Semester 3

Arts TRYathlon #1: NextNOW Fest

9/10/24, Clarvit Courtyard, Photon Motion, a moving image projection by artist Alyson Denny

#laser, #photon, #artinstem

When scrolling through the NextNow Fest schedule, nothing really spoke to me until I scrolled down to the last event in the series. What caught my attention first was the word photon, a drastically different subject to an art piece than to what I have come to expect from the NextNow catalog. Not only that, but I had just been doing my physics of waves homework, so it felt especially on theme. Naturally, I decided that I would check it out and knock out a TryAthalon at the same time. When Tuesday the 10th came around, I went to my colloquium where I was inspired to focus my capstone to be something STEM related, capturing both my engineering and artistic interests, getting me even more excited for what this photon motion projection could be about. When I arrived at the Clarvit courtyard, I was greeted with a huge projector screen and someone giving a description of the artist. Much like me, they were an engineering/physics student inspired by their father’s artistic hobbies to meld their two lives together into something new. Already before the display had begun I felt a connection with this artist and their art, only to become even more invested when the images of light cascading through lenses refracted across the screen. The 40 minute display reminded me of the value that art can have not only on the audience, but also in the artists and the expression of their identity, in both mine and Denny’s cases an artist and a physical scientist. The whole experience was very fun for me and also majorly confirmed by desire to pursue some sort of physical construction for my capstone project. Even more specifically, Denny’s focus on light as a subject allowed for me to think more abstractly as well, leading me to consider using sound as my medium to make something truly special for my year long project.

Arts TRYathlon #2: Arts Scholars Event

10/9/24, Bel Air Lounge, Craft and Chat - Friendship Bracelet Making

#craft, #bling, #community

This most recent tryathalon experience saw me doing something I did not expect to be doing on a random Wednesday night - making friendship bracelets with my old Bel Air neighbors! When picking my event to attend for this assignment, I thought it would be a good idea to try something a little bit outside of my comfort zone, with the goal of hopefully learning a new little skill to potentially make use of some day. I have always found the skill of braiding to be interesting, something I had just never taken the time to sit down and practice, so this opportunity being presented to me seemed as good a time as any. One benefit I did not anticipate from this experience was getting a chance to see some of my old neighbors from last year outside of the arts colloquium setting, as well as getting to know some more of the members of the new cohort of art scholars. Braiding bracelets was not the only skill I developed, however. Also unexpectedly, I found myself being subjected to a test of my patience, with the tedious task of braiding the strings together for an hour and a half. While annoying at first, I learned that taking the time to get into the correct mindset for a repetitive and dull task made the experience much more enjoyable and genuinely felt relaxing to my brian. In just the 3 short days since attending, I have already applied this new perspective of patience to my engineering coursework, allowing myself to remain more attentive and focused as the long hours of boring math begin to take their toll on my mood. By thinking back to the techniques learned from this bracelet making, I am able to do my homework much more productively and feel less bitter about it while doing so!

Arts TRYathlon #3: Choose Your Own Artventure

10/25/2024, Dekelboum Hall - Clarice, University Band Fall Concert

#ensemble, #winds, #FridayNightLife

For this semester's final Tryathalon event, I visited the Clarice to watch the U-band’s fall 2024 concert. I was drawn to this event mostly because of the people performing; I wanted to support some people close to me, but additionally, I used to be a participant in my high school and middle school bands, so this performance was very nostalgic to me. When I first sat down to watch the performance, I had planned to do just that, watch and listen and be an audience member. What I did not expect was to be reminded of something we had recently covered in an engineering ethics course just a few weeks ago. In that class, we discussed how simply observing something beautiful like nature or art as a moment of meditation can be extremely helpful in overcoming or solving problems that plague us in our lives. Specifically, around the time of the concert I had been stuck on a conceptual misunderstanding in my dynamics class, so I thought maybe following my ethics professor’s advice would help in some regard. To my surprise, by listening to the music, thinking about what I knew about dynamics, and forgetting about everything that was confusing to me, my brain put the pieces together and I was overcome with a kind of clarity on the subject that I had not expected to find. My best guess is that by ignoring the stress the situation was causing me, I was able to focus more objectively on the problem at hand, and that is what helped me to make those connections. This is not at all dissimilar to what we discussed in class throughout the past 3 semesters, how art can be a tool for many things: social change, advocacy, emotional expression, and now I would like to add therapeutic learning to the list.

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