{"id":634,"date":"2019-05-22T14:30:35","date_gmt":"2019-05-22T14:30:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aperture.byu.edu\/?p=634"},"modified":"2019-05-22T14:32:20","modified_gmt":"2019-05-22T14:32:20","slug":"cursed-curriculum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aperture.byu.edu\/?p=634","title":{"rendered":"Cursed Curriculum"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>by Max Johnson and Cassidy Featherstone<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Course Introduction -  Cursed Curriculum\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/yk4Y7nWNsOo?list=PLUqBcTnsQmlmETfFTTB1F62Rl1DrXLifP\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>NOTE: this is a playlist. All 6 episodes make up the piece. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Cursed Curriculum<\/em> emulates the\nexperience of delving too deep into the dark trenches of the internet. It\nreflects and comments on the subculture\/meme phenomenon of cursed images while\nbeing subservient to its styles and aesthetics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While this piece\u2019s primary focus is to match the experience of\nlooking at cursed images, it also presents ideas about the internet in broad\nstrokes. These ideas play out in the two diverging reactions to this\nquestionable material. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The female professor represents the sense of empowerment that can\ncome out of ironic detachment to this material. There\u2019s a twisted joy that comes\nfrom knowing that you are looking at something that you shouldn\u2019t be. This is\nespecially true for cursed images because they are pictures that really&nbsp;<em>shouldn\u2019t be<\/em>.\nSharing these pictures can make feel feel powerful as you harness the images\u2019 dark\nenergy. Sharing them makes them more than just a part of the internet\u2014they\nbecome a part of you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With the male professor, we are shown the mounting disgust that\ncomes from spending too much time with this sort of content. Viewers can feel\ntrapped by these images: doomed by their own curiosity. The trashcan is\nfeatured prominently in each episode because the eventuality of disgust is\never-looming with cursed images; it\u2019s just a matter of time before you reach\nyour threshold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The odd thing is that the viewer can have both of these\nreactions simultaneously. It would have been impossible to represent both\nstates of mind in one character, so splitting them up into two characters allows\nfor the exploration of the emotional realities of someone who has partaken of\nthe cursed images. It leaves viewers disturbed, unnerved, but somehow\nentertained. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Max Johnson and Cassidy Featherstone<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":637,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[97,99],"tags":[118,119,120,123,121,122],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aperture.byu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aperture.byu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aperture.byu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aperture.byu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aperture.byu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=634"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/aperture.byu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":636,"href":"https:\/\/aperture.byu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634\/revisions\/636"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aperture.byu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aperture.byu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aperture.byu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aperture.byu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}