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Premiere Questions  Project

1.      What is your major and what led you to choose it?

2.      Describe your experience as a student in the (student major) fields?

3.      What made you choose the University of New Haven rather than any school?

4.      After perusing your degree what would you like to do as a job?

5.      Discuss your long term and short-term goals and objectives, when and why do you want to establish them?

6.      How are you preparing yourself to achieve your goals?

7.      What changes would you make in your college or university’s pathway? Why?

8.      What major problem have you encountered and how did you deal with it?

9.      What would you say for high school students who are planning to apply to the university, and they do not know what they want to study yet?

10.  How do you think we can help indecisive students to make decisions related to their education?

The ideal location that I would choose for our interview project has to be quiet, appealing to look at, and on campus, so everyone can attend. One of the places that my classmates and I chose was the conference room at Huarugari Hall. This room is functional to our interview, but students cannot use it without the professor’s permission.

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Interview Project

I chose professor Georgia Chavent for my interview project because she is a motivator and a successful assistant professor in the nutrition program at UNH. Also, she is the director of the dietetic internship program. Her knowledge of the nutrition field influence students to value healthy food as well as practice lifestyle changes that promote wellness. She likes to share her nutrition expertise with the local and global community to raise awareness among the population. My interview with her will be about her job, her accomplishments in the field as well as her suggestions for the student to be successful.

1.      Tell me about yourself?

2.      How did you get started your profession?

3.      What do you like the most about what you do?

4.      What is the most challenging thing about your job?

5.      What inspires you to become a registered dietitian and a College professor?

6.      What is your vision for your development as a dietetics professor?

7.       Have you ever made a suggestion that was implemented in the nutrition field?

8.      Many people believe that failure is an essential step toward success. Can you describe a moment where you failed at something and that failing lead you to be successful?

9.      What are your success habits?

10.  How and where do you find inspiration?

11.  What is a common misconception people have about nutrition field?

12.  What is your nutritional advise for non-nutrition major students?

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The New Aesthetic

1.   2018 Post:

http://new-aesthetic.tumblr.com/post/176652870145/people-are-getting-surgery-to-look-like-their

2017 Post:

http://new-aesthetic.tumblr.com/post/158885162430/the-person-in-the-drivers-seat-is-only-there-for

2016 Post:

http://new-aesthetic.tumblr.com/post/149331155315/how-an-algorithm-learned-to-identify-depressed

 2.   Why are these three interesting to you in particular, either individually or as a group?

The first post I chose is a very interesting picture for me because I believe it is very related to our society. Nowadays, a lot of people are using the app Snapchat whether to take selfies or regular pictures. The app allows people to alter their physical features by applying filters that add flawless and beauty to their original pictures. The filters are usually used for fun; however, I believe that our confidence and self-esteem can be impacted by relying on these filters in every picture. As we apply those filters, we avoid the reality of our natural features most if not all the time which can lead to self unsatisfaction and the desire to change our natural features by doing plastic surgeries.    

The second post I selected is about self-driving cars and how they are becoming more common in the world. To me, the video was an explanation of how technology is rapidly developing and how it may take over and control our lives. In other words, it becomes familiar and natural to us to see cars that drive themselves rather than people driving them. I think this is an intelligent invention but at the same time, it may affect us negatively. Since technology is a manmade tool it can have glitches or errors in its system so if an unexpected error occurred in the car system while it is driving it might impact peoples’ safety. As these inventions spread around the world, they will decrease the jobs for taxi drivers, private drivers, and so on not to mention that the cost of cars, in general, could increase and people will no longer enjoy driving their vehicles.

The third post that interested me was an Instagram picture. The picture and the paragraph below it explained how Instagram has become an integral part of our generation’s lives, and how our emotions can be reflected in our posts. As an Instagram user, I think that many people try to express their feelings with a minimal amount of words. For example, many users show their negative feeling by posting and sharing black and white pictures rather than saying or commenting “my day was not good, or I am not feeling good.” I feel that most of us hide our emotions behind these post to either avoid peoples’ curiosity or to have more attention.

 3.    How does this concept of the New Aesthetic relate to Benjamin’s essay and his thoughts on mechanical reproduction?  Can these new objects and items of the New Aesthetic be considered to be “authentic”, or to have an “aura”, in the sense that Benjamin suggests?

The New Aesthetic is a term that refers to the modern language of visual and digital technology. In other words, “the new aesthetic” is both a notion and a tool that connects and differentiates between the digital world and the real world. I think that “the new aesthetic” is different than Benjamin’s essay because Benjamin believed that as people reproduce object or artwork the aura of it will be lost through the process of mechanical reproduction. In addition, he feels that authenticity is related to the past era where he sees the value and aura of the art. Unlike Benjamin’s belief on authenticity is related to the past “the new aesthetic” relates authenticity to the modern technological work that shapes a new visual language.      

I think that The New Aesthetic can have an aura by means of amazement that is associated with new inventions such as self-driving cars, virtual reality devices, etc. As we reproduce these inventions and become familiar with them their aura starts to fade. In Benjamin’s essay, he explained that the artworks, sculptures, and objects have a cult value which in my opinion is what The New Aesthetic lacks. I believe that The New Aesthetic has an exhibition value because now we can have robots, who are similar to the human when it comes to doing tasks may have aura; Nevertheless, the aura is not delivered to us because robots lack the sense of feeling which we have as humans.  

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The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction

1) According to Benjamin, what is the historical trajectory of advancements in the mechanical reproduction of visual media?

According to “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” by Walter Benjamin, the historical trajectory of advancements in the mechanical reproduction of visual media started in the form of founding and stamping. In fact, these techniques were used and originated in Greek until the printing technique was introduced. Printing technique transformed the old methods of engraving as well as etching into a more sophisticated and complex type of media. Later, photography took the place to be the new technique of visual media that allow people to see the world from their own lens and depending on their own perspective.

2) Describe the way in which photography transforms notions of originality and authenticity in works of art according to Benjamin.

Benjamin mentioned that photography is the art that has the capability to “bring out these aspects of the original that are unattainable to the naked eye yet accessible to the lens.” In other words, the art of photography allows for different types of changes such as enlarging the images or movies, applying slow motions, and/or choosing certain angles. He pointed out that reproduction is creating a copy of the original work while keeping the original work aside, he said, “technical reproduction can put the copy of the original into situations which would be out of reach for the original itself.” In Benjamin’s point of view, the authenticity in the artwork is the essence of all that is transmissible from it. He further explained that authenticity “is jeopardized by reproduction when substantive duration ceases to matter.”

3) When Benjamin uses the term ‘aura,’ what does he mean? Furthermore, what happens to the ‘aura’ of an art object, as these objects are increasingly mass-reproduced.

The definition of aura is the quality or feeling that surround or come from a place, an object, or a person. In Benjamin’s view, the term “aura” was used to describe the artwork. He explained that when a piece of art is reproduced multiple times it loses some of its aura. He says, “by making many reproductions it substitutes a plurality of copies for a unique existence.” In my opinion, each artwork or an object has its special meaning as well as value; however, as we manipulate and reproduce these unique objects, we lose some of the object’s aura though we are creating something new.  

4) According to Benjamin, what is the difference between ‘cult value’ and ‘exhibition value.’

Benjamin stated that valuable artworks or the cult value refer to “ceremonial objects destined to serve in a cult,” and those artworks remain hidden because as “one may assume that what mattered was their existence, not their being viewed.” On the other hand, the exhibition value refers to the physical recognition of the artwork by people who see the artwork. Today, pictures, paintings, sculptures, etc that are presented in galleries, museums, and exhibits have exhibition value because people can see them and know their values, unlike the artwork that hold cult value but remain hidden from people.  

5) Finally, find a specific passage from the text that resonates with you and explain why.

The most passage that I liked a lot from his paper was “The conditions for an analogous insight are more favorable in the present. And if changes in the medium of contemporary perception can be comprehend as decay of the aura, it is possible to show its social causes.” I liked this passage because he described how the development of medium, which in our case is digital media, can make a change in the aura of objects or artwork. In other words, the reproduction and manipulation of the art can take the value and the uniqueness associated with the artwork itself and that is what Benjamin meant by “decay of the aura.”

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Digital technology !

Today, digital technology plays an important role when it comes to health, education, and communication. In these sectors, people use technology in their daily jobs without realizing it because it makes their job easier and faster. However, each sector uses digital technology differently than others because the demands of job differ.

Having a young diabetic sister, who must be careful with what she eats and how many insulin units she should take is challenging not only for her but also for myself. In the past, she had to use a small pen that has a needle on the top to inject herself with insulin. However, now she does not need to do that because technology has changed. She uses an insulin pump, where she only needs to enter the number of carbs that she is going to eat, and the pump does the rest. Previously, I had to count her food and her intake of insulin units manually which was very stressful due to the possibility of mistakes that could put my sister’s life in danger. In addition, in the past, we had to write down her blood sugar numbers each time she measures it in order to show it to her doctor. Now, the insulin pump records her blood glucose readings so her doctor can easily connect her computer to my sister’s pump and all my sister’s information will be downloaded, which includes how many carbs she ate, how much insulin units she took, and the previous reading of the blood glucose.

For the education sector, digital technology made the educational journey fun and easy to accomplish because I can use the internet to search for an answer for a specific question, use my laptop to write some notes instead of printing papers, and use the software analysis programs to do calculation parts faster. For example, in nutrition classes each time we cook in the lab we have to enter the recipes including the serving sizes and the ingredients. When we finish, we click done, and with a second the software gives us a complete analysis of these recipes. For instance, it gives us how much vitamins, minerals, calories, protein, fat, and water these recipes have, and we can customize them for a specific person using their weight and age. Digital technology made the nutrition analysis part more manageable for me because it saves my time and efforts instead of doing all the analysis manually.

Since I study in a country that is far away from my home and family, I still feel homesick sometimes. However, digital technology made the communication with my family and friends much easier because now I am not only can hear their voices but also can see their faces using video calls at any time I want, while in the past, people tend to send letters that take days or months to arrive. Also, by using digital technology, I can socialize with my friends using social media where we share pictures and videos and we compete with each other while playing online video games.

Overall, I think digital technology has impacted my life positively by saving my time and efforts. However, sometimes I think I am still missing the close relationships and face to face meetings that we used to have with other people. Nowadays, when we use emails, messages, or audio calls we miss the emotional component. In other words, by using emails, messages, or audio calls, we cannot see or feel people’s true emotions because sometimes just by looking to their eyes we can understand more than what they say.