Mood board

This image displays my love for fashion. I have been brought up in a way which causes me to admire good fashion. Although, people often generalise about men and don’t see them as being interested about fashion.

This image shows both my love for surfing, as well as my interest in traveling. I want to travel the world and visit a lot of beautiful surfing destinations.

These arrows are drawings of tattoo idea. I have an interest in tattoos and the next one I want to get involves arrows. I do not see people who have tattoos as rebellious because art can be expressed in many different ways.

I prefer cats to dogs. They do what they want, are manipulative and aren’t attention-crazed.

My mood board can be found here.

Day 7: Physical Discomfort

Yesterday was day 7 and my final challenge. I chose to do physical discomfort. I am someone who likes to be seen as fashionable. I want people to thing that I have a good fashion sense and always dress well. For this challenge I chose to go against that and wear my clothing backwards. This would make me feel uncomfortable due to my previous statement, as well as the actual physical feelings which are caused from wearing clothes the wrong way around.

On Oxford University Press, Rebecca Arnold speaks about why people follow fashion trends. One of these reasons was that people want to be a part of something which is recognisable, to have an identity. This is a similar reason to why I like fashion so much. I want to be seen in a way that depicts the person that I am and the way that I dress should give an indication to who I am and what types of people I situate myself with.

When I first put on my clothes for the day, I felt extremely uncomfortable. My underpants felt tight, as they have been made to be worn in a specific way, and the tag on my shirt wast tickling my neck. My belt was really hard to put on because I could not see exactly what I was doing when fastening it at the back.

When separate family members saw me they automatically told me that my shirt was on backwards. They hadn’t realised that everything was on backwards, until I turned around and they saw my belt. At this point they either laughed or asked me what I was doing.

Going to the bathroom was really unusual and time-consuming because I am not used to undoing my belt from behind or putting it on. I didn’t enjoy that at all, especially when I was desperate and needed to undo my belt quickly. I also didn’t like sitting down on the couch because I could feel my belt buckle digging into my back.

I almost dropped my phone quite a few times because putting things into my pockets was different. I had to angle my hand backwards instead of comfortably forwards to put things in my pockets. By late afternoon I had gotten used to it though and I wasn’t almost dropping things.

Overall the day was frustrating and put me in a bad mood because I was always uncomfortable doing things that I would usually do comfortably. I am glad that it is over and I can wear my clothes normally again.

Day 6: The Other and the Unfamiliar

The challenge topic that I chose for day 6 was the other and the unfamiliar. In my family and just in general, I have observed and realised that many men are selfish. I am not someone who would like to be seen in this way because it is a negative aspect to have. Well I see it as a negative aspect. I am brutally honest and people often mistake that for being selfish due to some things coming across as rude, but I am not selfish.

On Know Myself, M. Radwan talks about the reasons which cause people to be selfish. One of these reasons is that the people are afraid of losing control of their lives. This, I realised, is one of the reasons why my cousin is selfish. He doesn’t have complete control with his career and wanted to be somewhere else. Being selfish is his way of taking control of something.

During the day I did things which I would not usually do. This included walking through a doorway first, when someone was clearly supposed to be before me, and doing whatever I wanted to do no matter how disrespectful. I wore a sign which said “ME FIRST”, but not everyone understood it, which made the reactions more realistic than if I clearly said “I am being selfish today”.

For my first lecture, I stayed on my phone and did not take part in anything properly because I didn’t feel like doing those activities. Then, at another point in the lecture, the lecturer said: “If you want to take part and listen in the lecture that’s good. If not then you can leave.” Since I did not particularly want to be in the lecture at that moment, I left. This was out of character for me because I would not usually be so disrespectful.

For the next lecture I spoke mostly about myself and only wanted people to help with my work, when I wouldn’t help them with theirs.

As for the way I felt when I was being selfish, it was not a positive feeling. I became angry over unnecessary things because I wanted them to be done my way, or I wanted to do something else and was not always able to. When I tried, the conflict which was caused with others, such as someone walking through a door and getting upset when I pushed through first, made me feel angry too because they got upset with me.

Now that I am back to myself I am going to have to explain to people why I was acting the way I was, and apologise if I offended them. The day was fun while it lasted but I wouldn’t do it again because it ultimately put me in a bad mood. I am glad to be back to the way I usually am.

Day 5: Gender, sexuality and body politics

So yesterday was day 5 and I chose “gender” as my challenge topic. I have grown up with mostly girls in my family. This has caused me to understand them more, although I have not achieved a full understanding with regards to how it feels performing some of the rituals which they perform, such as putting makeup on. This is because I have never worn makeup for an entire day for purposes other than school plays or performances. To achieve this physical feeling I decided to wear makeup for an entire day, as well as apply it myself. This was to discover how girls managed their time in the mornings before doing daily activities as well.

On The Guardian, Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett speaks about the different reasons why girls wear makeup. This is something, although living with girls, I have always wondered. I have often thought about how there really is no need, apart from the odd occasion or a small amount to be applied, for the use of makeup. Although some may see it as attractive, I have always liked to see people’s faces as they are naturally. Cosslett’s one point is that girls often wear makeup only because they like to, and not to impress anyone. After this challenge I do understand why women would want to wear some makeup but still stand by my previous opinion that only a small amount should be used.

The day was not bad. I got up in the morning and did what I usually do. I then applied the makeup quickly and efficiently (quite well I must admit) and left for university. On the way to Vega was unusual because I was not sure what the reaction from others would be and was nervous that I would not like those reactions. They were normal at first. No one really noticed me. But further along into my drive when I had gotten used to the makeup a bit more and was sitting in traffic, a taxi started hooting for my attention from next to me. The one man in the taxi started blowing kisses and there were people laughing and looking in confusion. I didn’t take it badly, I just laughed and waved and thought of it as amusing.

At university, most people stopped when they saw me, realised it was obviously for the project, and then laughed. This was the most common reaction. Others said I looked fabulous or beautiful. The girls were the most shocked when I told them that I applied the makeup myself and some even said that they would be jealous if I was a girl and that I do my makeup better than they can. I even tied my hair up at one point but then released it a few hours later because I had to give the elastic band back.

The drive home wasn’t bad nothing interesting happened and no one really looked at me in confusion or blew kisses at me.

The experience was enjoyable and, after the whole thing, I do understand why girls wear makeup. Were it not seen as unusual, I probably would wear a bit of mascara and maybe eyeliner to make my eyes stand out more. But that is where my makeup use would end. I had fun and I enjoyed this challenge the most so far.

Day 4: Routines and Rituals

Yesterday was day 4 of my challenges. For this challenge I chose to do routines and rituals. I am someone who likes to stay organised when it comes to my work, and so I decided to take nothing to university, which I was able to work on or in (books or laptop).

In Writing and Remembering, D. Wax explains that, by writing something down, we are able to “trick” the brain into actually thinking that it is doing that thing, through visualization. Writing things down strengthens the process by which important information is stored in our memories.

The day which I did this was not difficult. I didn’t have much to worry about and didn’t have to stress about writing everything down. What was difficult, was trying to concentrate in lectures; since there was nothing that I was trying to record. This didn’t frustrate me at all at the time but when I thought about the information which was being delivered to us, I became stressed about whether I would be able to get the information at a later stage.

The consequences to my lack of action have proceeded into today and will proceed into following days until I receive all the recorded information which was delivered to the students. This is due to not having the information and, now, having to get it in my own time, from other students who actually did write it down.

The overall feeling during the challenge was not a problem because I did not think about what I wasn’t doing. The frustration has, as I mentioned before, come post-challenge. I have discovered that I do rely on writing things down, more than I expected.

 

Day 3: Language and Communication

On day 3 I was at home the entire day but this did not change the outcome of my experience. I chose to speak in Afrikaans for the entire day because half of my family speaks the language frequently, but I do not. I prefer to speak in English due to having a higher vocabulary and being able to express myself in a clearer manner.

On Scholarworks there is a quote by P. Imberti: “Language is the key to a person’s self-identity. It enables the person to express emotions, share feelings, tell stories, and convey complex messages and knowledge. Language is our greatest mediator that allows us to relate and understand each other.”

This quote describes any human, with regards to the way they communicate with others. We prefer to speak in a language which we understand most and when we are put in a situation where we can’t communicate in that language we feel uncomfortable or have problems getting our points across to another person. Due to my vocabulary in Afrikaans not being extremely terrible, I was able to express myself, but not always in a way which I wanted to.

In the beginning it was really difficult because I didn’t know some words, but I searched them or asked my mother, if it was possible to explain what I wanted in Afrikaans, for the word I wanted. By the end of the day I could express myself quite easily and my language wasn’t too bad. But I still couldn’t talk as fluently as I can in English.

My messages took longer to send because auto-correct on my iPhone wanted to change the word to an English word. This caused an issue as it was using more time than it needed to. Time which could have been used on things such as work. My girlfriend still spoke to me in English even though I was speaking in Afrikaans because, like me, she is more comfortable speaking in English.

The day wasn’t too bad, I actually enjoyed speaking in Afrikaans, I just didn’t enjoy typing in the language (probably because of time and spelling issues). This morning I kept wanting to speak in Afrikaans and I thought in Afrikaans a lot because I had been speaking it for so long. But by this afternoon I was thinking in English and almost all urges to speak in Afrikaans have vanished.

The experience was interesting and I think I have enjoyed this challenge the most out of all my challenges so far, as it helped me to feel a better connection with, and understanding for the Afrikaans side of my family.

Day 2: Race

So yesterday was day 2 of my 7 challenges. For this challenge I chose to do Race. What motivated me to assess the topic of race was everything that is happening in various government universities around the country, as well as a comment which I saw on Facebook. The comment said something along the lines of: “Black people can’t be racist because they are only making up for what happened during apartheid. Only whites are racist.” This made me want to reply to this in a sarcastic manner, and so came my idea to put duct tape over my mouth, write “RACISM” on it and stop talking altogether for the entire day.

On News24 we see headlines such as: “Free State cops went after black students, left whites alone“, “#colourblind campaign takes off after racial tensions at Tuks” and many more. I am not a racist, and to hear and see these things offends me, as people often generalise about others. I don’t want to be seen as a racist, nor do I want to be categorized with those types of people.

The actual challenge was interesting, to say the least. My main concern was what would happen when I had to stop on my drive where there were a lot of taxis and black people around, since people often jump to conclusions about things before asking what it is about.  Luckily I got all green lights through that area.

Next came university. People were staring a lot and were probably wondering what it was about. A lot of people did ask but, of course, I couldn’t speak and so they started guessing, only to be guided by my hand gestures. Often people asked me questions even though they knew that I was not allowed to speak and there was no way of answering them unless I were able to speak. So once again those questions had to be ignored.

Something, which I found interesting, was the debate which were caused between others due to my statement. It started a debate, between two lecturers and a few students, and although I was the cause of the debate, I took no part in it for the obvious reasons. No talking not only effected my communication with others but also caused difficulty for me to interact in lectures. It felt as if I was lost, almost not to be seen by others, as I didn’t make a sound and their conversations formed around me.

My Copywriting Craft session was really quiet when I wasn’t the one talking, so it is obvious who causes the conversation most of the time in that tutorial.

Overall, the experience was fun, but I love to talk and so I would prefer to not do it again.

 

I took pictures throughout the day. Move your mouse over them to see a description and click on them to view them properly and read the longer descriptions.

Before the day progressed.

My quiet Copywriting tut

These pictures are funny because there are people of other races around me smiling and not causing an issue with the statement at hand.

Just after I took these, two black guys walked past. The one laughed and the other one (Jokingly) stared at me angrily before laughing and walking away.

I know it is illegal to be on your phone and drive but hey, this is art.

Day 1: Vices

For day 1 I chose to do Vices. I swear a lot in general sentences and this has therefore cause profanity to become a bad habit of mine. When I came up with the idea to not swear I wanted to find alternatives such as writing swear words on my hands and lifting a hand instead of swearing. I then decided against this as it would be more challenging for me to try and stop altogether without any replacements.

On World of Psychology, John Grohol talks about the different reasons why people swear and in what environments they swear in. He says that using swear words can be cathartic, and that swear words can also be used in a positive manner, such as using a word to express how great something is.

I use profanity for both cathartic and positive reasons. I often swear at other drivers while I drive, to free the feeling of frustration or anger I have when they do something stupid or unusual on the road. On the other hand, I use profanity in general sentences to express things in a more intense way.

The actual challenge was difficult and frustrating. Since swearing has become a habit, it was very difficult to stop and I made a few mistakes throughout the day.  I decided to get a friend to take video of me rapping the song: “Rap God” by Eminem.

In this video you can see that, when I don’t swear in places in the song, it throws me off for a few words, as I am used to saying the swear words in those places. At one point, I even leave out the word: “gay” because I was trying to be careful with what I was saying and this part of the song caused confusion, as some people call others “gay” as an insult, even though it isn’t profanity.

This video represents how my entire day went with regards to the struggle to not swear. I had to focus more on what I was saying and, sometimes, reconstruct sentences to avoid the words which I would usually use.

Over all it was really difficult, especially when I wasn’t thinking about not swearing. But I managed relatively well and am happy that it is over and I can return to not worrying about what I say and how I, comfortably, speak.

Process for Flash Mob

Sooo.. this is the first post on this blog! The process which I did for the flash mob started out with the location. We started trying to decide on a location and came up with a list. The three main areas which, I thought, would be the best were: The beach, La Lucia Shopping Mall and Gateway Theatre of Shopping. The area which we chose as a group was Gateway.

The next step of the process was to decide what message to portray through our flash mob. We came up with a few things:

1. Acting like robots – to show how people in society act like robots and follow routine.
2. Walking around and looking at our phones, bumping into people to show how cellphones disconnect us from our surroundings.
3. The cellphone idea then evolved to everyone dropping down into a ball on the floor and staring  at our phones.
4. It then evolved to everyone lying on the floor at the same time and looking at our cellphones.

We all met and practiced outside the cafeteria and then went to Gateway and the plan was put into play.