et502's blog

It seems like a lot of people chose to use the rheomode to re-write/re-levate their paragraphs. Is this the most natural way for us to write? The easiest? 

Or perhaps (and I think this may be the case) is it the clearest mode to emulate - the directions for this form are the clearest. 

Original: Leaves – I don’t remember much from my HS biology class. But I remember learning about leaves and pigment and autumn – the trees withdraw their support, close/sever ties with the leaves… lack of the connection means gradual death, going out (for some) in a fiery blaze of color – colors that were there under the surface all along, only waiting for enough chloroplasts to die so they could shine through. Something like that.

Comments: prefaced with my memory – my incomplete memory of scientific fact as a lens (can you take this seriously?). Personification of the trees, the colors…

Re-vision: Seeing the leaving is forcing re-levating/re-calling studying biology and the changing of seasons in high school. Leaving is withdrawing support, severing ties. Leaving is lacking connection, moving towards death, going out blazing and firing color. Leaving is dying. Leaving is making space for waiting colors. Now, coloring is happening, shining though.

After I posted this image, Anne directed me to the “Women in walled communities” 360. I’ve been thinking more about the school as an institution (which, for me, has negative connotations), keeping us walled in. Is there an invisible wall in my 'Sound of Music' image? The mountains as a geographical/physical/visible obstacle, the convent as ideological/mental/invisible obstacle?

Am I resilient to these walls? By selecting an image that shows some sort of twisted freedom, I think that, perhaps, I am actively resisting that invisible structure.

On another note, I would categorize my image as anthropocentric – I chose an image centered on my human experience of Bryn Mawr; that is, one of emotional constraints and freedoms, imposed by other humans and the physical structures that house this campus/institution. Even though I chose to foreground and background different aspects, the campus is still designed (tweaked and treated with specific regard to human life and convenience) around people, so why shouldn’t I map it in this way?

The image I selected is from the Sound of Music – it’s that moment when Maria is bounding into a field, arms spread, singing, feeling completely free… right before she realizes that she’s super-late for something back at the convent and sprints off back down the hill (goddamn bell!)

 Forground/Background based on this image: I chose this picture because, for me, it represents emotional highs and lows based on location. In the background, there’s the unseen convent – a place related of worry, awareness of responsibilities, commitments, etc. But in the foreground, there is a sense of freedom, carelessness, and anticipation – perhaps Maria has been planning to go for this walk, looking forward to it, much like I look forward to my sources of freedom on campus. And of course, there is the challenge of the climb, which I think is a good symbol for life at Bryn Mawr. 

I’m trying to accentuate the positive right now, let that positivity foreground my vision of Bryn Mawr (and I think visiting my on-campus site, the area around Arnecliffe Art Studio, will be a space of freedom). But honestly, sometimes it feels like a convent, so many tight corners and obligations.

So. In my google search for images of the campus, I found this site. These images don't represent the campus for me (though I did make the "Bryn Mawr Bubble" connection while I was looking at the Toroidial colony), so this post is just for fun.

I love that NASA validated this dream-world. I did a little more searching and found out that NASA hosts this contest every year -

I.
For this walk, I felt restricted in my wanderings. I was uncomfortably aware of the need to reflect rather than simply being in the moment. And when I think, was I "present," in my own proceedings? I have to admit that, no, I was mostly divided. I saw, I felt, I heard, and all the time I wanted to translate this into words. But that act of translation, of recording, seems to ruin the experience, no? Or maybe it just leads to other experiences.