Summary of Blogs

  Flipping back through all of my old blogs, I found a pattern that was fairly predictable, and greatly explains why I chose the topic I did for my midterm project. Overall, looking at blogs from the class as a whole, there was a large focus on taking the topic of that week and finding artists that would create based around that topic (typically a speculative design). In addition, we'd all find a way to deeply connect that topic and art to our current personal situations.

Within my own blogs, I generally followed the sway of the class, however, I focused less on artists and more on an interpretation of the origin in relation to the existence of the topic now. I also tended to sway farther from scientific processes and explanations (although they are key to all of the topics we covered). Most of all, I focused on research around design and possible solutions, rather than art with the purpose of provoking thought. Especially when it comes to pollution and fungi, I focused on what could be created and done with them to replace something else that might be more harmful. This kind of focus ultimately led me to create my midterm based on a design that could actually come into fruition rather than just talking on speculation. While important, I feel like I am often frustrated when the only focus of an artist is on speculation, and I sometimes feel like more can be done. For me personally, art for arts sake isn't my personal goal, and so I wanted to create something that could be of use, rather than just talking about what could be done.