Student Posts

Posts written by students in The Arts in New York City (Fall 2017).

MOMA

Allison Wu

Before our trip to MOMA, I’ve only been to this museum once. Both times, I did not get to walk around and explore the museum as a whole. Due to time constraints this time, the museum staff rushed us out, allowing us to only see specific pieces of Robert Rauschenberg’s work. Although I was not able to spend a lot of time with each piece, I was still able to grasp what Rauschenberg tried to convey. Each of his pieces contained everyday items that we throw out and see as garbage. However, Rauschenberg saw these items as pieces of art. He took multiple pieces and put them together to create a piece that no one could ever imagine, such as a goat with a tire around it. This piece that Rauschenberg put together is truly unique. How did he ever think to put a tire around a goat? Why did he think to paint the tire white? Why was the goat’s face splattered with paint? These questions that come to my mind have gone through Rauschenberg’s mind when creating this piece. He did not let the norm stop him. Instead, he used his art as a creative expression, shown clearly by the different unique pieces that is shown in the MOMA.

When Professor Natov asked us to find unordinary pieces that are beautiful around us, I was reminded of Rauschenberg. I used his artwork as an example to find pieces in our everyday life that is considered art. Art is not confined to just an artist’s painting or sculpture, but expands out to things like nature creating a piece of art by coating tree branches with snow. Such an ordinary thing on a winter day, but when looking at it, it’s beautiful. It’s easy to just walk by small pieces of art around us, but it’s important to stop once in a while and observe all the little things that can also be considered art.

Steam Festival 2017

Mariyah

I really enjoyed the Steam Festival, more than I thought I would have. I thought that the make your space station was absolutely brilliant, except there wasn’t much instruction on what to do there. Since I was part of the first group to go to the station, there was nobody there to tell us what to do. Most of us were confused on what to do, and that led to us wasting time and not finishing in 15 minutes. I thought that getting stamps was a fun way to make sure we were participating and actually learning. I liked how we were paired with Seminar 3 kids because we go to learn about a lot of interesting topics like post-partum depression and the cycle of mental illness. I would like to suggest maybe one or two more activities to do besides the make your space station because towards the last 45 minutes everyone had already gotten stamped and we were just standing around our table talking to other people in our group.

I really enjoyed the Steam Festival in its entirety and walked away with a lot of interesting information.

Turandot Review- Venue

Mariyah

For me, the venue for Turandot was my house, since I watched it on my laptop. The venue of the Metropolitan Opera definitely adds to the elegance and formality of the opera. However, I surprisingly was moved by the piece even though I was watching it in my home. The story of Turandot is very interesting one and it keeps viewers engaged. Furthermore, the music for it is absolutely breathtaking. I would have loved to see the orchestra play live. Furthermore, even though I wasn’t seeing the opera live, I could still connect to the characters and the opera overall. I believe this speaks to the wonderful job Puccini has done at adapting this play to an opera. Also, I did not expect the people on stage to act, I was just expecting them to sing. Their acting added to the emotions their voices held and helped convey the story even more. I feel like I took a lot away from just watching it on my laptop and hearing the music. It was a beautiful blend of Persian, Oriental and Italian culture.

Rubin Museum

Allison Wu

I had absolutely no idea what to expect before entering the Rubin Museum. All I knew was that it was a small museum in NYC that I’ve never been to. However, Macaulay Seminar allowed me the opportunity to visit and have an unforgettable experience learning about how immense and complex sound can be.

Although I was not really excited for this trip, it turned out way better than I expected. Even though the museum itself isn’t visited by many or very well-known, the building is like no other. It is beautiful. From the glass windows outside, to the spiral staircase and the extravagant chandeliers that hung at the center of the café, I was taken back by its beauty. These things looked like they were just for decoration, but there are greater meanings behind them. For example, our tour guide explained to us that the round centerpiece on the first floor was created specifically for the Rubin’s spiral staircase and that it reflects sound as you travel up the staircase to the top floor of the six-story building. As I walked up the steps, I noticed the drone-like sounds that the centerpiece was able to make. Each floor had its own exhibition that was organized into a different theme. As we traveled throughout the museum, we were challenged by the tour guide to listen with our whole bodies. This was accompanied by all the interactive exhibits that the museum provided. One of the coolest parts of the museum was the ability to put our hands on a designated spot on the wall and be able to fully experience sound by stepping into the enclosed opening. Each of these had a different pitch and vibration for us to fully embrace the vastness of sound.

I have learned so much after exploring the Rubin Museum for just a little over an hour. The tour guide challenged us to listen with our whole bodies in the museum, but I hope to continue to do this in my daily life. Additionally, I would love to return to the museum to further explore the rest of what the Rubin has to offer.

STEAM Festival

zenabjamil11

One of the best parts about Macaulay are the events where we get to meet other Macaulay students, and one such event was the STEAM festival. Typically, this event is for seminar 3 classes. However, this was the first year where seminar 1 students were also allowed to come. I think the best part about this was that we got to interact with not only students our own year but also students who were older and could give us tips and advice on how to do better or what to expect. It was interesting to see the projects that all the students brought. Some brought boards and posters while others had laptops and videos. In addition, they gave out cute STEAM notebooks in which we had to accumulate a bunch of stamps that we got every time we visited a new room or floor. My personal favorite part about the whole festival was that we got to make pins and magnets. You could make as many pins as you wanted. They could be designs that were available or ur own customized design. I would definitely love to go to events like this in the future too where we could meet students from all the other campuses.

Rubin Museum

zenabjamil11

The Rubin Museum definitely has to be one of my favorite museums out of all the museums we have visited in our Seminar class. This is partially because it was different from any other museum I have ever been to. The most unique thing about it was its emphasis on the power of sound and music. It also focused a great deal on many different religious beliefs like Bhuddism and had many decorative symbols all around the museum. They even had a meditation room, which was one of my favorite parts. It was an amalgam of the voices of many different random people, but the coolest part is that all those voices came together to form a cohesive sound. I would definitely recommend going to this museum to all my friends.