Semester 3

Art can do so much to reshape our understanding of the world around us. Functioning in social and political contexts, art can challenge learned history and biases. This year, the Black Lives Matter movement grew, the election raised political tension, and a constant tragedy of the effects of COVID-19 were felt in America. These events were reflected in a shift I saw in my own life, where I began recognizing and appreciating more forms of art in activism due to Scholars. Art forms from speeches, to paintings, to make-up, to infographics, have flooded my social media platform explore pages, presenting data and opinions on current events. Many of the individuals and groups producing art to spread their message also helped to reframe the way I look at history and my beliefs about government and other institutions. I am still piecing together a new world view every day, shaped by my own experiences and enhanced by those of others expressed through art.

There are many theoretical models for the creative process. The 5-step model we discussed in class involved preparation, incubation, illumination, evaluation, and verification. To initiate the creative process, one typically starts in the preparation stage with brainstorming. This is where you follow an interest, passion, message, etc. that you want to work with, and then research it and the works of art that have been used to represent it in the past. Then you may want to incubate the idea, meaning you walk away from it and give yourself some time to think on it. Think about who you want to impact, what impact you want to have, and how you can make your work significant. The illumination stage comes when you have the spark of an idea, an idea which you can evaluate and try to reformat and critique. Finally, in the verification stage you begin to bring your idea to life and share it. This information comes from our course lessons from CPSA101. 

Giving and receiving feedback is a vital part of the process of art creation. According to class, feedback should be given following (more or less) Liz Lerman’s critical response process. The ideal type of feedback to receive comes from a neutral standpoint, looking objectively at your work without bias. It is important to ensure that feedback received presents both objective and opinionated questions so we can get a feel as to how an audience responds to our work and how best we can improve it. To effectively incorporate feedback when revising work, I think it is important to not get too attached to any one idea, and approach other peoples’ input with an open mind. Try to consider what they have said and adjust specific details of your work, and make a mental note of why you’ve made each change. Save multiple editions of work, so building off of feedback is an iterative process. This is especially helpful with art because it is subjective, so having iterations of your work gives you more choices to play around with as you go along.

There was an artistic trend on Tik Tok that had to do with Native American current experience that I encountered outside of colloquium this semester. Basically, a girl with Native American heritage dresses in traditional clothing and jewelry looks at you through the screen, and then wipes or marks a red handprint across her face. When the beat drops in the tribal music playing, statistics and “missing” photos flash across the scene. This was a trend that many indigenous people took part in to raise awareness for a Native American (and Canadian) femicide that often gets swept under the rug. There is an epidemic of missing and murdered indigenous women, as this population goes under-served and under-protected by the government. Being an arts scholar helped me to view this trend as art, because scholars has expanded my view of what art can be. I consider this performance art with the goal of spreading awareness. My experience with Arts Scholars also meant that I tried to think of ways that I could contextualize this information in my view of the POC female experience in America.

The course I have taken for my major that I think most connects to what we are learning in Arts’ Scholars is ARCH300, an architecture studio course. Our final project was done over the course of many weeks, and it followed the outline for creative ideation discussed in CPSA. The end goal of this project was an abstract 3D model reflecting spatial concepts such as tension, hierarchy, etc. based on precedents set by a chosen work of architecture. The first few weeks of my project involved researching the Villa Tugendhat by architect Mies Van Der Rohe and documenting it. Then I had to diagram all of the important organizational and structural elements and strategies employed in the building. Next was creating study models to initiate a 3D conception of what abstract ideas I could pull from the diagrams, and then finally I’d revise these to make the final model. This process of prep work, ideation, iteration, revision, and creation reminded me of the creative process taught in Scholars.

I really benefitted from being connected to arts scholars peers this semester. I think the greatest way it benefitted me was reminding me and assuring me that my health and well-being are important. Peer mentor groups were a great time to connect, talk about our struggles, and relax for a bit. I think this time with a group of fellow arts scholars that I became familiar with enhanced my learning by giving me a group to be comfortable talking with. This way I had the opportunity to integrate ideas from class into conversation without being nervous. 

I think one of the best ways that I have contributed to Arts Scholars this semester is by giving active feedback to peers. The best example of this is in our discussion/reflection posts, where my responses to questions and other peoples’ posts were thoughtful and educated. For the field trip I attended (the Fandago performance with Sinuhe Padilla-Isunza and Andrea Thome), I paid attention to the content presented and tried to build off it for my question connected to cultural history. Besides contributing to conversation both in class and in discussion posts, I have also contributed to Arts Scholars through my participation in CPSA149 (the service learning course) this semester. I was able to thoroughly present on the topic of food insecurity at UMD and work on making infographics for the Zero Hunger Campaign to help my community. I wish however that I had taken the opportunity to host a small event for scholars this semester.

One of the times that Scholars brought me in contact with concepts that challenged my way of thinking was during the first guest speaker Adriana’s presentation. She wanted to address how white supremacist culture is permeated throughout the American experience. We talked about how white supremacy impacts and controls so many aspects of society in negative ways, but it is accepted as the norm. This included the prison system, the institutions of school and police, housing, capitalism, beauty standards, microaggressions, the “American Dream” limiting idea. I did not disagree with her, but this was a challenging topic for me to talk about. As a white person, it feels weird to say that white supremacist systems negatively impact me, because the very nature of the term specifies that I am the least affected group, and it has contributed to my own white privilege too. It felt like a conversation that I should step back from and let POC have, so being asked to actively participate was a bit jarring. However, the discussion was really eye-opening, and I came away from it wanting to listen more.