User:Georgiagilbert

=Humanities I/The Commons=

Bio
My name is Georgia Gilbert. I'm originally from Clinton, New Jersey but moved here 11 years ago. I am hoping to become a cultural anthropology major at Western Washington University next quarter, but I guess we will see how that turns out. My favourite subjects are history, humanities and anthropology of all kinds. I am fluent in English and know a bit of Japanese, a few words in Chinese and Spanish and I can say "Thank You" in Hebrew. I enjoy spending my weekends with my boyfriend in Bellingham while I work and go to school during the week. I recently turned 21 so it's been fun trying all different kinds of beers and mixed drinks - I especially love hot buttered rum - though I am not really a heavy drinker. I enjoy swimming when the weather permits, drawing, watching Japanese TV dramas/movies and playing video games. I am currently playing Assassin's Creed 2...an amazing game for sure.

Midterm Research Project
Vienna Reverse-Graffiti 4 Minute Documentary

Reverse Graffiti used for advertising

My E-mails to Seattle about the legality of Reverse Graffiti
So...it's currently February 23rd and I still have not heard back from the city about the legality of reverse graffiti. I can only assume that 1) the employees of Seattle Utilities have no idea what they're doing or cannot physically answer a simple question because they are incompitent fools who don't know how to do their jobs OR 2) everyone is on vacation OR 3) everyone was fired because this country has such a huge deficit and they'd rather put more money into the "war against terrorism" (aka anyone who believes they are wrong) OR 4) they are super busy and don't have time to look up complicated legal codes for a student in art school. Any of these possibilities seem reasonable to me, though I think the 2nd option would be the most pleasant.

Georgia Gilbert to Seattle City Clerk's Office - February 2nd, 2010

Hello,

''My name is Georgia Gilbert. I am currently attending a Humanities course at the Art Institute of Seattle and had a couple of questions about the Graffiti Nuisance Code in the City of Seattle (title 10, chapter 10.07, ordinance 118082) and was wondering if someone might be so kind as to answer them?''

''My questions mainly pertain to graffiti on private property viewable by the public on a regular basis but with the expressed permission of the property owner to be there and a new kind of art called reverse graffiti where the artist finds a dirty wall on a premises open to the public and uses water or a damp cloth to wipe the dirt off in an artistic manner that creates an image. I was wondering about the legality of each of these things, and if the City of Seattle would place reverse graffiti in the same category as graffiti even though the artist is removing a pre-existant substance and not adding one to a surface which is how this ordinance has defined the term graffiti?''

Thank you so much for your time.

Sincerely, Georgia Gilbert

Reply - February 4th, 2010.

Dear Ms. Gilbert,

'''Thanks for contacting the City Clerk's Office with your question about the Graffiti Nuisance Code, Seattle Municipal Code (SMC) 10.07.

The following definitions in SMC 10.07.010 may be useful in the context of your query:

'''C. "Graffiti" means unauthorized markings, visible from premises open '''to the public, that have been placed upon any property through the use '''of paint, ink, chalk, dye or any other substance capable of marking property.

J. "Unauthorized" means without the consent of a responsible party.

'''I. "Responsible party" means an owner, or an entity or person acting '''as an agent for an owner by agreement, who has authority over the property or is responsible for the property's maintenance or management. Irrespective of any arrangement to the contrary with any '''other party, each owner shall always be a responsible party for the '''purposes of this chapter. There may be more than one responsible party for a particular property.

Ordinance link

'''"Marking" is unfortunately not defined, and I'm not qualified to advise you on how it was intended to be construed. The Graffiti Nuisance Code is administered and enforced by Seattle Public Utilities, so if you have further questions about its interpretation I would recommend contacting them directly:'''

Seattle Public Utilities Complaint Request Link

I hope this information will be helpful; please let me know if I can be of further assistance.

Sincerely,

Janet Polata

So...I sent the same email to the Seattle Public Utilities with the exception of asking for a definition for the term "Marking". I still have not received a reply, but will update this once I get one.

Final Public Art Project
For my final I decided to borrow an idea from the old Pegasus Coffee Place (the original place, not the one in Seattle) before they got sold and turned into a cafe/bar (which is like the saddest thing in the universe). When I was younger (like 14-17) I would go there in the mornings before school and get hot chocolate and browse through these little sketchbooks that they had put out for customers to doodle in. They were awesome, filled with amazing drawings and poems etc. Of course after they got turned into the fakey un-Pegasus that they are now, they threw the sketchpads away. Such a shame. my final project is to go to as many coffee places or just hangout places that I can and drop off sketchbooks for everyday people to doodle in or do whatever with. I'll collect and present them for my final! Not a ton, just a few. I was thinking 6 total.

Sketchpad Places
I wanted these sketchpads to be in places that people frequently visited and didn't necessarily have to pay money to "get in". I also don't want them stolen. These are the places I thought might be fun, and of course I emailed/called owners/managers to get their permission before hand. I also started each sketchbook myself and drew something in the beginning of each one.

Seattle
Ahh Seattle. Home to Microsoft, Nintendo, Pikes Place Market, the infamous "Smile" hobo and with an estimated population of 6,659,018 people residing in the greater metropolitan area according to an April 2009 statistic. This does not include Tacoma or Seattle-Tacoma (they should think of a more original name if you ask me) or any other people that are visiting for business, vacation or because they are on the way to anywhere else. It also does not include everyday commuters such as myself. I've found that the majority of Seattleites can be split into a few categories: environmentalist, cyclist, hipster, crackhead, hobo, "environmentalist" (not the same as above), artist, "artist", business person, snob and awesome. Some people are a combination of these things, so the list can get pretty confusing. Most of the above occupations (I'm only using this word because if you fall into any or all of these categories you are probably occupied most of the time), are coffee drinkers. I am too lazy to try to find a coffee statistic such as "How much money do people spend each year on coffee in the greater Seattle metropolitan area?" but I assume with successful coffee shops like 2 feet away from each other pretty much anywhere you go that the number would be pretty mind boggling. People are pretty weird. I can't believe anyone would actually pay $7 for a ginormous cup of swill that will most definately create a high population of diabetics or brain cancer patients in the next 20 years (you know who you are, 22oz. Starbucks Triple Caramel Macchiato with whipped cream, extra caramel and toffee or anyone who uses an excess of sugar-free syrups and fake sugar drinkers)...coming from a place where "coffee" is the 99 cent 12 oz. cup of drip with a little single-serving creamer and 2 real sugars that you get from the little bodega down the street it's pretty disgusting, but I digress. Lots of coffee drinkers = lots of people to draw in sketchbooks. Hopefully.

Cherry Street Coffee House
Cherry Street Coffee House website 1st & Lenora location on Google maps. Owner/Manager very quick to respond to my email (sent Wednesday February 17th) which was awesome. Dropped off the book on Friday February 19th. Haven't checked on it yet. I just realized that I was supposed to drop it off at their 1st & Clay location but I dropped it off at their 1st & Lenora location accidentally instead. Dang nabbit.

Bauhaus Books + Coffee
Bauhaus Books + Coffee website Bauhaus Books + Coffee location on Google maps Email sent 2/17, reply recieved 2/18. I had really wanted to do this place because it is so popular in Seattle, but the manager said that the sketchbook would probably be stolen so I decided against it. =[ very dissapointed.

Seattle Coffee Works
Seattle Coffee Works website Seattle Coffee Works location on Google maps Email sent 2/17, reply recieved 2/19. Art manager seems super friendly but Im not sure if she understood what I was trying to do since she said she "would see what she could do." I'm hoping that it just means she'll have to ask the owner and hope she didn't think that she needed to get a sketchbook for me. Still waiting for a reply.

Self-Assessment
= Freshman Seminar =

"Always Wanted To..." Schedule

 * Topic

I've always wanted to learn more about different kinds of energy drinks. Energy drinks are said to be a "gamers" drink. In recent years, energy drinks have become increasingly popular with young adults and teenagers, leaving some wondering about the ill-effects of drinking such products in alarming quantities. Being an avid energy drinker myself, I have always wondered about the contents of energy drinks and the effects they have on the human body. During this quarter I want to explore the different kinds of energy drinks readily available to the consumer market, the differences in each product, and the effects that the ingredients may have on the body.


 * Research Component

For my research, I will try a new energy drink each week. I will rate the taste, aftertaste, and energy boost each product gives me. Afterwards, I will note the nutrition facts and ingredients, and do some research about each ingredient; which ingredients are harmful or beneficial to the body and why, how much a recommended amount of each ingredient per day would be, etc. I want this project to be kind of like the movie 'Super Size Me' but without actually consuming a deadly amount of each caffeinated beverage.


 * week 1

Starbucks Double Shot Cinnamon Dulce (tm). Research ingredients, nutrition values.


 * week 2

B.A.W.L.S. Research ingredients, nutrition values.


 * week 3

Cocaine (the energy drink! not the drug!). Research ingredients, nutrition values.


 * week 4

...Lost (tm). Research ingredients, nutrition values.


 * week 5

Monster (tm). Research ingredients, nutrition values.


 * week 6

Full Throttle Blue Demon (tm). Research ingredients, nutrition values.


 * week 7

NOS (tm). Research ingredients, nutrition values.


 * week 8

Create power point/hand out.

Midterm Assignment 1: Taste & Aesthetics
Upon receiving this midterm assignment, I knew immediately which sculpture I might focus my attention upon: “Typewriter Eraser Scale X” by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen. Looking at the piece in person, I find a strange vulgarity to it; a disconnection to the world. It feels cold to me. I am disturbed to find myself comparing it to a nipple tassel that might sit upon a strippers breast, swinging as she dances with lifeless eyes; gazing down on the dirty minded men who flock to her in hordes of anonymity....paying $10 a beer to watch a woman slowly become an empty shell as her soul is driven from her body through the lustful eyes of her patrons. I went into this assignment with a knowledge of myself that I understand that it is very difficult for me to change my opinion about something without random knowledge that I am surprised to find in other people. Upon more research about Claes Oldenburg, I found he is a “pop” artist and, ironically, a graduate of the Art Institute of Chicago. Coosje van Bruggen is his collaborator and wife. The whole purpose of his work is metamorphosis; taking an object that many may view as mundane and wholly uninteresting and recreating it in much larger scale and in different materials so that it may transform into something interesting and almost magical. “...Animating the inanimate” was a phrase that I came across that made me very interested in the kind of work that he does. It gave me a completely different understanding of his work, but sadly I found that I was growing to hate the piece even more than when I knew nothing about the artist. I feel that, compared to his earlier work of giant toilets made from canvas and stuffed with kapok so that they sag and give them life, “Typewriter Eraser Scale X” is nothing to celebrate. I don't feel that a giant typewriter eraser created to look almost exactly like an actual typewriter eraser has much metamorphosis to it, which is the point of Oldenburg's work. Of course I do believe that everyone's definition of artwork is different, but I feel that the interactive or statement pieces that he created in his earlier years (giant tubes of lipstick set upon tank treads, for example) inspire me much more than enlarged objects that I have no connection to. I wonder if perhaps I might feel differently about it if I grew up in an era that actually used typewriters instead of computers, but at this current point in time, I see no statement that the artist was possibly trying to create...no metamorphosis or whimsical feeling that I am supposed to feel when viewing his work. So, in the end and looking upon the piece once more, I find that my opinions about it have definitely changed; the direction they have gone, however, is not exactly what the assignment had in mind which I find a little strange. I am happy, though, that I could change my opinion at all, even if it is for the worse.

Final Project
Websites Cited... ENERGY FIEND News Tribune MSNBC

Images From... Shalina Gourmet Coffee Pure Caffeine Students of the World National Geographic Golden Root Retail Lak Ginseng My Energy Drink Reviews 1.Starbucks Double Shot Cinnamon Dolce At first taste, this is quite delicious. Multiple flavors coming out one after the next so its one surprise after the next. The aftertaste, however, is much too much like artificial sweetener for my taste. Energy boost – 7/10 Taste – 4.5/10 Crash – 2/10 (almost non-existent)

2.B.A.W.L.S. A gamer's classic, sweet but not overpoweringly so with an aftertaste that tastes pretty much exactly like the actual drink so the flavor lingers without changing. Energy boost – 6/10 Taste 8/10 Crash - 1/10

3.Cocaine (mild) I was afraid of this drink because I'd had the spicy version once before and it felt like I was drinking acid. The mild version is considerably better, has a fruity flavor that eventually settles into a strange, artificially sweet taste though it definitely isnt as bad as the starbucks double shot. Energy boost – 6/10 Taste – 6.5/10 Crash - 4/10

4....Lost An amazingly original flavor that surprised me at first. A delicious vanilla flavored drink with a hint of something I could not place and the perfect amount of carbonation and a wonderful aftertaste...it reminded me of french vanilla ice cream. =] Energy boost – 7/10 Taste – 9/10 Crash – 3.5/10

5.Monster Rockstar Energy's greatest rival. While claiming to contain no artificial sweeteners at all, it has a strange taste to it that kind of seems like it does, but maybe a little different. Takes a couple of them to get used to it. Energy boost – 6.5/10 Taste – 5/10 Crash - 1/10

6.Full Throttle Blue Demon Flavor derived from the blue agave plant (used to make tequila), its got a delicious uniqueness to it. Hard to describe. Energy boost – 7/10 Taste – 8/10 Crash - 3/10

7.NOS Marketed towards street racers (NOS is a kind of booster to make your car faster as seen in that terrible street racing movie with vin diesel) this drink is basically like a different version of Rockstar taste-wise...smoother than a rockstar and without the punch. Energy boost – 8/10 Taste – 8/10 Crash - 4/10

Self-Assessment
Going into this project I really wanted to do something productive; my boyfriend was going to college soon and so I originally chose to get to level 80 in World of Warcraft, mainly so I could stay close through with him through the game since that's what he spends most of his free time with. It's a great way to keep in contact with people and I've never gotten to the highest offered level in any World of Warcraft expansion so i was excited. That plan fell through when my computer fried in the heat, as well as me having to drop one of my 3-D classes that I just couldn't handle without a computer to work on things outside of school.

This quarter has been especially difficult for me; administrators are leaving, I had some drama at work and my home life is changing rapidly...though it was during this quarter that I realized that if this is not the place I want to be then I should go achieve my dream instead of waiting for the opportunity to come along. I've already ranted about this. Either way, even though it may seem like I chose something easy and lame to do my project on, it wasn't all that easy for me. Some of those energy drinks are expensive and you have to purchase them online in cases to actually try them since they can't be found in grocery stores or jiffy marts. I was also becoming increasingly concerned about my health since I wasn't getting enough sleep and was feeling really tired all the time.

Now, it's week 11. I have made a plan for my future and for my life and I'm happier than I have been in quite a while. I can't wait to set out on a course to achieve my dreams...sometimes all it takes is a simple project to see that.

I also wanted to send my love to Michael, a photography professor at A.I.S. who is very sick, even though I know he wont check this. He's a really really great guy and he doesn't deserve what's happening to him.

Either way, I've learned a lot this quarter...about life and the people around me... about emotions and addictions and the reality of it all and while it's extremely depressing and terrible I feel like I can take from it a sense of knowledge and maturity that most people at the age of 20 can't conceive...though not everyone, just most people. Thanks Steve.