Focused freewrite

We’ll begin class today with the question:

If you could take a class in anything in college, what would it be and why? You might want to think back to Project #1 and how you described yourself, your interests and passions, and your philosophy or aesthetic sensibility.

Next,

Imagine college went away for a while–or you went away from it. You’re all caught up with chores and responsibilities. What would you spend your time doing? Imagine limitless possibilities or resources if that helps you free yourself of reality.

Finally,

What would a course in your preferred activity (from above) be?

For our brainstorming presentations:

• What is the overlap that relates to my interest?
• What passage(s) might it relate to?
• What is the next step?
• What argument might you make in your project?

Or, if you want to do what was originally assigned:

• show the photograph
• identify the location
• identify what you claim is the overlap
• what are some points of comparison or contrast?
• 1 passage and how it relates
• a draft of your thesis statement.

Presentations:

SS: Interest in trains and the experience of seeing them for the first time as a teenager. Where to see them? The transit museum? Better to go to the Manhattan Bridge overpass. Overlap: train in its environment. Maybe the area when the train is there and when it’s not. OR maybe on the train vs. on the ground? OR train at different times of day, different demographics. Whitehead on 1 train, McGrath on Brooklyn Bridge. SS will revisit the site.

KL: walk over Jay St to the Manhattan Bridge  to Canal St to Chinatown. Gentrification is pushing Chinese people out of Chinatown. Now there’s a cafe, not Chinese shops. Thesis: NY is home to a lot of good overlap, but there are some areas where one is pushing out another through gentrification. Think about Whitehead on what was there before being more real, etc

DL: New City Tech building compared to Namm. Even though they’re both designed to educate, they have different approaches. Namm as old, chalkboards, etc. New building: glass, modern, changing society, different educational experience? Buildings starting to represent how we live in society, esp technology. Whitehead: attachment to buildings. KL: more light, taller ceilings can lead to greater productivity

MM: Barclay’s Center and what the neighborhood was before. More lively than the depressed area. More traffic and more events (concerts, graduation). Whitehead: 8 million naked city

BC: DUMBO, old factory building contrasting with a skyscraper building in Manhattan: changing skyline, a piece of history overlapped with a new modern building. Whitehead, changing NY

JF: Fulton and DeKalb: Dime Savings Bank turning into apartments, cafes, etc.; plus broken-down stores. Changing from Forever 21, Century 21. Think about McGrath on poverty