Welcome to Week B7
(aka “Week 10” for the rest of the campus)
This Week
- Monday – PH1-140
- Wednesday – SOA Gallery Courtyard
It’s a 2 ID Card week this week. Monday at PH1-140 & Wednesday at the Galleries. On Wednesday you don’t need to meetup in a group or make any fancy diptych or triptych ID cards. This week you can just do “normal” ID cards.
Although, I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to connect to your Art110 Classmates, to the SOA Artists, and as many people on this campus as you can. You aren’t just jumping through hoops for Glenn’s benefit, you’re building your personal network. Who knows, a few of the peeps you meet might wind up being good friends. But most will be “Weak Ties.”
The Strength of Weak Ties
Mark Granovetter’s 1973 paper The Strength of Weak Ties is one of the most important papers in the history of Sociology. For our purposes, the take-home message from Granovetter is that the things we seek, a job, a date, or anything else, tend to come from our “weak ties” – people at the edges of our networks – people that we aren’t as close to, rather than our “strong ties” or closest friends and associates. The problem with strong ties is that you tend to know all the same resources that they do. It tends to be your weak ties who bring new resources (like jobs & dates) to your network.
It’s a fancy way of saying that connecting to a lot of people is good. You don’t have time to be close friends with every single person you meet here at CSULB, but the chances that they might be able to help you, or that you might be able to help them, are pretty good.
So… I encourage you to connect! And beyond connect, interact! Connect on LinkedIn. If someone helps you or works on a project with you, be sure to write a LinkedIn Testimonial for them. Don’t miss an opportunity to support or help your peers. You’ll be building a stronger community for everyone, including yourself.
So… beyond an Artist Conversation and an ID cards, I’m not requiring anything else at the SOA Galleries this week. And of course it’s easiest to talk to the peeps you already know, but if you can say Hi to one more classmate you haven’t talked to yet, it’s just that much more value for you from your time here at The Beach.
This Week’s Activities
- SOA Galleries – conversation with an artist
- OC Artist – Eva & Franco Mattes
- Activity – Automatic Drawing
Full details on the Automatic Drawing Activity page:
Monday in PH1-140
Our OC Artists Eva & Franco Mattes aren’t exactly “Free Culture” artists, but they do start to touch on this space. Free Culture is an important idea here in the 21st century. And how you choose to work with Copyright is important to everyone today. Back in the 20th century, back in your parents day, sure a few artists or corporations had copyrights on things, and every now and then they sued someone for violating those copyrights, but for most people most of the time, copyright wasn’t really relevant back in the 20th century.
Here in the 21st century, everyone creates copyrighted works all the time! And everyone has the occasion to respect or violate someone else’s copyright multiple times per day. It’s a really different landscape from your parents’ day, and we’ll think through some of that in class today.
Points Update
Coming Wednesday!
Top 10
Coming Wednesday!
Sample Essays
Samples of some of your great SOA & OC Artist essays (finally!) coming Wednesday!
