Energy and Place
Artist Statement
In this piece, I made a mini-collage in the form of the word “FUTURE”. The collage consists of a couple of city landscapes, which reflect my sense of place. I really think that I would like to live a larger city. Because of my interest in engineering (and a little bit of architecture), I find larger cities to be more interesting. With large skyscrapers, there were a lot of people who put a lot of working into planning this huge building out, and now I can admire the copious amounts of work that was put into this powerhouse. The word future represents my wish that this is what we’ll be seeing more in the future: large fragments are civilization. As a huge tech geek, I really do believe in mankind’s power to created new ways of collecting energy to make our own futuristic world, where we don’t have to worry about global warming and climate change.
When it comes to refinement, I must say that my piece could have been quite a bit better. The idea was there, and I really liked it, but I could have inverted the collage so that the landscapes were on the outside of the letters, and the letters were white (or perhaps even a different color). Also, there are some pretty noticeable pencil marks that I couldn’t remove due to the fact that I covered the letters in mod podge. But in the end, I am still happy with what I was able to come up with on such short notice.
My work was influenced mainly by my writing piece. My story takes place in a futuristic world where there is no need for nature because of mankind’s ability to be completely self-sustaining. My piece revolves around my want for the future to be more of an industrial planet, in opposition to a natural one. All of this inspiration comes from my sense of place. A lot of my peers connect with nature, and say that they feel in touch with their surrounding when they go on hikes and whatnot, but I am the opposite. I don’t really feel that much empathy towards nature. Of course I do enjoy the quiet space it can create, I also really do prefer larger cities, as I find myself in awe in the amazing structures that big cities provide.
In this piece, I made a mini-collage in the form of the word “FUTURE”. The collage consists of a couple of city landscapes, which reflect my sense of place. I really think that I would like to live a larger city. Because of my interest in engineering (and a little bit of architecture), I find larger cities to be more interesting. With large skyscrapers, there were a lot of people who put a lot of working into planning this huge building out, and now I can admire the copious amounts of work that was put into this powerhouse. The word future represents my wish that this is what we’ll be seeing more in the future: large fragments are civilization. As a huge tech geek, I really do believe in mankind’s power to created new ways of collecting energy to make our own futuristic world, where we don’t have to worry about global warming and climate change.
When it comes to refinement, I must say that my piece could have been quite a bit better. The idea was there, and I really liked it, but I could have inverted the collage so that the landscapes were on the outside of the letters, and the letters were white (or perhaps even a different color). Also, there are some pretty noticeable pencil marks that I couldn’t remove due to the fact that I covered the letters in mod podge. But in the end, I am still happy with what I was able to come up with on such short notice.
My work was influenced mainly by my writing piece. My story takes place in a futuristic world where there is no need for nature because of mankind’s ability to be completely self-sustaining. My piece revolves around my want for the future to be more of an industrial planet, in opposition to a natural one. All of this inspiration comes from my sense of place. A lot of my peers connect with nature, and say that they feel in touch with their surrounding when they go on hikes and whatnot, but I am the opposite. I don’t really feel that much empathy towards nature. Of course I do enjoy the quiet space it can create, I also really do prefer larger cities, as I find myself in awe in the amazing structures that big cities provide.
Sense of Place Essay
Project Reflection:
For this assignment, we were supposed to create a piece of writing – it didn’t matter what kind – that reflected your sense of place and environmental ethic. To get started, we learned about what sense of place really is, and what it means to us. Essentially, it’s where you feel most at home. This could be a place, an activity; there are tons of ways to find your “place”. At the same time, we were exploring different environmental ethics. There are hardcore “nimby-ists”, who refuse to allow the government to place large windmills near the ocean because it will supposedly affect local winds, and argue that they are simply ugly. And there are people who believe in more modern evolution- type theories, of whom support these new sources of energy and what have you. We eventually tied these two together, as one’s environmental ethic reflects on how their “place” is affected by the governments energy advancements.
From the beginning, I felt like I knew what my sense of place was. I always felt a strong connection to the larger city landscapes. Of course, there are some seriously gross things that have been known to go on in and around cities, but its more the city itself, and not its actions, that I find so impressive. When, in the movies, you see people driving through big cities with all of the flashing lights and larger-than-life buildings, I find myself to be truly impressed. Not because of conventional “Oh look it’s so pretty I bet it’s so much fun!” kind of thinking, but more of an appreciation for the architecture and work that went into those buildings. I just think it’s really cool that, as a society, we’ve gotten to a point where goliath structures are commonplace, and almost overlooked. This helped me figure out my environmental ethic, which I believe in mankind’s ability to work out its own problems. There are a lot of intelligent minds out there, and I do believe that, when given a seemingly impossible problem, we will somehow find a way to solve it. With this knowledge in mind, I felt pretty good about my essay. I knew that I had a strong sense of what I believed, so all I had to do was let the words flow right through. I ended up with a really good story, and I’m really proud of it. The scariest thing about this project was the art piece. I’m just an awful artist, and so the art piece really was a daunting task. Of course I had plenty of ideas, but it was a matter of if I could actually create it in a timely manner. When came down to crunch time, I was able to put a project together, and I think it turned out ok. Overall, I don’t feel like I grew that much personally in this project. It was an interesting experience to explore my place, and understand just what my environmental ethic is, but I don’t feel like I gained some sort of deeper connection with myself or the world around me. I only feel more aware of environmental impacts, and, while this is an important part of going about fixing our environment, it leaves me no more connected.
I was incredibly proud of the work that I did on my essay. I felt like I put a lot of work into it, and it came out quite nicely. I made sure that I put some of my own personal voice in as well. Like in this sentence: That’s simply too close to the seeds of fascism spread throughout the pre-famine Chinese Union, and that just won’t do. I was really happy with the tone that I put through as well. It almost felt dystopic, but I tried to paint a picture that was just outside of the bounds of a dystopia, and more of a world that was starting over, and struggling to gain footing on its new, wildly complicated problems. In a sense, the world I crafted was a fresh start from the environmental mistakes of the past. Overall, though, I was just happy that I could create such a cool world and really have fun with it, and I think my essay reflects that.
In the end, this project was one that carries a lot of importance. I was really happy that I got to explore such a prevalent and real problem, and understand my own take on it. Although the project was supposed to be jointed between Humanities and Chemistry, they still felt like two different subjects. Of course, they were both under the same category of energy and the environment, but they really felt like two different studies. This may have been the desired result, as the need for them to be closely intertwined may not have been a main issue, but I think it would have been cool to see them put more closely together. Perhaps there could have been a way to put both of the classes together in one exhibition, and not have them separated into two different projects.
For this assignment, we were supposed to create a piece of writing – it didn’t matter what kind – that reflected your sense of place and environmental ethic. To get started, we learned about what sense of place really is, and what it means to us. Essentially, it’s where you feel most at home. This could be a place, an activity; there are tons of ways to find your “place”. At the same time, we were exploring different environmental ethics. There are hardcore “nimby-ists”, who refuse to allow the government to place large windmills near the ocean because it will supposedly affect local winds, and argue that they are simply ugly. And there are people who believe in more modern evolution- type theories, of whom support these new sources of energy and what have you. We eventually tied these two together, as one’s environmental ethic reflects on how their “place” is affected by the governments energy advancements.
From the beginning, I felt like I knew what my sense of place was. I always felt a strong connection to the larger city landscapes. Of course, there are some seriously gross things that have been known to go on in and around cities, but its more the city itself, and not its actions, that I find so impressive. When, in the movies, you see people driving through big cities with all of the flashing lights and larger-than-life buildings, I find myself to be truly impressed. Not because of conventional “Oh look it’s so pretty I bet it’s so much fun!” kind of thinking, but more of an appreciation for the architecture and work that went into those buildings. I just think it’s really cool that, as a society, we’ve gotten to a point where goliath structures are commonplace, and almost overlooked. This helped me figure out my environmental ethic, which I believe in mankind’s ability to work out its own problems. There are a lot of intelligent minds out there, and I do believe that, when given a seemingly impossible problem, we will somehow find a way to solve it. With this knowledge in mind, I felt pretty good about my essay. I knew that I had a strong sense of what I believed, so all I had to do was let the words flow right through. I ended up with a really good story, and I’m really proud of it. The scariest thing about this project was the art piece. I’m just an awful artist, and so the art piece really was a daunting task. Of course I had plenty of ideas, but it was a matter of if I could actually create it in a timely manner. When came down to crunch time, I was able to put a project together, and I think it turned out ok. Overall, I don’t feel like I grew that much personally in this project. It was an interesting experience to explore my place, and understand just what my environmental ethic is, but I don’t feel like I gained some sort of deeper connection with myself or the world around me. I only feel more aware of environmental impacts, and, while this is an important part of going about fixing our environment, it leaves me no more connected.
I was incredibly proud of the work that I did on my essay. I felt like I put a lot of work into it, and it came out quite nicely. I made sure that I put some of my own personal voice in as well. Like in this sentence: That’s simply too close to the seeds of fascism spread throughout the pre-famine Chinese Union, and that just won’t do. I was really happy with the tone that I put through as well. It almost felt dystopic, but I tried to paint a picture that was just outside of the bounds of a dystopia, and more of a world that was starting over, and struggling to gain footing on its new, wildly complicated problems. In a sense, the world I crafted was a fresh start from the environmental mistakes of the past. Overall, though, I was just happy that I could create such a cool world and really have fun with it, and I think my essay reflects that.
In the end, this project was one that carries a lot of importance. I was really happy that I got to explore such a prevalent and real problem, and understand my own take on it. Although the project was supposed to be jointed between Humanities and Chemistry, they still felt like two different subjects. Of course, they were both under the same category of energy and the environment, but they really felt like two different studies. This may have been the desired result, as the need for them to be closely intertwined may not have been a main issue, but I think it would have been cool to see them put more closely together. Perhaps there could have been a way to put both of the classes together in one exhibition, and not have them separated into two different projects.