Monthly Archives: January 2015

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I chose Voyant Tools to compare the two articles; “Are We Still Evolving?” and “Climate Effects on Human Evolution.” Voyant Tools allows me to take these two articles on Anthropology  and compare as well as determine the number of words included in the articles, the number of unique words, the length of the documents, and the vocabulary density. This in depth text analysis is all available on the convenience of my own laptop and can be found at this url:

http://voyant-tools.org/?corpus=1421973773626.7277

 

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Power, what is power? When I think of something as being powerful, I think of it as holding an influence over people; something that causes people to think or act in a particular way. Many things hold power over people, from religious beliefs to money to  words and images.

I believe religion holds the greatest power over the world. Religious differences are the main causes of war, these differences cause discrimination, and hatred. Not only does our choice in religion effect how others view us, it also provides us with a set of morals and rules to which we live by. Religion influences the way we choose to live and view our life, thus holding great power over us.

Money holds great power over us as well. Money is what allows us to live a certain way. Money provides shelter, food, clothing, all of our basic needs and wants lie in the ability to make money. These needs and wants can cause people to do immoral and selfish things in order to obtain money. Money, and its deep power over us, may in fact be the root of all evil.

Images also have a power over us, influencing the way see or define the world. Images have the ability to trigger an emotional response in a way that words are often unable to accomplish. An image makes a concept or fact real. When you hear or read the news, and certain facts about terrible events are listed we often can not conceptualize what we are hearing. However when we are given a photograph or video, those traumas become a reality. Thus images are an extremely powerful tool. Of course words can hold a power over us as well, I think it is safe to say that a book, a poem, and especially certain music lyrics have at one point influenced the way we feel about the world.

An image from an artistic standpoint also holds great power over people. It is not the denotation of the image but rather the connotation, or the emotional meaning behind the work, that holds power over us. Art has an incredible ability to cause others to understand and relate to the ideas that the artist is trying to portray. Art has the amazing ability to cause a feeling to evolve within us. A simple look at a piece of art can often cause chills to go through my body, and that is when I know it holds a power over me.

Talent also holds great power. Weather musical talent, artistic talent, athletic ability; talent is what inspires, allows us to see what we are capable of with hard work and practice, talent allows us to dream. Talent is such a powerful thing, if you have true talent, you have the ability to gain respect and admiration from the world.

Power is a force that comes in many forms and has the ability to cause turmoil, greed, an understanding of the world and ourselves, along with inspiration and desire. What we choose to allow to hold power over us, and how we choose to define and view that power, defines who we are.

 

A Little Bit About Me

Hello, my name is Jessica Fischer, I am proud to say that I was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I am currently a junior at Penn State University, studying art education. I have created this blog in order to discuss some important topics involving visual culture as well as educational technologies.