Hello and welcome to a new blog post! I’ve recently completed a new project called “Fear factor”. This project had a large launch cycle and was focused on learning about the Cold War. The driving question was “How has fear been used as a political, defensive, and cultural tool to shape our society?”.
The launch cycle of this project started out with reading a book titled Hiroshima by John Hersey. This book was a great introduction to the content we would contribute to learn about throughout the project. In addition to Hiroshima, we read a book called Fallout by Todd Strasser. After reading both books I created Notes on them that I added to my Zettelkasten.
What is a Zettelkasten? Well, a Zettelkasten is a collection of notes that add to your second brain, improving your knowledge on a subject. During this process I learnt how to turn fleeting notes into Literature Notes to Permanent Notes. In reflection, I now understand that if you embrace Zettelkasten as a system, it should become more more than a collection of notes. The system is designed to help clarify your thoughts, experiment with ideas, and start new ones.
After the launch process we moved into the building knowledge sectors (even though I believe I learnt a lot in the launch cycle). We watched two documentary style films titled “War Games” and “Turning Point: The Bomb and The Cold War”. These two films were a great way to understand the influence to the war and the Cold War itself. I was able to use my critical thinking and Zettelkasten skills to create detailed notes that extended my understanding of the concepts of the films.
After the Building Knowledge portion, our class came together to participate in a Socratic Seminar. In doing this we all sat in a circle and passed ideas around based on the starting question. We did this twice, the first time I feel I was able to get all my points across, but the second I was able to chime in at the right times and share my perspective. I also went on Dana’s podcast episode, which was a Socratic Seminar, and share my views on propaganda and its influence on the other. This was a great learning experience and really helped me improve my communication and critical thinking skills.
In completing the classroom knowledge portion I was able to move into the actual project that would lead to the final product. We were tasked with creating our own inquiry question that stems from the overall driving question. The root of the main question mentions how fear has been used for a “political, defensive, and cultural tool“. I wanted to pick one of these aspects and dive deeper into it. I decided to show how it has been used as a cultural tool to shape our society. The inquiry question I chose was “How does fear influence people’s relation to religion?”. This question came from brainstorming information I previously learnt in this project. When brainstorming ideas of how fear changes actions, I thought back to when reviewing my Notes I knew I wanted to creat something based on Ms. Sasaki converting to a different religion in the face of fear. To demonstrate why I chose this question I created a Pitch Form for my project.
To start of this project I knew I need to research concepts that contribute to why people choose to leave religion or move to religion. I decided to research post-war trends in religion and studies about how religion is used as a coping mechanism for fear. In doing this research I took notes using a Smart Brevity technique, similar to that of a Literature Note.
I then moved onto the actual creation of my product. To do this I needed to brainstorm and find inspiration in what sort of metaphorical art piece I wanted to create. I made a stylistic document that included different techniques used in conceptual art pieces. Honestly, I didn’t end up using most of these, but it was a good start for me to think of ideas.
I created a rough scratch draft as well as a somewhat material focused draft. In creating this draft I wanted to figure out the location of where certain items would be. Before actual starting on my creation I got feedback from my peers then proceeded. In doing this, I think I showed great agency in my learning.
With my draft completed I worked on writing my artist statement. This was an important part of my final product because it actually gave evidence to what I was showcasing. Throughout my statement I explained the metaphorical objects themselves, and why I choose them. I also connected it back to my research and explain why certain symbolisms were used.
To create the final product I collected my materials and started to assemble the creation. I spent a lot of time on the assembly of my creation. I believe that my product successfully came to life, as how I pictured it. I think I was productively able to follow my schedule to completion.
Throughout this project I feel I was able to use my agency to showcase my connections and understanding of the content we were learning. To conclude, I have enough understanding to answer the main driving question “How has fear been used as a political, defensive, and cultural tool to shape our society?”. As shown in my final creation…Fear has been used as a cultural tool in shaping our society through its ability to initiate peoples relation to religion, and changing the course of people’s values.
Hopefully this post has made you think about what fear influences. Thank you for reading!
Alicia 🙂