By Caesar Seminerio
“It made me creative, and it made me keep being creative.”
Farnoush Toupchinejad (they/them) has attended Collingwood since Grade 1, was originally born in Tehran. They describe their family as “a typical immigrant family.” Art to their family is “solely a hobby,” meaning Farnoush has never taken any outside classes besides the ones provided at Collingwood. Farnoush is currently trying to teach themselves the piano in their spare time. Farnoush gains inspiration from many things around them. One of their role models in art is a youtuber they watch called Lavender town. “When I watch her videos, I just get the sudden urge to draw something.” Farnoush states.
Farnoush’s favorite year in art has been this year. Farnoush said that last year they were struggling to connect with their art, and saw it more as a job than a hobby. “ Last year I hated it but this year I doodle for fun. I finally found something that fits me this year.” Farnoush also continues to doodle in class, filling her math book with many doodles. They admire the freedom of art, and how they can do pretty much anything with the medium. Farnoush’s favorite type of art is visual arts but occasionally writes. “ I never usually write ever, my mind is always on a block." So instead, Farnoush prefers to express their art visually.
“It made me creative, and it made me keep being creative.”
Farnoush Toupchinejad (they/them) has attended Collingwood since Grade 1, was originally born in Tehran. They describe their family as “a typical immigrant family.” Art to their family is “solely a hobby,” meaning Farnoush has never taken any outside classes besides the ones provided at Collingwood. Farnoush is currently trying to teach themselves the piano in their spare time. Farnoush gains inspiration from many things around them. One of their role models in art is a youtuber they watch called Lavender town. “When I watch her videos, I just get the sudden urge to draw something.” Farnoush states.
Farnoush’s favorite year in art has been this year. Farnoush said that last year they were struggling to connect with their art, and saw it more as a job than a hobby. “ Last year I hated it but this year I doodle for fun. I finally found something that fits me this year.” Farnoush also continues to doodle in class, filling her math book with many doodles. They admire the freedom of art, and how they can do pretty much anything with the medium. Farnoush’s favorite type of art is visual arts but occasionally writes. “ I never usually write ever, my mind is always on a block." So instead, Farnoush prefers to express their art visually.
This art piece is an example of how Farnoush finds creative ways to express themselves through their art, and loves experimenting in their art. Farnoush was inspired by a picture of themselves sitting next to their father, and wanted to paint the photo but instead of their father, drew a cute anime boy “I mean...why not? I've always been creative with ideas.”
This choice shows how Farnoush views art as a fun, not so strict hobby that she enjoys to explore.
This choice shows how Farnoush views art as a fun, not so strict hobby that she enjoys to explore.
Farnoushes Aurora Prize Submission:
What was thought to be any other normal day in the New World, had ended up in a tragic catastrophe. After a freak accident, the entirety of the future had been seemingly crumbled to pieces, My entire future had been crumbled to pieces. The morning started off as usual, my nanny-bot woke me up at 8:00 am exactly, and accompanied me to the bathroom for assistance.
Since opening my eyes, I had held in what seemed to be a pit in my stomach, a feeling of extreme unease. Though I didn’t think I had a reason to, everything went by schedule, and no misfortune had occurred recently. I remembered that I asked of nanny-bot to play relaxing white noise induced music in the background, as I let the other equipment brush my teeth and clean my face. The soft melodic rhythms of the piano sending me into a tranquil trance, as I focused on steadying my breathing.
After the 5 minute routine was completed, I had hastily made my way down the hall, passing by the virtual portal. It had brought me over to the kitchen, with only a signal of my thoughts demanding it. Once I arrived, I was met with a familiar face and the sweet scent of pancakes and berries.
“Good morning Albert” I greeted my older brother with a monotonous expression. After hearing his usual unenthusiastic reply, I had made my way over to the counter, where my food laid.
I hummed out a satisfied “good”, as I showed my raised thumb to the machine. As it got my approval, it teleported the meal to the white living room table top. I followed the strong smell, and sat on top of the leather white couch, my body slightly sinking in it. I leaned back as the cutlery had finished preparing my breakfast into smaller bites, as I preferred it more that way. I savoured the sugary taste of the pancakes, when it was brought towards my mouth. Finishing up my well-made meal, I had grabbed the keys to my express scooter. It was what used to be called a “segway”, last century, yet much more developed. I could speed rush to anywhere I wished for, It allows flight mode, or underground mode. Today, I had decided to fly at a medium speed. As much as I wanted to cut through the air as quickly as possible, I still had to be wary of any mishaps that happen, seeing as I haven’t completely mastered the full speed yet.
The nervous butterflies in my stomach had vanished by then, as I was too engrossed in the view in front of me. I loved flying, because no matter how often I went up the sky, the view I would be met with would always sent shivers down my spine. To say it was beautiful would be an understatement. The morning daylight coloured everything in a soft, yellow glow. The skies painted with a bright blue, with the presence of a lavender-ish colour lingering. The cloud lights now directing my express scooter, as I had simply leaned my head forward onto my arms, which were planted atop the handles. Admiring the sight before me, I had almost forgot the purpose of my ride. Once we stopped by the school airport, I had jumped off of the vehicle, as it’s stairs had unfolded out. I tiredly stepped towards the teleporter, as it scanned my face. After a split second, I had arrived in my assigned classroom for the day; arithmetics.
Before my cold hands felt around the educational helmet-like device, a deafening growl had sounded. My hands instantly grasping around my pained ears, attempting to prevent any more loud noises from entering them. After the vibrations had stopped, I reluctantly took by ears out of the comfort of my hands, the heat escaping them as a chill had entered the room. We all had a similar expression painted on our faces; Fear and Confusion. To say that I was mortified would be an understatement, the pit in my stomach from the morning had returned to its new home, I knew it wouldn’t be leaving anytime soon. Not a second after the event, the ringing of loud alarms had filled the drowning silence, causing everyone to snap back into the harsh reality. A sudden darkness made its presence clear in our classroom. My face was fear stricken, I was frozen in despair. Never, in my life, had the illuminating lights given up on me. Not until that very moment. I couldn’t bring myself to move an inch, every limb was trapped under a spell, not even my fingers dared to twitch.
I felt a large hand push my back, forcing my stiff legs to move. I had unconsciously begun to follow the direction the teacher had guided me to. Somehow, I had managed to get a view of the window. Something I regretted, because looking out, the entire city was engulfed in a colossal shadow. Putting the pieces of the puzzle together, I realize the shadow belonged to our sky-sphere. The mechanic that promised us perfect skies, never letting us face the cry of the rain. I didn’t notice my pace quickening, as I had begun to run away to god knows where. Tired legs pulled sore feet across each surface, which were now damp with falling tears. Drowning the warnings of the alarms, the blaring of the Principal’s voice went ignored through each ear. Instead all sounds were replaced by the rapid beating of my heart, the panting from my chapped lips, and the concerned cries in my head. I felt the brink of death slowly enter my body, yet I didn’t care. I ran and ran, pushing harder with each movement. The numb sensations throughout my legs had taken over my exhaustion. All I could think was ‘Please, let this be a dream’. I didn’t want this to be my reality, I wanted to escape. My destination didn’t matter, I just wanted to be free of this prison laid on me.
My vision was blurred with a salty liquid, but I could still see the small ghost of light. Taking a shaky breath, I readied my bruning legs to push through as hard as they could, sending me towards the spec of white. Until a sharp pain had surged through my body, I didn’t notice that I had fallen. Yanking my head back upwards, I changed for the light with my bloodshot eyes. Finding it, I had thrown myself at it, not knowing what to expect. I was scared, confused and generally disoriented. My brain no longer belonged to me anymore, I felt like nothing. My sense of reason stopped when the implants in my body had shut off as well. I felt myself grow weaker and weaker with each passing second, the adrenaline was wearing off. This wasn’t supposed to happen. I was going to have a normal day, where I would learn, be assessed, then come home and relax. None of this was supposed to happen.
I couldn’t recollect my thoughts, as my memory hard drive had betrayed me. I couldn’t think, as my common sense had departed. I was stripped of my knowledge, no longer able to keep calm. I had been deprived of my life source, and now had become nothing.
I could feel my body leaning forward, as the presence of the marble hallways had left me. Expecting another wave of pain, I was surprised when I was instead greeted with a soft wind blowing on my damp hair. Then I opened by eyes, my vision starting to adjust to a bright illumination. I was more hopeful than i should have been, but i didn’t care, I was just glad to be away from the darkness. The next blink had created a completely new view in front of me. The appearance of the white was replaced with an ancient room. I was planted onto a soft surface, with a warmth wrapping by lower body. My body broken in a sweat, and my hair sprawled out in every direction. An unfamiliar voice had called out to me, saying words I had never expected to hear. “Earth to Winry. Come on, wake up, you’re going to be late to school.” School? How could I prepare for it? I had never felt so filthy, so confused, so ….weird. I glance at the blanket, the surface was a simple cotton. I look over to the desk, smooth brown wood. Materials from the 2060s, back when the world was called ‘Earth’. It must have been a dream, yet it felt so real. I was trapped in a world with basically no technology. That’s when I had fainted.
What was thought to be any other normal day in the New World, had ended up in a tragic catastrophe. After a freak accident, the entirety of the future had been seemingly crumbled to pieces, My entire future had been crumbled to pieces. The morning started off as usual, my nanny-bot woke me up at 8:00 am exactly, and accompanied me to the bathroom for assistance.
Since opening my eyes, I had held in what seemed to be a pit in my stomach, a feeling of extreme unease. Though I didn’t think I had a reason to, everything went by schedule, and no misfortune had occurred recently. I remembered that I asked of nanny-bot to play relaxing white noise induced music in the background, as I let the other equipment brush my teeth and clean my face. The soft melodic rhythms of the piano sending me into a tranquil trance, as I focused on steadying my breathing.
After the 5 minute routine was completed, I had hastily made my way down the hall, passing by the virtual portal. It had brought me over to the kitchen, with only a signal of my thoughts demanding it. Once I arrived, I was met with a familiar face and the sweet scent of pancakes and berries.
“Good morning Albert” I greeted my older brother with a monotonous expression. After hearing his usual unenthusiastic reply, I had made my way over to the counter, where my food laid.
I hummed out a satisfied “good”, as I showed my raised thumb to the machine. As it got my approval, it teleported the meal to the white living room table top. I followed the strong smell, and sat on top of the leather white couch, my body slightly sinking in it. I leaned back as the cutlery had finished preparing my breakfast into smaller bites, as I preferred it more that way. I savoured the sugary taste of the pancakes, when it was brought towards my mouth. Finishing up my well-made meal, I had grabbed the keys to my express scooter. It was what used to be called a “segway”, last century, yet much more developed. I could speed rush to anywhere I wished for, It allows flight mode, or underground mode. Today, I had decided to fly at a medium speed. As much as I wanted to cut through the air as quickly as possible, I still had to be wary of any mishaps that happen, seeing as I haven’t completely mastered the full speed yet.
The nervous butterflies in my stomach had vanished by then, as I was too engrossed in the view in front of me. I loved flying, because no matter how often I went up the sky, the view I would be met with would always sent shivers down my spine. To say it was beautiful would be an understatement. The morning daylight coloured everything in a soft, yellow glow. The skies painted with a bright blue, with the presence of a lavender-ish colour lingering. The cloud lights now directing my express scooter, as I had simply leaned my head forward onto my arms, which were planted atop the handles. Admiring the sight before me, I had almost forgot the purpose of my ride. Once we stopped by the school airport, I had jumped off of the vehicle, as it’s stairs had unfolded out. I tiredly stepped towards the teleporter, as it scanned my face. After a split second, I had arrived in my assigned classroom for the day; arithmetics.
Before my cold hands felt around the educational helmet-like device, a deafening growl had sounded. My hands instantly grasping around my pained ears, attempting to prevent any more loud noises from entering them. After the vibrations had stopped, I reluctantly took by ears out of the comfort of my hands, the heat escaping them as a chill had entered the room. We all had a similar expression painted on our faces; Fear and Confusion. To say that I was mortified would be an understatement, the pit in my stomach from the morning had returned to its new home, I knew it wouldn’t be leaving anytime soon. Not a second after the event, the ringing of loud alarms had filled the drowning silence, causing everyone to snap back into the harsh reality. A sudden darkness made its presence clear in our classroom. My face was fear stricken, I was frozen in despair. Never, in my life, had the illuminating lights given up on me. Not until that very moment. I couldn’t bring myself to move an inch, every limb was trapped under a spell, not even my fingers dared to twitch.
I felt a large hand push my back, forcing my stiff legs to move. I had unconsciously begun to follow the direction the teacher had guided me to. Somehow, I had managed to get a view of the window. Something I regretted, because looking out, the entire city was engulfed in a colossal shadow. Putting the pieces of the puzzle together, I realize the shadow belonged to our sky-sphere. The mechanic that promised us perfect skies, never letting us face the cry of the rain. I didn’t notice my pace quickening, as I had begun to run away to god knows where. Tired legs pulled sore feet across each surface, which were now damp with falling tears. Drowning the warnings of the alarms, the blaring of the Principal’s voice went ignored through each ear. Instead all sounds were replaced by the rapid beating of my heart, the panting from my chapped lips, and the concerned cries in my head. I felt the brink of death slowly enter my body, yet I didn’t care. I ran and ran, pushing harder with each movement. The numb sensations throughout my legs had taken over my exhaustion. All I could think was ‘Please, let this be a dream’. I didn’t want this to be my reality, I wanted to escape. My destination didn’t matter, I just wanted to be free of this prison laid on me.
My vision was blurred with a salty liquid, but I could still see the small ghost of light. Taking a shaky breath, I readied my bruning legs to push through as hard as they could, sending me towards the spec of white. Until a sharp pain had surged through my body, I didn’t notice that I had fallen. Yanking my head back upwards, I changed for the light with my bloodshot eyes. Finding it, I had thrown myself at it, not knowing what to expect. I was scared, confused and generally disoriented. My brain no longer belonged to me anymore, I felt like nothing. My sense of reason stopped when the implants in my body had shut off as well. I felt myself grow weaker and weaker with each passing second, the adrenaline was wearing off. This wasn’t supposed to happen. I was going to have a normal day, where I would learn, be assessed, then come home and relax. None of this was supposed to happen.
I couldn’t recollect my thoughts, as my memory hard drive had betrayed me. I couldn’t think, as my common sense had departed. I was stripped of my knowledge, no longer able to keep calm. I had been deprived of my life source, and now had become nothing.
I could feel my body leaning forward, as the presence of the marble hallways had left me. Expecting another wave of pain, I was surprised when I was instead greeted with a soft wind blowing on my damp hair. Then I opened by eyes, my vision starting to adjust to a bright illumination. I was more hopeful than i should have been, but i didn’t care, I was just glad to be away from the darkness. The next blink had created a completely new view in front of me. The appearance of the white was replaced with an ancient room. I was planted onto a soft surface, with a warmth wrapping by lower body. My body broken in a sweat, and my hair sprawled out in every direction. An unfamiliar voice had called out to me, saying words I had never expected to hear. “Earth to Winry. Come on, wake up, you’re going to be late to school.” School? How could I prepare for it? I had never felt so filthy, so confused, so ….weird. I glance at the blanket, the surface was a simple cotton. I look over to the desk, smooth brown wood. Materials from the 2060s, back when the world was called ‘Earth’. It must have been a dream, yet it felt so real. I was trapped in a world with basically no technology. That’s when I had fainted.
For the Aurora Prize, Farnoush was given two topics to write about. One being Technology rules our lives. And two being The best gifts are the simplest ones. Farnoush picked option one as for they it was easier to write about this topic. Farnoush brought up a conversation with their mother about GPS and the reliance humans have with this device. They wondered:how far will and can this reliance go? This speculation led to the short story up above, about a Dystopian society massively reliant on technology.
Overall, Farnoush is a self made artist from practice, and enjoys the craft as a hobby. They're free to explore with the art she wants to create, and does art purely out of enjoyment. “Yeah, it's an expression of whatever you want and whatever you want is your personality. It's just art.”
-This quote perfectly describes the kind of love Farnoush has for the craft. “Art to me was something I was good at and something I was praised for. This is all I got. People like my drawing and my writing sometimes.”
Farnoush doesn't hope to pursue art someday, but thanks art for making them the creative person they are today and will continue to be. They hope to go into “some kind of science. Anything to do with science” in the future
Farnoushes’ story and style is about making art for your own enjoyment, and if people like it, they like it. Art at the end of the day is about “doing what you want.
Overall, Farnoush is a self made artist from practice, and enjoys the craft as a hobby. They're free to explore with the art she wants to create, and does art purely out of enjoyment. “Yeah, it's an expression of whatever you want and whatever you want is your personality. It's just art.”
-This quote perfectly describes the kind of love Farnoush has for the craft. “Art to me was something I was good at and something I was praised for. This is all I got. People like my drawing and my writing sometimes.”
Farnoush doesn't hope to pursue art someday, but thanks art for making them the creative person they are today and will continue to be. They hope to go into “some kind of science. Anything to do with science” in the future
Farnoushes’ story and style is about making art for your own enjoyment, and if people like it, they like it. Art at the end of the day is about “doing what you want.