The print Be Purposeful is based on Larry Adams bee-keeping activities and utilizes bees as a metaphor for everyone working together to strengthen a community. Larry Adams has noted in the course of observing and tending to his bee’s that their behavior and the attention they require serve as excellent examples for young people making key choices in their lives. The print can be found outdoors, pasted up in neighborhoods throughout Milwaukee for the duration of the exhibit.
http://seeinggreenartshow.wordpress.com/public-interventions/
How can we stay engaged with our own sense of purpose?
Returning to school after several years has been a challenging transition, particularly because I find myself questioning how my initial idealism is meeting the world of grad school. As a student it is easy to get lost in assignments, deadlines, and the desire to please others. One can easily loose the purpose and idealism that initially brought them to their studies.
Instead of completing work just to get through it, I try to pull back and be purposeful with my attention, thoughts and actions.
My pre-grad school life included both work as a choreographer/dancer and studies in biology - I am interested in life, its movement, its story, and its potential for incredible beauty.
I hope to create spaces that promote the liberation of life and movement, that inspire imaginative flights of fancy, that literally beg you to run, skip, or chasse across them. I believe that this kind of experience should be available to all; therefore I am particularly inspired by public spaces. I believe fundamentally in diversity and being purposeful in my work.
As we talk about "engagement," it often starts with a driving personal idealism, and I ask the broader community as a starting place, what brings you here? What ideals have led you down your path of study? What does it even mean to be "engaged?"
To engage with the world around us is to be purposeful with our attention, thoughts and actions. This proves challenging, especially when confronted with a constant stream of information and media. When this occurs, it is important to take time to reconnect with the seed of idealism that started each of us on our path. Allow it to grow and change, but never be forgotten entirely. This purposeful questioning leads to clarity, as each person asks how they should personally engage with and build community. The question for everyone to answer is what are your driving ideals? How do/can they inform your engagement?
This is an interesting subject. I also feel overwhelmed with school at times because I want everything I create to have meaning and be engaging. Maybe this issue stems deeper into the format of education. As architect students we are asked to be designers, engineers, philosophers, programers, psychologists, artists, poets, etc. An education in architecture is one that prepares you for many branches of its field and also ones outside this realm. Perhaps an education that was slightly more myopic would allow for what Myvonwynn mentions here.
ReplyDeleteI certainly agree that there is a lack of hands on application on what we learn in school toward everything outside of school. Yes students are often consumed in school work and worry about grades that we often overlook many opportunities to engage ourselves with the people within and around the institution. This reminds me of a TV series called "Architecture School" where students at Tulane University take a studio in which students actually design AND build a low cost, yet architectural pleasing house to help a low income family in Katrina-battered area. This sense of giving back to community is the missing puzzle in many schools.
ReplyDeleteIt was after my first internship in China that I am aware of the gap between what I learn in school and what I need in the working context. I think that is what makes school amazing - the most important chance - or perhaps the only one -
ReplyDeleteto allow you to do something different.It is true that students may easily get lost in the burden of grades and deadlines,then after graduation things are very likely to go worse since the burden we face then would be something more severe.