Reflective Journaling: Experiential Learning
Traditional learning that is conducted in the classroom requires practical experience in order to enhance the skills. Experiential learning is the process of conducting an engagement activity that is aimed at enhancing certain skills. The liberal arts curricula, such as performing arts and arts learners require experiential learning to provide a platform for students to showcase their talents and develop their technical skills. In light of this, this paper reflects on attendance of various experiential activities.
First, Feature Films Group is a theater cinema that showcases historical events that happened in the past. This cinema group aims at delineating the American history to the audience to understand the compelling history. This experiential activity helped in understanding that fashion has evolved for a number of years. Similarly, the noble socio-class people have always differentiated themselves with their sense of fashion. By April, the Feature Films group was showcasing a production of the American film company that produces films based on realism. The name of film was The Conspirator, which reflects on the civil war between the northerners and the southerners that led to the assassination of the president, Abraham Lincoln. One of the most significant things about feature films is that the theaters are always quiet and provide a suave ambiance. Unlike other cinemas where people attend to watch blockbusters, feature films have silent crowds who are armed with a book and a pen. In blockbuster films, the audience is always excited about the move while in historical films the crowd reflects on the events that happened in the history books. This was an opportune moment for networking with people. Most of the visitors had special interest in history, and they pass a lot of knowledge. The Conspirator runs for approximately 2 hours and 3 minutes, and is distributed by Lionsgate Roadside Attractions. The film was officially released on April 2011 but distributed as from September 2011. The film received positive criticism as it was applauded for maintaining and bringing an expository method of understanding the American history. The main themes that can be deciphered from the movie include hatred among fellow countrymen, passing of unfair judgments by the judicial systems, and the consequences of wars. The film was educative in the sense that fashion describes people’s class since the ancient years. It can be used to define a person’s belief, norm, and culture. Therefore, the fashion expert should be very careful when developing a design for distinct individuals.
The second experiential activity is based in the Vanderbilt College of Arts and Science where The Partnership of Discourse and Service (P.OD.S) initiative offers a platform for writing and reading seminars. Literature is intertwined with the fashion industry as discovered from this experiential activity. Fashion involves a lot of creativity where various themes are outlined to make distinct meanings. For example, designing a wedding or an event will depend on the theme that the owner wishes to display. Therefore, the experiential activity at Vanderbilt College involved an English Learning program that is facilitated by the school where students engage in language and literature affiliated learning project. Contrary to the movies, book reviews require the participants to have prior knowledge of the contents before attending the program.The venue of the book review was in the McGill Hall, which was inaugurated in 1972 and it has since been established as a learning project for Philosophy and Fine Arts. As a result, the place is always jammed with several scholars who are in need of quenching their educational thirst. On this material day, our group was attending to discuss the difference between realism and impressionism. The group chose to discuss one of the literal works by Flaubert Gustave, Three Tales, which is a collection of short stories. The group chose to discuss the story A Simple Heart to differentiate between impressionism and realism. The two types of artistic styles in writing are very common in literature that emerged during the industrial revolution.
In literature, impressionism referred to the incorporation of details and cognitive association to evoke subjective and sensory impressions instead of recreating reality in literature. It involves the act of adding creativity and fiction to the literal acts. Realism, on the other hand, involves highlighting real events accounting for real dates and locations. The program at Vanderbilt College was very educational as each student gets the chance to raise his or her ideas or a question. There are various philosophers, scholars, writers; hence, the student can seek clarification. McGill is sponsored by the McGill publishers which make reading materials to be readily available. The experiential activity helped to understand that fashion entails either realism or impressionism. A dress can be used to describe the ancient history of Europeans during the ancient Roman Empire. The fashion expert will require digging into history books in order to unearth the looks of the ancient time dress code; thus, creating a dress through realism.
On January 1 2014 to April 19 2015, the Denver Art Musuem was showcasing one of its art galleries known as First Glance/Second Looks: Quilts from the Denver Art Museum. The exhibition was situated at the Level 6 in the North Building. One of the most important things that fashion entails is the ability to mix different colors and come out with a unique design. The knowledge of mixing colors, paints, variations, and an array of patterns showcased in an exhibition. Surprisingly, the tour guide confessed that art can be developed from any form of imagination. Artists compile their creativity in order to please the viewer with their piece of work. As for this piece of art, it complied of various quilts which we were informed that they ranged from 20 to 25. They are then arranged in nine different thematic groupings displaying a very unique pattern. Viewers were intrigued with the fact that the first look always differed with the second one. As the name suggests, first glance/second look, each view has a distinct look which makes this piece of work more attractive. A longer and closer look now gives the viewer the artist’s idea in the pattern. These artistic conceptsshowcase that art is evolving and inclusive of an array of aspects. This was the most interesting activity as it opened up the mind in relation to fashion. This is due to the fact that it met the intended expectations of developing a piece of work that comprises an array of patterns after every view. This design would work perfectly well with beautifying a dome for an event which has different themes. Each look would highlight s different meaning as specified by the client.
A TV show known as Doc Mcstuffin which is distributed by the Disney Channel where the main actor is a young girl who heals toys out of their illnesses. Disney decided to promote this show by holding public exhibitions in various towns where kids had the opportunity of taking part in healing toys. Although the exhibition involved marketing of other commodities such as Disney movies, children were taught much about health matters. This is where the experiential activity merged with the fashion industry ideologies. Children are vulnerable to illnesses such as fever and cold. They are mostly caused by the lack of warm dressing or being exposed to cold temperatures. This activity influences the urge of being in the fashion industry since it involves taking care of people to avoid illnesses.
In conclusion, all of these activities had one thing in common where I could reflect, generalize, and try to actualize an idea from the activity. It influenced how I watch movies or even reality shows where fashion is a significant factor. Contrary to my previous perspectives, fashion is related to a number of disciplines and it requires extensive research. The experiential activities acts like an eye-opener where the student is exposed to other people’s way of thinking. Similarly, the student gets an opportunity to network with people who are already in the field. I got a chance of criticizing other pieces of work as I could identify a number of aspects that were contrary to my opinion. Lastly, no matter how many years an expert has stayed in his profession, experiential activities are still paramount. Therefore, experiential learning is always important.