Here is my documentary video for DMA class. enjoy!

Remix video-Montagnard dance vs. Western dance

We've discussed the subject of remixes and "recycling" art, music and the like. This is my example representing a melange of images and music. Here you go and I hope you like like it.

I thought about the idea of traditional vs. contemporary and of course the word "contemporary struck a chord with me because I am, in fact, a contemporary dancer. Therefore, I decided to focus on Montagnard music and dance in comparison to contemporary dance and music. There were a few hiccups along the way as I had no idea how to use the program

Is digital media bad for us???

ok so this has been an ongoing argument that I just came into this year when in my Critical Perspectives class, we had to write a research paper on this very subject.

As far as the wikileaks website, I think that in that particular instance, digital media is beneficial. I feel that governments should be transparent and that the people should always know what their leaders are doing.

I feel that for informative and entertainment purposes, digital media is great. It makes things convenient and anything you need is at your fingertips. However, I think that once you get past how convenient it is to have the internet and other digital media, it's really not so great. I believe that while social networking websites are good for business relationships and maybe for catching up with old friends, but they can also be addictive and unhealthy. I have scores of friends who are on facebook and twitter almost 24/7.  I do agree that dealing with people online has a crippling effect on our ability to deal with people face to face.  From World of Warcraft to Facebook to Twitter to......I dont know....Angry Birds, we've become so dependent on technology, now we dont know what to do without it. There are kids in Korea being sent to technology rehab centers all over the country because they've become addicted to technology. Korea and Japan are the first coutnries to recognize digital addiction as a mental disease. When will we?

examples of artists and art in the digital age...

Alright so this blog is going to be a smidge shorter than my last couple of blogs merely because I have very little to say about what I think constitutes an artist and the concept of remixes and the "recycling" of art, if you will.

In the world of today (that being the digital era), anyone who creates a work that is inspiring to someone, anyone, can be considered an artist. Remixes, edits, and altered versions of songs, videos and other works are merely art that's been "tweaked" a little bit. Like I said in my previous post, the concept of originality is but an illusion since most anytyhing that could be considered "art" has already been done. Now all that's left is to make variations on it. Artists these days are musicians, moviemakers, actors and dancers and then the people that use digital media to make their own art are in their own category as "digital artists".

From youtube celebrities to professional dancers to a housewife, anyone can be an artist nowadays because we all have the capacity to inspire.

influence, ownership and art in the digital age

One of my dance teachers once told me "There are no new steps. They've all been done. It's the order and the spirit in which you dance them that makes a difference."

This is very true although it does not apply only to dance. Especially in today's digital world, there is very little that has not been done as far as the arts and people struggle to make their work original.  Artists are inspired by the work of other artists and mimicry is well known to be the highest form of flattery. This is the way it has been for ages upon ages and it is probably the way it is going to remain for ages to come.

In regard to the digital age, the computer in its many forms has been evolving not just for the past several decades but perhaps for centuries. Man's tools have been evolving for thousands upon thousands of years. In response to the instructor audio about digital media,  man has been depending on his tools for so long I believe that it is impossible for us the to live without any tools at this point. I also believe that like a child with a security blanket, we wouldnt want to give up any of our tools today, especially the computer. The computer, which apparently evolved from the Daguerrotype, has become an essential part of even daily life in this era.  Anyway, I digress. This blog is not about our dependence on technology but about how most of our tools and artworks have been "passed down" if you will, from other artists.  The concept of originality in the art world is an illusion. In this world, anything that can be thought can be done and the human mind, though amazing, does have its limits. Most, if not all works of art, be they dance, visual art, theatre, or music have a "mother piece" that inspired their maker, consciously or not.

Therefore, I think the idea of mental property and originality are somewhat bogus, though one should always respect the idea of the person who creates an "original" work of art and their sense of ownership to it.

Montagnard/Dega Project: Dance and Music

   4) include a statement about what you think you still need or want to learn in order for your project to be successful, and 5) identify someone or a group in the Montagnard community you would want to work with to learn what you need/want to learn and express via a digital story.



As far as the Montagnard/Dega project, My interests lie in the areas of dance and how it pertains to culture. I would like to see how dance in the United States differs from Montagnard/Dega dance as well as what they may have in common. 


To work with, I already have some articles offering a general overview of Montagnard/Dega culture, as well as reviews and music files of Mondega, the Montagnard hip hop artist. The music affects the dancing in every culture, and as such, I hope to figure out more about what traditional Montagnard dance is like and also figure out how western culture has influenced it and how young Montagnard people have adapted to our music and dance. Here is how I hope it works...


I think for my project to be successful I need to leanr more about Montagnard dance and perhaps learn one or two of the dances themselves and listen to more Montagnard music as well as listen to some Montagnard music that has undergone Americanization. I would  definitely need to meet with a Montagnard dancer. 


Dance is the universal language after all..

Framing...

Framing.....hmm....there's a tricky one.

To me, or rather the way I think of framing, is that framing is the thoughts we connect to a certain object, image or situation. Humans naturally compartmentalize things in our brains nowadays.  When you think of something, the thoughts that surround it are its frame. At least that is how I understand it.

The aspects of framing I found intriguing upon reading about it are linguistic framing, because I love languages and I love learning about them, the co-evolution of man with his tools, because the evolution of man is just an all around fascination topic, and the concept of the metaphorical cyborg, because I've somewhat become interested in how and why humans have become so dependent on technology.

I speak four languages. Learning each of them was dificult but fun. As such, I guess I sort of have a love of linguistics and their inner workings. Spanish is my first language, then when we moved to the United States, I had to learn English.  In elementary school I had several friends from France and we took French so I learn as much of it as I could(unfortunately  I'm still not fluent) and my grandmother taught me how to speak Italian. Anyway, the concept of linguistic framing is rather intriguing to me. The part where George Lakoff says:

"Language always comes with what is called "framing." Every word is defined relative to a conceptual framework. If you have something like "revolt," that implies a population that is being ruled unfairly, or assumes it is being ruled unfairly, and that they are throwing off their rulers, which would be considered a good thing. That's a frame.

See now that's fascinating and shows how language is not all conjugations and memorization but it has emotion of sorts and it has more than just the pattern of how it is written or spoken. Language is not just one of man's tools but it does bring me to my next point. Language, like man's tools, has evolved with him over time. From the hand-axe to the computer, man has always been dependent on some sort of tools that have helped him perform tasks he would not be able to perform otherwise. Now there is no one that can deny that man is dependent on the computer almost more than any other previous tool. This is apparent where the article on Mazlish says that, "If we are able to truly get our minds around how inseparable we are from our tools and toolmaking practices, it becomes much easier to understand why people are so interested in, worried about (at times), seemingly dependent on, computers and related media."

People are in such denial that we are addicted to our technology that they dont consider that if we just accept that fact, we might be able to move forward as a species instead of always remaining "part machine". We are becoming cyborgs and few people realize it. Now, what is a cyborg, you ask? Well, Donna Haraway's webpage describes it perfectly.


""A cyborg is a cybernetic organism, a hybrid of machine and organism, a creature of social reality as well as a creature of fiction...Contemporary science fiction is full of cyborgs - creatures simultaneously animal and machine, who populate worlds ambiguously natural and crafted...Modern medicine is also full of cyborgs, of couplings between organism and machine, each conceived as coded devices, in an intimacy and with a power that was not generated in the history of sexuality...Modern production seems like a dream of cyborg colonization work, a dream that makes the nightmare of Taylorism seem idyllic. And modern war is a cyborg orgy, coded by C3I, command-control-communication-intelligence... I am making an argument for the cyborg as a fiction mapping our social and bodily reality and as an imaginative resource suggesting some very fruitful couplings.

Do you see? In each of these different examples, the main topic is not necessarily language, tools or technology, but how we think of and use them. The associations we have with them. The FRAMING.

Introduction and Self Portrait

Hey there! I'm Simon Hernandez!  I am twenty years old and a student at University of North Carolina School of the Arts, studying contemporary dance. I am an immigrant. My family is not from here.

My family and I immigrated from Caracas, Venezuela to the United States when I was six years old and we have lived here ever since.  It was a challenge at first, moving to a new country and having to learn a new language and a new culture, but being six years old, I was still impressionable and it didn't take me too long to adapt to American culture.   My mother however, was worried that I would forget our culture and our language so I speak only Spanish at home.  I have two older sisters, one two years older than me and the other four years older than me. I also have a niece whom I love dearly and she is adorable. She will be turning three this coming October.

Here's a photo of Caracas. I was born and raised here til the age of six. I still miss it sometimes..

My mother works as a lab animal technician at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill and since she was busy working a lot of the time while I was growing up, I sometimes got into trouble, but at the end of the day, my mom was there when it mattered and so were my sisters. I didnt really grow up in a multicultural area.  When we first came to the U.S., my mother, sisters and I lived in a three bedroom apartment in Chapel Hill with my grandmother, my aunt and my cousin. My mom worked a lot of the time.

I've always been very artistic and I wanted to be a visual artist from the time I was five up until I was seventeen years old.  At seventeen I discovered dance and I have been dancing ever since.



The main problems I have noticed for young people in this country, in my experience at least,  are drugs and alcohol. I started hearing about my peers being involved with these when I was around twelve years old.  The media is constant in the lies of people today. It is all but inescapable. Young people not only use it recreationally but they have to use it for various things in school, from tests and quizzes to online homework. Life has somewhat lost its simplicity.

I've never been involved with growing food, but I had a small garden for herbs and such when I was younger. It wasn't much, but it gave me something to keep me busy. I would be willing to give growing food a shot. It sounds interesting.  I have a few words of advice to young people who are new in the U.S.  Try listening to your parents and never forget your culture or where you came from. Dont lose yourself for the sake of being American. America is a melting pot, so add your own unique flavor to the mix.




Everyone has some of the land they came from as well as the land their ancestors came from. you just have to see it.

SEE?