Semester Reflections

Semester 3

The beginning of Sophomore year has been an important transitional time for me as a student and as a person. The Art Scholars program continues to be useful in my time at UMD and has made me realize and rethink quite a lot of things. I've learned that art reshapes the understanding of history, beliefs, and biases by being used as a way of telling stories and revisiting history. I remember realizing this after viewing the artwork of Mark Bradford, who was featured as an assignment for Art Scholars, and how he uses his art to revisit and review black history in America. His art is not like anything I've ever seen before, and because it's so unique, it adds an even greater impact to the history/message that he is trying to represent. I've also learned through Art Scholars different ways to initiate the creative process and incorporate feedback from review to refine my ideas with depth through my participation in the class we had, where we did stop motion movies. It was interesting and useful to brainstorm and go into depth (although limited by our knowledge in stop motion) on ideas we had while talking together as a unit, rather than me brainstorming on what to do creatively by myself. It was an incredibly useful challenge. This semester, I also took an English class that focused on the importance of American literature and culture in regard to how the two are applied to the environment and nature. The class focused extensively on the creative decisions of the writers on why they chose certain decisions of including nature in their writings, which reminded me of what I've learned in Art Scholars. In the same way Mark Bradford uses his artwork to demonstrate how art can reshape the understanding of black history, we were taught how these specifically chosen works of literature reshape and recontextualize the relationship between American literature and the environment, which was interesting for the most part. I was very surprised to find this connection.

During this semester, I've overseen the use of art made by artificial intelligence, with news of progress and development of these AI tools coming like unstoppable waves that seem to get stronger as more time passes. Recently, an A.I. music-making app called Suno has received a very important update in its development, making it stronger than before, and seeing this update has confirmed for me that my work in expressing the importance of original, human-made art is colloqium is very important. Colloquium has made me realize that nothing will overtake the significance of human-made art, and we as a society should not disregard human-made art as something disposable. Now more than ever, is art being appreciated, especially when the question of "Is this A.I.?" is being more frequently asked than before. I remember having a conversation about this very topic with my friends in Art scholars, which not only was fun, but also deepened my understanding of the concept of A.I. art and creation as a whole, and why it is a negative for art spaces rather than a positive, through my conversation with them. Having friends in Art Scholars is useful and fun, as not only are my friends in the program, but they are also as passionate about art as I am. Having friends who are passionate about art, as I am, as scholars, really does help in improving my learning. I even feel this way when I disagree or feel challenged in my beliefs about art and the creative process. For example, I remember getting into multiple discussions with a friend in art scholars over how you should make music, as we both do so in our free time. He believed that you should only make music and finish if you feel like it and let the ideas come to you, while I argued that you should go outside your comfort zone and try to commit to a project no matter what, just to see what you can get out of it. That conversation really influenced my creative process, and once again, not only was it fun, but it was also useful and deeply gratifying. For conversations and lessons like the ones I've gotten in art scholars, I've been trying to give back to the art scholars community because of what they have given me. I went to the Jake Shimabukuro field trip, and I thought it was brilliant and so much fun because it was so creative and musical. I also went to the ice cream social early in the semester, and I made a lot of connections during that event, which I am very happy about. I just wish I could've made it to more events during the semester, but I got very busy very quickly in the semester, as I have to tackle more and more responsibilities. So, because of these positive experiences from this semester and last semester, I have applied to become a social media assistant for the upcoming semester to give back to the community that has supported me directly.

Overall, this semester has been a great success, and I'm excited to end my scholars program next year with my capstone project.