SUNNY 16 - Ch. 14 - That One About the Punk Girl

[MangaDex]

 

[outinthegardener]

This whole chapter I was wondering "what happened to the girl who asked to crash at her place?" And I guess she was left to die like an abandoned puppy. Make her earn that delivery food! Better yet, feed her nothing but wild grasses or barely expired packs of tofu from a dumpster.

 

[Serenata]

Ah the "make yourself at home" type lol
She'll need to start using alarms to not lose track of time and also nice, she's meeting so much people!

She's starting to understand the complexity of the SOUL

 

[UdenEmpati]

College is gonna break Niina, but also Make her, I think.

I actually wanna see her take a self-portrait like that one full-spread image; I feel like she'd nail it, as understandably intimidating as it may seem in the present moment. But that sort of unabashed, unadorned & raw genuine-ness is very Niina-coded, if she snaps the photo before she gets a chance to start thinking about it.

I really wanted to see the power-lines photographs, honestly. That sort of thing speaks to me as well, given how ubiquitous they are, and yet how undeniably "human" they can be—given they wholly exist to connect people to one another.

Whether phone lines or for getting electricty to a building, they're almost unique in how they represent established society and community. After all... Animals build homes in the forms of nests and burrows. They build roads in the form of worn trails & paths through forests and fields. Some even farm after a fashion, like some ants that cultivate both fungi and even aphids.

But telephone lines...that's Human. Sure, there's mycelium networks between trees, but you don't see those above ground—telephone poles scream "we are here, and we are here together".

There's soul in that, for sure.

 

[NilnisNilneef]

Do they just not actually teach anything in art schools? I was a STEM student so I have no idea but every time I see art colleges depicted it's like, "Welcome, freshmen. For your first assignment just do whatever the fuck," and then the MC goes on a soul journey.
I'm a big nerd, I want to hear about technical stuff.

 

[globyglob]

Thank you for the translation

 

[UdenEmpati]

Do they just not actually teach anything in art schools? I was a STEM student so I have no idea but every time I see art colleges depicted it's like, "Welcome, freshmen. For your first assignment just do whatever the fuck," and then the MC goes on a soul journey.
I'm a big nerd, I want to hear about technical stuff.

In fairness, I think it the presentation of the assignment was an idiosyncracy of the guy talking. Oonashi-sensei kinda gave a lot of sideeye to the main professor, and the guy himself seemed to be going for spectacle with his whole shpiel toward the students.

I'm betting it was as much theatrics as anything for a "first assignment"—but,there was still a lot of actual technical fundamentals application in what the instructor was describing. That whole list of elements described within the paired-panel sequence are components of the decision-making process for setting up a given shot. And the assignment as a whole is useful for finding out how savvy a given student is in knowing what technical aspects of a photograph are, because they have to consider each of them in their recreation of a "masterpiece" already taken.

It's really not a case of "just do whatever"—this would serve as a benchmark for where each student sits in terms of their proficiency within the basics of compostion and an understanding of the elements that comprise the staging of a photograph. From there, the instructors can assess each student's understanding and working knowledge, as well as whether they have an established "style" or what they should do to push into or explore certain facets of their craft.

Artistic pursuits are much more individualised than STEM disciplines, because even the "foundational aspects & rules of a craft" can be broken in certain ways by a sufficiently adept & creative person.

There's usually a "correct answer" in the sciences, but that's just not the case for art and design. Yes, there's technical jargon when it comes to equipment and terminology, but you're not gonna be spending all of your time in class dealing with that, especially if this is anything other than an introductory course meant for people who've never held a camera before.
Fine arts courses in particular will often be geared toward finding your specific strengths and areas of interest, and any strengthening of the techniques and theory will mostly tie into that individualised focus, than be something independently taught in isolation. And all of that tends to be worked through toward the goal of building portfolios of work and distinguishing oneself as a student prepares for the particular field or area of expertise they intend to pursue.

Source: have degrees in Graphic Design and in lllustration.

 

[Netik765]

Do they just not actually teach anything in art schools? I was a STEM student so I have no idea but every time I see art colleges depicted it's like, "Welcome, freshmen. For your first assignment just do whatever the fuck," and then the MC goes on a soul journey.
I'm a big nerd, I want to hear about technical stuff.

well depends on the teacher ofc but the best way to learn is by doing, so if they give this kind of assignment in the hopes of exposing you to more photographers and then build upon that I think it could work

 

[Netik765]

also anyone happen to know if it's a reference to a real photo on page 14?

 

[wmss]

also anyone happen to know if it's a reference to a real photo on page 14?

I was wondering this as well, but I know basically nothing about Japanese photographers so I have no idea where to even start looking. If anyone knows I would love to see the photo the spread is referencing!

 

[sssr]

Do they just not actually teach anything in art schools? I was a STEM student so I have no idea but every time I see art colleges depicted it's like, "Welcome, freshmen. For your first assignment just do whatever the fuck," and then the MC goes on a soul journey.
I'm a big nerd, I want to hear about technical stuff.

The education philosophy for arts in Japanese universities is very different from what you'd find elsewhere. Japanese uni is geared to provide the workforce with contributing members. So art school entry exam is extremely competitive because the university only allows student who have a chance at making their living with their art to enter. As a result, art school students in Japan tend to come in packed with the technical skill and knowledge of a semi-professional and usually don't need to be taught the basics. Obviously in this manga that isn't the case, but the average Japanese art professor usually spends the first freshman semester figuring out what the students can do because this needs to be done before they can be taught anything.

Also, the classes are ultra-competitive, with assignments used to quickly filter out the can't-make-it's. However, since the students enter as semi pros, what usually happens is that after the ultra-competitive freshman year everyone already knows what they can or want to do for a living and what their focus should be. That means three more years of basically lazy artist life while trying to land a job or build a portfolio that would allow them independence. The only new things they would usually learn are stuff from the electives and optionals that they have an interest in or feel the need for.

I think 67% Inertia is a good reference point for this because it has a chapter where the characters explain exactly this phenomenon to their junior.

Honey and Clover depicts the lifestyle itself, but doesn't really talk about why or how their situation came about. It does have a character who is actually already employed (unofficially) while still technically trying to graduate. Since he's actually working he finds it incredibly difficult (and demotivating) to gather up the credits he needs to graduate.