One of our assignments in class was to create a new puzzle or board game, or modify an existing one. I took the puzzle game Hashiwokakero and added my own set of rules to it. Originally, the game calls for only horizontal and vertical bridges, with no restraints or stipulations on the islands with certain numbers. I added diagonal brides and created a new set of rules for islands with the numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4. Then I had to actually CREATE the puzzle, which was the hardest part of all. This took a lot of sketching, restarting, scribbling, and erasing to complete. I'm proud of my puzzle and would invite anyone to try and solve it!
For my last honors experience I decided to take a class that was a little different than the courses I had taken throughout my college career. Most of my curriculum up until this point had been art-type classes: video production, audio production, design, music history, world music, and so on. In high school I was very good at math and science, so I decided to go back to those roots and see how I would fare in a class based in probability and problem solving. I certainly was slow at the beginning of the semester; the left part of my brain needed time to warm up after not being used in a classroom setting for years. Eventually, however, I got really into the different puzzles we studied and found enjoyment in really sitting down with a problem and working for long periods of time trying to solve it. It was frustrating, but rewarding. Irritating, but fun. It was exactly what I needed my senior year, and I'm glad I took the opportunity to utilize my brain in this fashion 'one last time' before graduating college.
To put it bluntly: I had an incredible summer. I was lucky enough to spend time in Munich, Germany taking 5 weeks of classes at Ludwig Maximalists University and 4 weeks of an internship at the Institut fur Rundfunktechnik (Institute for Broadcast Technology). My mother is a German immigrant who came to the United States when she was about my age, so it was pretty cool to travel to her home country for an extended stay at this time in my life. After my 2 months in Munich I can confidently say that it is the best city in the world. I travelled to Berlin, Prague, Milan, and many other smaller cities but none matched the diversity, cleanliness, excitement, and grandeur of Munich. I never wanted to leave.
In class we studied subjects that relate directly to my Electronic Media degree, which makes sense because the program is run through the Electronic Media division. Classes like Media Ethics, Electronic Mass Media, Information and Communication Technology, Media Management, Media Theory, and Informatics all gave me a unique perspective on a subject that I had already been studying for three years. I got to hear from German professors and professionals in the industry explain what the status quo is like in Germany and how it compares to the United States. I never could have gained this wide of a perspective on the media industry without this program, and I am so grateful for the opportunity. My internship at the Institute for Broadcast Technology was interesting because I was allowed to go off on my own (with a classmate of mine, Sam) and film things without much supervision. In their eyes, Sam and I were the creative team and whatever we came up with was great. The project we worked on was an app that helped show off their new HBBTV 2.0 technology, debuting in Amsterdam at a big conference this September. The technology allows any smart television to communicate back and forth with any smart phone. The app was called “MucMap” and was an interactive map of Munich that contained videos of different tourist attractions around Munich. Sam and I created all of the graphics for the app and shot all of the videos as well. You can see portions of them in my reflection video above. Overall I couldn’t have had a better time in Munich this summer. I made lots of great friends, had amazing experiences, and felt what it was like to live in Europe for an extended period of time. My German improved by leaps and bounds, and now my mom and I can converse completely in German. She loves it. I totally will recommend this program to anyone who asks me about it, it was awesome.
The most interesting piece of music that we studied was Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" ballet. At the time of its premier, people were used to ballet being very delicate, pretty, and pure. The music was always very predictable and went along beautifully with the dancer's flowing movements. In 1913, however, Stravinsky came out with this ballet, which begins with a chilling bassoon solo followed my harsh chords and stamping native "dancers." People were outraged, as they thought they were being mocked. A riot even broke out at the premiere and the police had to be called! These days, Stravinsky is seen as a modernist genius who broke barriers with his controversial work. Watch the first few minutes of this ballet and you'll see why it caused such a commotion!
In the spring of 2015 I enrolled in the “Listen to the Music” honors seminar. Over the course of my career at UC I have been using my required honors experiences to take classes related to material that I find particularly interesting (as everyone should, I imagine). I play a lot of music in my free time, so after taking and enjoying the “Social Life of Music” seminar, I became inclined to take this Listen to the Music class and further my education on the topic of music culture. The class was taught by Erik Paffett, a talented musician and passionate educator. He did a great job of transmitting that passion onto his students. Even when talking about music that many kids these days may find boring, he described it in such a way that even the most apathetic student would be interested. We talked about the content of baroque, classical, romantic, modern, and postmodern music, as well as the contexts and historical background of each era. We discussed the lives of specific composers and considered not only how they wrote but why they wrote in their specific styles. We also learned about the theory and attributes of music, which was fantastic. As I stated earlier, I play a lot of music in my free time. However, I had never taken any theory classes, so when I played piano I sort of went based off of what sounded best. However, after taking this class I now know WHY those specific chords sound good, what they’re called, and how to properly utilize them to my advantage. I would absolutely recommend this class to anyone, whether they’re interested in music or not. It’s perfect for broadening one’s cultural horizons, especially within a school that is so well known for being an amazing music conservatory.
The second honors class I enrolled in was The Social Life of Music, taught by professor Stefan Fiol. I really enjoyed this class and learned a lot from the lectures, discussions, and demonstrations I experienced over the course of the semester. Dr. Fiol did a great job communicating to his students that music is not limited to the songs and compositions that we as members of Western society are used to hearing. He expanded my horizons by showing us music from places like Northern India, Peru, and Zimbabwe. Furthermore, he educated us on the history of the music and how it fits in with both the history of the regions as well as how and when it is practiced in the present day. He even brought in a variety of instruments for us to play, from the Peruvian Tarka Flute to the Zimbabwean Mbira. My interest in music is what caused me to sign up for this class, and it was everything I had thought it would be and more. I have diversified my knowledge of music as a whole as well as of different societies and cultures around the world that I had previously known nothing about. I would recommend this class to any lover of music or world cultures, or both! It was a great experience and I‘m glad I took the opportunity to diversity my schedule with this interesting class.
My first honors experience was a class that I took second semester titled "Communicating Images," taught by professor Eric Jenkins. In this class we learned all about images in our culture throughout history, ranging from different styles of art, architecture, advertisements, logos, and so on. I felt like this experience was a good fit for me because it tied in with my major, Electronic Media. E-Media has a lot to do with visuals such as video and graphic design. Thus, I felt that it would be beneficial for me to learn more about the history and different styles of our image culture. Furthermore, we also had the opportunity to critique images quite often, dissecting the ad campaign or artist or photographer and so on and deciding wether or not their work is a good or 'healthy' contribution to our image culture. For example, my final project for the class was a critique of Ciroc Vodka's tendency to integrate rappers into their marketing campaign. They pay these artists large sums of money to include the Ciroc brand in their lyrics, music videos, and so on. In addition to writing an essay about this topic, I also created a 'culture jam,' which is essentially a spoof of the original image campaign in order to portray my own message. Overall I enjoyed the class and I am glad that I chose to take it as my first honors experience. I hope to apply the knowledge I obtained over the course of the semester in the future, be it in other classes or even my career later on in life.
|
|