Cleaning Piotr Kowalski’s NOW

This week we explored the idea of graffiti art. Today we see masterpieces being created in alleyways with little attention. Culture has even shifted to try to find and praise these areas. A once rebellious way to express art is coming to light and people like Banksy are using it to say “fuck you” to the institution, like the one that tried to sell his artwork which began shredding itself at the auction. Graffiti has so many connotations, good and bad. Whether you think its art or a bad face to a neighborhood, there is no doubt that some of the works created go above and beyond expectations of what art is.

I took a small step into graffiti by creating my name in bubble letters. In this experience I took a long paper and tried the style for myself. I followed a tutorial since I have little to no experience with anything related to street art. Starting out I was worried with how it would turn out, but as I got into it I focused more on making a fun piece of art. I admit, I did have a bit of a perfectionist attitude, erasing even the beginning lines of just writing my name out. That soon faded once I started using a sharpie to trace out the bubbles. I was nervous to even make such a permanent black mark. I have no clue how street artists make such amazing works with an even more difficult media, like spray paint that wants to drip in long vertical lines on the wall.

For my piece, I decided to have a little fun after the successful tracing of my name and attempt something new. I once saw a tutorial on Tik Tok, a video sharing app that taught users how to do a “glitching” effect. I had saved the video because I loved the way the effect turned out even though I almost never sketch or create art on my own. Who knows what I saved the video for, but I’m glad I did because I actually got to use it! Giving this project an extra fun spin for myself really boosted my investment into the art. I understand now why people do such large murals on walls. The end product can blow even your own mind.

In the end, my art may have been somewhat underwhelming to others. Granted, this was just my name in bubble letters, which has little significance to others. However, for myself, this piece was s lot of fun! And sometimes, that’s all art is. Sometimes art is just a great way to de-stress, and that’s exactly what I needed, especially so close to the end of the semester. I would definitely try this again, or even try new techniques I never intended to try. This project brought to light what I may be missing by not having the confidence to push myself to try something new. Now, I’m going to take that chance.

Artist: Micol Hebron
Website: http://micolhebron.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unicornkiller1

Micol Hebron is a unique artist. As an expression, she varies in medias and styles. Art to her is a way to implement the change she wishes to see in the world. She began her art in college as a way to cope with trauma of being sexually assaulted in her life. Not only was this a way to speak her truth and hear others’ truth, but this was a way to connect with her community. She does not have one medium of art, but she tends to organize events and bring people together, like her feminist hiking club. Another event that she organized was an ongoing annual women’s march in Utah, where the majority Mormon population does not focus on women’s rights. These are merely some examples of her vast work as an artist.

The art of hers that I would like to focus on is her performance or organizational art, and more specifically her work for “freeing the female nipple” on social media. Her work consisted first of pushing the limits of Instagram’s policy of no female nipple posts. In a series of posts she tested these rules. Her posts were meant to be shocking by nature. In most posts, she used sharp contrast between the female body and the obscure objects covering the nipples. Some posts consisted of simple lines covering only the nipples and leaving the rest of the female breast exposed. The most significant clump of posts consisted of using male nipples as digital pasties to cover the female nipples. This concept had the most impact in the long run.

Instagram’s nipple policy was simply a catalyst for Hebron’s rebellion of social medias’ absurd, sexist attitudes. Hebron mentioned how she was almost excluded from an Instagram meeting on their nipple policy even though they had invited a male who performed a later work of performance art based on her entire “nipple policy” idea. From that meeting, Hebron realized that Instagram was ignorant as they did not gender neutral bathrooms, capably accessible bars, or plastic free utensils. Hebron’s work reflects an exposure of a male-dominated space. The idea of female nipples being indubitably sexual reflects the bigger problem of womens’ bodies not being their own property and being explicitly judged. There is no viable reason as to why a male can post a shirtless photo, being overtly sexual and a woman can not post a topless photo where she is not trying to be sexual but get taken down anyway.

My experience listening to Micol Hebron’s presentation exceeded my expectations on all accounts. As a female with a body of my own, limited by others’ expectations, I related to her values on what should not be restricted by a male-dominated world. We also discussed the idea of sex-ed in schools and how it lacks in its content. A comment was made about how some men think that period blood is objectively disgusting. Seeing the reactions made me realize that this battle is not yet won. As long as we can not discuss these issues openly, there is work that needs to be done. I personally see Hebron’s work as a service to young women today. If I would have known what a normal period looked like before, I wouldn’t have felt so ashamed of my own experience. Even today, I lack confidence in my own body to leave the house wearing what some would call “exposing” clothes, but I call comfortable clothes, without fear of being catcalled or judged. This is why Hebron’s work is so impactful.

This week, I looked for “found materials” to create a work of art. My idea stemmed from the piling up of disposable gloves that I saw often in parking lots due to the pandemic. It was strange to see the little in the street turn from a collage of items to mainly gloves of white and blue varieties carelessly disposed of on the ground. This sparked the idea of creating something out of them. However, instead of picking up the ones from the floor, in fear of infection and becoming a traffic hazard, I decided to use the ones I had used which had begun to pile up in my car after removing them to get in and forgetting them in there. And so was born my Sea of Pandemic.

In a perfect world, I would have taken the time and proper protection to collect and work with all the gloves I saw out and about on the street to create this artwork. Although, I feel as though a similar message was achieved with what I had. More gloves may have had a more shocking effect but my finished product shows the short term waste created by one person. My choice of materials forced me to: one, be more aware of what I was touching and having a sink nearby and ready to be able to thoroughly wash my hands afterward, and two, have to work with a three-dimensional medium for the first time. It was strange to try to make something out of something that already has its own shape. I managed to make something that resembled waves, and for a person who normally doesn’t create art, that felt right.

In this project I thought about how little these gloves lasted. A quick trip to the grocery store where I was hyper-aware of not touching my face, then their use disappeared. The gloves lasted less than a day. An hour or two perhaps. A kiss should last a few seconds if anything. A great meal should last an hour. A marriage, under the right circumstances, should last a lifetime. A human life should last as close to 100 years as possible. A work of art? That should last as long as its appreciated. Although we can never know if something tat is not appreciated now may become part of history long after our lifetimes, so it is hard to say how long these pieces should last.

The fact that some things live in a finite amount of time should absolutely affect the way we experience them. It is important to cherish life. Every moment of it. Life, in this state, happens once for us. We don’t know what happens before or after for certain because we will only every be conscious now. A temporary work of art should be cherished, like a setting sun. We never know when our last experience will be, so it is important to be in the moment we are in. Although we may not last, we need to leave a long-lasting future for our descendants. We should make water, air, and land sustainable so that others may appreciate a large pine tree or a crisp drink of water or a full breath of fresh air on a new morning. We as individuals can contribute in our own little ways to diminishing problems like climate change, but can also protest large organizations that refuse to do so. There is hope.

This week we were tasked with finding artists in a multiplayer game and displaying this work in our blog. I decided to explore the topic of “showcasing personality in a 2-D world” as I searched the Animal Crossing world. chose this topic for a few reasons. One reason was that today more and more we are interacting in two-dimensional spaces Especially with COVID-19 keeping us indoors, we communicate more through screens, but that isn’t a new idea to many. Some people have met their best friends through a mutual game, like Minecraft. the game of the pandemic today is Animal Crossing, having been released just before the breakout of the pandemic and bringing people nostalgic memories.
Another reason for this topic was to show hoe creative people are when it comes to expressing their values, personality, and views in a game about cute animal neighbors like Animal Crossing. Animal Crossing allows players a certain amount of creative outlets. Whether that be how they decorate their house, how they dress, or how they terraform the land, Animal Crossing brings a world for creativity.

My first artist was my significant other, Skyler. The above photos showcase Skyler’s house in Animal Crossing and his outfit. In his work, we see part of his personality emerge. From little details in a game we can see what kind of person he is in real life. For example, the dehumidifier and incense in the house on the left side suggest he enjoys scents from those items in real life, which I can attest to being true. From the “Eat the Rich” shirt, we see a bit about his views on some issues. “Eat the Rich” is an abbreviation from Jean-Jacques Rousseau: “Quand les pauvres n’auront plus rien à manger, ils mangeront les riches !”, or in English translated to: “When the poor have nothing more to eat, they will eat the rich!” This shows Skyler’s politicl stance on the divide between rich and poor in the United States. As a player in most games, this may not be able to be expressed, but in Animal Crossing, the customization allows him to showcase this side in a game.

This second artist is my friend Kyle, a fan of none other than Gordon Ramsey, hence the character. The first photo here showcases his kitchen with the Norman Rockwell self portrait canvas above the stove, which he made himself. The actual portrait is there too for reference. The second in-game photo shows a sign he made for his bamboo district where he grows bamboo on his island. Both of these photos show the interests and personality of Kyle. Even the character shows his love of Gordon Ramsey and his hobby of cooking. The sign for the district shows his planning quality that allows his to keep his island organized. In a game like Animal Crossing, being able to create and change your own island is an options that allows players to create unique environments.

This last artist is my friend Nathan. Here we are showcasing his jailhouse room in his home and a painting he made in game of the DSA symbol. The first image shows a bit of Nathan’s humorous side. In a game, there’s normally not an option to create a jail in your home where you locked up a bear, but here we are. In the second image, we see his rendition of the DSA, or Democratic Socialist of America, symbol. This type of freedom in a game even allows players to show their political stance. Players have an outlet to express themselves, and that is why Animal Crossing is a great outlet for “showcasing personality in a 2-D world.”

My goal this week, with my vlog video was to talk a bit about my experience with this pandemic. I accomplished that goal and along the way accomplished another goal of talking to a camera. Starting out this experiment, I wasn’t very comfortable with the idea of talking to a camera. Something about it makes me nervous. I started by making notes on post-its of the topics I wanted to cover so that I had some way to lead my conversation with my phone. I ended up with about four or five videos of just the beginning part of my video where I kept messing up and retrying. Finally, I got through the talk and hit the points I wanted to. I think the reason it took a few tries to start was that I needed to get into a flow of talking. I needed to push through the initial embarrassment and get into more of a conversation feeling instead of a “talking to a camera” feeling. In the end, I was relieved the experience was over, but also wondering what I was so nervous about in the first place.

If I were to do this video differently, I would take more time to film different segments. I may film myself actually baking the cookies in a time lapse and embed that into the video somehow. I may also film some clips in public, but maybe that’s a bit of a leap. I still need to get more comfortable talking to a camera alone in my room with my family a door away, worried that they are making fun of me, but finding out later that they weren’t because really all they could hear was muffled talking. Something else I could try is to attempt different angles to break up the monotony of a single frame with the same contents. Anyway, at this moment, I don’t think I would try to vlog again. It is not much of an attractive hobby to me.

My favorite “youtuber” right now, if you can even call them that, is Bon Apetit. Bon Apetit is a group of people who work in a kitchen together developing recipes for their magazine or their own cook books. Their work is very fun and lively and the people who run some of their top shows are such lively and relateable people. I enjoy the shows Gourmet Makes, It’s Alive, Reverse Engineering, One of Everything, and Making Perfect. Of these specific shows, I enjoy watching these people try new things and attempt new challenges in regards to cooking. Each person brings their own energy and sense of humor. Not to mention the behind the scenes crew like the camera people, sound people, editors, etc. Especially in It’s Alive, the sense of humor from the editor takes the show to a whole other level of enjoyability. From their shows, I gather that you just need to be yourself and do what you love to do.

From this experience, I learned that authenticity and performance can exist together and do not need to be two separate entities. Authenticity is the genuine personality of a person. Performance is a structures show that is put on. In this vlog, I felt I was putting on an authentic performance of sorts. Since, I wasn’t as comfortable with speaking to a camera as I would be with a close friend, I had to plan and put on a sort of performance to be able to complete the talk. However, I wasn’t not my authentic self. Every part of that talk was myself talking from my own personality and set of opinions. I believe the same is the case for people like Jennifer Aniston. Obviously, someone wants to put on the best version of themselves, and when that’s in a studio it is more structured and formatted so that neither person rambles on too long. From home, there are less resources, so some lee-way is given and perhaps a more genuine or authentic person is shown. However, that doesn’t mean that either is not being authentic, but instead are just being authentic in their own circumstances.

This week we explored automatic drawings of two varieties – a map of our college and a partnered automatic drawing. In this activity, we were meant to have fun with our subconscious mind. In the first automatic drawing, I felt that. The automatic drawing of the school map was a fun experience. The second one was less of an experience for me. I had high expectations and the activity fell short. I felt as though instead of letting ourselves subconsciously draw, it was just a conscious effort to move a marker along a large piece of paper to get something, anything. In the end, I felt as though the map let me know a lot more than the scribbles with a partner, as it was just me and my thoughts that led the work.

The first automatic drawing I did wad the drawing of a map of my school, California state University Long Beach. Go beach! In this drawing, I started with the shape of the campus. Having looked at a map of the campus many times before, I was familiar with the Tetris-like shape of the border of the school. However, I was not sure of the exact ratio of upper to lower campus and I did my best of estimating that. The first thing I drew after the border was the engineering buildings. Being a computer science major, I spend most of my classes over the years in the engineering buildings, so I am most familiar with those. I also frequent the Outpost for snacks, so that came in next. After that, I started filling in the secondary buildings that I could remember. Most, if not all, were buildings I have been in, mostly by having classes in them. The strangest part was drawing the buildings I didn’t remember because it was difficult to estimate how many there were. Other than that, I saw my subconscious mind working to put importance on the buildings I frequented the most.

the next automatic drawing was the partnered experience. I did this experience with my partner of about 4 years, Skyler. I also employed my sister to take a picture of us starting the project. To begin, I put in a lot of effort to set up the assignment. I taped the large paper to a trifold cardboard display board for support and found a large black marker for the project. At the beginning, we were laughing and giggling at the whole set up. However, we had different views approaching this. I wanted the experience to be more automatic, a more subconscious movement of the pen. My partner treated it at a subconscious drawing, intentionally moving the pen, but not intentionally drawing one thing. In the end, we drew some swirls and ended up with a mess of lines. I didn’t feel as much of a connection with this one as I did with the first one. In the end, this experience was not a meaningful one to me.

This automatic drawing state is one that people have created great works in. Salvador Dali, one artist we discussed in class, was famous for using an almost dreamlike state to create his works of art. Through this experience, I did not feel as though I was accessing any real dream like state. Through the first art activity, I did get a glimpse at how my mind organized important locations, with the engineering buildings being the first thing I remembered to draw in. Perhaps with a longer time allotted, or a smaller marker, or a more open state of mind I could have connected with the second automatic drawing activity. However, not everything is for everyone and that is alright too. In the end, I learned something about my own mind and how I approach different activities.

Artist: Mahsa Soroudi
Exhibition: 7500 Miles
Website: http://www.mahsasoroudi.com

Mahsa Soroudi was born and educated in Iran and moved to Southern California in 2013. Soroudi was exposed to art from a young age, having been born into a non-traditional Muslim family where her parents were more open to the arts. Her father even had his own sort of art academy. Her place of birth was a metropolitan area and even had art museums and galleries. Having always been exposed to the arts, she pursued them. After deciding to make her own life decisions at about the age of thirty, she married and her and her husband moved out of their home country. Eventually, they ended up in Newport Beach where they spent their longest stay in a place away from their hometown. For her project, 7500 Miles, her inspiration was her sister and her friends in Iran who were artists and who she felt were not getting the exposure they deserved. Soroudi saw the struggles Middle Eastern women faced when attempting to show their art, especially since they were fighting a patriarchal society in Iran. This project was meant to educate Western audiences about the situation Iranian women are facing.

As a project, 7500 Miles is a collection of works of art. There is a large variety in style and media. I will focus on the work of Mahshid Soroudi, not the curator of the work, but as artist whose work particularly caught my eye. Her work consists of various pieces of work made with acrylic on canvas. In general, her work has muted colors mixed with a few bright or contrasting colors. The background of the paintings are normally scratchy or faded in lines. They have a very “painted” feeling, as you would see when painting the first contrasting colors on a wall with a paintbrush. They also look as through they would have a jagged or bumpy texture to them. In contrast, the women features in the works are very fine in detail. There is hardly any muddiness to the figures. They consist of very careful and meticulous lines to express every fold of clothing and every detail of the face. Overall, the works place a strong emphasis on the figures.

The curator, Mahsa Soroudi, has the plan of exposing Iranian women’s work in a different way. She wanted their work to be shown as works of art and not necessarily as Iranian womens’ works of art. This curation definitely shows that. Not only is the work modern and beautiful, but it does not have the connotations of the Middle East attached to it. The work can show its message without being connotated first. For the specific artist I looked at, Mahshid Soroudi, the work expressed issues surrounding women and gender. In the work, we can see the message of women attempting to deal with the constant vigilance of society. The women in the works attempt to hide from the scrutiny, to no prevail.

Mahsa Soroudi curated the 7500 Miles project in an effort to help exhibit Iranian women’s art work. The variety in work was astonishing and very different from the normal political work of Iran we see. The point of the curation, to be able to show the work as art instead of art connoted with all the issues of Iran, surely prevailed. Here we can see the beauty and individual issues exposed by the art. I related to the work of Mahshid Soroudi and the issue of women being pressed by society exposed in the work. As a woman in an unusual field, Computer Science, I often feel as though my work may be scrutinized in a different manner than a man’s work may be simply because it is the work of a woman. Mahshid Soroudi’s art resonated with me in that sense, and if it weren’t for Mahsa Soroudi, the curator, I may have never been exposed to that connection with the work.

a world where there’s no struggle to survive
a world where the money cant buy lies
somewhere where i can choose to be
a success in everyone’s or only my eyes

no worry about what to eat
a secure place to live and to sleep
where neighbors don’t feel the need to steal
cause they too are taken care of and got rid of that zeal

together we can make this a reality
but first we gotta take out those companies
who take this from us with money and power
but no more ‘cause this is our hour.

This week’s topic: Romanticism. In my song, I focused on the Romanticism of a Socialist Democratic world. A prevalent topic today, at least to me, are the democratic presidential primaries. Also, as a society facing the failures of capitalism and a failing health care system, if we can even call it that, I see the importance of a democratic socialist for our country. With the COVID-19 virus spreading rapidly, and our healthcare not responding in the best way possible, there is a shocking exposure of our lack of a healthcare system. With a President like Bernie Sanders, an agenda for Medicare for All would be pushed, benefiting the lower and middle classes of America, fearing for their economic stability when they or a family member gets sick. The lyrics imagine a world where we don’t have those problems and people do not live with daily stress and fear of basic living rights.

My process for these lyrics was a series of brainstorming. In all honesty, I am not a song writer, nor do I think I could be at this moment. I simply took the ideas I brainstormed and tries to make situations out of them. Also, I used a rhyme generator to help assist with writing the lines. The process was difficult and not at all what I expected. Creating rhymes was more difficult than I imagined, but even then it was not as challenging as bringing the ideas I had together. Song writers must go through a very long process of trying different scenarios and carefully selecting different words to be able to create a coherent song. This process showed me just how much song writers must go through, and I only created four simple verses.

In reality, I don’t think my song is as successful as it could be. For such an important and pressing topic, the song needs to be as strong as the topic itself. I am sure that there are many other angles to which we can approach this topic. There are stronger ways to get the message across, but that may take a more seasoned professional to do so. As it stands, I am not a professional and will probably not write another song. If perhaps, I were to practice for many hours, I may develop more of a skill for song-writing. We all know practice can help anyone develop a skill. It would, however require an immense amount of time, which I may not be dedicated enough to take. I may write some poems if I feel the need to express my emotions or thoughts that way, but I do not believe that I will reach the point of making it a song.

If I were to write another song, I may attempt this topic again. There are so many aspects of our country that are dysfunctional that there are a plethora of lines I could write. This is such a prevalent topic, especially today, that it must be made public. I could also create a dystopia that takes the side of not having a person like Bernie Sanders as a president, and that song in a way would also be a Romantic song with the purpose of exposing the consequences. On the other hand, I could create a full-fledged utopia of a world with Bernie Sanders as a president. That is a world I could fully explore and with more time could express fully. To me, a Romantic song creates a world better than the one we live in that rejects the troubles we have now in favor of a better tomorrow.

Artist: Giselle Daneshmand
Exhibition: Flight PS752 / Flight 655
Gallery: LBSU School of Art, Max L. Gatov Gallery
Website: giselle-davis.com

Giselle Daneshmand is currently in the last year of pursing a Master of Fine Arts for sculpture at California State Long Beach University, having graduated with a Bachelors of Arts from University of California, Irvine. He works deal with the very hard-hitting and sometimes political issues that face this current world we live in.
This particular exhibition was her Master of Fine Arts thesis show. Despite this installation being her thesis show, it served a more important second purpose. Having known passengers on the most recent flight part of the installation, Flight PS752, this show provided a memorial for the lost lives, marking the 60th day since the event, as is the funeral custom in Iran.

The exhibition Flight PS752 / Flight 655 consisted of three hanging transparent boards with engraved white writing, one white board with white engraved writing posted on the wall, and various cement-like blocks arranged across an open room in the pattern of airplane seats. There were 30 rows with 6 blocks per row marked A-E. As a whole, the scale is large and uniform. The center hanging transparent oard lists the names of the people who died on flight PS752. The transparent board hanging nearer to the Flight 655 side consists of a more historical retelling of the events surrounding the shooting down of that commercial flight of passengers. The board hanging closer to the Flight PS752 side tells a more personal and closely related telling of the passengers on that flight who lost their lives. The white board bolted to the wall between the other boards has a poem engraved as well as the artists’ statement.

This exhibition was most importantly a memorial to those who lost their lives on January 8, 2020 on the Flight PS752. However, this exhibition also explores another flight, Flight 655, where a similar political fight for power resulted in the devastating loss of innocent people. This show is about the very personal lives lost in a world of such turmoil, especially when it relates to politics. The slabs of concrete representing the seats of the plane show two different views. To the higher-ups that causes the deaths, they may see the slabs as casualties. However, to most people not in power, each slab represents a real person with a family and a story that was cut very short when something out of their control was decided upon and resulted in their death. Seeing the amount of seats is shocking and strikes an emotional cord. Anyone who travels commercially on a plane hopes to safely land at their destination, but for these flights, it was not the case.

Walking into the exhibit, I personally had no knowledge of the events surrounding either of the two flights. Even so, when I saw each slab of concrete on the ground creating the seats of an airplane, I was physically stunned. I immediately knew this was about lives lost and that struck a cord with me. My parents travel a lot on planes and this is a constant worry in the back of my mind. Being so closely knit, we communicate constantly and are sure to get in touch as soon as we land and seeing this exhibit reminded me of our mortality. I personally would be devastated if my parents did not safely land after a flight. This exhibition exposed the truth of political wars conducted by people who have no connection to the people they murder.

For this week’s activity we were tasked with exploring a counterfactual identity. To me, this meant wearing something out of the ordinary to present myself in a different way. My name is Yazmin, and I am a Computer Science major. My normal day-to-day dress is probably indicative of my major or at least steers people in the right path. I normally wear all black or all dark colors. My closet consists of mostly black shirts and black pants, with the occasional dark blue jean. In general, my type of style is associated with more introverted people. I do not consider myself an introvert. I enjoy interacting with people and can have a very bubbly or open personality. On the other hand, I prioritize comfort and convenience, which comes across in the way I dress. Aside from the space buns, the first picture above is what I wear almost every day. I normally leave my hair down, again for convenience, or tie it back when working on a project. This look may not indicate my personality, but it happens to be how I look because nothing comes before comfort and convenience on a day to day basis.

For this activity, I wanted my look to be something I wouldn’t do on a day to day basis. The dress I wore is something I own and occasionally wear. However, I do not wear this dress for any normal or even slightly more dressed up occasion. Also, I only wear this dress in hotter weather. The dress is very light-colored, especially compared to my normal outfits. In addition, the dress has a very busy print, which I also tend to steer clear of. So, the dress was perfect for trying to present myself in a different manner. For my hair, I decided to go with something I obviously wouldn’t do every day. I am not very good with hair-dos, as I have not necessarily practiced very often. The space buns were definitely a bit of a challenge, and something that is a tell-tale sign that someone has put effort into their look. For the shoes, I went for some light colored ones, although I did choose those sandals for comfort when I bought them. All in all, I felt the look was definitely different from something I would do on a normal day.

As a busy person who works when I am not in school, I had to perform this activity while running errands. I went to a few stores and went to eat at a Chick-fil-a with my partner. While we were out, I would ask people who didn’t look too busy what they thought my name and major were. For names, I got some variety, including Jessica, Alyssa, Liz/Elizabeth, and Kim/Kimberly. I wasn’t very surprised that no one guessed my name, because of the endless amount of names, and an uncommon name like mine. When I asked people what they though my major was, they answered with majors like Psychology, Biology, English, and Art. As a Hispanic female, I normally don’t expect people to know that I am a computer science major, so this was no different. However, I felt as though people did lean less toward STEM majors because of how I was dressed. As an experience, it was definitely a thoughtful one.

The way we present ourselves is just about as unimportant as the way people perceive us. Through this activity, I experienced what I kind of already experience. No matter how I dress, in today’s society, I am not the typical embodiment of a computer science major. I am female and Hispanic, and in many of my computer science classes, I am one of few, if not the only one. In normal conversations, when I tell people I am a computer science major, I can see the small shock in their faces. Mostly, I am proud to be the person to change people’s conceptions of what a computer science major looks like and to be hopefully paving the way for more diverse students to take this path. This activity may have been different for someone who more embodies their major in the way they dress or look, but this was not very different for me. In the end, I confirmed to myself that people perceive others in so many ways and may often be wrong, but that is okay. What matters is who you are to yourself.