respons to kips lecture #4

This lecture was super neato. the theme begins with maps. then mapping. kip presented numerous categories in which maps exist. informational mapping relies upon an assumption of belief. he began with mapping beauty and talked about the barbies that are supposed to be from around the world. they all look the same but have slightly different colored skin, a slightly different stance, and a different box - conveying that there is a distinct cage that defines beauty in american culture and society. these barbies, despite their supposing to be from different places around the world, essentially all look the same - tall, super skinny, huge boobs, big white teeth, juicy lips, big hips teeny tiny tummy. he then spoke about mapping hierarchy and power. i thought his illustrations of this system were very insightful - the ant farm, sea monkeys, shooting a ball into a goldfish bowl at a fair. then he showed the picture of the japanese keychain ornaments with living goldfish, water, and a small bit of oxygen in it. when this image came up everyone was very surprised and aghast because we've never seen that before in our country. but, perhaps the people in japan have never seen aunt farms and would have the same reaction as we did to their goldfish ornaments. then he talked about mapping demographics and mapping fashion. the fashion thing was particularly interesting to me because that is what i want to pursue in the future. it was really funny to me when he used the analogy of dr. seus' "sneetches" and how one had a star so they all got stars and then the first one with the star took his off. this is something i've experienced many times in life where i wear something or do something to myself and then almost immediately it is everywhere so i have to take it off or throw it away or stop what i'm doing - i HATE wearing or having things that others do or looking like other people. i like to create my own style that is eclectic, forever morphing and evolving, eye opening, eye catching, inspiring and much more. my fashion and style is my daily expression.