Student Posts

The STEAM festival was a great opportunity for all of the Macaulay students from all different campuses to meet up and share their work. It was interesting to see and learn about the projects assigned to all of the different Macaulay classes. I also had a lot of fun sharing my own work and I loved seeing how genuinely interested everyone was in hearing what my group members and I had to say. I also appreciated talking to the upperclassmen about their projects. I was also able to discuss with them what is yet to come in my Macaulay career. I think this event was very successful and should be repeated next year.

Seeing Robert Rauschenberg’s work at the MOMA was an unusual experience. When one goes to a museum in the city, he or she does not necessarily expect to find a full-size taxidermy goat standing in the middle of the room, but Rauschenberg made that happen. The goat is also wearing a tire, which adds more mystery to this piece of art. The goat’s face was covered in splatters of paint and the goat was standing on a large platform made of wood. We learned about this piece by Rauschenberg and we discussed it in class, but seeing it in real life was just a different experience. His work was very innovative and in some of his pieces he allowed for his audience to become a part of the art by placing mirrors.

This exhibit was definitely one of the most underrated trips that we went to as a class. The exhibits were beautiful to look at and hear. The museum highlighted different aspects of sound by incorporating it into Tibetan Buddhism. My favorite part was entering the Om room. It was a dimly lit room with benches. Audio was playing through the speakers of different voices chanting the word “om.” I truly felt at peace. It felt like I was transported to a different world. Another part of the exhibit that I really enjoyed were these paintings that were in the corners of the museum. Each painting looked normal at first but when you put your head up against it and your hand on the wall, you could hear the Buddhist prayers being chanted directly from the wall. It was a wonderful experience and I would want to go back again.

At the STEAM festival we presented our Chorus of Stones project. Our project was about memories and people genuinely seemed interested in what we had to say. My fellow Macaulay students particularly appreciated the show tickets that we had on our poster from the past class trips. It brought up a lot of talking points. My favorite part about the STEAM festival was the buttons. I thought it was a creative way to incorporate art into the day. I also liked talking to people from different campuses and hearing about their college experiences and their Macaulay class. I also thought it was smart to have the 3rd seminar kids present on the same day because we were exposed to what we would be doing next year.

The Rubin Museum was an interesting experience in that it focused on sound, the art of sound. Just traveling from floor to floor in that museum, one could experience the exhibition “The World is Sound.” I had a hard time believing that as I was traveling from floor to floor up the spiral staircase in the museum that the different sounds that I was hearing were actually being emitted from one source. When I first entered the museum I was in this frantic mood because I thought I was going to be late so I ran from the train station; however, as I was exploring the museum and was really just trying to focus on the sounds, I became very calm and zen. I especially enjoyed sitting in the ‘OM’ room. It was very soothing and an unusual setting because all that was required in that room was to listen to human voices pronouncing the word “OM.”

Our tour guide was amazing. She knew so much information and was very enthusiastic when she was teaching and explaining things. My favorite moment was when she asked the class which gender in Buddhism represents wisdom and compassion. The class unanimously agreed that males represent wisdom while women represent compassion. Our tour guide chuckled and said that it is actually the other way around. Women represent wisdom, while men represent compassion. I had this ineffable feeling go through my body when I heard this. To learn that the stereotype of men and women did not comply with the laws of Buddhism was a nice change because in all my history classes in high school it was always women who were portrayed as weak and emotional, while men were seen as brave and intellectuals.

The costumes were unbelievable. They were ranging from sparkling and dazzling to monochromatic, gray, and mundane. The costumes were brilliantly designed to reflect the different characters and the different socioeconomic conditions of the people in Turandot. In the first act, the commoners took control of the stage. They were all wearing a shade of gray. At one point in the play, they all gathered up in the front of the stage and began making jerking movements. As they were moving, their different shades of gray costumes gave the illusion that they were just one big wave of grayness. Their mundane attire not only represented their low social status, but also demonstrated how the rich regard the people of the lower class. They viewed them as nothing. The rich, on the other hand, were all wearing gorgeous costumes. Turandot’s headpiece was just mouth dropping and so extravagant. Her costume was well designed to represent her high social status.