Synthesis

To be honest, I was puzzled about what to do when I read the Syllabus. Those modules sound really attractive and I try to imagine what could happen in the following three months. I have to admit I spend three days to find out why experts think the second picture is more compelling. During the time when we share our ideas in group, my classmates’ reasoning analysis had indeed made me broaden my outlook. After that, I found I need to more than others in class because I never think about being an expert in aesthetics. Thanks for having a so nice chance to learning something new. We have a great beginning from a “simple” picture.

The first step I took is my first assignment for module one. The key in this part is “connection” which I think is a really interesting viewpoint. I started from a very simple idea that I should find some connection. This kind of idea ran through the whole course. From the first step, I found intension and essence of art need to be deeply discussed. Most of time, we just think works of art are beautiful without thinking about the intension. When I see a picture, listen to a piece of music or watch a TV commercial, I think it’s only a form of artistic expression. I had never thought about the real meanings annotated behind it. Since then, I began to try to find the particular fascination of each kind of art and where does it originate from? There is no doubt that it is hard for me to understand and analysis these in the beginning. However, after reading articles and discussing with my friends and classmates, I began to love thinking about a lot of question about art and share my ideas with others. I got a lot of stimulating ideas from others, especially about some meaningful topics.

Here, I want to talk about another key “potential” in my view. In our daily life, the most important feeling we got from the work of art is beautiful. We seldom think about the potential meaning behind them. In another word, we could be under the misconception that art is a kind of unusual theme. Actually, focusing on their potential meaning, art always is “saying” something to appreciators. Some of works are very simple, but we still could get the complexity behind the simplicity.

After being a beginner, I begin to make an attempt in handling and creating works of arts. We made our first video on an object. To be honest, I don’t think my project is not good enough because I ignored the connection between an object and its potential meaning. Thanks to the help from my friends and his son, I could have a chance as a director. In this process which I called “the second step”, more and more ideas came true by technical tools. I learned several kinds of software, such as After Effects, Photoshop, Audacity and Premiere. However, it is easy to know how to use them, but it is hard to use them to carry out my notion, especially to express the connection between topic and my work. Taking fashion as an example, we could find this kind of connection between the art and education. Although there is not direct connection between fashion and educational space, but there are indirect, inevitable connections. At this point, when I turn back to the beginning of this semester, I found the method I analysis and the way I design have been totally changed by what we learned in class. In Fashion, “What Not to Wear” is a really good example for us to learn this kind of connection. This show had led to a leap forward in our understanding of many processes. In this course, we took a lot of forwards of this kind, which made me get a lot step by step. With these processes, I began to understand why I need to take this course, what it could bring me and how I can use tools to carry out different educational ideas.

I am really happy I could have this opportunity learning the “educational connection”. It’s more like giving us a tool to carry out my ideas than providing ability to be an appreciator. With the tool, as an educator, now I could better using a highly complex art form which combines many other arts to show my ideas in teaching and learning. Thanks David and Gaoming!

Fashion in a virtual world

Second Life is a 3D virtual world. It is developed by Linden Lab. Under special client software, People can create and modify everything in this virtual world. I am familiar with Second Life and basic coding skill is needed there. But, I want to talk about "Fashion" in Second Life.

In the real world, you may not buy everything you want for you may not have enough money. But in second life you can "create" what you want. You can create a LV bag, a GUCCI wallet, Chanel perfume(just a object without flavor), even a special configuration of hair. So lots of people there dress up with imagination and their made-up has a strong charactor. In this way, I think it's a very dependable and convenient way to let students join in an activity. Last week, I watched a tv program called "What Not To Wear" in learning channel. I think Second Life is a better way to see how the same plan works with less money. What's more, it will required less time. People in Second Life just need a series of functions to dress themselves up. If it is possible to retake this tv program in Second Life, we can design more dresses of a distinctive style or for a particular occasion with little money. Maybe, I have to say it could be boring if you put it on TV. However, if a lot of students need to do the same thing in class at the same time, there is no doubt that Second Life will be the best choice!

If we have a educational program called "What Not to Build" in school to teach students how to build a house. Do we really want to give students a mount of money and let them build their house independently? The answer definitely is no. If we have Second Life, we can let them build there. They can create any kind of building with their imagination and don't need to worry what they may fail or it's hard for building workers. So, "fashion" in Second Life can be much easier to express and realized. I really would like to see what fashion could work in this virtual world.