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Zaida Aleman

Meeting #3 With Sarah

Writing a blog post now, because other wise I will not do it. I tend to write all my work down on a piece of paper and have to actively keep myself accountable to input my progress with the blogs.

I met with Sarah this morning, and showed her my more cohesive proposal which really highlights my exploration and purpose behind the project. Some of the highlights of my meeting included:

  1. “Don’t let knowledge of technology be a barrier”, I wrote that down immediately since it is what I tend to do throughout this program!
  2. Figuring how much time to put into each part of my project and condensing the bigger scope even more
  3. I will be looking how to do my project in a portable format therefore will be doing a lot of research on mobile museums, or micro museum and pop-up exhibits.

While this is a different route that I expected my thesis to go through I am really excited for the idea of making it small and portable! I am also looking forward to working in a more physical space and getting people’s reactions to the project itself.

 

My next steps will be for the show and tell to do a prototype which I kind of want to keep as a surprise for now, and am excited to document!

Check-in

I have not been making posts recently due to my habits or writing down all my notes and reflections on a piece of paper and then completely forgetting to input it into the blog. However, I am doing a current check in. So far I’ve attended the two bonus sessions for our Thesis class and have enjoyed being able to hear other’s ideas along with being able to chat about mine.

So far I’ve done some research in installation art along with dance in interactive media art. I had a very interesting chat with Brian this week about what the question of my thesis could be condensed to be, and our discussion ended up being about the exploration behind my thesis. Which in this case is the exploration in how technology can be used to create empathy,  comfortability, and connection with others through my passion of salsa. For my thesis I will be doing a pop-up coffee shop in which I will take different elements of a coffee shop and present them through different technological backgrounds all coming from what I have learned and studied throughout this program. The common theme throughout these options will be how they can present the comfort and peace salsa gives me and why I chose to present them this way.

I have a lot more research and work to do but for now I am happy to have a concrete form of exploration and next steps.

Draft Proposal Thoughts

Things I want | Things I don’t want | Things I’m okay with: 

My goal is to bring more awareness on what salsa really is about, by highlighting an artist who was a political activist and who fought really hard to also bring his music to the mainstream world. I do not want it to entail just a story without any interaction, and just for pure entertainment. I am okay with not everyone completely understanding it.

 

Things my thesis does for the world | Things my thesis does for me | Things my thesis does for [x audience/community] 

I hope my thesis will bring into the world more awareness to what salsa is, and allow for more seriousness to be taken around it as an art. It allows me to explore this art and activity that I have completely fulfilled my life with since I was a child. My thesis might also allow for my community to feel seen, as long as my activity is respectful and accurate.

A list of goals and what they look like totally fulfilled, somewhat fulfilled, and not fulfilled at all. For example: 

 

  • Goal: to create more awareness and seriousness into what salsa is 
  • totally fulfilled: my project is able to inspire people to get into salsa, and my community recognizes it as a serious and accurate story 
  • somewhat fulfilled: some people are inspired, no one really gets into salsa though 
  • not fulfilled at all : No one is inspired and understands the point of the story, they just see it as a random homage to a salsa artist but that’s it.