Assignment 4

The sun rises,
The birds begin to sing
The mind turns on like a computer starting up

What is art?
What is feminism?
These are the questions it begin to ponder

The wheel begins to turn,
The modem starts up,
The machine starts to go haywire

What is art?
What is feminism?
These are the questions it continues to ponder

Is art the things on the wall?
Is feminism the FIGHT to give women equality?

What is art?
What is feminism?
These are the questions it continues to ponder

Circuits getting filled with contradictory input,
Art is everything, art is what you go to a museum to see,
Feminism is equality for women, feminism is equality for all,
Now the mind is going into overdrive

What is art?What is feminism?
These are the questions it continues to ponder

The modem begins to rewire itself
Art is and can be everything
Feminism is the fight for equality among all

What is art?
What is feminism?
These are the questions it no longer ponders

The sun goes down,
The stars come out,
The mind turns off as the computer shuts down


This poem goes through how my thought process went throughout the semester. I refer to my mind as a computer throughout the poem by using words like ponder, that only the mind can do but still using computer terminology. The sun up to sun down is to show a full day, which is in reference to the semester and how my thoughts changed throughout the semester. I begin thinking that art is something objective and feminism is the extreme fight for women’s rights (which is why I use all caps during this fight) and then go on change. I say that contradictory information comes in, which is in reference to the whole semester. Then finally it says art is and can be everything and feminism is the fight for equality among all. This is to reference how I am thinking now that I have taken the class. Through the poem I show that I think the main arguments for the course are what is art and what is feminism and that those two questions were obvious and plaguing me all semester, until the very end.

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We were assigned to read a total of six books for this class but there were only three that really caught my attention. These three book were But it is art?, by Cynthia Freeland and Kindred, by Octavia Butler. All of these books displayed different information and all in their own unique ways.

The first book we are going to talk about it is But is it art? book. This was by far my favorite of the book because it really taught and showed an assortment of interesting things. The purpose of this book was to show you interesting pieces of art and giving the background on them while explaining how the art world works as well. My favorite piece of art it showed was Piss Christ, but interestingly enough I hated it. I think the reason I enjoyed the piece so much was because it evoked such a serious emotion within me. While it was in interesting piece it goes against the basic institution I was raised within, and that is my religion. I felt as though the piece was making a mockery of Christ and that is completely wrong to me. But while I would never buy the piece myself or hang a replica of it in my house, I found it so interesting. This book also explains many interesting things about how the art world works as well. In chapter four, they talk about how money influences what is seen in museums. While many of us do not believe that this is how it should be working, we cannot deny that is does work this way. Those who have money tell us what is art, and they are supposed to tell us what constitutes as art, which is why many of us have such strong predisposition as what constitutes as art. This book did a great job of giving us a lot of information while keeping it interesting at the same time.

The other book that I found interesting was Kindred, by Octavia Butler. The reason I enjoyed this book was because it was an actual story rather than a textbook like material, but it connected to the class very well at the same time. Seeing how Dana was treated every time she went back to how she was treated and looked at in today’s society really showed me how far we have come. You keep hearing how we may have come far but still have a long way to go, as far as equality goes, and hearing this down plays how far we truly have come. While we have a lot we want to accomplish before we say women and men, as well as all races are equal it is nice to see how much of that fight we can already overcome. It gave me a feeling that someday we will eventually get there if we just keep fighting, rather than like before when I used to just say that true equality would never be reached. So I guess you could say that I enjoyed this book because it gave me hope that one day we will get there.

These two books together I feel really made sense of this class, and really contributed to the argument of the class. They may have presented the information in very different manners but they both keep your attention and kept
you wanting to read more and that is what made them my favorite.