I will make a presentation or video of the changes I’ve noticed in Chinatown

I will create a short presentation or a video about child labor and which company is worthy and which is not.

I will be creating a drawing of the border that separates North and South Korea. This will be a visual depicting how families were displaced after the Korean War.

I will create a short presentation with videos and a trivia game showing the hardships that inmates face when they get out of prisons and solutions to this problem.

I will do a presentation on family separation at the border and using the separation of Native American children example to present a solution.

For the Creative Re-Mix, I will be doing creative writing in the form of a poem on how the Palestinians are living under the Israeli government policy.

For the creative mix, I will be creating a video on how Tibetans are living under the Chinese government and how they have been treated. This video will show the perspective of how Tibetans feel and how they are being mistreated.

“Migrants, Asylum Seekers, Refugees, and Immigrants: What’s the Difference” – This informative post on the website of the International Rescue Committee may clear up any lingering confusion about what all these terms mean. You may also find interesting information about the current conflict at the U.S.’s southern border on the IRC site.

Musical instruments baffle me. I personally don’t excel in playing any of them. However, that itself attracts more of my attention towards them. Before the Art-A-Thon event, I never knew that an instrument like Marimba existed. It looks like a vibraphone but made completely out of, what seemed like bamboo. It sounded similar as well, but distinct. Last time I saw a vibraphone was during my high school’s spring show. I was the second in charge of the event. A guest artist came to play vibraphone and he was letting me help him set it up. That was the first time I saw such an instrument in person, and I wanted to learn the mechanics and how to play it. I had similar experience during Art-A-Thon’s music event.

In the event, Professor Peter Wellington demonstrated how to play the Marimba. He was very energetic and enthusiastic. He explained the historical significance of Marimba and how he learned to play this instrument. Some of the students present at the event played Marimba with the professor. I later found out that they were all students of Professor Wellington’s class. Well, for a logical reason. The room was way too small for outside students to join the event. I wanted to try the marimba too. But I didn’t want to spoil the exclusive vibe in the room. There was only one person in the room who I knew. That was a little bit of relief while I stood for an hour among the crowd. It was becoming unbearable to stay in such a tiny room but did not want to leave. I wished to know more about marimba—how to play the instrument and its mechanics. From what I understood from watching and listening, Marimba is not a primary instrument in any music, rather can be a complementary to the melody of a song. After observing for several minutes, I figured out how the instrument work. When the top pads are hit with the sticks, it vibrates the string underneath them. Sound waves then travels through the empty bamboo shells and gets amplified when they come out from the bottom. It was a great experience for me to see Marimba being played. Although I could not learn to play it that day, it did inspire me pursue to learn it. I hope college hosts such event throughout the year.

Looking at the title of the workshop, Virtual Sculpture Gallery, I imagined 3d modeling. I have a little experience with 3d modeling and was excited to see what Baruch offers in their ART 3041 class. Walking in, I noticed that there were VR headsets which surprised me. I thought we would be staring at student projects on a computer screen and not actually walk in them. I had never used a VR headset before so it was a new and exciting experience. Waiting for my turn to use the headset, I asked Professor Joshua Whitehead, the instructor of ART 3041, what the sculptures were made of. I was shook once he told me his students carved them using x-acto knives. Using this type of knife in my art class in high school, I quickly related to the struggle of carving these complex structures. As seen in other’s posts, the sculptures have many layers. Professor Whitehead also said the layers were carved one by one, something I would never have the patience and motivation to do.

Using the Virtual Reality headset for the first time was a fun experience. Someone at the event said it made her dizzy and it kind of worried me. Nonetheless, I used the VR headset and was surprised by its weight. An assistant told me how to hold the remotes, and what I could do in the virtual reality. I could walk into the buildings, teleport to another, get to the roof, and fly around. The headset would also alert you when you came close to a table, wall, or if you were extending the wire to its limit.

I learned much from attending this event. Talking to the students that implemented the structures into the Virtual Reality world, I learned its actually really easy to add something from the real world. Something that I really wished to see was the students that made these sculptures. Looking at their creations, I had a lot of questions. I wanted to know their motivation behind each sculpture, know if it was worth carving in the end, the grade they received and if ART 3041 is a good class to enroll.

Right before leaving, I used one of the Google Cardboards they had. It supposedly mimics VR pretty well and is made of cardboard. After trying it, I didn’t like it and preferred the actual VR headset I had used earlier. Even though I didn’t like it, I noticed that the Art class had made their own world on a virtual reality app called Makerhub. This surprised me of the seriousness the class was. Not only did students carve projects that took half the semester, upload it to a virtual reality world, but on top of that, the class had their own world on a popular app. It was kind of cool that a famous New York business school was making sure an art class irrelevant to its reputation took a step further into making sure it was fun. Another thing that I learned at this event was that there is plenty of software at Baruch. Although it may not be what I had hoped or expected, at least Baruch is stepping into programming and is seeing it for the gem it really is.

Overall, the setting was very welcoming and the Professor answered all my questions respectfully. I am also now intrigued about upper-level art classes at Baruch. Being known as a business school, it’s surprising that their art classes look fun and difficult.