Com(m)unicate - COLOR - Vol VII Issue II

Volume VII, Issue II

Lina Sinisterra Profile Isabella Tejeda

Introducing the Ghosts of Pac-Man

Ju Young Shim

Feeling Blue?

Emma Dreispiel

808s and Heartbreak and the nature of flawed art Salvador Robayo

The Legacy of Senior Jackets Ana Natiello and Camila Matamoros

Volume VII, Issue II

COLOR

Volume VII, Issue II Com(m)unĂ­cate is a bilingual publication dedicated to sharing student voice and writing of Colegio Nueva Granada.

Editors Michelle Akerman Olivia Galvis Mr. Guzman Julio Mr. Tangen Dr. Carriazo Layout and Design Editor Jeongwoo (Stella) Hur Eduardo Carriazo Design Team and Artists Emma Dreispiel Catalina Saldarriaga Lara Kim Ana Sierra Isabella Tejeda Maria Luz Perez Paula Salcedo Special Thanks to Ms. Janice Ellerby Copy Editor Paulina Ruiz

Writers Isabella Tejeda Stella Mendoca VerĂłnica Copello Ju Young Shim Miranda Urdinola Carmen Botero Emma Dreispiel Andrea Rabinovich Camilo Medina Alan Andrade Salvador Robayo SeoYoung Shin Susie Kim Ana Natiello Camila Matamoros Andrea Alvarado Joo Hyun Park Printed by Cima Impresores E.U. Colegio Nueva Granada Bogota, Colombia May of 2018 ISSN 2590-5317

Table of Contents

Editor’s Notes > > > > > > 4 Lina Sinisterra by Isabella Tejeda > > > > > > 5 ~ 7 Hearing the World in Color by Stella Mendoca > > > > > > 8 ~ 9 La subjetividad del color by Verónica Copello > > > > > > 9 ~ 10 Introducing the Ghosts of Pac-Man by Ju Young Shim > > > > > > 11 - 13 The Real Truth about the Red Capote by Miranda Urdinola > > > > > >

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Color Association by Carmen Botero > > > > > >

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Feeling Blue? by Emma Dreispiel > > > > > > 16 - 17 Colorful Dinner Plate by Andrea Rabinovich > > > > > >

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Amarillo, Azul y Rojo by Camilo Medina > > > > > > 19 - 21 Color in Literature by Alan Andrade > > > > > > 22 ~ 24

808s and Heartbreak and the nature of flawed art by Salvador Robayo > > > > > > 25 - 26 What is Color? by SeoYoung Shin and Susie Kim > > > > > > 27 ~ 28 The Legacy of Senior Jackets by Ana Natiello and Camila Matamoros > > > > > > 29 ~ 30 The Science of Color by Andrea Alvarado and Joo Hyun Park > > > > > > 31 ~ 32

Editor’s Note

!White is the blending of all colors. As we start a blank slate, either with a new day or with a change in our lives, we invite you to embrace the absence or presence of color.

Think.

Reflect.

And capture the spectrum of color that follows.

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Lina Sinisterra Isabella Tejeda

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itting on the grass outside of her classroom, I had the opportunity to spend some time with Lina Sinisterra, a beloved teacher, here at CNG. She has worked at CNG for six years, and has continued to inspire students with her engaging and philosophical lessons about art and about passion in life. Whilst interviewing her I was able to ask her about color in art and she was able to talk about her perspective on color, and the important role it plays in our lives.

I started off by asking Lina to introduce herself and her work at CNG. “My name is Lina Sinisterra and I teach art, my specialty in school, and my curriculum is Painting Lab, I develop the programs of the drawing class and I developed the PreAP and AP classes and projects,” she said with a big smile on her face. Anyone who has had an the opportunity to take an art class during High School and has had Lina as a teacher knows how passionate and energetic she is towards her art and her students.

As this is issue is about color, I decided to prepare myself as to what that actually means. I looked up the definition of color: It was defined, by Merriam Webster dictionary, as “the property possessed by an object of producing different sensations on the eye as a result of the way it reflects or emits light.” When I asked Lina the same question she gave a response that corresponded to her personality and her creativity: “The definition of color is very technical and scientific, she started. Related to light, but what interests me about colors is that through my artistic career as a painter, as a sculptor, and as an art instalator, I have learned that there is a psychological impact in visual perception that allows me to communicate with the world.” Even though I was expecting a very profound answer that didn’t actually relate to the technical definition, I was astounding to hear an

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answer that resonated so much with the idea of creativity and life itself.

Continuing our conversation about color and emotions, Lina drew many metaphors that are engaging and relatable to all of us, as she compares color to a basic human need, food. “My relationship to color is like my relationship with food, I use them to keep my mind fit. They nurture my mind, what I see over time is that when people go inside the gallery or in a space that has been intervened with colors, I see an emotional reaction towards the work. Sometimes positive, and sometimes its too much for them. That’s interesting because the relationships with color and people has to do mostly with the culture and environment where you grew up in.” Lina makes this conclusion after living many years in both Bogota, Colombia, and in Santiago, Chile. Places where she has encountered different cultures, accompanied by many types of artists which have given her different reactions and critiques for her work. She mentions how sometimes color is to much, and it can be overwhelming as expression comes from a place of culture and childhood.

Lina also mentioned how she works with colors and how they determine where

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she stands in her life. She says she “gets attached to different and more colors through time” and by painting them with a lot of intensity, she has learned that color has managed to help her get more motivation for her projects in life. As any other artist, she details her sometimes difficult relationships with colors and how they can be hard to work with: “If I am working with blues it’s very different to when I’m working with reds, there were even some years where I couldn’t even touch the color red. Putting colors all together in my baubles like I always do, puts me in a meditation state of mind where I am able to embody in the painting, my soul.“ Knowing about many of Lina’s projects and pieces she has created, I was even more curious about what her favorite “colorful” piece was and what the colors she used meant for her. “An example of the colors connected with identity is in an art project I did in the Septimazo in downtown Bogota, the street is so crowded during the event that happens every friday, the only thing you really see is the cotton candy in between all the people and all the art. I dressed twenty people like cotton candy, to make them stand out and think about which color is able to stand out more in the crowd. In this example color is the

spotlight, and color can be defined in many different ways,” Lina said with excitement. In this piece the main color was pink, which is usually connected to playfulness and femininity, but in this case it was all up to which was the brightest color that could stand out in a crowd. It’s interesting to see the development of color, and how there aren’t rules as to what you’re trying to convey and what colors you should use.

Learning about how even an experienced artist like herself has struggled with colors and has experimented with different ways to express herself is very interesting, to say the least. Lina herself knows that working with color takes time and that even the most experienced artist will sometimes find themselves stuck and not being able to work for months, but she says it’s all up to connection, between the person, the colors, and the world itself. As Lina prides herself in being a teacher and being able to inspire student here at CNG, she felt it is always important for students to see the colors in themselves first. “I want my students to connect in general that the mission of the teacher is to let the students learn about themselves and learn about their inner

world. Colors should be something that comes from them and not from the teacher, I teach color theory and different concepts, but as a technical tool so they can work in their own colors, they have to get connected with themselves and their own world.”

To close off this enriching conversation about color, identity, culture and much more, I asked Lina what she would want our readers to take away from this topic and have something to reflect on: “Colors by themselves are a way of dreaming things that you cannot name.”

To learn more about Lina’s art, go to her website www.linasinisterra.art

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Hearing the World in Color Stella Mendoca Design: Emma Dreispiel

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ynesthesia is a condition in which a person’s senses are linked together in a unique way, which prompts unusual sensory responses to stimuli. People with synesthesia, for example, might see a certain color in response to a certain letter of the alphabet or a certain number. Those who experience synesthesia are said to “hear colors, feel sounds, and taste shapes.”

Some studies have revealed unusual observations in synesthetes’ brain regions, similar to those in babies; in fact, it is believed that all babies have synesthesia until they are about four months old, when something called “the synaptic pruning process” usually severs those connections.

Synaptic pruning is a process that starts

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after birth and is usually completed by the end of puberty. It is a process that eliminates or degenerates certain synapses which would, were they not eliminated, connect the different senses and stimuli creating synesthesia.

The most commonly known form of synesthesia is called grapheme-color. In this form numbers and letters have certain colors assigned to them. Whenever one reads a book or does a math problem, the paper will always be alit with colors.

Another very well known one is chromesthesia, in this form certain sounds produce colors or shapes. For example, were one to hear church bells ringing, a

splash of yellow might appear in their vision or they might start seeing triangles or squares in their vision. The shape and color that appear depend entirely on the person. This type of synesthesia is more problematic due to the fact that in many public areas there is an influx of sounds and that in addition to the colors and shapes can confuse a person with synesthesia.

While it might seem like a somewhat debilitating condition, many people have learned to live with it. Many of them also take advantage of their condition and become artists. It’s said that people with synesthesia tend to be more creative and this is shown as many artists do have some form of synesthesia. Artists such as Billy Joel, Patrick Stump, Pharrell Williams, and Vincent Van Gogh, for instance.

Artist Melissa McCracken, makes paintings based on what she sees in music.

In an interview she revealed that she used to think that synesthesia was normal and that everyone experienced it. She only realized that it was not normal when she was sixteen and told her friend she was trying to find an ‘orange’ ringtone to match her blue phone case, and her friend was completely confused at her comment.

According to McCracken, expressive music such as funk is much more colorful, while country music appears to her more as boring muted browns. She also discusses that the visualization of colors is different for different people of synesthesia.

Another synesthetic artist Wassily Kandinsky paints more in geometric shapes rather than fluidly like McCracken.

While this phenomenon might seem strange to many people, due to it the world has gained many famous artists who have contributed great works of music, art, and television.

La subjetividad del color Verónica Copello

Design: Catalina Saldarriaga

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Qué es el rojo? ¿Cómo se describe el color azul? ¿Cuál es el color del agua? ¿De la tierra? A pesar de que usamos colores para describir nuestro entorno, la habilidad de explicar lo que estos significan se da a entender como un sueño utópico. Vemos una nube blanca, pero ¿qué es el blanco? De acuerdo con el contexto filosófico de la estética, el color es una percepción que afecta la manera en la cual cada persona interpreta el mundo que lo rodea. La influencia del color tiende a ser caracterizada por su subjetividad: como dice Diana Marcela “Dima” Sánchez, profesora de filosofía en el colegio, “cada persona tiene percepciones propias y no hay manera de compartirlas, compararlas, o estudiarlas.” Es más, la información que transmite un color genera una imagen mental, la cual no se puede explicar sin recurrir a analogías o a imágenes; en este caso, las palabras son inútiles como método de descripción.

Entonces, ¿cómo se le explica a un ciego lo que es el blanco? Ya que la percepción de este color es diferente para cada persona, la única manera de explicarlo es a través de las experiencias. Para mí, el blanco es ver a mi mamá sentada leyendo un libro por la tarde; es el abrazo que me da mi hermana cada vez que viene a visitarme de la universidad; es el esfuerzo con el cual mi papá trabaja para que yo pueda recibir la mejor educación posible.

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Le puedo contar estas experiencias y estos sentimientos a un ciego, pero él no podrá ver el color de las nubes.

Entonces, ¿qué percibe? Tommy Edison, quien es ciego de nacimiento, tiene un canal en Youtube en el cual cuenta sus experiencias y su vida diaria. La mayoría de preguntas que le hacen sus seguidores tiene que ver con el color y la manera en la cual él lo interpreta. Tommy dice que sabe de qué color son las cosas: sabe que el fuego es rojo, que el mar es azul, que el blanco y el negro son opuestos. Pero estos colores no significan nada para él. Lo que Tommy percibe es la oscuridad y la luz: la presencia o la ausencia de la luz en un espacio determinado. Él distingue un día soleado de uno nublado por la cantidad de luz; una persona que no es ciega distingue los distintos colores acompañados por esta luz.

Los colores no son más que una percepción que acompaña la manera en la cual los humanos entienden el mundo. Una persona que no puede ver colores utiliza los otros sentidos: el tacto, el olfato, y el oído.

Es la subjetividad del color que abre las puertas a la descripción a través de las palabras y las experiencias, ya que el recurso de las imágenes o el mismo color terminan siendo representaciones mentales.

Introducing the Ghosts of Pac-Man Ju Young Shim

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ac-Man, the 80s arcade game that made millions of people around the globe spend countless hours munching pellets and running away from ghosts. From homages in games, movies, and sitcoms, the yellow, pie-shaped fellow is a cultural landmark who transcends regions and generations. However, for every glorified hero there is an underrated villain, and the Pac-Man game is no exception. While players madly fidget their joysticks to roam the maze and eat everything in their path, the true factor that adds thrill and excitement to the game is the four ghosts who tirelessly chase Pac-Man in an effort to end his tyranny. Today I would like to introduce the four ghosts: Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and Clyde. Learning about the programmed “personalities” of these four unique creatures is, in fact, essential to truly appreciating the mechanics and gameplay of Pac-Man.

Blinky: We start off with Blinky, the red ghost who leads the pack. Blinky is recognized as the leader of this squad for various reasons. For one, he is the only ghost who starts the chase outside of the ghost box, the little entrenched area where the rest of the ghosts start.

Naturally, this means he is the one to initiate the chase. Secondly, he is the only ghost who increases speed as the game progresses. After Pac-Man eats a certain amount of pellets, Blinky increases speed, becoming his alter ego, “Cruise Elroy.”

Cruise means to sail about with ease, while Elroy is a French name meaning ‘the king’. When Blinky becomes the cruising king, he is faster than Pac-Man himself, even on the first level. The only way to outpace Cruise Elroy is to turn in corners, where he slows down considerably.

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However, the most important feature Blinky exhibits is his direct means of chase. Among the four ghosts, he is the only one programmed to persistently and directly chase behind Pac-Man. Pac-Man will often find himself being tailed by Blinky during the game. Other ghosts block exit routes as Blinky sweeps in for the kill. With speed and persistence, the ghost in red is a threat to be reckoned with.

The Ghosts in their starting positions

Pinky: Pinky is the second ghost in the squad and, as the name suggests, is the pink ghost. If Blinky represents physique, Pinky represents smarts. Pinky is programmed to move in front of the direction Pac-Man’s mouth is opened to, meaning Pinky often takes a bypass from the route Pac-Man has passed in order to meet him on the other end. By trying to position herself in front of Pac-Man, Pinky can put the player in a pickle by eliminating all escape options. Thus, Pinky formulates a dangerous duo with Blinky, as the latter chases Pac-Man while the former looks to block his front.

Pinky’s largest weakness is surprisingly the same as her strength: intelligence.

The player can easily manipulate Pinky’s planned movement to divert her to other areas. For example, if Pac-Man is about to encounter Pinky at an intersection, more often than not, Pinky

will turn away from Pac-Man because she must move around the corner to be in front of him. Pac-Man can also open his mouth against a wall to lead Pinky to move towards the other side of the wall, where her chase becomes useless.

Nonetheless smart and prudent, the ghost in pink is a powerful strategist.

Inky: Inky is the third ghost to start the chase and is colored cyan. While Blinky and Pinky’s movements are fairly predictable, Inky’s is difficult to read. It is quite challenging to understand: “the goal is to reach a spot twice the distance from Blinky to two spaces in front of Pac-Man, in the direction from Blinky to Pac-Man.” This means two things. Inky’s movement, unlike the other ghosts, is determined by two factors: Pac-Man and Blinky. Therefore you need to consider not only your position but also the relative position of Blinky.

Inky’s objective to keep a certain distance to the gang leader is an indication that he is submissive and a team player.

The other indication is that Inky’s objective is a given area within the maze rather than a pinpointed location. As long as Inky is in this target area, his next movement doesn’t have a specific goal, meaning he can make different decisions in the exact same situation.

Inky’s randomness can make or break a chase for the gang. While the other ghosts have a certain tendency when surrounding Pac-Man - Blinky and Clyde tend to turn clockwise while Pinky tends to turn anti-clockwise - Inky is able to aid all three members by having no clockwise tendencies whatsoever. Unpredictable and random, the ghost in cyan is the joker of the pack.

Clyde: Clyde is the last ghost to leave the ghost box and is the orange ghost.

Unlike the other three ghosts, who try to hunt down Pac-Man in their respective ways, Clyde only seems to be interested in Pac-Man when he’s in relative proximity.

Otherwise, Clyde tends to drift towards the left corner and shows little will to aid the gang. For people aiming to achieve a high score, Clyde is actually quite the menace. In order to achieve a higher score, players must eat the power pellets, which temporarily change the ghosts into a vulnerable, blue ghost state, and gobble all four ghosts down. A total of 3000 additional points are given if all four ghosts are swallowed. Considering normal pellets give 10 points, this is an astronomical number, and potent Pac-Man players always look to counter attack the ghosts.

Clyde’s dismissive attitude is quite threatening to this strategy. While it is possible to lure the other three ghosts near a power pellet before initiating the counter, Clyde often keeps substantial distance, meaning you have to chase him down to achieve perfection (you only get 1400 points for three ghosts). As the effect of the power pellet wears off and the ghosts start blinking white, indicating they’re coming back to power, players often find themselves a few centimeters short of catching Clyde. The moment the powerup ends, Pac-Man could find himself charging towards the ghost that only chases when in proximity. In short, Clyde’s laziness serves as an invitation for the player to get too greedy. The ghost in orange can be the greatest threat to those who bite into that temptation.

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The Real Truth about the Red Capote Miranda Urdinola

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ullfighting is an international spectacle which started in Spain, and has since been considered part of the culture and an art by its fans since the XVIIIth century. This sport is very popular in many parts around the world such as Portugal, France, Mexico, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia. Even though I’ve always believed bullfighting involves unjustifiable cruelty, the following question also intrigues me: why do color blind bulls go wild with the color red?

A bullfight folds out in different stages. First, the bull enters the arena where the bullfighter and his assistants wait in the ring with the capote (large multicolor cape) in order to study the bull: how it charges, if it has good vision, if it tends to go to one side or the other. Then, they let the animal blow off some energy by letting him out of the cage to run around. After this, the animal is approached by “picadores,” which are the men on horses who drive lances into his back and neck muscles, to impair his ability to lift its head and defend himself.

Afterwards, the banderilleros walk in and distract the bull by making it run around while plunging brightly colored sticks with a harpoon point on the end into its back.

When it is finally weak from blood loss, the matador appears, and after provoking a few hopeless charges, the fighter tries to sever the bull’s aorta with his sword.

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Spanish matadores began using red capes in bullfighting around the 1700s, and since then people have believed bulls will charge more aggressively if the fighter uses a cape with this color, but this is actually not true. Bulls’ eyes are dichromatic meaning that they only have two pigments that detect colors in their eyes. They can see colors, but cannot distinguish them, similar to a colorblind person. There is no evidence that proves a correlation between the color red and bulls’ behavior: bulls will charge at whichever object is moving the most. This is why the fighters won’t move while facing the bull and will keep turning and moving the cape around.

Why, then, do bullfighters commonly use red “muletas” at the end of the fight?

In the last stage of the bullfight, when the bull meets its end, the small cape comes out to mask one of the more gruesome aspects of the fight: the splatters of the animal’s blood. With this in mind, the old myth about the importance of the red color in bullfighting can get tossed right out of the ring.

Design: Lara Kim

Color Association Carmen Botero

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esearchers have understood that there is more to colors than just how they look or how to match them together. Throughout the years, companies have used colors to market their campaigns and strategically package their products.

There are certain colors that usually give a certain emotion or connection when we see them and people use certain colors for specific reasons to make their product, campaign, or room feel a certain way.

Don’t you think there is a reason for why majority of men products include black or blue colors? There are psychological explanations for why corporations do this. Black colors are associated with strength and power and blue is the color that most of the time labels men.

Many times, the men’s bathrooms and other men labels the color blue. We, as a society, have categorized certain colors to represent certain things like the color pink for women. However, the color blue is not only a label for boys. It has also been proven that it’s a color that we associate with peace, water, and tranquility.

to your mind. You probably thought about nature: trees, grass, or a landscape. The color green is associated with not only nature but also tranquility, and power.

Stores usually use it to relax customers and create a welcoming ambience. Some pediatricians even have a green colored wall in their consultory because it has been proven that it can relax their younger patients.

Orange and yellow. These two colors promote optimism and are considered cheerful colors. They represent happiness and they create are warming effect too since we unconsciously relate them with the sun. It is associated with happiness and jovial. It is an appealing color that can be used for many purposes including cleaning supplies and TV channels.

To conclude, colors are not just something that describes an object or used in art. Colors are used for many purposes. They each have a psychological description and, when talking about corporations, these companies use them for specific advertisement purposes.

Take 10 seconds to contemplate on the color green and see what comes

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Feeling Blue?

Emma Dreispiel Design: Gabriela Largacha 16

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s the musical industry has surged in the last years, the expression ‘being blue’ or ‘feeling blue’ has been coined as a term to describe sadness and overall non-happiness. Songs such as “BLUE” by Troye Sivan, “Baby’s in Black”

by The Beatles, and “Me and My Shadow”

by Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. all talk about ‘feeling blue’ in a similar sense.

Seeing how this term has become more popular, we decided to investigate its origins. Disclaimer: the origin of this term can be traced back to several different places, as it is often hard to determine one correct answer when dealing with etymology.

Hence, some of the following information was derived from speculation by several sources.

Historically, ‘feeling blue’ is said to come from deepwater sailors, who would “fly blue flags and have a blue band painted along [the] entire hull when returning to home port” when any of the officers or captain died. The Dictionary of American Slang, written by Chapman and Kipfer, traces back the meaning to the early 1500s. However, some say it goes way back before then, like The Free Dictionary (that traces it back to the 1300s) having originated from Greek mythology: blue was related to storms and rain, which were caused by Zeus (Greek god of the sky and thunder) when he was sad and crying.

According to the Idioms Dictionary, “to ‘go blue’ in the 1800’s referred to the medical condition of a person and meant that he is at the last stage before passing away. This last stage has been synonymized with the emotional last stage of person in this phrase.” This gives the expression a more medical sense, which is also agreed upon by those who say that it is due to lack of oxygen in the blood, making people look bluer than normal. Since lack of oxygen

could be attested to disease or heavy drinking (often linked with emotional struggle), it came to be associated with being in an unwell or emotionally unstable state.

As a result, in the 1800s, ‘blue’ itself was slang for ‘drunk’, so ‘blue devils’ was also associated with the “intense visual hallucinations that can accompany severe alcohol withdrawal.” A similar term known as the ‘baby blues’ is said of mothers that, after childbirth, “may have sudden mood swings, feeling very happy, then very sad, cry for no apparent reason, feel impatient, unusually irritable, restless, anxious, lonely and sad.”

In terms of music, there is a whole genre named after this color: the Blues. In this sense, the expression ‘feeling blue’ comes from the term ‘blue devils’, which was heavily used in this genre and attested to have first appeared in 1912 in Hart Wand’s “Dallas Blues.” Some speculate that this came to be associated with ‘feeling blue’ because many songs in this genre were sung by slaves in the U.S., who often included sorrowful topics in their songs (like missing their home and their families).

The term ‘feeling blue’ has a complicated etymology, but regardless of where it originated from, it is used often in modern English to refer to a general feeling of sadness- much like in Sivan’s verse “colour me blue” or The Beatles’s “I’m feeling blue.”

This connection between emotion and colour is a continuous factor in modern idioms: generally, we associate a colour with a certain shade. Although this is due to several factors, some scientific and other cultural, it all determines a connection between us humans and the natural world. It is why singers such as Troye Sivan and The Beatles can refer to ‘feeling blue’ and know that their audience will understand the figurative meaning of their expression.

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Colorful Dinner Plate Andrea Rabinovich

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ver heard your parents or teachers say that your plate has to have every color on it? I hear it everyday and it’s time to know why it is good for you. The basic intention of this saying is for kids to learn about having balanced meals and getting to taste every type of food before deciding what they do and don’t like. According to Elise Museles, a writer for Eco Watch magazine, “when we add more color to our meals, there is less room for the not-so-healthy,” and this could be one of the reasons why parents are so insistent on you trying every color.

The benefits in fresh produce are incredible. And we could get all our nutrients from consuming food made solely by earth. According to Dr. Jockers, every color has a different benefit when consumed. Red foods improve heart and blood health and support joints. Orange prevents cancer and promotes collagen growth. Yellow helps your heart, vision and digestion and it also contributes to a healthy immune system. Green detoxes and improves your immune system. Blue and purple improve mineral absorption and create a powerful antioxidant system. White activates our natural killer cells and

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reduce the risk of of these foods helps natural way and goes diet: dairy, vegetables, protein.

cancer. Eating all our bodies in a along the balanced fruits, grains and

So at the end, food choices, like everything are a balance. At the UCLA Center for Human Nutrition founder, David Heber believes that most of North American diets are brown and beige, with many starchy carbohydrates and junk food. This creates problems because eating a lot of starchy carbohydrates makes people obese, which not necessarily means being big, it means having too much fat in proportion to the rest of your body. This then could create more serious problems like cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. Having a rainbow in your plate is the most beneficial, and not only when you’re a kid and your parents tell you you have to.

It’s an important habit to develop and put into practice forever.

Amarillo, Azul y Rojo Camilo Medina

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marillo, azul y rojo. Tres colores que laten dentro del corazón de todo colombiano cada vez que James mete un golazo ganador para la selección, o se pone un buen tema de salsa para bailar en la rumba, o saboreas un delicioso café colombiano que te calienta por dentro. Son estos tres colores los que representan a la hermosa Colombia abundante de música, cantos, paisajes, delicias culinarias y gente llena de vida. Con un amarillo que representa las riquezas del suelo colombiano, el sol, la soberanía, la armonía y la justicia; un azul que representa el cielo que cubre la Patria y nuestras aguas cristalinas; y finalmente un rojo que representa la sangre de los caídos que murieron por la paz, el amor y la libertad, los colores de la bandera son esenciales para entender el amor que se siente por Colombia.

“¡Cesó la horrible noche! La libertad sublime derrama las auroras de su invencible luz.” Estas palabras de nuestro himno nacional resuenan dentro de nosotros, en donde la libertad nos alumbra nuestras almas tal

como el sol nos alumbra cada día sobre nuestro territorio.

Por las cordilleras y valles que demarcan el terreno colombiano, a través de los llanos, verdes e infinitos y por entre las selvas abundantes de flora y fauna, el amarillo de la bandera vive por toda Colombia.

No hay color más perfecto para describir nuestras riquezas naturales que habitan sobre la tierra de nuestra patria. Desafortunadamente, el paisaje colombiano requiere mucho esfuerzo en forma de leyes y grupos ambientalistas para protegerse de la codicia y descuido humano hacia la naturaleza.

Gracias al apoyo del gobierno colombiano y entidades como las de la Unión Internacional para la Conservación de la Naturaleza (IUCN), se han protegido gran parte de las 62,829 especies en Colombia, cifra que pone al país tricolor detrás de Brasil en el segundo puesto de países con mayor biodiversidad.

Las grandes cantidades de especies endémicas colombianas forman parte de la razón de por qué la IUCN ha premiado reservas naturales como el Santuario de Flora y Fauna Galeras, añadiendo

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este parque natural a su Green List que busca trabajar con los gobiernos para mejorar la gestión de estas áreas protegidas y ayudar a conservar la naturaleza que posee.

Siendo de los pocos países que tiene costas estruendosas en dos océanos distintos, que tienen tanto ríos caudalosos como lagos cristalinos, Colombia es hogar a majestuosos cuerpos de agua que se extienden por su territorio, siendo emblemáticos del país para el mundo entero.

Es el tercer país con más agua dulce en el mundo, posee cientos de manantiales, páramos, nevados, ríos, humedales y lagunas; es por eso que no se puede olvidar el color azul de la bandera, digno de representar una parte de lo que hace este país la maravilla natural que es. Son estos lugares únicos los que han vuelto a Colombia un destino del ecoturismo, donde personas alrededor de todo el mundo viajan para poder ver con sus propios ojos estas maravillas acuáticas. El negocio del ecoturismo colombiano recibió 5,251 millones de dólares en el 2015, por sitios como la extraordinaria Quebrada Las Gachas donde hay huecos

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conectados debajo por donde uno puede nadar, los Corales del Rosario y San Bernardo que contienen un arrecife de coral único y por las tantas playas costeras.

Pero de todos estos lugares, el río Caño Cristales es uno de los que más atrae la atención al turista extranjero por su incomparable belleza. Éste es uno de los destinos más populares y de los más hermosos del mundo en donde se puede observar a través de las aguas transparentes y puras una variedad de plantas coloridas, la arena y las formaciones rocosas. Su gran biodiversidad acuática lo denomina como el “Río de los cinco colores”, del cual la presencia de las algas en conjunto con la formación geográfica y visibilidad al fondo del caño ha captado la atención de miles de turistas, extranjeros y nacionales, cada año. Estos destinos turísticos representan la belleza acuática de Colombia con su agua cristalina y gran importancia para nuestros ecosistemas.

Desde los isleños alegres que viven en San Andrés, hasta los bogotanos que viven en apuro; y desde los nativos pacíficos que resguardan sus tierras, hasta los campesinos

trabajadores que se ocupan en sus fincas llaneras; en todos los rincones del país se encuentra el colombiano que representa la historia que carga un peso grande en sus latientes corazones. El rojo de la bandera también carga ese peso que contiene los miles de nombres de personas que han muerto por la violencia que se ha vivido dentro de Colombia. El 9 de abril de este año 2018, se cumplen los setenta años desde el Bogotazo, un evento que marcó la historia colombiana cuando agentes del gobierno conservador asesinaron al líder del Partido Liberal Jorge Eliécer Gaitán durante unos tiempos de gran división política entre el pueblo. El asesinato causó disturbios civiles en las calles de Bogotá pero más que todo empezó una guerra civil de diez años llena de violencia partidista entre los Conservadores y los Liberales. Esta época se llamó “La Violencia” y terminó con la muerte de casi 300,000 personas, y la migración forzosa de más de dos millones de una población nacional de apenas once millones. En 1964, a los seis años de finalizar esta guerra, se empiezan a formar las infames Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia,

conocidas como las FARC. Este grupo armado causó la muerte y el sufrimiento a millones de colombianos durante más de 50 años e impulsó el crecimiento del narcotráfico dentro del país. Pero ahora, después de décadas de violencia e incertidumbre sobre el futuro de Colombia, se puede ver un final a esta era de guerra y tal vez podremos tener un país más pacífico. Con el rojo de nuestra bandera, podemos recordar y honrar a todos los muertos que han luchado o han sido asesinados por la paz de nuestro país.

Con la luz amarilla que ilumina a Colombia, los ríos azules que decoran nuestro amado país, y la sangre roja que mancha la historia, nos recuerda el pasado y honra a nuestros muertos, los colombianos viven dentro de los colores apasionantes que cautivan el orgullo nacional. Nuestra bandera no solo representa nuestra soberanía, nuestra libertad, o nuestro amor por el país, sino también la cultura alegre que resuena por todo el mundo y enamora a cualquier extranjero que visite nuestra amada Colombia.

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Color in Literature A reflective piece Alan Andrade Design: Ana Sierra

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t’s often very complex to alienate the literal definition of something so palpable and proximate in literature as is color, from the connotation and abstract language behind it. When we read literature, certain images that evoke feelings and emotions, like the description of a scent or the certain panoramic color of a sky may mean much beyond than those physical and superficial ideas and feelings. Many times color is used in literature to represent hidden meanings and moods, in order to go beyond the actual presence of different wavelengths to the human eye and into a more rhetorical analysis of the work.

Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is an excellent reflection of color symbolism in literature. Fitzgerald uses colors at all times to represent abstract concepts that are quintessential in his novel like the enlightened concepts of liberty, freedom, and even economic prestige. For example, the color gold apart from its status as a precious metal represents the traditional, authentic, and physical wealth. In this story, the color gold separates the average quotidien man that earns money from the

real captains of industry (or robber barons) which were two very important social positions in the America’s Gilded Age which Fitzgerald’s story takes place on.

Gold is the direct contrast with the color green which embodies other values and concepts in the story. Gold is the color of Tom and Daisy’s money, the old elite that has always been in that position of power.

When describing Daisy, Scott says she is “high in the white palace is the king’s daughter, the golden girl,” she is untouchable and precious like gold.

In contrast to gold, Fitzgerald uses green to incarnate a new concept, country, customs, and social norms. Green is America, a place that promises new possibilities to new people. Green represents hope and promise (like Daisy’s dock and the “green breast of the new world”).

Green stands for the new kind of wealth as seen through money. In comparison to Gold, Gatsby’s source of power are green plastic bills, not karats of gold and presence. This point speaks for palpability and physicality of the American Dream as sought by Nick, the new money, cheap

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plastic bills are for everyone, the new money is precisely for new, cheap, and plastic people. On the other hand, gold is for the classic aristocracy and for the ones that have always had gold. As a symbol for influence, green is the color for beauty and vitality: Gatsby’s fresh green lawn, the green ivy growing up his house, and even the green leather inside his light green car. At the other side of the spectrum, green also represents feeling for envy, greed, and jealousy. The color green is omnipresent when Gatsby tries to win Daisy back, when he is jealous of all the wealthy people around his house. At the same time, green represents the future which is seen as the now in Fitzgerald’s book. Jay Gatsby is the future and he is the new money and power, green.

In another instance of American literature, we see in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz another approach to color symbolism looking at the presence of color and the lack of color. As Dorothy comes from a monotonous, monochromatic, middle-American scene in Kansas to the complete luminous and colorful scene of Munchkinland. The new presence of color in Dorothy’s world (compared to her sepian Kansas) represents

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an adventure, a vivid new experience for Dorothy that consists of new beings and environments all represented through different colors. This depicts the concept of consciousness or reality in contrast to unconsciousness or the surreal. As we know Dorothy’s experiences are all part of dreams/ hallucinations and color is present during these moments, the piece of art suggests that color is something extraordinary, fantastic, and created exclusively inside the dream state. Meanwhile, some realities of human life can be dark, portrayed through the use of black and white and lack of color.

The violence, injustice, and poverty some experience is most likely represented through dull imagery.

The typical associations of color are present in literature, but many authors go beyond that. Using color to introduce new themes, to create a specific mood or to simply describe a scenery gives the author the power to portray the implicit.

Colors have the power to act as words in the world of literature where they are often overused.

808s and Heartbreak and the nature of flawed art Salvador Robayo

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hroughout his twenty years as a musician, Kanye West has published various albums, and received various accolades for them (chief among them his collection of 24 grammys). Yet, ironically, his most maligned and least-celebrated album has become his most influential. Amongst his massive discography, 808s and Heartbreak stands tall as his most transcendental project, and a testament to the power of flawed art.

Every time I turn on the radio, or go into the Spotify Top 50, all I hear is 808s and Heartbreak. I hear it in the excessively auto-tuned vocals of artist, their raw and emotional lyrics, and the arrangements between melodies and drums that have taken the center stage in the music world during the past decade.

Not only that, but the raw deconstruction of musical sounds that West promoted in this album has become a central theme in the works of younger musicians that are currently dominating the music charts.

It seems each distinct element of 808s and Heartbreak went on to become the defining sound of each of the leading hip-hop artists of the past ten years. It’s autotune crooning has become the signature sound of Future and the hyper-emotional Lil Uzi Vert.

The beautiful drums arrangements have been replicated and perfected by Travis Scott, most notably in his album Rodeo. The concept of the voice as a melodic device promoted by 808s has permeated the work of Migos, who use their voices as the drums in their

songs through their famed triplet-flow.

Yet, his most notable influence has been on Drake who has become one of the biggest pop-stars in the world by replicating the vulnerable and lonely tone of 808s and Heartbreak in his own work (he also sampled 808s’ “Say You Will” in one of his mixtapes).

Without 808s and Heartbreak, hip-hop might’ve never seen the death of the bling age, in which hip-hop artists were reduced to stereotypical caricatures of the new American gangster, rather than the complex and realistic persona of the artist that was popularized by this album. Not only that, but 808s also pushed popular music from the booming voices of the 200s into a new era, in which the whispering pop of Lana Del Rey and Rihanna reigned supreme. It would not be ridiculous to say that this album has been the most influential one in popular music during the past decade.

And yet, for such an influential album, 808s is incredibly flawed. The singing is lousy, some songs are too long, and the featuring artists sometimes deviate from the central theme of the album. These flaws successfully reflect the emotions of a heartbroken person (West created the album after the death of his mother and subsequent break-up with his fiance).

His most successful representation of these emotions comes in the form of the song “Street Lights.” Unlike other songs

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in the album, this one is less concerned with the fallout of a relationship and more focused on the intense emotions West feels amidst his repetitive life. “Light” is a recurring theme in West’s work, which in his songs represents desperation and a lack of control.

“Street lights” is especially significative in the context of the album, because, along with “Pinocchio’s Story” (more on that later) it is the climax of central themes seen throughout the album. Most songs before “Street Lights” focus on West lashing out against former lovers for being too paranoid. Yet, in the midst of these songs (mainly “Robocop” and “Paranoid”) there is a slight insinuation in West’s desperate tone that he’s what’s wrong in these relationships and by extension, he is guilty of all the bad things that have happened to him. “Street Lights” confirms these suspicions.

Furthermore, West begins by feebly asking his lover if she thinks he can be fixed.

He wants to know if he still “has time to grow,” which might be possible because “things ain’t always set in stone.” Yet, he sounds utterly unconvinced of this last phrase, as is made apparent by the “let me know, let me know” that follows “things ain’t always set in stone.” He desperately wants to receive assurance from his lover that he can still change, that he won’t always be broken, but he doesn’t receive such thing, and so he goes on to create a complex portrayal of someone living with depression, which blends in with the imagery of a man watching “street lights” passing by. The “street lights” are a metaphor for his life, which are “just like moments passin’”, which implies that he is

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a passive observer in what happens to him rather than a participator. He sees the lights pass by, but he can’t seem to control them or understand them, just as he feels like he doesn’t have any control over his life. This theme is further explored with the “I’m just not there” repeated throughout the song, which is meant to have various meanings.

On one hand, in the song, West is literally not in the place where he wants to be, but on the other hand he is also not the person he wishes he could be, and he also doesn’t feel like he is in control of his life, he’s watching from a distant place how everything falls apart (a common emotion felt by people that are depressed). The repetitive nature of the hooks is also a representation of the repetitive life that West lives, and how West fails to understand the importance of moments when they first happens, he is only there for the fallout.

Yet, while “Street Lights” is West’s most successful representation of his emotions, perhaps the closing track, “Pinocchio Story”, is more representative of the album as a whole. Unlike “Street Lights” this song is quite sloppy. It is five minutes long and thematically lose (his topics range from everything from how “he keeps it real” and how he’ll never “figure out real love”).

The flaws also send a message to the listener: go out and create. The album itself is an ode to the ability we have to make our own art, and even though it can be flawed, if it reflects the message the artist is trying to convey, then it can be successful.

What is Color?

Colors Around the World SeoYoung Shin and Susie Kim Design: Paula Salcedo

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olor seems to be the magic that can make anything look alive. In the past, when technology wasn’t as developed as it is today, cameras would capture the colorful moments in black and white, action which would eliminate the spirit these pictures originally had. Nowadays when everything is much more developed, every shot we take seems to dance with liveliness.

Like this, not only does color have an important role in making things seem alive and full of energy, but also in conveying crucial meanings in our society.

Let’s start with the symbols of different colors which seems quite interesting.

Depending on the region one is living in,

one may interpret the same color differently.

For example, in Western cultures, red may signify love or danger, but in Latin America, it is perceived as passion and purity in a religious context. More interestingly, in the eastern part of the world, although Korea and China may be located similarly, the way Koreans and Chinese perceive red differs. In Korea, red mostly signifies blood, meaning death. People in Korea would always avoid writing their names in red. This is because they believe that they would get cursed by doing so although this may only be a superstition. On the other hand, in China, the same color is considered to be symbol of good luck. They believe in its power so much that red is strictly forbidden at

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funerals as it is a traditionally symbolic color of happiness. Likewise, green in Western culture is included in a traffic light or a color of a four-leafed clover therefore representing luck, progress, and even environmental awareness. Green can also be perceived differently depending on the region. In Mexico, green is the national color which is considered patriotic. However, studies have also shown that when most of the people see green when they’re sick, they have an unpleasant and institutional feel towards it. For this reason, it is hard to say that a certain color conveys a certain meaning.

It would rather be easier to say that individuals interpret the colors differently based on their own cultures, beliefs, thoughts, mood, and other external and internal factors.

In addition, studies suggest that these differences in the way we each perceive color don’t affect the universal emotional responses we have to them.

For instance, let’s say that the color ‘blue’ you thought was ‘blue’ was actually ‘orange’ in the eyes of all the others. It may come shocking to you, but it doesn’t change the emotion you had all throughout your life such as calmness or peacefulness when looking at the sea or the sky in spite of the fact that those were actually all orange moments. Regardless of what you actually see when you look at a clear sky, its shorter wavelengths (which we call “blue”) tend to make us calm, whereas longer wavelengths (yellow, orange and red) make us more alert.

These behaviors — which are present not just in humans, but in many creatures, from fish to single-celled organisms — are thought to have evolved as a way of fulfilling the day and night cycle of living things. Yellow light dominates the sky around sunrise and

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sunset, when life on Earth tends to be most active. Furthermore, in a detailed study in the May issue of the journal Animal Behavior, Neitz and his colleagues found that changing the color (or wavelength) of ambient light has a much bigger impact on the day-night cycle of fish than changing the intensity of that light. This suggests that the dominance of blue light at night is the reason why living organisms feel more tired at that time (rather than the fact that it’s dark) and the reason why we wake up in the morning. Interestingly, according to Neitz, people who suffered from brain injuries in the parts of their brain that are involved in the perception of colors, may not be able to perceive blue, red or yellow, but would still be expected to have the same emotional responses healthy people have towards the colors.

Therefore, as stated before, even if you perceive the sky as the color someone else would call “orange,” your blue sky will still make you feel calm.

In conclusion, color plays a crucial role in our lives, and it may even be able to be used to express our moods. Similarly, many different cultures view colors differently and interpret them in unique ways. Various colors may represent different symbols all around the world. Although there may be some values in common, different values among cultures can generate conflicts at the same time being able to pose unification.

Therefore, not only will it be important and beneficial to acknowledge the significances of the variety of colors among all cultures, but also to understand the scientific secrets behind the colors to better comprehend the way we behave.

The Legacy of Senior Jackets Ana Natiello and Camila Matamoros

Design: Lara Kim

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E

ach year the new seniors enter their last year of high school, proudly wearing their senior jackets. Senior jackets have been a tradition at CNG for years, they are considered as one of the senior privileges along with playing music during lunch, special out of dress codes, and more.

These jackets are highly personalized and reflect students time at CNG. Senior jackets have designs embroidered on them (which students choose), flags representing different countries that students are from, and the graduating class logo which is also designed by students themselves. When choosing the senior jacket color there is a lot of discussion and planning. Students organize committees, conduct surveys, and vote for the colors they will proudly wear for their last year in CNG. Looking at previous years, the jacket colors have been brown, dark green, and maroon. Although many other colors are considered, such as purple, orange and teal, the ones previously mentioned are the most popular. We asked highschool CNG students questions about the senior jackets and what they hope for their own jackets.

Interviewer: What color do you hope you senior jacket will be ?

Interviewee 1: We are hoping to have the grey jacket.

Interviewer: Would you ever vote for an orange, teal, or purple jacket?

Interviewee 2: I wouldn’t really vote for any strong colors like orange or purple because I think it wouldn’t continue with the traditions that the seniors have had during these years.

Interviewer: What does having a senior jacket mean to you?

Interviewee 3: It means that we have accomplished a goal of making it this far. It’s very special to have a symbol that

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unites us under one identity as a class that has been through so much during the years.

Interviewer: Why do you think senior jackets are considered an important tradition in CNG ?

Interviewee 4: I think it is a tradition in this school because there has been a lot of hype about it during the years. It has become a thing you look forward to since you are in ninth grade, and even before that. We used to praise those people with the jackets, and we finally get to be a part of it.

Interviewer: Do you think designing and choosing a senior jacket color was stressful?

Interviewee 5: Definitely. It means that all of us had to agree on one color, and one logo for the whole year. The fact that there is so much pressure to continue a legacy of successful jackets and other symbols, it is very challenging to find the right color and the right logo that would represent us.

Interviewer: What is your grade’s overall attitude toward senior jackets and choosing the color?

Interviewee 6: They are very excited, because it is our turn to be the seniors and to leave a kind of legacy in our school. That excitement brings stress, but in the end, it is all worth it.

A senior jacket has become a symbol of not only unity, but also pride in being part of the CNG community. We all abide by unwritten rules of the scheme of colors we use because of the fact that we want to keep a bit of tradition within our rapidly changing community. We choose our colors and our logos in order to feel we have a say on what our grade should be represented by, o this decision has been historically difficult because of its great significance and emotional connection we have to it as CNG students.

The Science of Color Andrea Alvarado and Joo Hyun Park

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hat is color? It’s a seemingly simple question, yet many of us would be stumped on how to answer. Some might lean towards a philosophical perspective, while others may speak of color in terms of art.

Although neither is wrong, they are both very subjective. So, keeping in mind that no definition of color is “correct,” we decided to investigate the scientific outlook of color.

To this end, we approached our school’s science teachers and asked them three straightforward, yet on many levels complex, questions: How would you define color?, Do you believe color is an illusion to the human eye? Do you believe there is a purpose to color? Indeed, even our science teachers seem to be taken aback by them.

Despite certain differences in the responses of each teacher, Mr. Mullen, Mr. Roethler, and Ms. Waterstradt defined color as “a specific wavelength of electromagnetic radiation.” Mr. Mullen and Mr. Roethler, both physics teachers, expanded on this definition. Mr. Mullen defined color as “a kind of energy,” since radiation is a form of emitting it, and Mr. Roethler explained that each frequency (wavelength) has its own color within the visible spectrum of the electromagnetic spectrum: a wider wavelength emits what we call red while a more narrow wavelength emits blue, and all other colors—at least the ones that can be seen with the human eye— lie in a spectrum between both colors.

On the other hand, Mrs. Blesgraeft, a biology teacher, made emphasis on pigments and other chemical components of biotic and abiotic structures. For example, chlorophyll, one of the most common pigments in nature, is what makes plants green, but in the end, the way pigments work also involve the frequencies of the visible spectrum of electromagnetic waves. Plants’ pigments absorb red and blue wavelengths in order to carry out their functions, not green and yellow wavelengths, and this is why plants are green: they reflect the waves they do not use to our eyes.

Interestingly, all of our scientists believed that color is not an illusion, however abstract as that may sound. In front of our school’s colorful bathrooms, Mr. Mullen pointed out different colors to us: “this [wall] is white because it reflects all wavelengths of light, and this [door frame] is yellow, [for] it reflects the wavelengths of light that make you think that it’s yellow. It’s not an illusion, it’s simply a fact: we experience it. It doesn’t have anything to do with purpose. We don’t know if the blue I see is the same you see, but we tend to agree it’s blue . . . It is what it is.”

Nonetheless, Mr. Roethler, similarly to both Mrs. Blesgraeft and Ms. Waterstradt, mentioned the idea that colors are subjective, independently of whether they are illusions or not: “You could look at an

Design: Catalina Saldarriaga

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object and call it red, but to another person it might look like your blue, but you both still call it red. So is your red the same as my red?” Following this same idea, but touching another theme, Mrs. Blesgraeft explained that the color she sees gives her “an emotion that isn’t necessarily the same that everyone has.

And the meaning of that same color is not the same one that everyone has.

It’s subjective, but it’s not an illusion.”

Lastly, entering a bit of a more philosophical realm, we questioned our four interviewees on whether or not they believed there was a purpose to color.

Funnily enough, both biology teachers have similar answers. Ms. Waterstradt began by saying “...we use color to identify certain things”, and, in turn, Mrs. Blesgraeft stated that color is used in “[i]dentifying food. Food to be ready to be eaten.”

In fact, it can even be said that the ability to distinguish color makes up part of the survival skills of a species. For example, color is the reason why bees

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are able to identify the flowers to extract pollen from, why birds have colorful plumage in order to attract mates, or why we are able to distinguish a sweet, red mango from a sour, green one. In other words, the ability of the eye to be able to process color contributes to survival, and thus, is necessary. Additionally, Mrs. Blesgraeft mentioned the role of color in art, where “... it is emotions, beauty—color defines beauty.” On the other hand, Mr. Mullen believes that color has no purpose, as it simply is what it is: it is a fact, something we experience, but it doesn’t have anything to do with purpose.

Following these interviews, the “complexities” of color are made evident, as even within the scientific lenses, there lie different opinions regarding the subject. Although common ground was found for a definition of color, the different perspectives on illusion and purpose showed us that color remains a subjective and debatable topic.