The Highlights of this Project
During the course of this project, we did several assignments leading up to the final piece of artwork. The first assignment we did in this project was role sheets for The Book of the Lion where each week in our groups we would perform a different role to show our understanding of the novel thus far. During the time that we were doing the role sheets we also did some research on the Haudenosaunee and how they have changed and remained the same throughout the years. I demonstrated my learning of this with a doodle but there were other ways to complete this assignment. After that, we learned about the feudal system, wrote notes and compared the feudal system to the Haudenosaunee based on political government and beliefs. I created a dialogue between two people living in medieval times who had two different worldviews on the Crusades. In order to create our final piece of this project, we put together a chart with a medieval painting representing each aspect of worldview and wrote a few sentences to explain them. For the final part of this project, we used SuperimposeX to put all our medieval paintings together and incorporated ourselves into the painting.
In this paragraph, I will explain the components of my medieval artwork, how they connect to medieval worldview, and why that is important to us today. The art I created shows how it would be to live with a mediaeval worldview so we should be grateful for all the privileges that we have today. We still are far from perfect but it is important to remember how far we have come. Ideas from the past inform the present and we can use the past to solve problems today to create a better future. For knowledge, I chose a picture of a church. This represents the role of the church as the holder of knowledge which gave it power over people. Today, education, at least where we live, is a lot more accessible and with less barriers. To represent society, I used a painting of a king. The king was seen as one the main heads in medieval times. This is a product of the feudal system. But now in the present, this idea of the feudal system has turned into capitalism. Although we have traded a king for an elected government here, there is still an inordinate amount of power in money. In connection with economy, I chose a picture of a working class person, most likely a serf. In the past, the feudal system and economy relied heavily on the exploitation of the lower class. We can still see this today in the lack of consideration when discussing minimum wage and the fact that it is not a livable amount of money. In conclusion, this is how my art connects to medieval worldview and why that matters to us today.
What I Learned
Some of the most significant things that I gained from this project were a deeper understanding of medieval worldview and how their government worked, knowledge of some historical events related to the Crusades, and how to use SuperimposeX to create beautiful masterpieces. This process was useful to help me gain a deeper understanding of worldview and enhance my critical thinking skills.
My Feelings
During the course of the project, at times I felt uninspired by the content of the work but when given the option to explore my passions and interests within this topic, for example medieval weapons I felt inspired and eager to learn more. This project was very tiring because of the volume of work and the need to redo assignments when I didn’t fully comprehend them.
My Main Takeaways
The portion of this project that I feel will appear the most in the future is the aspect of worldview and how worldviews differ and change.
The driving question for this project is “what can we learn from the past, and why does that matter to us today?” In this project, I realized that we can learn so much from the past to find new ways of thinking, improve on old ideas, and take notes from the failures of the past. We can also appreciate how far we have come even though we still have a ways to go.