The Challenge Ahead

 As I begin to refocus on my thesis and see what I need to do in the months ahead, I realize that I have a big challenge that lies with my work from last semester. Specifically, my (newfound) desire to rewrite my lit review and abstract

 I knew coming into this that I would be making tweaks and edits, but I am realizing that it’s a much bigger task than I anticipated. Specifically, I am concerned about rewriting my literature review. I anticipated having to rewrite my abstract but didn’t realize that I would have or want to do major revisions on my literature review. However, after skimming through it, I realized that I need to, because it is roughly edited, and, as my thesis is altered and my goal becomes more clear, needs to be made to match that. I also don’t like how it’s currently organized, and I feel that some of the points made are weak.

Hopefully, most of what I’ve written can be reused in some way or another. I hope to deal with this challenge by first rewriting my abstract, and I want to (literally) highlight the key parts of it so I know what my lit review should focus on. I then want to go paragraph by paragraph (or maybe section by section) and do the same thing– highlighting what’s key, what could be reused, and what should be sent to my freezer document. This will help my project advance because it will clean up my lit review, but it will also benefit me in the long run, as it will make sure that my project is neatly tied together, and that the research I did is relevant and clearly shows how it helped to guide my project.

I know this isn't much of an update, but it is a small look ahead at some of my immediate concerns with my thesis.

See you next time!

Refocusing (Von Stevens)

 Hey, welcome back

    Coming back from winter break and talking to Dr. Newman, made me realize that while I am not too far off track, I do need to refocus some parts. The purpose of my capstone is to make an exhibit on Cambodian culture post Democratic Kampuchea, and most of my research and structure is centered around Cambodia right now. I need to work more on researching and incorporating exhibition design and museum educational methods such as object learning into my project. I somewhat neglected half the purpose of my thesis I realized and was in danger of just writing a research paper, not a proper original work thesis. So I think I can chill a bit in terms of looking at sources for Cambodia and look more for museum related and exhibit related sources. Along with finding new sources, I need to reorganize the outline and plan for my thesis. A lot of the body was, once again, overly focused on Cambodian culture and does not give enough highlight to the other half of my capstone project which is about exhibition design. I feel like as I troubleshoot I have a better image in my head of where I'm going though, and I do not really feel lost. I recognize I have work to do but I don't think I am behind or struggling (yet) with the work or task. Hopefully this semester goes well!

Von Stevens

Crunch Time!

    Hello and welcome to the end of this year long journey! Last semester I ended on a reflective note looking back on all the progress I made. Now starting this semester, I aim to use that progress and things I've learned to start putting together my whole thesis. Over break, I took some time to relax and gain a new perspective on what I had. I'm thankful to the break because I gained a new perspective and what I need to change to make this paper strong and effective. 

    Before I was looking at types of human remains on display and using them as case studies but now I realized I want to use some examples of different museums and their policies on the public display of human remains to compare and contrast. Why they're on display and what purposes they serve will help me with my research and where the parameters of ethical considerations are drawn. 

    See you next time!

                     - Cass 

Reevaluation and Immediate Goals

 Hello, everyone!

        While I am excited about moving forward on my thesis project,

I anticipate a few challenges that I will need to overcome. One of the first issues

that may arise is the complexity of the painting I chose. While I initially bought my

supplies based upon the artwork, The Vision of Saint Eustace, I am coming to the

realization that I may be putting too much stress on myself in order to be able to

effectively complete three recreations of it. I believe that within this next week, I need

to reevaluate what painting I will be recreating, one a little more simpler in content, solely

because of the time constraint in which I have on the project and experimentation.

I think I will have to try and research another tempera painting done on oak in

order not to waste the material I bought, or find the receipt and exchange what I have with another.

Another issue is coming down to materials too.

I was thinking about hand crafting pigments using raw

materials like pressed and dried flowers, stones, dirt, and further that

I would gather locally, but again, the time constraint may put a damper

on this as well as the weather. I may change my plan to focus on looking

for more mainstream manufactured paints that may not be ethically sourced

and compare these instead of mass manufactured egg tempera paint, and

compare it this way. That means I will need to first look into sourcing the

materials so they arrive promptly, as well as editing my literature review,

abstract, and content on my thesis to focus on this idea instead. If I have time,

I may look into adding the pre prepared paint back into this project, but for now,

I am thinking of scrapping this idea because I should not necessarily make things more

difficult for myself. I have begun looking up pigments on amazon that were not historically

made and been trying to find funding for this item as well. In addition, I have to also purchase

more animal glue, as the one I have thawed from my freezer is not in a usable state,

which I had hoped for. 

For the experimentation portion, I am most concerned about infestation/mold

growth for the paintings, as I don’t have enough context on how I will perform this.

I am going to be researching within this week is typical bug infestation or bacteria

growth that occurs in old tempera paintings, and reaching out to the biology department

at RIT to see if they have a culture of said bacteria/mold, and would let me use a space

in their lab to infect my painting samples in. I have to do this within the next week because

I want to give them enough notice. If they say no, then I will have to reach out to

neighboring schools, like MCC, Nazareth, Saint John Fisher, or other colleges

that may have access and allow me entry into their lab. By doing so, this will help me

ensure I have a contained environment to monitor progress. I think I will have to draft an

outline for my specific experiment and give them a summary of what my research should

entail in order to gain their approval, so this is something else I will work on in the upcoming

week and a half. I am hoping to have a full course of action by this weekend, to send out by

this Monday, and after hearing this response,

I believe I will have more confidence in having one part of my experiment set.

In general, this will also call for evaluation of my current timeline and revisions to

make sure it fits whichever dates I give them, or they give me. 

I believe that if I can sort out and finalize my materials list and get an order in,

reevaluate the recreation reference, edit my timeline, draft and email and reach out to

the biology department at RIT, and get a response, this will set me up for success within

the content of my thesis, as it is primarily experiment based. Overall, while I know there

is a lot of work to be done, I am very excited to see this project come to fruition, as I love

my topic and want to push myself in this final work I will do as a senior. Thanks for reading,

and stay tuned!

Start of The End

 Hello, everyone!

This is Renee GueriWelcome back and I hope you all enjoyed the holiday season. My break had been a bit busy on the hunt for identification of the exact pigments and materials I wanted to buy. Since the goal of my thesis is looking at materiality, for the handmade pigments for the historical egg tempera paint, I wanted to make sure I chose reputable, quality-focused materials. I ended up using the website Natural Pigments because of the good reviews and summarization of their materials and sourcing. Additionally, I needed dried form animal glue as well to create the primer and gesso layer, so I bought 100g of fish and rabbit skin glue from Kremer Pigmente, as I have purchased materials from this site before and trust the quality it produced for past projects in bookbinding and on substrates like parchment. Now, it is a waiting game to see how long the materials take to come in! 

One of my main adventures that occurred during break was going to the local Lowes to find an oak panel as my painting substrate. My father came along to help as he has decades of woodworking experience, and can more easily identify good types of wood. We looked at a few samples, but I ended up going with a double sided, oak panel that had other layers of softwoods in between them as it was a sturdy, and affordable option, and is the same type of material as the original piece I will be referencing in my recreation. What I need to do now is sand the edges and cut the entire board to size. I am planning on doing a double sided painting with the different types of tempera in order to keep things precise and in order; when I initially cut the wood after the final painting is done to section them for exposure to certain agents of deterioration, I will create a labeling section to make sure pieces don’t get flipped around or misplaced. 

Finally, I finished gridding the piece of my recreation, The Vision of Saint Eustace by Pisanello, digitally and outlined everything into sections, and used this reference for my large scale drawing I first completed on tracing paper to later be transferred onto the gessoed and cut oak board. I’m very excited to begin the actual painting process, as I know it will take me a long time since I am doing it to scale, and am doing either two to three paintings, depending on my revisions and time constraints I decide on. This is all the updates for now! Very enthusiastic to keep on pushing this semester. Good luck to my fellow peers as well!

We're Back!

Hi everyone! It was wonderful to hear about everyone's updates in class. As I stated, I am feeling lost. Thankfully, this is temporary. 

My original title was: A Path Forward: A Proposal for a New Walkway at the Genesee Country Village & Museum. As I write, and ruminate about my topic, I find that the GCV&M is a pond of a bigger revenue. 

As I think about this, and edit the title and proposal. 

My focuses include: 

- Physical accessibility to museums 

        - the physical part of it (design, type of museum places as in historic village))

-What does accessibility mean? 

        - define what accessibility means 

May all of you find time to rest and reflect!

If you need someone to bounce ideas off of...feel free to email or text. 

     

Back from Break!

 Hello!

It is good to be back after a very much-needed break. I got to spend time with family, see friends, and generally shut my brain off after a stressful fall semester.

As the Spring Semester starts, I am looking back on the work I did and realizing that I have several parts I need to revisit and in one case, finish. I'm looking forward to seeing my thesis with fresh eyes and am especially looking forward to basically taking a red pen to it and really cleaning it up. I've got a few emails to write as well, as my survey hasn't had any responses, so I'm planning on reaching out to a few people to get the word out.

Lots and lots of writing ahead, and I'm looking forward to making my proposal into an actual thesis.

See you in the next update!

(Pete turned 17 last week!)

Welcome Back Everyone!

 Hello!

Today was the first day of MUSE 490, the beginning of a new era in my college life. I am thrilled to begin the in-person work for my thesis. 

Before the semester started, I visited my old high school (which holds the gallery where I am displaying my exhibition). There I collaborated with the art, history, and tech teachers along with facilities. In doing so, I created an updated gallery analysis that I wish to take part in my thesis, designed the gallery to scale in sketch up, and collaborated on potential project ideas. 

Working with the students reminded me of my younger years. Excited by the praise and potential of my stuff to be displayed and celebrated throughout the gallery. Although I wish to inspire the community to appreciate their surrounding environment, one of the main overall goals is to continue establishing self-validation and worth for these students. This can be done with or without a gallery theme, however adding the theme, Finding Balance: Exploring our Relationship with Nature transforms the exhibition experience. Since it now can validate students through the display of their work, but also advocate for environmental awareness. 

As always, a nice cat pic for the way. 

Finn