Monday, 2/29

Starter #22: Read the following quote by our man, Ed Abbey, then write about a place that holds significance to you and that you find beautiful. It could be ANYWHERE! Inside or outside! A corner in your bedroom, or a mountain range.  A city alleyway or a highway corridor.  Describe it in as much detail as you can and explain why you find it beautiful or why it is significant to you. 
​
"This is the most beautiful place on earth.  There are many such places.  Every man, every woman, carries in heart and mind the image of the ideal place, the right place, the one true home, known or unknown, actual or visionary.  A house-boat in Kashmir, a view down Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn, a gray gothic farmhouse two stories high at the end of a red dog road in the Allegheny Mountains, a cabin on the shore of a blue lake in spruce and fir country, a greasy alley near Hoboken waterfront, or even possibly for those of less demanding sensibility, the world to be seen from a comfortable apartment high in the tender, velvety smog of Manhattan, Chicago, Paris, Tokyo, Rio or Rome- there's no limit to the human capacity for homing sentiment" -- Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire, pages 1-2. 

Class Biz/Deadlines

• Happiness and Meaning DP Update is due Sunday, March 6th at midnight (EMAIL ME THE LINK TO YOUR PAGE WHEN DONE)
• Honors Ind. Study students: DP Update is due today. Email me the link to the update.
• Projects are due START of class on Friday
• Tomorrow is the last day to ask for extensions
• Shea, Kaleigh and George-- peer critique + make up Friday's starter

Agenda
1. Share out your starter

2.  Watch photographer, Barron Bixler's 5 minute film: A New Pastoral: Views of the San Joaquin Valley
Over a period of three years, California photographer Barron Bixler crisscrossed the San Joaquin Valley capturing images of large-scale, industrial agricultural enterprises. From dairies to orchards, from scrap yards to packing plants, the pictures offer a provocative look at one of the most important and productive agricultural regions on Earth.

3. Discuss the "film":  

• What are your general reactions? What thoughts/feelings did this raise?
• What is your interpretation of Bixler's series of photographs?
• What is he suggesting about the relationship man and nature? between agricultural "productivity" and environmental impact?

​
4. Work Time

• Peer critique the OTHER part of your project 
• Continue refining written and visual pieces
• DP Update

---