Hello World!

I have just finished my third project since entering PLP. Like the past two projects, this new project is related to the topic of “Revolutions” but rather than the previous driving question which was: “how do revolutions transform societies?”, our new driving question is “how do revolutions transform the world.” The project I will be reflecting on today is called: “The Rise of the Frankenstuffies.”

What We Did in the “The Rise of the Frankenstuffies:

Before we go any further, I would like to explain what a frankenstuffie is. This project required us to bring in stuff toys and cut them up. We then sew parts from different stuff toys to create a Frankenstein styled stuffy hence the name frankenstuffie. This entire project would revolve around the frankenstuffie we made so let’s talk about the one I made.

My frankenstuffie was, unlike others, not an individual but a species. I decided to call my frankenstuffie an Anthra named after the finest quality of coal, anthracite, and it similarity to the word panther. The reason behind why I wanted it similar to a panther was the fact that 2 out of the three stuffies that composed my creature were tiger-panther like stuff toys. Here is a video of my frankenstuffie:

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Our next step in this project was to create background information for our frankenstuffie so we could write  a story about them.  I decided my frankenstuffie species would be enslaved to the human race in the period of the Industrial Revolution in a alternate history world. They would be grown and harvested for the anthracite the produced in a very disgusting and unjust manner. I also decided the humans of my world would not realize that the Anthras are actually sentient due to the fact that the Anthras have a special way of communicating. This would lead to the way they are being treated by the humans.

After finishing our background information about the world and characters of our story, we then planned our story with a story mountain structure. Finally, as you can probably guess, we wrote our actual story.

 

I should also mention that through this entire project, we were also learning about the Industrial Revolution, the reason behind industrialization for different societies and why these revolutions affect the world back then and today. 

Our next task was to plan and create an end of project video based on our story. For planning, we created a story spine and a screen play for our video. It was the first time many of us were creating a screen play so we also learnt about how to layout and write one. After finishing the two planning milestones, we finally started the creation of our video. After a ridiculously rushed process of animating and editing, I finally finished my video. Here is my final video:

My Answer to the driving question (and the past driving question as well):

Reading back to my last week blog post, I realize that I did not actually answer the driving question so I will answer, “how do revolutions transform the world?” as well as, “how do revolutions transform societies?” We learnt a lot of things about revolutions not just in this project but the past one as well and luckily, the two driving question are very similar since the world can be considered a society as well as a collection of societies.

How does a revolution transform society:

A revolution transforms a societies economic, social and political structures. Lets look at how it transforms each structure specifically.

Economic:

A revolution normally does not really benefit the economic side of society as can be seen inside the American Revolution as well as the French Revolution. To begin, a revolution normally partly starts due to a financial crisis which results in increase of taxes for a certain group which tends to be the commoners and peasants. If you look at the French Revolution, it had gone into an severe financial breakdown due to the aid it gave to the American Revolutionists. This would later become one of the major reasons why the third estate revolted against the first two estates. 

A revolution also costs money to run and shut down. Both sides of a revolution will need military power and supplying the equipment will also come at a price. In the American Revolution, the British had lost a lot of money in just trying to shut down the revolutionists. 

Most revolutions will result in a worsened economic state than before however a revolution such as the Industrial Revolution resulted in the economic benefit for many individuals such as factory owners and slave traders. Even though while many individuals became rich, the majority population became even poorer. 

All these different examples show the change in economic structure for a society or societies.

Social:

Revolutions transform social structures of societies in multiple ways but mostly affects the people in the upper class. In most revolutions, the leading revolutionaries, if they succeed, become the new upper class. For example, in the French Revolution, people who lead the revolution like Maximilian Robespierre and his close supporters became the leading figure of their new regime. Another example is the fact that George Washington, the man who lead the American revolutionists military became the first president of the United States of America.

Revolutions can also affect relationships between societies for example, trade. In the Industrial Revolution, many new trade routes were created and many new societies got involved as well wether they liked it or not.

Political:

A revolution can transform the political side of a society severely. As everyone knows, a revolution results in a change in regime and that alone is already a transformation in political structure.

How do revolutions transform the world?

The world is made of many societies and when one of these societies has a revolution, the affects will be very widespread and long lasting. For example, a common result of a revolution taking place is the spreading of ideas. In the American Revolution, many ideas of freedom started circulating in the French army that were aiding the colonists. The ideas of the freedom and revolution were brought back after the American Revolution had ended but these ideas became a cause to the French Revolution. Another example of a widespread consequence of a revolution is war. In the French Revolution, many European nations decided to declare war on France after King Louis was killed. Many people would die as an outcome which is another consequence. An example of a long lasting consequence is the industrialization of societies. In the Industrial Revolution, Britain had forced Japan and China into unequal treaties and trade agreements, this would later result in the industrialization for those societies. Even today, China has become one of the leading nations of manufacturing and this can be traced back to the Industrial Revolution.

Thats it for this blog post and I hope whoever is reading this a merry Christmas.

Bye World!