Waves of Surveillance

Reflection:

When we first started this project, I was a little skeptical; I tend to enjoy more traditional forms of art, (painting, drawing, photography, etc.) and so I wasn’t sure how my art piece would turn out. I was also worried that my group wouldn’t be able to decide what to create because not everyone always has the same vision. Luckily, from the get-go, my group was coming up with similar ideas and agreeing. This definitely helped raise my hopes.

In Physics, I learned about the different types of waves, how they work, what creates them, and so much more! At some points, it was hard to keep track of all the information and equations, especially because some of the symbols in the equations were Greek letters. This is where it came in really handy to know how to take good, legible notes so that you knew how to solve the equations correctly.

I learned a lot of new techniques in Engineering. I learned how to use corner clamps to make sure my camera head was at the right angles; I learned there are many different shades and luminosities of paint, and it will sometimes dry down a different shade; but mainly, I learned a lot about electricity and circuits. This came in really handy because a lot of other groups needed help with their wiring, and I found out that I was consistently successful, which opened up many doors to help others.

In Humanities we made plays, and I learned how much effort goes into them. You have to choose: the topic of your story, how everything plays out, how many characters you want, what their names/personalities are, what their wants/fears are, and so much more. Another thing I learned was how to format a play; there is a very strict way to format a play, but at first glance, it looks like a very loose format. This can make it hard for a lot of people who don’t double check the fine details, but I am very much a perfectionist, so I need to double and triple check everything, which helps filter out a lot of mistakes.

My group members were Elizabeth, Moises, and Andrea. I feel like I collaborated well with my group members; I made sure to balance the number of ideas I was sharing with the number of ideas that my group was sharing. I feel like I was a good collaborator because I suggested ideas for my group members’ projects, but I didn’t force the ideas upon them; it’s their final product, they should have the final say in it.

During Exhibition, it was fun to see all the different reactions that people had to a camera walking up to them and just staring; their reactions ranged from nervous to laughing, and everywhere in between. It’s such an amazing feeling when your final product works and has its desired effect. Although Exhibition emphasized what I did well, it also emphasized what I didn’t. Since I was only able to look through a 7-inch “lens” in the front of my camera head, I didn’t have much peripheral vision. Since so many people came to see our Exhibition, this led to me bumping into a lot of people. Even though this happened a lot, everyone was really nice and understanding about it.

I would give myself an A+ for this project because I put all my effort into it. I helped theorize what our final product was going to be, I was the first person done with their prototype and my final product, I stayed after school multiple times to work on my product, and whenever I felt like I was finished, I would help one of my group members. Over the course of this project, It was interesting to see how so many people can take one idea or topic, and turn it into drastically different products. Even though I wasn’t thrilled about this project at first, I gave it a shot and put a lot of effort into it, and so I ended up having a really fun time! This sounds really cheesy, but this helped me reinforce the idea that I shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.