Driving Question: How might I grow my creativity during the COVID-19 crisis through exploring the science of creativity and innovation and experimenting with art?

What were your goals for this module? How did you achieve them?

With this module, I wanted to both teach myself how to play guitar, as well as all of the various pieces needed to become a songwriter. My end goal was to write an acoustic guitar and vocal song heavily influenced by Midwest Emo music and Math Rock (originally simply about the world at large, which later morphed into my own life due to a break up with my long time girlfriend). I started a complete novice in both my playing ability as well as composing, and both due to a substantial amount of inspiration from my chosen genre and my experimentation created my first complete piece of music, “Manic Pixie Dream Girl.” Due to my fresh perspective on learning guitar, I was able to reach my rather lofty goal of this completed track.

What did you learn about yourself or about your creative process or about your medium?

During this project, I became much more in tune with myself by presenting my creations to an outside audience, feeling comfortable enough to use my own experiences as inspiration, and getting feedback based on personal projects. I had only first picked up acoustic guitar two months ago, so I had to work with the limitations of my writing and performing skill levels. The result was all done in one take because I wanted my final recording to be proof of my competency at guitar, not at audio editing software.

Driving Question: How might I grow my creativity during the COVID-19 crisis through exploring the science of creativity and innovation and experimenting with art?

What were your goals for this module? How did you achieve them?

My goal for this module was to escape the confines of my own four walls. I wanted to create something that showcased my yearning for what I was missing out on. To do this, I had to identify what was missing; in my case, it was my friends, the term in Florence, and TGS as a whole community. I then had to figure out how I could show this to the outside world; how could I incorporate creativity in the essence of this module to my wishes.

What did you learn about yourself or about your creative process or about your medium?

I learned the skill of perseverance and that I am 100% a night owl, no questions asked. I learned that my best times to be creative was around 4 AM with music blasting through my headphones, my comfy jumper, and a cup of builders tea. I learned that if you mess up and get paint somewhere, it’s not supposed to be, you have three options: Cry, Paint over it with the closest color to the fabric and pray nobody notices or adapt and add it to your work. I used all three options.

Driving Question: How can I use a video format to effectively communicate the many facets of the LGBTQ+ community to someone who knows nothing about it?

Project Description: This project is a 5-part video series explaining the LGBTQ+ community for a beginner audience. The intention of these videos is to be a resource for anybody who would like some more information on the community. You can find all five videos below.

Driving Question: How can I use webcomic style art to convey a message about mental health during quarantine?

Project Description: Daydream During Quarantine is a short story about a girl getting lost in her garden while thinking about her future, her goals and life in general.

What were your goals for this project? I really wanted to grow both my digital art and Japanese skills. Through this project I was able to grow both.

What were your takeaways from the project? Digital art is hard for beginners! I would really like to continue working towards making more digital art and bettering my technique in general.

Driving Question: How can I create a portrait photo essay which summarizes my senior year?

Project Website: https://charlottesteckart.wixsite.com/mysite

Project Overview: In this mastery project, I made a photo essay on people in my life who contributed to who I am today.  I wanted to photograph family/friends/teachers/and relatives. This wrapped up my senior year and the last year of a six-year journey. I also added written reflections and poetry to each of the portraits I took.

Sample Photos from the Project:

Driving Question: How might I grow my creativity during the COVID-19 crisis through exploring the science of creativity and innovation and experimenting with art?

Project Title: The World and Its Viruses

Location: Wuhan, China

What were your goals for this module? How did you achieve them? I wanted captivate and express my creativity, something which I had been struggling with lately. So I decided to create a series of art pieces to express my perspectives and thoughts on the COVID-19 crisis through maps. By extensively researching my theme, receiving and applying feedback, as well as trying different techniques, I managed to express my creativity and perspectives through this unusual type of art.

What did you learn about yourself, your creative process, or your medium? I learned that creativity is not a state of mind, but an innate condition that people just do not cultivate.

Driving Question: How might I create an uplifting documentary that shows how deafness adds value and diversity to our society?

Project Description: For my second mastery project, I decided to improve my filmmaking skills by making a documentary about deaf artists living in Melbourne. The main objective of this was to tell a story of a group that’s not often talked about and to portray it in a positive, inspiring way. The film sheds light on what it’s like to be a deaf artist in a hearing world and the struggles that come with it. But most importantly, it shows that deafness brings a valuable perspective to our society by showcasing the talent and passion of two Australian artists.

What are the biggest lessons you learned through the process of your mastery project? I think the main thing I’ve learned through this project is the importance of being adaptable and flexible when things don’t go as planned, and knowing that some things are just outside of my control.

Driving Question: How can we teach the concepts of branding, marketing, and project management to build a fashion brand?

Project Overview: We developed this service project to help local Panamanian fashion entrepreneurs Maale & Lorena build their streetwear brand, Sure. We did so by designing a website, graphics, and by offering business strategy through regular phone calls. We found the work to be more rewarding than initially expected. In this process, we not only discovered a passion for graphic design but also became passionate about the future of the project. Are You Sure refers to the branding we came up with in conjunction with the two young women.

During the fifth week, right before heading to WeXplore in Venao, Principal Russell Cailey asked for volunteers to help two of the girls at Hairarchy build a business website for a fashion brand. There we realized they were missing other important elements of their business so we decided to help.

As to who they are exactly, Maale and Lore are two Colombian girls that moved to Panama and began working in Hairarchy Casco. Lore is a bartender at La Bárbara, the speakeasy that operates at the back of the salon and Maale is the receptionist for the salon. They are both passionate, creative, and entrepreneurial people that love to use art to communicate with the world around them and they both love music!

It was also great to have our hard work recognized by two of the other members of their team, Ryan and Dave. One thing led to another, and Levith and I got offered a part in the brand if we continued with the project. The service project has become a passion project, and we very eager to see its development in the future.

Driving Question: How can I use fictional/non-fictional storytelling to create a meaningful experience about Greek society (ancient/ contemporary)?

Project Description: During the online COVID term, our module focused on fictional/non-fictional storytelling to create a meaningful experience about society, and we were given the option to write a script or a podcast. For those of us who chose to write a script, we were given free rein regarding the topic; however, we had to stick to a ten-minute timeline.

The topics that people came up with were quite varied. Some of us chose to write about the current COVID-19 situation, some of us decided to talk about other aspects of society such as poaching or the LGBT+ community. Below you can read scripts by CM2 students Bella and Giulia, who highlight the effects of social media and a young girl’s battle with cystic fibrosis and COVID-19.

Bella

If you’ve ever thought about what Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and TikTok would be like as people, you’ll love reading this. In my own work, I’ve combined elements of fiction with exaggerated reflections of reality by personifying social media apps.

The inspiration for this piece came from the Nosedive episode from Black Mirror. The episode is set in a world where people’s entire lives depend on their “rating” based on social interactions. The setting shapes a tragically social media-obsessed society—no doubt a critique of how people interact with each other online. I wanted to reflect a similar message but in a more light-hearted, comedic way. In my play, I wanted to demonstrate our modern dependence on social media and the negative impacts it can have on our well being and relationships. My hope is that the audience learns to examine their own relationship with social media, and decide for themselves if they could benefit from a break like my main character, Logan.

Giulia

My work shows a young girl’s battle with cystic fibrosis and COVID-19. It is meant to give you a glimpse of what people with pre-existing illnesses are going through at this time.

The inspiration for this came from my own surroundings back at home in Denmark. I was noticing that not all people were sticking to the rules effectively putting those of us who are at risk. I think that some people don’t realise the danger they could be putting someone else in, especially as you don’t know what other people are dealing with at the moment. My hope is that the audience starts looking a little more closely at how careful they are being in these tough times.

Driving Question: Is there life on Mars?

My goals with this project have been to get people thinking about astrobiology and the possibility of extraterrestrial life, and work towards the general democratization of scientific thinking and knowledge. It is my belief that every member of society should have the tools and ability to conduct scientific investigations if they so wish, and to engage critically with new scientific discoveries and current events. Science isn’t something that should only be available to people who have a four year degree and a lab!

This is why I created a kit that can be used anywhere, by anyone, and bring the study of extraterrestrial life to their own home. I designed/adapted three experiments and activities to inspire critical thinking, scientific inquiry, and knowledge building surrounding biology, astronomy, and alien life. I also took a deeper look in my capstone paper at the reasons why there is so much misinformation about aliens in the media and amongst the general public, and along the way discovered a surprising love for science communication! The conversations I had that this kit inspired are the biggest proof that I met my goal of democratizing science; maybe if we all spent a little more time talking about life outside of earth, we’d be able to make life a little better inside of earth too!

What are you most proud of?

I’m most proud of the fact that even in the face of hardship, and people telling me that I couldn’t make this work, I chose to listen to all of the amazing people encouraging me to keep going and try another strategy. This project started out looking very differently, but I couldn’t be happier with how everything turned out. In fact, this product aligns far more with my original goals than the experiment I was planning from the start!

It was so worth it to stay true to my original intention, and put in the extra detail work to make this something I could be really proud of leaving as my TGS legacy.

What are the biggest lessons you learnt through the process of your mastery project?

I learned that the two keys to a successful project are a lot more subtle than you might think: logistics, and a whole lot of feedback. The biggest mistake I made at the outset of my Mastery was not leaving enough time for certain logistical processes to take place, meaning that eventually, I didn’t get the things I needed in time to do the experiment I had planned. Preparation is really nine-tenths of it, and is an essential part of making all the fun showy stuff a possibility!

Feedback is the other big piece of the puzzle. It’s so easy to get caught in your own little Mastery project bubble and forget that the reason you’re doing all this work is to create something other people will be able to interact with and enjoy! It’s essential to keep that factor in mind every step of the way and appreciate every pair of eyes you can get on your project whenever possible.