James Doss
Arts Scholar
Semester 1
2020 has been a crazy and hectic year no matter how you look at it. My last semester of highschool and first semester of college were entirely encompassed within the framework of global pandemic and large scale civil unrest. Finishing highschool was work enough, and starting college even more so. When I first got word the majority of Maryland’s classes would be online, I gave me pause to register for housing. When I heard about daily temperature checks, in dorm confinement for the first few weeks, and spiking covid rates, I was glad I had that pause. I took all of my classes for the 2020 fall semester online and at my home - suffice to say, this is not how I expected to take classes. That being said, all of my professors made a fantastic effort to really try and deliver effective lectures online (some more successfully than others) but in terms of workload, format and so many other small elements, it just didn't feel real.
One thing I personally didn’t expect given educational circumstances was interdisciplinary projects. Shortly after we were assigned our podcast project for CPSA100, in ENES100 we received notice that our final project would be to construct and film a cinematic rube goldberg machine. Needless to say, having completed the podcast a full two weeks before the engineering project was due provided incredibly valuable insight into precisely how I would go about recording the audio, editing the video and creating an entertaining narrative.
Another thing I didn’t expect was the strong focus on artistic activism in the CPSA course. I thought more of the early colloquiums would focus on connecting student artists with professionals and aiding them in honing their skills, be it in the visual arts, music or 3d arts. To an extent this connection certainly was made, but it didn’t feel to be the primary focus of the course as I thought it would be.
In regards to COVID, I think while the university made a valiant effort to implement health screening and COVID related protocols, even having students on campus makes the situation inherently an uphill battle.
Personally, my most thought provoking experience in Art Scholars was when we wrote letters to our local representatives urging for political and policy action. It forced me to think about civic activism in a way I hadn’t previously and put me in a good mindset to work on the podcast project.
Semester 2
Living through COVID the past year has been hard. I was living at home the entire time which certainly didn’t help with the feelings of isolation and loneliness that have been a staple for many the last year. The typical routine for students like me seemed to be encapsulated by the experience of dragging oneself out of bed, attending zoom classes throughout the day with no real external contact with others, going to sleep and repeating all over again. For incoming students, hopefully this won’t be a challenge you’ll have to face. That being said, over the course of the pandemic, there were a few particularly good professors and TAs who helped make distanced learning feel more personable. The best professor I had in this regard was Michael Galcyznski from ENES100. Professor Galcyznski made learning not only feel less distant, but brought such a wealth of enthusiasm to each of his lectures (as well as individually engaging every student in a 40 or so person class) that the distance felt a little less remote. I’ve never met Prof. Galczynski in person, but I know that if I did, I would feel immediately comfortable striking up a conversation with him. Professor Oard and Professor Hijazi from ENGL100S and INST154 likewise did tremendously well to make the mundane and monotonous experience of digital classes feel more real and tangible, and again, I would feel no reservations talking to them if I chance upon either when we all get back to campus. Of course Harold Burgess from our very own CPSA was also great in this regard and interacted really well with students, so he’s also a similar success case. Overall, what made each of these interactions successful and feel meaningful despite the distance was the fact that both the students in the classes and the professors gave their all to closing that digital divide.
Unfortunately my relation building with my peers was far less successful. I would say that while I worked well and enjoyed talking to some of my many group project members over the semester, there are few that I feel tangibly “closer” to than I did at the start of the year. Most of this I believe boils down to inherent separation between schooling at home and remote schooling on campus. Art Scholars did a few things to really foster this effectively which sadly I didn’t take full use of. The workshops I think were my favorite method of connection with peers and enabled me to show at least part of myself (through my art) to them, even if making a deeper connection might have felt too daunting. Again, I think this simply boils down to an issue of mutual effort for connections. I had trouble making the time to engage with my peers, and likewise they had trouble making the time to engage with me. In retrospect, I wish I had if only to have built a meaningful connection with one person.
Art Scholars was nonetheless transformative for my sense of art. My notions of what does and does not constitute art, and most of all how art is an expression of self have improved. Over the course of doing workshops and daily drawings for The Painting of Gods and Goddesses, my mechanical skill has improved as has my sense of composition. Again, more than anything though, where previously I had drawn to kill time or put ideas on paper, I now feel like I can convey pieces of my personality or messages behind my works which I think will be invaluable in my future career as an engineer.
If I could give one singular piece of advice to incoming Freshman, it is that you get out what you put in. Hopefully, no other freshman in the history of UMD will have to sit out their first year entirely at home, without seeing a single peer or professor but even if you do, strive to get as close to people as possible. That was an opportunity I squandered, because in all the rush of your first year, it becomes far too easy to get caught up with simply meeting academic quotas and ignoring all else. There were numerous opportunities where I could have tried to connect to people online, and didn’t. Because of that, when I actually go to campus in the fall, I can’t say I’ll have any friends to greet me. Don’t do what I did. Opportunities for this stuff won't just fall your way - you’ll have to make them.
Artifacts in Gallery Format
Semester 3
Over the course of the semester, and as my capstone ideation progressed, a few things changed in my understanding of the arts. My beliefs that art can reshape societal beliefs or even change popular conception of history was further crystallized by my viewing of La Manplesa. I also learned about the fundamental notion of the creative process, where new ideas spontaneously emerge from preparation. I also learned most importantly about the Critical Feedback process which aids in defining how we create questions, reflect on feedback and refine our ideas piece by piece. Over the semester I also was able to apply this information to experiences outside of art-scholars. One of the things that has come to mind personally and especially after the La Manplesa viewing has been the LA Riots of a similar period. I was just recently reading a piece in fact on the living memory of those who experienced the LA Riots, but it was noticeably devoid of the attempts of artists to preserve that memory. It makes me wonder if public perception, or even memory of the survivors would be different had more artistic attempts been made to crystalize it in memory. One of the most interesting connections I’ve seen so far has been from my ENES100 course. In it, as we worked on our final projects and individual smaller projects we went through almost the exact same ideation process that we used for our capstone this semester involving first divergent thinking, crystallization of an idea, initial proposals, feedback and refinement. In regards to my experience in Art Scholars so far, I think it has had only a limited effect on my learning thus far. Being part of a living learning community I felt meant less this semester as most of my peers had already met each other in person last year, and since I sort of missed the boat where everyone was first meeting each other, I had absolutely no success really getting to know anyone from within the program. The respectable condition of the dorms and common areas was very nice for studying but beyond that I feel it did not have much of an impact. During the semester, I participated in a number of art scholars events from the field trips and film viewing to the concert in the quad. Those I felt to actually be incredibly beneficial as they provided an alternate lens through which I viewed many of my adjacent academic experiences. For example, the Rich Kids of Tehran film challenged a lot of my knowledge on the Iranian revolution and the experience of the families involved.
Semester 4
When I started my Senior year of highschool, I had a normal in-person experience. I would go and eat with my friends at the cafeteria, go walk around the area when school had ended etc. By the time I finished senior year, I had been interacting with all my friends and teachers entirely online and had been doing so for over a month. At that point, I don’t think anyone knew how long COVID would have us locked down or how much it would affect the world. The summer came and went, and when fall rolled around and I was getting ready to start my Fall semester yet things were still online. So came and went my fall, and then spring semester - all online and all away from people. Over a year and half since the lockdowns began, I entered into my fall semester of Sophomore year, on campus for the first time. I missed the usual freshman socializing that happened and I knew no-one on campus. It was quite frankly an awful and isolating semester.
It’s been about four months since then, and I don’t feel quite as isolated anymore. Getting to work on my Capstone Workshop, and getting to teach and spend time with other students in the Art Scholars program has been the core of that. The act of collaborating with other workshop leaders, getting feedback from the students and in general getting more involved has been hugely beneficial to my mental health this semester. It’s also helped me adapt to working with people from widely varying backgrounds. For instance, as someone with an engineering background, working with the other workshop leaders with backgrounds ranging from music to computer science gave me an extra perspective on my work and helped me change the intensity, focus and pace of my workshop plans to better suit a wider audience.
My Capstone itself was developed mainly from my experiences in Art Scholars, especially my first year podcast project. I initially had the idea shortly after that project when I realized I had an entirely different background than many Art Scholars that gave me some unique insight into the interface between Art and Engineering. Initially, I based my workshop design off the same course format I had in my freshman workshop - The Painting of Gods and Goddesses. The act of preparing this workshop taught me that what worked well for others didn't always mesh well with how I wanted the class to run. It may not seem like a workshop would stretch ones creative talents but it certainly did in my case, and as a result I had to learn more about public speaking and presenting, the visual arts (in order to actual teach the subjects related to them) and in general leading a class. Even looking at my pentathlons, when I did visual art, I think there is visible improvement as a result of having to practice it this semester for teaching my workshop.
All in all, art scholars has expanded my social sphere here at UMD. It’s helped me make friends in an otherwise hard time, and helped me evolve my creative process and methods of thinking. Working with the other workshop leaders has also totally changed my perception on other art forms - especially music. I’ve never been one for anything but writing/visual arts, but seeing how Jenna used lots of the same approaches in creating a workshop that I did convinced me that there is more creative overlap between music and visual art than I thought. Finally, I hope to take my new appreciation of the depth and most importantly, the connections between arts and other disciplines with me as I continue to pursue my engineering degree.