Still need to allocate credits!
SOS: Commodification Processes and Alternatives
Andreas Erickson Final Narrative Self-Evaluation Assignment.
The title for my in-program Individual Learning Contract is Rise of Rust; Recycled Ritual. This contract is a cumulative senior thesis project, a year of intense study of multicultural arts and religion to tie together the past years of study in design, ornamentation, fine art, and fine craft. It will blend previous undergraduate work into a final scholastic pilgrimage. As agreed my e-Journal would be the main gate way into my immersion learning, the process of which was and is always influx, much like the cultures, people and places I was able to visit. Much of which I reflect in what metal working in a way means to me, taking the intangible idea and working it into a physical form. One is given a metal ingot, with fire it is refined, made malleable. Through repeated process gained from skill built out of both learning from failure, hard ship, and creative ingenuity, an idea is imbued into this object. The outcome can be a pendent, ring or even utilitarian tool such as a fork. But it takes being patient with ones process and work to make it that object. In the end someone may only see it as a “fork” but you as the smith know the unspoken history and relationship you have had with that piece as the maker. During this learning the greatest of these ideas or observations is that of hybridism found through out SE Asia in “Thai popular Buddhism”, of the mixing fashion of “hip” shirts, flashy dyed hair worn along with the traditional Longyi woven men’s skirts on the streets of Mandalay, Myanmar, where in Ryun Patterson book the cultural identity is in a way summed as thus
“For many centuries we directly practiced Hinduism, and after that Buddhism, and so this still exerts a heavy weight. You inherit from a very strong past. So it is not easy to ignore. We do observe that the Neak Ta (nature spirits) still exist. We do observe that people still practice the same rituals they practiced centuries ago. In this period of high technology, the two things coexist. Technology is apart of our modern life and traditional things will still prevail” -Patterson, Ryun. Vanishing Act: A glimpse into Cambodia’s world of Magic. Self published. 2015. Print. Pp 88.
For me the outcome has been not only a catalog of creative ideas, but a focusing of my own lens for the my future projects and daily life. Making sens of the none linear layered view of the world as an ever moving coexisting mingling of ideas, present in the highly connective modern day life. Which can be seen in with my work through WordPress. This tool has not only allowed me to share with my fellow students but has given me the time needed to journal and review what was learned in a day or encounter. Such as my work on writing about Thai Popular Buddhism, but also being able to witness and document its liveliness on the streets of Chang Mai and Bangkok. Skills in learning to not only write this down but deduct what is relative to the work being done as well as the being able to use it to research into new avenues and ideas has been priceless, even when dealing with language bearers and technical issues. It made me feel connected to a greater whole, like I feel when working on an individual jewelry piece, drawing or painting. Such as seen on my WordPress with my writing about Thai Popular Buddhism, but also being able to witness and document its liveliness on the streets of Chang Mai and Bangkok. Skills in learning to not only write this down but deduct what is relative to the work being done as well as the being able to use it to research into new avenues and ideas has been priceless, even when dealing with language bearers and technical issues. It made me feel connected to a greater whole, like I feel when working on an individual jewelry piece, drawing or painting.
After completing this ten week immersive learning experiences, its produced a narrowing of focus, and adjusting my lens. I am prepared and looking forward to look at cultural ornamentation such as jewelry design both historical and contemporary, individual fashion aesthetic seen on the streets to belief and ideas influenced by myth, folklore, magic, ritual and religion not just through the strata of traditional anthropologist eye, but through the active lens engaging in coexisting and conflicting ideas of cultural hybridism. For me the independence found in individual learning is essential to my own learning style, but combined with the e-Journal it helps to guide my personal discipline by motivating to be apart of a larger learning environment. I feel I am leaving this quarter with excitement to the ones to come, as well as a renewed focused and passion for what I have been giving my academic time to.
!!!NOT My credit break down
Be First to Comment