Hello!
I am Christopher McDonald, a sophomore vocal performance major from Jackson, Mississippi. Though I study voice at Olaf I have a multitude of interests: I am in the process of starting my own photography business, I am part of the Lyric Theatre’s opera, I have a role in the Northfield Arts Guild’s production of Bright Star, and I recently applied to accompany at St. Dominic’s. My multitude of interests is the precise reason I want to take this class. Participating in an array of Arts has allowed me to experience their overlapping. All forms of art focus on portraying messages, whether that be the emotional conglomeration of Romantic era music or the socioeconomic critiquing of minimalistic art. Messages like and dislike these are essential to shaping the way our society functions and portraying the many different ways inn which it should advance. As a creative, I want to not only combine different mediums of Art but do it in a way that is conducive to non-performative and long lasting positive change for marginalized communities, which is why I am interested in this course. Correlating the Arts and Democracy is not a new concept, but one that becomes increasingly relevant as politics becomes more influential and as more information becomes available through platforms such as Youtube, Instagram and Tiktok. For example, Through the the Black Lives Matter Movement’s amplification on social media millions have started to advocate for Black people and educate themselves on the history of this country. The availability of information and the ability to post the uncensored opinions of citizens shows how perfectly the arts and Democracy intertwine, especially when navigating social media itself has become an art form.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfQJ8UMUgPM
One of the things that scares me about this class is not how effective these conversations will be but for how long they will be effective. More and more so, society has advanced so quickly that the pace of academia has often failed to keep up with it, often lagging on the tail end of relevancy. Art always advances with society because art forces innovation;. originality is essential. However, academia is so often based on set traditions, forcing new ideas to drown under the sea of cis-gendered, heterosexual, old (often) white, men, which lies parallel to our political structure. This fear, nevertheless, is a double-edged sword. Though it sets limitations on study, it also adds greater necessity to the role of artists in our current climate.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNvClG8Y3Ic
https://youtu.be/N2gsWSvoqYI?t=99
