Author Archives: sowala24

Ms – Week 7 Bachelardian Reverie

“Anglo-American legal systems conceptualize their subjects – with specific exceptions – as individuals with minds, or mental states, who intend to commit, and who foresee their outcome to the extent that any reasonable person could do so (Morse 2004, 2006, 2008; Morse and Hoffman 2007)” (Rose & Abi-Rached 178).

I am already spoken for.

Brain scans and testing and

the stamp on my chart.

The condemned

the condamned,

condamnation

condemning the nation

with red stamps,

yellowing papers nailed

to the front doors

of my mind.

“Doesn’t work well with others

What the hell is this?

One picture of

my gray matters.

The only matter

that really matters.

But “I” matters.

Why can’t I matter?

That white tube

that whirrs and blurrs

and spits me out

with a stamp that reads:

“Not suitable

for this society”.

Ms – Week 6 Bachelardian Reverie

“Where human life is concerned, scientific tools are not neutral: ‘the mind has been recreated in their image'” (Rose & Abi-Rached 159).

To be more specific… the collective ‘we’ defines the brain through the instruments created to define the brain. If the rapidity of the synapses firing when watching a bird drink from a fountain needs to be measured (for example) then an instrument will be tailored specifically to measure that function. We only know what we know from what we create to measure what we want to know.

Neuroscience is like language. In language, tools (letters, numbers, words, and other symbols) are created to express emotions, actions, etc. In the neurosciences, tools are created to measure these specific things. In language these tools are arbitrary (in the modern sense) and in neuroscience these tools are created to narrowly define specific actions in the brain.

That brings me to the impossible notion that the mind can be undefined or defined definitely because the mind is the one defining its self. But even thinking about defining the mind forces you to use your mind and thus the whole notion is off-set. The mind is constantly re-defining its self based upon what it knows and for what it does not know, it creates and instrument to figure it out and the process begins again and again.

Ms – Week 7 Log

May 13th

1 hour Reading Poetry and the Fate of the Senses (Stewart)

1.5 hours writing poems

1 hour researching/looking for Proustian writers in library (with much success)

May 14th

30 minutes In-class smell experiment with coffee and candles

30 minutes sifting class notes from experiment, arranging in ‘relevant’ piles

2 hours reading My Poets

1 hour reading Poetry and the Fate of the Senses

May 15th

1.5 hours at artist lecture series

3 hours reading Proust was a Neuroscientist

1 hour writing notes on Proust was a Neuroscientist 

May 16th

1.5 hours My poets

3 hours editing poetry

1 hour reading Proust was a Neuroscientist

30 minutes writing notes on Proust was a Neuroscientist

May 17th

4 hours writing poems from jotted notes and experiencing smells and writing them down

2 hours reading online articles about Proustian methods and theories

2 hours journaling prose poetry about smell triggers and stories

May 18th

2 hours editing journaled prose poetry from 5/17

3 hours reviewing note from A dirty smell of mangoes, Proust was a Neuroscientist, and Poetry and the Fate of the Senses. 

May 19th

2 hours experiencing favorite smells and writing the many variations of what the scent means/triggers for me

3 hours writing poetry based on the variations

2 hours editing cumulative poems

1 hour journaling in prose poetry form

Totals

This week: 40 hours

Cumulative total: 80 hours

Reading List:

Poetry and the Fate of the Senses

Remembrance of things past

A dirty smell of mangoes

Proust was a Neuroscientist

My Poets

 

 

Ms – Week 6 Log

May 6th

4 hours Reading Poetry and the of the Senses (Susan Stewart) and A Dirty Smell of Mangoes (Ernesto de Souza Pochito

2 hour Writing and Editing olfactory poems

May 7th

4.5 hours Creating poems

2 hours reading assorted Proustian texts

May 8th

3 hours Writing/Journaling on smell and memory

3 hours Reading and researching “Proustian” work

Many 9th

2.5 hours Editing, formatting, revising poems from earlier in the week.

1.5 hours Journaling/creating poems around scent

2.5 hours Reading de Souza Pochito

May 10th

2 hours Reading de Souza Pochito

2.5 hours Creating poems, editing poems

1 hour Editing Cento poem from class week 5 (Tuesday), piecing together bits for a Cento from My Poets

May 11th

2.5 hours sifting through pictures from childhood and writing down scents associated with memories

3 hours Reading online articles about Marcel Proust, researching Proust

May 12th

2 hours Writing/Editing poems

2 hours Journaling for my Midnight Chapter

1.5 hours Reading Proustian texts

1.5 hours Reading (re-reading) Susan Stewart

Totals

This week: 40 hours

Cumulative total: 40 hours

Reading List:

Poetry and the Fate of the Senses

Remembrance of things past

A dirty smell of mangoes

Proust was a Neuroscientist

 

 

Ms is for Memory through Smell

Field Study proposal excerpt

The student will read and assess poetry pertaining to scent in regards to memory. She will engage fellow classmates in poetry writing in an atmosphere of scent throughout the quarter and create Cento (or “Scento”) poems with those works; as well as creating “Scento” poems from perfume/fragrance jingles. The student will participate in weekly seminars and create short works of poetry and/or prose in response to weekly readings. She will develop a greater sense of how smell and memory are connected in our neural networks. At the end of the quarter the student will present her work to her class in the form of two written chapters and a final presentation.

See full proposal and weekly logs

ABCs and 123s – weekly log and field notes

[catlist tags=ms-logs date=yes excerpt=yes excerpt_size=30]

Bachelardian Reverie

[catlist tags=ms-bachelard date=yes excerpt=yes excerpt_size=30]

Poetry

[catlist tags=ms-poetry excerpt=yes excerpt_size=30]

Poetry Observed

(embedded youtube or Vimeo video will go here)

Term Paper Abstract

Read full term paper