Thesis Book: Kelly Walters

Sitcoms, slow jamz & the white cube kelly walters

42

Sitcoms, Slow Jams & The White Cube

RHYTHM & FLOW

43

the standard english test BOOKLET In a collaborative project with Oge Mora (BFA Illustration) we designed The Standard English Test Booklet (S.E.T.). Having recently read Vershawn Young’s book, Other People’s English: Code-Meshing, Code-Switching, and African American Literacy, we were interested in exploring how the concept of code-meshing and code-switching could interject itself into the language of a standardized test space.

While historically the SAT has been the leading standardized test used for college admissions since the mid-1920s, we recognize an inherent racial bias imbued within the test language. Students that speak other dialects of English (i.e African-American vernacular or black English) often have trouble getting higher test scores, and are unfairly adjudicated based on their familiarity of Standard English versus what they actually know. Oge and I had an in-depth conversation about how our own cultural backgrounds influenced the way we prepare for exams such as these shape how we would interact with people in predominantly white or predominantly black environments. These social contexts have us speaking one way at home and another “proper” way at school.

As Young explains in his book, “Given the central role of language variation in the expression of individual identity, attempts to banish undervalued Englishes from the classroom place restrictions on students’ ability to use the forms of language that serve to convey emotions, attitudes, and relationships to other speakers. Because prescriptive language ideology generally treats undervalued varieties as “wrong” on one hand or “inappropriate” in certain context on the other, children who speak undervalued Englishes may feel as if school assumes they are “wrong” even when their answer is actually correct.”7 By exploiting the design conventions of the SAT, we worked together to create a multi-part interactive test that included critical reading, a prompt based essay and a scantron questionnaire. In Section 1 we alternated a series of questions set in African-American Vernacular among questions set only in Standard English to confuse the linguistic patterning.Most critical to the design, was to being able to mimic the simplicity of the typography used in the original SAT by using typefaces such as Times New Roman and

Helvetica typefaces. This we felt was needed in order to give the appearance of authority for those taking the test. We also felt that by elevating an “undervalued English” language, we could expand notions of what qualifies as English. On the backside of the booklet, we modified the scantron bubble sheet for inclusiveness of other English dialects. For instance instead of just two languages listed in the dominant language category, we increased the amount to include 25 others– ranging anywhere from Shinglish to Jamaican Patois.

We also sought to challenge gender norms by included other gender affiliations beyond a binary system to include transgender or cisgender as.

Together we produced over 150 copies of this small 8.5”x 5.5” booklet and provided an accompanying Scantron sheet for participants to complete.

The booklets were then put on display in the RISD Gelman Gallery’s Kindred exhibition for two months. A collection box was placed on the exhibition ledge for people to submit their completed test forms, which we then collected and reviewed.

44

Sitcoms, Slow Jams & The White Cube

SECTION 1 Time – 15 minutes 10 Questions

Use your answer key provided to answer the questions in the section.

Directions: 1. Read the sentence.

2. Choose the word or set of words that, when inserted in the sentence, best fits the meaning of the sentence as a whole.

You got 15 minutes. Just know that all these multiple-choice questions are scored the same way: a nod of approval for every right answer, and a sideye for every wrong one. Don’t worry tho, no points are subtracted for answers left blank. Got that No. 2 pencil? Good. Cause you’ll need fill in the entire circle on the answer sheet darkly and completely (no lie). If you change your response, erase it as completely as possible. Relax man. No seriously tho, chill.

1. There ain’t no doubt that Larry is a genuine -------. Brotherman be tellin’ stories that fascinate his listeners. Holla!

(A) braggart (B) dilettante (C) pilferer (D) prevaricator (E) raconteur 2. The novel’s protagonist, a pearl diver, naïvely expects that the buyers will compete among themselves to pay him the best price for his pearl, but istead they ------- to ------- him.

(A) venture...reward

(B) pretend...praise (C) conspire...reimburse (D) refuse...cheat (E) collude...swindle

3. Ramona done neva visit Niagara Falls, but she done got her life ------through the description of others.

(A) vicariously (B) heedlessly (C) innocuously (D) mystically (E) voluminously

S.E.T. Booklet Side 1

RHTYHM & FLOW

4. Members of the research team were initially so adversarial that ------- seemed impossible; the project’s inauspicious start made its final success all the more ------- .

(A) concentration...incidental (B) disagreement...incongruous (C) collaboration...predictable (D) hostility...dazzling (E) cooperation...remarkable 5. Now my gurl got it in hur head that those words “bug” and “insect” are -------, but I was like nah gurl, dat last word be talkin’ bout ------- insect group.

(A) parallel...an identical (B) precise...an exact (C) interchangeable...a particular (D) exclusive...separate (E) useful...a useless 6. Although the administration repeatedly threatened to use its authority in order to ------- the student protestors into submission, they refused to be intimidated.

(C) cajole (A) ease (B) delude (D) bully (E) nudge 7. Ain’tnobodygottime for that Joshua’s radical ideas. Dem just too ------- man.

(A) heretical (B) meticulous (C) precise (D) incoherent (E) sagacious 8. Our mayor’s motives are suspect I tell you! When you gonna recognize the ------ statements in his “so called” ------- speeches?

(A) insightful...astute (B) partisan...callous (C) cordial...hostile (D) duplicitous...candid (E) cunning...surreptitious 9. That girl? She a -------. She be writin’ at home, isolating herself, and shunnin’ errbody. I don’t mess wit her.

(A) a loner (B) a miser (C) a connoisseur (D) a conspirator (E) an ingenue 10. The addition of dem descriptive details to the basic information serves to ------- the book by producing a fuller account.

(B) objectify (C) incite (A) invalidate (D) celebrate (E) enrich

45

58

Sitcoms, Slow Jams & The White Cube

Brands of hip hop

Brands of Hip Hop is a collection of collaged posters designed in Spring 2014 Studio. As I transitioned into this new semester music became another means for me to examine the structure of language through song. Hip Hop music, in particular, was an area of so much cultural richness. I feel the complexity of Black identity in this realm is been driven by where people grow up (ie. Bronx, New Orleans, etc), how people talk (slang and coded messages), the sports teams they idolize (Yankees, Braves) and most importantly what people wear (Versace, Adidas or Pro-Keds). My fascination with this last area is an on-going interest. Trying to undestand why I needed to have those black and pink NEO high-top Adidas or a pair of Tommy Hilfiger jeans after listening to Jay-Z or Puff Daddy (now P.Diddy). Since the introduction of RUN D.M.C.’s song My Adidas off their Raise Hell album in 1986, the trend in mainstream Hip Hop places a major emphasis on embedding the names of popular fashion brands into the song lyrics. One can argue that this is primarily because the artist truly likes a particular brand and can’t help but to brag about it on the track. However, it is more common that the brand placement in hip hop songs today, are driven solely by business aims that benefit not only the artists but the fashion brand itself. As a result, the type of fashion brands mentioned have evolved from low fashion apparel that anyone could buy, to elite high fashion labels for the wealthy.

In an VIBE Magazine Op-Ed article Is High Fashion Hip Hop Good for the Culture, author Kim Rose explains, “When rappers started showing up with new homies like Ralph Lauren we took notice. Soon everyone wanted “Tommy” emblazoned across their chest like Snoop Dogg did on Saturday Night Live.

RHYTHM & FLOW

59

60

Sitcoms, Slow Jams & The White Cube

Pair 1 Hilfiger, Ralph Lauren and Versace (Panel B)

RHYTHM & FLOW

Hilfiger and Polo were the aspirational fashion brands, and folks were actually able to attain them. Their clothes sold within a range of relatively reasonable price points, allowing even broke heads to hurry to Marshalls or T.J. Maxx to cop a logo on the cheap...Twenty years in, and the currency of chic is currently set in the boldest of prints. Rappers are stunting on steroids, and the perception-enhancing dress code is ultra-high above street level. The music has morphed into “luxury rap,� with haute lyrics laced with labels nobody can pronounce and designers few can reach. Yet, while Jay Z and Kanye West and the like hobnob with Rick Owens and Phillip Lim, issue new watch alerts and reign as filthy rich style icons, the masses are in a money grab for survival. Rap appears recession-proof, pricing out the cash-strapped consumers who are the driving force of the industry.8 These luxury brands pose a disconnect that fails to equate with the economic status of its listeners. In an attempt to visualize this shift from low fashion to high fashion, I went through the process of selecting ten popular Hip Hop songs dating from 1986-2014. I analyzed the lyrics and coded the type of fashion references mentioned. Within a single song there could be two and three fashion brands mentioned alone. I then took these brand identities and cropped them to unrecognizable abstracted forms, recombining them into a single panel. In their recombination, I paid close attention to allowing a new composited form to emerge that highlighted aspects of the original logo. In tandem with these formal posters, I created a companion poster that included lyrical excerpts to give the posters an additional layer of context.

Pair 1 Hilfiger, Ralph Lauren and Versace (Panel A)

61

88

Sitcoms, Slow Jamz & The White Cube

MARTIN + fresh prince prints

Excited by the bold reductive color palettes from logo identities and opening credits of 90s era sitcoms such as A Different World, The Cosby Show, Living Single, Martin, In Living Color and The Fresh Prince of Bel Air I designed a poster series inspired by their visual language. Today, these sitcoms no longer air in such a mainstream way and have migrated to other targeted markets like BET or Vh1’s Centric. Neverthless, seeing a full

Martin television show logo identity.

black cast portraying black experiences on prime time television channels has left a lasting impact in the legacy of black representation. Using the Martin logo as a starting point, I recreated the design by eliminating the typography and framed a new abstract composition. With this form I created a repeated pattern in an attempt to build my own 2015 Kente cloth textile print.

Applying the same treatment to the Fresh Prince of Bel Air logo identity, a second pattern was developed as a companion piece. With these two defined prints, an application to apparel became the logical next step. In this on-going project, the ultimate goal would be to be translate both prints onto yardage of fabric and be use

CONTEXT

to produce a series of t-shirts, bags, and other print ephemera.eliminating the typography and framed a new abstract composition. With this form I created a repeated pattern in an attempt to build my own 2015 Kente cloth textile print.

Applying the same treatment to the Fresh Prince of Bel Air logo identity, a second pattern was developed as a companion piece. With these two defined prints, an application to apparel became the logical next step. In this on-going project, the ultimate goal would be to be translate both prints onto yardage of fabric and be use to produce a series of t-shirts, bags, and other print ephemera.

Still from the opening credits of the Fresh Prince of Bel Air. This graffiti text inspired the color palette and direction for my Fresh Prince Print.

97

102

Sitcoms, Slow Jamz & The White Cube

CONTEXT

103

106

Sitcoms, Slow Jamz & The White Cube

CONTEXT

107