Jerry Yuan
Arts Scholar
Semester 3
Art is a universal medium for self-expression, and it can transform our understanding on history, biases, and beliefs through giving people an insight into other people’s inner worlds. For example, during the session, Social Activism: Art as an Agent for Change, Maz Paz, a street mural artist, talked about how he added indigenous themes to his works to allow people to better understand and appreciate the artistic styles that the indigenous Americans once utilized. Before artists initiate their creative process, they need to brainstorm what they are making under a basic structure. In an interactive session during the semester, I learned about the Décima, which is a form of sung poetry with 5 stressed/unstressed syllables per stanza. I got the opportunity to brainstorm my own poetry according to this structure, and the guest singer took it to the next level by singing it out with an improvised melody.
Often, when we have a clear idea for our artwork, we need to describe it to others in detail so that they can provide feedback. We can then use their feedback to refine our work because they offer a valuable third-party perspective on what they understood, what ideas they liked, and what areas I needed to elaborate on more. For example, during the peer review for Capstone 4, I took the reviewer’s suggestions to consider the timeline of my project in greater detail, namely, what parts of each musical piece I am going to work on during each time period for the Spring semester.
Something that used art to express reactions to news and current events was hip hop. Many hip hop artists felt strongly about their political beliefs, and they put these beliefs in their songs. Over the past few months, a lot of them have voiced their opinions on recent issues. I do not know if my engagement in the Arts Scholars Program has bettered my understanding in hip hop specifically, but it has definitely made me more conscious towards respecting other’s perspectives, since people come from different cultures, ethnic groups, and backgrounds.
Among the Art Scholars supporting courses I took, I saw the most connections with the Scholars’ colloquium in MUSC 220, Selected Musical Cultures of the World. In this course, I learned and researched about musical styles in all continents including that of Latin America. One example was Bossa Nova, a Brazilian music and dance style with rich history and tremendous popularity. In Art Scholars this semester, I also learned about Latin American music styles such as Décima and Fandango. What all of these music styles have in common in that they all use dancing as a means to get a lot of the people involved and active, and this process helps with community building by bringing people together.
Despite the pandemic truncated the in-person experience for Art Scholars this year, I was still able to benefit from the virtual groups and sessions. Through spending time with the TA group after every class, I was able to learn a lot about what other scholars were interested in and spent time in doing. In addition, by sharing my Capstone project plan to my peers in the TA group, I was able to get a lot of feedback which shaped the final proposal of my project.
I contributed to the Art Scholars community by participating in all class sessions and attending field trips. I also provided many peers feedbacks on their proposed project at different stages of development, from the brainstorming stage to the final Capstone study. Places where I could have leveraged to contribute/participate more were non-mandatory sessions such as the Post-Election Chat and Chew after Election night, as well as the Art Scholars events.
Before this semester, I always thought that art is just a means of self-expression, namely, people create visual arts and music that reflect their identities. While the above is true, this semester in Art Scholars has allowed me to realize that art goes beyond self-expression. It can also have real-life utility when acting as a medium for causes like social activism and environmental conservation. It can not only serve as something pleasing to the senses, but also serve as a tool to raise awareness on relevant issues. For example, during a capstone workshop, I got to hear from an art scholar who proposed to make a 3 dimensional collage that exposes the harmful practices of the fashion industry on the environment. Artworks like these not only reflect the artists’ identity, but also present a meaningful message.
Semester 4
The last semester of Art Scholars has helped me better my skills in communication through art, presentation, and writing. One such example is the First and Second Look Presentations, for each I did a 3:30-minute virtual presentation on my Capstone Project. These assignments prompted me to get a clear idea of what my concept for my project is and allowed me to condense these ideas into words, as well as put them up with images to make them presentable to the audience. This process forced me to gain a deeper understanding in my subject matter (meditation and the culture behind Tibetan Bowls) before I can fluently present them to others.
My perception of art used to be that art is just a mode of self-expression. Through experiences in this semester, I realized that art can extend to community building and activism as well. I attended a Vogue dancing workshop in which the dancer, Marquis, described how he brought his unique style around the world into different cultures, where he taught and built communities with children from different ethnicities and backgrounds. In another Scholar-organized event, poet Alan Pelaz Lopez talked about how the injustices in the political system caused minority groups to be systematically disenfranchised, and that art can serve as a tool to effectively advocate for their rights.
One of the Capstone supporting courses I took was MUSC220 - Selected Musical Cultures of the World, in which I did a unit on Tuvan throat singing. This inspired me to look deeper into central Asian culture, and I became interested in Tibetan Standing Bowls, which later became an inspiration for my Capstone Project. Regarding the development of my project, I employed the time management techniques learned in class, including mainly the sleep-on-it technique. I used it to recharge my creative outlet after testing out different sounds/creative ideas every time I worked on my music pieces.
Aside from music, which has always been the artform I worked with the most, I was able to try out foreign artistic styles, such as web design, wire sculpture, and dance. The designing and curating of my ePortfolio and my Capstone website helped me gain experience in web design. The WIRE You Waiting Workshop I attended exposed me to a unique style of sculpture revolving around manipulating wires to create interesting forms. Last but not least, the Vogue dancing field trip gave me a chance to attempt some dance moves I have never tried before. All of these activities and experiences opened new doors in art that I will keep exploring in the future.
My Capstone Project this semester was an individual project and was done largely independently. However, I did exchange ideas with my peers regarding each other’s projects during peer feedback sessions. For example, I reviewed Hannah’s music project, titled Escape, and gave her some feedback about what I liked about her style and what I thought she could bring out more. Since both of our projects revolved around music, she also gave me constructive feedback regarding my pieces and my website. Despite we took very different artistic approaches towards a common theme (music as a stress-reliever during stressful times), we were still able to understand each other’s music and give each other effective feedback for mutual improvement.
Through my experiences in Art Scholars, one of the most valuable takeaways is that being a good listener and a good communicator is very important as it is what allows me to connect with people with different ideas, backgrounds, and viewpoints. There are two main parts to good communication. First, I need to be attentive as to what the other person’s ideas are, so I can understand it thoroughly. Second, I need to formulate my ideas well so that I can communicate to the other person accurately. These two parts form a feedback loop back and forth in a conversation, and both techniques take practice to perfect. It is something that I will be able to work on and to apply to my future both academically and professionally.