Research Log 5

As you finalize your research paper and come to an end in your research journey (at least for now), reflect on the process as a whole. What have you learned about writing a Humanities Core research paper that you would like to share with future students? What understanding of worldbuilding have you critically and creatively constructed over this time? And, considering what you wrote in your Digital Archive at the beginning of the year, what have you learned about yourself as a writer, researcher, and thinker?

As I come to an end with Humanities Core and as I write my research paper, I come to reflect on what I have learned throughout the year and what I particularly wish to share with future students. I have learned to obtain multiple qualities I didn't have before- the ability to gain deeper insight beyond what the surface portrays in reading or analyzing works, and to learn what this means for us and our future and worldbuilding. Within this context of worldbuilding and writing my paper, I have realized that the subject of my work is not simply to explain what the topic is about and it's influence in its culture, popularity etc, but to really dive into the way it effects us and our perception of the world around us. I have come to understand that my research, and any object or topic, has a unique influence upon us that can either indirectly or directly change the way we view life, in which it doesn't always have to be realistic, pragmatic and plainly simple. Our emotions and perception are dictated by our experiences and the way we choose respond to them, and through this, worldbuilding can come into play. In terms of my project- on classical music- I find myself realizing throughout my research that music isn't just an object of enjoyment, but it helps us cope, perceive, express, and romanticize in a way that simple reality doesn't provide. Realistic circumstances limit our capabilities to see things or express things we find deep within ourselves, but through ideas and subjects like music, we can expand these opportunities and surpass realistic opportunities in viewing the world. 

My understanding of worldbuilding has been constructed to where as before, I never really took much thought into the way we live almost outside of our reality, but now, I have come to see how romantacized and uniquely different anything can make our reality seem vs to how realistic it can be portrayed. I come to understand how world building doesn't just mean making a new fantasy in your head, but it also includes tiny details that we embedd into our perception of life that wasn't there before. This can be as simple as having a more positive mindset in a situation that reaalistically speaking doesn't have such a positive outcome. It could also be as wide as imagining yourself eating candy and enjoying it when in reality you are eating vegetables. But it also goes deeper than that, to the point which we can surpass what we have once thought realistic capabilities consisted of to create new worlds that phsyically take us out of a social norm setting. Looking at our past lectures, one huge and probably one of the most prominent examples is Disneyland. Where we are physically in a new, fantasy that goes beyond realistic environments and take us to explore ideas and opportunities that may not have been given to us in a normal setting. Looking at matterhorn, we see worldbuilding going beyond our physical states, a whole trasnformation in being placed inside a snow covered mountain, riding away in a bobsled, being placed in a cold environment that juxtaposes the realistic hot southern california sunny weather. Worldbuilding in my eyes has now been comprehended as taking our imagination and making it a reality, going past the normal and easily accesed realistic capabilities into something more challenging and creative. We don't always have to live in what the world provides, but we can add and incorporate our own desires to make our living circumstances far more enjoyable and exciting than given. 

Seeing what I wrote in the beginning of the year in my digital archive, I have learned that as a writer, researcher and thinker, I think more rationally than emotionally and imaginatively, so it was at first hard understanding the concept of worldbuilding. But as we dove deeper into texts, works, and the concepts, I came to see that there is more than just imagination when it comes to worldbuilding, and I grew to become more open as a writer and thinker. I have learned that we can incorporate history and our present and our circumstances to generate a better future for ourselves, looking at our unit about African American contemporary art and the album Deep. This topics helped me as a writer and thinker to understand how inportant it is to know about perception vs reality, and becoming a voice to understand that truth and reality comes from perception and what is shown vs what is intentionally hidden. My mind has become open to learning that there is more to the world we live in, and we can open our hearts to become educated on understanding both truth and how to use this knowledge to create a better future for ourselves and the people around us.