So first thing first. I blame the government. Just kidding. That was just to catch your attention. But I really think I've been conditioned to strictly follow directions, exactly as they're written, word-for-word. I'm talking about annual DSTP's (Delaware State Testing Program, yes I'm from Delaware or as students like to call it the Delaware Student Torture Program), the SAT's, AP's and the list goes on and on. I've been disciplined to read the directions and re-read and re-read until I fully understand what I'm asked to do, stay on topic, and always include part of the question in my answer to get full credit. So coming from this disciplined educational background, I struggled with the vagueness of this project. I think I read the visual essay assignment sheet about a hundred times. Art itself is so vague and have I told you, vague is not my thing? I got so caught up trying to make sure I followed everything on that assignment sheet that I let myself be confused. I focused so much on the structure trying to come up with a clear theme, a beginning, middle, and an end that I ended up choosing a boring and unoriginal theme and ultimately forcing my photos to make sense. If I could re-do this project, I would definitely let myself not be confined to words written on a sheet of paper and really think outside the box, embracing the vague directions as a potential for creativity. Whew. Ok.
Another thing. Speaking for 5 minutes to an audience feels like an eternity if you don't know what you're talking about. It's not that I spoke complete nonsense but my theme was functional art and you really can't make a story about functional art. My images had no chronological timeline so I arranged them in a way that made sense to me. The sequence of my images beginning with illustrating the function of a bench to illustrating the details that make everyday objects public art to ending with combining the two elements and revisiting the first image to tie it all together made sense in my head but I definitely struggled to reiterate the same message aloud yesterday eloquently and clearly.
I actually did learn a lot from this project which mostly consists of a long list of don't do's but hey, learning is learning. I can now understand why people say college really broadens your horizons because college is not like high school. The math problems don't work out to a rational number and apparently, vagueness is the new black on campus. Life itself isn't black or white and I know this wasn't one of the key learning points listed in some thick book located somewhere in the English department that I was supposed to learn from this project but when life gives you lemons, don't just make lemonade but take from it what you need and don't be afraid to explore other options that might result in something better.
I thought this project was also difficult, but not unbearably so. I always disliked speaking in front of a group, and speaking about felt like it would be impossible as its not exactly one of my best known subjects. However I think I helped myself by picking a good topic. If I had picked something I didn't know much about I would have floundered. I picked sports though, and since I know a good amount about them I was able to do a decent job in speaking, even if I didn't know a ton about art.
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