This year is already half over, and it went by rather quickly, but I have already accomplished a few projects. In this post I am going to be recapping the most important moments this year that I thought helped me as a learner, and also projects that I had a lot of fun creating. I don’t really have anything else to say, so here is my Mpols 2022.
Since this year I only have one class that the Mpols cover, all of the projects will be from this one class, which means this year unfortunately there will be no math or science reflection. Hopefully this years projects will make up for that.
To kick it off I am going to be sharing the project I think made me the most proud. The project is our latest one which was the Manhattan Project project. There is a lot here that I am proud of, to begin with I am proud of myself for exploring a different side of art and learning about how different artist communicate their idea in different ways. I have a lot more to say on this topic but I’ll save it for later.
As we went through the project what I was really happy to realize was that all of the science behind the project made sense to me and I could actually understand without reminder all of the information about atomic bonding and releasing energy. This made the project not only easier, but also more fun in general. In fact my original idea was to incorporate this into my final art piece, however I had some other ideas that pushed me out of the chemistry side of things, where I was comfortable, and into other aspects of the bomb that I was maybe not so comfortable tackling until now.
Now we reach the climax of the project, the exhibition, this is when I really impressed myself ( not to sound like I’m bragging). It all seemed to flow together after a while. If you want to read about the entire exhibition the post is Here . Exhibition time is crazy, but always rewarding, and this year I was able to create and art piece for everyone to see. As usual I was really proud of how our section of the exhibition turned out, and everyone worked very hard to get there. What I was most proud of was my final product. It had all of my recently gained information about the Manhattan project and conceptual art all wrapped up, but it had my ideas incorporated as well which really made it unique to me.
Moving on from the prideful moments through that project, we are now at the parts of this year which challenged me. I have an example that was quite challenging for me, whether it challenged my ideas, my options, or it was just challenging in general, you’ll find out.
The first example I have to share is our most recent project in which we looked at literary terms in music and then looked at songs that we listen to in our everyday lives and found out a little more about them. The reason I found part of this project so challenging is because I could not find anything that connected me to the songs I listen to. For me it wasn’t because the song connected to me in a personal way, it was just because I liked the music, whether it be because it sounded good or maybe it had instrumental aspects that I liked. Whatever the point was, it wasn’t because of my feeling towards the music, but the project was based around songs that we connected to on an emotional level.
In order to complete the project I had to find out how I could connect to my songs in a way that was deeper than just ‘“it sounds good”. In order to do that I decided to chose songs which I thought had value based on things like memories and also relating to some of the lyrics as well. This worked well for me, and as I found out, there are quite a few songs that I can relate so just based on what type of memories are attached to them. The main song I ended up choosing was based around when I first heard the song and how it connected to my athletic life. I was able to elaborate upon that song because I had a lot to say about the athletic memories attached to it.
Onto the second challenge that happened this year. During the previously mentioned Manhattan Project Project we had to analyze conceptual art and what made it unique compared to traditional art. The entire art section of the project was very challenging, not only because it was hard to understand how to create this type of art, but because it was very hard to understand the ideas of which this art is built upon.
As someone who likes to value the final project of my work and how it looks, it was very hard for me to understand conceptual art and how people saw value in such bizarre art. I think the part that stand out to me the most was the first time I saw the vocal performance by Yoko Ono. It truly shocked me, and I would realize after looking at more art like this, that this is the reactions that the artist wanted to happen. I had a reaction to the art, whether it was good or bad, it doesn’t really matter, but know it is something I will remember, and that is what the artist wants.
What I wondered was couldn’t traditional art invoke the same type of reaction if the painting or sculpture was really good? I would learn that traditional art can indeed have the same reactions, but what conceptual artist are thinking is “so what if I am a good painter? It’s already been done”, but couldn’t it been done better? I have questioned everything about conceptual art many times, but at the end of the project I came to realize that it doesn’t matter what I think, this art has already impacted the art world. Overall I think I came to accept this art as something people like and want to create, but my opinions about it stayed the same even through to the end of the project.
In my third example I am going to be share a bit about when I thought I showed good leadership skills throughout the term. The moment I want to highlight it the politics project that happened at the beginning of the year. During the entire project I felt as thought I was able to help guide our group to a final product in which we were happy with. Every year when I reflect on leadership I end taking about how next time I could do better at including everyone’s ideas, but this time around I think I did a good job at just that. Party had values and ideas that all of our group members agreed with. At the end of I thought everything came together really well and we created a champagne video that everyone was proud of.
Looking at my growth chart and comparing it to the work I have done this year, I would say I have met the expectations I set for myself. a big part of my growth chart was focused around going deeper and exploring my ideas more when it came to talking about different topics. I think the recent project Playlist Of My Life is a good example of exploring my own ideas more. I was able to over come the challenge of relating songs to me, and I was able to actually look at how the songs I listen to connect to myself, whether it be through memories or something else. For other people it might be easier to explain their emotions and how it connects to their songs, but for me it is a real step out of my comfort zone, and so I was happy that I was able to try out this skill a little more in this project.
The second biggest aspect of my growth chart was a mixture of creative thinking and reflective thinking, and I think I was able to accomplish this skill in my Manhattan Project Project. I believe I went the distance to create a unique art exhibit that showcased my knowledge on the atomic bomb. In the learning plan I set my expectations for myself pretty high when it came to creative thinking, and I think this is the best project to represent by use of creative thinking in a project.
One part of my growth plan that I did not really use and I could improve upon is the support aspect. Throughout the projects so far I have not really reached out to my teachers for support or questions. I did feel confident in the work I was creating, however it could have been improved if I had taken the time to ask for advice. In future projects I can improve upon this skill by always keeping in mind that I have people I can go to for help.
Overall in this first term of PLP I think I have made good progress and have already improved upon skills which I know are tougher for me, however I think there is skill a lot I can improve on. Moving on to next term I plan to continue improving upon all skills mentioned in this post, in addition I hope to improve upon parts of the growth plan that I did not do enough of this term. Also for the next term I hope to have as much fun as I did this term, because if it’s not fun I probably won’t do my best work.
That’s all for now.