Blog 9: Curation Progress Report

This week, I honestly could have done a lot more work for my curation. I tend to be focusing on the pictures more, which I think is a very important aspect of the curation. But, what I think I should have taken more time and energy doing was thoroughly and completely going through the link I found of influential horticulturalists and deciding which ones I was going to use in my curation, and then finding additional information on those people as well.

This is probably going to be the biggest obstacle for me because I like the fun part- finding awesome pictures of gardens, But actually looking up the history of people and what they do is a little less interesting compared to the pictures and I know I'm putting that off because of it. Starting it will be the toughest thing for me.

The coolest picture I found this week was a picture of vertical farming.

What is awesome about this photo is that it opened up another aspect to my curation, which is to talk about vertical farming a little bit, and how that has such a big thing to do with interesting and unique gardens. Just by finding a picture, it opened up a completely new door for my curation.

To move forward, I need to look up all of the info on the horticulturalists I decide to use, look up a little bit of info on vertical farming to add with the picture to explain what it is, and finish finding the rest of my images.

Something that I could definitely be doing better would be to getting the "hard" stuff out of the way first. It's easy to find the pictures, but I need to buckle down and do the research part.

Curation Progress Report: Blog 9

This week, I have continued to find more and more pictures of unique gardens. I realize that my entire curatio cannot just be of pictues, so I have begun to do some research on influential people in the horticulture community regarding innovations, so to speak, in gardens and vegetable gardens, and what their contributions were and have accomplished.

This is a bit more complicated than I expected, because finding actual inormation on the gardener's themselves is much more difficult than just finding pictures. It takes more time and effort than just typing into the google search bar: influential horticulture figures. I know that I will have to research much more, and go "deeper" for that part of the curation.

I know that this will probably be the biggest obstacle to overcome with my curation. Finding pictures is extremely easy, and there are literally thousands of them instantly, immediately when you type in what you need. But finding the people behind them is often times the tricky part, as I have found with my research.

The best piece of info I found this week was an awesome link that lists the top 30 most influential gardeners. I have begun to go through and find the ones that relate really well to my curation. I still have a bunch more to research but I at least have the foundation for finding the "influential gardeners" part of my curation. Below is the useful link of the gardeners I have found thus far.

http://applebyblog.hortweek.com/2012/01/05/top-30-influential-gardeners/

I definitely feel a lot more organized with all of the information I have now, and have started to go through and evaluate what is valuable to me and what should not be used. The next three steps for me to work on would be to finish going through the link and see which horticulturists I should use in my curation. Secondly, I then need to gather solid information on the people I plan on using. And thirdly, I need to sit down and explore Tumblr, so I know how to use it properly and learn all of the tools that come with it.

Doing the curation progress updates is actually a really great idea and I think it works really weel with this project. It forces me to sit down, and thoroughly go through and organize all of my information, ideas, and future plans for the curation. In this way, I do not feel overwhelemd or as stressed out because I am getting all of my ideas out, but I also have everything I have done, and still need to do listed in front of me.

Curation Progress Report

To begin with, when Mr. Allen introduced the curation project, I was immediately intrigued. The fact that we would be able to pick basically any topic we wanted and were interested in, just research and find information about it, and create a web page for it sounded like such an unusual, awesome school assignment.

So right from the beginning, I was excited about the entire process. I began thinking about what I wanted to curate, and what I was interested in and I thought about curating how to start and manage your own garden, but quickly realized that there was probably a ton on the web already about that. Still interested in that topic, I decided too re-evaluate it and changed it to people who maintain interesting and unique gardens.

One of the biggest problems I have been faced with so far is realizing that I am probably not going to find specific people for this project, as I thought. Going into it, I thought the focus would be on the people, rather than the actual gardens, but now I realize that it will be on the gardens. I'm actually really happy with that, because I think I, along with others, would like to focus on the actual gardens and what makes them so interesting, and less on the person.

 I have found many, many pictures of awesome gardens, but the person is not "famous" per-say, in the horticulture community. What I thought I would find in my research would be renowned people who were very well known for having very well-kept and unique gardens.

I am using multiple websites to aid my research. Pinterest is specifically helpfully and has many pictures and resources. I have decided to use Tumblr as my website for the curation.

The next three steps I need to for the project would be to establish my tumblr account/wesbite, organize the information and pictures I currently have, and expand my searches to more than just pictures- I need to go further than that.

I think one idea that can be made to help make the project run more smoothly would be to not have the entire curation website due in one day, instead have "check points". Making the website due in parts makes it seem much less overwhelming overall. That way, we would organize all of our research probably at better times.

Carry It Forward: Therese´s presentation- Helping Create A Better Today

Earlier this week, we listened as students presented their TED presentations to the class. One presentation that struck me in particular was Thereseś. Right from the beginning, she drew me in. Although her intro was about The Lorax, it was completely relateable and much like what is happening in our world today.

As Therese said, major businesses and companies often don´t care about and neglect to see the major damage they cause to the environment, whether it simply be destroying the land completely, or stripping it of its natural resources in order to make enormous amounts of money. Most of the time, they truly only see the benefit for themselves, and not the disgustingly lasting impact they are leaving on our land.

It is human nature to be a bit selfish, of course. That is understandable. But at some point, it has to stop. Because what will the world be like in the future? It isn´t like we can fix what is or will be damaged. We need to start to cherish the world we live on and value the land, not take advantage of it for money.

After hearing Therese´s speech, it really made me want to do something. Which I believe is a great start. Because nothing will get done unless you personally feel motivated to do something about it. I know that I can do a lot more to conserve land and energy. I can definitely start to recycle much more, making sure I thoroughly wash out containers and aluminum cans so they are able to be properly recycled. In addition, I take incredibly long showers which could be reduced to about half the time. I am definitely going to start limiting my time in the shower.

This issue is so important to not just us, but to the earth. If we keep damaging and taking advantage of our land, where will we have to live in the future? What beautiful land will we have left? How will this affect climate change? If we don start to do something about it now, then when? When will it be too far?

There are so many risks that are involved with this that clearly do not equal the rewards of, for example, oil for our cars. It´s time we all start to make a change, whether it be big or small.

Therese´s speech made me realize how important the land we have truly is, and how we have to start to cherish it, not just take advantage of it. Because at the rate that it´s going, it won´t be here for us to do that.

iMedia: Starting a Movement

In this video, a guy at a musical festival is alone, dancing for a period of time, surrounded by many other people who are sitting around him, just listening to the music. Eventually, a man joins him, and they begin to dance together. Shortly after, a third man joins them and the three of them dance for a period of time. Then, more and more people begin to dance with them. And then, people come running to dance with them.

So what does this video show?It shows how easy it is to start a movement.

And how critical is that us and our future? Extremely.

When I first watched this video, I was very surprised that this one man caused a mass amount of people to start dancing. How cool is that? People simply saw, liked it, wanted to join, and joined in. While this is just a video of people dancing, how applicable is this to the real world?

I think it's very relateable. Think of any idea someone has. They need people to support them and back it up. What if people think that idea is truly good, but don't want to be one of the only people supporting it? Once more and more people start to back it up, it's easier for them to support it as well. I recently learned about this in sociology, and the term for this is called the Asch affect. Like the video, as more and more people begin to start dancing, it is easier for the following people to join.

It is obvious to say that the original man dancing clearly does not care what others think about, and probably does not usually go with the crowd, just because that's the "norm". People like this are so important to have in our society, because they start the movements and revolutions that are needed. Without them, change wouldn't happen. And without the people that began to dance with him, the supporters, the change wouldn't happen, and we would see no change at all.

So think about this guy and how he didn't care that he was alone at first. Because that's what it takes to start a movement.

Blogging Around

The first blog I commented on was Rachel's. She wrote about modern and postmodern architecture, particularly how she thought postmodern was more aesthetically pleasing. I responded:

Rachel,
I have to say that I do agree with you that postmodern architecture is more interesting to look at. But, I still think that modern architecture has a lot to offer! Yes, a lot of times these buildings appear to have a very simple, sometimes even boring look to them, but when you really see them and think about the work and everything that went into them, it really makes you appreciate and see the true beauty they hold. I guess the different between modern and postmodern art is that with postmodern, the creativity is right there, you see it immediately, and it basically jumps out at you. But with modern architecture, you have to truly look to really see the beauty, which I think makes it all the more awesome and special, because not everything in this world is obvious.

The second blog I commented on was Sam's. She talked about metacognition and her issues and answers class. I responded:

Sam,
I also took Issues and Answers and I completely agree with you! When Mr. Zapler assigned us our first paper, I kept waiting for him to tell us what he wanted us to include, what specific things were requirements, etc. But, as the due date kept approaching, I realized that he really just wanted us to write what we truly wanted to write about on that topic, exactly like you said. At first, I was extremely frustrated because I did not know what in the world to include in the paper, or even to write about. I think you can agree with me when I say that with almost every paper we get assigned, there is a strict structure. And now that there wasn't, I was lost. But, once I got over the fact that he didn't need anything specific, I was able to write. And write, and write, and write. I totally agree with you, starting was the most difficult part!

Change of Mind: Devil Wears Prada

This past week we have focused on and talked about Postmodern and Modernism, what it actually is/means, and how it affects people. A particular clip we watched was a scene from The Devil Wears Prada. I, personally, have never seen the movie so I was curious as to how it would relate to postmodernism ideas.

The scene we watched was of Anne Hathaway not understanding why the people were making such a big deal out of which, seemingly same, belt to match with a dress. Meryl Streep then describes the importance of it, and how it has everything to do with "you".

To be honest, I'm not sure that if I had watched this scene by myself, just as a movie huddled on my couch with a blanket I would have gotten the absolute full affect of it. It would have completely gone over my head that this scene has everything to do with postmodernism.

It truly helped me to understand how, just like in the movie, extreme and even minor decisions are made, that at the time, may have nothing to do with us, but eventually have everything to do with we, the people. Those decisions, in one way or another, become the "whole". Those decision then make our decisions, whether we realize it or not.

It is an amazing idea to grasp. The choices we make are not actually our choices. They were hand picked by higher influences and eventually trickled down to whatever place or time we are in. Just like postmodernism, previous ideas influence the current ideas.

There are a million things in this world that reflect this, fashion being just one small aspect. Take advertisements for example. That is their ultimate goal; to influence the people and/or change our mind about a certain thing. Movies, television shows, magazines, celebrities, music, etc- how have they already influenced our decisions and opinion on things?