Artist's Statement

My final project was a task that took more thinking that I originally thought required. It took me the longest time to come up with a topic to base my entire presentation off of. During class I had heard the instructor tell a student that he should try to relate his experiences at Vieau with his major. I brushed the idea off at first but then one day during one of my sessions I found a poster that said “Bridges to Literature”. I immediately realized that I could use this poster as a way to link my major of Civil Engineering to my final project. While working on my project I started looking for more ways to strengthen the relationship. I then remembered that one of my favorite Civil Engineers was Spanish and also had done some work here in Milwaukee. Santiago Calatrava is a Civil engineer who became famous for his work with bridges that are very unique. I related him to what I was doing at Vieau because I was tutoring kids and teaching them how to read. So in a way I was helping these kids build their bridges to literature and they were unique bridges because the time we spent was very enjoyable and valuable. I started looking for pictures of Calatrava’s work and while I was at Vieau I started taking pictures of everything I thought I could relate to engineering.

Another part of my experience at Vieau was helping kids with their Rube Goldberg machines. After some research I had found that the projects they were building were closely related to engineering. Rube Goldberg machines are over engineered machines that perform simple tasks in many steps. My research brought me to videos of popular Engineering schools such as Purdue or Iowa competing with their own Rube Goldberg Machines. So I started taking some pictures of the kids working on their projects and even a couple of the projects themselves. Soon I found I had all the images I needed and started putting the presentation together.

This time I decided to use Windows Movie Maker instead of PowerPoint because I knew I might have video in the presentation and I found Movie Make easier to incorporate things like sounds and videos. While I wasn’t able to put any video on my presentation, I did find a song by an unlikely artist that would make my presentation flow smoothly. The song was “Modern Meat” by the Band Animals as Leaders and is Spanish sounding guitar track.

During the creation of this project I realized how important the education process is to building futures for children such as those at Vieau and that quality education is what leads to great Engineers such as Santiago Calatrava and their amazing buildings. After spending time at Vieau I hope that I have inspired a few students to pursue the profession of engineering because a strong interest at a young age helps when it comes to effort in schooling in the future.

Journal Final

My project was really simple after I determined the theme i was going to use. When i related the project to my major(engineering) i knew what pictures i was looking for and what i was going to use as found images. The real work was putting the project together and deciding on what order was going to best convey my message. The last few days working with the kids went by smoothly and was fun. We spent most of our time together working on hands on projects such as the Rube Goldberg and a paper vase. I can already tell that im going to miss helping out the kids at Vieau.

Second Journal

Its been a few more weeks and I have been able to spend a lot more time with the students. Talking with the students I have found that they are all very bright. Part of my job at the school is assisting kids with there science projects, and the ideas that they have come up with are very interesting and complex, while at the same time original. I also give them some ideas and assist them with getting their ideas on to paper. Other kids are just as Bright, however, they are easily distracted. I had the pleasure of helping one of these kids get caught up with his math. We spent several hours just doing basic math, and at the end not only was he a little ahead of his class, I had came up with some more ideas for my final project. including how to relate my major Engineering to the projects I'm helping the kids construct.

Artist's Statement

Experiences at Vieau

Over the course of 4 visits to the school of Vieau and taking part in their boys and girls club, I have been able to form relationships with many students and establish trust with them. Just by helping the kids with their homework allows me to get to know them and ask them questions. Their answers helped me to better understand what the school teaches, and strives to accomplish as well as learn a little about their home life and culture. After helping with their homework I was able get to know them as a person better throughout the rest of the day participating in activities that ranged from science projects to sports and games.

The camera was another type of “ice breaker” that helped me to get the kids to interact more and break down their trust barriers. When kids saw that I was taking pictures they ran to come be part of them, this made it hard for me to try and get the pictures that I needed where the kids were acting like normal. After the kids went back to playing around I was able to use the camera to capture the happiness. When looking at the images I realized how diverse the school was, as well as how much diversity didn’t matter there.

I decided that for my multimedia essay I was going to use my photos to work my way into the school, starting with the neighborhood and eventually getting to the kids. The amount of pictures I had was limited due to unexpected cancelations in scheduled timeslots, however, the pictures I had accomplished my goals. I start out with a picture of the neighborhood which is the first thing I saw during my first visit to the school. I then move onto the entry way of the school as well as posters and images found inside the building. I use these pictures to illustrate what the school its self is like, illustrating the schools goals of teaching equality and respect while maintaining the importance of holding on to culture. Finely I end with the kids and I use these photos to talk about my interactions with individuals and what I learned from them. I chose photos that reminded me most of what it was like there. I chose pictures that gave a sense that everyone was happy and comfortable around each other. Though I have only been to the school a handful of times, this project has given me a better idea of what I need for future multimedia projects and how I can expand my relationships with the kids.

Journal 1

My First intended first day of working with the kids at Vieau School was canceled because of an open house so instead I will reflect on the time I spent there during my orientation. My first impression of the school was that it was a lot similar to my elementary school and so I felt comfortable right away. After meeting the people I was going to be working with, people like Yesenia, I felt even more comfortable. We were told a little bit of history of the school and the neighborhood and then everyone introduced themselves. After finding out that everyone was there for a similar cause, to help kids, I was reassured that my time there was going to be helpful and worthwhile. Yesenia proceeded to introduce her staff and briefly describe what each of them do and then I heard the words Rub Goldberg mentioned and I was all of a sudden perked up, I knew that I wanted to help the kids with this science project and that I had a lot of skills that pertained to that specific activity. My friend Wes and I signed up to work on the project with the kids and are now looking forward to getting to spend some time with the kids and share our cultural diversities with one another!