Attached below is a final PDF of all my blog posts from Honors 177 in Spring of 2022.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/19k0eQvsqG6LmxtIpIBa8ikVLuaY-g4yE/view?usp=sharing
Thank you :)
For one of my events, I attended a talk by Jess Irish. I watched “This Moral Plastik” beforehand, so I was especially excited to hear from Irish. She started off the talk, talking about the concept of a lyrical essay, which is a term I’ve never heard of before. She explained it is a more personal and poetic approach to narrative writing. Irish then discussed legend, Rachel Carson.
For one of my event blogs, I attended a talk by Sylvia Earle at the Hammer Museum. It was located at the Billy Wilder Theater at the Hammer. I’ve never been there before and was surprised by how big and grand the auditorium was. The official talk was called “Hammer Forum: Sylvia Earle & Laura Dern in conversation.” The Hammer Museum also professionally recorded the lecture, so I will attach the video and documentation at the end!
For my first event, I attended the Festival of Trees at the UCLA Botanical Gardens. It was a lot of fun, and I’m very glad I went! At the front of the Botanical Gardens was a check in table where you are handed a stamp guide. The festival highlighted eight trees, and it was a mini scavenger hunt to find those trees throughout the garden. Each tree had a table and booth outside to learn more about that tree or play a small activity or game.
This week our guest was Xtine Burrough who focused on poetry and their newly released book Art as Social Practice. Professor Burrough lead the class in a “one breath poetry” workshop. I’ve never been drawn to poetry or considered myself a natural writer, so it was an interesting time.
For this week's blog, I wanted to focus on the short film “THIS MORTAL PLASTIK” by Jess Irish. It is described as an “experimental documentary brings together art, history, science, and the everyday,” which I thought was a great description that accurately encapsulates the film.
The sound and rhythm I hear the most is, sadly, the fan of my overheating laptop. I often have to run several programs all at the same time, and my laptop can barely handle processing it. Sometimes I’ll have Photoshop, InDesign, Lightroom, and 40+ Chrome tabs all running, bouncing between the different programs. It doesn’t help that, I work in bed when I’m really lazy and procrastinating, and the lack of a flat surface rumbles the fan even more.
Last week, the class had a wonderful trip to the Fowler Museum to see the “Communication Systems in a Global Context" exhibit. We mainly focused on the quipu and listened to a great presentation by Alba Menéndez Pereda about the Incan Khipu. I went to the Fowler Museum a few times my first year, but it has been awhile, so it was great to go back. When I normally go through museums, I tend to take a quick stroll throughout every room, but never spend too long reading a single piece.
I had a lovely time in class last week exploring the botanical gardens. I was in awe that the butterfly landed on Cole’s head at just the perfect time. I wanted to attempt to ID the butterfly and did some light research on native Los Angeles butterflies.