Rile 'Em Up was an individual project; however, I had to have critique on each of my 12+ final products, so I was placed in critique groups, which I was in for the duration of the project. My group consisted of Lizzy Young, Erik Lennox, John Contreras, and myself. Among the most prevalent of my 12+ final products were a stencil reflecting my political topic and stance, an alternate art piece reflecting said topic and stance in a medium of my choice, ten annotated articles, and an essay describing my topic and stance. The stencil is shown above (top), and my alternate art piece is directly below. My political stance is officially, "US/North Korean foreign policy in conjunction with nuclear non-proliferation." This is a mouthful, so it can be, and has been, simply referred to as "nuclear weapons." My stance was, at first, "Since the United States has 7,700 nuclear weapons as compared to the DPRK's (North Korea's) 10 or less nuclear weapons, and 100 nuclear weapons can destroy all life on Earth, the United States needs to get rid of most of its arsenal before it asks the DPRK to do the same."
However, I changed my stance upon further research following the completion of my second stencil draft, so it was no longer "The United States is a hypocrite if it asks the DPRK to give up its nuclear weapons without giving up some of its own," and it became, "Giving up a large portion of its nuclear weapons is the best way for the United States to convince the DPRK to give up its own." I also researched the state of the DPRK further, and realized that nuclear weapons can do great harm even without being deployed. The entirety of the DPRK is in extreme poverty, largely due to the government's prioritizing of its nuclear program. So, my final stencil was born, shown above. I chose to make the 'no' symbol around the nukes red, because red is a color scientifically proven to capture people's attention. To make the nukes and letters stand out from the background of bricks (not shown), I outlined them in white.
For my alternate art piece, I tried to find a medium that would connect well with a foreign policy topic. I initially rejected the idea of political cartoons, since I don't consider myself the best artist when drawing freehand, but I couldn't find anything else that would make sense with the topic of foreign policy, so I threw common sense to the wind and decided to draw. My three cartoons are shown above. The results were actually better than I expected. My first cartoon (far left) was made before I changed my stance. However, I changed the meaning of the cartoon as well to make it represent how the United States is intimidating the DPRK with its nuclear threats as intended, but is only making it want its nuclear weapons even more. My second cartoon (center) depicts again how the nuclear threats are making things worse, as described. My third cartoon (far right), and possibly my most meaningful one, depicts Kim Jong-Un standing in the picture gallery of the White House. He has scribbled all over a picture of a nuclear weapon, and a portrait of Uncle Sam in his casual Hawaiian shirt. This is meant to show how North Korea is almost mocking our attempts to put its nuclear program to a halt. We threaten it with nuclear obliteration, and the government laughs in our faces and keeps testing its nukes. It has a second meaning, however. I gave Uncle Sam his causal attire intentionally; I wanted it to look more like a family gallery. This family gallery includes a nuke. This somewhat more subtle message is that nuclear weapons have become an ingrained part of our country. This is a huge problem.
In addition to the final products described above, I had to decorate the butterfly constructed in Physics in order to connect it to either In the Time of the Butterflies or my political topic. I chose to connect it to the topic of nuclear weapons. To do this, I decorated my butterfly as the Enola Gay, which was the B-29 Superfortress used to drop the world's first atomic bomb on Hiroshima. I gave it the background of a mushroom cloud. I had originally intended to make the Enola Gay on the top and the mushroom cloud on the bottom, but it didn't work out so that I could draw on the bottom. My butterfly can be viewed on the "Integrated Circuits, Political Butterfly" page of my DP, under the "Physics" tab.
Fortunately, I was experienced with Photoshop going into the project, so I worked rather quickly and I had time to make my three stencil drafts, as well as time to color my political cartoons digitally. I had difficulty with the drawing, as expected - it took me one to two days per cartoon - but my main struggle was with my alternate identity: a reporter turned political cartoonist for the Berliner Morgenpost by the name of Klaus Steinfeld. I didn't quite see the purpose of the alternate identity while I was creating it, so I wasn't as attached to it as I was to my other final products, and it took me longer than other items. I completed it, however, and it actually turned out fairly well. The photograph of my alternate identity is below; I took a picture of myself in an office chair and Photoshopped myself into an office.
However, I changed my stance upon further research following the completion of my second stencil draft, so it was no longer "The United States is a hypocrite if it asks the DPRK to give up its nuclear weapons without giving up some of its own," and it became, "Giving up a large portion of its nuclear weapons is the best way for the United States to convince the DPRK to give up its own." I also researched the state of the DPRK further, and realized that nuclear weapons can do great harm even without being deployed. The entirety of the DPRK is in extreme poverty, largely due to the government's prioritizing of its nuclear program. So, my final stencil was born, shown above. I chose to make the 'no' symbol around the nukes red, because red is a color scientifically proven to capture people's attention. To make the nukes and letters stand out from the background of bricks (not shown), I outlined them in white.
For my alternate art piece, I tried to find a medium that would connect well with a foreign policy topic. I initially rejected the idea of political cartoons, since I don't consider myself the best artist when drawing freehand, but I couldn't find anything else that would make sense with the topic of foreign policy, so I threw common sense to the wind and decided to draw. My three cartoons are shown above. The results were actually better than I expected. My first cartoon (far left) was made before I changed my stance. However, I changed the meaning of the cartoon as well to make it represent how the United States is intimidating the DPRK with its nuclear threats as intended, but is only making it want its nuclear weapons even more. My second cartoon (center) depicts again how the nuclear threats are making things worse, as described. My third cartoon (far right), and possibly my most meaningful one, depicts Kim Jong-Un standing in the picture gallery of the White House. He has scribbled all over a picture of a nuclear weapon, and a portrait of Uncle Sam in his casual Hawaiian shirt. This is meant to show how North Korea is almost mocking our attempts to put its nuclear program to a halt. We threaten it with nuclear obliteration, and the government laughs in our faces and keeps testing its nukes. It has a second meaning, however. I gave Uncle Sam his causal attire intentionally; I wanted it to look more like a family gallery. This family gallery includes a nuke. This somewhat more subtle message is that nuclear weapons have become an ingrained part of our country. This is a huge problem.
In addition to the final products described above, I had to decorate the butterfly constructed in Physics in order to connect it to either In the Time of the Butterflies or my political topic. I chose to connect it to the topic of nuclear weapons. To do this, I decorated my butterfly as the Enola Gay, which was the B-29 Superfortress used to drop the world's first atomic bomb on Hiroshima. I gave it the background of a mushroom cloud. I had originally intended to make the Enola Gay on the top and the mushroom cloud on the bottom, but it didn't work out so that I could draw on the bottom. My butterfly can be viewed on the "Integrated Circuits, Political Butterfly" page of my DP, under the "Physics" tab.
Fortunately, I was experienced with Photoshop going into the project, so I worked rather quickly and I had time to make my three stencil drafts, as well as time to color my political cartoons digitally. I had difficulty with the drawing, as expected - it took me one to two days per cartoon - but my main struggle was with my alternate identity: a reporter turned political cartoonist for the Berliner Morgenpost by the name of Klaus Steinfeld. I didn't quite see the purpose of the alternate identity while I was creating it, so I wasn't as attached to it as I was to my other final products, and it took me longer than other items. I completed it, however, and it actually turned out fairly well. The photograph of my alternate identity is below; I took a picture of myself in an office chair and Photoshopped myself into an office.
In Humanities, I actually was ahead of schedule for most of the project. I shouldn't have put off my alternate identity until the last minute, but by the time the deadline for that came around, I was done with everything else and was able to focus solely on the alternate identity, so it turned out alright. If I could change this project in one way, I might have changed the date of the exhibition. I know that my teachers didn't have any way of foreseeing this, but the robotics team ended up having its big FRC competition on the day of the exhibition. I and four other students from my class were unfortunately unable to attend the exhibition because of this.