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Something Underneath: Modernism(s), the Arts, and the Dance of the Critical I
Get PDFWhat is the mission of the liberal arts?
“Knowledge emerges only through invention and reinvention, the restless, impatient, continuing, hopeful inquiry beings pursue with the world and with others.”— Paulo Freire (72)
The liberal arts teaches a variety of ways of knowing, oriented not toward the development of hard skills; but united, powerfully, across disciplines, under the eclectic methodology of critical thinking, toward the broader story of the human soul.
The liberal arts curriculum can and often does teach you the skills to do well in the workplace; as is well-documented, liberal arts students, liberated from the means- ends logic of disciplinization, develop managerial, communicational, and network- oriented skills—skills crucial to any workplace. We know this. But—and this is crucial— that is not all the liberal arts does.
Being a critical thinker isn’t being a “good employee”, sometimes it is being a “bad” one. Sometimes thinking critically re-evaluating the standards of “good and bad” that others have parroted to you, putting aside your own material and social self- interests, and taking a stand. These are the people who expose hypocrisy, destroy ideology, and rebuild systems when necessary. In short, they are good employees—the best—but only in so far as it being a “good employee” coincides with what really matters: being a good human being.
Where does a “Creative School” fit in?
So, then, with all that I’ve said in mind, if we create an entirely new branch of DePauw entitled “The Creative School”, we are saying something specific: That the arts are different from other disciplines and that they, accordingly, require a different variety of “Critical Thinking”. We need to ask ourselves if this is true, and, from our answer, derive meaningful distinctions and terms on which we might build pedagogy. I believe this is true. Here is why I do
(No) Women On Track: An exploration of women’s experiences in motorsports through poetry
Get PDFI don’t go to every single race, paint my face Ferrari red, or show up at the hotels of drivers like Charles LeClerc and Pato O’Ward in hopes of getting an autograph. However, I do love motorsports and have worked in the motorsports industry as a college program intern in the premium services department at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS). Before working in the world of motorsports, I expected to nd an industry full of men and a need for masculine energy from any person who wasn’t a man. I had seen stories about and met men who would quiz people, especially women, on their knowledge of something the woman liked or was a fan of in hopes of claiming they were not knowledgeable enough to be a real fan. I figured the same would extend to the people working in the industry, if you didn’t know everything about the sport and the industry, you wouldn’t be seen as cut out for it. While I’m sure there are people in the industry like that, I found myself surrounded by powerful, kind, and intelligent women. The men I worked closely with did not express any views or opinions in line with that kind of personality. Even though, in that regard, I found my job different than I thought it would be, I still saw and heard the stories of women in other places in the industry ghting for more representation, expressing the feeling of being looked down upon and creating programs to build up women in the industry from the ground level. I saw these stories in news outlets, books, and personal social media accounts, but I wanted to explore them differently.
As I examined my options, I considered my love of poetry a possible medium. I found poetry about motorsports—like Sarah Thompson’s The Road Warrior (Poetry in Motion) and “The Racer” by John Masefield (Maesfield)—common, with the Indy 500 even naming an official poet for their 100th running (Littlefield). Poetry is used to talk about women and their experiences in poems like “A water woman has no body” by Lisa Ciccarello (Ciccarello) or “Girl Saints” by Emily Skaja (Skaja). However, the poems I found did not address the combination of these ideas by exploring women’s experiences in motorsports. I saw these two circles, never touching, so I set out to bring them together in a Venn Diagram.
Poetry offers something to these stories that a research paper, news article, tweet, or blog post can’t. It oers a continuous work that could be picked up and put down at any point, each poem acting as a distinct story despite the through lines that could be found in the collection. A novel or a work of nonfiction has a sort of continuity that requires the work in its entirety to be consumed for understanding to be reached fully. With poetry, there is no requirement to commit to a whole book or thesis paper, and it offers more room for multiple stories and perspectives than personal social media accounts or news stories.
While poetry collections are better read in their entirety eventually, it is not a necessity. Even reading the poems in order is not necessary for the reader to learn and understand the message, or parts of the message, of the author or curator. Poetry also oers both narrative and lyric storytelling, allowing the focus to shift from telling a story to expressing emotions and feelings in different works. Women’s experiences are diverse but still related, and in that same way, works in a poetry collection are distinct pieces of the same whole
Babel: what we lose when hierarchical thinking and systems of power replicate themselves in linguistics
No full textDesigning an Attachment Assay for Epidermal Cell-to-Cell Attachment
No full textCell adhesion includes various processes and is essential in cell communication and regulation. The mechanical interactions between a cell and its extracellular matrix control the behavior and function of a cell. In this project, we are studying cell attachment in different ways. The epidermal monostrato layer is a vertical and horizontal interaction and is not accounted for in usual assay protocols so I wanted to investigate this by creating an assay including multiple cell layers, a monolayer and an attached layer, to further develop a protocol for optimal cell-to-cell attachment. I hypothesized that the number of cell attachments to the monolayer would increase as time in the incubator during the attachment period increased. This project required significant modification of the protocol, including 1) adding a monolayer of epidermal cells to replicate cellular attachment; 2) discovering optimal cell densities for both the monolayer and the attached layer of cells; 3) finding the optimal time for cell-to-cell attachment, 4) adjusting the labeling step to be able to distinguish between established cells and those being applied in the assay, and 5) altering the quantification protocol to accurately quantify the number attached cells. This protocol represented significant troubleshooting, as the established layer of epidermal cells had less stability than under normal conditionshttps://scholarship.depauw.edu/srfposters/1148/thumbnail.jp
Characterizing Potentially Harmful Environmental Legacy Issues within a Declining Midwest City: A Street Sediment Study of Northeastern Terre Haute, Indiana
Get PDFUrban settings face unprecedented environmental challenges that include legacy issues as well as emerging pollution problems (e.g., micro-plastics) that continually impact the public health of its communities. Determining the baseline abundances of potentially harmful contaminants in soil, sediment, air, and water is essential to protecting residents. This study examines anthropogenic pollution in street sediments collected from three neighborhoods located in northeast Terre Haute, Indiana. Using stereomicroscopy, SEM/EDS, pXRF analyses, and geospatial analysis (GIS), the goal of this work is to characterize the types of pollutants present and place important constraints on their potential sources.
Stereomicroscopy on nine street sediment samples reveals several particle categories that include Fe-rich particles, glass spheres, organic matter, geogenic sediments, and other anthropogenic pollution (e.g., plastics). SEM/EDS analysis reveals Fe-rich spheres (~10 - 50µm), lead chromate (PbCrO4) paint chips, glass micro-beads (100µm), and other minor heavy metal particles. The Fe-rich spheres are consistent with technogenic spheres created by past steel manufacturing activities and possibly coal-fired power generation. We confirm that the lead chromate and glass micro-beads are sourced from weathered road paint chips.
Eighteen bulk street sediment samples were analyzed by pXRF at DePauw University. Combined with GIS spatial analysis, we observe high concentrations of heavy metals (Pb, Zn, Cu, and As) that correlate with areas of past and present industrial and manufacturing activities (e.g., Terre Haute Malleable & Manufacturing Co.).
Understanding the types of particulates and their potential sources can be used to safeguard residents within these communities from the potential health hazards associated with long-term exposure to these pollutants
Visualizing the Standard Deviation via Revolution using R/RStudio
Get PDFThe standard deviation is a commonly used statistical measure to quantify the level of variation present in a set of numbers or in a random variable. Sarkar and Rashid (2016) introduced an interpretation of the population standard deviation as the radius of a cylinder with a volume equivalent to that of the solid of revolution when the 2-D graph of the empirical cumulative distribution function is revolved about the vertical line through the mean. This article demonstrates step-by-step how to use the RevSD package in R/RStudio to visualize the standard deviation of data using this innovative technique. The RevSD package has been submitted to CRAN and will be made accessible to all users
Accelerometer-based head impact detection in soccer - Where are we?
Get PDFTraumatic brain injury (TBI) represents a significant burden on individuals, societies, and healthcare systems as it is associated with long-term neurological and behavioral consequences. Although these effects vary according to severity, events that lead to TBI and mild TBI (mTBI), such as concussions, subconcussive impacts, and non-impact violent head movements, may also lead to similar changes. Soccer players are particularly prone to mTBI as they are exposed to head impacts in various ways during training and gameplay. A commonly-claimed TBI risk is that posed by the heading technique. Our examination of the literature questions the extent to which heading actually is a risk for TBI and mTBI vs other sources of head impact in soccer. Although headgear may protect against some impacts, it has not been widely adopted due to limited efficacy, practical limitations and potential changes to the heading technique. Nevertheless, accurate assessment of head impacts and other movements that may lead to TBI in soccer would be valuable to players, coaches, athletic and medical personnel. A potential method for accurately detecting head acceleration – a crucial element of most head injuries – is measurements through accelerometers. Here, we survey the different types of accelerometers and recent findings on their accuracy and feasibility among soccer players and offer suggestions for long-term research with these tools
StackYourBricks
No full textLogging activities can be a hassle for runners due to websites with long loading times and having other responsibilities to attend to, such as classwork. StackYourBricks is a web-based logging calendar that makes logging activities easy and enjoyable by removing long wait times and providing motivation to its users. StackYourBricks provides an intuitive logging experience to the endurance athlete of any age or ability. StackYourBricks allows users to enter and store data from all their activities into one place. This helps users to keep track of any notable details from their training over longer periods of time. StackYourBricks takes away the stress of logging by giving users the ability to log their activities efficiently while not distracting them with unnecessary statistics. Regardless of how users individually refer to “getting miles in,” it always feels good to StackYourBricks
The Listening Year at Big Walnut Creek
No full textThe Listening Year at Big Walnut Creek explores the changing sonic ecology of a place, resulting in a composition for New Morse Code (cello and percussion duo) incorporating field recordings and other media. Every week from July 2022-June 2023, I made a field recording at Big Walnut Creek in Putnam County, Indiana. I - or, sometimes, a co- or guest recordist - went to the site, spent some time exploring the sounds present there that day, decided where and how to position the recorder and set levels given the sounds and conditions, and pressed record. I gave a brief verbal introduction, then listened for a minimum of five minutes before saying goodbye and ending the recording.
Throughout the recording year, and as I work with the completed recordings creatively, I am consulting with scientists, environmentalists, local residents, colleagues in the arts, and student assistants to interpret the audio, facilitating an interdisciplinary, intergenerational creative ecology that is in conversation with the ecology of the creek. I am now in the process of creating an hour-long musical work whose title, form, content, sound material, and media emerge from this conversation and engage some of its participants as collaborators. This creative phase of the project was awarded the 2023-24 Fisher Fellowship from DePauw University.
Big Walnut Creek forms the East boundary of the Nature Park at DePauw University. It is a small rural waterway, but it is subject to numerous human impacts on its ecology that have much broader environmental implications. By undertaking this listening and recording practice for a year, and bringing that practice into open-ended conversation with many forms of expertise about the creek and its watershed, as well as aesthetic and musical approaches to its sonic ecology, I hope to demonstrate the value of listening attentively to place as part of the solution to human environmental destruction