I got all my sisters with me”. Listeners are able to reaffirm the happiness of being united with other people through blood, and learns to appreciate that there are people who will always walk the same path with you.
- The Quiz | Hello Saferide
- This is a pop song played only by an classic guitarist, pianist, and a vocalist. It is about the female writer, unsettled and unsure about her boyfriend/crush’s love for her. So to determine it, she’s made a little ‘quiz’. Some of the questions are, “Will you let me be myself”, “Is there anyone you'd rather wish I'd be”, “Do you still keep pictures of old girlfriends Are they prettier than me”. And the chorus sings “And if I'd fall, would you pick me up If I'd fall, would you pick me up”. The reason why this sentence is the chorus, may be because one of the most important requirement of a successful relationship, is that one would help out the other when needed. Mutual dependence (to an extent) allows for the relationship to be inseparable.
- Banana Pancakes | Jack Johnson
- This is a chill song played by two acoustic guitars and a male vocalist. This simple, calm song is about a man who is encouraging his wife/girlfriend to stay home as it is raining and pretend “there’s no world outside”. From this, we can infer that he really loves her and doesn’t want to be separated from one another. The second verse, “Just maybe Halaka ukulele mama made a baby Really don't mind the practice Cause you're my little lady Lady lady love me Cause I love to lay here lazy We could close the curtains Pretend like there's no world outside We could pretend it all the time And can't you see that it's just rainin' There ain't no need to go outside” utilizes the consonance of the letter ‘l’ to show how deeply in ‘Love’ he is. A very sweet song.
- Für Elise | Ludwig van Beethoven
Set II | Beyond Space and Time
- Art
- Live High Five | KLM
- A very interactive and fun piece of artwork, Dutch airline KLM decided to raise awareness by creating digital high-five machines that gave live feeds of Amsterdam and New York, cities 3,613 miles apart. It connected and entangled hundreds of people who would’ve otherwise never known each other. To incentivize this entanglement, KLM challenged people to achieve the “perfect high five” for the reward of KLM tickets to Amsterdam or New York.
- Mappa Mundi | Fra Mauro
- Back when humans still believed that the world was flat and feared sailing off it, one Italian monk by the name of Fra Mauro was the Google Maps of the 1400s. Renowned for accosting sailors and questioning them about the lands they had visited (from the goods traded there to the exotic wildlife they’d seen). Already renowned for his cartographic skills, he was doing this as a commission from King Alfonso of Portugal to produce a map of the world. Yet Mauro, being a wise monk and an expert cartographer, decided not to create his map by painstakingly sailing and landing at every landmass on Earth. Instead, he crowdsourced his information from sailors coming in from those landmasses. While also drawing the most accurate map at the time, he also added over 3000 annotations and illustrations, from the beasts his interviewees told him roamed the lands to the elusive gems awaiting merchants. In ensuring no religious references were present and also offering his own skeptical opinion on some of the more far-fetched tales, Mauro would set off the Golden Age of Exploration a century later, leading to the discovery of the Americas and new sea routes to Asia.
- Halfnhalf Project | shinli-art
- Inspired by a rather touching story, the HalfnHalf Project shows just how amazing and touching long-distance relationships can be. Shinli is actually a combination of Shin and Li, a couple separated by thousands of miles. While Shin lives in New York, Li still resides in Seoul. Thus they decided to do what all long-distance couples do, create a gallery of art showing their colliding worlds. From showing themselves in the natural scenery of their city to their everyday meals, Shin and Li illustrate how, despite being on different sides of the Earth and being surrounded by completely different cultures, their entanglement is still strong.
- Cueva de las Manos | Hunter-Gatherers
- Predating any artwork in this resource area by a long time, Cueva de las Manos (translating to “cave of the hands” in Spanish) is a piece of cave art unearthed in Patagonia (a southern region in Argentina) that is a true spectacle of human entanglement on the horizontal plane, time (as opposed to the vertical plane of distance). It is predicted that the many handprints and hunting scenes made in natural mineral pigments in this cave date back from 13,000 to 9,500 years ago. Back then, hunter-gatherers roamed the lands, searching for animals such as the guanaco to hunt and places to settle down for a few weeks before moving to more profitable lands. It’s even more amazing that the hands in this cave represent almost 4,000 years of human development, with each generation adding on the to ones that came before, despite hardly knowing anyone from that time.
- Love Locks Bridge | Residents of Cologne
- Rather famous this piece and the artist(s) name is incorrect (WSC check your sources). The Love Locks Bridge, otherwise known as the Hohenzollernbrücke bridge in Cologne, Germany, is the site where thousands of couples flock to each year to publicly display their affection for one another. To symbolize the strength of their attachment and entanglement to one another, the couple brings a padlock (usually inscribed or decorated in some way to identify it’s theirs) and clasps it to the side of the bridge. To symbolize the eternal nature of their love, the key is thrown off the bridge, into the waters of the river Rhine (imagine treasure hunters 50 years from now finding them!). To date, over 40,000 padlocks have been attached to the bridge since the tradition began in 2008, meaning that over 80,000 individuals have come here to show their special entanglement (hope I get to do this someday). Unfortunately, local officials are concerned as to whether this should be allowed to continue, as the added weight of the padlocks has put 2 more tons on the humble bridge (meaning it might collapse soon).
- Memory Matrix Installation | MIT
- When Azra Aksamija came up with the idea of this piece, her own past had no small part in inspiring the message it would send. Born in Bosnia, Azra Aksamija had been integrated into a country torn by war and the genocide of 80,000 Bosnian Muslims (as well as 20,000 other people). In the process, she learnt how destruction rewrites history by physically erasing all evidence of an ethnic group or culture. Whether that meant the physical destruction of monuments and other holy sites, or a politically engineered takeover mattered not. Thus it was that Aksamija created the Memory Matrix Installation in front of the MIT Wiesner building in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Open to the public for their participation, it contains 20,000 green plexiglass tiles with laser cuttings of lost monuments, representative of lost generations or cultures. From a German synagogue destroyed in the First World War to a tree of indigenous knowledge in the Amazonian rainforest, each pixel hangs from a chain-link fence itself shaped like the Palmyra Arch of Triumph (destroyed by ISIS in 2015). The fence, which represents borders, is supported by scaffolding, which provides both structural support and symbolises the monument’s “constant state of restoring, rebuilding, and repairing.”Each tile is also stamped with a bitcoin address that only the user of the pixel has control over, allowing each pixel to be encoded with a (theoretically) indestructible message that anyone can access but not tamper with.
- Hemlock Hospice | David Buckley Borden & Aaron Ellison
- A piece that communicates the realities of science, Hemlock Hospice is actually a collection of sculptures integrated into a forest of Eastern Hemlock Trees which are under threat from Hemlock Woolly Adelgids from Asia (ironic since the trees are in American states such as New Jersey and Massachusetts). While also telling the story of these declining forests, the collection also voices the larger issues of climate change, human impact and the future of New England forests (the hemlock ones, scientists predict, will be extinct by 2025 if this continues).
- Relativity | M.C. Escher
- Not just an entanglement of humans, but also of time and space, relativity by M.C. Escher is a piece of art you’ve probably seen before, but never knew who was actually behind it. This is the famous painting of staircases in a world where gravity does not apply. Honestly however, reading the Wikipedia description is slightly better than reading this one, as it contains lots more detail.
- Live High Five | KLM
- Music
- Hey There Delilah | Plain White T’s
- A simple, calm pop song. Inferring from the lyrics, Delilah is a girl which left to New York for school (probably university), leaving her boyfriend/crush behind. He is now a “thousand miles away” but still madly in love with her. “I've got so much left to say If every simple song I wrote to you Would take your breath away I'd write it all Even more in love with me you'd fall” From this, we understand that he is a musician, which wrote this song for his girlfriend in New York. It is simply beautiful how love and music is able to connect the gap of a thousand miles, bringing two people together.
- Guess How Much I Love You | The Lucksmiths
- This is a love song written by The Lucksmiths, about a man writing/phone calling his girlfriend, because she went away. Their long distance relationship hasn’t ended yet, as there was “The loneliness of the long distance phone call”, and they still love each other. However most long distance relationships have the tendency to vanish into thin air after a while.
- We Didn’t Start the Fire | Billy Joel
- "We Didn't Start the Fire" is a song by American musician Billy Joel. Its lyrics include brief, rapid-fire allusions to more than 100 headline events between 1949, the year of Joel's birth, and 1989, when the song was released on his album Storm Front. The song was nominated for the Grammy Award for Record of the Year. The song was also a No. 1 hit in the United States. In its lyrics, this song lists major events which was on newspaper headlines in the post war era (1949 to 1989). Don’t blame his generation for all the crud in the world, he seems to say—“we didn't start the fire.” If anything, his generation tried to clean up some of the mess it inherited—“we didn't light it, but we tried to fight it.” Joel said that the ultimate purpose of the song was to neither provide a complete account nor pass blame; what he really wanted to do was help young people realise that there are lessons in the past that might help us work through the present. That may be why he somewhat curiously included George Santayana in the song. The Harvard professor stated, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Joel phrased it a bit less poetically; “No matter how much you try,” he said, “the world is going to be a mess. All you can do is the best you can and maybe make the world immediately around you a better place.” Huh, and here we were living life as if only the good die young.
- Murder in the City | The Avett Brothers
- This song by the Avett Brothers is about storge (family love) in the writer’s family. He says in the lyrics that “If I get murdered in the city Don't go revengin in my name One person dead from such is plenty No need to go get locked away”. In the other verses he flashbacks at the times when he was young, spending quality time with his brother, sister, and parents. This song is a duet, and he is singing with another guy (perhaps his brother), and he mentions in the last verse that “Make sure my sister knows I loved her Make sure my mother knows the same Always remember, there was nothing worth sharing Like the love that let us share our name”. The love which bonds members of a family is sung in this beautiful song.
- Letter to Me | Brad Paisley
- "Letter to Me is a song written and recorded by American country music singer Brad Paisley. It was released in October 2007 as the third single from his album 5th Gear. The song spent four weeks at Number One on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts in February 2008, becoming his sixth consecutive Number One on that chart,[1] as well as his tenth overall. The song is part of the tracklist for Now That's What I Call Country.” This song starts with “If I could write a letter to me And send it back to myself at 17”. When he was 17, he broke up with his girlfriend after 7 months when he loved her so much. He says to him(self), “But you’ll make it through this and you’ll see”. He also talks about other experiences when he was 17 which made him back then think that it was the end for him, such as when he had to study for an algebra test or else his parents would “kill” him. However in the end he tells his younger self that everything would be fine, and there are great things up ahead such as getting married, having kids, etc. He also states what he wishes he’s done when he was 17, like “Go hug Aunt Rita every chance you can”, “learning spanish”, and “taking typing classes”. This implies that missing out on these has caused him some pain in the future/past. P.S. I changed the hyperlink to the song to the lyrics video because the original was banned in Thailand.
- Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) | Green Day
- "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) is a song by the American punk rock band Green Day. Although written by lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong before the release of the band's third album Dookie (1994), the song was not released until Green Day's fifth album, Nimrod (1997), and was the second single released from that album. An alternative version (in a different key, with a faster tempo and sparer arrangement) appeared as a B-side to the 1995 European single for "Brain Stew/Jaded". It has become a staple of the band's concerts and is usually played as the final song. Although it was not issued as a single at the time of its release in the United States, "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" sold over 2.6 million copies as a digital download in the country. The song was certified Platinum in the United Kingdom for sales of 600,000.” In this song, Green day sings about the uncertainties of life and how to approach it: “It's something unpredictable, but in the end it's right I hope you had the time of your life”. It states that “Time grabs you by the wrist, directs you where to go”. The thematic topics explored in this song include fate/destiny, hope, and happiness.
- You Will Be Found | Dear Evan Hansen
- Dear Evan Hansen is a stage musical with music and lyrics by Pasek and Paul, and a book by Steven Levenson. The musical opened on Broadway at the Music Box Theatre in December 2016, after its world premiere at the Arena Stage in Washington, DC, in July 2015 and an Off-Broadway production in March to May 2016. The titular character, Evan Hansen, is a high school senior who suffers from social anxiety disorder, which inhibits his ability to connect with other people and make friends. After the death of one of his classmates, he fabricates a lie that inadvertently brings him closer to the classmate's family, while also allowing him to gain his own sense of purpose. The musical has received critical acclaim, particularly for Ben Platt's leading performance, the lyrics, and the book, and has served as a touchstone for discussion about pre-mature storytelling and themes explored in musical theatre, particularly that of mental illness. At the 71st Tony Awards, it was nominated for nine awards, winning six, including Best Musical, Best Score, Best Actor in a Musical for Platt, and Best Featured Actress in a Musical for Jones.
- This piece by DEAR EVAN HANSEN Original Broadway Cast Recording is about how the people around you such as friends and family will help you when you feel lost and alone. In the song, Evan put a video of his ‘speech’ on the internet. The viewers exponentially increased from 59 to 16,239 due to the power of social media, and people have ‘found’ him. This is where the song chorus and title comes from, “You will be Found”. “There's a place where we don't have to feel unknown”. Perhaps this also connects the WSC themes about social media and how we are not closely entangled with one another; however, this bring about positive and negative impacts. Luckily, it was positive in this case.
- Someday Out of the Blue | Elton John
- It is known to be the main theme of the soundtrack for the film The Road to El Dorado ( The Road to Eldorado Soundtrack , 2000). Particularly curious in this sense turns out to be the videoclip of the song: in fact Elton turns into animated cartoon and appears in the animated film together with the protagonists. However, despite the piano playing in the video, it is not present at any keyboard in the piece and just sings (it is in fact the producer Patrick Leonard to take care of all the keyboards and programming). Tim Guzzi, Heitor Pereira and Dean Parks are present at the guitars. The drums are played by Curt Bisquera, while the percussions are played by Luis Conte. In the choirs we find Richard Page, Siedah Garrett, Lynn Davis, Kudisan Kai,Davey Johnstone , Phillip Ingram and Dorian Holley; the arrangement of the strings is the work of Jeremy Lubbock. The title of Rice's text means One Day Suddenly . In the film, two con-men (Kevin Kline, Kenneth Branagh) get hold of a map to the lost City of Gold, El Dorado. After stowing away onto one of the ships of the Spanish explorer Cortez, the pair escapes and eventually do find the city. There, a priest (Armand Assante) proclaims them to be gods in a scheme to win control of the city for himself. Meanwhile, they meet a beautiful girl (Rosie Perez) who helps them in their ruse.
- This song is about destined love, in which the writer sings that “Someday out of the blue In a crowded street Or a deserted square I'll turn and I'll see you As if our love were new Someday we can start again someday soon”. The chorus states “I still believe I still put faith in us”, expressing how he is sure that he will find his soulmate someday, but he doesn’t know when.
- Hey There Delilah | Plain White T’s
- Art
- Girl with a Pierced Eardrum | Banksy
- Ah Banksy, that mysterious street artist whose works have popped up in metropolises all over the globe. This work in his hometown of Bristol is a parody of the 1655 “Girl with A Pearl Earring” by Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer, with a burglar alarm in the place of the earring. This work relates to the Set III “When Worlds Collide” by combining an old piece with the technology of the current world. The title is also a play on words with the earpiece, in the original piece it was a literal piercing, whereas in this version the pierced eardrum refers to a loss of hearing thanks to the loud sounds of the burglar alarm.
- Magdalene's Niece | Cesar Santos
- A literal collision of artistic mediums, Cesar Santos depicts Mary Magdalene, a companion of Jesus Christ who was a Jewish woman. On the right of the image her hair links to another woman, her “niece” apparently. No idea how this connects to a collision of worlds.
- Emoji Nation, Part 3 | Nastya Pitchek
- Yet another collision of times, Nastya Pitchek replaces the pictures of movie posters with historical artworks, all rather fitting for the movie titles. From using “The Scream” for Home Alone to “The Great Wave off Kanagawa” for 2012. A collision of worlds yet again, in the time sense.
- Things From Space | Mark Bryan
- You can probably tell from the title how this artwork is a collision of worlds, with the pieces of art (also parodies of traditional works like “the last supper”) having elements of sci-fi or alien-like influences in them. From giant robots towering overhead to UFOs shining beams of providence down.
- Royal Ontario Museum | Daniel Libeskind
- Like something from a mad scientist's lair, the Royal Ontario Museum is itself a collision of worlds. A new section contains 5 modern steel structures, similar to diamonds in shape and color. However, this structure is integrated into the original brick building, slamming historical and modern architecture together into one venue.
- EnTWINed | The Singh Twins
- An artwork piece by two Indian Twins hailing from Liverpool, EnTWINed seeks to redress the balance of colonial history. It aims to, according to the Singh Twins “show that the reality of colonialism and its legacy is not simply black and white and nor does it exist as one undisputed narrative. Their art reminds us that while we in the West claim an awareness of the oppressions and horrors of colonialism, we continue to dominate all discourse surrounding it.”
- Girl with a Pierced Eardrum | Banksy
- Music
- Michelle | The Beatles
- “Michelle is a love ballad by the Beatles, composed principally by Paul McCartney, with the middle eight co-written with John Lennon. It is featured on their Rubber Soul album, released in December 1965. The song is unusual among Beatles recordings in that some of its lead vocals are in French, although "Paperback Writer" contains the backing vocals "Frère Jacques". "Michelle" won the Grammy Award for Song of the Year in 1967 and has since become one of the best known and most often recorded of all Beatles songs.”
- They are telling Michelle she is beautifully assembled, like the words they have put together to express their affection for her and her mother tongue.
- Amen, Brother | The Winstons
- “The full song is an up-tempo instrumental rendition of Jester Hairston's "Amen", which he wrote for the Sidney Poitier film Lilies of the Field (1963) and which was subsequently popularised by The Impressions in 1964.”
- The Amen break is a 6- to 7-second (4-bar) drum solo performed by Gregory Sylvester "G. C." Coleman in the song "Amen, Brother" performed by the 1960s funk and soul outfit The Winstons. The full song is an up-tempo instrumental rendition of Jester Hairston's "Amen", which he wrote for the Sidney Poitier film Lilies of the Field (1963) and which was subsequently popularised by The Impressions in 1964. The Winstons' version was released as a B-side of the 45 RPM 7-inch vinyl single "Color Him Father" in 1969 on Metromedia (MMS-117), and is currently available on several compilations and on a 12-inch vinyl re-release together with other songs by The Winstons. It gained fame from the 1980s onwards when four bars (6 seconds) sampled from the drum-solo (or imitations thereof) became very widely used as sampled drum loops in breakbeat, hip hop, breakbeat hardcore, hardcore techno and breakcore, drum and bass (including oldschool jungle and ragga jungle), and digital hardcore music. The Amen break has been sampled frequently from 1985 to the present day, in hip-hop, ragga, drum'n'bass, jungle music and various other forms: "a six-second clip that spawned several entire subcultures". Because of the Amen break, "Amen, Brother" is by far the most sampled track in the history of music, having been sampled at least 2,239 times.
- Almost Like Praying | Lin-Manuel Miranda
- "Almost Like Praying is a song written by Lin-Manuel Miranda and recorded by him and numerous artists under the collective name Artists for Puerto Rico. The song was released on October 6, 2017 by Atlantic Records to support relief efforts in Puerto Rico in response to Hurricane Maria, which struck the island in September 2017. Proceeds from the song are to be donated to the victims and survivors of the hurricane. The song debuted at number 20 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number one on the Billboard Digital Songs Sales chart, selling 111,000 downloads and achieving 5.2 million streams in its first week of availability in the US.”
- Most of the lyrics are in Spanish and is hard to analyse for me, but this song shows the unity within Puerto Rico, in order to persevere through the tough times.
- Earth Passport | Liquid Blue
- “Liquid Blue is an American indie pop rock band/cover band formed in San Diego, California in 1996 by Scott Stephens & Michael Vangerov. The group has performed in more than 500 cities in 100 countries on six continents and have been recognised as "the world's most traveled band". They are more popular in parts of Asia and Europe than in their home country (USA). In 2010 the group scored their first hit in the United States with the song "Earth Passport", which reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot Dance Chart in October 2010. Earth Passport was recorded using nine languages including all six of the official languages of the United Nations. Liquid Blue received a Guinness World Record for "Earth Passport" for "Song Sung in the Most Languages".” This song is a tribute to the United Nations and the US Department of Peace. Liquid Blue has performed in over 110 countries and this song is based on our unique world view. The lyrics are sung in all the official UN languages including English, Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish as well as Hindi. We are a Green Certified band. One world, one planet, one people.
- Where the Hell is Matt? | Matt Harding
- “Where the Hell is Matt? is an Internet phenomenon that features a video of Dancing Matt (Matt Harding) doing a dance "jig" in many different places around the world in 2005. The video garnered popularity on the video sharing site YouTube. There are now five major videos plus two outtakes and several background videos on YouTube. Matt dances alone in the first videos. In 2008 others join with him doing the dance "jig"; in 2010 he does the Diski Dance in South Africa. In 2012 he works with other dancers, sometimes using a local dance or another dance step.”
- By performing a dance together as an entire world, this song symbolises unity; similar to Earth Passport above. We always seem to be so distant and so far apart. Yet, actually, we are actually only one people. I was surprised to see that North Korea was in the list of the places they’ve been to (surprised he made it out alive).
- Michelle | The Beatles
- Case Studies
- Louvre Abu Dhabi Review | Holland Cotter
- What an interesting “creation” of sorts. Holland Cotter reports on how Abu Dhabi has leased the Louvre brand and have made their own Louvre, with a bit of the desert twist. Indeed a true example of how our current creations can be entanglements of another.
- Embrace the Remix | Kirby Ferguson
- In this TED talk, Kirby Ferguson addresses how nothing created is “original” and that creativity is indeed the human ability to remix other elements of art to make their own “remix”. Quoting famous examples from singers in the past, Ferguson says that being able to do this is a key part of the human function and that we should allow and inspire it within ourselves.
- Happy Birthday
- Been at any birthday before? You’ve probably heard the “Happy Birthday To You” song, yet what you might not have heard is how complicated the history of this song has caused quite a few interesting entanglements. The original name of the song was “Good Morning To All” and was created by 2 Hill sisters, Mildred and Patty in 1859. The Third Hill sister, Jessica secured the copyright to the song in 1934, stating that a royalty be paid incase the song is used in any media or daily events (which is very much going to happen). In 1988 however, after a string of legal battles, Warner Music acquired the copyright to the song and benefited massively from the reported 2 million dollars of annual royalties (half of which goes to the Hill Foundation in honor of the supposed original creators). In 2013 however, after filmmaker Jennifer Nelson refused to pay $1500 to use the song in her work about it, the copyright went to court. 2 years later, a US judge rules that "Happy Birthday to you" is not under copyright and is public domain.
- Louvre Abu Dhabi Review | Holland Cotter
- Art
- House of Thorns | Alice Maher
- Rather an interesting piece because of its simplicity and how it relates to the “Caught Up in the Knots” theme. A house made of thorns is certainly rather knotty and may symbolize wishing to be isolated from society, thus meaning one has been caught up in the knots of entanglements too many times to ever want to again.
- Inflatable Bag Animals | Joshua Allen Harris
- A very funny and rather ingenious art piece, Harris uses white plastic grocery bags and other normal items of trash to create animal sculptures that only expanded and appeared when a gust of air blew beneath them (usually from the New York subway underneath the grating below).
- Alexander Cuts Gordian Knot | Jean Simon Berthélemy
- A historical reference to the tale of the Gordian Knot, this artwork refers to when Alexander the Great encountered a knot so complicated and intricate, he simply cut through it to untie an ox-cart to fulfill a prophecy about being ruler of all Asia. This is literally getting caught up in the knots, as a Gordian Knot now refers to an intricate problem that can be easily solved by a loophole.
- Countdown | Wenqing Yan
- A very clever piece that I rather like, Wenqing Yan is clearly sending a message about climate change and melting ice caps. In an hourglass, the top is composed of Polar bears on melting Arctic ice, while the bottom shows a human with a TV swimming in the water created as a result of melting ice and rising sea levels. Getting caught up in the knots of climate change, humans and all species will suffer.
- Periscope | Pawel Kuczynski
- A piece of artwork shown somewhere in my school, Periscope depicts how getting caught up in the knots of social media (facebook in this case) can change our view of the world. It shows the Facebook logo being used as a periscope, which a man uses to peer out of his cell, despite the door being open.
- House of Thorns | Alice Maher
- Music
- Finlandia | Jean Sibelius
- “Finlandia, Op. 26, is a tone poem by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. It was written in 1899 and revised in 1900. The piece was composed for the Press Celebrations of 1899, a covert protest against increasing censorship from the Russian Empire, and was the last of seven pieces performed as an accompaniment to a tableau depicting episodes from Finnish history. The premiere was on 2 July 1900 in Helsinki with the Helsinki Philharmonic Society conducted by Robert Kajanus. A typical performance takes between 7½ and 9 minutes.”
- Tangled Up in Blue | Bob Dylan
- “Tangled Up in Blue is a song by Bob Dylan. It appeared on his album Blood on the Tracks in 1975. Released as a single, it reached #31 on the Billboard Hot 100. Rolling Stone ranked it #68 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. The Telegraph has described the song as "The most dazzling lyric ever written, an abstract narrative of relationships told in an amorphous blend of first and third person, rolling past, present and future together, spilling out in tripping cadences and audacious internal rhymes, ripe with sharply turned images and observations and filled with a painfully desperate longing."
- Somebody Told Me | The Killers
- "Somebody Told Me is a song by American rock band the Killers. It was released as the second official single from the group's debut studio album Hot Fuss (2004), and was written by band members Brandon Flowers, Mark Stoermer, Dave Keuning and Ronnie Vannucci Jr.. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Brandon Flowers said "This is the story of trying to meet someone in a club." It is written in the key of B-flat minor. When the Killers first started out, their music was little noticed by music buyers and the media, which is why "Somebody Told Me" has been released twice in slightly different forms. The first, with the pink background cover, is the rarer version of the single as it was their first release of it; due to poor sales, not as many were produced. When re-released, the cover-art sported a blue background color and is the more common version of the single.”
- Every Breath You Take | The Police
- "Every Breath You Take is a song by English rock band The Police from their 1983 album Synchronicity. Written by Sting, the single was the biggest US and UK hit of 1983, topping the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for eight weeks (the band's only number-one hit on that chart), and the UK Singles Chart for four weeks. It also topped the Billboard Top Tracks chart for nine weeks. At the 26th Annual Grammy Awards the song was nominated for three Grammy Awards, including Song of the Year, Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals, and Record of the Year, winning in the first two categories. For the song, Sting received the 1983 British Academy's Ivor Novello award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically. The song is considered to be both The Police's and Sting's signature song, and in 2010 was estimated to generate between a quarter and a third of Sting's music publishing income. In the 1983 Rolling Stone critics and readers poll, it was voted "Song of the Year". In the US, it was the best-selling single of 1983 and fifth-best-selling single of the decade. Billboard ranked it as the number-one song for 1983.”
- In a Crowd of Thousands | Anastasia
- “Anastasia is a musical with music and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, and a book by Terrence McNally. Inspired by the 1997 film of the same name, the musical tells the story of the legend of Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia, which claims that she, in fact, escaped the execution of her family. Anastasia, who appears in the plot as an amnesiac orphan named Anya, hopes to find some trace of her family, but sides with con men who wish to take advantage of her likeness to the Grand Duchess.The musical premiered on Broadway in April 2017. The musical was nominated for the Drama Desk award for Best Musical, among other award nominations.”
- Memory | Cats
- “Memory is a show tune from the 1981 musical Cats.[1] It is sung by the character Grizabella, a one-time glamour cat who is now only a shell of her former self. The song is a nostalgic remembrance of her glorious past and a declaration of her wish to start a new life. Sung briefly in the first act and in full near the end of the show, "Memory" is the climax of the musical, and by far its most popular and best-known song. Elaine Paige originated the role of Grizabella in the West End production of Cats, the first to perform the song publicly on stage and bringing attention to its writers Andrew Lloyd Webber and Trevor Nunn, who received the 1981 Ivor Novello award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically.”
- Bizarre Love Triangle | New Order
- "Bizarre Love Triangle is a song by the English rock band New Order, released as a single in 1986 from their fourth studio album, Brotherhood (1986), which reached the top five on the US Hot Dance Music/Club Play Singles chart,[5] and No. 5 on the Australian ARIA Charts (No. 1 on the Victoria state chart) in March 1987. It failed to make the top 40 in either the United Kingdom (only reaching No. 56) or the US Billboard Hot 100. In the United States, the song also reached the eighth position on the Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales chart, but failed to chart on the Hot 100 during its original 1986 release. However, a new mix included on The Best of New Order was released in 1994 and finally made a brief appearance on the Billboard Hot 100 in the number 98 position in 1995.In 2004 the song was ranked number 201 in Rolling Stone's "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time".”
- Treaty | Yothu Yindi
- "Treaty is a song by Australian indigenous music band Yothu Yindi, which is made up of Aboriginal and balanda (non-Aboriginal) members. Released in June 1991, "Treaty" peaked at No. 11 on the ARIA Singles Chart in September. "Treaty" was the first song by a predominately-Aboriginal band to chart in Australia[6] and was the first song in any Aboriginal Australian language (Yolngu-Matha) to gain extensive international recognition, peaking at No. 6 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play singles charts.”
- Finlandia | Jean Sibelius
- Consider Marc Chagall’s take on Cubism. How can art be used to depict memories, and can different styles of art evoke the past in different ways?
- Art can be used to depict memories in many ways, from literally representing them like in Marc Chagall’s work, or by symbolically representing the memories themselves. Different styles of art can indeed evoke the past in different ways, by evoking different feelings associated with the past.
- Take a look at this modern parody of a classic artwork, and discuss: does such a recreation honor and immortalize the original work, or does it diffuse its cultural impact? If you were in Vermeer’s position, would you be happy with it?
- I’d be fairly honored if I were Vermeer to know that my artwork has been transformed into a modern day version; albeit slightly less formal than the original. Indeed most of the aspects on Banksy’s work are true to the original and as such I think it honors and immortalizes such work.
- Look through this gallery of pictures created by two artists and lovers. Note how, on their about page, they say that “the message inside each artwork becomes stronger as it is reproduced by the audiences”. Is this true? Is art more powerful when it’s not just relatable, but potentially recreatable?
- Indeed it is. Art is much more powerful when you can also recreate it, that’s because you can feel the message the artist wished to inspire on a more personal level as you go through what they did to make the artwork. You’re not just standing their marvelling at someone else’s work and attempting to get the feelings, you’re doing it yourself so the feelings come to you.
- Are there any downsides to the padlock metaphor—and is it right for cities to encourage such installations?
- The main downside is obviously the hidden obligations it has. For a couple to attach a padlock onto a bridge means for them to be bound together eternally, seeing as they throw the key into whatever body of water is nearby. If they are to then separate afterwards, it’s a pretty bad sign to prematurely attach a padlock. Honestly I think cities should reserve special bridges in certain areas where they can do this, since the one in Cologne is coming dangerously close to collapsing.
- Over the years, the “Happy Birthday” song has been translated into dozens of languages, permeating into different cultures worldwide. How did this process take place? What is unique about each version, and what (if anything) do they all share?
- Firstly, the Happy Birthday song permeated into different cultures simply because it was universally understandable, the message is wishing someone Happy Birthday in a quick yet pleasant song. Each version is unique because the language allows the rhythm and line to sound different, while in reality the same general structure is followed.
- The Amen Break is only the most famous musical sample of all time, having inspired everything from the entire genre of drum ‘n’ bass to the Powerpuff Girls theme song. What is it about this drum fill that inspires people to sample it in so many styles? And is it ethical to do so, considering the original drummer never received any royalties for it?
- I suppose the main thing that allows this drum fill to be sampled in so many different styles is because it is fairly easy to sample. There are no words, no specific follow ups and no other instruments included, so you could just fit this into some blank space in a musical and be fine with it. As for the ethical side, I certainly think that by this point in time it doesn’t really matter, seeing as so many people have already used it without paying royalties. I suppose we just gloss over the fact that someone actually made this music sample which we are now copying without giving it a second thought.
- Is your city featured in this video? Watch this man goofily dance in cities across the world (including some of our Global Round locations!) and discuss the implications of the fact that so many people from disparate cultures came together to make this happen. Can we consider dance to be a universal language?
- Firstly, my cities are featured in said video, though I will not mention which ones are my city. The main implication of so many different cultures and people coming together shows just how entangle mankind naturally is. Dance can be considered a universal language, albeit each part of the world has their own specialized style, there are several which can be used worldwide to create bonds.
- Listen to You Will Be Found, and discuss with your team: what does it mean to need to be found? Would something like the Connor Project be realistic in today's world, and how can (and should) we use social (or other forms of) media to help those who might need to be found?
- I suppose to be found means to be known in whatever community you are a part of and for people to realize your contributions to the society, no matter what they were. The Connor Project, while seemingly far-fetched in world, actually might be plausible given enough time and effort. The main problem however is finding a cause to start it, as most people nowadays are already so entangled because of social media. There already are plenty of social media groups that work with helping those lost be found, so I suppose we are already doing the right things.