{"id":2701,"date":"2019-12-13T10:41:44","date_gmt":"2019-12-13T10:41:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jessicadoeshistory.com\/courseblog\/?p=2701"},"modified":"2019-12-14T16:14:58","modified_gmt":"2019-12-14T16:14:58","slug":"reflection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jessicadoeshistory.com\/courseblog\/final\/reflection\/","title":{"rendered":"Reflection"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Exhibit: Artistic Expression in the Great Depression<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

My exhibit, Artistic Expression in the Great Depression,\nexplored the ways that the struggles of the Great Depression were reflected in creative\nworks at the time, such as plays, music, novels, film, murals, and dance. Using\nthe digital tools we\u2019ve worked with in class helped me to discuss both the\npurposes and the impact of these works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When discussing Clare Leighton\u2019s art work, using image annotation helped to talk about the particular portions of the work in their own contexts. It also saved the trouble of explaining and describing where each component of the work could be found. Using Soundcite to provide an immersive experience into Mary Sullivan\u2019s song, \u201cSunny California\u201d<\/span>1<\/sup><\/a><\/span> helped to put one into the same perspective of someone hearing it at the time, someone who would hear their own story in the song and find comfort in solidarity. I prefer StoryMap over the other tools that we\u2019ve used, as it helps you visualize different types of information at once. Using StoryMap helped me to show the location, description, and medium of several different kinds of creative works. Despite being of very different natures, StoryMap allowed the information for each topic to be shared in the same context, as a moment in history. These tools helped me to really make my point in explaining how the creative works of the 1930\u2019s helped the nation heal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, I only found myself to be proving what we\u2019d been learning all along this semester. We even read early on in the class, \u201cThe arts can be a lifeline as well as a pleasant diversion, a source of optimism and energy as well as peerless insight, especially when so many people are stymied or perplexed by the unexpected changes in their world. As our troubles worsen, as stress morphs into anxiety and depression, we may desperately need the mixture of the real and the fantastic, the sober and the silly, that only the arts can bring us.\u201d<\/span>2<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Now, if not for this class, I wouldn\u2019t understand the concept lying underneath that determination. We were quickly directed towards the concept of escapism; and to understand how a nation suffering hardship across the board needed revitalization and found it in a mix of avoidance and activism. While Federal One Projects sought to begin mending society by creating cultural stimulation,<\/span>3<\/sup><\/a><\/span> seemingly a distraction from the task at hand, they didn\u2019t just provide a diversion from the present circumstance, contrary to initial belief. \u201cThe most durable cliche about the arts in the 1930s is that despite the surge of social consciousness among writers, photographers and painters (some of it supported by federal dollars), the arts offered Depression audiences little more than fluffy escapism, which was just what they needed. But that\u2019s not the whole story.\u201d<\/span>4<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What we\u2019ve learned throughout this class and what I\u2019ve tried\nto show through my exhibit is that by looking closer at those arts projects\nthat were condemned as a silly waste of federal funding, those involved were\ninspired to use the works for  a bigger\npurpose; to seek out works that put issues under a floodlight. The nation was not\nonly given back a sense of optimism through the \u201cdistraction,\u201d but was motivated\nby the call to action that lie in so many of the arts projects being examined\nand produced at the time. It raises the thought of how often we may come into\nthis possible paradox today, in getting caught up in entertainment news rather\nthan considering pressing issues. Or can we justify that today by arguing that\nperhaps the news that entertains us sometimes points us back in the right\ndirection, to the matters at hand?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aside from what we\u2019ve learned in this class in historical perspective, I\u2019ve personally found a wealth of knowledge in understanding my relationship with the technological world. While I\u2019ve considered how to navigate digital space carefully and safely, and take precautions in my usage, I hadn\u2019t considered my duty to the digital world. Learning how to be responsible about engaging with suspicious information<\/span>5<\/sup><\/a><\/span> and possible bots<\/span>6<\/sup><\/a><\/span> has opened my mind to a different perception of the Internet. Everyone likes to wonder what the future will look like for technology, but I was slow to realize that all of us will really be the keepers of Internet safety, that we are all responsible for the future of the digital world. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Exhibit: Artistic Expression in the Great Depression My exhibit, Artistic Expression in the Great Depression, explored the ways that the struggles of the Great Depression were reflected in creative works at the time, such as plays, music, novels, film, murals, and dance. Using the digital tools we\u2019ve worked with in class helped me to discuss … Continue reading “Reflection”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[46],"class_list":["post-2701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-final","tag-fall_2019"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jessicadoeshistory.com\/courseblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jessicadoeshistory.com\/courseblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jessicadoeshistory.com\/courseblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jessicadoeshistory.com\/courseblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jessicadoeshistory.com\/courseblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2701"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/jessicadoeshistory.com\/courseblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2701\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2719,"href":"https:\/\/jessicadoeshistory.com\/courseblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2701\/revisions\/2719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jessicadoeshistory.com\/courseblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jessicadoeshistory.com\/courseblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jessicadoeshistory.com\/courseblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}