Fieldwork Assignment: Sculpture

In my group we decided to choose sculptures as our literacy fact.  In class last Thursday we talked about the different kinds of art we could do and what seemed interesting around campus.  All of us agreed that sculptures seemed the most interesting and everyone in my group had already done a sculpture, well except for me.  We thought it would be a good idea for each of us to pick a sculpture we wanted to dig deeper into and go from there.

I chose the one that is in front of  the Rowe Arts building to the left as you walk up the stairs.  I figured people see it frequently since it is right there ya know?  Our group came up with a few questions that we would ask random people passing by the sculptures. 

So since I cannot upload a picture of the sculpture I will just describe it to you.  It is made out of sticks.  Like from a tree.  It embodies a man.  One of the legs is slightly in front of the other and the same goes for the mans arm.  However he has no feet or hands and the top of the head is not inclosed.  It is almost like the ends of his body kinda flow outward in different ways.  My perception of the sculpture from the way he was standing was that he was trying to get somewhere and the limbs of his body were open and going in all different directions, just his mind should be to different places and ideas. 

I interviewed two people today (yes only two because it was freezing cold outside and no one wanted to stop.)  One of the people I talked to was actually an art major so I was anxious to see what she had to say about the object.  She said, "It looks like one leg is full and the other kind of tapers off.  From the right it looks like a long arm but it looks different depending on where you stand.  It is a very odd representation of human form but I think the author was trying to give him the title of being broken, unfulfilled and unfinished."  The other person I interviewed was a guy and his thoughts were a little different.  He said, "I think it is a very interesting piece that I have never payed close attention to.  It looks almost depressing and since it is made out of sticks it has that bare, boring look to it.  I would be interested to know what the story is behind this interesting piece." 

I think a lot of people over look the sculptures we have here at UNC Charlotte, I know I did.  But there is so much more to it then just what you see on the outside of it.  Each piece had some kind of story behind it. 

Mapping Assignment

For our homework assignment we were to find a place at UNCC we had to find a location that we saw literacy.  I thought hard about where to go... then I thought some more... and more... and then I walked into my dorm, Moore Hall, and saw people painting picture frames by the front desk. 

I didn't think anything of it at first but as I was walking by I decided to actually stop and see what they were doing.  You see, there are all sorts of activities that usually go on but I just choose not to interact with them.  I'm not sure why, I just don't.  But anyways... I thought I could connect this to literacy somehow. 

I think that visuals help people connect to text better.  It lets people open their minds and actually map out things.  When I was a kid I read a lot of childrens books.  What I liked about them was the fact that I could look at a picture to help me understand the words on the page.  If it wasn't for art I feel like my childhood experience with reading would not have been very good. 

Another thing that I noticed about Moore was that the RC's and RA's post stuff on the bulletin boards in front of the elevator.  You have no choice to read it as you wait for the elevator.  The board actually gives you a lot of things you can do to get involved as well as all the important dates you need to know academically.  They are really trying to promote ways for us to ingage and get involved at UNC Charlotte. 

For the most part Moore Hall is a pretty boring, but for some reason the past two weeks they have really spiced it up a bunch.  The walls are not as boring, they have fun, engaging activities to do and they post a lot of helpful information for us freshman. 

Like all my other blog post I am unable to put a picture up of my map because it says the file is incompatable to my computer... So sorry about that. 

GRAMMAR!!!!

This past week we had to write in our daybooks about grammar.  Lacy told us to go write anything we want about it, to either say how much you love it or how much you despise it.  I quickly opened my daybook and got out my pencil.  I could not wait to write about this! 

 I personally hate grammar.  I cannot emphasize the word "hate" enough here.  If grammar never existed I would be one happy girl when it comes to writing.  I cannot spell to save my life.  In Elementary school I would always lose the first round of spelling bees and even now I found myself turning to my neighbor asking for how to spell something.  I never know when to use commas and semi-colons.  They just really confuse me for some reason.  Another thing that I am terrible with is word tenses... I tend to talk in past and present tense while talking about the same thing.  I really hate all the red marks that were constantly covering my papers because of all my mistakes. 

 After we wrote in our daybooks about grammar we did an improv game where we just rambled on about what we thought of grammar.  One of the interesting things I learned was that a lot of people dislike and struggle with it as well, it wasn't just me!  But one of my concerns is why do so many people dislike grammar?  What really is so annoying and hard about it?  You would think that since we are in college we would have lots of practice with it and wouldn't hate it as much... Well at least that's what I think!  Unfortunately for me I feel like I will never be good at it, but that doesn't stop me from trying to get better at grammar.   

**Oh and just so you guys know, my computer doesn't have to update to recieve pictures that I send from my phone so I can't get it to work.  And I cannot figure out how to download the update!  Sorry.

Midterm Assignment

Instead of going to class on Tuesday, I met with my writing group to do our midterm assignment.  We decided to meet at the Library obviously because we had to find a mentor text of some sort to help us with our literacy narrative.  I have been in the Library many times but still didn't know which floor was which.  I was told to go to the second floor so when I thought was the second floor I was actually on the third!  Dumb me.  I finally found them on the second floor by the lounge chairs.  We sat down and discussed what our objective was and how we were going to do it.  So... The journy began.

From there we wandered to the third floor in search for a book.  Once we got there we realized we had no idea what we were looking for...  So I suggested we go to a computer to search for one.  Cory searched "mentor text" and "writing" and from there the computer directed us to the 6th floor.  There we looked for this book that we thought would be a good one, but once we found it we realized it was not what we were looking for.  Johnny had the bright idea of googling to find us a book, and sure enough he found one that looked decent.  The book was called "Owl Moon."

I had a picture of the book on my phone but my phone is currently not working and will not send the picture to my email for the life of it!!!!

"Owl Moon" was located on the fifth floor of the library, so we got back on the elevator and prayed we would find it.  Sure enough we did!  We sat in a circle and read through the book.  It was from first person perspective and very detailed.  We got out our pencils and paper and wrote for five minutes in the way the author did.  To my surprise it wasn't too hard.  I expanded on a part of my literacy narrative that I thought was weak and I hope to add it to my paper. 

Overall this experience was very interesting.  Even though it took us a while to find what we wanted, we eventually did and I think it turned out to be a fun, eventful project.