International Comm
10/25/11
Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision
This film was an in depth coverage of a young lady named Maya Lin who was awarded the opportunity to be the Vietnam Veterans Memorial designer. This film portrays her story about architecture and her many trials and successes as an architect that has designed some of the most influential and important monuments to commemorate heroism, creativity, history, art, and desire, just to name a few.
The story starts with a few men that are Vietnam veterans who saw the need to create a memorial for all those that were lost in the war. They created a corporation and proceeded to obtain permission and the permits to build a monument in Washington DC amongst all the many powerful and popular memorials that already stand. After the permits were obtained the men that headed the efforts then had the challenge of designing a powerful memorial to represent those who died in vain for their country, one that would honor and be universally revered and accepted.
Upon many personal ideas of what the design should be and many considerations of which architect should design the memorial, the committee heading the project, decided that it would be best to hold a national competition for all those who wished to submit a rendering of what they thought it should look like. The word was then spread about this competition nationwide to any all people.
Once the competition was launched the committee started to receive hundreds of submissions. Meanwhile, a young 21-year-old college student of Yale University, Maya Lin, stumbled upon the ad and thought it would be a great way to submit her idea and sketches of what the monument should look like. Not thinking that her design would even be considered, Lin still took precise consideration in her design. Her sketch, a V-shaped wall of black stone, etched with the names of 58,000 dead soldiers, was very simple and didn’t have much detail to it, but the concept was deep and passionate. Lin shared her ideas on film of what she envisioned and what her design would incorporate. She mentioned that she wanted it to be used for “personal reflection and private rendering,” that in fact, it is a “moving composition” for the purpose connecting with those friends and family members who lost their lives in such a brutal war. Her ideas for what the memorial should be was so in depth and had so much personal meaning that she also submitted an in depth essay to describe the meaning, the design, and the purpose for her design.
The Essay on Hume and the Idea of Personal Identity
Hume considered the idea of identity to be both fictitious and perception based (Hume, 1739). His philosophy was that we as humans could only perceive, or imagine a concept of self based on various thoughts and images that we could see at any given time. But if Hume were to argue that Self existed, it would do so as a constant, unchanging element, of which we could be continually aware. Hume ...
Upon hundreds of submissions Lin beat out the submissions of 1,420 other entrants, some of which were world renowned architects, and her design was chosen to represent those fallen Vietnam Veterans. Soon after being revealed the winner, Lin encountered heavy criticism and hate speech. She was called racial terms that had to do with her Chinese ethnicity, she was criticized for being too young to understand, for not considering the personal feelings of those Vietnam Veterans that survived, and many others. Many had issues with the design using black stone and felt it should be white stone instead. The same detractors also had issues with the memorial being in the ground rather than on top. Some thought there should be statues portraying soldiers and American flags and all sorts of things. Despite the profound design from Lin, there was a ruling that the committee in charge of the memorial must compromise with the detractors or the project would be cut off. In one local hearing about memorial issues, Lin was given the opportunity to speak her thoughts about adding different memorials along with hers and said she wanted the memorial to “stand alone” and not be “melded” with hers. After two years of debate a compromise was reached and Lin’s design was finally built and was dedicated in 1982.
The Essay on Interior Design Dalisay
My enthusiasm for interior designing has led me to decisions that could haul out and maximize my potential. I took Interior Design in college and branched out to every opportunity that I could grasp to get the best out of me. School was a lot of work as it always is but it was generally rewarding. I joined charity events and volunteered, for instance, on a fundraiser for the local children’s ...
After such a hard situation Lin moved on with college life and went back to Yale and received her Doctorate in art and architecture. She has since become one of the most influential and artistic architects of our time. She is also the creator of many other influential and artistic designs such as, but not limited to, the Peace Chapel at Pennsylvania’s Juniata College, the “Women’s Table” at Yale, as well as her Civil Rights memorial in Montgomery, Alabama which displays inscriptions of one of Martin Luther King’s speeches on a disc of black stone beneath a thin layer of moving water.
When it comes to my critique on the issue I feel highly unqualified to speak on this. However, I have an opinion that I can voice in the defense of Lin. I felt like her story is amazing and very inspiring. It’s funny to me how the experts of the world can so quickly and ferociously disregard such an amazing talent that Lin has. She has created the most visited memorial in the United States and she did it as a 21-year-old college student. It just goes to show that even young college students can have a voice and an impact on the nation in their representations of their skills and talents. So many corporate honchos and government powerhouses feel like the gory should always be theirs and that young partially educated people are incompetent and unable to have a large impact on the world. I think the memorial Lin designed is powerful and reminiscent and beautiful. I feel that Lin was inspired by a higher power to create what she did. I think that her innocence or naivety on the matter of the Vietnam War allowed her to create an unbiased memorial that represents the main purpose of the memorial, to remember those who fought so selflessly for our nation’s freedom.
Other than that I can offer no critique on the matter except that if frustrated me that people even fought Lin on her design. It also bothers me that so many people were racist and downright rude in the way they treated Lin. She was simply a citizen and young college student who responded to a competition for the war memorial and she was chosen the winner. I don’t think what she went through was fair or necessary and I feel that there should have been no other consideration for the detractor’s ideas of what the memorial should have been or what else it should have included. The contest rules were clear and Lin outright won the competition. Perhaps those detractors were fueled by jealousy, but whatever it was, I feel that the two year debate about the design was unnecessary and a waste of time.
The Research paper on Course Syllabi- History of Graphic Design
Course Description History of Graphic Design is a critical contextual research and survey study of the intents, influences, practices, and artifacts of graphic design. The course will be structured on readings, research, and visual presentations on subjects of designer activities throughout history with an emphasis on the broader historical context of the planning, production, form, distribution, ...
