Visualizing Theory

  This photo is a group character shot from the TV series “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.,” showcasing the valuable high-tech control instruments and displays aboard the spacecraft. The series, created by Joss Whedon, is based on the S.H.I.E.L.D. organization from Marvel Comics. The full name of “S.H.I.E.L.D.” is Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division, which was formed by the Allied powers during World War II to combat H.Y.D.R.A., an enemy armed with dangerous advanced technologies. The daily operations of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents are highly confidential, dealing with supernatural phenomena that pose threats to national security. Access to various intelligence and information within S.H.I.E.L.D. requires sufficient security clearance to protect secrets from falling into enemy hands. The agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. include those who have been secretly resurrected, martial arts experts, combat spies, hackers, scientists specializing in physical and biochemical sciences, and i

    This picture shows a scene from the movie A Bug's Life . This movie is set on Ant Island. It follows the main character Flik and journey protecting his ant colony. The antagonist in this movie is a grasshopper named Hopper. He is the leader of the grasshoppers and throughout most of the movie has control over the ant colony. In this scene, Hopper is giving a speech to the rest of his grasshoppers. He is explaining the power that the ants hold in numbers, but the other grasshoppers do not understand. He explains it to them by giving an example. He takes one nut and throws it at one of the grasshoppers. He then asks if it hurt when the nut hit them. They laugh and say the but didn't hurt. Hopper then opens a tube and lets hundreds of nuts falling on top of the other grasshoppers. He then asks if that hurt. Obviously it did hurt because the other grasshoppers were buried in nuts. He then explains that the ants are the same way. If only one ant attacks the grasshoppers, the ant

  This is a picture of Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba Group, one of the wealthiest people in China, at the Bund Summit in Shanghai on 24 October 2020. In his speech, he talked about the problems that existed in China’s Finance system. His major arguments are In the past, to align with international standards, China had to do what developed countries did to fill the gaps, and it is time to change that mindset. China needs to reexamine the regulation system. It is not wise to stifle financial innovation in the name of regulation. The essence of finance lies in credit management. China needs to abandon the pawnshop mentality of finance and rely on a credit system. At the time, Ant Financial, a fintech affiliate of Alibaba Group, was about to go public with the world’s biggest-ever IPO (about 40 billion dollars), yet several days after his speech, the Chinese regulatory authorities compelled Ant Group to suspend its IPO. Jack Ma was summoned for talks by the financial institutions and has dis

                Pleasantville, a film directed by Gary Ross and released in 1998, tells the story of two siblings who are transported into the world of the fictional television show  from the 1950s, "Pleasantville". This town is untouched by non-traditional values, with wives being controlled by their husband's will, staying inside and uninvolved with the politics of the world. Pleasantville is all in black and white, but when the two siblings enter the world with their modern view on the world, things begin to change. One of the siblings, Mary Sue, begins to introduce other teenagers in the town to drinking, sex, and other 'non-traditional' activities that are unspoken of and unheard of in Pleasantville. As this starts, all of the people who were once in black and white, are seen in color. The men of the town are apprehensive to this change and try to make things stay how they were, but as it becomes more prominent and the town becomes more colorful. The wife of

This is an image of Columbia University’s response to a student protest advocating for an end to the genocide in Gaza on April 18th, 2024. On the days immediately following this event, any additional context I provide will be overly repetitive for people who have been keeping up with the news. On April 19th, 2024, protesters hold their ground despite the arrest of 120 members of their effort. In the image, NYPD officers intercept a protester. In The Power Elite, C. Wright Mills characterizes that group as those who find themselves at the intersection of military, economic, and political spheres of power, share a common psychology and lifestyle that unites them, see their desires reflected in intersecting institutional structures, and participate in some kind of collaborative effort to maintain the power they hold. The positioning of the power elite at the apex of power is not due to any moral or intellectual superiority they possess, but their positioning within an intersection of sph

  The photo above shows three characters from The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1, each resembling marble sculptures. This marble depiction implies their power and influence, particularly the seated figure who looks directly into the camera. The one in the center is President Coriolanus Snow, the fictional dictator of dystopian North America, Panem. On the left is Peeta Malark, a previous resident of District 12 and a Hunger Games victor. On the right is Johanna Mason, another former victor. This is a promotional photo for the movie and hints at what is going to happen. At this point in the series, Snow captures Peeta and Johanna and brainwashes them to be allegient to him. They were often used in promotional videos because the public could resonate with them, as they had once been in the districts and the Hunger Games. President Snow used them as a distraction from political oppression and as a means to enforce order because of the uprisings and riots taking place all over Panem. Alth

This image is taken from an article in the NY Post by Rachelle Bergstein titled, "Stay-at-home dads are finding out parenting is hard". The picture, set in the family's living room, depicts father Jason Greene and his four children Wyatt, Miciah, Corbin and Arwin. Jason sits in the middle of the children, looking pensive and tired as he attempts to fold the overflowing basket of laundry set in front of him. One towel is draped over his shoulder, another over his thigh, and a third in his hands. His grey t-shirt hangs haphazardly on his figure, rumpled and wrinkled. In sharp contrast to his perceived misery, his children are all having fun on their respective devices: Wyatt, the oldest, is posing as if chatting on his cell phone while his other arm rests on Jason unoccupied shoulder. Miciah smirks at the camera while texting a friend. Sitting on the floor, Corbin has a Nintendo DS propped on the laundry basket, his fists are up in celebration. Mirroring her brother, the yo

  The image above is from the fictional series The Handmaid’s Tale, which centers around a woman named June who is forced to become an enslaved surrogate to a wealthy couple. In this scene, the Commander, who informally goes by Fred, is centrally positioned in the foreground. He is dressed formally, wearing a black suit, and is in the process of adjusting his lapel. His face is contorted into a highly focused expression. Behind him, June/Offred is lying on the edge of a bed. Most of her body is blocked by Fred’s head, but her red robe can be clearly seen. There is another woman, Serena, who sits on the left edge of the bed (viewer’s right). Serena is turned away from the camera so only her side profile is visible, yet she appears to be hunched. We can vaguely see that she is wearing a dark turquoise dress. The room is dimly lit, which suggests an ominous understone. Fred being centrally positioned and the two women out of focus, this image effectively captures the main idea of the seri

The “Not-Like-Other-Girls'' or more recently coined the “Pick-Me-Girl” is a phenomenon that has existed throughout time. Whether it was the greaser girl of the 1950s or the Nirvana fan of the 90s women have attempted to reject the more ‘girly’ or ‘feminine’ traits that populate the media. The photo above is an example of this concept, to the left is a drawing of a girl wearing makeup and a low cut top, above her there is a list of her characteristics one of which is “always looking for male approval”. To the right is a girl wearing no makeup with some pimples clearly visible, frizzy, stringy hair and a high necked sweater. One of her listed characteristics is “I’m not like other girls so please pick me”. This example is clearly a critique of the ‘Pick-Me-Girl’ but there are similar memes that are created and posted very earnestly. While the ‘Pick-Me-Girl’ claims to not want male validation as a way to distinguish herself from ‘Other Girls’ it's very clear that she's us

In support of Palestine and the BDS (Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions Movement), Polish artist Igor Dobrowolski created a series of public street art posters calling for consumers to boycott certain products. These products include makeup companies such as Chanel and Lancome, fast food companies such as McDonalds, and a machinery-centered corporation known as Caterpillar, or CAT. This street art is placed at a bus station, where passengers from many walks of life will likely encounter it. In this specific poster, Dobrowolski depicts a Gazan citizen, grieving on the top of a pile of ruins of what used to be Gaza. Behind him, we continue to see the extent of the damage: buildings in ruins, materials scattered, people over the ruins. Yet the focal point in this piece is the grieving man, the horrific, emotional impact from the Israeli occupation. However, Dobrowolski adds a strong juxtaposition to the image, formatting this photograph as an advertisement for CAT: “Need illegal settlements

       The image above is a stock photo from the movie, “Don’t Worry Darling” directed by Olivia Wilde in 2022. The main premise of the movie showcases an idealized, tight knit, and stereotypical community of heterosexual married couples in the town of Victory. During the day, the men will go off to work on a top secret project and the women stay in the home to do their wifely duties around the house. This lifestyle is meant to create a sense of bliss and utopic feeling for both parties. As time moves through the movie, the main character Alice begins to realize that the people around her, including her husband, are acting strange as if they are hiding something. In the end, Alice discovered that she was drugged and placed into this experimental world that curates this seemingly perfect state by her partner, Jack. All Jack wanted was to take control of his relationship and live this typical American Dream life with his wife. This twisted movie brings to light this fantasy that some men

  The image above includes two ads side by side, a project curated by artist and photographer Eli Rezkallah as part of a photo series called “In a Parallel Universe.” The ad to the left features a man lying in bed, his arms propped up, hands behind his head in a relaxed manner. Several white pillows prop him up, and white sheets cover his legs. He wears a white button-up shirt and a colorful tie, looking contently off into the distance. Below him, a woman, presumably his wife, kneels beside his bed, wearing a pink bathrobe. She looks up at him and is depicted in the process of placing a tray before him, featuring plates of food, a teapot, and a cup. Black text in the upper left corner of the image reads, “show her it’s a man’s world” and the bottom of the image displays a larger drawing of a tie and the words “Van Heusen” and “man’s world.” The second ad, on the right, exhibits a woman lying in a white-sheeted bed and propped up by many pillows. Like the man in the other ad, she sits w

       In the growing technology world, Elon Musk has been at the forefront with his creation of the Tesla, the first modern electric car to be globally successful. From this point of creation, Musk has only grown in popularity and money. Musk's economic power had further allowed him to have persuasion in both a governmental domain and in the militaristic domain. In this picture, Elon Musk is pictured to be standing in front of two notable companies that he founded. Yet, something that I had noticed about these two company logos, specifically, is how sophisticated and futuristic both of them are. The logos are something that is very telling for Musk's personality, as he has large ambitions about projects that he plans on carrying out to continue challenging the odds of current technology.      In C. Wright Mills' The Power Elite, Mills discusses the idea of the structural condition and how it allows the elites to have power even if they are not officially elected into an o

DKE Rushmore- The Ultimate Power Elite Delta Kappa Epsilon UMN. February 21, 2022. Untitled. From Facebook. Retrieved 17 April, 2024 ( https://www.facebook.com/DeltaKappaEpsilonUmn/photos/a.1503497979748219/4888938124537504/?type=3 )  The photo above is a new interpretation of the renowned Mount Rushmore, one that the Delta Kappa Epsilon (DKE) members from the University of Minnesota took some creative liberties with. Instead of the real Mount Rushmore, located in South Dakota in the Black Hills region, this version exists solely on the internet thanks to the DKE’s. The real Mount Rushmore is a 60 foot high rock sculpture of the U.S. Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. This Facebook Mount Rushmore is pixelated and slightly blurry and spans three to four inches. The “DKE Rushmore” shows U.S. President’s Rutherford B. Hayes, George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, Theodore Roosevelt and Gerald R. Ford (from left to right, in that order). Eac

         https://images.app.goo.gl/af98cy8P88me2s8V6 This image depicts a wedding shows a bride and groom standing in a church with their backs turned away from the camera. The bride wears a long white dress and veil while the groom is in a black suit. There are rows of guests dressed in formal wear standing in the pews. Two chandeliers hang from the ceiling, and the walls are painted white with grey finishing. Two religious leaders, one dressed in a white robe, are standing in front of the couple. To the right of the bride is a woman with her hair  in a bun, wearing a long lavender purple dress holding a bouquet,  presumably a bridesmaid.  A cross with an image of Christ hangs behind the couple. This depicts a traditional Christian wedding, or a ceremony in a church environment.  Marianne Weber's essay "Authority and Autonomy in Marriage" describes how the conception of Christian marriage changed the social understanding of male and female roles in marriage.  While tradi

What happens when the power is removed from members of the power elite? In Schitt’s Creek , the wildly out-of-touch Rose family finds out, as they are forced to maintain any semblance of dignity after losing everything. This picture depicts the Rose family, a family who were once billionaires, and who lost their money due to a financial advisor neglecting to pay taxes. In this photo, the family dons red-carpet-ready outfits, yet they are nowhere a prestigious event. Rather, they are outside of a motel, in the town containing their last remaining asset, a small, rural town, Schitt’s Creek. Comically detailing the trials and tribulations of a family’s fall from grace, the show brilliantly portrays what happens when members of high society are removed from this life. Season by season, the family adapts to this new life, but not without lots of complaining and misery. This photo, a still from the final season, is an encouraging picture since each of the characters smiles, representing how