#readingresponse

[joellehameister]

Reading Response Week 1

The definition of art video gave huge insight on how hard it is to define art. I really like Chinua Achebe’s description in The Truth of Fiction,  “Art is man’s constant effort to create for himself a different order of reality from that which is given to him.” Art is not just for those who are looking at it, but those who make it. For me, I paint and woodburn mountains more than anything else, because it is my favorite place to be. I want to escape to the mountains and by painting it, it is as if I am there even for a split second. 

I never knew how much went into being an official artist. Not that I did not know that art was hard, but rather the qualifications needed to be considered an artist by the government. In How Do You Define ‘Artist’, Daniel Grant hits on all the different things needed to be considered an artist from making a profit to owning a studio. I like how Grant ends the article saying that anyone who calls themselves artists are artists. 

First I have to begin with saying Polychrome by Steve Immerman is amazing. I went to his website https://www.artworkarchive.com/profile/steve-immerman and the glass was incredible! Once I calmed back down from the beauty of Immerman’s work, I really enjoyed the article What Is the Artist’s Role in Society? One of the points made was that artists have been a huge part in recording history. They allow us to visualize what was happening during the time, how things looked, how people felt based off of what the art was in that time period. Another point was on how artists support a community. I have seen this applied with m My dad teaches ceramics and theater tech at my high school I attended. He loves the art part of it, but also emphasizes other aspects that everyone will use in their everyday life. Not everyone is going to be an artist, but they can all learn how to turn in proposals, make deadlines, and be creative in their work. 

[enfinity-delta-blog]

Reading Response #4

While there were many topics covered by this text, I’d say what stands out to me the most is designing for the under-consumer. This topic of designing for a consumer that doesn’t have regular access to as many resources as the average consumer does actually relates to an idea I noticed in the first reading response where the text talked about spending a tenth of your time or a “tithe” to design for free and for “good”. Accessible and ethical designs such as the urban farming project, ParaSITE, and water filters for the under-developed countries really show the “power” of designers and showcases how there really is no limit to design and how designers can really improve the lifestyles of the under-consumers. Other products such as the Proto Gardening Bench and the “Living furniture” (having trees grow in a certain way) display really ingenious alternatives to making things from nature rather than cutting down nature and reshaping it. It’s really good to see designers working towards a greener future and I believe that if every designer keeps the under-consumers and environment in mind, we could potentially save our planet from its current state and reverse global warming, pollution, deforestation, and many other environmental issues. I believe these designs also are a warning to the rest of society, showing that while many people are living these cushy lives there are still many more people that don’t even have access to basic needs such as clean water, and could raise awareness; after all, we’re all in this together and if helped each other out more the world could see much faster changes for the better.

[allegrarc311]

ALLEN (intro)

“It is precisely when practice and experimentation turn up inconsistencies in the “normal science” that new theories are produced.” (XII)

“Constantly mixing media in this way, material practices produce new concepts out of the materials and procedures of work itself.” (XIII)

           We have spoken this semester of risk and surprise. Craft is risk, the evolutionary algorithm must produce surprising results to be worth our time, prototyping depends on risk and unknown to discover new systems—otherwise it would be a model not a prototype. Innovation in architecture happens in the gaps between what we know, in the processes of building and designing and creating in which we do not know the end result. Allen reintroduces this notion, speaking to how “theory” and “practice” are actually the same: practice produces theory, and in doing so makes theory another sort of practice. It’s architecture; our end results almost always take up space in the real world, and for that reason we are quite tethered to our realities which means our theories must constantly be acted upon, adapted to the world. They must constantly evolve, learn, grow. 

           “Tethered to a fast-moving reality, material practices need to be agile and responsive, which often requires that they leave behind some of the weighty baggage of received ideas” (XV). There is a constant back and forth between concept and making. Architecture has a responsibility to keep up with the latest technological innovations, the newest climates and cultures, and for that reason we do things like learn of building systems in our architecture class not in the details of plumbing and air conditioning, but in understanding geometry, tools, concepts of workflow that will keep us steady through a fast moving reality. It is our responsibility to refuse to think of architecture and architectural ideas as monolithic; they have to change rapidly, constantly.

           “Architecture is of necessity a discipline of circumstance and situation.” (XI). We respond to clients and client needs. We respond to the world, the world responds to architecture in a recursive loop in which true innovation must result in the risk, the surprise, the unknown of this in-between. It’s been an interesting semester of learning methods and concepts that could be scaled up, scaled up, stretched and pulled in order to derive inspiration for architectural works. They’re tools, now, we adapt them.

[supartyka-blog]

2/18 Reading Reflection

In today's reading, I want to talk about the importance of using a student's native language and culture in adapting to the needs of ELL students with disabilities, talked about in the article, Reading Strategies: Adaptations to Meet the Needs of Secondary English Language Learners with Learning Disabilities,written by Tiece M. Ruffin. When working with ELLs who are also diagnose with a disability, supporting a students education is completely based on the specific need of the child. Just as gen ed students, ELLs with disabilities all have different needs, so as teachers, we need to make sure that we are supporting our students in every way that will successfully adapt to their needs.

The practice of surround students in their native language when helping ELLs is very important, because there is a constant reinforcement of teaching english while still being exposed to the language that is already known and comfortable. By using this strategy when adapting to an ELL student with disabilities, that student may be able to feel a sense of comfort in learning a new language, because there is the decrease in stress when being paired with a known topic. I enjoy this type of adaptation for ELL students, ELL students with an IEP, and Gen Ed students, because incorporating culture and other languages into a lesson or class can open students to people outside of what they know. By using it in a class with Gen Ed students as well, there is a barrier that is broken down, because they would also be learning piece of another language and culture along with ELL students. There is a sense of community in this way, because ELL students would then be apart of a large group and wouldn't be the only students struggling with learning to understand a new world.

[anoushkam311-blog]

Week 1: Haraway, Sympoiesis

I found this reading particularly interesting for how it elaborated the concept and power of systems and sympoiesis though a biological lens; this decision by Haraway is particularly successful not only as a metaphor for how systems can be used across disciplines, but also as a grounds to elucidate the real origins of the concepts being discussed, which were assumably within the field of biology. While the reading does have clear scientific origins, it is interesting to think about sympoiesis and its non-tangible manifestations in fields like sociology and anthropology. In the context of this class, it could be valuable to think of the reading in an effort to create models like King's, which are 'experimentally tractable, transferable in principle, and generative of testable questions,' goals that I see aligned with this class and its production of models. It is also suggestive of the power of collaboration, which also manifests in nature, in what Haraway calls the ‘intimacy of strangers’ -- perhaps to recall the a similar nature in an architectural discipline too. It allowed me to begin to rethink how I view objects, as individual entities rather than a sum of numerous parts working in tandem, building on each other, and within the context of their environment. Extending this thought to architectural realms, it suggests the power of material convergences, made especially possible through technology as are being explored by 'extended synthesis,' as well as the value of creating models that can overcome limitations set by temporality and the natural world to make observations and predictions on interactions.

[hybridjournal]

Becoming Aerosolar: From Solar Sculptures to Cloud Cities: Reading Response

“To become aerosolar is to imagine a metabolic and thermodynamic trans- formation of human societies’ relation with both the Earth and the Sun. It is an invitation to think of new ways to move and sense the circulation of energy.” (p.59)

This quote very much reminded me of David Rousell’s idea of Immersive Cartography - finding new ways of engaging with our surroundings and moving in unique and unprecedented ways.

“Becoming aerosolar would realize a third, alternative future in which civilization is truly solar-powered, but also liberated from Earth’s surface to become airborne. This is the promise of a future solar-cene.” (p.59)

I feel strangely ambivalent about the concept of future generations taking to the skies and leaving Earth’s surface behind (or below). On the one hand the possibility of leaving the surface of our planet for a life among the stars - or simply in the air - has been a driving force for humanity for centuries. We could now fulfil that dream without reliance on fossil fuels and become a cloud-faring society thereby giving the surface back to the organisms we took it from.

On the other hand I strongly dislike the idea that living on Earth’s surface is something from which we need to “liberate” ourselves. We aren’t trapped here any more than any other species is. We are part of an existing ecosystem. The idea of humanity opting out of living on a planet they took advantage of for generations rather than sticking around and repairing the damage that has been done strikes me as a selfish, empty utopia. 

[becca46]

Week 13 Reading Response

Week 13 Reading Response Post

 When reading the pages in the merge I didn't realize how much Christianity was affected by “the times.”  It was interesting to read about how as things were invented it completely shifted how the world works and I never thought about this having a role in how we portray the word of God. My favorite thing from the assigned content this week was from Lynn Aldrich. In her interview she talked a lot about how Christian artists should create Christian artwork. I have always thought there is no particular right or wrong way for Christians to create art but I thought her perspective was very accurate. You do not always have to have Christ as the center of your art when you're a Christian creating art for the world. In her artwork God is not always the main focus but you are able to see the incorporation of Christ within her work. Sometimes I think the best type of art is abstract that has more meaning behind it then just a portrait of Jesus's face.  This is why there's no right or wrong way.

This is a photo I took from the plane on my way home from our volleyball game in San Diego! 

[freeenthusiasttree]

Reading Response

I choose this picture because this picture to me depicts change and uncertainty. 

In Imagine, the author expresses three main points: he narrates how the changes in the cultures throughout the span of time have led to misconceptions about Christianity and christian art, art responds to times is through science, God’s ability to create everything perfect is an amazing reason to worship him and fulfill the what if, art responds to time is through politics, artists are able to create art in times of instability whether that be health, financial, marital/relational and the artist will have a bigger impact in his/her audience. The view of christian artist is changing to being conformists and followers of other Christians. Christian artists want to remain in the “Christian art” box for fear of being rejected by others. The authors second point is closely related to the first, it is that art responds to times in several different ways. Changes in technology can make it easier to present art in larger platforms to larger audiences. Technology can be used to present art in different dimensions and that should be taken advantage of.  

[teachingliteracy]

New resources for Hello, Universe in my TpT store! (That Book Life) 😄 #teachersofinstagram #teacherspayteachers #teachingliteracy #thatbooklife #readingresponse #novelstudy #weneeddiversebooks #multiculturalliterature #digitalliteracy #googledrive #middlegradebooks

[kctideasprototyping]

Lofi Prototype Feedback

From the feedback that I received, people in general enjoyed how I included sound into my prototype as it helped paint a clearer picture of what my end product would be. 

In terms of feedback, I got a lot of things that I could work on and potentially explore/improve; some of these include: using sound as seasoning, what are the actual mechanics of where the sound is coming from, what happens when we share food. I’m particularly interested in sounds and seasoning, this potentially could be added to the menu option and would have adjustable controls. I’m not sure how I would exactly do this in terms of coding though, so I would have to see if I’m my coding skills will enable me to include it. 

[joellehameister]

Reading Response #9

Emerge

The first couple pages of Emerge were the most intriguing to me. The descriptions of reductionism and blobism were very sad. I feel like that is what is happening in today’s age. People don’t want to have identities anymore. With the current movement of culture people are wanting to strip away all pieces that make us God’s children. 

How Artists Explore Identity” video from MoMA 

I really liked the description of Frida Kahlo. I have heard lots about Frida Kahlo, but never knew why she had become famous. It was very interesting to know about her leaving her husband and painting herself without any of the things he liked about her. The Runaways by Glenn Ligon was also a very interesting art piece. 

Exploding the Myth of the Scientific vs Creative Mind

The terms divergent and convergent thinkers were a new topic for me. I did not know that convergent thinkers were thought of as good at science and divergent thinkers were  thought of as better in arts and humanities. 

“The Myth of the Starving Artist and Other Misconceptions about Creativity” 

I really liked this quote from the article, “But at the same time, what writer, designer, or musician wants to be irrelevant or ignored?” There is definitely a stereotype that artists need to go through this struggle, that they must struggle to become famous.  

Another interesting point was the point made about marketing. I am a marketing major, so hearing that people think marketing is evil was not a great thought. As I continued reading I saw the reasoning with the Nazi propaganda. I think that marketing can be bad, but can also be really good. 

[creativemarissa-wju]

Reading response

After reading all the different sections of Emerge, I had many different thought trains. In the first section, I like that the author mentions that their rule to their students is that they are not allowed to say “I am not creative”. I think this is something important in life, as no matter what someone does, they are creative. If you are alive, you have to problem solve, at least occasionally, and problem solving is a creative process. Life is not black and white and there is not always a right answer, however to find the best possible answer, you have to be creative. Then the second section of reading starts off talking about how you need to devote 10,000 hours to a skill or talent to become a master of it. This remind me of the idea of a college education; many people like to argue that we should not be taking classes that do not relate to our major, but I think there are practical applications in other classes that can help us become well-rounded individuals In non-major classes, we are still practicing skills that are valuable to our major/career goal. In the third section of Emerge, it talks about how starting a project/skill can be and should be messy. The author talks about how they once wrote a terrible screen-play, but they look at it as a practice exercise. I think this is extremely important because we are human with faults and are not perfect at everything we do,practice is required to hone a skill. The last section of Emerge talked about forming habits. It highlights 7 things that are important to create a habit: create triggers, create rewards, visualize, add a village member, repetition, believe, and finally renew the mind. I love all 7 of these things for creating habits and I think they can be applied to creating any good habit.

[allegrarc311]

CRAWFORD + PATTERSON

“American musicians are frantically running up and down, all over the finger-boards of their violins, viola and cello, grasping at hundreds of different ‘tones,” …still trying to find their unique, personal “tone”” (Patterson)

“A jig is a device or procedure that guides a repeated action by constraining the environment in such a way as to make the action go smoothly, the same each time, without his having to think about it.” (Crawford, 31)

“The jig as it is used in a skilled practice is located somewhere between the overdetermination of the assembly line and the ideal of autonomy.” (Crawford, 34)

“A number of metaphors have been suggested: we "offload" some of our thinking onto our surroundings, or we incorporate objects in such a way that they come to act like prosthetics.” (Crawford, 35)

At first pass it was difficult to determine the parallels between Patterson’s treatment of tone, and the field of architecture. But upon closer reflection, the ideas are many; architecture began as an interdisciplinary field (Vitruvius’ 9 required disciplines, for example, which included medicine and law) and continues casting a wide net today, with a move toward more software/technologically literate architects. We have many “tones” we are expected to use, master, weave together, all while trying to find our own “voices” or our own brand of authorship. Is there, perhaps, something useful to learning to do one thing well, not having the architect do everything, but having the architect gather a group of other specialists to work together? Does architecture, perhaps, move toward an interdisciplinary field in the adoption of other specialties in to supplement or drive us, without putting the burden of knowledge on a single individual? I think it should; let the software engineers and the structural engineers and the interior designers and the architects etc etc work together to play many tones together, to make music together. (Still don’t know what, exactly, an architect would be responsible for doing, but I’m not sure we’ve really ever known).

           Crawford’s discussion of the jig also plays into his conversation. The jig is a mechanism for “offloading” thinking onto others to streamline a process. Between autonomy and assembly line, if other specialists or specialties were to function as a sort of “jig” to architecture in order to offload some thinking to focus on other areas, we move toward a field more meshed with the world. If we take robots to be “jigs” constrained by an environment to repeat the same action again and again without too much (too much, still some) thinking on the part of the programmer, then we see another way in which architecture utilizes the jig to design and build. “Architecture” is a broad term, if we take our desks and our lamps and our buildings and our everything to be architecture, and it seems impossible for one person to do it all (that’s why we have architecture firms, for collectives), but if we jig our environments with engineers and geoscientists we find a way to keep the field of architecture on the forefront of innovation.

[akyladanielson]

Reading Response Week 10

After reading Emerge this week on Ideas, Master, Messiness, and Habit I learned how to use the creative ideas that come to your mind. It is also important to not only have ideas but put a focus on the ways that you are using your creative talents. You gain experience through time and how you are practicing will show what you will get out of it. To be truly creative you need to develop your talents and work at what you love so you can be a master and artist in your field. The book also discussed how to learn from your failure and more past them as they are what shapes you and to even go as far as celebrating them. “If you see a single failure and as a total failure, you will never be able to develop your talents, finish your endeavors, and or grow in your career” (Emerge, 102). I think this is very important because if people see their creative works as failures then they will give up and not create anything more and that is a large waste of such talent. What the book talks about is creating good habits and spending time developing your creative side and I agree with this because if someone wants to be a successful artist then they need to put in the work and deal with the messiness to get there. Finally, the video looks at struggles artists are typically going through and good habits that should be created such as doing what you love and this was very helpful. I found it interesting because he discusses famous people and how they have used their habits to get to where they. It is valuable to get feedback and grow as well and that stood out to me because anyone can use that in their career or they will not make it very far.

[missionaryadventurer]

Reading Reflection - Week 8 Finding me...

As I engaged with this week’s reading material and videos, a couple of things really stood out to me. First, the idea of experimenting with gender and identity in the arts and the ways in which both sexual identity and personal characteristics affect an artist’s work intrigued me. Before watching the videos entitled, “How Artists Explore Identity” and “What are Tells us about Gender” I hadn’t really thought about this much. However, the more I watch and read, the more I began to really consider the instrumental ways in which identity influence an artist’s endeavors. And, as pointed out in the book Emerge, it’s vital to really understand and figure out yourself if you want to reach full potential and creativity in the arts. 

Secondly, I especially enjoyed the video, “How Artists Explore Identity” because it provided examples of real artists who also wrestled with the questions that the author of Emerge asks which are paraphrased as, “So who am I? What do I stand for? Why does this matter? And how it is going to affect my work?” 

In order to reach artistic maturity and to find your “true self,” you really need to figure out what you love, what your talents are, and what your mission is. Personally, I think the work of finding and becoming your true self is a continual, on-going process, however, when you begin to unravel the depths of who you are and begin piecing together your calling and talents, “A renewed passion will grow and a confidence about who you are will arise. Why? Because you will be living out your true self rather than what someone else wants you to be”(Perini, 2014, p.C).

So, my encouragement to you and to myself is to search out and dive deep into who God has called you to be and the ways in which He has gifted you. I want to obey the Cultural Mandate, and in order to do this, I think I’m going to need to do some messy work first - whether that involves, identity, gender, past, experiences, passions, dreams, family, or goals. 

As Perini states in Emerge, one has to be courageous in order to be creative. So are you ready to boldly embark on the mission of finding the true you?

[hybridjournal]

FROM INSTITUTIONAL TO INTERSTITIAL CRITIQUE: Reading Response

The way Emma Mahony describes the catastrophe of the Deepwater Horizon disaster and subsequent celebration of the company responsible by the people in charge of Tate Britain made me wonder whether there was something more at work than pure greed. Of course the Tate have a vested interest in retaining a positive relationship with their corporate sponsors, that much should go without saying. However I couldn’t help but wonder whether this example was symptomatic of a larger issue that seems to permeate large parts of the world - how easily we can separate the good a company/person does from the harm it causes/enables. 

“Just as Critchley’s “antipolitics” advocates using the state’s machinations against it in order to bring about political change, the proponents of interstitial critique commandeer the museum’s resources—its physical infrastructure, its vernacular, its identity and its cultural capital—to use against it.The internal distance they adopt is underscored by the manner in which they utilize the vernacular of their host institutions as a means to insert their parasitic live interventions seamlessly into their hosts’ programmes, while at the same time being completely unsanctioned by them.” (p.413)

Interesting here is the degree to which visitors understand that what they are witnessing is a protest rather than part of the exhibit. In my opinion this beautifully illustrates the many ways in which satire, critique, and genuine art have become largely indistinguishable. 

“Expanding this solidarity between those collectives infiltrating the museum from below (with their intersectional links to decolonality and climate justice), and workers inside the museum (at all levels), is likely to be the most successful route to achieving institutional liberation. In the process, a new, more effective and transformative model of institutional critique is taking shape, what I term “interstitial critique.” (p.416)

Though this is a very pleasant and optimistic note to end on it illustrated one of my biggest questions regarding this text - is full institutional liberation possible and if so is it more effective than dismantling it entirely. Is it possible to liberate an institution to the degree that future abuse of power cannot happen? Is there something inherently destructive about the way institutions are structured that will inevitable result in future abuse of power regardless of who is now in charge?