Semester Reflections

Semester 3

This semester as an art scholar, I brainstormed my final Capstone Project that I will start next semester. Along with this, I learned a lot more about art than I previously knew. 

One thing I learned was how art can reshape an understanding of our learned history, biases, and beliefs. During the initial workings of the Capstone project, we did a lot of peer reviewing. Through these peer reviews, I was able to learn about people's personal history and why they chose the topics they chose. For example, one of my classmates is doing a project related to the Middle East since she is from Iran and cares for what is happening in Iran and its surrounding countries. Through her explanation of her final Arts Scholars project, I was able to recontextualize her personal history and beliefs. 

Depending on the person, the theoretical models and practical strategies for initiating the creative process are different. To me, the theorical models of creativity is having an idea of something to make. I believe that anything that is created displays creativity. I remember first semester freshman year in Colloquium our big question was "What is Art?" and we ended the semester explaining that anything can be art which relates to my idea of anything can start/be the creative process. The aspects of the creative process are a little stricter where I believe they follow the steps of define, create ideas, refine, and complete. First you define what you want to create, then create rough drafts, refine the rough drafts/final project you want, and then create the final project. 

Through the peer reviews, I was able to get great feedback and use it to my advantage. When we did the Questionnaire peer review, my partner had left great feedback for me to work on when moving forward. To incorporate this feedback into my project, I took what he said and refined what I wanted to say to make more sense to a broader audience while also asking him questions on where my project needed the most work. This feedback gave my project greater depth and clarity by getting another set of eyes on it. 

One piece of artwork that I saw on the News recently that expressed lived experience was the murals created in response to the war in Gaza. The walls displayed murals of how people felt during the wars that speaking about it on the news could not do by itself. The murals were usually composed of fragmented images and simple colors to show the feelings of loss and urgency. From Arts Scholars I learned to slow look and to put myself into the artwork to understand what it was trying to convey. Through doing this, I was able to easily understand what the murals in Gaza were discussing without even knowing they were in Gaza. 

One supporting course that I found the most interesting that connected to Arts Scholars is ARCH 225. This history course discussed the early history of architecture. This course taught about looking deeper into the function and use of different locations and what the architecture was trying to do. This is also something that we do in Arts Scholars where we try to visualize what the artist is trying to tell the viewer and what the meaning behind the piece is. Although in ARCH 225 we are looking at architecture, it is a form of art where the way we analyzed art in Arts Scholars helped me tremendously throughout the course. 

Through interacting with my fellow Arts Scholars outside of class, my learning was improved. This was due to some of them being in my other Architecture classes. It was nice to see some of the multiple times a week instead of just the once a week during Colloquium. If I had questions about assignments for Arts Scholars courses, I was able to ask them in person during our other classes or when I would see them around the Architecture building. Now that I live further away from the Scholars community, it is harder to stay connected but I stay connected by being a Social Media Assistant. By being a Social Media Assistant, I am able to see the background of Arts Scholars and stay connected to my peers. 

As stated above, I was able to stay active in the Scholars community by being a Social Media Assistant for the past two semester. In this position, I learned the innerworkings of running an academic Instagram and how to cater information towards the student audience. With having this position last semester, I was able to take the stuff I learned last semester to create greater the engagement and better content this se 

Arts Scholars has without a doubt brought me into contact with people and concepts that challenged or were different from my beliefs and opinions. One example of this was at the beginning of the year when we were discussing social issues and some people believed differently about specific social issues. Although neither of us were wrong, it was nice to have a conversation about a social issue from a different point of view. This was a very valuable experience since both of use were able to put ourselves in each other's shoes and understand how people come from different backgrounds.

All in all, this semester has taught me a lot, and I am looking forward to working on my Capstone Project next semester!