This weekend was parents weekend and I couldn’t be more excited to see my dog. I miss her so much. I don’t know what it is about my dog but she is the definition of home to me. I was so used to sleeping with her every night and waking up to her wagging her tail because she wanted to go outside. I really wish I could of brought her with me to Alfred. This weekend when she came, we did everything together. Betty came with me to the homecoming game, a party house, the farmers market, and even terra cotta. Betty also enjoyed exploring Harder Hall with me (Is that allowed?). When it was time to say goodbye I said fairwell to my grandma first, then grandpa, dad, mom, ricky (my brother), and finally Betty The tears didn’t start rolling down my cheeks until my last goodbye. I miss her so much, I love Alfred but I sure am counting down the days until I can see my Betty Boop again.

We have 10 people in our group, this means we had a total of 50 different kinds of documentation. We had to narrow the 50 down to 10 and then 5. The top 5 and top 10 can be show on the blog post that is linked above.

In class today we critiqued our own documentation with a set of questions, then we used those same questions to critique another group. This is the blog post below.

Documentation #1 (photographs)

Documentation #2 (color)

• brown
• red
• blue
• purple
• black
• white

Documention #3 (Time)

I timed the process of setting up the pictures and taking them and it took 9 minutes and 13 seconds.

Documentation #4 (story)

Throughout this process i’ve learned just how useful the “art card” can be. Walking by the mail room you dont expect to see a girl inside a giant cardboard box, and it might be extra confusing when there are printer cartridges spread out all over the floor around her. Although if you just tell someone its for an art project they just simply nodd with approval and go on about their day. The “art card” also came in handy when someone else in my group decided to climb on top of the vending machine.

Documentation #5 (painting)

This week started off in a very odd way. Our class was told to walk together in the pouring down rain, wearing these awful looking red vests. We were most definetly not making a fashion statement. The next day our class walked again although this time it was much more interesting to me. We followed sarahs instructions for a unique kind of meditation. The class was told to get with your daily practice buddy (mine is Majesty) and one person in the pair needed to close their eyes. What happened next creeped me out. While Majestys eyes were closed I rubbed his back and chest at the same time, Then I hovered my hands over him and he was able to sense which direction I wanted him to go. The next activity for class was for one partner to walk back to Harder Hall while the other texted their partner directions, such as the messages below. It was interesting that I could tell if people were getting texted just by looking at them and noticing if they were patting their head.

 

The name of our territory is “Powell at a different perspective”. For our project we decided to explore Powell Campus Center. For our performance we focused of the different speeds that take place in Powell. For example, we observed that on the first floor many students are in a rush to get their mail at the mail center and leave. Although if you explore the second floor you will find students doing their own thing at their own pace in the bookstore. The third floor of Powell is the most lively, Students go there to eat and socialize with friends and take their time. Our video performance reflects these speeds as does our final map sculpture.

The Alfred Group map project started off so peacefully and ended in a beautiful chaos. The first step to this project was to go on a 30 minute mindfulness walk. Students were encouraged to walk alone and really focus on our surroundings. With about 50 students walking in all different directions you could anticipate the map would be covered, and it was. We ranged all the way from the windmill at the top of Alfred State to the overlook at the top of Alfred University and everything in between. When we got back the floor was covered in paper, we were asked to figure out where we were by knowing Harder Hall was in the center. We then connected our spot to someone elses and had to fill in the blanks for homework. My location was behind Olin where the Stream runs and my partner was at a Church on Main Street. We got pretty lucky because some pairs had a much further distance to cover. After class we walked the distance between our location and our partner’s and took in the scenery. When we arrived at class the next morning the paper on the ground had come to life in an odd way. We then filled in the blanks with outlines of our bodies and I personally put a heart on the map for every spot I love such as the overlook. From this project I confirmed my belief that I have a terrible sense of direction and I also learned communication is key in such a big project.

On Monday we started class off with an ice breaker, everyone’s favorite. The faculty split us into pairs, my partner was Majesty. Then they told us to answer the following questions about our favorite food and any follow up questions we had.

1. What is it?
2. Where is it from?
3. Why is it important?
4. What does it remind you of?

Majesty’s Favorite food was a sushi roll, which he said originated in Japan. It is important to him because it is his favorite food and he loves it. The sushi roll reminds him of his mother because she makes it for him. After the necessary questions I asked him what kind of sushi roll it was and he told me it is a salmon avocado roll which is my favorite too (if you add cream cheese). Although my alltime fvorite food is homemade tortillas. They are from Honduras. It is impotant to me because it is the first “real food” I learned how to make (besides grilled cheese, if that counts). Tortillas remind me of my family friends because we make them together. After Majesty asked me all the question prompts he asked me what I like on my Tortilla, which is refried beans, feta cheese, and avocado.

Check out my first group’s second blog post!

Alfred Systems Group