My three topics/areas of fascination are:
- GardeningÂ
- Food
- Art
My question of choice for each topic are as follows:
- Now that it’s officially spring and the weather is getting warmer, my parents and I have been looking to get new house plants to brighten up our home and flowers/veggies for our garden. While searching around, I found this article talking about sustainable plant shopping. After reading, I realized that I’ve never really stopped to think about where the plants came from. According to the article, many “off the shelf” plants that we purchase are grown with loads of chemicals which is harmful to en environment. Thus, this made me think of the question: What are some more ways to make my gardening hobby more sustainable, bio-organic, and environmentally friendly?Â
- For my second topic of food/restaurants, I looked around the internet regarding Yelp which is the app I use most often to find new restaurants to try out. Upon digging around, I found out that Yelp has been in a lot of controversies over the years in regards to manipulation of reviews and predatory advertising tactics. I read this article about how Davide Cerretini, owner of the restaurant Botto Bistro, would give a discount to anyone to leave a 1-star review on Yelp, eventually gaining him the worst-rated restaurant on Yelp. His inspiration to do this was to rebel against having the fate of his business rest in the hands of the online review ecosystem. This makes me think of the question: How can we break free from the manipulation of larger corporations to better support small businesses?
- For the topic of art, I was looking around and came upon this article in the New York Times about an old exhibit at the MET called “Everything Is Connected: Art and Conspiracy.” This made me think about how many times, art is a projection of our past and our present. At the same time, art also has the power to change the way we perceive our own reality. In many instances, art has been successfully used as a medium for changing/altering people’s thoughts and emotions (propaganda, for example) about a certain topic. This makes me think of the question: What are the elements that go into a piece of art that strengthens or weakens its ability to influence a viewer’s thoughts and emotions?
Tina,
You have a gold mine here. Now I wish I could say that I can help you “refine” the gold into some nice, wearable, research “jewelry” — my image here for a beautiful, clean, and elaborate citation — but I only find new rabbit holes for you to go down in your next step of research! There is so much you could discover here, and the reading you have already done is exciting.
1. Plants. That article showed me that these little plants are like “addicts.” So apt. I have wondered how so many could be generated so efficiently for the plant $$market. yes, the ones I get from such places often fail. Terms like “propagation” interested me. My thought here is that a good cutting is like getting a good recipe from your grandmother. No one can replace a grandmother’s connection. So, it stands to follow that there is something we might all learn from the act of *propagation*. *Intentional plant communities*? *Plant ethics*…all potential key word queries I would put to a Librarian and see what she comes up with.
2. The YELP ethics question. Huge. Yes, so much we can mine here. The broader query borders into how *algorithms* are making decisions for us and about us — on behalf of GREED, not *ethics*; how people follow the herd, and don’t stop to think as individuals; how *convenience* has literally hijacked our lives; and, my pet peeve: how YELP and sites like it have utterly destroyed true coolness. No one young will know what coolness is. Don’t even get me started here. Yes, it is part elitist, and partly about *inaccessibility*, but honestly, if everyone wants to go to a cool place where things are cool, is that place cool? Whoops, I gotta take a selfie — what was the question again?
3. Your question here is really a more broad one than this one show would ever address. *Persuasion*. And, by extension, the *formal elements* of art and how *content* and *rhetoric* is expressed in the *visual art* or even the *picture plane*. My quick answer would be that it is a mix of composition, focal point, content (and that is a broad term) filtered through narrative, and many other things. Hmmmm. It is a tough one, but we could get you some stuff on this. It just so happens that, if you go this route, Monica Berger, our chosen Librarian, is the Art History expert at the Library.
Diversion: I either know, personally, or have reviewed, many of the artists in the article you mention about the Metropolitan Museum’s conspiracy show. One of them, Mark Lombardi, often becomes a subject in my ENG 1101 lectures. His work on research and conspiracy is fascinating. I can share a documentary with you if you wish — if I can find it. Here is the trailer: