Event Workshop with Linda Weintraub

On Tuesday, April 18, 2017, I attended Linda Weintraub's Workshop for Arts and Sciences. Inside the workshop, she had a series of circles with boxes that contained instructions on them.

Inside each box were materials such as bones, dirt, acorns, and other objects pertaining to more rural areas. She explained that the point of her workshop was to expose yourself and your senses to materials that we usually do not experience, given the fact that we live in an urban society. My favorite task to complete was the breaking down of tree bark into dirt. Somehow, that task was the most gratifying  because the feel of the bark as it crumbled into dirt in my hand and the smell of it were very refreshing and, somehow, soothing. It was almost a meditative experience for me because I allowed senses that I usually do not pay attention to take precedence over senses I utilize and favor on a daily basis, such as sight for example. In addition, I found that her Workshop was very similar to Two Cultures, such that it combined the science of nature—and the natural processes that occur within it—with art by setting up the natural ingredients in decorated circles and supplying information about the science of the objects inside the boxes in the description found on top of each box. I highly recommend this workshop because it is a unique experience and it allows you to think outside of the box when it comes to Two

Cultures and our exposure to nature—or lack thereof. For the midterm, I plan to focus on the topic of Two Cultures because it is the topic that has harbored the majority of my attention in the class so far. Looking back at this event, I feel inspired to make a presentation about the lack of exposure that we as people of an Urban society have to other environments because we live in a city that is heavily concentrated with buildings and concrete, but lacks in more natural aspects--not including the strategically planned foliage placed in certain areas. I would like to present something that gives scientific facts about natural environments that humans do not expose themselves to while also applying an artistic element to it, whether it be by arrangement of materials or the descriptions of them.