Lewis Hine - various websites and books - One good example of how artists help change society and how it operates. Hine was photographing child laborers around 1908 and his photos helped enact child labor laws.
Humans are responsibly for the next Extinction. I could believe this. We are after all polluting the planet and exhausting our resources. If someone where to tell me that the human species will be wiped out by their own hand then I would not retort with critiscism. As a species, we are too prone to slacking off on responsibility and not caring about the actions we take despite the vast amount of knowledge we have. Just like Diamond said in Chapter 14, whether if the populace knows about a problem or not, they still have the ability to keep making the wrong decisions. What I found really interesting is that Eldredge blames agriculture for being one of the reasons why humans are leading to their own demise. He makes a good point that by relying on ourselves instead of nature, humans have been able to use animals for their own gain, over populate and not care about the extinction of non domestic animals. In previously read book (it might have been the Sand County Almanac), I read about a bird that was considered a pest to farmers, and because of that they where killed. The bird was the Carolina Parakeet and it was the only conure/parrot like bird native to the United States. It is horrible that the only parrot like bird native to the United States is dead and it was not because people where eating the bird unlike the Passenger Pigeon. Instead, the bird was killed out of hate for the bird eating crops. One of the birds biggest faults, that lead to its extinction, is that it went back to the bodies of their comrades and mourned. Eldridge did point out that humans did not necessarily care about the extinction of non domestic animals but he did not point out that the extinction of the animals where not just game animals. If you think about it, I am sure that people would actually care more about a domestic animals going extinct then some animal in another country very few people have seen before. Then again, despite the amount of attention domestic animals get in replacing child figures, it would be odd to see animal that we are slightly responsible for creating go extinct. This is even more true if you think about how easily domestic animals can over populate an area and kill off native wild life easily because they can always go home for more food. What I found really odd is that Eldredge did not point out the Industrial Revolution until the end. The Industrial Revolution is what really helped the human species over populate the planet. I think that it is more important that Eldredge points out that people are creating other ways to create more food just to support the ever growing population of the planet. I really am interested on what will happen in the future and population control. I want people to still be able to have kids and a family because family is really important to me. Maybe we will all adopt the limitations China put on their residents with how many kids we could have. I'm really not sure.
Lewis Hine’s work has always intrigued me. Until recent years, they used to catch my interest purely because of its aesthetics and its ability to take me back to a time period that I was not a part of. Now, however, it reveals one layer deeper than that in its culture-changing quality. I used to think that artists created work just to create work. But being in the art school and creating more meaningful works of my own has revealed to me that the word “art” generally implies something much more shallower and more superficial than what it actually is. Whenever I see work that has changed or is changing the world, it is another reminder that artists are so much more capable than they are depicted to be. Hine’s work is a perfect exhibition of this. On the other hand, with so much manipulation of the media in today’s society, it is clear that media is capable of harming just as much as it is of helping, with its stereotyping depictions of various groups and encouragements of unhealthy behavior. I think that Hine’s work serves as an example of how artists can and should wield their creative abilities to make good change in the world.
In Life in the Balance: Humanity and the Biodiversity Crisis the author effectively illustrates the issues surrounding biodiversity and why it is important to us as a species to examine the role we play in decreasing biodiversity on the planet. He provides a solid analysis of the processes we utilize that have a negative effect on the creatures and organisms around us. The idea of a “Sixth Extinction” is very dramatic and at first seems ridiculous but his support and examples make it very clear that it is not as far-fetched as it might sound initially. In fact, it was quite shocking to read the ideas that supported this theory as they were very sound arguments that contributed to his logic. His approach of illustrating why biodiversity is important and then listing scenarios in which we, as humans, have a negative effect on the environment in terms of this issue was extremely effective. The role agriculture has played was surprising to me and made sense considering that agriculture was what brought about civilizations as we know them. The issue of overpopulation, however, was not surprising as it is directly connected with many other environmental problems. Biodiversity is an important factor to consider in continuing as an aware global citizen.
Today’s lecture was quite intriguing. There were a lot of things I found interesting that I had never known before. One of the first things he spoke about was the Autobon books that are at a University of Michigan library. When I was little my mom and I would look through bird books and try to find the birds while we went on walks through nature trails. I would really enjoy going to see the books in person. It was also quite shocking knowing how much the books were worth. I cant imagine any one book costing that much. So it made since when Professor Trumpy said that it was the most expensive item that the library had. I also really liked the artwork that he showed right after we talked about the Autobon books. The images of the bigger birds with the smaller birds were very interesting. They were all very detailed and I would really enjoy being able to see them in person. I couldn’t understand why a group of fans of Shakespear would think it was a good idea to take birds from his stories and set them free throughout Central Park and expect them to stay there. Another part of lecture that I found very intriguing was that you could by a swab to get your DNA and send it to National Geographics and learn about your genes and where you as a species came from. I would really like to learn a lot more about this topic, and I which Professor Trumpy spoke more about it during lecture. I think that if I had a chance and it wasn’t too expensive I might actually do it to figure out the results of where I came from. Professor Trumpy only barely mentioned it though. Lastly he spoke about the Myans and a lot about there calander and the buildings that they made. I thought it was very intresting that they tried to live near there building materials instead of near there food and water source. It seemed like a very difrent way then most groups tried to live. But it makes since, because they used limestone which would be heavy to carry to where they were living and instead went out to find food and water and lived near there building materials. They also used charcoal to make there vegiatation and dirt more fertile. They seemed to be very ahead of there time in ways of thinking and I wish there was a way for us to figure out the real reason of the end of there rein in the world.
I found the section "businesses and the public" to be very interesting. The fact that our laws force companies to make sure that they return the highest profits for the benefits of their shareholders, yet, in doing so, some companies resort to unlawful behaviors and practices. Aldo, the fact that companies rely so heavily on their shareholders gives the general public some sort of edge over big businesses. If the public doesn't support a business 100% for what it is, then the business will ultimately fail. Thus, if a company does not meet the [environmental] standards of the public, it will be abandoned until it does in fact meet those standards.
In Chapter 15 of Collapse, I was surprised by Diamond’s description of the Kutubu oil fields. When he first began discussing his visit there, I was expecting to read about how hazardous the place was on the environment and people. However, that was not at all the case. According to Diamond, Chevron has a very strictly regulated system that is meant to keep everything environmentally safe. At first, I was skeptical when Diamond began talking about how he got pulled aside by a safety representative and was told not to stray from his car. It made me wonder if they were trying to keep things hidden from public view. But then he explained that someone could attempt to veer out of Diamond’s way on the street and end up hitting a pipeline, which then would case an oil spill. This made me realize that even incidents like this had been thought out thoroughly and taken into consideration. Due to these strict regulations, Diamond expressed that bird species (among other animals) are more numerous and are/feel safe in this environment, especially because hunting (and fishing) are not permitted in the Chevron area. He also noted that, out of the 40 years he spent in Papua New Guinea, he had only ever seen tree kangaroos within a few miles of Chevron camps. Not to mention, instead of cutting down several trees to make a road, Chevron uses helicopters to reach exploration drills as an alternative in some cases, leaving more forest space for the birds to thrive. This description of the Chevron area caught me off-guard, as I was expecting a more negative response. Chevron should lead as an example to other oil companies.
This past week was completely dedicated to finishing up the technology paper, and the field research project, which consumed a pretty good amount of time. During that time I had many opportunities to contemplate the point of these assignments, and came up with some conclusions. As far as the field research is concerned, I feel that it was partially assigned for the sake of having another assignment. There are however, some positive aspects which can be taken away from the field research, which are the concepts of actually going out and interviewing someone that you are interested in, and applying those results to a future piece of work. With respects to the technology paper, I feel as though I got more out of that experience than I did from the field research, because the technology paper seemed to involve more self reflection, and personal thought than the field research did. Even though I already made a conscious effort in my life to limit my exposure to technology, and make sure that I get outside as much as possible, this assignment definitely revitalized those feelings for me. Looking forward to the final, I am worried about the true and false section, since the midterm true and false was worded rather confusingly, so the fact that there will be even more true and false on this exam makes me think that many people are going to perform poorly on this exam. The fact that the exam is cumulative, and focuses on all the information covered for the year is also troubling, since there have been such a wide spectrum of topics covered that one cannot possibly be prepared and studied up on all topics.
Lewis Hine studied sociology in school before he began to work at the Ethical Culture School in the very late 1800s. Hine purchased his first camera in 1903 and began to combine his teaching with his skills in photography to create documentary photography. He started to do this by using his camera to capture all of the poverty he saw in New York, exclusively on Ellis Island. In 1908 Hines published his first photography book titled Charities and the commons. At school Hines made sure that he always stressed the importance of the awareness of the issues of child labor. Hines had an investigator staff member to help him exploit child labor law violations. He used his photography to do this. To further more increase his involvement with this issue, Hines volunteered to work for the Red Cross during the First World War where he visited Europe to take photographs of the living conditions in. One of Hines most famous photographs was taken in 1930 of the construction of the Empire State Building. Which later, lead to his book entitled Men at Work to be published in 1932. After this the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) employed him to photo document their building of the dams. Hines never had a steady income and died in poverty in January of 1940. But, Hines always lived on spiritually through the awareness he provoked with his work that still stayed in our country up to this day.-brynn kurlan
Instead of reflecting of the book this week, I would like to take a minute to reflect on this class as a whole now that the semester is coming to a close. When I entered this class I had decided that the information would probably be interesting but that most of it would not apply to my life style. I originally imagined the class trying to turn me into a tree hugging, vegan, environmentalist and laughed at the thought of it. As we began to learn about the courses many subjects, I came to find that the class was not necessarily trying to force anyone to make a radical change in their life but rather asking us to be informed and to find our own happy medium environmentally. The topics and information addressed really opened my eyes to the problems we face environmentally and the small changes I can make in my life to address these issues. I now know the issues, which is a lot more than your average American can say and although this class has not radically changed me as a person it has created a few new habits. I now make a lot more of an effort to recycle and reuse the items that many might through away. I am also very conscience about my consumption and make an effort not to waste extra resources. Although I have not cut meat from my life, I am much more aware of what I am eating and have been avoiding red meat almost entirely. Overall, I am now a more conscience citizen and I am now well aware of my footprint.
Like Bridget, I would like to reflect on this semester in ADP III. Overall, I think this class was incredibly eye-opening. Since the starts of this semester I have become so much more aware of my actions and my surroundings. I am more conscious of my relationship with the environment whether that be through my ecological footprint, the amount of energy I consume or simply how much I pay attention my surrounding natural environment. In addition, I have learned so much about culture as a whole like my use of products that rely on child labor, and the suffering that coffee plants cause for example. Not only did this course teach me about my connection to the people and environment that surrounds me the cultural implications that it produces, but I learned about artists who work to make a difference and impact the society around them. This class was by far my favorite ADP course in the school of A&D that I have taken, and what I learned applies to all aspects of my life.
I would also like to reflect on the this semester in ADP III. Throughout this semester, my experience in the class have been quite different. Going into this class, I thought I contributed the slightest bit of concern about the environment as well as how technology effected my life to a certain extent. This class has taught me how to save energy by doing the little things. It has helped me to carefully plan my diet, and to try and be as nutritious as possible. I've become another character from the results of what I've learned in this class. I called myself trying to consider vegetarianism, but it was a handfull for me. Due to the sacrifice of not eating red meats, in some ways I feel healthier just knowing what unhealthy foods can do to your body. I've also altered the way I shop, the way I was dishes, and the usage of the light in my apartment. This class has not only taught me how to become at making decisions, but to consider how I effect the culture as well. In this generation, we have used up almost all of our resources considering that we've taken "self image" to a whole new level. The whole idea of culture being tied in with nature has help me to derive ideas from my experience with nature and technology. Ideas that have not only assisted me with explaining what our class is like to others, but to also incorporate them into my other classes. I love the class, and I look forward to taking another class that ties in to so many qualities of living.
Humans are responsibly for the next Extinction. I could believe this. We are after all polluting the planet and exhausting our resources. If someone where to tell me that the human species will be wiped out by their own hand then I would not retort with critiscism. As a species, we are too prone to slacking off on responsibility and not caring about the actions we take despite the vast amount of knowledge we have. Just like Diamond said in Chapter 14, whether if the populace knows about a problem or not, they still have the ability to keep making the wrong decisions.
ReplyDeleteWhat I found really interesting is that Eldredge blames agriculture for being one of the reasons why humans are leading to their own demise. He makes a good point that by relying on ourselves instead of nature, humans have been able to use animals for their own gain, over populate and not care about the extinction of non domestic animals.
In previously read book (it might have been the Sand County Almanac), I read about a bird that was considered a pest to farmers, and because of that they where killed. The bird was the Carolina Parakeet and it was the only conure/parrot like bird native to the United States. It is horrible that the only parrot like bird native to the United States is dead and it was not because people where eating the bird unlike the Passenger Pigeon. Instead, the bird was killed out of hate for the bird eating crops. One of the birds biggest faults, that lead to its extinction, is that it went back to the bodies of their comrades and mourned. Eldridge did point out that humans did not necessarily care about the extinction of non domestic animals but he did not point out that the extinction of the animals where not just game animals.
If you think about it, I am sure that people would actually care more about a domestic animals going extinct then some animal in another country very few people have seen before. Then again, despite the amount of attention domestic animals get in replacing child figures, it would be odd to see animal that we are slightly responsible for creating go extinct. This is even more true if you think about how easily domestic animals can over populate an area and kill off native wild life easily because they can always go home for more food.
What I found really odd is that Eldredge did not point out the Industrial Revolution until the end. The Industrial Revolution is what really helped the human species over populate the planet. I think that it is more important that Eldredge points out that people are creating other ways to create more food just to support the ever growing population of the planet.
I really am interested on what will happen in the future and population control. I want people to still be able to have kids and a family because family is really important to me. Maybe we will all adopt the limitations China put on their residents with how many kids we could have. I'm really not sure.
Lewis Hine’s work has always intrigued me. Until recent years, they used to catch my interest purely because of its aesthetics and its ability to take me back to a time period that I was not a part of. Now, however, it reveals one layer deeper than that in its culture-changing quality. I used to think that artists created work just to create work. But being in the art school and creating more meaningful works of my own has revealed to me that the word “art” generally implies something much more shallower and more superficial than what it actually is. Whenever I see work that has changed or is changing the world, it is another reminder that artists are so much more capable than they are depicted to be. Hine’s work is a perfect exhibition of this. On the other hand, with so much manipulation of the media in today’s society, it is clear that media is capable of harming just as much as it is of helping, with its stereotyping depictions of various groups and encouragements of unhealthy behavior. I think that Hine’s work serves as an example of how artists can and should wield their creative abilities to make good change in the world.
ReplyDeleteIn Life in the Balance: Humanity and the Biodiversity Crisis the author effectively illustrates the issues surrounding biodiversity and why it is important to us as a species to examine the role we play in decreasing biodiversity on the planet. He provides a solid analysis of the processes we utilize that have a negative effect on the creatures and organisms around us. The idea of a “Sixth Extinction” is very dramatic and at first seems ridiculous but his support and examples make it very clear that it is not as far-fetched as it might sound initially. In fact, it was quite shocking to read the ideas that supported this theory as they were very sound arguments that contributed to his logic.
ReplyDeleteHis approach of illustrating why biodiversity is important and then listing scenarios in which we, as humans, have a negative effect on the environment in terms of this issue was extremely effective. The role agriculture has played was surprising to me and made sense considering that agriculture was what brought about civilizations as we know them. The issue of overpopulation, however, was not surprising as it is directly connected with many other environmental problems. Biodiversity is an important factor to consider in continuing as an aware global citizen.
Weekly statement
ReplyDeleteDecember 7th, 2010
Today’s lecture was quite intriguing. There were a lot of things I found interesting that I had never known before. One of the first things he spoke about was the Autobon books that are at a University of Michigan library. When I was little my mom and I would look through bird books and try to find the birds while we went on walks through nature trails. I would really enjoy going to see the books in person. It was also quite shocking knowing how much the books were worth. I cant imagine any one book costing that much. So it made since when Professor Trumpy said that it was the most expensive item that the library had. I also really liked the artwork that he showed right after we talked about the Autobon books. The images of the bigger birds with the smaller birds were very interesting. They were all very detailed and I would really enjoy being able to see them in person. I couldn’t understand why a group of fans of Shakespear would think it was a good idea to take birds from his stories and set them free throughout Central Park and expect them to stay there.
Another part of lecture that I found very intriguing was that you could by a swab to get your DNA and send it to National Geographics and learn about your genes and where you as a species came from. I would really like to learn a lot more about this topic, and I which Professor Trumpy spoke more about it during lecture. I think that if I had a chance and it wasn’t too expensive I might actually do it to figure out the results of where I came from. Professor Trumpy only barely mentioned it though.
Lastly he spoke about the Myans and a lot about there calander and the buildings that they made. I thought it was very intresting that they tried to live near there building materials instead of near there food and water source. It seemed like a very difrent way then most groups tried to live. But it makes since, because they used limestone which would be heavy to carry to where they were living and instead went out to find food and water and lived near there building materials.
They also used charcoal to make there vegiatation and dirt more fertile. They seemed to be very ahead of there time in ways of thinking and I wish there was a way for us to figure out the real reason of the end of there rein in the world.
I found the section "businesses and the public" to be very interesting. The fact that our laws force companies to make sure that they return the highest profits for the benefits of their shareholders, yet, in doing so, some companies resort to unlawful behaviors and practices. Aldo, the fact that companies rely so heavily on their shareholders gives the general public some sort of edge over big businesses. If the public doesn't support a business 100% for what it is, then the business will ultimately fail. Thus, if a company does not meet the [environmental] standards of the public, it will be abandoned until it does in fact meet those standards.
ReplyDeleteIn Chapter 15 of Collapse, I was surprised by Diamond’s description of the Kutubu oil fields. When he first began discussing his visit there, I was expecting to read about how hazardous the place was on the environment and people. However, that was not at all the case. According to Diamond, Chevron has a very strictly regulated system that is meant to keep everything environmentally safe. At first, I was skeptical when Diamond began talking about how he got pulled aside by a safety representative and was told not to stray from his car. It made me wonder if they were trying to keep things hidden from public view. But then he explained that someone could attempt to veer out of Diamond’s way on the street and end up hitting a pipeline, which then would case an oil spill. This made me realize that even incidents like this had been thought out thoroughly and taken into consideration.
ReplyDeleteDue to these strict regulations, Diamond expressed that bird species (among other animals) are more numerous and are/feel safe in this environment, especially because hunting (and fishing) are not permitted in the Chevron area. He also noted that, out of the 40 years he spent in Papua New Guinea, he had only ever seen tree kangaroos within a few miles of Chevron camps. Not to mention, instead of cutting down several trees to make a road, Chevron uses helicopters to reach exploration drills as an alternative in some cases, leaving more forest space for the birds to thrive. This description of the Chevron area caught me off-guard, as I was expecting a more negative response. Chevron should lead as an example to other oil companies.
This past week was completely dedicated to finishing up the technology paper, and the field research project, which consumed a pretty good amount of time. During that time I had many opportunities to contemplate the point of these assignments, and came up with some conclusions. As far as the field research is concerned, I feel that it was partially assigned for the sake of having another assignment. There are however, some positive aspects which can be taken away from the field research, which are the concepts of actually going out and interviewing someone that you are interested in, and applying those results to a future piece of work. With respects to the technology paper, I feel as though I got more out of that experience than I did from the field research, because the technology paper seemed to involve more self reflection, and personal thought than the field research did. Even though I already made a conscious effort in my life to limit my exposure to technology, and make sure that I get outside as much as possible, this assignment definitely revitalized those feelings for me. Looking forward to the final, I am worried about the true and false section, since the midterm true and false was worded rather confusingly, so the fact that there will be even more true and false on this exam makes me think that many people are going to perform poorly on this exam. The fact that the exam is cumulative, and focuses on all the information covered for the year is also troubling, since there have been such a wide spectrum of topics covered that one cannot possibly be prepared and studied up on all topics.
ReplyDeleteLewis Hine studied sociology in school before he began to work at the Ethical Culture School in the very late 1800s. Hine purchased his first camera in 1903 and began to combine his teaching with his skills in photography to create documentary photography. He started to do this by using his camera to capture all of the poverty he saw in New York, exclusively on Ellis Island. In 1908 Hines published his first photography book titled Charities and the commons.
ReplyDeleteAt school Hines made sure that he always stressed the importance of the awareness of the issues of child labor. Hines had an investigator staff member to help him exploit child labor law violations. He used his photography to do this. To further more increase his involvement with this issue, Hines volunteered to work for the Red Cross during the First World War where he visited Europe to take photographs of the living conditions in.
One of Hines most famous photographs was taken in 1930 of the construction of the Empire State Building. Which later, lead to his book entitled Men at Work to be published in 1932. After this the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) employed him to photo document their building of the dams. Hines never had a steady income and died in poverty in January of 1940. But, Hines always lived on spiritually through the awareness he provoked with his work that still stayed in our country up to this day.-brynn kurlan
Instead of reflecting of the book this week, I would like to take a minute to reflect on this class as a whole now that the semester is coming to a close. When I entered this class I had decided that the information would probably be interesting but that most of it would not apply to my life style. I originally imagined the class trying to turn me into a tree hugging, vegan, environmentalist and laughed at the thought of it. As we began to learn about the courses many subjects, I came to find that the class was not necessarily trying to force anyone to make a radical change in their life but rather asking us to be informed and to find our own happy medium environmentally. The topics and information addressed really opened my eyes to the problems we face environmentally and the small changes I can make in my life to address these issues. I now know the issues, which is a lot more than your average American can say and although this class has not radically changed me as a person it has created a few new habits. I now make a lot more of an effort to recycle and reuse the items that many might through away. I am also very conscience about my consumption and make an effort not to waste extra resources. Although I have not cut meat from my life, I am much more aware of what I am eating and have been avoiding red meat almost entirely. Overall, I am now a more conscience citizen and I am now well aware of my footprint.
ReplyDeleteLike Bridget, I would like to reflect on this semester in ADP III.
ReplyDeleteOverall, I think this class was incredibly eye-opening. Since the starts of this semester I have become so much more aware of my actions and my surroundings. I am more conscious of my relationship with the environment whether that be through my ecological footprint, the amount of energy I consume or simply how much I pay attention my surrounding natural environment. In addition, I have learned so much about culture as a whole like my use of products that rely on child labor, and the suffering that coffee plants cause for example. Not only did this course teach me about my connection to the people and environment that surrounds me the cultural implications that it produces, but I learned about artists who work to make a difference and impact the society around them. This class was by far my favorite ADP course in the school of A&D that I have taken, and what I learned applies to all aspects of my life.
I would also like to reflect on the this semester in ADP III. Throughout this semester, my experience in the class have been quite different. Going into this class, I thought I contributed the slightest bit of concern about the environment as well as how technology effected my life to a certain extent. This class has taught me how to save energy by doing the little things. It has helped me to carefully plan my diet, and to try and be as nutritious as possible. I've become another character from the results of what I've learned in this class. I called myself trying to consider vegetarianism, but it was a handfull for me. Due to the sacrifice of not eating red meats, in some ways I feel healthier just knowing what unhealthy foods can do to your body. I've also altered the way I shop, the way I was dishes, and the usage of the light in my apartment. This class has not only taught me how to become at making decisions, but to consider how I effect the culture as well.
ReplyDeleteIn this generation, we have used up almost all of our resources considering that we've taken "self image" to a whole new level.
The whole idea of culture being tied in with nature has help
me to derive ideas from my experience with nature and technology.
Ideas that have not only assisted me with explaining what our class is like to others, but to also incorporate them into my other classes. I love the class, and I look forward to taking another class that ties in to so many qualities of living.