- Green Acres Farm
2. Live Well Collaborative
During the tour, the primary thing I saw was the many unique ways in which the company tackles problems. Their processes that combine students of many differing majors and professionals from a wide scope of fields are based in a creative design foundation. The director discussed how he believes that all majors should have a design component, but he has seen the implantation through classes handled poorly. “There is a large difference between fostering design and trying to teach design,” he said. “If you teach sit correctly, your students should know more about the project than you (the supervisor) do and at that point you should just step back and watch them work.” As a visual learner, I really enjoyed their highly detailed and written out process.
I walked into this office automatically assuming there is no place for a photojournalism major in this line of research. However, after seeing some of their work for Proctor and Gamble, I realized that they rely heavily on visuals to aid in their innovative process. Perhaps communicating the ideas to not only to the other workers but also to the public can be an integral part of design in problem solution. This inspired me to try to infuse my expertise in photography and communication with the final project.
The director touched on a concept from our readings: wicked problems. While the company did not work on solutions for colony collapse disorder, their problem-solving methods may be applicable to the problem. The director explained that time may be the only truly efficient solution to a wicked problem and that any short-term solution will most likely make the problem more difficult in the future. While this poses some hope for creating a solution for CCD, it still leaves the ethical debate of whether we should implement a short term plan now and reap the consequences as time progresses or simply wait for time to bring along a new innovation that solves the problem altogether. The question is, will that innovation come in time to save the bees?
3. Ideal Bee Project
This is a drawing I made representing my idea that all of the problems and solutions are interconnected. Perhaps they work together like bees do in a hive, as a super organism.
4. Fishbowl
I had never considered reading or writing fiction as a means of research- to me, something that wasn’t true simply could not ascertain the truth. The first type of fiction that was a tangible research method for me was stories that were about bee keepers in which the bee keeping facts were true but the lives and family dynamics of the bee keepers were fictional. I can see how ideating plausible effects of the wicked problem surrounding bees produces outcomes and further examines the relationship between bee keepers and their bees which is an area that traditional research doesn’t necessarily address. The other type of fiction that was harder for me to grasp as a viable research method was personifying bees. The book that my classmates read and explained did not adhere to facts and altered the truth in order to embellish the story line. I can see how this form of art may lead one to start thinking about bees because giving any non-human animal or object human emotions is one of the strongest tools in communication that provokes sympathy. However, I don’t think that alone is research. I see that type of fiction as a bridge that can lead readers to conduct their own research. Perhaps it was a form of research for the writer, but I believe that a reader would not glean any pertinent information from the book along, especially if they have to sift out the falsehoods from the facts in the process. My group and I read a non-fiction piece which was similar to my past research experiences. From my book I learned a lot about bees and the way in which they are portrayed to the public which heavily related to an environmental communications class I am also taking this semester.
I thought the the fish bowl activity was interesting because it forces you to take an extended look at another person’s point of view. If you do not interject and add your own opinions, the course of the conversation does not change to foster your ideas. And since your side may never be brought up, it forces you to explore someone else’s side in more depth. One thing I have learned in my introduction to interpersonal communication that there is a listening block referred to as rehearsing in which you do not fully listen to another person’s message because your mind is also occupied by formulating a response.
5. Final Project
What can one person really do
When the world has issue after issue
Some are so wicked we can’t seem to solve them
And what is one person to do about such a problem?
It only gets harder when some refuse to see
What we humans do to our bees
We teach our children to run away at the sight
And we let our adult selves hold onto that fright
We depend on these creatures for our way of life
Yet we let them endure so much strife
If we do not act now we will soon see
That life is much harder without the bees
But those of us who do see have a choice
What we do with our talents, what we do with our voice
We can call to attention, we can propose a plan
In attempt to put this burden on every man
Every person has a place in this mission
But it will take our creativity and ambition
To educate and innovate for the future generations
And to change the bees’ connotation
Being one small part of it all
Has made me feel not quite as small
Because even if the things we do inspire just one child
There can be hope that our plight for the bees can be reconciled
Abby Shoyat 