Yiko Li
Integrated Seminar
Reflection Essay
May 16 2016
In this semester long research/ art project, I combined my skills that I learned from both classes and investigate in my topic about the system in the city. In “Design as a Reflective Conversation with the Situation,” where the excerpt of the book talks about problem solving after getting deeper understanding of the subject and create new forms. Design is a process of making revisions after getting more knowledge of the subject. I tried several different ways to understand the topic from different perspective and overcome many challenges that came up during the process.
During the research process, Leigh keep on pushes us out from our comfort zone. I try to understand my topic by actually experience the different point of views. The ted talk from Amanda Burden that we watched in seminar inspire me to understand the neighborhoods by actually being at the site and experience the area. I imitate the same way that she did to understand the neighborhood. I took two visits outside of Manhattan, long subway ride to get as further away from Manhattan as possible for the lower income areas observation. I collected information about people living in upper-middle income areas from my experience living in Manhattan from the beginning of the school year. I took the L-Train to the last stop, Canarsie-Rockaway Parkway, to deep down Brooklyn. I feel the difference in atmosphere of the neighborhood once I stepped down from the train. It is definitely less urbanized than Manhattan, everything in the neighborhood is more spread out. All the equipments have minimum care to details. For example the houses in the neighborhood are more like a shelter instead of a house. The exterior of the houses’ appearance are very rough, usually the yards are full of trash and dying bushes. The other location that I went to was somewhere further than Harlem exceeding Manhattan, possibly Woodstock. Both of the locations that I went to are dark-skin races dominated for their population. I felt out of place because of my appearance, but I also took an advantage of that to do unusual things that seems weird to the residents. The residents in lower income neighborhoods tend to dress more casually. It is the opposite from my observation when the subway train passed by midtown area, where most of the passengers dress up for their job. People in the further areas were not aware of camera unlike the people in Manhattan, where they have knowledge of their portraiture right. Subway is the most common transportation in New York City. People from different social classes take the subway either because it is their only option or convenience or eco-friendly reasons, etc. I went on numerous trips riding in the subway just to observe the passengers, as the train passes through different areas in the city. I went to visit the location at 7 in the morning on a weekday, which I can get a better view of their daily routine. Both trips to be in somewhere that I am totally unfamiliar with feels strange and unsafe to me throughout the whole process. However, I experienced a lot and gather many information from walking around the neighborhoods with the residents
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I learn different way of expressing the same problem and integrated them together after research. Seminar is about getting in depth to the topic through research while studio is about converting the information into visual language that can be easily expressed to the audiences. It is the same concept from understanding how the system works. Both the research paper and the studio project require me to fully understand the system by doing in depth research. At the end, research paper is more like an overview of this social issue and how it is affecting the current situation. Using sources that I found through our library system to support my claim about this issue. By getting a deeper understanding of the project each time reading more information from the library archive, it also helps me to develop my studio project. For studio project, it shares the same research process but more in a general idea rather than specific idea. In the beginning of the process, I was having difficulty deciding my final topic. It was challenging to set on one topic that I am interested in and will be able to converge together from two classes. I overcome many difficulties during the process. I found a really useful book that talks about the inequality of social opportunities and educational opportunities, which is my main inspiration for my research topic. I decided to write my research topic based on this social issue. I have not decided which form that I will use to express my studio project, but since this is a broad topic, I can pick some concept to focus on after I gather more information about the topic. The seminar research process started to went smooth after I decided the topic. I get further into the topic by finding resources about information that apply specifically to New York and also different perspectives to look at issue. On the other hand, nothing in studio is developing into a clear direction. I looked through so many artists references and visiting museums. I did not come up with my studio idea until the week before it is due. However, during the last week, every piece of information that I gathered for this research comes together and inspired me for my final piece for studio, which is almost like a reflection of all the work that I have done in seminar.
