User:Kaseyc~enwikiversity

=Freshman Seminar=

Always Wanted To Schedule

 * Topic

Completely read Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy.
 * Research Component

Look up information Alighieri, where he was in his life while wrighting the epic, if there were any parts of his life that affected his writing of the epic, and if he used a certain writing process.
 * week 1


 * Read to page 60


 * week 2


 * Read to page 160


 * week 3


 * Read to page 220
 * Conclude research on Alighieri's overall biography (born, lived, major events in life, etc)


 * week 4


 * Read to page 280


 * week 5


 * Read to page 340
 * Conclude research on whether there were any moments in Dante's life that affected his writing of the book, and if he used a certain writing style


 * week 6


 * Read to page 400
 * Make sure all research is completed, and begin creating presentation


 * week 7


 * Read to page 460


 * week 8


 * Finish book
 * Finish presentation and practice

Midterm Assignment 1: Taste & Aesthetics
The sculpture I decided to focus on was the Love & Loss sculpture by Roy McMakin. I think the sculpture is great, except for one thing: the rotating “&” symbol. I really like the concept behind the sculpture and how it is interactive and looks great, but the “&” really ruined it for me. I don’t feel like it fits very well with the sculpture at all. The sculpture is mostly concrete, aside from the “V” tree and you can interact with it in various ways. For example: you can sit on the “e” and both the “L”s. Everything also just flows so well together. But then there’s just this “&” symbol that doesn’t really fit with everything else. After doing research on the sculpture, I learned more about the idea behind it. McMakin says
 * “My sculptures are functional but they also have content that you discover through participation. You need to put the meaning together by sitting on it, 	walking through it, and then recomposing what you have seen and experienced in your mind’s eye. Only then will the theme—the process of love and loss—be revealed for you to sit here and contemplate.”

I really like this concept; how everything is interactive and works together; the “V” tree also blossoms seasonally, a cycle reminiscent of the human experience. At the same time though, all this makes the “&” even more pointless. To me, it doesn’t seem to serve any function interactively or an idea that we can relate to. It also doesn’t go along with the kind of concrete them that the rest of the sculpture has (besides the “V” tree). So in the end, I have decided that it’s a great sculpture, but the whole “&” symbol still kind of ruins it for me.

Final Presentation

 * Topic (10%)

Dante's poem "The Divine Comedy"


 * Research (20%)

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 * 1) Internet site:

"The Princeton Dante Project (2.0)." Almagest - A multimedia database for teaching & learning. Web. 22 Nov. 2009. 
 * 2) Book:

Alighieri, Dante. The Divine Comedy. Trans. C. H. Sisson. New York: Oxford UP, 2008. Print.


 * Your accomplishment (20%)

I was only able to read through Inferno and Purgatorio, not Paradiso. I wasn't able to keep up with all the reading that I needed to get done, and should have set some more realistic small-goals. Presentation: read from Inferno, Canto III, lines 22-33


 * Project Review (50%)
 * 1)What went well

I was able to get through most of my project and get all of my research done. I enjoyed reading the poem and learning about all its intricate complexities.
 * 2)What went poorly

I wasn't able to keep up with the reading goals I had set, and thus wasn't able to complete me overall goal of reading all three sections of the poem.
 * 3)Future strategies

If there's a next time, I'll have to set a more realistic weekly reading goal. Instead of planning on reading every night, I'll have to break it up into days. I'll also have to not plan on reading over the weekend or any breaks that I'll have (such as Thanksgiving break). This way I can figure out a more realistic plan of action, and how much I'll actually be able to read.