2nd Semester Final: Creating and appreciating beauty

1.  “Life moves pretty fast. You don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it”. Ferris - Ferris Bueller’s Day Off 1986
2. As i read it now, in the great silence of these distances, i am touched by your beautiful anxiety about life, even more than i was in Paris, where every thing echoes and fades away differently because of the excessive noise that makes Things tremble. Here, where i am surrounded by an enormous landscape, which the winds move across as they come from the seas, here i feel that there is no on anywhere who can answer for you those questions and feelings which, in depths, have a life of their own; for even the most articulate people are unable to help, since what words point to is so very delicate, is almost unsayable.
3. You are a practical man, Michele. Einstein gazes at the clouds thinking of his project. He wants to tell Besso about his dreams, but cannot bring himself to do it. I think you will succeed with your theory of time...
4. PUCK
   How now, spirit! whither wander you?
   FAIRY
   Over hill, over dale,
   Thorough bush, thorough brier,
   Over park, over pale,
   Thorough flood, thorough fire,
   I do wander every where,
   Swifter than the moon's sphere;
   And I serve the Fairy Queen,
   To dew her orbs upon the green.
   The cowslips tall her pensioners be;
   In their gold coats spots you see;
   Those be rubies, fairy favours,
   In those freckles live their savours. 
5. As my four years of high school education comes to a conclusions i am a very different person from the start of me entering this institution and now. I have gained abundant amount of information from the spectrum of math class to humanities. In humanities we stressed this semester on creating our own beauty. Beauty comes from creating like Einstein creating his theory. What i learned from this class is that you are happiest when you are creating. The struggles that Einstein faces and the accomplishments he faces gives him beauty. Beauty can also come from nature and observation. The fairies in Midsummer nights dream see magic as a thing of beauty. Beauty is everywhere you just have to stop and look around or you can miss it. 
6.  Good Will Hunting
7. .She walks in beauty, like the night
      Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
   And all that’s best of dark and bright
      Meet in her aspect and her eyes;
   Thus mellowed to that tender light
      Which heaven to gaudy day denies.
   
   
   One shade the more, one ray the less,
      Had half impaired the nameless grace
   Which waves in every raven tress,
      Or softly lightens o’er her face;
   Where thoughts serenely sweet express,
      How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.
   
   
   And on that cheek, and o’er that brow,
      So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
   The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
      But tell of days in goodness spent,
   A mind at peace with all below,
      A heart whose love is innocent!

8. One just comes to enjoy them more and more, becomes more and more grateful, and somehow better and simpler in one's vision, deeper in ones faith in life, happier and greater in the way one lives.

9. Don't Observe yourself too closely. Don'y be too quick to draw conclusions from what happens to you; simply let it happen. Otherwise it will be too easy for you to look with blame at your past, which naturally has a share in everything that now meets you.

10.  There are two types of people who are not aware of the beauties in life. One type of people are rushing though life to get to the next place or get the next thing done. The other type are always looking but they can not find it because they are looking for a single absolute "beauty".  They search all their lives searching for something "better." A prime example is Will from Good Will Hunting. He has been trying to "hold out for something better" He uses that quote multiple times through out the movie. Like how it is summed up in A Letters to a young poet, and She walks in beauty by Lord Byron, it is not a singular beauty that people should search for, beauty is around them. Sometimes it might seem like you are seeing it all at once and it is too much, you should never make quick conclusions ( as quoted from Letters to a Young Poet), but taking the time to appreciate it makes it worth while. 

11. American Beauty

12. 

13.  

The lunatic, the lover, and the poet

Are of imagination all compact.

One sees more devils than vast hell can hold,

That is, the madman: the lover, all as frantic,

Sees Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt:

The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling,

Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven;

And as imagination bodies forth

The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen

Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing

A local habitation and a name.

Such tricks hath strong imagination,

That if it would but apprehend some joy,

It comprehends some bringer of that joy;

Or in the night, imagining some fear,

How easy is a bush supposed a bear!

14. In the first week of school, we were assigned to read Mr. Allens letter to the students. In this letter he described about his experience with Pollock and his fear. The first time he looked at the painting he couldn't understand what was so amazing about the painting. He couldn't see the beauty in Pollock. At first i too did not under what was so amazing about the artwork. I just saw a mess, after i learned about the painting and about the painter it was then i understood it more. The beauty came from the chaos and the artistic action of Pollock's paint brush. This was the same case with reading Shakespeare. I simply did not understand and was blinded from the beauty. The artistic language in Shakespeare makes it beautiful to read. From this class i learned not to jump to conclusions when appreciating beauty. I must give it some time and try to understand the work. Especially this last semester i learned how to create my own art and to give everything an open mind.

Works Cited

1.Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Dir. John Hughes. Perf. Matthew Broderick. N.d.
2.Rilke, Rainer Maria, Letters to a Young Poet. New York: Norton, 1984. Print.(42)
3.Lightman, Alan P. Einstein's Dreams. New York: Pantheon, 1993. Print.(114)
4.  Shakespeare, William. A Midsummer's Night Dream. Clayton, DE: Prestwick House, 2005. Kindle Version.(2.1.1)
5. Reflection
6. Im holding out for something better. YouTube. YouTube, 22 Dec. 2011. Web. 29 May 2013.
7.Byron , George Lord Gordon.She Walks in Beauty
8.Rilke, Rainer Maria, Letters to a Young Poet. New York: Norton, 1984. Print.(21)
9. Rilke, Rainer Maria, Letters to a Young Poet. New York: Norton, 1984. Print.(94).
10. Reflection 
11.So much Beauty in the World. YouTube. YouTube, 22 Dec. 2011. Web. 29 May 2013.
12. Yalebooks.files.wordpress
13.Shakespeare, William. A Midsummer's Night Dream. Clayton, DE: Prestwick House, 2005. Kindle Version.(5.1)
14. Reflection

Curation Blog number 2

            After four long years of high school, I have gained knowledge and wisdom I never had four years ago. Looking back at my four years of high school I believe I would have done better and made wiser choices with the knowledge I have right now.  This curation is the story of how to excel and survive in high school. I will be giving my wisdom and many people’s insight for people to succeed in high school. This will help incoming freshman and many high school students of all ages. They can learn from my mistakes and have an inside view on high school.

            While doing this curation, everything is going well but at first I had trouble using the Google sites system. It was confusing at first how to import videos and images, but after a while I got used to the system. I think my most interesting link is the academics. I put almost a collage of useful websites for high school students to succeed. There is help from math classes to English courses. All the resources you need to succeed in high school academically.  www.Khanacademy.com

What I need to do better now is to find helpful links about the future. The future tab is really broad and I am looking for what high school students might need their senior year, like getting prepared for college.

                Everything is working pretty well it is just a matter of time. My first three tabs have 5 elements each. I need to brainstorm things that show clear and sufficient information. It is really hard to find step by step information and articles. I think having more articles will make my curation a lot more worthwhile. 

Curation blog 3

                My curation right now is going very well. I have found all 24 elements and I am not putting everything together. The most difficult part of this assignment I think is putting all the elements in an aesthetic organized view.Since then, I progressed a little more. I was finally able to figure out the layout I wanted to use and how I want the whole thing to look. I am using pearl tree as my layout. This website gives a simple and really cool organized look. It was confusing to use at first but now I got the hang of it and everything is running smoothly.
While I didn't find one particular interesting link or piece of information, I found many pictures I'd like to add into my blog. I will be putting a lot of visuals and videos to help me get my message across. What I need to do a better job of is making my curation more organize and making my elements into a simpler form. I feel like my elements are too broad right now. Everything else is running more smoothly.http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2011/08/12_tips_on_how_to_succeed_afte.html                

Curation: Story of...

In class we have learned what a curation is, and we are starting to make one of our own.  After four long years of high school, I have gained knowledge and wisdom I never had four years ago. Looking back at my four years of high school I believe I would have done better and made wiser choices with the knowledge I have right now.  This curation is the story of how to excel and survive in high school. I will be giving my wisdom and many people’s insight for people to succeed in high school. This will help incoming freshman and many high school students of all ages. They can learn from my mistakes and have an inside view on high school.

http://www.ohe.state.mn.us/mPg.cfm?pageID=1173

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-3SRluIS_I

These links I found give general tips and advices of what the high school life is. They give you step by step information on creating a foundation in order to excel academically. It is a very useful source of information created by Ohio State.  In order to succeed in high school you need to have a sturdy foundation and this link gives a start. The video gives a visual aid on what the high school life is.

I found information on how to succeed in high school academically, now I need to find resources on how to survive socially. A big portion of high school is the social life. I will be getting articles and interviews with fellow peers on how the everyday life of a high school student is.

Everything in this curation is running smoothly.  It is just finding good reliable articles on this subject that can be a problem. Many resources are just of peoples blogs. In order to get reliable ones I must really dig in to the subject.

               

               

               

               

                

Best Of Week: Ted Presentation

 As graduation approaches, this quarter in humanities, we have been focusing strongly on creating a future for ourselves. We explored questions on our futures and how to pursue the things we love. We learned how to sustain and be a citizen of this world. Exploring the idea of sustainability,many students in class have started their presentation on their ted speaker.  One idea that really captured my mind was Kimmy’s speaker, Bill Gates, on the new innovations of improving energy efficiency.

In her Ted talks presentation she presented many new ideas in improving energy efficiency.  What thought was very interesting was how the Carbon emission crisis was explained in one simple equation. Carbon emission= People x Energy x Efficiency x Carbon  output. This simple equation explained this process simpler than words. If we bring down one of these variables to zero we will be able to eliminate all Carbon emissions.

 
Connecting to Ashley’s Ted presentation, the speaker said all the materials we need to obtain clean sustainability was all on earth it was a matter of accessibility. I believe this statement is very true. For clean water to the energy and carbon emission process we have all the materials needed to fix these problems. Seventy percent of earth is covered with water and millions of kilowatts of energy hit the earth's surface more than we use. It is the problem of accessibility, being able to convert saltwater to freshwater and obtaining the energy given from the sun that is the core to all our problems.

In the next few decades we must ponder on how to better access the resources on our planet. We must learn to access these resources in a better more efficient way if we are to sustain the human race. It is not the problem of insufficient resources but the problem of accessibility.

Metacognition: the Mash-up Process

                Before I started the mash- up I brained stormed about the word “solitude.” I pondered about what solitude meant to me and what I believed it meant.  Solitude can be easily defined by a couple of words from Webster’s Dictionary but I wanted to truly think about what it meant to be in solitude and what you gained from it.

                For this project, I tried to think about famous historical figures who demonstrated solitude. One person that stood out was Henry David Thoreau.  I thought about is life experience in solitude. Henry David Thoreau wanted to become one with nature and truly mediated on his life experience. Doing this helped him reach his inner self and learn knowledge he would have never obtained. He was able to reach a new level of thinking. During solitude you are not alone; rather your inner self is your companion.

                My thinking is very unorganized and chaotic. In order to achieve a better understanding of solitude, I made an outline of my views on solitude and other people’s views of solitude. My first impression of solitude was thinking that when you are in solitude you are along but the truth is that you are never alone. You have yourself and nature. Making an outline of quotes and visuals it was easier for me to understand what the true meaning of solitude was.

                What I like about my thinking is that I can obtain new ideas very quickly. If one idea pops into my head I would try to incorporate that into the mash-up. For example, when I was searching for some audio/ visual symbols to better understand solitude instead of using a video clip, I thought music would work the best. I picked the song Solitude is Bliss. Cause it describes some of natural meanings of that word. This song explains how solitude can bring happiness and can provide this happiness. Trying to be in solitude can help you find your inner self and bring you one step closer in pursuing your happiness.

                

Solitude: The Search of your inner self. 

1.

2. Psychology of Solitude  "Loneliness is a negative state, marked by a sense of isolation. One feels that something is missing. It is possible to be with people and still feel lonely—perhaps the most bitter form of loneliness.Solitude is the state of being alone without being lonely. It is a positive and constructive state of engagement with oneself. Solitude is desirable, a state of being alone where you provide yourself wonderful and sufficient company."

3. You get the most when in solitude. To be in solitude it means to be in complete loneliness and quiet. The state of solitude is being alone with a positive out look. It creates a state where the body is thinking more creatively. It is a state of mind where you provide yourself wonderful company. 

4.“He both loved and feared solitude, he often wanted to escape from it, but it was the necessary condition for his poetry. The monk and the lover inside him, each a powerful and conflicting presence, were never able to merge” 

5."We know little, but that we must trust in what is difficult is a certainty that will never abandon us; it is good to be solitary, for solitude is difficult; that something is difficult must be one more reason for us to do it" 

6. Solitude is something people fear and is difficult to obtain. Especially in today's society with the advancement of social media, it is almost impossible to be in solitude. Where ever you are in the world you will almost never be alone. Because of this advancement, it is especially important to obtain solitude. Having a chance to take a breath and meditate and loaf is important for a person to learn about themselves and the world. 

7.  "Always trust yourself and your own feelings, as opposed to argumentation  discussions, or introductions of that sort; if it turns out that you are wrong then the natural growth of your inner life will eventually guide you to other insights" .

8.  "And you should not let yourself be confused in your solitude by the fact that there is something in you that wants to move out of it" 

9. When practicing and trying to obtain solitude one must always trust and seek out their inner self. They must try to obtain peace and harmony with them and nature. Being at peace and not having any distractions to the world is the only way to reach solitude.You must trust your self and if it turns wrong then the natural growth of your inner life will eventually guide your to sight. 

10. To sit on rocks, to muse o'er flood and fell,

To slowly trace the forest's shady scene,
Where things that own not man's dominion dwell,
And mortal foot hath ne'er or rarely been;
To climb the trackless mountain all unseen,
With the wild flock that never needs a fold;
Alone o'er steeps and foaming falls to lean;
This is not solitude, 'tis but to hold
Converse with Nature's charms, and view her stores unrolled.

But midst the crowd, the hurry, the shock of men,
To hear, to see, to feel and to possess,
And roam alone, the world's tired denizen,
With none who bless us, none whom we can bless;
Minions of splendour shrinking from distress!
None that, with kindred consciousness endued,
If we were not, would seem to smile the less
Of all the flattered, followed, sought and sued;
This is to be alone; this, this is solitude! 

11.  Hah! I say.  There's no importance whatsoever. I'm just doing it for the fun of it."  His reaction didn't discourage me; I had made up my mind I was going to enjoy physics and do whatever I liked.

12.

13.  You are a practical man, Michele. Einstein gazes at the clouds thinking of his project. He wants to tell Besso about his dreams, but cannot bring himself to do it. I think you will succeed with your theory of time...

14.When in solitude you can find many things about oneself. You will be able to find your passion, and dreams. In solitude it will give the opportunity to critically  reflect your past, present, and future life. In solitude you are never alone because you are with you whole self. Your companion is solitude, and this companion will help you find many things about your life you have not known about. 

15. "What is necessary, after all, is only this: solitude, vast inner solitude. To walk inside yourself and meet no one for hours- that is what you must be able to attain. To be solitary as you were when you were a child, when the grownups walked around involved with matters that seemed large and important because they looked so busy and because you didn't understand a thing about what they were doing" - Rilke 55

16. And to speak of solitude again, it becomes clearer and clearer that fundamentally this is nothing that one can choose or refrain from. We are solitary. We can delude ourselves about this and act as if it were not true. That is all. But how much better it is to recognize that we are alone; yes, even to begin from this realization.

17. “Families are designed to be the social antidote to solitude, so to learn to search for signs of loneliness inside a family goes against our instincts” (Wiggins 156)

18. Solitude is a path to inner self. To have that playful mind and loaf will help you achieve peace and harmony. You must be solitary like you are a child. When there are distractions large or small you must be a "child" and go along your own business. 

19.  Language... has created the word "loneliness" to express the pain of being alone.  And it has created the word "solitude" to express the glory of being alone"  ~Paul Johannes Tillich, The Eternal Now

Works Cited

   

1. Tame Impala. "Solitude Is Bliss." Innerspeaker. 2013. YouTube. 17 April 2013. Web. 

2. Marano, Hara Estroff. "What Is Solitude?" Psychology Today. Web.

3. Reflection

4. Rilke, Rainer Maria. (Xiii)

5. Rilke, Rainer Maria. (68)

6. Reflection

7. Rilke, Rainer Maria. (23)

8.Rilke, Rainer Maria. (67)

9. Reflection

10. Byron , George Lord Gordon. Solitude. 

11.Feynman, Richard, Creativity

12. Brainy Quote Henry David Thoreau

13. Lightman, Alan P. Einstein's Dreams. New York: Pantheon, 1993. Print.(114)

14. Reflection

15. Rilke, Rainer Maria. (55)

16. Rilke, Rainer Maria. (87)

17. Wiggins, Marianne (156)

18. Reflection

19. Paul Johannes Rillich

19. P

Connection: Frank Gehry and Vshow

               This week in class we learned about creating beauty. Last semester was more concentrated on appreciating and learning about beauty. Now we have started to learn how to create our own beauty using the rules of creativity. In order to gain some inspiration for our architecture project, we watched a film on Frank Gehry. Frank Gehry is a post modern architect. It was very interesting to learn his process when creating these gigantic beautiful buildings. He made his architecture on the spot and he made it look very easy, and fluid. One thing that struck me hard was that when one of his fellow colleagues said that the reason why Frank Gehry was so talented was because he understood light. He used natural light to emphasis his work and make it stand out. He used light as a building material. Hearing this, I planned to use similar techniques using light to make our architecture building stand out.

                This whole week I was very busy with the GBS Variety Show. Watching the Variety show numerous amounts of time, one thing I noticed was the lights. The light show and the time and effort put on the lights were incredible. When you look up at the ceiling of the auditorium, u can see dozens of lights. There are spot lights, lasers, colored lights, etc. Thousands of dollars are spent in order to rent these lights. Without the lights, the show look very bland and dull. The lights are what make our variety show different from all the others. The different types of lights give the mood, and emphasize the each individual act. Light is one of the most important prop in order to create incredible beauty.

                Understanding light and manipulating, is what differentiates good quality art from the mediocre. Frank Gehry and Richard Winship, who was designed all the lights, are very similar. They understand the importance of light when creating artwork. The Variety show would not be the same if it weren’t for the lights. Many of Frank Gehry’s buildings would not be as great if it weren't for him understanding the importance of light. Many artists use light to create incredible beauty. Like Frank Gehry and Richard Winship I must incorporate light into my building. Understanding how light bounces off figures or illuminates certain part is what makes some art even more beautiful.  Using light is what differentiates our building from other groups work. 

Blogging around

Change of Mind: Postmodernism

Kimmy, I completely agree to what you are saying. Before I took the class, I had no idea what Postmodernism and modernism meant. I did not know what does concepts were. By learning about these concepts I was able to incorporate it in my daily life. I had no idea Postmodernism and Modernism was everywhere. The movie Devils Wear Prada is just a small example of how these ideas are incorporated everywhere. If you just take the time to look and learn these concepts it will help you understand and appreciate the beauties in life.

Best of the Week: Thinking Philosophically

Ariella, I think what you wrote about was very unique and interesting. It was really cool how you made a connection with what we learned in class to Sophie’s World.  I loved your quote from the book and how you incorporated it to our class. “Wisest is she who knows she does not know.” This statement truly opened up my eyes and allowed me to be content with that which I do not know. I too am now more aware of my surroundings. I realized the importance of questioning and thinking philosophically. The one thing we must do is question. 

iMedia: Postmodernism in music

This week in class we started to learn about the difference between modernism and postmodernism. During the 1850 to 1945 many people thought and tried to express their “inner self”. The believed they must turn inward to find meaning. Modernist composers like Theodor Adorno and artist like Pablo Picasso tried to encourage new thinking.  After 1945 the postmodernist developed a new way of thinking and reinvent many of the arts. The postmodernist believed the world was more multifaceted and believed in complex network of networks. Artist and composers in this era thought in the idea of no absolute truth. Philip Glass, a well known modern composer, demonstrates this form of thinking. In this piece, “Einstein on the Beach”, it really gets to the fundamentals of postmodernism.

The beginning of the piece starts out with a synthesizer playing all alone. Then a choir of voices is added into the lonely synthesizer. They sing a mellow “1234..”. Then a narrator joins the duet making it a trio. The trio goes on for a couple minutes having a conversation. All of a sudden, a violin joins the trio and mans booming voice joins, making it a quartet then a quintet. At this point there are so many parts going on at the same time it is hard to understand and listen to it individually. The beauty of this piece is the complex nature of it. Individually the parts are very simple. It is a synthesizer holding only a couple notes, a violin doing arpeggios, a woman talking, a choir singing “1234…”, but all together it is a complex network of networks. It is too complex to listen to the parts individually, as a whole it becomes breath taking music. He emphasizes the importance of harmony and counterpoints. This piece of music shows a more innovative side of creating music. It is not the classic people hear every day.

When I first listened to this piece by Phillip glass I thought it was very creative. He put together very simple parts into something very complex and beautiful.  They were bits and pieces put together to present a whole. Instead of having a concrete melody, they were mostly harmonies supporting each other and having a conversation. Because of the supporting roles of all the parts in the piece, is what I admired most about the piece. It was not like the everyday songs you hear on the radio. The gradual change of the song from a solo to a duet, to a trio, and on and on is what I thought was very pleasing.

I think this piece can be a metaphor to our current society. Our society today has become very complex. From out ancestors of hunter gathers, there are many new inventions and we have come a long way. Every day we go along our simply life, like going to work or school, but this simple action creates a very complex society. The individual parts in this piece are very simple, but it creates a very complex whole. “Einstein on the Beach” is a very creative piece of artwork. I enjoy this piece very much, and it is not like anything I have heard. The beauty comes from the complex nature of the music. 

Connection: MLK Jr. and Tesla

Last week when we were reading the “Letter from Birmingham jail” by Martin Luther King Jr. we discussed about the importance of standing up to the status quo. So what does it mean to stand up to the status quo? Being able to resist the status quo means that you are going against the existing state of affairs and social norms. In society there is a social norm of rules to live and how to act. Martin Luther King was someone who resisted the status quo and fought for what was right. While many others lived in fear of breaking the status quo, he put his life on the line and was prepared to face all of the consequences to fight for civil rights. He was tenacious in fighting for his end goal.

Someone who is a lot like Martin Luther King is Nikola Tesla. Nikola Tesla was an electrical engineer and a futurist whose design contributed to the electrical system.  Nikola Tesla worked for Thomas Edison in his early years. When designing his machines he was often shunned and thought of as a “mad scientist” because of his crazy ideas of electricity. His colleagues believed his inventions were not possible and crazy. Nikola Tesla is someone who stepped out of the status quo and explored the outer boundaries of science. Like MLK Jr. He was very tenacious and didn’t care on what people thought. By stepping out of the boundaries that the science community thought was unrealistic, he was able to invent the radio, magnetic fields, and AC motors.

By learning about these two incredible people, and how they resisted and stood up to the status quo, it shows the importance of dreams. Because of MLK Jr. believed all people should be equal and Tesla believed in his ludicrous ideas, they were able to change the world we live in. No matter what society thinks of you, it is important to stand up and fight for what you believe in. MLK and Tesla were both very tenacious people. When they failed, they tried and tried again until they achieved and got there end goals. People must learn from people like Tesla and MLK Jr. and really admire their fearlessness to resist the status quo and be tenacious. As I approach the” real adult world” I must keep in mind the examples set by these two men. If I feel like something is morally wrong I must stand and do what is right. If fear and the status quo keep me from achieving greatness I must look at Tesla. Men like them are the revolutionaries who change the world.