Almost Done!

 Can't believe we're already in April. Feeling confident about the end of the school year, and for the good weather to come. Been working on my thesis and making sure I'm on top of my current schoolwork. I'm currently attending the IEEE's VR conference and that has been a great help and good source of things to think about when it comes to VR's wide application in other industries. There was a talk about emotional impact of VR that I want to cite in my thesis. They also have VR developer tutorial conference which really cool to see! I'm in a discord as well for the conference so it's been great talking to VR informed students and individuals. Overall, I am really excited to get the thesis done. Just got to keep up the motivation. 

Week 10 almost towards the end

 Hello Everyone,

I can't believe we are so close to being done with our thesis. I am grateful for my five classmates supporting each other until we get to the finish line. I know it will be a stressful week completing everything before the deadline. However, I know everyone around me will encourage and support me. Today, I had my second thesis board. I feel like everything is falling in place. I am so excited to show how much my thesis idea has changed since last semester. My advisors are happy with what I have been doing. 

Almost There!

 As this semester gets closer to the end I keep looking back on all of the work I have done. I am close to finishing the writing portion of the thesis. I am now working on the presentation aspect and cutting down this huge paper into a few slides. After presenting to the class and advisors for practice I feel like I have a better understanding and idea of what this presentation and video should look like for the final presentation. 

I have also met with my secondary advisor, Cindy, again to discuss the quilting exhibition going live on the History Center’s website. She also showed me the early numbers of interaction with the exhibit before the marketing aspect takes effect.

So Close, Yet So Far Away

I think that we, as a class, have reached the point where it is time to simply put our heads down and really work toward the finish line. Hearing about everyone's topics, and how they are coming together and concluding, has been really exciting, and I am really looking forward to hearing and seeing the end results. Especially since we are navigating the new pre-recorded video presentation format, I believe it is important that the six of us keep supporting each other, and working together to succeed in such a new process. 

In terms of my personal progress, I am at the point where I know exactly what I have to do, and I must simply push myself to do it. Reaching such a crucial point is a bit intimidating because the time to make changes is coming to an end, and I must ensure that the work I have completed is the work I want to put forward for submission. Additionally, I find the upcoming formatting edits especially intimidating, as they are so tedious, and I am forever worried about missing small details! 

Overall, I think I am in a great place, and I just need to make the final push!

Keep on Chuggin'

 I am making swift progress on the thesis! This week, I interviewed Michael Haley Goldman at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. He is the Director of Future Projects and has worked on brand new tech within the context of their museum. He was a really interesting person to talk to, and was incredibly knowledgeable of new tech in the museums and the challenges that come with that. It definitely reaffirmed the thesis concept for me, because a lot of the questions I asked him in terms of the thesis, we had lengthy conversation about. The interviews are a saving grace for me: Getting opinions from professionals has led me to further hone in on the topic. The struggle I am having is finding a good way to integrate our conversations into the thesis. I am still thinking of ways to make our conversations into "sources." My overall survey is going out this week too! Huge thanks to Dr. Decker and Dr. Carroll for the help; I am super excited to disseminate it and get that info. 

You Know When Everything Piles Up?

 I think we all know the feeling of having a really detailed, precise plan. And I think we all know how, inevitably, something will happen to throw that plan off. I'm a bit behind schedule for creating my facsimiles (#ThanksLife), but I'm really hoping to kick it into overdrive and get the four facsimiles made in the upcoming week.

Beyond detours and delays, I did complete my second draft and have realized a few things. The structure of papers change so much as you write them. Originally, I had decided to leave authenticity as a small section my literature review, but as I keep working on the project, I am finding authenticity to be central to the argument of my thesis. I'm working on restructuring my content outline to match the more central position of authenticity in my work and gathering additional sources to support my arguments on authenticity. 

While these changes do create a lot of extra work for me, I do enjoy them because I love to see how my writing and focus has changed and grown. Writing is so fluid. It's alive, and being able to see how drastically my work is changing and shaping brings me a lot of joy. I think the changes of focus that happen during the writing process are my favorite part of writing. 

Second draft completed

 Hello everyone,

Everything is going well so far. I have gotten a lot accomplished for my thesis, even though I have encountered many barriers trying to get my thoughts out. One problem was putting my ideas on paper and getting ideas accomplished. But after our last class, I got a great idea to get interviews from some of my Deaf and Hard of Hearing peers and friends. So I am currently developing questions so I can ask them while being COVID safe, which is taking some time but I can accomplish this soon. Also, I am working on my Powerpoint so I am hoping it goes well and that you all see the time and effort I am putting into it when I present. It is really hard to transfer my ideas and thoughts from my paper and convert it into a 5-minute Powerpoint, but I know I can do well and look forward to your feedback on this. 

I am excited to complete this project and look forward to seeing what everyone else has accomplished during this!

 Hello once again welcome back to the Brian Zabawa Blog station. This week we'll talk about my second draft for my thesis as well as the changes that I have made based on my advisor's response.

This draft of my thesis came out really well I think. I had some really good motivation while I was writing and the sections where I explained and justified the game mechanics were really solid. The justification for the purpose of the game still needs some work, but I'm not as worried about that because I recently switched the purpose of my thesis and I have to find more sources that I just didn't have yet. The game itself feels so close to done I just need to work out a few more kinks especially with how the different museums win the game. Right now they're all playing the same but they're trying to collect different categories of items. I would like for them to feel unique and I think I need to workshop it. Please send me an email if you would like to collaborate on this portion of the project with me. It would be fun just playing a game for a bit and giving feedback. 

My advisors have claimed that I need to do more in the justification of the existence of the game. I think this is slanderous and absolutely ridiculous. Just kidding of course, I completely agree that there needs to be more explanation of why the game would help the field. One of my advisors Trent Hergenrader gave me some excellent feedback on how to structure my introduction as well as some things to include.

I feel like I will be able to make the third draft very nice.

Getting Closer!

 After writing the second draft of 8 pages for my thesis, I am feeling much more confident about my research in a way that I did not expect. Having spent so much time studying KAWS' career, it was both challenging and refreshing to then shift into researching the Brooklyn Museum, in addition to the legacy of street art in the borough as a whole. I had not initially planned on including such material, but after speaking with Dr. DeRoo, it was determined that in exploring the location of the KAWS: WHAT PARTY exhibition, my research would become far more grounded and focused. 

As the borough of Brooklyn and the Brooklyn Museum of Art both have such rich histories, I have realized the importance of learning more about their respective relationships with street art, and how this may have led to a collaboration with KAWS. There exists a very interesting contradiction in the fact that the museum has touted the artist as a lifelong member of their tightly knit community, and how he also carries such star power in his growing fame and corporate sponsorships. I am very intrigued by this notion of the complexities of the relationship that has formed between the artist and the institution, and have started to question the original grounding of the collaboration (local artist vs. pop culture sensation), and what it has now grown into.

While I have many questions, I imagine some will be answered this weekend, when I visit the exhibition myself!

Second Draft Down!

 After finishing my first draft and thesis board meeting, I felt really good going into writing my second draft. I had a new idea to include a quilt exhibit from the History Center so I thought the second draft would be even easier than the first. I was very wrong. I sat down and quickly realized that after introducing my new idea I do not have all the necessary information yet to include, because the planning and meetings are still taking place. So I was stuck and not sure how I was going to make my eight page deadline. I decided to include a section about deaccessioning to go back and broadly answer my research question. I thought I would give it a try and see if it works. I can always go back and take it out/edit it. 

I am so beyond proud of myself to have made it this far and to be very close to the finish line.