Painting layers of identity

Born and raised in Washington D.C., artist Lory Ivey Alexander creates vibrant abstract pieces of art through mixed media and explores the stories at the intersection between Black and Indigenous cultures.

Ivey Alexander has been surrounded by art her whole life, as her parents were both graphic designers. Growing up around various advertisements and magazines developed her affinity for paper collage, a medium she used to create her 2020 series on Black masculinity, “it’s hard being a black man in America.”

Public reacts to ChatGPT

by Crystal Li SCIENCE WRITER

ChatGPT, the latest natural language processing model developed by the artificial intelligence research corporation OpenAI, has taken the digital world by storm. Within five days of its release on Nov. 30, 2022, it amassed one million users, a level of demand that caused the site to overload and temporarily freeze. Users have consistently been amazed by the chatbot’s human-like dialogue style, breadth of knowledge and ability to closely follow instructions.

“It thinks in a lot of angles,” sophomore Andy Deng said. “Your perspective is set—but when you [use] ChatGPT, you’re like ‘oh wow, there are so many more perspectives on this that I haven’t even considered.’”

Other defining features of the model, according to OpenAI, include its ability to write computer code, remember what was previously said in a conversation, answer follow-up questions, admit its own mistakes and reject inappropriate requests. “I really love it overall,” sophomore Kevin Si said.

Some users have noticed limitations of the program, however, particularly in its ability to think abstractly and make connections. “My dad tried making it [...] analyze a Michael Jackson song and how it pertained to modern societal problems,” junior Sofia Eisenberg said. “And it said ‘the song does not relate to modern societal problems.’”

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The artist often uses cutouts from magazines in her collag es and preserves the pictures’ unique origins in advertisements through her designs. As a wom an of color, there were times where she could not see herself represented by models on pages. Now, she highlights Black wom en in her collages. She presents her own perspective through her art and usage of commercial cutouts. “I want to make that story personal,” Ivey Alexander said, “And to try to tell the story of… the person that I see when I see that photograph.”

Ivey Alexander utilizes other mediums and techniques to create her work as well, including painting and stitching. “I really will pick up any sort of object that I think is beautiful,” she said.

Her work features a variety of colors, with her 2018 collection “foremothers” composed almost exclusively of geometric shapes in contrasting hues. “I love color, and I think that especially against the white wall, I want to bring something that’s gonna make you stop in your tracks,” she said.

Ivey Alexander loves to collect and create work that has many possibilities and a variety of perspectives. “Every time you look at it, you see something different,” she said. “That’s part of why I like to paint with circles, like on round canvases or round wood. Because I think that you always can change the orientation and see something new.”

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IDs required for entry

Beginning Monday, Feb. 13, all RM students will be required to wear student ID cards while entering the school building. This is one of the school’s first new self,” senior Ruth Laforest said. security measures in response to incidents involving a gun on campus on Jan. 13 and Jan. 24.

In the second case, security staff identified a 15-year-old former student trespassing in the school building shortly before dismissal. As the staff escorted the student off campus, they suspected that he possessed a weapon.

Upon search, the police found that the individual possessed a gun and arrested him. He will be charged accordingly.

During the first event, an altercation occurred between RM students and Gaithersburg High School students they had let into the building. A student reported that they saw someone with what appeared to be a handgun near the school, and the school transitioned into a lockdown, and then a shelter-in-place.

“I just panicked and went into a corner and tried to distract my-

This time, no emergency procedures were implemented. “This situation was so quick that there wasn’t the need for the lockdown in the way that we went into [on Jan. 13],” RM principal Alicia Deeny said. “[Security] was doing the right thing by getting the person out of the building.”

Many students were surprised to learn of the inc ident afterwards. “It’s really alarming knowing we were in school at the same time as someone with a gun,” sophomore Lilliana Katz-Hollander said.

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