Although all of the TED
Presentations that I was in class for were really inspiring and amazing to
listen to, Ali’s was the one that really stuck out to me. Her speaker was the
one who created the water bottle that could filter water through a pump.
Why did this catch my attention?
First and foremost I appreciated
the demonstration. A lot of TED talks are hard for me to listen to because I
get tired of hearing the person talk about their idea but never showing it to
us. Second of all, while I was listening to both Ali and her speaker talk, I
was wondering why no one had come up with this before. The idea is so simple and
so practical, yet extremely effective and life changing.
This got me wondering about what
other ideas out there we have created over-complicated solutions to. Maybe,
instead of over thinking problems that affect large groups of people, finding
something that fixes the root of the problem for individuals or smaller groups
of people could be even more directly effective.
Before I began
working on my love-themed mash up, I had to think about what the word “love”
actually meant. Yes, there is love in fairytales, in movies, in books, and
there is love all around me. But I didn’t know what its core definition was, so
that is why I began with it.
Then I started
thinking about what kinds of different mind sets and views people have on love.
Where they see it, have it, feel it. Love shapes us in positive ways and can
even determine some of the paths we take in our lives. I found the YouTube that
exemplified this really well.
Then I moved deeper,
thinking about how love can be even more destructive, if you aren’t careful. I
put most of my personal reflections in this part of my mash up, because I found
that I tended to gravitate toward this viewpoint in my writing.
Overall I think
that it’s really cool how taking elements from literally anywhere can come together
to help you learn and understand more about just one theme. I think that using
this process of thought to write essays and do projects in the future, for any
class, really, would be actually really helpful. In college, professors expect students
to have a deeper level of understanding and thought, so this process would
definitely be a great starting point.
1. love \ˈləv\n 1 a(1):strong affection for
another arising out of kinship or personal ties<maternallovefor a child>(2):attraction based on
sexual desire:affection and
tenderness felt by lovers(3):affection based on
admiration,benevolence, or common interests
2. Loving does not at first mean merging,
surrendering, and uniting with another person (for what would a union be of two
people who are unclarified, unfinished, and still incoherent?), it is a high
inducement for the individual to ripen, to become something in himself, to
become world, to become world in himself for the sake of another person; it is
a great, demanding claim on him, something that chooses him and calls him to
vast distances. Only in this sense, as the task of working on themselves
("to hearken and to hammer day and night"), may young people use the
love that is given to them.
3. “And at the place where time stands still, one
sees lovers kissing in the shadows of buildings, in a frozen embrace that will
never let go. The loved one will never take his arms from where they are now,
will never give back the bracelet of memories, will never journey afar from his
lover, will never place himself in danger of self-sacrifice, will never fail to
show his love, will never become jealous, will never fall in love with someone
else, will never lose the passion of this instant of time.”(einstein’s dreams)
4.
5. He can remember that
all beauty in animals and plants is a silent, enduring form of love and
yearning, and he can see the animal, as he sees plants, patiently and willingly
uniting and multiplying and growing, not out of physical pleasure, not out of
physical pain, but bowing to necessities that are greater than pleasure and
pain, and more powerful than will and withstanding.
6. When
you have seen as much of life as I have, you will not underestimate the power
of obsessive love.
7. Love looks not with the eyes,
but with the mind, And therefore is winged Cupid paintedblind
8. But this is what young people are so often
and so disastrously wrong in doing: they (who by their very nature are
impatient) fling themselves at each other when love takes hold of them, they
scatter themselves, just as they are, in all their messiness, disorder,
bewilderment. And what can happen then? What can life do with this heap of
half-broken things that they call their communion and that they would like to
call their happiness, if that were possible, and their future? And so each of
them loses himself for the sake of the other person, and loses the other, and
many others who still wanted to come.
9. Rilke talks about the importance of loving books
and the knowledge they give to you. “People love” has a great potential to
disappoint and hurt you if you open your mind to it, but when it comes to love
of knowledge, this isn’t the case. Learn to live by the books that you love.
10. Loving is a
series of discoveries: it starts, significantly, with a Realization: that
moment when you know that you’re in
love. If writing were as exciting as falling in love, I’d get a lot more
written, but most of my Realizations come as pinpoints of light while staring
at the dismal tundra of an empty page.
11. There
are people who are so focused on the external things in life, such as romantic
love, that they ignore the internal aspect of their lives that they should be
thinking about as well. There are also people who are very much the opposite, but
the first is more common, and probably worse in the end. As children, our
solitude contributes to a lot of out true personalities developing. Development
unaffected and unhindered by anyone or anything. The same goes for the romantic
love so many people seek—to find yourself first in solitude is essential to
have the external love so many people search for.
12. How could we
forget those ancient myths that stand at the beginning of all races, the myths
about dragons that at the last moment are transformed in princesses? Perhaps
all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act,
just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in
its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love.
13. Parents often say that the reasons for their
actions are because “it’s more convenient.” For practicality it makes sense,
but this “easy way out” that Rilke talks about is something more complex. Love,
for example. He said that young people are not good at it until they learn it,
as if it’s a skill. The “easy” route would be to not even attempt to learn
love. The difficult way would obviously be making love work for you. It requires
humans to do the exact opposite of what they want in the end: to be alone.
14. Seek out
some simple and true feeling of what you have in common with them, which
doesn't necessarily have to alter when you yourself change again and again;
when you see them, love life in a form that is not your own and be indulgent
toward those who are growing old, who are afraid of the aloneness that you
trust. Avoid providing material for the drama that is always stretched tight between
parents and children; it uses up much of the children's strength and wastes the
love of the elders, which acts and warms even if it doesn't comprehend. Don't
ask for any advice from them and don't expect any understanding; but believe in
a love that is being stored up for you like and inheritance, and have faith
that in this love there is a strength and a blessing so large that you can
travel as far as you wish without having to step outside it.
15. The
importance of being able to wait is a major life skill. Everyone has a purpose,
and if we are constantly wondering and trying to control our futures—whether it
is a career, a relationship, a location—we tend to lose sight of the importance
of patience.
16. Empedocles believed that there were two different
forces at work in nature. He called them love and strife. Love binds thing
together, and strife separates them.
17. If you trust in Nature, in
what is simple in Nature, in the small things that hardly anyone sees and that
can so suddenly become huge, immeasurable; if you have this love for what is
humble and try very simply, as someone who serves, to win the confidence of
what seems poor: then everything will become easier for you, more coherent and
somehow more reconciling, not in your conscious mind perhaps, which stays
behind, astonished, but in your innermost awareness, awakeness, and knowledge.
18. If you
know for sure that you are meant to love and be loved, I think you have to
build up your life around this desire. Rilke said the same thing about the need
to write that some people have. I can’t relate with having the intense need to
write that he was describing, but I can fill in the blank—“I must __________”—with
other things, so that I can understand the passion he is describing.
19. “We'll
be washed and buried one day my girl
And the time we
were given will be left for the world
The flesh that
lived and loved will be eaten by plague
So let the memories
be good for those who stay”
Before
watching the Frank Gehry video in class, I had never thought of architecture as
an art form. In my mind, I assumed there was something to do with math or
physics and maybe some design based on the environment, but never had the word “art”
ever been correlated to building buildings in my mind.
Something that really struck me was
when Frank Gehry said that he wanted his architecture to make people feel a
certain emotion when they walked into his buildings. This is when I fully accepted
that there really was a huge art aspect to architecture.
Thinking about it, I connected it
to other forms of creating art. For me, I first thought of fashion design. It
really gave me a new way to think about it. For every dress I draw, I could
think about where the modern day woman is wearing it, the story behind the
outfit, and the way she feels when she’s wearing it. These are all things that
can alter the final product of what you design. And the fact that I figured
that out thanks to an architect? Pretty cool.
The first blog I commented on was Mark J's from Period 7. He talked about how he realized that modern and postmodern art is all around us now that we have learned about it in class.
"I totally can relate to what you have written in this blog post. Modernism and Postmodernism sound like concepts that are really difficult to understand...and I think that's pretty accurate in my case. Just like the automotive commercials helped you understand it a little better, the music and art examples helped me distinguish the different characteristics of the two."
The second blog I commented on was Sammy R's, also from period 7. He wrote about the song "Einstein on the Beach" and how it relates to Postmodernism.
"Can I be honest...
When I pressed play on the youtube link and started listening to it, I started laughing because first of all, I've never heard this song before and secondly, It's unlike anything I've ever heard, so I was pretty taken by surprise.
But as I was reading your blog post, I actually get what you're saying. I really like how you made it a metaphor to society. This song has so many different layers, that it really does show how actions layered upon one another create a complex system within each of us as a part of society."
One of the concepts of Postmodernism of the individual that we learned in class was that we cannot escape the "system" and that we have to find a way to expand in a limited space. I was kind of sad to hear this at first, because I would have liked to continue thinking that there are no limits to what someone can do. However, after thinking about it more, I can now understand how there are some limits. I realized this through a connection to the reality TV show Project Runway. Fashion designers are given challenges that often require the contestants to be innovative. Sometimes they are given unconventional materials, such as paper, materials in a grocery store, or anything in a flower shop. These challenges are all about how well an individual can "find a strategy within the system" to create, while still allowing themselves to think outside of the box in making something that stays true to their own unique style.
The weekend after reading Martin
Luther King Junior’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” in class, I watched a movie
that happened to have a few connections to it. It was my first time watching
“The Perks of Being a Wallflower” and I absolutely loved it. Ostensibly this
film is about a boy who is just starting high school with no friends, and
portrays his journey of getting through the year. But as the movie plays on,
you keep uncovering pieces of information that really give the story a
different meaning.
In “Letter from Birmingham Jail,”
Martin Luther King Jr. talks about breaking the status quo. One of the points
my group discussed in class was that breaking the status quo is unconditionally
seen as extreme from the point of view of those who tend to conform. He goes on
to say that although it MAY be extreme, there are many people in history who
have been extremists for good causes and for spreading strong beliefs. In the
film, the main character Charlie becomes friends with a group of “misfits.”
They break the status quo in the way they live—whether it is listening to old
music or obsessing over vampires, they don’t care what others—the ones who
follow the status quo—think. For the sake of Hollywood, each misfit was
definitely portrayed as a stereotype, which is an “extreme” version of reality.This
connection shows me that Martin Luther King Junior’s letter is not a one hit
wonder. Whether it is applied to racism or even the high school hierarchy of
today, it still applies.
The first blog I read was Nigel's. He wrote about the concept of equality and explained it in a way that I had never thought about, which was why it was really interesting to me. This is what I wrote:
"First of all, your entire
blog is seriously awesome. I actually had trouble choosing which one of your
posts to comment on, but this one really caught my attention. I love that you
have a different opinion on equality, because what I first expected when I read
the title was a blog about how equality is important, complete with cliches and
everything. I was surprised when I read "Students should stop being taught
that everyone is equal because that statement is a big fat lie" because I
know a lot of people would agree with this, but a lot of people would also
disagree with this. I haven't really thought a lot about equality, but after
reading your blog I think you have definitely convinced me that keeping the
idea of diversity and differences is the most important."
The second blog I commented on was Justin's Get Organized post. He organized his closet, just like I did. His ending thought/realization was also pretty similar to mine, highlighting how great it felt afterwards to be organized and wanting to apply it to other parts of his life. I wrote:
While I was
looking through people's Get Organized blog posts, I noticed that a lot of
people chose to reorganize their closets, including myself. I think that the
fact that closets have so many different parts (types of clothing, etc.) is
kind of reflective of the different parts of all of our lives--if that makes
sense--and, like you said, how each part of our lives need some form of
organization whether it is extracurricular activities, school, or anything
else. After cleaning my own closet, I also felt very in control, which isn't a
feeling I have often. I feel like if I had a ton of time, my entire life would
be one big organized closet...and I agree that good time management would be
the way to go in order to take on bigger projects.
After months (maybe even years...) of staring at the messy
closet I share with my sister, I thought that this was the perfect opportunity
to get organized. Our closet is relatively small for two teenage girls to
share, but somehow we manage to fit a lot of clothing and other miscellaneous
objects in it. The top rack is mine and the bottom rack is my sister’s. I
started by taking everything out—so the closet was completely empty. I sorted
through the clothing and made a pile of clothes that we could donate (with my
sister’s approval of course) and clothes that we wanted to keep. After hanging
the “keep” pile back up, I refolded all of the clothing that sits in the mini
dresser that also somehow fits in the closet. I vacuumed the floor of the
closet and was surprised to find that it looked a LOT better—completely worth
the 50 minutes that it took!
Before I started the daunting task of organizing our closet,
I was pretty unmotivated. I expected it to take a long time and I also expected
to give up after approximately half an hour. I usually only clean when I’m
stressed out or frustrated (I still haven’t decided if this is a good habit or
a bad one...) but this time I was cleaning without the stress. I got pretty
caught up in it and time passed much faster than I thought it did. I didn’t
even look at the clock once, surprisingly. This project makes me wonder how
organized I could potentially be if I just forced myself to start. If my whole
life could be as organized as my closet now is...that would be pretty great.
And also hard to maintain. In hindsight, this project could have been done much
earlier, instead of ignoring it for all this time. It reminded me of how
important it is and how good it feels to be organized, whether it is my room or
all of the papers we get in school.
When I first heard "Big White Room" by Jessie J, the lyrics immediately pulled me in, mainly because I didn't understand them.
At first I took it literally-she was trapped in a room by herself and the walls were white...but I realized that it most probably had a deeper meaning than that. The white room must be a metaphor for something more.
I looked up the background of the song, and I found out that this is a song about feeling trapped-"I don't wanna be here anymore, I wanna be somewhere else/ normal and free, like I used to be..."
She had written it about her experience in a hospital. Some sources said that she had a heart condition-"my heart's beating, b-b-b-beating, beating, out of control..." She wrote the song after watching a boy pass away, even after praying that he wanted to live.
I love this song because it isn't your typical happy, passionate love song, and it's not a typical sad song either. Pop culture is brimming with music that is relatable and appealing to a large audience, and this song breaks that mold.
But music like this makes us think. It makes us have to try to relate and to understand what the singer is expressing. It forces people to step out of their shoes and into someone else's for a change, and I think that being able to do this is extremely important.
Something that really intrigued
me in class this week was our discussion about humans and technology. We talked
about the possibility of having the ability to download information into our
brains and the ethics of doing so.
While it would be insanely cool
to be able to do that, I also think that it’s not natural. It feels like
cheating. What would we be working towards if we could have everything we
needed programmed into our brains already? If everyone is special then no one
is special. If everyone is beautiful then no one’s beautiful. Then would the
same goes for this? If everyone is at the highest intelligence then no one’s at
the highest intelligence.
A popular college essay prompt
seems to be along the lines of “What matters to you?” or “What is something our
university should definitely know about you?” In all honesty, I've been
struggling with college essays, especially the self-reflective kind.
For one of U of I’s essays, I had
to write about how my past has impacted my decisions about my future. Initially
I had a lot of trouble figuring out what to write about. I really woke up one
day and decided I would major in business and fashion...there wasn't a specific
part of my past that has been the indicator of that. I didn't grow up drawing clothing
I created in my mind, and I never thought I would want to be a business major. I had always had the
impression that those business people were the boring ones...all serious and
stuff...
And that was until I actually
started to look into it. I realized that I could find ways to connect my artsy
self into a field that, at first glance, can sound unexciting.
A lot of qualities that a business
major needs—discipline, motivation, the ability to persist in long term goals—were
things that I have learned through my background in piano. Once I finally came to
terms with this, I realized that I had my essay.
In Eva's blog, she compared our lives here in Glenview with the lives of children in the brothels:
I really agree with your thoughts on this. If I were to
stereotype North shore suburban kids, I would say that we take a lot of things
for granted. Not true for everyone, but definitely accurate in a lot of people.
We complain every day about having to go to school, when the kids in the
brothels would do anything to be allowed to get an education. We complain about
our parents who “nag” us to work harder and harder, while the parents of kids
in the brothels pull them out of school, which is basically unheard of around
here.
In Malcolm's blog, he talked about how creativity is important in many aspects of someone's life:
My two brothers are pretty much video game addicts...and
also two of the most uninspired people I know, SO I definitely see the point
that "The Creativity Crisis" makes in my own life. I also get where
you're coming from when you said that you need creativity as a musician. Having
original and innovative ideas is essential to composing and making your own
music.
In class this week we discussed
Neal Gabler’s article “The Elusive Big Idea.” A quote that really summed up the
main idea of the article said that today’s world is a place where “big,
thought-provoking ideas that can’t instantly be monetized are of so little
intrinsic value that fewer people are generating them and fewer outlets are
disseminating them...” This statement made a weird connection for me. It made
me think of those academic dishonesty scenarios that we get at the beginning of
every school year.
An example: Kid #1 doesn’t do their
homework, and 5 minutes before class you see them with two copies of it—one blank,
one with Kid #2’s name on it. They copy the answers lightning fast and get an A
for the day.
This doesn’t exactly match any of
the scenarios, but it’s still the same idea. It’s possible that Kid #1 just
didn’t have time to do his homework, but it’s also possible that he was lazy
and didn’t care. The fact that he is copying the answers shows that he probably
doesn’t care what questions he is copying the answers to—he very likely hasn’t
even read them. What he cares about is that he gets the homework points. Points
have value.
People today are much too concerned
about immediate knowledge instead of forming their own ideas through rational
thought techniques. I think that resisting this common urge to simply know everything is extremely important. Pursuing original ideas should have just as much--if not more--influence on everyone's thought process.
The other day I came across a quote. The things you come
across on Twitter can be pretty interesting:
I had no idea who Mason Cooley was, but I liked his quote so
I looked him up. The first source that came up was Wikipedia. It said that he
was famous for his aphorisms—another word I had to look up. Aphorisms turned
out to be short quotes that express a common truth, according to dictionary.com.
In my opinion, though, this quote was more than just a
generalized truth. It reminded me of the Alan Alda essay we studied in class, "Pass the Plate, Mr. Feymman." We did an activity after reading the article in which we made a "handbook for curiosity." It's true that curiosity and creativity are different things, but in my opinion, this quote connected them. I think that curiosity definitely leads to creativity.
One of the points in my group's curiosity handbook was "challenge your thoughts until you find new ways of thinking." Challenging original ideas is an important step in generating curiosity as well as being creative, which is what connects the quote to our handbook for curiosity.
The other day, I was surfing through YouTube videos and I
came across a contemporary dance routine from a show called So You Think You
Can Dance. The song they choreographed the routine to was called “Gravity” by
Sara Bareilles. This has always been one of my favorite songs, also by one of
my favorite artists. The first few lyrics are: “Something
always brings me back to you, it never takes too long.” Whenever I
listened to this song, I always interpreted it as a love song, talking about
how love can act like a gravitational pull.
But seeing this particular dance routine really threw me.
The story behind the dance was not at all a love story; it seemed to be the
exact opposite. It seemed to be about an emotionally damaged girl being tortured
by some sort of evil. The dance was beautiful, but I didn’t really understand
it.
Before every dance routine on the show, there is a video the
choreographer talking about the meaning behind the routine—this is also the
part I usually fast forward through. I went back and listened to the
explanation, and I learned that the choreographer had taken an entirely
different interpretation of the song. Instead of love being the gravitational
pull, it was an addiction. Which, in hindsight, is pretty genius if you ask me.
