Art and discipline are akin; these two branches of expression and practice work together in order to produce structure and allow the expression of an idea through that structure. Some may believe it obvious: art and discipline’s interdependence, but the two are often described as completely different forms. The typical connotations associated with discipline and art are strict regulation and extremely liberal and raw expression with little form, respectively.
I was once aware of both the detachment and coalition of art and discipline, conscious that the two were related somehow, but I was unaware of how different and how indifferent they were. I recognized that an artist needs practice to better their ability of expression through a medium, but I was not aware of the rules and absolute structure that stopped art from actually being “raw expression” with little form. Concepts like lighting, the horizon line, and perspective are essential parts of the foundation needed for the creation of a proper composition in an area like visual arts; artists follow these basic rule to connect their art and simultaneously explore the options and possibility surrounding these rules. Continue reading “Art and Discipline”
Revision is a fundamental process in the development of one’s writing and work, it pushes your work to a peak in its development through continuous alteration and interpretation (You can find several interdisciplinary examples of the reinterpretation process in my blog post:Theme And Variation Across Disciplines). Revision, is of course necessary in all works and disciplines; rewriting and developing an idea in any field or discipline will produce the most efficient and understandable work, making your ideas clear for the individuals in your field to understand. Unfortunately, in spite of the ultimate benefits of the revision process, it may prove difficult or uncomfortable for some individuals to begin and detach themselves from ideas that do not develop or add to their work (Practice What You Preach; a tribute to skateboarding).
People often more than not become attached to the ideas they initially create, ultimately synthesizing a hiatus for the writing process—as they hold on to these ideas, they become unable to focus on the purpose of the ideas and unable to properly execute them. While the initially created ideas may be extremely interesting, they may not always prove appropriate for the purpose of one’s writing. Soon into an individual’s stubborn attempt to incorporate all of their ideas into a single product, they begin to try and mold the ideas in order to fit the requirements of a task or assignment. Ultimately, the message or purpose they were trying to convey become blurred by a series of incomplete ideas. Pushing your own ideas away may be challenging, but the action will enable you to write a focused and well-organized idea.
If you think upon something, settle on the idea, and proceed to not see it through you create a habit of not executing your own ideas. This will limit the development you can achieve in the future. The hardest part in trying to do something is starting; once you allow yourself to try, then things will run their course!
This is of course subjective, I am well aware of the difficulty involved in trying, because I have also found myself in positions where I have failed to live by my own word and desires; all it accomplished was lackluster regret. So what I proceeded to do, after experiencing the lackluster regret of not living by my principles and desire, was allow myself no time to enter my comfort zone: the cause of my lack of action. It is comfortable to feel safe, and often more than not, people believe that freedom from failure is safe. Because of this many people tend to avoid the uncomfortable situation of possible failure. This ideology is a mental constraint that will disable your growth in whichever field you are limiting yourself. I’ll use a quote from a previous post of mine titled Atychiphobia to explain this constraint: “ the scariest moment is always just before you start” (Stephen King).
Once you allow yourself to try and find yourself in a position of preparation, you must consider how to appropriately arm yourself with the tools to succeed—this includes the use of any previous experience and an interpretation of the position or opportunity you are about to approach. This preparation might range from general practice to insightful thinking about the reason you are pursuing this position and how it will help you grow; it would prove beneficial to think reflectively upon your goal.
For example, you might be applying to schools thinking about how to best prepare yourself for the environment you are about to enter. This might mean mental preparation for a new social environment or preparation for a less dictated environment—this means that you control your schedule and how you execute self-determined deadlines—much like the transition into college, which has more options than high school. Preparing yourself for a situation where you will have more liberty, will allow you to avoid large amounts of unreasonable procrastination and bad work habit, which might cause stress and stunt personal growth.
The future is both terrifying and exciting; one hopes to succeed and accomplish their goals, but approaching the process and the possibility of failure is intimidating—the term for this fear and intimidation is Atychiphobia.
People often let fear and intimidation stop them from pursuing things that will develop their growth; they worry about the process and the negativity that may arrive as they attempt something they are not sure of. There is nothing wrong in worrying about the future; in fact, preparation for something is usually accompanied with a healthy amount of worry. But one should not allow themselves to be overwhelmed with ideas of failure, they should not even fear failure. They should persist because there is nothing to lose and everything to gain by trying. Should one try and fail as a result, they will hold no regret, yet gain experience that will enable them to try again with a higher chance of success—this is of course situational, I display these ideas for a situation where one is genuinely limiting themselves from trying, not where it might be actually unreasonable to try something. Though even in those circumstances, is it actually wrong to try when all you would be doing is leaving your comfort zone and avoiding possible failure? Continue reading “Atychiphobia”
The use of a theme or subject followed by its variations is a concept present across all disciplines; in some form, a writer will take an idea or subject and develop it into several related ideas to convey a similar message or atmosphere as the original. English Literature and Modern Western Music are two disciplines that effectively utilize theme and variation, though the theme and variation found in English Literature is less direct in its use compared to Western Music—essentially, they share the same concept, yet produce slightly different results or feelings within the reader or audience. English literature’s use of parody functions by using an augmented version of a subject and the theme and variation of Western Music functions by taking the exact subject and creating several variations of that musical idea.
For a better understanding of theme and variation in Western Music, I will provide a relatively famous piece, composed by Wolfgang Mozart, that is a theme and variation on a relatively famous lullaby recognizable to you within the first few seconds—if you do not recognize the piece, the title is on the top of the video.
In the 203 Reader & Text course, we the students have been exposed to the works of Percival Everett, which constantly incorporate a concept of theme and variation through the literary device known as Parody—Parody is a literary technique which comically imitates a specific, generally serious work or the style of an author or genre. In response to his work, which constantly produces allusions to individuals and ideas outside his work, the course has also exposed us to the material from the source of the allusions, which conveniently incorporate several other disciplines, including Modern Western Music. For example, Western Music is used in the films of Sidney Poitier, who is the subject for the parody present in the novel I Am Not Sidney Poitier that follows the life of the character Not Sidney Poitier, whose name acts as it is a parody to the actor Sidney Poitier, as he experiences the events of several Sidney Poitier films like Lilies Of The Field, The Defiant ones, and A Patch Of Blue—A Patch Of Blue was not shown in class; it follows the life of a blind young white woman as she befriends a black office worker played by Sidney Poitier, leading to romance in opposition to the desire of the girl’s abusive mother. Continue reading “Theme And Variation Across Disciplines”
This is an open response to another blog post I had recently read, regarding Jazz and its similarity to a concept in the poem set Logic written by Percival Everett. The concept expressed in the poem set revolved around the idea that the” part is of the whole”, or that the whole consists of parts that make it whole; essentially, something along the lines of “all is one and one is all”—this is both an idea embellished in philosophy and a philosophical idea utilized in entertainment, where I was originally exposed to it.Continue reading “All Is One, One Is All; Thanks For The Jazz”
All disciplines share fault in the use of bias in their study—this is especially true when it comes to figures that have provided substantial movement to the discipline; typically, these are the individuals whose work we tend to study when we take a course. There may be omissions to several of the defining factors of an event or person, or there may simply not be a lot of coverage on the flaws and faults of the event or person. The purpose in the use of bias is to communicate selective values and positive moral judgments; this will maintain the discipline’s positive standing and prevent any discouragement from people who wish to study the discipline.
In an attempt to maintain the public integrity of a discipline and continue the study of a discipline, the dominant and influential figures that have provided substantial contributions to the development of the discipline are often depicted as unrealistic perfect beings—in my opinion, it should be a priority to properly teach about the figures that hold such weight without any omission to their biography; unfortunately, this is not the case. The bias toward individuals and events in history branches across several disciplines including: English literature, Western Music, and Western Art. The leading figures in these disciplines are often celebrated and solely recognized for their contribution, which creates the sensation that these individuals are flawless and perfect—interestingly, this image can be quite intimidating for disciples, which sort of works in contrast with the attempt to maintain more disciples with the bias towards the figures.
If you continue reading this post, I encourage you to ponder. Should things in a discipline be taught truthfully? Is there any validity in this approach to teaching? Should we still learn about these individuals? Is it alright to neglect these individuals and their large contributions to the progression of a discipline?
Warwick also had a fairly interesting question to ponder on, which was referenced in Joe Moran’s book Interdisciplinarity: “Is it not sufficiently attractive to ensure a voluntary attention to it”?
In this entry, I will introduce the concept of bias within the study of history and in the study of several other disciplines which include: English Literature, Western Art, and Western Music. I will discuss my own opinion on questions like: Is it right to celebrate a person who has committed a terrible act? or is it proper to assign a misogynist or a racist individual as a role model and source of inspiration? I will also break this into two parts discussing bias in the study of history and then its connection to bias in other disciplines.
A common area of bias in education that most people might be aware of is bias or impartiality in the study of history. It is often the case that bias may hold an exceptionally strong presence in the notation of history; this strong presence means that history may be taught differently in different regions and cultures. The primary motive in the use of bias in the study of history is to control the outlook on the region or culture by those who reside in the region or are a part of that culture. An excellent example of bias in history is the Second World War. This is an area that may be taught differently in history classes of the United States than in history classes of Japan. The purpose is undoubtedly to alter the image of a villain or individual at fault for terrible actions; each nation wants their youth to look up to the nation as one would look up to a hero. In Japan, they may go over the extreme actions and the terrible fire bombings that the United States military committed and omit or alter the crimes or wrong doings of Japan and its military at the time. The same principle can be applied to the United States; US secondary and primary schools purposefully do not go into extreme depth about the bombings on Japan and the effects on civilians, but discuss the atomic bombings that ended a war. This bias in history applies to several events, including the fire bombings on the civilians of Japan by the U.S in 1945 and even the atrocious events of the Sino Japanese war of 1937 (Mariko Oi wrote an extremely enlightening article that will be linked down below).
Leonardo da Vinci ( one of the many famous procrastinators—I could not find an image of Hesiod)
Think back to a moment in your life when you have avoided starting an assignment, then think of the stress you accumulated attempting to complete it several days before its deadline, and finally think of how fast you ultimately completed that assignment in order to get it done right before the deadline. Sometimes, people tend to avoid tasks that appear large and difficult, because of the amount of time they anticipate it will take; this large amount of time required for the assignment may appear intimidating and create a negative sensation or feeling of stress within an individual causing them to avoid the work and procrastinate. Fortunately, procrastination is a habit that all people share and has existed for an extremely long time—procrastination can be seen as far back as 800 b.c, with the Greek poet named Hesiod who cautioned individuals to not “put your work off till tomorrow and the day after”—, which implies that you are not alone in your procrastination and that there are methods to improve work efficiency and decrease procrastination, though methods may differ slightly individually; the methods vary from change in perspective of work to different work practice strategies.
Of course, while everyone participates in some form of procrastination, not everyone is a procrastinator and not everyone procrastinates to an extreme where it may impact their livelihood—this insinuates that these ideas surrounding procrastination do not entirely apply to everyone. I believe that some individuals are inevitably afraid of large investment, in regards to their time which is limited; alas, the self-awareness of our own finite time impacts our out view on activity negatively and sometimes causes us to put certain activities off with the intention to complete them at a later date—there are several issues with this approach and outlook. Individuals who procrastinate will most likely use their time in an attempt to rid themselves of the negative feeling that arrives with the commitment related to an assignment by watching television or completing another task that may reject stress. The problem is that in temporarily alleviating stress, they create the opportunity for even greater stress as they approach their deadline.
People avoid work, alongside the negative sensation associated with overwhelming work, at an early time and then deal with it later under the pressure of a deadline and actual limited short time to complete the assignment. While they may complete the assignment and get a good or sub-par grade on it, alleviating that unnecessary high level stress they built, it would have been much more efficient and less emotionally draining to start earlier—they have to learn that commencing the assignment is the most difficult task when doing work, once you begin most negative emotions leave you, and if not then you’ve at least built some foundation for yourself to begin work. And in contrast to the negative emotions you may feel while procrastinating, you might feel extremely fulfilled and content while working and completing the assignment at an earlier time. In terms of assignments, this can correspond to school, work, or even someone’s own personal life; procrastination is quite interdisciplinary.Continue reading “An Idea On Procrastination And An Attempt To Combat It”
Art and discipline are akin; these two branches of expression and practice work together in order to produce structure and allow the expression of an idea through that structure. Some may believe it obvious: art and discipline’s interdependence, but the two are often described as completely different forms. The typical connotations associated with discipline and art are strict regulation and extremely liberal and raw expression with little form, respectively.
