Elizabeth's Portfolio

Look through my peer review notes the main thing I need to do is go deeper in order to get my argument across. I’ve noticed that I tend to just scratch he surface when talking about ideas and need to explain ore in order to make my argument seem valid. This is my main goal. I feel if I’m able to explain my claims better I can go back and fix my thesis to be more specific.

Steps

1. I plan to go back and pick out the main ideas I’m trying to articulate in my essay.
2. I will go over the paragraphs already written and see if my argument is clear and my quotes aren’t overpowering my paper.
3. I will go back and edit either starting new or adding needed information.
4. Add in needed quotes, pictures or hyperlinks to add the multimodal part.
5. Reread my paper and see if it still supports my thesis, if not I’ll formulate a new one to better support my paper.

I think my biggest challenge will be trying to formulate a new thesis that is more specific. There is a lot of comments throughout my paper and its hard to know which ones to prioritize or how to even start. If I come across this I plan to either ask another peer to review my paper or have professor emerson look at certain parts of my essay.

Thesis: Beauty is essential in american mainstream society because it can challenge us , inspire us and make us in touch with our emotions. Due to the fact that beauty is subjective, we all encounter it differently.

Claim 1: Beauty has the power to bring out emotions in us we may not expect.

• Bring quotes or audio from the podcasts I chose

Claim 2: Along with emotions, beauty is necessary in terms of balance.

• “Both drives…they don’t work against one another. Instead, they co-operate…”

Claim 3: Beauty is important in our society because it challenges us, this challenge is needed in order for us to get out of our comfort zone…. (something along the lines of this)

• Refer to multiple podcasts that discuss challenge and possibly my own

Claim 4: We all experience beauty differently or have our own meaning due to the fact that it is subjective making it a unique experience to each of us.

• Podcast
• Importance of beauty in the world from Wilczek’s essay (theres multiple quotes I could add)

Claim 5: Beauty can be very inspiring to those that encounter it.

• Wilczek’s Essay
• Armstrong Essay

Claim 6: (Highlighting  importance of beauty)

• Wilczek ideas of beauty being important in science and society

Science-Based Article on Beauty:

 http://nautil.us/issue/32/space/beauty-is-physics-secret-weapon

The article I chose is called “Beauty is Physic’s Secret Weapon” written by Steve Paulson. Steve Paulson interviews 2004 Nobel Prize in physics winner Frank Wilczek and gets his perspective on beauty in the sciences. The article mainly talks about how the world holds beautiful ideas that can be uncovered by fundamental laws and concepts. The fact that beauty is very subjective is not a limitation in the eyes of Wilczek although this is controversial to some. Wilczek also highlights the prominence of symmetry in fundamental laws of nature and how you can find symmetry anywhere. All around Wilczek has a very pleasing incite on beauty and how it is incorporated in science.

I plan to incorporate Wilczek ideas of the importance of beauty in the world and in science to help support my argument.

Two Podcasts: 

The first podcast I chose to use in my essay is Peter’s because I want to incorporate the idea that challenging yourself can lead to beautiful things and I liked the professors take on beauty in mathematics. That to me shows that you can really justify anything as beautiful and also feel inspired. Peter’s podcast also made me want to be more open minded about math since I don’t really appreciate it now.

The second podcast I choose to incorporate in my essay is Taylor Fowler’s because of the how she talks about beauty evoking feelings. This is a topic I want to include in my essay since I believe nature and finding things beautiful can bring out emotions we don’t expect. That shows the power of beauty and how it has a big impact on us even when we don’t know it.

“To regard beauty as a luxury adornment or a social signifier was to miss the true potential of the experience.” – John Armstrong

Beauty is subjective and according to Armstrong its a “Kindly notion. Saying its opinion based and different from everyone keeps the peace between everyone. I agree with Armstrong’s ideas about beauty for the most part but seeing him break dow the idea of beauty and articulating ever piece almost seems extraneous to me. Beauty is subjective in my eyes and honestly quite simple. I’m not saying Armstrong’s breakdown is wrong or anything I just have never really thought about beauty in depth what leads to use feeling like something is beautiful. I do believe that beauty is linked largely to our emotions and invokes feelings we may not expect. That to me is the unknown power of beauty. You’ll never know when or what will provoke those feelings until its right in front of you.

That is how I view beauty.

Going off of the quote above, I agree with Armstrong and that beauty can be experienced by anyone. It’s not a “luxury” and it doesn’t have be linked to material culture. I guess what Armstrong is trying to say is that its not that special since everyone experiences it one way or another multiple times in their life.

I believe mainstream American Society views beauty also as something subjective but is more broad about it. Meaning you’d be expected to be impressed by a beautiful landscape or universal moment. I liked how Armstrong in his essay talked about Schillers belief of beauty is: “whatever speaks powerfully to both sides of our nature at the same time.” Meaning that beauty is a full body experience or feeling which I feel many in society would agree with. Or maybe not and its all in my head. All I truly know is what I think beauty means due to the fact that it is different for everyone.

I chose chapter nine at first because it was talking about simplifying ideas and just putting simple words on paper. I tend to try and make my writing more complicated than it is and get caught up in what the main idea of the paper/ paragraph is. In the chapter, it states that you can use everyday speaking as a thinking and or clarifying tool. It can help clarify the writers ideas to themselves. This I believe is helpful as often times I get caught up in writing a paper and forget what I was even trying to argue.

Before: 

Sciences enduring purpose suggests altering the field is an unnecessary move. John  Lehrer and Mark B. Boslough have opposing views on the needs in the scientific field, but share the common idea that science is necessary. In Lehrer’s essay, “The Future of Science… is Art”, he is arguing for the integration of art and science, but still mentions the importance of science and its need to be recognized in our society.  Lehrer states: “First of all, the humanities must sincerely engage with the sciences. Henry James defined the writer as someone on whom nothing is lost; artists must heed his call, and not ignore science’s inspiring descriptions of reality.” While Boslough, in the essay “We must protect U.S. investment in Scientific Knowledge”, discusses the importance of the scientific method and doesn’t see the need to change it. He argues: “…that deep understanding of nature through scientific research is essential, and that our ‘material, social, and intellectual condition’ directly depends on our scientific knowledge.” Boslough states the importance of science in our overall knowledge. No matter what both authors are trying to argue, they both recognize science as an essential topic in our society. Looking at the dates of each article published and the 13 year age gap, shows how the basis of science hasn’t really changed even though it has been questioned.

After: 

Sciences enduring purpose suggests altering the field is an unnecessary move. John  Lehrer and Mark B. Boslough have opposing views on the needs in the scientific field, but share the common idea that science is necessary. In Lehrer’s essay, “The Future of Science… is Art”, he is arguing for the integration of art and science, but still mentions the importance of science and its need to be recognized in our society.  Lehrer states: “First of all, the humanities must sincerely engage with the sciences. Henry James defined the writer as someone on whom nothing is lost; artists must heed his call, and not ignore science’s inspiring descriptions of reality.” Lehrer is saying that science should be considered and recognized even in the eyes of an artist. He’s not trying to change the importance of science but more so enhance it to help others understanding. While Bgoslough is more traditional, in his essay “We must protect U.S. investment in Scientific Knowledge”. He discusses the importance of the scientific method and doesn’t see the need to change it. He argues: “…that deep understanding of nature through scientific research is essential, and that our ‘material, social, and intellectual condition’ directly depends on our scientific knowledge.” He highlights the importance of the scientific method and its usefulness. Boslough believes that nothing should be changed. No matter what both authors are arguing they both recognize science as an essential topic in our society. Lehrer’s ideas may not seem the most practical because it’s not something we are use to, but as time goes on, things begin to develop and change. Some of those changes may need to be made to how we think of science. 

Johan Lehrer and Mark B. Boslough have opposite views on the needs in the scientific field, but share the common idea that science is necessary. In Lehrer essay, “The Future of Science… is Art”, he is arguing for the integration of art and science, but still mentions the importance of science and it’s need to be recognized in our society.  Lehrer states: “First of all, the humanities must sincerely engage with the sciences. Henry James defined the writer as someone on whom nothing is lost; artists must heed his call, and not ignore science’s inspiring descriptions of reality.” Lehrer is vouching for the sciences and its importance in our curriculum. He doesn’t want to get rid of it just slightly enhance it. While Boslough in the essay “We must protect U.S. investment in Scientific Knowledge”, discusses the importance of the scientific method and doesn’t see the need to change it. He argues: …” that deep understanding of mature through scientific research is essential, and that our ‘material, social, and intellectual condition’ directly depends on our scientific knowledge.” Boslough states the importance of science in our overall knowledge. No matter what both authors are trying to argue, they both recognize science as an essential topic in our society. Looking at the dates of each article published and the 13 year age gap, shows how the basis of science hasn’t really changed even though it has been questioned. If thats the case will science ever integrate with the arts ? Or is it all just a topic of discussion up in the air?

The STEM curriculum has been encouraged in school for quite some time, and many in the field become successful, so why change the curriculum to STEAM now? Yo Yo Ma brought up the idea of trying to involve empathy into the field in order to improve, and reach an equilibrium. Within the essay, Ma states: “…the most proficient way to teach the values of collaboration, flexibility, imagination, and innovation- all the skills sets needed in today’s world- is through the preforming arts. If you have these tools, you can do well in any field from software engineering to the biosciences.” How is this so? When you really think about it the preforming arts and STEM mindsets are very different. You would think about being proficient in a science field you need to take science related courses not an arts course.

1. Surrounded Context: The essay is written by Yo Yo Ma and published in 2014. Yo Yo Ma is a successful cellist and songwriter who graduated from Juilliard school and Harvard University. The essay starts with a bio and later leads into a description of the essay. The bio is short and concise telling you everything you need;  just enough  background information.
2. Imposed Context: The essay is important for our class because it is one of the essays part of our second paper. After writing the first one, I feel like I have good grasp on art and its importance in our society. (I’m starting to believe that art is a common theme in this class.)
3. Intentional Context: The argument in the essay is the importance of art in science careers. Yo Yo Ma is trying to involve STEAM curriculum instead of just STEM. In the essay, he mentions the two pathways in the brain and if art is added, both pathways could be used to help understand things.  In the bio it mentioned that he is more than a musician and it later explains that he is pushing the arts so much because he wants society to function more effectively and improve overall. I found two words in the essay that I didn’t understand, which were: “bandwidth”, “tandem”.  Bandwidth is defined as the energy or mental capacity required to deal with a situation. Ma used this saying “we can only survive within a very narrow bandwidth of conditions…” Tandem is defined as having two things arranged one in front of the other. Ma used this when describing the two pathways of the brain and how we can’t use both a once but it still does occur.

original: 

The murals had an everlasting effect which once again opened up the communities and brought people together. “It’s great to see that the paintings still has, like, a big impact on their images… there’s people that do dance shows in front of them or clothing designers come out and do their fashion shows there”. These paintings began to draw people into these areas that people would automatically assume are rough and poor. With all the positive attention also helps the residents in the area believe in their community as a better place.

After: 

The murals had an everlasting effect, showing how art in this scenario brought the Philadelphia community together. In Urhanh’s views: “It’s great to see that the paintings still has, like, a big impact on their images… there’s people that do dance shows in front of them or clothing designers come out and do their fashion shows there”. These paintings began to draw different kinds of people into these areas.  Many of these people previously would’ve never entered the communities because of its reputation , but with the help of art, the community was transformed. All the positive attention also helps the residents in the area believe in their community as a better place. 

Original: 

…Before the project, people would’ve looked at the favelas and automatically turn away. Favelas are known for being: “unwelcoming, dangerous, ugly places” and Koolhaas and Urhahn felt otherwise.  “It’s totally an invitation to think about the people that live there in a different way. I mean we worked with, like, big groups of people that are from the neighborhood, so it’s not just us… but there was a piece written in the newspaper, and they talked about the inhabitants as artists and not as criminals.” This was a major part of the project for not only Koolhaas and Urhahn but also the community. This meant that people’s perspectives were changing around the ideas of the favelas. Not only are outsiders changing but the spread of altruism in a community is also. Since the artists got the whole neighborhood involved and the residents were benefitting from the change while Koolhaas and Urhahn didn’t ask for anything in return.

After: 

…Before the project, people would’ve looked at the favelas and automatically turn away because of their reputation of being:  “unwelcoming, dangerous, ugly places”. Despite all the comments, Koolhaas and Urhahn felt otherwise: “It’s totally an invitation to think about the people that live there in a different way. I mean we worked with, like, big groups of people that are from the neighborhood, so it’s not just us… but there was a piece written in the newspaper, and they talked about the inhabitants as artists and not as criminals.” This was a major accomplishment for not only Koolhaas and Urhahn but also the community. This meant that people’s perspectives were changing around the ideas of the favelas. Not only are outsiders changing but the spread of altruism in a community is also. Since the artists got the whole neighborhood involved and the residents were benefitting from the change while Koolhaas and Urhahn didn’t ask for anything in return.