I have two remaining projects to complete for my LBST degree here at cap. I have been thinking about them for almost a year now and I believe that I have a pretty concrete path I want to take. Considering Ways of Seeing by John Berger I have applied how sampled information and how different ways of seeing will contribute to my remaining projects. Further insights from Vilhauer’s Gadamer and the Game of Understanding, and the film Being in the World by Ruspoli have constructed the framework for the development of my research. I have begun to know that the thought behind how research is created is essential to the Truth behind research. This provokes thoughts like why is my research important? Is my presentation form the best way to present it? What are my intentions with my research?

Reflecting on the how to adjust ways of thinking, seeing, and being I am facing with the confrontation of my personal worldviews and the want to align these views with a social norm of acceptance.  Will people like my research? Will I get a good mark? These irrelevant questions are hindering the potential of my research. Thinking deeper on this, I find that my obedience to these norms is counterintuitive to my goals of adding, altering, and contributing to my field. At this point in my higher learning I have an in depth understanding of the processes of the scientific method, and expression of thought through writing and mathematics. The next step is the formation of new personal material.

Tutorial III

My next and final tutorial is going to be a creative writing project next semester. Expanding on my current writing portfolio I am going to write another short story. I am going to explore the Genre of Noir and combine environmental issues like climate change, projecting them into a fictional world. I want to experiment in how to deliver messages within literature without being preachy. This will be a combination of my personal interests in psychology, earth sciences and writing. I want this tutorial to be reminiscent of something that I would want to do after my degree is complete. Something that would progress my career in the outside world. This project is one that I have been thinking of pursuing for a while and have been giving thought to. As with my previous tutorials I am using these tutorials with as much personal gain as possible so that I can really jump start the career I want to have by graduating with a concrete presence. 

Grad Project

My grad project I have already decided is going to be a 6-credit course where I develop my own podcast and I will have episodes that represent different solutions responding to the climate change crisis and an exploration of those topics. As it stands, I want to have around 5 episodes at around 20-30 mins each. I already have a couple scientists in the field that have agreed to be interviewed. One example episode would be: a study of Big Agriculture and what sustainable solutions might look like. A contact of mine is currently working to provide these solutions and on this episode, we will chat about it. This will be the perfect combination of research, writing, and environment. Inspiration for this project came from my own love of the podcast for of information sharing especially shows like Science vs. and RadioLab.

I would be putting a personal spin on this project allowing my own humor, personality, and admittedly my own bias to give color to its creation. As a science writer I want to present real information via the scientific method but in an interesting and fun way.

Sampled information in this tutorial would take the form of observations. My aim is to showcase my ability to describe my research. That is where the blending of writer and scientist occurs: in my narrative.  I will have a wide variety of resources that include quantitative data and qualitative data. My hopes for my grad project is to essentially create a series of lit reviews, one per episode, speaking to some experts in the subjects, and the propose solutions that leave the listener to make their own decisions. My choosing to do a podcast and not a video I will be leaving out the visual aspect and allow my listeners to use their own imagination and critical thinking to create their own way of seeing. It is my preferred way of presenting research and in that aspect will provide a genuine comfortability that is being true to myself.

Thinking further on our perceptions as are our guides while we ‘wander’ around whereas a visual description of something is someone else’s insight. Photography is someone else’s vision and ‘seeking’ captured in real life. A representative of a vision that someone else saw. But so is description accompanied by (an exploration into) sound. In Podcast form you get an intimate feeling peek into someone’s world. A world and a way of seeing things that is perhaps very unlike your own. Considering differing world views and critically trying to understand and perhaps in so change you own world views, is something that will be a backbone to my project. Our world views and our perceptions guide our decisions so context in relation to seeing is everything. Therefore, I want to try and explore different ways of seeing and different ways of expressing my sight. I believe that I will be able to accomplish this, at least a little bit, in these two projects.