A look back at ART 250 and the days I spent at Art+D

I think it was best summed up when we were all penciling in our ICES forms and I posed a question to the people who would walk in a few weeks, sheepskin in hand, "is this the best class you've ever taken?" The answer was a resounding and unanimous "yes."

I'm half-way (hopefully) through this journey called college and I can truly say that this is and will be the best class I've ever taken. For one thing, it's art. Art is Hard, yes, but it's so delightfully subjective and open-ended so as to demand the use of your creative mind, which is a breath of fresh air given my scientific and analytical mindset. True, there is a lot of that thought involved in being creative, being witty, and being fresh in your observations of the world. In a purely aesthetic sense, this form of art is the complete opposite of everything I've done, and it's a nice break. This is probably the last "nice break" I get for the rest of college, life, etc. and expect to get credit for it. Unless I find something and take it upon myself to stuff it into my schedule. Otherwise, it's been an inspiration to start expressing myself through words and images and sounds again.

So it was an expressive outlet. It was an emotional outlet. In short, it was a learning experience. I was made more aware of my abilities to articulate things and say it in a concise and thoughtful manner. I was made aware of the nature of objectivity (it doesn't exist) and that somewhere in the discourse of things, we can all find common ground. I learned that robots take a lot of work, but when they spread their love, it is well worth it. More importantly, I discovered that the exigency to produce art is also the impetus to do something real. Whether it be mobilizing peoples' opinions or commentary about the state of affairs of things or to simply exist as a light in a bleak world, art has a purpose beyond itself.

I don't think I've written so extensively for any class so far in college. I look back on all the substantial things I've written and all the notes and figure it's somewhere on order of 60 pages, and the fact most it just flowed out in a stream of consciousness showed the enthusiasm I had for this class. I really wish I could do that for other courses, but perhaps this is an exercise in helping-me-write-more-faster. I've neglected voluminous amounts of writing for so long, but really it's cheap therapy. It keeps me busy. And keeps the thoughts running around in my head from going wild. It kept me going through mid-semester when a lot of shit went down. It was just nice to reflect on things and renew some sense of self-worth that I had stripped myself of. So, as unfortunate a situation that was, it was a fortunate outlet to that end.

Most of all, the class gave us an oppurtunity to get to know each other better. In words, yes, in workshops, yes, in barcrawls even, but there was such a sense of comraderie, these are people who you will wave at on the Quad if you see them, rather than passing them by with awkward acknowledgements like peers from other classes. I don't know everyone from other classes, that would be an impossible exercise given the 100+ person lectures and large discussion sections in other technical classes. The class size was just perfect for that kind of social engagement and dare I say synergy?

And above all, we had a great instructor in Cory Holding, someone who was gentle, warm, inviting, prodding, and otherwise perforce more interested in her students than some run-of-the-mill TA. Here's to you Cory Holding, you made us look forward to coming to class each monday and wednesday and your copious e-mails kept us delighted and on task!

And that's it. Until I return my external hard drive, there will be no more walking the halls of A+D, seeing all my art friends in the hallway, seeing zak or daniella or whoever else at the check-out window, parking my bike outside the building, seeing the magnolia tree outside in bloom, or room 225 and its copious amount of ever-increasing natural light and views of the stadium. To paraphrase my future tech+mgmt. professor, it's important to venture south of Green Street. And that, that I have done with spectacular results and have taken with me long-lasting memories.