Semester Reflections

Semester 3

This has certainly been…a semester. 

As we’ve gone through the painstaking processes of formulating our capstones, Arts Scholars has explored several themes related to art, its creation, and its significance, which have been wholly relevant in both our current day and our current circumstances as Arts Scholars. First, the political/history painting activity we did on Election Day, was the act of learning the impact of art through recontextualization. Through examining the same pieces of art, we were able to discuss what each one represented to us, which not only was a great way to open up the discussion but also to reexamine what these particular pieces meant to me at face value. Through discussion about art, we can share ideas that allow us to change how we view issues both inside and outside the space of the art we’re consuming. This was also on display through the multiple ways in which we aimed to engage with the beginning of the creative process, such as through stop motion filmmaking and the still-life charcoal drawings, which all experimented with creative drivers like rapid ideation and team input, which allowed from the pieces of art to come together in ways that seemed unexpected. Being exposed to these ways to get the creative juices flowing allowed me to explore a whole other world of how people practice and cultivate their creative processes, which only affirms the idea that creativity is boundless and art is often the expression of creativity for the particular creator(s) of that art. Furthermore, through the capstone process, I learned a lot about how feedback can be applied effectively. I completely changed my capstone project, and while I usually wouldn’t ask for help with my ideas (I’m very confident in the work I do), the guidance I sought out from the Arts Scholars team was insightful and allowed me to streamline the millions of ideas I had into a targeted exploration. Particularly with Heather’s help, we were able to streamline the purpose of my project to explore how rhetoric can inspire political action, which was a far cry from the jumbled purposes I was bringing into the discussion. All in all, help is good, especially in creative endeavors. It took me a while to learn that, but I’m glad it was in this context. 

As a news person, I’ve consistently seen coverage in the public discourse about how art is used as a political allegory, most notably around the film adaptation of Wicked, which is interpreted to be a critique of the influence of fascism and the power of ostracisation in a society. Through Arts Scholars, I’ve been able to dissect these types of discourse on art, and instead of taking it at face value, using analytical tools to analyze the themes for myself and whether they hold up the claims being made while also creating my interpretation regarding what a piece of art represents to me and the greater discourse. This is a technique practiced in several of my policy classes, especially ENES240, which is a class discussing the intersections between policy, science, and technology (it’s for my minor). In this class, especially when discussing information technology, we use narratives to contextualize the presence and effects these technologies can have on several parts of our society, most importantly policy, while also learning that those technologies can be reflections of our societies, just like how art is! In this way, we can see the true interdisciplinary of the narrative concept and how is used in STEM and art discussions to discuss impact. This also shows how different narratives can be seen by different observers of the same thing. It’s all in the details, which makes learning how to analyze media so important. 

In that vein, often learning about how people can differently interpret art is inspired by interaction, which Arts Scholars is full of. Particularly, I enjoyed the discussion we were able to engage in with our TA groups across the semester. Arts Scholars brings together like-minded individuals from different backgrounds, and on a giant campus, it was valuable to be able to hear from different people in a welcoming setting, expanding my scope on how people see art. However, I would’ve liked a little more place to be able to discuss the content of our capstones with each other, rather than the various creative process activities we did (which were still fun and enlightening), since I felt we could have given each unique feedback throughout the capstone formation process. The interaction we get as Arts Scholars is valuable, and I wish we had more of it during the actual creative process for our projects. As to my contributions, I felt like I excelled at contributing to our community whenever we were talking, whether that be in small groups or whole group discussions, as I always like to share what I’m thinking and like to share food for thought with my peers. I always tried to make substantive contributions to inspire thought, and I hope that was felt by my peers. I wish I could’ve contributed to more Scholars events though. They seem like great landing spaces for our community, provide places to interact and learn, and are important to maintain to give our community saliency. I’ll make more of an effort to contribute to the program in that way, especially considering it’ll be my final semester in Arts Scholars and my second to last semester in college overall. 

To conclude, Scholars has sufficiently challenged me this semester. Mostly, this was through the rapid switch of my capstone project which I could've never seen coming. Coming to my meetings with the Arts faculty regarding the switch, I was firm in my ideas and wasn’t willing to budge, particularly because I thought they were unflinchingly important to convey in some way. However, my purpose and my message were challenged, and I felt uncomfortable as someone confident in their creative ideas. But, as we worked through the capstone process, I came to understand some aspects of my ideas were simply too big for this particular project, and that the guidance from the faculty was grounded in an understanding of my success, even if it was something I, at first, disagreed with. Through my adjustments, I was able to take those suggestions to craft a project plan to my liking, which said the things I needed to say concisely. In this way, being challenged was hugely important for my capstone to even exist in the capacity that it does, and it inspired me to seek out a challenge regarding my creative ideas because clearly, it can lead to positive development.