Danny's Interviews

When I was told to interview 3 stakeholders at GBS and in the Glenview community, I thought of 3 people immediately. For the faculty memeber at GBS I was going to choose Senor Jorge Zamora. He was my spanish teahcer during my Junior year and I knew he appreciated art because he talked about it a lot last year and showed a lot of interest in music. When I was choosing a student at GBS I thought of my friend Drew Gibson. He is a Junior this year and I have known him my whole life. He always likes to express his views on pieces of art like modern art or new music. He is a huge fan of older music from the 50's to the 90's and always shows his disgust in new music and wonders how it is considered music. My last choice was a community member of Glenview. For this I chose my mother. My mom is not really a person that is big into modern art, kind of like my friend Drew is about music. After I chose these people I set out on my interview hunt.

During my interview with Senor Zamora, he told me that he likes things that are more simplistic. He doesnt like to look or listen to things that are just a mess of random shapes or sounds. He says this is just noise which is not pleasing to the mind. From this I see that he wants an art piece that is pleasing to look at. I also learned this from my mother when I interviewed her. I learned it in more of a direct way than when I learned it from Senor Zamora. I asked my mom what makes an art piece good or bad. He answer was simple. She said, "Something that is pleasing to the eye." She then added that a piece of art would also be good if it brought forth a good feeling or emotion. Drew was a little different. He said he would look at how well something is sculpted or drawn to judge if it is good or bad. This shows that the accuracy matters to him. He wants art to look real.

Caitlin's Interviews

When looking at the answers I got to my interview questions, I noticed some trends, but also some differences. I interviewed Dr. Shellard, my dad who owns his own clothing company and corporate job, and my brother who attends a Chicago Performing Arts High School. One of the things they all had in common was the idea of technology. They all said that what is unique to this century is the technology we have now, since it has advanced so much from past centuries. Another thing they had in common was that they all said that the thing that separates us from animals is the characteristic we all share which is the ability to express ourselves. Animals can feel pain but we as humans can feel guilt, regret, sorrow and many other feelings. My brother said that people are most concerned about their own style and what clothes they were, where my dad and Dr. Shellard said that most people were concerned about financial security.

            Hearing my brother say that he thinks people are most concerned about style didn’t surprised me since that’s what he and his peers are most concerned about.  My brother has always been “out there,” always wearing something no one has seen before, or dying his hair bizarre colors, so going to a Performing Arts High School all he is concerned with in the morning is making himself stand out. My dad and Dr. Shellard are concerned with their families and the people they work with everyday. Being a consumer and part of the economy, this is what they worry about. From these interviews I’ve learned that everything depends on the person and what their environment is like. Someone who comes from a poor family who is maybe living on the streets is mostly likely concerned about if they get dinner tonight when looking at the bigger picture, it seems that people share the same views but if you ask a more specific question, the answers could be complete opposites. This just makes the project more difficult. How do you create something that represents what the 21^st century human is when to different people, can seem so different?

Janet's Interview

For this interview, I interviewed a parapro, my mom, and a freshman boy from my gym class. While I believed that many of these questions would derive many of the same opinions, I realized that there were many different thoughts on these topics. Regarding the first question about concerns, Buzz, the parapro believed that a main concern was the environment and staying ‘green.’ Steven, the freshman, generally believed that people are most concerned with themselves at their specific moment in time, such as how they will make it through to the next day, or how well they will be able to support their family and provide a stable future. My mom believed that a main concern of this time is jobs and financial situations in people’s lives. For the second question, I observed many similarities. The three interviewees agreed that new and upcoming technology is unique to this century. Steven also noted how keeping up with the latest trends is unique as well as architecture. For number three, I observed similarities as well. All three said the same answer basically. They explained how people look to the internet for answers, as well as intelligent individuals, such as parents. Number four was very interesting to me. My mom and Buzz explained how humans are different from animals because we are capable of feeling emotions such as worrying and anxiety. They also noted how we are capable of rationalizing situations unlike other animals. Steven, however, believed that animals are capable of emotions, that they just do not express it in the same way as humans do. He also went on to explain how humans feel the need to find answers and explanations to things such as economy and how things are made. Finally, for the last question, I observed similarities as well as differences. Buzz explained how people are looking for something new, unique, and different. My mom was on the same path as him when she explained how people are looking for accurate representations of something and something pleasing to the eye. Steven talked about the exactness of art, and how he considers this to be crucial to the reasoning as to why people would want to buy a piece of art. He also elaborated on how artists want to express themselves to the world. The three had different opinions on how art is different in this century. Buzz explained how the new innovative equipment accounts for the different type of art now a days. My mom believed that art hasn’t changed much, but has become more accepted in a variety of forms. Steven believed that art has simply become more extract and less sophisticated.

Wow, this was extremely interesting. I’m glad that I observed a variety of people because it definitely offered a variety of opinions for this project. I learned that most of these three people believed in the same concrete explanations of the 21^st century, such as the internet, but had many different opinions on more precise elements such as art. Buzz and my mom had many of the same opinions, but Steven was really able to offer many new points that I have never really thought about before. This signifies to me that age really does make difference on how one perceives the 21^st century. This gives me a good base on which to start the project because I know what factors of art are most appealing to certain kinds of people. These varieties of opinions will make it easy for me to accommodate my research to the specific needs of the people who make up today’s society. I’m looking forward to starting this project with this new knowledge of what satisfies different groups of people.

5 Questions for Interview

1. What are people most concerned about now a days?

2. What aspects of life would you consider to be unique to the 21st century? Such as values, tastes, etc.

3. Where do people search/look for answers these days?

4. How are humans different from other 'animals?' What characteristics do we have that distinguish us?

5. What do humans/you look for in art? What characteristics distinguish art of this century from past centuries?

Our Awesome Group Information

Team Name: Creators of the Past

Team Motto: Recreating the past one step at a time.

Team Rules:
1.Listen and respect each other: We tend to talk over one another and not listen as much as we should.
2.Be open to ideas: Sometimes we shut out each others' ideas, so we should be more open to new ideas to create a good product.
3.Go outside the box: We sometimes just do what is expected of us rather than being eccentric with our designs or ideas.
4.Stay focused: We like to talk a lot and get distracted rather than focus on the task at hand.
5.Have fun: Sometimes we get so stressed it turns into a job rather than a fun project.

Skills each member brings:
-Janet: Creativeness, good with her hands.
-Danny: Wants to be an engineer, thinks practically.
-Caitlin: Good artist, creative with colors, thinks outside the box.

Roles:
-Janet - Builder
-Danny - Designer
-Caitlin - Creator