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  1. Chris Brooks
    Peer review
    The project that I am reviewing is “Multiple Sclerosis and it’s Affect on Neural Tissue” by Dustin Kelly. The piece is artwork displaying a tree in what appears to be a thunderstorm. It is a stately tree with large limbs and a solid trunk. It seems to be built like a willow; its vegetation is hanging down. There is mostly light green vegetation with a small area of dark green vegetation. There are several places where the tree has lost vegetation and appears to be dying. There is blue lightning that struck the tree. These same blue lines appear on the tree. They trace down the branches and then as look like rings that wrap around the trunk.
    The quality and the appearance of the art piece is difficult to estimate. It appears it could have been made by a couple of different methods. I think it looks like it was made by markers or watercolors. It is filled in and there are not many large open areas that lack artwork. It appears to have taken quite some time and effort and was not made in haste. I particularly enjoyed the use of imagery and tone to reflect disease.

    If I ignore the aesthetic value of the piece though, I am reminded that I am not attaining a clearer understanding of multiple sclerosis. All the information that would highlight this pictures’ qualities would have to come from what the essay says. This art has a lot going for it. With a little more work, it could have clearly depicted M.S. without needing a document. It did attempt to reveal some aspects of the disease such as the damaged tree, the size of the branches and inflammation. and the possible appearance of nodes of ranvier around the tree trunk. Despite this, I think the relationship between M.S. and this picture is weak and doesn’t teach me much about the disease beyond common knowledge and therefore lacks depth.

    After reading the rubric, it appears to satisfy some of the criteria. This piece does attempt to take a non- literal approach to represent multiple sclerosis. I think the choice this art style is appropriate for displaying diseases like multiple sclerosis. However, It appears somewhat lacking in creativity. The picture could have displayed more information with the addition of extra pictures or additional mechanics to represent aspects of the disease. Furthermore, the reason why multiple sclerosis is chosen is unclear. It is also unclear what main objective from our list was chosen for the art and the essay, and this makes it hard to gauge implementation.

    Christopher Brooks

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