18-19
West African Percussion in Context |
For my first project I focused on specifically Africa and how the context of their usage when it comes to percussion compares to more western usages over in the United States of America. Most of my research focused more on West Africa, but I also plan to look at Africa in general.
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Art
I created (or tried to create) a Do It Yourself (DIY) talking drum. It didn't really go how I wanted to due to a few things. Firstly, and the main reason I feel it didn't work how I wanted it to was, I used hot glue instead of a generic glue. Hot glue didn't really help me at all because there is an inner "rope" on the circumference of the drum head that gets wrapped in the excess material around the circumference of the drum head. That's what the string that runs up and down between the drum heads wraps around at the drum head. The string was fine and held good tension-wise, a little too good actually. The plastic on one of the funnels that I used as the drum body actually bent and warped under the tension of the strings. The canvas that I used for the drum heads didn't really hold sound that well because one; I made them slightly too small and two, the holes I created for the string to go through in the drum heads made the canvas split way farther than what would be referred to as, "really bad." Way after I was finishing "building" the drum Mr. Grandi suggested I use a 50/50 water and glue solution and to spread it over the drum heads. When the drum heads dried they were super tight and the drum actually made sound for the first time! Overall, I botched the talking drum which could've been pretty easy if I took the time I had to do it properly. The reason I chose a talking drum was I wanted to understand the context behind the percussion instrument, not only through facts on a screen but physically through my touch and feel.
English
For English I started an essay that I didn't finish, and somewhat forgot about.
Social Studies
I didn't really have a product for Project 1 for social studies, similarly with English and I'm disappointed that I didn't use my time wisely to make revisions during the first half of the semester.
International Space PerspectiveFor Project 2 I focused mainly on India's space exploration subject. I looked at what they were doing recently and what they have done. I also looked at why they are spending what they are on their space department and compared it somewhat to what the United States is doing.
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Social Studies
For social studies I created a speech in the perspective of a higher-up in the ISRO, here it is. Compared to the entire history of humans, we have only really progressed and created widespread technology that has been adopted by other cultures and countries very recently. With new technologies come many different things. These things include an even further evaluated understanding of how Earth and the Universe work--even if it’s only slightly, the feeling of accomplishment and pride, and most importantly, new questions. Humans are curious creatures and so much so that they strive to explore anything they can, especially in this case with space. But, obviously, sometimes we have to put exploring anomalies on the back burner so to speak. There are many more prevalent problems here on Earth’s surface. That being said, we can use Earth’s atmosphere, specifically a special place we call low earth orbit, or LEO, to our advantage when it comes to solving our Earthly problems. LEO is where most manmade objects like satellites and more popularly the International Space Station make their way around the earth. We, as humans, can and have created satellites that will aid our progress in solving the problems we have on our surface. For example, the United States launched a satellite called Soil Moisture Active Passive or SMAP for short. The main goal of this satellite provided by the National Snow and Ice Data Center was, “to create global, high-resolution mapping of soil moisture and its freeze/thaw state with unprecedented accuracy, resolution, and coverage.” This information has helped crop growers, scientists, and many others. We, speaking on behalf of most space organizations, have many more projects like this with different goals and aspirations to come in the future. For those who question, “why we have and should still increase our space budgets?” There is one of many answers to your question.
English |
For English I really didn't do anything special and missed the chance to mesh English and social studies together. What I did do was complete a short answer response (a type of Essay) based around why India is putting more and more into their space budget and what they have done in the past with the money and how it has gone to good use.
Short Answer Response Link |
Art |
For my art portion I created a collage, as seen below. It is supposed to show that space organizations aren't just blowing their money to "go explore the furthest reaches of mankind." People are always looking for a more efficient way to do anything and everything almost. This art piece conveys the point that, although on the surface it may look like space exploration is selfish, they are always watching over us and looking for ways to help with problems here on Earth.
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English and Social Studies |
For social studies I created a diary entry from the perspective of Fidel Castro just weeks shy of he and his men overthrowing Fulgencio Batista, the dictator of Cuba at that time. This diary entry explained his reasoning for why he felt Batista should be mercilessly rid of his power. I tied the English portion into social studies slightly by creating an author's note for the diary entry explaining my thoughts and reasoning behind the piece I created. I also created a small piece explaining what I thought to be Castro's "tragic flaw". A tragic flaw is a character trait that causes the downfall of the "hero". The "hero" in our case was Fidel Castro before he let the power of becoming a dictator get to his head.
Diary Link Author Note/Tragic Flaw Link |
Art
I made a pseudo-collage depicting a background with the "good Castro," the one who pushed for improved literacy, public healthcare. But, in the more prominent foreground there is a ruthless Castro, holding an AK-47 and seeming as if he is leading a charge. This shows his downfall and with words to his lower right that say "DEATH TO MY ENEMY" in Spanish. This is supposed to relate to how Castro, once coming to power, would do away with anyone who impeded his will, even old comrades of his. This image repeats vertically three times and starting from the top and working down are the variation changes that depict him slowly falling into communism and then ultimately ending up like the other prominent dictators, with broken respect and practically dead.
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Art
For art I synthesized more contemporary ideas with traditional concepts of Buddhist art to create my own somewhat personalized piece. The contemporary ideas come in with the faceless Buddha figure, symbolizing an androgynous figure that could be the person enjoying the art piece. This point is pushed further with the symbol on the face of the figure, in Tibetan literature that symbol is used as the English letter I when referring to self. The traditional concepts come in with the main figure being in the signature "Buddha" pose, as well as the Noble Eightfold Path (the wheel that looks like what you'd use to steer an old 16th century boat) above the figure.
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English and Social Studies
I attempted to combine English and social studies by creating an essay about Tibet's economic situation. Synthesizing sources to come up with a more structured and stable idea of what I needed to put forth as well as putting ideas together such as trends and globalization. LINK