Journal #6

The image I took that displays the best relationship between form and content is an image of a bulletin board. The initial attraction to this was all the speckles of bright colors and no actual bulletins on it. The only thing left were pieces of words, staples, and the actual cork background. A bulletin board is a boring everyday object, but it evoked thoughts about what people have to say. Words are how we communicate with the world. What if you couldn’t use speech to communicate; what if all that was left were triangles of color and partial words? I know I get very frustrated when I feel I am not being heard.

All of the color on the bulletin board reminds me of all the different races and types of people in the world. Some colors are represented more and some less then others. All of these “races” are pilled on top of one another. It’s almost as if all the papers were trying to talk over one another, and in the end, no one gets to say anything. Everyone is trying to get his or her word in, but in the end, no one can because all you see is a messy jumble. The cork background represents the beliefs of each person, and the staples are each person’s way of clinging to that belief. The one thing that connects all these “people” is they are all in that same place together, we all live on earth, and have to do our best to make that life the best we can. But, when you have some people getting over-shadowed by others, who don’t get the chance to speak, they become angry and have to fight to be heard

The mix of all these elements, the paper, letters, staples, and cork, create a juxtaposition because the whole point of a bulletin board is to communicate with the general public. When all we have are shreds left of things people used to have to say, what does that say about our current state? Perhaps there are no activities going on right now, no one has anything they are trying to sell, or no jobs are available to be advertised. These are common things found posted on these boards. All that’s left is the residue from old, expired bulletins.

Morgan McMahan