Gustav Klimt: The Symbols behind the Symbolist

Many people know of the Impressionist movement in France, but not many are aware of the artistic spiral that it influences. Germany was heavily influenced by French art in the 19th century. Some of Germany’s most notable artists were inspired by the Impressionist movement but took it one step further in the expressionist and symbolist period. Gustav Klimt was one of the most well-known symbolist artists of the 19th century in Germany. Many know him from his painting “The Kiss.”

 

Klimt was from an area near Vienna, Germany. Throughout his life, he often struggled financially and lived in poverty. He developed his artistic skills in the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts. Here he was trained to be an architectural painter. This became the reason for his artistic success later on in his career. Along with other artists, he formed the Vienna Secession group of symbolist artists. This group did not favor a specific painting style or genre but rather promoted the combination of various styles. A couple years after the Secession group formed, Klimt was commissioned to paint three murals on the ceiling of the Great Hall at the University of Vienna. Klimt was known for creating paintings that used vibrant unnatural colors. He challenged traditional artists by taking a raw human experience and giving it added layers of emotion. He used a lot of traditional shapes, such as cubes and circles, creating a simplistic yet intense image. His work makes the audience question their emotions and view nature from a new perspective. 

His three murals did just that. The murals featured bright yellow colors and various nude women with classical Greek and Roman components, each representing various societal advancements and struggles. Many viewed his murals as being inappropriate, political, and even religious. The sensual nature of his paintings was new territory for German art, and many found it to be too extreme for the public. This was his last commissioned project but led to his artistic fame.

Klimt was known for being intrinsically motivated. His main goal was to express his own emotions and feelings that he felt could only be expressed through art. His one true moment of extrinsic motivation was in his commissioned mural, but even then, there are still traces of his intrinsic motivation in his designs. Culturally, Klimt’s art was revolutionary. While Germany can be argued to be a Western country, the artistic culture of the region had traces of eastern cultural characteristics. While the general style of his work was thought to break from traditional art, which is a characteristic of Western creative culture, it still aligns more with Eastern creative culture. Eastern creative culture is known for having a reinterpretation of ideas. Klimt aspired to take concepts people were familiar with and reinvent them creatively; Like his murals, sometimes that involved classical figures. Most notably, he built off of German traditions. Klimt was featured in an exhibit for creating a visual representation of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. It included light features and told a story of hardship and triumph. The frieze tells the story of a hero who defeats a monster and frees himself of his own constraint. In the end, he embraces his lover while surrounded by a choir, signifying the end of the Symphony where a choir being to sing. Klimt was able to take one form of art and make it accessible and relevant in a whole new way. Klimt continued to challenge artistic traditions and even went on to inspire musical composers, writers, and other painters to merge the arts and reinterpret older pieces and methods.

 

 

If interested, here is a 25-minute video of the Beethoven Frieze with Beethoven’s full 9^th Symphony playing in the background following along:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1KXqTj6vYI

 

 

 

https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-liverpool/exhibition/gustav-klimt-painting-design-and-modern-life-vienna-1900/gustav-0

https://www.gustav-klimt.com/Beethoven-Frieze.jsp

https://www.klimtgallery.org/biography.html

 

Ari Aster: Familial Dysfunction and a Bad Breakup

    If you are not familiar with screenwriter and director, Ari Aster, and you can handle disturbing topics including psychological and emotional horror, I highly recommend you go watch Hereditary THEN Midsommar (I personally believe they are easier to get through in that order.) While some people may consider each movie to be horror movies, they are much more complex than that and Aster would agree with that statement. Aster describes Hereditary as commentary on grief and familial dysfunction whereas Midsommar is also a meditation on grief but also a breakup movie that “unravels into folk horror” but Aster would still argue that Midsommar is a dark comedy. Aster even says “I always find the most exciting way into any given genre is sideways. I typically like to think outside of the genre I’m dealing in. That’s why we weren’t watching any horror movies for Midsommar. We were watching breakup movies” to prove that point. This also brings up the topic of catharsis, as the horror movie can also be seen as a relationship-based movie, but watching these disturbing pieces is extremely cathartic for the viewers as well. 

    Ari Aster also pays incredible attention to detail. For Midsommar, he did a ton of research on Swedish traditions, Norse mythology, and folklore. They also built the entire village seen in the movie, because in the original cut (which was almost 4 hours long) each villager was essential to the story. Aster utilizes a form of collecting in this film because he drew inspiration from photographer Joel-Peter Witkin, who makes the grotesque beautiful in his work.

Although he approaches his work with a “sense of cynicism and a bleak sense of humor,” Ari Aster’s motivation is intrinsic because when asked about his films he calls them all “passion projects” and describes his process as “therapeutic.” His sense of cynicism reminds me a bit of Gehry when he worried about what people would think of his buildings.  Another form of collecting Aster uses is that he clearly remembers the type of movies he did not enjoy as a child and does not recreate things like that. His ideas for many of his short films come from Aster wanting to approach taboo topics, like he does in “The Strange Thing About the Johnsons” (I would recommend watching it if you enjoy Aster’s work). 

If we compare Aster’s work to the geneplore model, his movies are definitely an example of divergent thinking while finding someone to produce Hereditary was the product constraint. 

    Aster’s work is chilling and genius, and I encourage anyone who can handle these movies to watch them.

 Click to watch “The Strange Thing About the Johnsons”

Sources:

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/jun/28/horror-director-ari-aster-hereditary-midsommar-terrors 

https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2019/07/ari-aster-midsommar-interview/593194/ 

https://www.indiewire.com/2018/06/hereditary-ari-aster-interview-inspiration-history-1201972348/ 

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/midsommar-filmmaker-ari-aster-details-his-influences-1221613 

Lisa Clark and Mojo Monkey: The woman who transformed donuts in Minnesota.

 Potatoes, parsnips beer and sourdough. These are not the things that come to mind when thinking of the average donut... but for Lisa Clark, owner of Mojo Monkey donuts in Saint Paul Minnesota, these are a few of the key ingredients in her unmatched dough. Clark, who describes donut making as “as much science as it is art”, doesn’t believe in the cookie cutter donut whose flavor relies on sugary icing to satisfy its consumer. Combining her years of experience working in a bakery with a hefty dose of creativity, she has transformed the idea of what a donut can be.  

Nowadays, especially in the world of food inspo on social media, we have become familiar with the idea of the gourmet donut. This is not your Dunkin donuts vanilla frosted, I’m talking about the cronuts, the lemon mocha bismarcks, the lavender thyme old fashioned and so on.   But before there were places across the nation cranking out creative flavor combos, Lisa Clark was making these crazy combos for her kids. It started with her oldest daughter, who turned up her nose at birthday cakes and every year asked for donuts instead. This tradition led to fun exploration of new donut places but Clark found something was missing, especially in Minnesota. She spent years collecting ideas from donut places around the nation, but it was during her time working at Breadsmith that the idea really came to fruition. She noticed that each day the bakers made something fresh, with real ingredients, and this created a different level of value for consumers. She believed she could apply these same principles to a donut shop and thus the beginnings of Mojo Monkey were born. 

With the enthusiastic support of her family, Clark opened a small storefront shop in Saint Paul. Using techniques she learned from her time at Breadsmith, she created a brand new dough recipe that is the base for a multitude of donuts. She didn’t stop with innovating the yeasted donut though, she also added her own personal touch to the cake donut, creating one that is just a bit crispy on the outside with a moist airy exquisitely spiced center. With the science of the perfect bake down, she began to experiment with flavors.  In an interview with the Star Tribune she says “the variations can go on, and on, and on. The creative possibilities are endless, and I’m really excited about that.” Her flavors are incredible and no doubt innovative. On any given week she offers options like mango glazed with coconut, lemon ginger, smores bismarck, peanut butter oreo, blueberry pancake, cotton candy, and creme brulee as well as traditional offerings she’s perfected like your boston cream, old fashioned, and maple bacon bar. Lisa Clark never stops innovating though, and each new week promises new flavors like last week's “Oatmeal Cream filled Bismark topped with bacon and two buckwheat blueberry pancakes”... yeah. She also isn’t afraid to play around with flavors like Zucchini thyme, lemon lavender, and Passion fruit mascarpone with matcha whip topping. Needless to say, you could eat here every day and never find yourself bored of her flavors. 

Lisa’s creative process involved a lot of collecting. She’s inspired by her experience working in bakeries, traveling to many donut shops especially those in Seattle, and her upbringing in New Orleans. Every weekend she makes fresh beignets as well as an homage to this heritage. Even the name of her shop comes from collecting, though in this case it was from her two daughters. They named the store after their love for monkeys and the villain Mojo Jojo from
girls. As for flavors, she gets some ideas from customer requests and others from constantly being on the lookout for new flavor combinations anytime she tries something new but she mostly credits her children who come to her with many requests. 

It hasn’t been a smooth road to success. Clark opened her business in an era before social media would’ve made her go viral immediately. She navigated this challenge by creating a blog, and to this day the company website is a blogspot. This way she could connect with her customers on a more personal level, while updating them on what crazy flavor combos would be available week to week. From time to time she still posts longer blog posts on subjects, most recently addressing the murder of George Floyd in a post called “I will not hide” that addresses the constraints she has faced as a black woman and calling community members into action. 

Since 2011, many have followed in her footsteps. A number of gourmet donut places now exist in the Twin Cities attempting to replicate Clark’s success. Despite this new competition, Mojo Monkey still manages to sell out each weekend even in the midst of the pandemic. Lisa Clark continues to innovate both in how she responds to COVID and with a wide variety of new flavors and techniques. It’s thanks to her that a thriving gourmet donut industry exists in the food landscape of the Twin Cities. This summer my family explored each of these places each weekend and it’s amazing the creations that they make. But when it came down to it, we all ranked Mojo Monkey hands down the best. If you find yourself in the Twin Cities be sure to stop by, and get there early!

Don't Stop Believin' in Ryan Murphy

“Call me camp. Call me crazy. Call me wild. Call me extreme. Call me erratic. The one thing you can’t say is that I don’t try” -Ryan Murphy

Ryan Murphy has been called the King of Television, the King of the Streaming Boom, and the most powerful man in TV. You may be familiar with him through certain television shows such as American Horror Story or Glee. While those are definitely his most popular shows, Murphy has written, produced, and directed many other shows and movies during his life.

As a child, he was raised in a family where it wasn’t easy to be a gay kid with an artistic sensibility. His father would be especially tough on him and ask him questions like “Why aren’t you like me?” The rejection by his father hit Murphy hard, and it is something that still hurts him to this day. However, he has used this rejection to fuel his passion for inclusion and diversity in his work. “I’m being the father who says, ‘You’re enough,’ which no one ever said to me,” Murphy said in an interview. He will spend hours in negotiations to get actors, especially women and minorities, more money than they’ve ever had.

His shows center around the idea of taking marginalized characters and putting them in the lead story. Murphy takes risks by casting women, minorities, and LGBTQ+ actors in leading roles, but it’s a risk that he takes with no regrets. He’s driven by his love for storytelling, particularly, telling the stories he feels need to be told such as a working class dad learning to love his Broadway-obsessed gay son—the happy ending that Murphy never got in his own family life. Murphy’s creative works mix satirical elements with earnest drama which can divide critics, but this doesn’t deter him. His love for creating these stories intrinsically motivates him. Murphy isn’t trying to make the “best-selling” TV show, rather, he aims to create a show that showcases characters and storylines that are often left out of the spotlight. He derives the most fulfillment by being able to work with these marginalized actors.

However, Murphy is also driven by his need to belong and be valued by the Establishment. While his intrinsic motivation plays a major role in his creations, Ryan is no stranger to the extrinsic motivation as well. In an interview Murphy has commented, “My whole life has been in search of that brass ring. People are astounded that I still want that. But everyone wants to be seen. Everyone wants to be loved.” And he has definitely seen that success that he strives for. He has received six Primetime Emmy Awards, a Tony award, and two Grammy award nominations. He also just recently signed the largest development deal in TV history with Netflix.

A final thing that is a huge part of Murphy’s creative process is collaboration. He is known for working with the same actors over multiple projects. For example, Sarah Paulson has been cast in five of his television series (Nip/Tuck, American Horror Story, American Crime Story, Feud, and Ratched) and will probably be cast in more in the future. “He puts a lot of wind beneath the wings of people he believes in,” says Paulson. Murphy considers many of his frequently casted stars friends and has commented on having many of their phone numbers, “I have everyone’s phone number but Meryl Streep’s.” He has garnered a lot of respect from fellow writers, producers, directors, and actors in the field. Murphy has created, in a sense, a company of stars who all enjoy working with him on new and exciting projects. He acts as the father he never had as he advocates and fights for his actors to get the money and recognition that they deserve.

Sources: https://time.com/5667752/ryan-murphy-netflix/ https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/05/14/how-ryan-murphy-became-the-most-powerful-man-in-tv https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryan_Murphy_(writer)#Frequent_casting

"(500) Days of Summer" is the Best Love Story That Isn't Really A Love Story (spoilers)

I remember the first time I ever watched "(500) Days of Summer". I was in middle school and I was staying the night at my older sister's apartment in D.C.. As a seventh-grader, I didn't critically analyze the movies I watched, so I can't really describe the exact thoughts I had at the time about the movie, but what I can tell you is that I fell in love with the way the film made me feel. Since that day at my sister's apartment, I've watched the movie about a gazillion more times. 

Just to give you some background, the movie "(500) Days of Summer," directed by Marc Webb, made its debut in 2009 at a film festival in Switzerland. The movie swiftly gained popularity and was picked up by Fox Searchlight Pictures and reached wide release shortly thereafter. 

"(500) Days of Summer" is a story about a young man named Tom who works in a card-making company. When Summer joins the company, Tom is smitten by her vintage look and classic tastes. He is fascinated with her and enjoys the thrill of not being able to fully figure her out. Summer remains detached, letting only a few people into her life. It becomes unclear whether Tom is more infatuated with the idea of being an exclusive member of her world, or her world itself. 

The story begins with the narrator saying that the audience should be warned that "this is not a love story." This introduction prompts the audience to be committed to determining what kind of story they will be encountering. I think that using a narrator was an excellent choice because it provides the audience with an unbiased, objective perspective of Tom and Summer's relationship. 

Summer makes it known that she doesn't believe in love and that she doesn't feel comfortable with the idea of being someone's girlfriend. She goes as far as to say she "doesn't feel comfortable being anyone's anything." This doesn't stop Summer from forging a romantic relationship with Tom. Summer's perspective on love causes conflict between the two because Tom is constantly left feeling like his love for her is unreciprocated and that her affection could disappear at any given moment. Summer cannot provide the reassurance he seeks from her.

The movie poses many questions about love and how difficult it can be to navigate a relationship. Can you ever have the reassurance that your partner won't wake up the next morning and change their mind about how they feel about you? How do we know when someone is "the one" when so many promising relationships and marriages have failed? How often is it that we project our unrealistic expectations onto the ones we love? How do we know when we are doing it? Why do we need labels? What do you do when you believe in your partner more than they believe in themself? How do you know if you're with someone because they have the same interests as you or because you actually like their character? So many questions! 

Marc Webb does an amazing job directing this film. One of my favorite artistic choices that he made for this film is the non-linear sequencing. In one moment, Tom and Summer are at the record shop holding hands and smiling. In the next scene, Tom and Summer are at the same record shop months later, but this time something is different. You can feel the disconnect between the two so much stronger when the scenes are compared back to back. This non-linear sequencing also creates beautiful pacing. The subtle unexpected turns keep the audience engaged in the story-line. This sequencing also prevents the audience from wallowing in the sad parts of the movie - it knows when you need a switch to something lighter and happier. 

Webb also does an excellent job of making his characters feel like authentic people. One of the reasons I love this movie so much is because I feel like I have been both Tom and Summer before. Right now I feel like Summer - I love my own company, coursing through life independently, and not owing anyone anything. However, there have been moments where I've been Tom. I have been infatuated with solely the idea of a person, I have had an overly-romantic perception of relationships, I have felt relationship insecurity. 

Webb never lets the audience pier too deeply in Summer's life. While we get to meet Tom's sister and best friend, the deepest we see into Summer's personal life is her apartment. Even when Summer eventually gets married to someone else, the shot cuts out her husband's face. These meticulous directing decisions add to Summer's elusive aura and cause the audience to empathize with Tom and his struggle to understand someone he adores. I think having the ability to manipulate an audience's perspective so easily and so strongly is the mark of an excellent director. 

This multifaceted nature of "(500) Days of Summer" is what sets this film apart from your average indie rom-com. From random and ridiculous orchestrated dance scenes with animated birds, to side-by-side comparisons between Tom's expectations and reality, to cinematic montages of Los Angeles, it is difficult fitting this film into one category. 

Aside from the plot, the soundtrack is spectacular. With artists like Regina Spektor, The Smiths, and Simon and Garfunkel, the soundtrack features tunes that perfectly highlight the story's emotional highs and lows. Each stunning cinematographic decision is matched by the music - and it all feels so effortless. 

While I could go on forever about this movie, I should probably end it here. I think "(500) Days of Summer" is a seemingly simple film yet has so many complexities that to this day I notice something new about the film each time I watch it. While this film didn't cause any paradigm shifts, it certainly has changed my life for the better. 

Resources: 

https://ktswblog.net/2018/10/22/music-in-film-a-look-inside-the-soundtrack-of-500-days-of-summer/

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1022603/reviews#:~:text=The%20film%20shows%20the%20good,unique%2C%20and%20true%20to%20life.

https://goat.com.au/500-days-of-summer/500-days-of-summer-just-turned-10-and-it-took-me-this-long-to-realise-tom-was-the-problem/

Randy Fenoli: Designing Dresses and Dreams

    Randy Fenoli is an esteemed wedding dress designer based out of New York. He put his name on the map when he became host of the hit TLC show “Say Yes to the Dress”, which features Kleinfeld Bridal in New York City. After years of designing and consulting in the bridal business, he wondered why select styles and sizes were only available at an extraordinary price. With this in mind, Randy set out on a new creative adventure to design couture styled dresses for brides on a budget.  

 

Randy’s dream was always to become a designer. He attended the Fashion Institute of Technology, receiving numerous accolades for his creative designs and passionate enthusiasm. Immediately after graduation, Randy launched two lines of wedding dresses: Randy Fenoli for the Diamond Collection and Randy Fenoli for Dressy Creations. These lines did extremely well, but after a few years of success in the business he decided to shift gears and move on to be a dress consultant. Randy is referred to as the “bridal gown whisperer”, helping thousands of brides find their perfect dress on over 15 seasons of TLC’s hit show. As the years went on, Randy saw the negative side of the industry and wanted to use his ideas to bridge the gap between wearing gorgeous dresses and staying on budget.

 

 

Randy’s creative process is focused around making brides happy. He claims that, like each bride, every dress has their own personality. Pulling inspiration from everywhere, from trunk shows to couture fashion lines, Randy tries to create dresses that are unique and not seen anywhere else. He starts with a sketch, adds layering, then talks to brides to get their input on what is missing from the design. This process has inspired him to give each dress in every collection a woman’s name. He feels that this connects the bride to their dream dress. Randy is motivated to design one of a kind dresses while also keeping the cost down as much as possible. He believes that every bride deserves to look the way that they want to on their big day. 

 

 

Randy Fenoli’s career can be linked to Laird McLean’s ideas of cultural influence on creativity. Randy’s creativity is based on the ideas of American culture, putting an emphasis on the big white wedding and saying “yes” to the dress. The bridal industry as a whole is based on the freedom to create unique dresses for each bride on their big day. Randy’s creative process takes full advantage of that freedom, as he pulls ideas directly from brides. Culturally, brides typically wear white; however, Randy believes that whatever makes a bride happy is what he should design, so many of his collections incorporate the use of colored dresses for bridal fashion. 

                

 

Randy’s current collections, Beautiful Beginnings and Silver Springs, can be found in over 80 countries, as well as Kleinfeld Bridal. He continues to design dresses and now has several spin-offs on TLC, including Randy to the Rescue. He wants to continue to inspire brides and make them feel beautiful through his creations. 

 

Resources:

https://www.randyfenoli.com/about

https://westchestermagazine.com/life-style/a-former-say-yes-to-the-dress-designer-just-launched-his-own-bridal-collection/

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/11/fashion/weddings/randy-fenoli-of-say-yes-to-the-dress-is-a-brides-therapist.html

Neuralink: Elon Musk Working to Make Sci-Fi Ideas a Reality

Neuralink and Its Creations

 Elon Musk, founder of Tesla and SpaceX, is also the founder of Neuralink, a company hoping to make strides in the fields of AI and neuro-engineering. The company was founded in 2016, but it was just this year that Musk presented some of the advancements Neuralink has made in developing brain implants.

                                                          Musk presenting at 2020 Neuralink Demo Event

The company developed a sewing-machine-like robot that is capable of "sewing" a thousand small electrodes into rodent's and pig's brains. These probes that are weaved into the animal's brain measure and record the electrical signals that are emitted by neurons in the brain as they fire.

                                                                    Neuralink Electrode Sewing Machine

During an online demonstration this past August, Musk also presented a prototype of the link itself, a small metal circle, about the thickness of the human skull, meant to be implanted in the head so it can be near the brain and transmit signals back and forth with the implanted electrodes. The link contains computer chips, and was designed so that it can be taken out to charge, or taken out in order to be replaced as new and improved links are created. So far the technology has only been tested on pigs, as was also demonstrated during the webinar in August. A pig was brought out, and noises were played over the speaker as the link detected the neurons in the pig's brain firing in real time.

                                                 From the pig demonstration during the August 2020 Neuralink Webinar

Creativity and Inspiration

Musk is active in many different areas of his domain- science. His focus is mainly on technology, whether it be cars, spaceships, solar panels, or brain implants. Musk draws much inspiration from other members of the scientific domain, as well as from science fiction movies. A large part of Musk's creative process is to examine existing technology and systems and use his self proclaimed "physics fundamental thinking" to make the technology more efficient, more affordable, and better at fulfilling what it is supposed to do. Musk is intrinsically motivated to move technology forwards and turn ideas that we see in science fiction movies into a reality, but as a major business man he is also externally motivated by recognition and money. The creativity behind Neuralink comes from inspiration from science fiction movies in which people receive implants in their brain that give them increased intelligence and functioning. Musk also has a more specific goal for his technology- by looking at the field of healthcare and medicine from a new perspective- he had the idea of developing the link to tackle health issues such as depression and Parkinson's, as well as make paraplegics able to walk again. Musk has created great shifts in each subdomain he is a part of in the overall domain of science- revolutionizing the electric car, revitalizing space exploration efforts, creating solar roofs that are affordable and durable, and hopefully in the future, creating brain implants that can treat and cure neurological disorders. 

The Unknown Language of a Necessary Revenge

Trigger warning: sexual + domestic abuse, gender-based violence, graphic violence. 

The music of Lingua Ignota is an amalgamation of confrontational, death-industrial, electronic noise and blackened, baroque-classical operatics infused with Roman Catholic iconography. It defies genre and it is hard to listen to in all the right ways. 

Caligula was originally over 90 minutes long. It's an album that's supposed to be dealt with, not enjoyed. Something that's supposed to embody intense trauma, therapeutic violence, and confrontational reckoning. It was pulled back to a more palatable 75 minutes… and then to 66.6 minutes as a little joke. 

Caligula exemplifies a society "on the edge of ruin, the edge of collapse" built from "looking at the abusive power, madness, depravity, and narcissism" that we see in our world, in our communities, and in ourselves as a result of trauma. 

The music re-contextualizes misogyny and violence amidst a music scene, and an industry, where it has been perpetuated.  Explore and you'll find All Bitches Die, "O Ruthless Great Divine Director," and even a cover of Eminem's "Kim."

It's meant to "take you through a cycle of abuse." It has to be punishing. It has to retch with divine vengeance in a world within which there is no justice for the victims of this violence. These are the survival anthems of Lingua Ignota. 

Kristin Hayter was working on her graduate thesis at Brown University when Lingua Ignota was exorcised into being. She collected language from the internet, lyrics from extreme misogynist music, and texts and voicemails from her own life, and she used them in a Markov chain to form a 10,000 page text entitled Burn Everything, Trust No One, Kill Yourself. Hayter decided to make it her body weight in paper in an art installation instead of archiving it away for the academics. Then, she turned it into a song based on Stravinsky's Rite of Spring focusing on the much forgotten girl who dances herself to death for old men. Fitting. From there Lingua Ignota became a music project. 

Hayter's music is a product of her own experiences, re-contextualized for catharsis. One of her abusers was “a very powerful noise musician in the Providence community” and she describes a need for a reckoning within the extreme music scene. 

Advice for recovering from trauma is infested with themes of gentleness, self-love, and mindfulness. For some, this works. To Hayter, this is a sort of "patriarchal model of civilized femininity." Lingua Ignota instead explores other aspects of survivorhood, like rage and despair. 

While Hayter directly confronts the phallocentric systems of power amidst sexual, gender-based, and domestic violence, she receives a lot of criticism from feminists for her use of language that is seen as derogatory toward women. Hayter instead sees her music as a way to reclaim this language as an important part of the work in healing from this trauma. 

These sounds, words, and styles that make up her music are typically dominated by masculinity and masculine usage. Csikszentmihalyi would describe Hayter's diversion from traditional feminine expression as an androgenous characteristic of her personality. But it's much more than that. Her rejection of the socially accepted or "appropriate" ways to process trauma needs to go beyond the constraints of gender norms to reshape the new reality of her survivorhood. And by taking on the words of her abusers, she gets to rewrite what it means to be that survivor.

Hayter describes how difficult it is to process this subject matter. In her creative process, she prefers allegorical expression because it allows her to go outside of her own experiences and instead give it context outside of herself. She said, “I’ve had a difficult time finding justice in the world, finding accountability for the people who have done harm to me… Music is my way of holding people accountable and finding justice. My way of finding revenge.”

Survivors of abuse and trauma don't get to enact violence or kill their abusers. They get mindfulness coloring books, meditation apps, and talks about the importance of self love. Lingua Ignota gives a voice to "the anger that the world tells them they shouldn’t feel."

Wes Anderson’s Unique Directing Style

 Wes Anderson is among Steven Spielberg and M. Night Shayamalan as one of the film industry’s best and most creative directors. Best known for his films The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) and The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), the critically acclaimed award-winning director has developed a style uniquely his.

Anderson films are typically whimsical and have a rather unusual sense of humor, though they often deal with much deeper issues and what actor Ralph Fiennes describes as “very serious themes and quite serious emotions, in fact.”

Aesthetically, Anderson is well known for his deliberate attention to color palette through sets and costumes, as well as his intense attention to symmetry when setting up scenes and shots.

Image source: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/626985579364673088/?nic_v2=1a7uttv4Y

This distinct style places Anderson under one of Robert Sternberg’s categories of personality psychometrics for creatives — aesthetic taste and imagination. 

Anderson himself has acknowledged his aesthetic taste and style: “I certainly don’t feel like a part of any establishment because I do feel kind of like I’ve got my own style and voice,” he says. 

He doesn’t mind having his repertoire of films connected through his style, though. Purposefully avoiding these stylistic preferences would have to be a deliberate act, and at the end of the day, Anderson says, “I think I would rather just do what I love.”

This also sheds light on Anderson’s motivations. Though he does have external factors that motivate him, like money and renown, Anderson is also intrinsically motivated because he simply loves being a director and choosing how to tell the stories he wants to tell.

As Studio Binder puts it, “The Wes Anderson style is Wes Anderson himself. A hard working, thoughtful human who is focused on his imagination. His visuals are an extension of his own psychology.”

Anderson’s cognitive and creative processes combine collecting and the unconscious. Many of his films draw on his experiences as a child, especially the film Rushmore, which was filmed at Anderson’s own high school.

Though some of these references are explicit and intentional, Anderson admits many of them are not.

“There’s some degree to which whatever is coming from my imagination is inspired by my background and my own psychology,” he says. “Without me controlling it or choosing to, I’m in the movies.”

Anderson’s newest film, The French Dispatch, is set to release in 2021.