Andrew Tran
01/04/2018
Dreamlight Reflection
From the very beginning of the project, my partners were Ethan Rau, and Evan Nazario; a very promising group. Ethan Rau chose the role of team leader, so I tried my best to be a good follower. Most of the work was very independent, mainly to maximize the amount of work completed in a single period. This didn’t mean that our teamwork was bad, when we did work together it worked out perfectly. All the content knowledge were things that all of us understood and knew how to apply, so only the work needed to get done. Collaboration with my partner was always enjoyable and productive which I’m proud of. Although our collaboration was great, there seems to always be areas in which you can grow, so I felt like I could’ve proposed more ideas to resolve current problems.
Humanities was a rollercoaster of knowledge. There were so many forms of knowledge that I was exposed to, and I am extremely grateful for that. From all of the books that we read as a class, I have learned that your perspective can be changed through those that influence your life. Juror 8 put his faith in the defendant, Beatrice with her dreams and Montag with his his job. Interviewing doesn’t seem like it should be nerve racking, but if you’re able to have a proper conversation then it’s a breeze. The ability to connect with potential friends is a great skill, and I feel like I’ve been able to grasp some of it. Human connection tasks caught me completely off guard, but if you really think about it, these simple tasks make us more knowledge ,curious as well as makes us more self aware.
The various lessons in physics have made my realized that the basis of everything is math, and is essential in making us ascend new heights. I look forward to expanding my knowledge, from what I have already learned, I can say that physics are complicated, but the previous professors have simplified it for us so that we may make new discoveries. Learning a specific element from the table of elements was an enjoyable experience. Calculating the magnetism of charges with Coulomb's Law was an interesting challenge. It was the same for circuits, although the may be easy when you use a calculator, but when you use the intricate formulas to actually find it yourself is a whole new experience.
Spanish has taught me how difficult it is to try to comprehend a new language. Understanding a language to learning one is a difficult transition, just like when I try to speak Spanish and Vietnamese. Growing up, I was raised in an almost half English half Vietnamese household. I know the difficulties in trying to learn another language. From what I learned in Spanish, I can form a sentence with all of the tenses, but individual words is a problem. The artists statement for our lanterns were translated in Spanish to represent our knowledge in Spanish. Although, most were formed through google translate, mistake were fixed by us or fellow spanish speakers.
Exhibition was one experience that I don’t think I will ever forget. The frustration, the relief, and the memories everyone experienced is the key component in making this an unforgettable experience. Our groups final products seem shabby, but hold wonders inside. A tunnel and 3 lanterns is what our group contributed to the amazing exhibition, and it came together almost at the last minute. The amount of work put into the tunnel is unbelievable, the amount of grit we’ve put out was extraordinary and the total materials is astronomical. To say we are proud of it is an understatement, but it is true that we are very proud of how it came together. My role as a supporter was played out perfectly in my opinion, the support on the little details saved a lot of time and work for Ethan and Evan. They seemed to appreciate it, so I feel that what I had to offer to my group was a helping hand. If I were to grade myself on class learning outcomes (work ethic, oral communication, written communication, collaboration, and content) I would give myself an A because I’ve followed each and everyone of those outcomes, but there is an area that I think I was lacking in, and it was written communication. The artist statements for the installation and group members was something like a meets expectation, and that seemed to me something that I could improve upon. While oral communication is something that a follower needs specialty in. Listening and applying is something I did tons of during this whole project, so I have improved a lot in that area. Class values are something you also need to take account because they help in organizing your or your team members state of mind. I’d give myself an A+ in the class values, because I feel that we used them to an extraordinary amount. Whether it was grit, empathy, or integrity, I have abided to those values throughout the process. Empathy was demonstrated when I saw Ethan in frustration, and grit was used when our tunnel completely collapsed for the 2nd time.
Dream Tunnel
Artists: Andrew Tran, Ethan Rau,Allie Lorton, Michelle Resendiz, Evan Nazario, & Lilliahna Vargas
Artists: Andrew Tran, Ethan Rau,Allie Lorton, Michelle Resendiz, Evan Nazario, & Lilliahna Vargas
The creation of this idea was through a rough selection of either a cube or a tunnel. Our class decided on the tunnel through a vote and that began the expansion of our groups idea. The general idea of our tunnel was to isolate a group of people and make a space where individuals can look, think, or read. With dreams and light as the main topic of our project, we needed ways to incorporate them into our installation. An idea was proposed by Ethan to have neon paint splattered or painted quotes from the people that we interviewed. Black light and a dark space make neon paint shine the best. Dreams are represented by the many quotes painted on and light is shown through the neon paint shining in the dark by the black light. The most flexible material that we had to build were PVC pipes. Repurposing black tarp as the cover and PVC as the frame was helpful towards our final product. With most of our planning done, we were ready to build. Allie, Andrew and Mr. Schwartz gave an estimation of 7 ft tall, 3 ft wide with a 40 degree angle upwards of ½ an inch to complete an arch. The total tunnel would be 3 arches with 5 ft spaces in between each arch and connected with PVC glue. The PVC need was a grand total of 104 ft of PVC, so some orders were needed. Everyone began cutting PVC and setting them together. The collection of quotes were included in a class reflection and from there we finished painting the black tarp with quotes.
Bret Faber
Artists: Andrew Tran, Ethan Rau & Evan Nazario
Artists: Andrew Tran, Ethan Rau & Evan Nazario
The community member that our group interviewed was Brett. The interview went great. He seemed very aware that we were doing this project and gave us answers that greatly helped on the panel choices of, a quote, creative choice, and symbol. The process of the designs we chose to represent our community member revolved around his personality. He was hilarious, serious, and an overall awesome guy. We went with a quote of, “My life is consumed by a 24 pound ball of terror,” to show his comedic side and show a bit about his family. The symbol showed what did for a while, which was traveling. He was a professional traveler, going to various parts of the Earth. Finally, traveling across America to finally settle in San Marcos where he coaches the athletic students in our school. The creative choice was also around the jokes he pulled during the interview about poisonous pink salt and his offense to how we started the interview without food or donuts.