In summary

Here is another article about leadership, specifically women in the boardroom.

In reflecting on my semester, I think my biggest take-away is the importance of considering bias and recognizing that thoughts and theory are the products of their times and their creators, not inherent facts. It's important to think about where the dominant narratives come from and why they persist.

Reading period

It's reading period here at Wellesley. Reading period for me is just an extension of exam week. I have papers to write for three of my four classes. For the other class I have a cumulative exam. Since my final assignments are writing intensive I just use reading period as a time to work on the papers. If I were to leave them for exam week I wouldn't be able to complete them.

I dread finals and yet I find something appealing about them. Because I spend a lot of time procrastinating on the internet, I am suddenly immersed in the internet culture for which I am usually oblivious. I find, listen and love music I have never heard before. I view images and read articles that inspire (one of which I will talk about below). But best of all, I become introspective. I have numerous personal epiphanies and gain a much stronger sense of self. It would be great if those moments occurred during the day and not at 3:30 AM, but you cannot plan creativity.

My first find of finals period is this article about leadership. Leadership is, and has been for many years, of great interest to me. I like the ideas this article brings to the table: “If you’re going to engage people in change, there’s a whole language of narrative that goes with it,” said Ganz.

Searching for liquid modernity

I'm working on a project for a class that was originally going to be about the people on the outskirts of society. I was going to walk around the Boston Commons and through pictures I took of these people, I thought, I'd be inspired to explore Zygmunt Bauman's concept of liquid modernity. Liquid modernity is Bauman's way of describing the context we are living in now. Basically, without the solid social forms of the past, we have fewer frames of references and are left as individuals to our own devises. We all become more fluid in our lives without the constraints of the past. We have more choices and more possible paths than ever before. Interpret this as good, interpret this as bad... but I am not making a value-judgment at this point. I am just trying to observe the liquidity around me, specifically by looking at those who are not accepted into the mainstream, the flow of society.

It turns out that with winter approaching there are fewer persons from this population in public spaces outdoors. With very few images to look at, I have not quite felt the inspiration I expected. Today I'm revisiting the images of one performer taken for that project and posting them to try to get more inspired. I've added a picture from NYC because I think it contributes to the collection.

I think there is a lot to be explored in urban greenscapes like the Commons and Central Park. I find so much irony (not sure if that is the best word) in the images above. It's amazing how the awe of incredible structures of industry and of nature can coexist with the awe of poverty.

Never enough

I had to press pause and stop to contemplate when this TEDx talk introduced the idea that we live in a culture that tells us "there is never enough." Things are "never good enough, never safe enough, never certain enough, never perfect enough, never extraordinary enough." The presenter in this talk, Brene Brown, lingers on that last idea of the extraordinary. She says that you can't have the good emotions all of the time, you have to have the bad too. We are on a quest for extraordinary when the moments that in fact give us the most joy are ordinary moments. She says, "honor the ordinary."

There are many ways this "never enough" concept can be used. As consumers we feel as though we never have consumed enough. I have never thought about this in the context of emotions though.

Health of the nation

Two videos about public health policies. How healthy are our policies really? How healthy is our current consumer culture? 

What makes you passionate?

I went to a departmental dinner last night for majors, minors, and a few alums who were in attendance to talk about life after college. Everyone sat around a few tables, ate, chatted, and then eventually each alum introduced herself to the group. After dinner was over, we had a chance to mingle so I went up to an alum who began her introduction with a summary of a quote. I found the quote word-for-word online today:

According to this law [the law of Dharma], you have a unique talent and a unique way of expressing it. There is something that you can do better than anyone else in the whole world--and for every unique talent and unique expression of that talent, there are also unique needs. When these needs are matched with the creative expression of your talent, that is the spark that creates affluence. Expressing your talents to fulfill needs creates unlimited wealth and abundance.” 
― Deepak Chopra

This was something I needed to hear. I needed to hear that unique is good... that who I am is good. It confirmed what I believed, and was worded so beautifully. When I walked up to her afterwards I thanked her for sharing the quote. She was glad to hear that it resonated with me, and then asked me what I wanted to do after college. I admitted to her that I have absolutely no idea where I see myself in a year and a half. She responded, simply, "What makes you passionate?"

When is the last time someone asked you that question? I cannot remember the last time it was asked of me.

I've been asked many times, "What are you interested in?" "What do you want to do after graduation?" "What are you studying?" "What classes have you taken?" But, I cannot recall the last time someone mentioned the word 'passion.' Passion implies a much more important connection. It isn't just an interest, it isn't just something that makes you curious. It is something that drives you, that is connected to you deeply and emotionally. It gives you motivation to work, to wake up, to be.

"What makes you passionate?" she asked. And I froze. Or rather, I felt like I was suddenly defrosting from a long time spent immobile in a cold and contained state. A state where I forgot who I was and why I was there. A state where I felt uncomfortable with my decision to study what I am studying and where I am studying. A state that I accepted as formed, as decided, as fact.

"What makes me passionate?" I asked her rhetorically  The ice shattered and at last I remembered. At that moment,  I finally re-"felt."

Perception and experience

I am on the search for the right vocabulary to express how I feel. Until then, I'll take pictures and hope your perception of the image is similar to my experience of the moment.

Here is a picture I took today in Boston. I was in the city on a search for inspiration for a final paper topic in my social theory seminar.

I think a video has the potential to bring the viewer a tad closer to perceiving something similar to the actual original experience.

Here is a video of people in a different city on a different bridge.

Which medium do you think brings you closer the moment as I experienced it? I realize these are two totally different moments, but that's part of the point. Which medium provides a more "whole" and overwhelming experience? 

Umbrella Man

I think about the umbrella man a lot.

It's easy to commit to sinister explanations even though there are also non-sinister options. It is easy to conclude that what you see is true and that it's the only truth. Errol Morris does a beautiful job conveying this message simply.

If you have time to watch the video, watch it here. If you don't have time, the main point of the conversation is below. As is true with most of Errol Morris' work, the story is much more than the verbal content of a conversation. Watch the video for voice, for expression, for person.

"If you have any fact which you think is really sinister, right... is really obviously a fact which can only point to some sinister underpinning... hey forget it man, because you can never on your own think up all the non-sinister perfectly valid explanations for that fact. A cautionary tale."

What is the black umbrella in your life? 

Caring for the environment

I've always been concerned about the environment at a very basic level, but yet I feel I have been concerned more than many around me. I'm not even sure if my concerns are rational, but I have had the concept of 'limited resources' on my mind since I can remember. My parents and my Montessori elementary schools taught me to care about the earth. At one school we raised the Earth flag in addition to the American flag. I owned a tote bag that read "hurt not the earth, neither the sea nor the trees." I knew the Lorax speaks for the trees. But I started to really notice the little things when I got to college. Here I notice the waste of electricity in an elevator ride to the second floor when you're fit to walk up one flight of stairs...The waste of electricity in pressing the 'handicap' button so doors automatically open when your perfectly able to open the doors yourself...The dripping of water in bathroom sinks and tubs with knobs that just need to be tightened...The concept of using only one paper towel when drying your hands...Reusing a dish if it's clean enough... All very very seemingly insignificant things which, again, I have no real proof make any sort of difference. I just assume that they do, and they make me feel like I am living a little bit more sustainably than if I hadn't been thinking about them. Saving the earth one paper towel at a time, right? I think often about the need for buildings, houses in particular, with electric outlets in more easily accessible places so that things can be unplugged when they are not in use. I also think often about the need for a better system of recycling, or reuse, or even the elimination of the need for packaging and other products that are frequently ignored and trashed. Still, these are the little things. Perhaps the little things add up, but that's part of the problem: Where do we begin? How do we best, most efficiently affect change? How do we determine what change should be affected in the first place? How do we determine what we want the alternative, the 'new' that results from the change, to be? I am becoming more aware of how complex the whole idea of 'saving the environment' is to implement. The NY Times published a relevant Op-ed recently. Check it out if you have a chance, but first here's a quote:

"Unfortunately, the sustainability movement’s politics, not to mention its marketing, have led to a popular misunderstanding: that a perfect, stasis-under-glass equilibrium is achievable. But the world doesn’t work that way: it exists in a constant disequilibrium — trying, failing, adapting, learning and evolving in endless cycles. Indeed, it’s the failures, when properly understood, that create the context for learning and growth. That’s why some of the most resilient places are, paradoxically, also the places that regularly experience modest disruptions: they carry the shared memory that things can go wrong."

I also just generally like the concept that it's the failures that "create the context for learning and growth." It's a good message that can apply to many aspects of life. 

There's much more to say about the environment and sustainability, about capitalism and policy, and about concept and practice. Perhaps I'll write more about this at a later date. The article mentioned previously in combination with my studies this semester have me thinking about how time and space have changed our approaches to problems and have shaped the actual creation of the problems themselves. 

Single or series?

Images can be arranged in many ways. The way they are arranged can change their interpretation. For a series of photographs, there is significance in the order of presentation. Here are three separate images of children and their caretakers (most likely nannies) right after a school let out in NYC.

The images give a different "feel" to the viewer as a series than as, say, a single image. 

I put the pictures together to create a single image. I think the single image captures the way I perceived the situation when I was actually sitting and taking the pictures. 

Through the looking glass

 New visuals are created through the interaction of man and glass... Here is a series of pictures of people interacting with glass.

Found spaces

Here are a few spaces I recently found through photography.

Central Park is a place where man, man-made, and natural meet.

Habitat
homeless man sleeps in park 

Interactions
people explore the natural, surrounded by city

Landscape
people, plants and buildings

Impact
image of building is captured in a central park pond

A Special Place

I wrote this for my Environmental Sciences course. The assignment asked about "a place that is special to you." I was excited to get this assignment... 

When asked to write about a “place that is special to you” people usually immediately I think of physical space. It is somewhere that is inhabited-- something that can be thought of in terms of outdoors or indoors. Place, however, is more than the scenery around us. It is how we feel when we’re there. It is the space that the mind fills when we’re there. It’s difficult for me to pick a single place because “space” is a very important piece of my psyche. My environment has a great influence on my mood, the things I think about, and the speed in which ideas flow. Environment – sunlight versus clouds, ten-foot ceilings versus those found in cathedrals, wood floors versus carpet, trees versus skyscrapers—has great power over my behavior. Space, whether found through physical presence or through a view finder (I love photography), defines me. I find refuge in space. I find inspiration in space. I love wandering and finding new places or approaching familiar places from a foreign angle.

One of my favorite pieces of literature, Yi-Fu Tuan’s Space and Place, points out that “the modern built environment” created by “architects, with the help of technology, continue to enlarge the range of human spatial consciousness by creating new forms or by remaking old ones at a scale hitherto untried” (116). Appreciating spatial consciousness is a crucial part of understanding humans and their relationships to their environment. In a workshop I attended once, there was an activity where participants were supposed to move around the room. In order to move we the participants could walk, run or skip. After the exercise, the person leading it pointed out that no one squatted and walked, no one ran backwards, no one walked sideways. No one switched directions in which they were moving. No one utilized the space low to the ground or above their heads. No one thought to use all of the space. Instead, everyone did very similar movement and moved around the space in very similar ways. In my bedroom I have posted a quote from Thoreau: “It is remarkable how easily and insensibly we fall into a particular route, and make a beaten track for ourselves. […]The surface of the earth is soft and impressible by the feet of men; and so with the paths which the mind travels. How worn and dusty, then, must be the highways of the world, how deep the ruts of tradition and conformity!” I like to think about this often, reminding myself that the shortest route is not necessarily the best route and is certainly not the only route.

Picking a specific place to talk about does not communicate effectively my attraction to the idea of space and place. However, if I had to choose one place at Wellesley it would be the bridge that crosses the water separating campus from the President’s house. I visit it when I want to be pensive. I’ve stood on the bridge on a cold and rainy winter day, holding an umbrella while wearing a pair of gloves. It is a place where the weather does not really bother me. I like the texture of the stone bridge. I appreciate the sound and fresh air created by the water flowing beneath it. I enjoy the narrowness of the bridge and how it almost hugs me when I stand on it. On the bridge I am surrounded by earth both natural and constructed. In the moment, though, it does not concern me how the scenery got there.

I find myself spending a lot of time indoors and at a computer. I would rather be on the bridge, but as an alternative, I surround myself with pictures of special places. To me what is captured in a picture is not equivalent to actually being there but it is second best. I rely on the camera to capture space and the emotions that go with it. Because of this, I often spend more time taking pictures of where I am than I actually spend just being in the moment so that I can almost simulate the feeling of being there long after I leave. I can be at my desk writing a paper for environmental science and look at a picture of the bridge and immediately the positive emotions rush into my head. 

This is a picture of my friend on the bridge that I took using black and white film. The film did not advance as it was supposed to so the image is different than I first intended, but I think the error almost enhances it. 

Font and Perception of Truth

How does font affect your perception of truth? How does font affect how you interpret the words you read? Errol Morris continues his exploration of the hidden forces that shape our perceptions of everyday things in his latest Opinionator column.

"I have often wondered about the visual element in text. Yes, we read the word “horse,” but we also see the letters, the fonts, the shape of the word on the page. Is this not part of the meaning? "

Reinhabiting this space

It's been too long since I've inhabited this space... too long since I've last posted.
Tonight I was inspired to share some images I took in 2010. Somehow I buried the roll of film and then uncovered it this spring. I'm pleased by the lighting, contrast, and content. Classic capture of human behavior. Wall Street

Point A to point B

This trip home I have had enormous hometown pride-- for the scenery, the music, the businesses, the food, the people. Right now I'm experiencing one of those moments where it feels like everything is coming together, life is all I could expect it to be. I am planning my summer and enjoying the present too. It is amazing how perception of time can change based on how the day goes. When visiting my high school I felt like a decade had passed since I walked the halls as a high and mighty Senior, but it has been less than two years.

Time can also be expressed by recognizing how things change from point A to point B. For example, the photos below show comparisons between old and new. The images are of a classroom building at my high school in 2009 and then today. The building was gutted and space was re-purposed within the four outer walls.

Well, it's 2012 now. I wonder how my perception of time will evolve as the year progresses.

Happy New Year!