Eskinder Belayneh
Arts Scholar
Pentathalon Semester 1
As an experiential component of College Park Arts Scholars, I attended a selection of five art events during my first semester. These events ranged in art mediums and each sparked dialogue among my peers.
La Voz De Artista By Fernanda Castillo
September 16, 2020
The Mexican actress Fernada Castillo gave me an insight in the responsibility behind being an artist. The voice you have as an artist is powerful. She speaks on character perception and how it gave her the ability to change the perception of people on certain characters. She speaks about how she changed people’s perception of Monica Robles who was a drug dealer to become a symbol of strength for women and young children. As an architecture major with hopes of working with film and production, this lesson is important in developing my sense of character portrayal, making something that is impactful, and producing an effective message to the people. #Ted Talk. #Presentation.
Japanese Military Armor, the art of war
October 2, 2020
This week we visited the Walter Arts museum with our art scholars peer mentors and we had a blast. We looked at wonderful historic artifacts and cultural arts. The one that fascinated me the most was the samurai armors that were crafted with symbolic arts. This taught me a lot about the Japanese Culture and their amazing focus for the meaning of honor. This has boosted my admiration for Japanese history and respect for their culture. The piece I focused a lot on was the dagger and the Fuchi which means fate in Japanese and that get placed in the handle of the sword to improve its strength. The thing that fascinated me the most is the quality of art they place on their armor. It’s so symbolic and representative of what they stand for. It also shows that even in conflict and the horrors of war, they never leave behind their artistic nature. I’m grateful to the arts scholars and my peer mentors for opening my eyes to this sort of art.
#Art-Scholars #VisualArts
Vote for the 2020 Election
October 22 2020
We had an inspiring guest speakers speaking about the importance of voting and why its important to have your voice heard. We've had lots of great topics that we discussed which brought to light some issues concerning voting and I'm grateful we discussed it. These topics include methods of voting, what people should do if the person they want as president isn't one of those candidates and also the history of voting. The chat was open for wonderful discussion questions and I'm glad I was there to hear it. This presentation has taught me the importance of voting. It has taught me that I'm not only voting for the greater good of myself but also the entire nation. It also includes the art scholars which I'm more than happy to be apart of and I'm happy to be an arts scholar who voted.
#Art-Scholars #Presentation #Vote
Insidious Chapter 2 movie Streaming
November 14, 2020
This Friday midnight, I watched Insidious Chapter 2 for full emotional experience. The movie was a horror sequel of the first successful Insidious Movie. But this one did not feel as scary as the first one where they presented a very sinister and demonic being. Chapter 2 made it feel like a mystery movie rather than a horror movie and that's where art of writing lacked a little bit. Consistency within the same series is important. Instead of making the story and plot make sense, they should focus more on provoking an emotional response. Throughout the movie, I recognized the importance of consistency and that's one of the many things I learn from looking at artistic pieces while in the art scholars.
#Film #Insidious-chapter-2
Dance in the sun
December 13, 2020
Dance in the sun was a wonderful performance preformed by Daniel Nagrin in 1919. I was confusing at first when I saw it but I understood later on that there isn't really a meaning to this dance but a sentiment. It was made to make you feel happy and positive. I admired the transition from the beach to the stage while the dancer kept his form. It gave the sense of the dancer preforming while the background changes. Maybe he's trying to illustrate the feeling of freedom and happiness in any setting. This art is intriguing and it showed me the many ways you can make a person feel or wonder about something.
#Dance
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Pentathalon Semester 2
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Why people believe they they can't draw? By Graham Shaw
February 5, 2021
#Presentation #TedTalk
This Friday, I watched a ted talk presentation about people’s misconception about drawing. In the presentation, about 90% of the people believed they can’t draw and I paid close attention to see how he would alter their beliefs. Throughout the presentation he drew simple and elegant drawings that any one in the audience did better. I started to catch on to what the whole idea of drawing is and it wasn’t fully capturing the features of something. It’s having an open mind and drawing something that you could communicate with. For example, at the end of the presentation, the presenter changed two or three features from previous drawings to draw something everyone recognized. It was the cartoon figure of Albert Einstein and that surely made the point across every audience. The communication was clear. An open mind is important for improvement. Once you have an open mind, you could keep drawing and practicing more till your drawings look appealing to you and others.
The presentation by Graham Shaw was influential towards my thoughts about drawing. I didn’t like to draw and as an architecture student who relies more on mathematics and tools, I had to use something more. The method of sketching without tools is stressed in that field and this presentation was a perfect guide to how to improve my drawing skills.
Pentathalon Semester 2
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High School Musical
February 20, 2021
#Film #HighSchoolMusical #Art-Scholars
High school Musical was a teen classic. It was nostalgic to watch this masterpiece again after many years. I also took the time to recognize how it influenced my childhood. It sometimes makes you wish you could go back and enjoy this sort of stuff with very little to worry about.
The art scholars and I enjoyed watching Troy Bolton and Gabriella Montez fight to break out of their friends and relatives expectation to become what they truly want to be. We’ve had lots of laughter and discussion while watching the movie. Throughout the movie, we were at the edge of our seats hoping to see them overcome this challenge and live the fairytale life of happily ever-after where the two main characters get what they deserve. It was thrilling and fun.
The movie was a different experience with the art scholars. Everyone enjoyed it. At one point, we were all singing the famous song scene “get you head in the game” where the basketball team performed this very well choreographed catchy song. This was the peak of the movie. It’s great to connect with other people over something and art tends to do that often. That’s why I enjoy exploring art with people. It’s an incredible tool. I really hope to keep doing this with many people. Maybe we can watch another High School Musical and we could experience the joy we once experienced.
Pentathalon Semester 2
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Guessing Songs
February 28, 2021
#Music #Art-Scholars
Music has been a massive part of our lives. It's been a main aspect of pop culture. Although teens were open to the same experience of pop culture music, we had different tastes. Some songs resonated a lot with us while some didn't. This was something I learned when I was playing this game with the Arts Scholars. We all had different tastes of music for certain mood.
So throughout the session I was trying to figure out which song would some of these scholars students like from previous experience with them. As I was listening to some of the songs, I was trying to figure out whose song it was while actually enjoying the music. It also surprised me to see that most of the songs presented are songs that I have never heard before. It shocked me because I’m usually plugged into a radio or a song streaming system while working. I thought there was going to be a slim chance that I’m going to encounter songs I have never heard before. But as it turns out, the Arts Scholars students were too diverse in their own taste to guess some of the songs they picked.
This was a fun experience. I got to enjoy different people’s music while playing an exciting game. The bad score I got on the game also taught me that I am surrounded by diverse and unpredictable bright students in the Arts Scholars program.
Pentathalon Semester 2
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Ass Whopping | Brooklyn poetry Slam |
April 10, 2021
#Literature
Slam poetry was new to me. I used to think this was just aggressive poetry. The slam poetry about “Ass whooping” completely changed my perception. As I watched their poetry about why punishing children is justified in an African American household, I looked for methods they used to convey this message. First thing I’ve noticed is that they tend to use a lot of humor. It is unclear to me whether it is the topic they chose to do the poetry about but it was effective in engaging the audience. I also noticed that they use visual gestures to emphasize certain arguments. I understood that it wasn’t a coincidence that most of their movement synced just like in the picture on the right. This sort of coordination makes the argument powerful. And the last thing I noticed is that they use facial expressions to show how they were feeling when they were talking about certain aspects of being an African American child. This was the part I enjoyed the most. I was able to understand their tone and goal solely from their expression. Speaking of their goal, I was interested in seeing how they’re going to justify punishing a child for minimal mistakes. After interpreting their gestures, facial expression and comedic arguments, I was able to side with their view by the end of the presentation. I felt their method of presenting this topic was very effective.
Slam poetry wasn’t just aggressive poetry, it was emotional poetry. The emotion adds to the delivery and makes it impactful. As a person learning in Dead Poets Society workshop, I find this to be a very huge inspiration for future poetry assignments. It is also great to learn about the many art forms that exist. It simplifies the process of delivering a complex argument/topic.
Pentathalon Semester 2
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Scribblio
February 28, 2021
#Presentation #Art-Scholars
This Sunday, me and the art scholars participated in a game of scribilio in the event of 2 for 1 pentathlon. It was a wonderful experience. We got to select from Tik-Tok dances, drawing together and a few more but I decided scriblio and guessing music would be very interesting and they would allow the exploration of arts I like.
Scribilio on the computer was difficult. It was hard to get your message across by drawing with a mouse and that was actually the fun part of the game. As an architecture student who works with many restrictive boundaries like not using a tool to draw geometric objects, this challenged me to be creative and imaginative. Without certain tools to communicate your message, you’d have to use certain tricks like association to convey your message. In this game you wouldn’t have to build a 100 story building to convey the word house, you’d just need to draw a box and a triangle on top. It was fun exploring this sort of communication with the Arts-scholars. I understand that they are a diverse group who explore a lot of different art styles and it was fun seeing what they visualize when they think of certain concepts. I really enjoyed this game and I hope to do it again next year.
Pentathalon Semester 3
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Unity for the Outcasts - NextNow Fest 2021
September 18, 2021
#Nextnow #Music
For the first week of Pentathalon, I decided to attend the UFTO rock concert at the Nextnow fest, which was a lovely concert. Music has been a major part of my artistic life so listening to the artists and feeling the crowd's energy was so amazing. The first song they played was “Go tell the world we’re coming” which serves as a great start to the show. It elevates the crowd and also sets the tone of how we’re going to feel for the remainder of the show. The guitarists were on point and the singers were energetic. The second song that played gave me a huge insight on my capstone project. The song was called “another word” and the part that gave me the insight was the fact that I couldn’t hear the words they were singing. But I was still able to feel the emotion and the essential aspects of the song. This made me recall a certain trend about some of the previous songs I listened to. I noticed that the rhythm and tone captures my attention before the words of the music. This is why we usually sing the lyrics wrong or we mumble some parts of the song. At first it doesn’t matter to us whether the singer has a specific message or whether the singer is even saying words. The feeling we present in our art piece is the most essential part of the attention grabbing process. In my capstone project, I will focus more on the sentimental and visual appeal of the art piece.
The band then played “The land of make believe” and that was my favorite song because of its rhythm, beat and vocal flow. The choice of instruments and the correct use of them were also very appealing. They decided to conclude it with a sentimental low tone song like “Do it over” to make the audience cherish their time at the concert and most importantly to keep them wanting to come another time.
Pentathalon Semester 3
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Jackbox - Games 2021
October 4, 2021
#Art-Scholars #Presentation
The game night Eva, a peer mentor, hosted was a wonderful experience. I met new scholars and learned more about how freshmans are handling their first year. I met a freshman called Hudson. He had interesting answers in our game of Quip lash. His answers really synced with my humor and interests more than the others. So I would always vote for his answers without really knowing he wrote them. That was also the most interesting part about the game. We don’t know who wrote whatever is written, but we still consistently vote for the same person. By the final rounds, we could tell who wrote what just by reading what’s written. I felt like we got to know more about each other just by playing this game. At one point we had the same answers for a given question and we gave each other a high five. I was truly shocked because we could have written literally anything and there were little restrictions on the question. Sadly though, we didn't win. We were last because we both only voted for each other's answers. Even though I didn’t win, I learned new things about the others. Most of them like Harry Potter, old disney movies, songs and the new Netflix tv series Squid Game. They also loved each other's presence. It was nice to know this game brought a lot of people together. This game felt like the best Ice-breaker I’ve had in years and I’m happy I was there for it.
Pentathalon Semester 3
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Art House - AAB 2021
October 15, 2021
#Art-Scholars #VisualArts
The Arts Advisory Board were wonderful enough to host the art house yesterday at the Cambridge Community Center and I was fortunate enough to attend. They had food, drinks, and amazing performances. They also had arts and crafts supplies and I was just there working on these supplies while eating and listening to the performances. The performances were exceptional as well. They had Comedy, sea shanty songs plus others and also funny presentations. So I enjoyed myself. I also wanted to exercise my arts and crafts skills so I looked at my friend who had already made a boat with paper and I wanted to see if I could make that myself. One of the things we practice in my architecture classes is dismantling and analyzing a building. Then we clearly understand its composition. So I looked at the structure of AaNiah Sanders’ paper and I tried to make a boat myself. It took me a while but I finally made it. Just from this exercise, I now know how to make a paper boat and I did it while enjoying an amazing performance from the Arts Scholars. It was a lovely experience. We get to spend time with friends and loosen up after a week worth of stress. The Karaoke at the end was amazing as well. Everything was great.
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Pentathalon Semester 3
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Art House - AAB 2021
October 28, 2021
#Art-Scholars #Music & Presentation #2-for-1
Rajas were kind enough to present their unique performance at the Cambridge Community Center and we all watched with great enthusiasm. They were very familiar with their art and we can see that through their set up process, handling, and passion when performing. I’ve noticed the drum lady using some sort of cleaning tool on her drum every five minutes. And I’ve noticed the trumpet lady clearing the inside of the trumpet at times the trumpet wasn’t in use. This says a lot about their dedication and their desire to display the best sonical art. One of them which caught my attention had the most amazing spiritual voice. It reminded me of Pi’s lullaby from life of pi which is my favorite movie of all time. The musical element of the movie was one of the main parts of the movie’s success. It was amazing how she was able to mimic that. The way she closes her eyes when hitting certain notes is interesting to me. The piano guy is also precise when following the group's flow. And the drum lady who looked like the lead of the band is very talented in creating the tone of the music. She transitions the tone of upbeat spiritual style music to blues genre music really well. Her choices of flow were impressive. Throughout their performance, I’ve learned a lot about the art of preparation and the necessity of enjoying yourself when performing. These are one of the tools that are helpful in the presentation of design in architecture. I have to make sure my presentation is worthy of presenting and I am proud of my work. And whenever I present, I always get nervous, even when I’m presenting my best work. Rajas has taught me that If I totally enjoy my work and I am excited about presenting it, I will have a better presentation. It is one of the greatest performances I’ve been in.
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Pentathlon Semester 4
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Culture and Human Rights: Ethiopian Identity
February 6, 2022
#Presentation #TED-ED
Neha Reddy’s presentation has allowed me to understand the view people in America have when visiting Ethiopia. Reddy, a college student in the U.S. wanted to learn more about the culture in Ethiopia but she found some conflicting issues concerning human rights. Women in Ethiopia had a different view of their rights as compared to people in America which were acceptable in Ethiopia but criminalized due to the concept of progressiveness. It was interesting to see Reddy trying to understand the conflicts between culture and human rights. She also understood the harm certain ideas of being progressive had on important national culture. She was the best person I found to study and clearly understand her experience in my home nation. She visited the country shortly after I left so I probably had the same experience when I first arrived. I was timid and things the kids in my community were doing came to be very odd to me. It took me a while to adjust to their customs but even to this day, I sometimes find conflicting customs. It was relieving to know this happens to each side.
After seeing her presentation, I am more considerate of certain perceptions people have when understanding Ethiopia. My capstone is on the Identity of Ethiopia and considering this notion is very important. This will allow me to adjust certain topics I delve into that may seem unappealing and uncomfortable to the Arts scholar view. This also allowed me to consider seeing my project from the perspective of someone who has never been to Ethiopia and is not aware of the customs. As an architecture student, I would now be more inclusive of people that don’t know about Ethiopia when modeling, diagraming, and designing. This presentation has proven to be very essential in my artistic discovery.
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Pentathalon Semester 4
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No Salgas Con El Pelo Mojado - Alina Collins
February 10, 2022
#Presentation #Music #Arts-Scholar
Alina Collins had an art form I have never seen before. She interviews people in the Latino community about their identity and how they are struggling with it. She took the perspective of the parent and child and acted it in a play. It helped me see the disconnect between these generations and allowed me to relate to it because I too have a generational disconnect with my parents. I feel like her art medium, her passion and her background with the topic are something that has allowed her to express this sentiment. I don’t believe this sensation could be conveyed any other way and by any other person. I don’t think anybody else could make the message as powerful as she made it. This needs to be something I consider for my Capstone project. I have to make it feel like it’s something only I can do. I have to bring out my uniqueness. Growing up in Ethiopia and having the passion for this country may not be sufficient to express my message. I need to inquire whether I have the art medium that complements the other two.
I would also like to note that her message was impactful and helpful because It let me know I wasn’t the only one dealing with this issue of identity. My whole project is about claiming one’s identity and I am now able to see that it’s an issue a lot of people deal with. There are a lot of things Alina Collins helped me see about my project and how I could help people with my Ethiopian Identity capstone project. Talking to her at the end and letting her know how helpful her presentation was assured me that she knows her presentation is indefinitely helping a lot of people and will keep on doing what she’s doing. This was a great insight in my life, career and educational journey. I’m glad I attended.
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Pentathalon Semester 4
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National Gallery of Art.
Master of the Death of Saint Nicholas of Münster (1460)
April 1, 2022
#Visual Art
This Friday, I visited the national gallery of art and had the opportunity to be inspired Architecturally. I spent my time analyzing the building and studying the principles that make up a good museum. On the way, I saw some interesting art as well. One specific art caught my eye. The painting of Jesus' crucifixion by a German painter in 1446 truly showed me how one could reinforce the story told in the paintings in a layout technique. The three paintings are displayed together to tell a cohesive story. The story of Jesus' crucifixion was told in the paintings and also by the frames. The larger painting standing out in the middle represents Jesus and all the stories he has led. The small bright frame painting on the left shows a focused story in which only his followers and loved ones surrounded him during his crucifixion. The dark small framed painting on the right however contrasted this by surrounding people by the Romans who crucified him and the weapons that they used. They all combined together to tell a narrative on the story of the two thieves that were crucified with him in which one repented for his sins while the other mocked Jesus on his last day. The synchronicity of the frames and the painting has led me to think a lot about my artistic styles.
This style of storytelling has given me inspiration on how I set up my collage for the capstone project. It has shown me that I need to tell the story of Ethiopia not only in the aspect of the pictures I put and the collage style I chose but also in the layout aspect. I would also apply that to my Architecture layout style. This has been a great lesson for me.
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Pentathalon Semester 4
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The Batman
May 9, 2022
#Film
Batman is my favorite movie of 2022. Getting to see it at the auditorium of the architecture building with a group of friends was the best way to end my studio experience of my sophomore year. I love every Batman movie and I was a bit nervous about the quality of this one before I watched it but I was happy with the end result. I was excited about the style and tone of this new Batman. The atmosphere was dark and the city was miserable. This style was so appealing because it gives you a better understanding of why certain characters had to do what they did. It shows you why the city is the way that it is. Because of this, one thing I admire about the movie is the reinterpretation of Riddler which seems like a silly character but they made it so dark and fit the atmosphere. I love it when movie creators reinterpret the characters to fit the movie tone. I’ve seen it being done with Logan, Shang chi, and Infinity war. That’s a huge challenge for writers. My friend was also able to notice these trends.
Something that amplified my experience is discussing the movie with not only a group of friends but a group of friends that shared the same admiration for art. We were able to discuss the movie and pick things we found interesting writing, setting, and plot wise. This has added more to my belief that art brings people together and discussing art is one of the ways to do it. Another thing movies like this helped me apply is adjustment of art elements to fit the current atmosphere. I was able to do that with my capstone project by curating and filtering out images and information that were irrelevant for the given atmosphere.
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