RASL minor 23-24
Group 5's page

Anna, Sem, Kaya and Rosalinda

BRAINSTORMING

We feel that there is a disconnect between us and our environment. We think this relates to how our society is structured (e.g. capitalism, urbanisation, technology). So we want our learning process to be about reconnection :)

We have looked at indigenous rituals and graffiti as ways of connecting to our natural and urban environments.

RECONNECTING TO
OUR ENVIRONMENT

Reading material

<- Some more notes

<- KINCENTRIC ECOLOGY: INDIGENOUS PERCEPTIONS OF THE HUMAN-NATURE RELATIONSHIP
BY ENRIQUE SALMON

<- Rituals and the participation of urban form: Informal and formal image making processes
by Sukanya Krishnamurthy

<- The conceptualization of ritual, A history of its problematic aspects
by Barbara Boudewijnse

Some pictures of the garden

PRESSURE COOKER PRESENTATION

AFTER THE PRESSURE COOKER

Our class' rituals :) 

ANNA'S REFLECTION
Although I think our group was chaotic in the sense that we all have many ideas coming from different disciplines (which I guess is the point of the minor), I really enjoyed working with my group members. Coming from EUC, I mainly engaged with pedagogy through literature and academic research. I've found it really insightful to see how my academic background interacts with and complements the others. Coming into this minor, I wanted to develop my skills in combining artistic and scientific perspectives, and I think I am learning a lot from my group mates in this sense :) 

In regards to the pressure cooker, I felt that it went well and I am happy that I felt comfortable in the classroom. Although the class did not complete the workshop exactly in the way we had imagined, I still found it a valuable experience and it was cute to see how everyone engaged in it in different ways. I think it was nice that the classroom experience we created made room for that, and I found that to be more valuable than having everyone follow the structure we laid out.

Looking to the mid-term, I think we are going to focus more on our concept of connecting to the environment rather than the act of rituals. I am excited as we all want to depart from the rigid classroom structure we are used to, and curious as to what our final experience will look like.

ROSALINDA'S REFLECTION

I switched to this minor a bit last minute, so I missed the first (2) weeks. What attracted me the most to this minor is that the facts that everyone studies something different and are from other (creative) disciplinaries. And to be able to create whatever we are interested in and are passionate about.
As I joined this group a bit late I found that they wanted to focus on reconnecting to our environment. This comes from an interest in urbanism, nature and indigenous cultures. I was happy to hear this as these are actually also my interests. As a Spatial designer, I have always looked at implementing nature in my designs and research different cultures so that everyone feels invited to the spaces I would like to create.

The first weeks working as a group went very well, we work good as a team. Everyone listens to each other and are open to listen if anyone has anything critical to mention or have an idea they would like to implement. I also feel like we inspire each other, and this helps a lot with the brainstorming and workflow. Even though it did go a bit chaotic, because we had many ideas and things we would like to implement, but thankfully all realized that some things and topics may have to be let go to make everything clearer for the pressure cooker presentations.
We worked together on the presentation and prepared together.

We all agreed that the presentation went pretty well.
I do think there are somethings we could have made clearer. Throughout the presentation we had loose examples of what we think are rituals but we could have did a better job at tying it all together, as well as graffiti and how that is a ritual from our pov.
But I was happy with out class’s participation and reaction. I felt like people really connected or could find them selves in this topic, which is really important to me.

We discussed together that we will probably try to focus on reconnecting to our environment more instead of putting the focus on rituals.

SEMS REFLECTION
Joining this minor, I really didn't know what to expect. I just knew I'd be working with people from different areas than mine. And that's been great! Tackling a project like the ones at WDKA, but with a mixed team, is different, but in a good way.

The way our group works together is very open. There's a lot of energy and loads of ideas flying around. We just need to figure out which one to focus on, and how to focus on it (as a group).

Seeing how my teammates do their research and present their ideas has been really cool. Everyone has a unique way of doing things. For me this has been good for self reflection, thinking about my own research. For now I'm also happy with my own research, but when it was my turn to share (in the pressure cooker), I felt a bit all over the place. I got my point across, but I think I could've prepped better to make things smoother.

We've got some good starting points for our project. I really don't want to rush into picking one point too soon. But then again we should because of deadlines. I like keeping the options open, It's great for brainstorming and coming up with new ideas, but maybe not so great when there is a deadline and you need to start making something.

KAYA'S REFLECTION
Honestly, I didn't know what to expect going into this minor. I didn't choose this minor for any specific reason, other than thinking the concept of making a project about ZOOP would be cool. Initially, I struggled with the freedom we were given in regards to our project, especially since my group mates were more art oriented and were more comfortable with using abstract ideas. As time went by I noticed that all these abstract ideas and brainstorming sessions do lead to concrete ideas and got more comfortable with this phase in our project. This is something that I didn't really get to learn in my own bachelor, as research topics are already given by our tutors.

If there is one thing about this minor I like the most, it’s working with my group. I feel like sometimes I just want to rush to a concrete image about what we should do, but that mindset makes me numb to a lot of different ideas that I would not have come up with. That’s why I like working with my group which forces me to see these different perspectives and ideas which I then actually really like.

The first and second week were kind of vague as to what we were gonna do. We had a lot of ideas and a central subject, but didn’t really know how that was gonna look like in practice. We were able to conjure up a presentation and a workshop for the pressure cooker presentations. I feel bittersweet about the end result. I’m happy that our workshop was kind of a success. Everybody engaged with the exercise pretty well, and a few people even seemed to adapt the rituals of their partner. Though I also feel like the experience was lackluster and the theory behind it maybe a bit underresearched.
We have decided to scrap our presentation and narrow our subject. We brainstormed about some ideas and decided to focus on ‘reconnecting to our environment’. I feel like some of the exercises we came up with are more engaging and I feel like the topic also meshes well with my background and interests.

MOVING ON TO THE MIDTERM.....

Visiting different educational institutions