Kristine Bova, Kate Brennan, Evan West, iDENTITY, 2013

This was our last official meeting as a group and with faculty (Andy S.) for this project. We have decided on using ipads to display our representations of the #prompt responses. Each prompt will be displayed above the ipad, followed by the ipad image, and then the responses posted below on paper.

The images we have chosen emphasize a mirco-macro perception of identity through a social media lens (Facebook and Twitter). Our FB page can be found here.

PROMPT 1:
As you fill in the statement below, think about these questions: “Who am I?” & “What is it that makes me ME?”
PROMPT: I identify myself as……………#IDyou

PROMPT 2: When I grow up, I want to be…………#propantry

PROMPT 3: The role I play in my family is………#famrole

PROMPT 4: A community can be defined in many ways. With what community do you associate with?
I identify myself as a member of a ______________________ community. #communitypantry

PROMPT 5: I contribute to the world by…………#civicpantry

Our idea is to display images that represent each prompt (prompts are out of order to focus on micro-macro). Prompt #1 – Individual: camera on to see self
Prompt #3 – Family: silhouette of people
Prompt #4 – Community: people/diversity/interconnectivity
Prompt #2 – Profession: Cigna “Go You” 2013
Prompt #5 – Civic: Google Earth

Also, I have also generated a QR code that links directly to our FB community page for audience engagement. I created stickers and have posted them around campus hoping to draw participants.

There is much to be done still, but I am looking forward to our opening on Monday, December 2nd from 5pm-7pm in the Borland Gallery.

I have now contributed to my first wikipedia page and it feels great! The area I chose to explore and edit included the underrepresentation of women in STEM fields. The editing process was not nearly as difficult as I had previously anticipated. Although, it definitely took a lot of research (and courage) to finally submit my paragraph. I found the FemTechNet editing video helpful throughout this process and referred to it multiple times. You can check it out here. My only concern is that my edit does not get kicked off. I keep waiting…hoping…and checking.

In my previous wikipedia storming blog entry (Wikistorming Blog #1), I had also hoped to  include a STEAM section to the STEM Fields page. However, after reading the talk and history sections, I realized someone had already posted this information and the wiki-people had decided it should be deleted. They concluded STEAM is not notable enough to warrant its own section. Then they simply made a note stating sometimes arts enthusiasts add the A to make a different acronym. I disagree with this statement. There is a STEAM fields page, but definitely needs more work. Now that I know how to edit, when I come across relevant information I will add to the page. Also, an art and science page should be researched and created. I am going to look into this task. Eventually I plan to make create an entirely new page.

One interesting surprise I found in the talk section addressed the need for a women in stem fields contribution and a link to that page. “I suggest that a section be added in order to address the under-representation of women in STEM fields. A link to Women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (United States) could also help to address this issue. Ghalmars (talk) 02:34, 18 October 2013 (UTC)” Cool.

PS. My post is still there!

Our group launched our Facebook and Twitter prompts for data collection last Thursday (10.31.13). I am concerned the sites are not user friendly because we have had very few responses. I am going to address those issues now and report back.

5 sentences (Identity)

1.)  Who am I (open-ended)?

2.)  What do you want to be when you grow up (professional)?

3.)  What is my role in my family (family)?

4.)  What is your community? My community is…(cultural)?

5.)  Political following…where do I fall (political)?

What are the components that make up an identity?

Cultural identity
National identity
Identity identification with the profession (ex. designer, cleaning, scientist, etc.)
Gender, sex, sexual identity (female, male, LGBT, etc.)
Religious identity
Ethnic identity (territory, language, genetics)
Identification with the conviction of identity (ex. a pacifist, warrior, etc.)
Political Identity

Family role (peacemaker, cook, black sheep, etc.)

Twitter

User – ArtSciCollab

Password – sciart2013

We are investigating social media as a form of identity. How does the Internet affect our personal self?

• Public portrayal of identity
• Coice
• Social identity
• What your social identity? Simple! Find out after answering these 5 easy questions.

Think about buzzwords for statements on components.

Hashtag research

References

http://www.communitydialogue.org/PDFs/Identity_CDWorksheetNo2Aug04.pdf

http://www.therightquestions.org/why-what-we-value-defines-our-personal-identity/#.UmALw9apZ1I

I feel this meeting went fairly well. The first group had some strong ideas with creating a project based on research discourse between different groups of people. It was inspiring to hear the beginning stages of how another group was planning their project.

Our group is continuing with the idea of personal and social identity. We all still like the idea of using Twitter (or another form of social media) to collect our data. For our homework we are to think up 5 questions we could ask an individual about themselves. For example, what is your favorite part of your career?  I think we can go deeper by keeping the questions somewhat vague allowing the reader to interpret the language based on his/her experiences and culture. We have a lot to work out, but I feel we are on the right track. As we were leaving the meeting our group briefly met outside the Studio|Lab. Time is definitely a problem as the semester continues. In my opinion this would be a great fall/spring semester project. I feel the time constraints of 3 months could be a detriment to parts of this project.

Wow! I cannot believe 87% of the wiki entries created are by men. I have never  thought about this before today when I started reading the Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2013-08-28/In the media entry on our class webpage. One of the wikis i would like to storm is the STEAM fields. The link is provided here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STEAM_fields From this I would like to create a STEM to STEAM initiative wiki if possible. My other thought would be to create an art and science wiki. I thought for sure I would find one when I recently searched but come up empty handed. I feel having one or both of these as wikis would further the field of art & science and the STEM to STEAM initiative.

One of my other goals is to search for women artists who intertwine scientific concepts, transdiciplinarity, or are STEM to STEAM supporters.

Transdisciplinarity is an approach to conducting social research that involves synergistic collaboration between two or more disciplines with high levels of integration between the disciplinary sets of knowledge. Transdisciplinary research practices are issue- or problem-centered and prioritize the problem at the center of research over discipline-specific concerns, theories or methods. Transdisciplinary research is responsive to (public) needs. Methodologically, transdisciplinary research follows responsive or iterative methodologies and requires innovation, creativity, and flexibility and often employs participatory research design strategies. Transdisciplinarity has the potential to greatly enhance public scholarship.

(Leavy, 2011, p. 9)

Reference: Leavy, P. (2011). Essentials of trandisciplinary research: Using problem-centered methodologies. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press, Inc.

The second Sci-Art Collab meeting went extremely well. Each member contributed different ideas to our theme, identity.  We approached the task in different ways, but found common ground when discussing memory and identity, the duality of wanting to belong but still have your own identity, and trends with identity (such as clothing, accessories, hair style). We questioned why some trends make it and other do not. I could not help but think of the Malcolm Gladwell book, The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make A Big Difference (2000). Gladwell’s book investigates this phenomenon in depth. If we choose to go in this direction, I will definitely re-read the book in hopes of contributing information from a contemporary author and researcher. Gladwell is one of my favorite authors and I would definitely like to incorporate his ideas and theories into a research project at some point. Other key ideas included creating a project where a person writes a truth about himself or herself, such as, “I like peanuts.” The next person will contribute to make the statement true about themselves, such as “I like peanuts but only during Pittsburgh Pirates games.” And so on. We are hoping to use social media as our form of connecting people through this experiment. We are meeting with our Sci-Art faculty members on Friday, October 11 to discuss our ideas. I am confident they will be able to help guide this project.