STICKY INNOVATION: sOLVING THE PROBLEM OF THE BEES THROUGH eNGINEERING AND aRT
CLICK CLASS WEBSITE FOR MORE DETAILS ON THE CURRICULUM
REFLECTION/DOCUMENTATION:
I feel incredibly lucky to have taken this honors seminar class on - if I'm honest - a whim. Going into the course, all I knew was that it would satisfy a requirement for an honors experience and that it fell during a time slot that made it possible for me to attend. What I am leaving with is a memory I will treasure as a unique experience of my time at UC. I never would have thought that this class, which met twice a week from 2-3:30p, would give me unexpected knowlegde, new friends and a much deeper appreciation of what it means to work in a team.
To elaborate, this class may have been the first time I ever truly was able to enjoy working as a group. Prior to this, and in all my previous classes in both high school and college, group projects were something to be dreaded, and in one way or another, I always would end up feeling as though it would have been more productive to simply work on my own. When I realized that our major projects for this class would by done in a small group of three or four people, I was obiously anxious. My fears were totally unfounded, however, and I am truly grateful to my groupmates for working together with me. I know that together we were able to create things that would have been impossible for us individually.
Even if this course, on paper, appears to have no relation to my chosen career field in the performing arts, I know that the perspectives I've accummulated and the knowledge I've gained this semester will remain with me as long as I am interacting with people in any way. I see dance is a way of collaborating with other artists to create something which can communicate with anyone - irrespective of their differing backgrounds. This class, filled with ten students drawn from completely different degrees and fields, will definitely continue to inform my descisions and veiwpoints going forward.
PROJECTS/ARTIFACTS:
EVERYDAY AESTHETICS ASSIGNMENT: PAYING ATTENTION, RESPONDING CREATIVELY
Engage in an everyday activity, such as peeling and orange, your walk to school, washing dishes. Craft a response that describes that activity in detail--considering nuances of light, touch, time, affect, imagery, thoughts, distractions, etc.
For this project I created a choreographic representation of my morning routine. It's normally something that I do in a daze because I'm half asleep, so in order to gather inspiration for the movement, I forced myself to pay close attention to what I was doing and experiencing at that time. When crafting my response however, I took that morning grogginess into account and disrupted the order of the "routine" movements. For example, at one point I reach up in an alternate way of "turning the front door handle" of my apartment. Technically speaking, this should be the last movement in the sequence of events, but I put it in the middle, partly to force a viewer of the choreography to be more interested in what they're seeing, and also to acknowledge that sometimes I forget something at home and have to go back for it. Similarly, this choreography is not meant to represent a single morning experience, but the accumulation of many mornings; the passage of time is often most notable when one wakes up after experiencing nothing of the night's long hours.
REFLECTION/DOCUMENTATION:
I feel incredibly lucky to have taken this honors seminar class on - if I'm honest - a whim. Going into the course, all I knew was that it would satisfy a requirement for an honors experience and that it fell during a time slot that made it possible for me to attend. What I am leaving with is a memory I will treasure as a unique experience of my time at UC. I never would have thought that this class, which met twice a week from 2-3:30p, would give me unexpected knowlegde, new friends and a much deeper appreciation of what it means to work in a team.
To elaborate, this class may have been the first time I ever truly was able to enjoy working as a group. Prior to this, and in all my previous classes in both high school and college, group projects were something to be dreaded, and in one way or another, I always would end up feeling as though it would have been more productive to simply work on my own. When I realized that our major projects for this class would by done in a small group of three or four people, I was obiously anxious. My fears were totally unfounded, however, and I am truly grateful to my groupmates for working together with me. I know that together we were able to create things that would have been impossible for us individually.
Even if this course, on paper, appears to have no relation to my chosen career field in the performing arts, I know that the perspectives I've accummulated and the knowledge I've gained this semester will remain with me as long as I am interacting with people in any way. I see dance is a way of collaborating with other artists to create something which can communicate with anyone - irrespective of their differing backgrounds. This class, filled with ten students drawn from completely different degrees and fields, will definitely continue to inform my descisions and veiwpoints going forward.
PROJECTS/ARTIFACTS:
EVERYDAY AESTHETICS ASSIGNMENT: PAYING ATTENTION, RESPONDING CREATIVELY
Engage in an everyday activity, such as peeling and orange, your walk to school, washing dishes. Craft a response that describes that activity in detail--considering nuances of light, touch, time, affect, imagery, thoughts, distractions, etc.
For this project I created a choreographic representation of my morning routine. It's normally something that I do in a daze because I'm half asleep, so in order to gather inspiration for the movement, I forced myself to pay close attention to what I was doing and experiencing at that time. When crafting my response however, I took that morning grogginess into account and disrupted the order of the "routine" movements. For example, at one point I reach up in an alternate way of "turning the front door handle" of my apartment. Technically speaking, this should be the last movement in the sequence of events, but I put it in the middle, partly to force a viewer of the choreography to be more interested in what they're seeing, and also to acknowledge that sometimes I forget something at home and have to go back for it. Similarly, this choreography is not meant to represent a single morning experience, but the accumulation of many mornings; the passage of time is often most notable when one wakes up after experiencing nothing of the night's long hours.
BLOG POSTS
Over the course of the semster, I made two posts on the class website's blog: the first an aspect of research on bees, colony collapse, etc. and the second being response to a summit on innovation that I attended at the end of October. (see the links below)
BEES ON-SCREEN
A BRIEF GLIMPSE OF THE NLH SUMMIT
Over the course of the semster, I made two posts on the class website's blog: the first an aspect of research on bees, colony collapse, etc. and the second being response to a summit on innovation that I attended at the end of October. (see the links below)
BEES ON-SCREEN
A BRIEF GLIMPSE OF THE NLH SUMMIT
THE IDEAL BEE Our assignment in this case was to re-design the bee. While the project seemed like a tall order at first, it was ultimately a fun exercise in creatitvity for solving problems. Rather than getting bogged down in the viability of this particular solution, we eventually took this opportunity to ask "what if?" In small groups, we brainstormed and designed a low-fidelity prototype, which we dubbed the "ImmuniBee" in respect to its design against poison in pesticides. Then, complete with a biological centerfuge, we modeled our ideas in SolidWorks (a 3-D modeling software.) I particularly enjoyed this aspect of the project since I was able to take a class in high school which employed a very similar program and I was glad of the opportunity to use that knowledge again. |
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FINAL SOLUTION
Our last assignment was to create new solution to the dissapearance of bees due to Colony Collapse Disorder. After some discussion, we decided to synthesize the ideas of each of our small groups into a seperate aspect of a non-profit organization titled after the class: Sticky Innovation. My group designed an interactice app called "Colony Collapse" designed to teach people about the dangers bees face through a game format.
PROJECT OVERVIEW (SCROLL TO BOTTOM)
GROUP WEBSITE
"SCREEN SHOTS" OF THE APP:
Our last assignment was to create new solution to the dissapearance of bees due to Colony Collapse Disorder. After some discussion, we decided to synthesize the ideas of each of our small groups into a seperate aspect of a non-profit organization titled after the class: Sticky Innovation. My group designed an interactice app called "Colony Collapse" designed to teach people about the dangers bees face through a game format.
PROJECT OVERVIEW (SCROLL TO BOTTOM)
GROUP WEBSITE
"SCREEN SHOTS" OF THE APP: