Captured Thought: My generation's future

                Since listening to all of the TED presentations in class these last few weeks, I have started thinking about how my future, and my whole generation’s future, is going to be so different from those of previous generations.  While each generation has had their own unique challenges, it seems that my generation and those of the future will deal with the results of humankind’s tendency to ignore developing problems until it is too late.

               One problem that becoming more and more obvious is that the rate at which humans use the Earth’s natural resources is completely unsustainable. There are starting to be shortages many natural resources including: clean water, oil, minerals, and even food. Because there has not been a problem accessing these resources in the past, people got used to using too much and wasting, and are not willing to change their lifestyles.  But now, if we don’t stop wasting and overusing our natural resources they really will completely disappear in the future. I think a lot of more people need to realize this is a real problem that needs to be solved.  With these devastating consequences awaiting us, this generation is responsible for coming up with many new ideas and solutions to save the Earth from ourselves.  

                This idea does not only apply to natural resources, there are many other Earth related issues that are starting to really take a toll.  There are so many problems to be concerned about that it’s pretty overwhelming. The overuse of cars and fossil fuels has caused trouble for the Earth through global warming and even desertification, something I had never heard of before listening to a TED presentation about it. I learned that if the climate continues to get warmer and dryer, and land continues to be overused the way that it is now, there may not be enough land to plant our food crops on in the future.  Another land problem we face is where our garbage goes after we throw it out. Garbage takes up a lot of Earth’s space, and with a rapidly rising population, we don’t have any room to waste. Constant updates in technology have added on to the garbage problem; electronic waste (E-waste) is becoming a huge issue as well.

                While all of this might sound really negative, I’m really not pessimistic about my generation’s future. Sure, we are going to face many challenges as these issues play out in the coming years, but it also gives us the chance to be creative, change our lifestyles for the better, and even join together in order to solve these problems. Thankfully for this generation, there are many great minds already working to find solutions, and these people have TED talks. This generation needs to listen up, do what these people suggest, and be just as inspired as them to help save our planet. And of course, there are many other people with great ideas who are not on TED, and these people’s work should be noted as well. If everyone does their part to change the path that the Earth is currently heading, then we could save our planet before it’s too late.

Metacognition: Letters to a Young Poet Mashup

              The first thing that I did to start the Letters mashup was decide on a theme. This helped me to focus during the element searching process. I started this search in the Letters to a Young Poet book, since that’s what the mashup was based on. I ended up basically rereading the book to do this, while marking each quote that had to do with patience or waiting, and a few that I just liked. I ended up collecting more than 10 possible passages, and narrowed it down based on how well they “fit”. This was a good method to use because I know I didn’t miss any usable quotes, and I got a better understanding of the book by reviewing it after our class discussions.

            Now that I had some ideas of what aspects of patience I wanted to touch on after looking in the book (such as patience: with self, with creations, and with others) I started looking for the other elements from the Humanities curriculum. This part took some thinking, and was probably the most challenging part of making this mashup. Since I did not know where to look first for these passages, I just pulled out all the stories, articles, and other readings that we have discussed this semester.

            Next I looked them all over and tried to figure out which ones would have mentioned anything about patience or waiting. I normally would not have expected the article about Grit to have anything about patience in it, but after skimming it again I realized that in order to have grit, that you must have the patience to stick with your goal; and I was able to find a quote that ‘went with’ the theme of patience with your creations and work. Before even looking through the story Cathedral I thought there would be a passage about having patience with others, since patience and understanding is what it took for the two men in the story to get along in the end. Another source from the Humanities curriculum that I thought of and reviewed for this mashup was the book Einstein’s Dreams, since its main theme is time. I was able to find a good passage from it that I thought described perfect patience. I collected a few more passages from elements of the Humanities curriculum, but these three made the best connections with the other elements that I had already decided to use.

            My next task was to figure out what elements to use from outside of the Humanities curriculum. Through the whole mashup process I was already thinking of lyrics, quotes, and other books that would have something to say about patience, but now I was really collecting and considering many sources. Much like I did with the elements from within the Humanities curriculum, I narrowed these options down based on how well they went with the passages from the Letters to a Young Poet book.

            After some critical thinking and making the final decisions on the passages in all three of these categories that I had collected from, I typed the ones I had chosen up on a word document. This made it easier to come up with a good sequence for them, since I could copy and paste the elements easily.  Even though I anticipated the ordering process to be very challenging, it ended up being easier than I thought since all of the elements that I had chosen went so well together. I started by matching up some quotes that ‘spoke’ to each other. Then I just had to figure out in which order would create a deeper meaning / progression. This process took quite a bit of time, thought, and rereading in different possible orders. I felt like I was creating a poem from mixed sources, because this process was similar to the process I went through when I used to write a lot of poetry; I would usually come up with a theme and few good lines I wanted to include, and created the rest based on these things.

            After coming up with a good order for the passages, it was time to add my own reflections to the mashup. Luckily, my reflections fit in well with the other elements in my mashup, and even served as transitions between elements. I liked that we could include some elements that were in our own words because I was able to explain my interpretation of the ideas that Rilke was trying to get across in Letters to a Young Poet. I think these reflections made my mashup much more personal.

            This project reminded me a lot of the final from last semester, because we were required to use so many different sources, but this process was more relaxed because the elements are able to speak for themselves, if placed in the right order. I’m really glad that I took time in the beginning to create a big inventory of elements, because it ended up saving me a lot of time in the end. First of all, I did not have to go through my sources more than once, because I collected all the passages that I could need the first time around. Secondly, since I had so many possible elements, that it was easy to swap passages if I figured out something I had picked before did not fit. I did not have to waste any time trying to force a passage to fit in my mashup, because I could just pick a new one from my inventory. Also, I am very glad that I did this mashup in little parts at a time, because the process didn’t end up being stressful or rushed.

Best of the Week: Texture and Light in Design

                The best idea from class this week is the use of varying textures and consideration of light while designing. This concept first came up in the documentary, Sketches of Frank Gehry, where we saw how the architect Frank Gehry incorporates different textures into his work, which makes his buildings unique, beautiful, and very postmodern. It is also obvious that Gehry puts a lot of thought into how the light of the sun will interact with his buildings while designing them.  It is Gehry’s attention to texture and light that makes him such a great architect.

                Earlier this week we discussed how even the V-show set design was dependent on the elements of texture and lighting. The set includes a few textures, but the one I noticed the most was the horizontally ridged metal used in the background. This was a good texture to use because the colored lights look very vibrant when reflect off of this background. The creative use of lighting was able to effectively set the mood for each act and in some cases, even create the illusion of multiple settings/places on the stage.

                I realized after our class discussions that texture and lighting are the keys to all kinds of 3-D design, including the functional art and furniture design that I enjoy creating.  After reexamining some of my past creations, I realized I have already started to play with different textures in my art.  For example on the bookshelf that I recently refinished, I used two different textures, paint and magazine pictures, to give each of the six shelves a different color and theme.  On a pair of jeans that I decorated a few years ago, I combined many different textures including: paint, fabric, Sharpie markers, patches, and embroidery.

                Now that I have discovered that the elements of texture and lighting can have such an effect on almost any design, I can apply them while designing my works of art. I plan on doing more experimenting with these ideas by incorporating various textures in my future creations. I could also include lights in my designs, which I have not tried yet. I am so glad I was exposed to these ideas, because I am now inspired to take new kinds of artistic risks that I may not have thought of otherwise.

Blogging Around 3

Celia's blog: Best of the Week: Postmodernism and The System

Celia’s blog posting was about her deeper understanding of postmodernism. She mentioned how our discussions on postmodernism helped her to understand the message behind Andy Warhol’s art. She also included her view of the postmodern idea of the inescapable system and how it has affected our society.

Comment:
I can totally relate to your new-found understanding of Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup painting. When I first saw this painting, when I was much younger, it was hard for me to think of it as art because to me it was just an exact copy of a soup can that I had seen a million times before. I did not see the point of it or understand it at all. After our discussions on postmodernism in class, I now see that Warhol was referring to (and proving) the fact that everything is the postmodern world is corporate, even art. It’s cool that both of us are now able to understand a painting that we had misread when we saw it before we learned about postmodernism.  I agree with you that the nature of the postmodern world is bittersweet. While it is much more convenient to communicate with friends and family through the network of networks we have created, they can also make interactions much less direct. For better or worse, it is true that everyone is stuck in the system.

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Nina's blog:Connection:Grit,Steve Jobs and Thomas Edison

In Nina’s blog entry she wrote about how important grit is. She examines how grit helped people such as Steve Jobs and Thomas Edison be successful and invent things that have permanently changed how people live.

Comment:
Grit really is an essential concept to carry forward. Grit is important for being successful in all aspects of your life. Grit is what gets things done. Like you mentioned in your post, grit is the number one trait that inventors need in order to create things that change the way that we live. If everyone were to give up on the first try, and did not stick to their goals, the world would be much less advanced as it is today and humans would live completely differently.

iMedia: Jason deCaires Taylor's art

 

              While on the internet I found an online journal called Venues: The Journal of 21st Century Aesthetics - that posts archives of all different types of recent art.  (Link to Venues) Under the sculptures category in this journal, I found a picture of an underwater sculpture, called “Vicissitudes”, that was created by a British sculptor named Jason deCaires Taylor (the image from Venues shown above).  I realized that Taylor’s sculpture is a good example of postmodern art for a number of reasons.

                According to the Venues journal, which explained the Taylor’s art very briefly, the statues Taylor creates are intended to make man-made coral reefs in the sea. I think it is so amazing that his works of art are able to go beyond beauty by also having a positive impact on the underwater environment. I think that Taylor’s environmentally-conscious art is a reaction to the postmodern worldview notion that human’s mastery or manipulation of nature can fail and have negative effects. I believe this because Taylor has found a way to create something to help make up for damage done to coral reefs by human’s actions.  Jason Taylor’s art is evidence that in recent years people have been more environmentally aware than past generations have been, and are more willing to ‘go green’ to help the environment in a variety of ways.

                Another intended function of Taylor’s art that Venues journal mentioned was to confuse archaeologists of the future.  After reading this I thought it was sort of strange and malicious of Taylor for this to be an intended result of his work. Once I thought about it for a second I realized that Taylor may have been responding to another postmodern idea, that it is not possible to have historical authenticity in today’s society.

                I wanted to learn more about Jason deCaires Taylor and his unique art, so I searched his name and found another site called Twisted Sifter that had a recent article about him. (Link to this article) This page included further information about his work “Vicissitudes”.  Apparently the figures in this sculpture are children from different cultures. The children are holding hands in a circle to represent the idea of unity among people from all over the world. Another interesting element that this site revealed to me about this piece of art is that it has been somewhat transformed since it has been put under water (shown in the image below, found in the Twisted Sifter article). As the sea takes over the role as the artist, Taylor’s sculptures develop new color and decoration, and show how beautiful entropy can turn out to be.

                Another thing that this article brought to my attention is that Jason deCaires Taylor has become very famous for his work. Taylor gained recognition worldwide after creating the very first submerged sculpture park located in the West Indies in 2006. He is also the founder of MUSA in Cancun, Mexico, an underwater museum.  Taylor’s work has been in presented several publications and he has made many appearances on television. Despite the inability to sell his work that is located underwater, he still is able to make commissions on his work, which just goes to show that in the postmodern world that art is a commodity.

                Jason Taylor’s work has showed me that there are always new possibilities when it comes to art and mediums. This inspires me to continue to think divergently while working on my own art so that I could possibly create works that are as ground-breaking as Taylor’s are.  

It Matters: Challenging the Status Quo

     >>Link to article about women in combat<<          

 I was thrilled to learn that we would be focusing on challenging the status quo this quarter in Humanities. I think that it is violations of the status quo that keeps things interesting. Also, I find that the people who have the courage to challenge the status quo are the most inspiring. Without violations of the norm, there would not be any chance for change to occur.

                One example of the status quo being challenged in the U.S. that we discussed in class was the recent change in policy concerning women in the Armed Forces. As of earlier this month, women are now allowed to obtain combat positions. This change in policy disproves the notion that combat duty is only a man’s job; thus challenging a status quo that has existed for all of U.S. history.  As someone who believes in equal opportunities for women, hearing about this change gave me hopes that other opportunities that have previously been off limits to women will soon become available as well.

                In an article I read about the change of the Armed Forces policy, it explained how the current policy is much fairer than it was before. In the conflicts that have been occurring in Afghanistan and Iraq, where there are not any defined battle lines, women serving in ‘non-combat’ positions have ended up in the same/similar high-intensity  situations as their male counterparts. Therefore the new policy is consistent with the realities of these recent conflicts. Now that the policy has been officially changed, much-owed recognition will finally be given to the more than one hundred courageous women who died during their service in the past twelve years. The change also means that women who serve will now receive the benefits that they deserve. In the future, it will be possible for women to reach higher military ranks that require previous combat experience. This is yet another example of how challenging, and eventually changing, the status quo can lead to the development of a more fair system.

                This issue matters to me because it made me realize that women have the level of opportunities that we do today as a result of the actions of the courageous women who have challenged the status-quo in the past. Although women have come a long way since the days before the women’s suffrage movement, women still do not have completely equal opportunities as men in today’s society.  I would love to see a society where it would not be surprising to have a woman as president. Obviously some progress still needs to be made before that can happen, but women’s new opportunities in the military is a sign that shows that the U.S. is still moving in the right direction.

Blogging Around 2

Kristina’s blog: A Tribute to Aristotle: Get Organized

-Kristina’s blog was about the overwhelming task of organizing a big mess of clothes, which is something I have had to do many times. 
 

Comment:

I can totally relate to your clothing organization process. Until last year, I didn’t keep my clothes organized at all. Sometimes I would do big clean ups, only to slowly mess it all up again. One day, I just got sick of it and organized my clothes once and for all. Since then I have kept them pretty neat and in their place, but it does take effort.  It feels great and my room looks a lot better!

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Ashley’s blog: Connection

-This blog post was about her dad's recognition and appreciation of beauty and aesthetics. 

Comment:

It sounds like your Dad has a positive way of thinking. I think it is important to see and look for the beauty that is out in nature and in life in general. I think it’s cool that he observes the forest in all the different seasons, because he doesn't let the weather stop him from observing its beauty, unlike other people who only go outside when it is nice out. I think it’s a lot easier to be happy and content if you notice the beautiful things that life has to offer.