Wylie House

Reading the article, From Trashed to Treasured was really enjoyable. The article discusses finding old items and turning them into treasure. It is mentioned that some of the items can range from anything to clothes or weapons. We have been finding and carrying around objects for thousands of years.
This article connects with every day life a lot. Anything someone finds, they can easily turn it into something better. For example, old mason jars can be turned into small flower vases. You can embellish them and make them beautiful.
This past week we visited the Wylie House, which I thought was really interesting and I learned a lot about the first president and the history of IU. I liked how we first learned a little about who the Wylie family was. It helped me understand some of the facts that were told during the tour. There was not much that I disliked about the house!
I think it would be very interesting to live in the house with the president. It would be really weird to come home to the president sitting in the kitchen. I do feel like it would make me be a better student because I feel as if I would have to impress him.
I really enjoyed finding out what the saying Sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite meant. Sleep tight comes from the strings that need to be tightened in order to keep the mattress up. The bed bugs part comes from the hay in the mattress and there was sometimes bugs in the hay. This visit was one of my favorites and I recommend to keep going there in the future.

Morton C Bradley Center

For this upcoming week we are focusing on two readings. I enjoyed reading How Visitors Relate to Museum Experiences."The article discusses how people feel when they visit a museum. "A person's first thought of visiting a museum, through the actual visit, and then beyond, when the museum experience remains only in memory," is a quote used to describes the author's definition of a museum experience. I also agree with this because what you feel or see is what is going to effect your thoughts of the place you visited. 

This past week we visited the Morton C. Bradley Center. I thought it was really interesting and I even learned a few things. Before I didn't even know this place existed or who the first president was. I also learned that the campus was not always where it is at now and that the campus was only moved because there was a fire.  It's interesting that some students lived with random families and did not live in dorms. It would be crazy to live with the President as a freshman. I feel like it would just be like living at home and there would still be rules. 
 I really enjoyed getting to see an actual letter that was written by one of the Wylie family members. It's pretty cool that they were saved and we can read them. I also liked how we got to see pictures of the house and the family members.

In order to make the visit better, we could have talked about more about the history of the center. I had no clue what the center was when I first got there. I do believe that the lady did do a good job of explaining some of the history.

The visit to the Center connects with every day life because it's about the past of IU. It sets the visitors up a taste of the past and how IU came to be the way it is today. For example, the Wylie family took care of some students and make them feel like they were at home. Now we depend on our roommates or friends to watch out for us. 

Credit Card and IU Auditorium

 The article, Credit Card discusses the importance and when the credit card was first invented. The article talks about the process of how credit cards became so popular. In the article, it mentions that cash  has lost it's essential materiality. Hardly anyone to this day uses cash because using plastic is much more convenient. Credit cards are really convenient but they are also scary. It causes people to spend money they don't actually have.
 This article connects to everyday life because it talks about materiality of cash and how its use has disappeared just like the way with writing letters. Earlier on we discussed an article about how people using letters have vanished. The author of the article talked about he he wished that him and his wife wrote letters to each other so he can have her thoughts down on paper. Instead of writing letters, they just told each other how they felt. They didn't write or do anything close to a letter. Today's generation hardly ever send letters anymore. Our use of letters are mainly using email or text as our main ways of communication. Basically, we aren't creative and aren't as sentimental as past generations.
On Thursday we visited the IU Auditorium and focused on four different murals. They all connected to history and how things evolved. One way we can connect the murals to credit cards, we could start out with one side as showing people actually holding cash and depositing it into the bank while the other sides is images of people using credit cards.
For my image that interests me is a pumpkin that my roommate carved. I chose this because carving pumpkins is popular during the Fall and it's something I enjoy.

How the Fork Got Its Tines

How the Fork Got Its Tines is a really interesting article to read. It mainly discusses how the fork's tines came to be a thing. Also, it is mentioned that other every day tools are different and each tool is based off of any earlier items that are already here. For example, a knife was based on the flint. A flint is a hard stone or rock that had very sharp edges that could cut meat or vegetables. During the prehistoric times, people would actually use two knives when they were eating meat. They would cut with one and use the other one to eat off of. After this is when a fork's tines was made. 

"The fork's tines is what makes a fork work." The normal fork we use today actually started out with just one, two, or three tines. The fork was finally perfected with they came out with fours tines. Four tines made it easier to eat and just seemed how a normal fork should be. 

It's questioned in the article if our eating utensils really perfected or do they need improvement. I believe they are good enough but other people may have higher standards. The questioned about improvement can be connected to every day life. It is connected because almost everything in this time or century is thought to be perfect by the maker of the product. Since everyone has their own taste and opinion some people may disagree that the certain object is not perfect. For example, when things are hung on a museum's wall the person who is over the museum may think a painting is perfect but others may disagree. Excepting that not everyone thinks that someone's finished product is not bad is an okay thing because everyone has their own taste.

The Mind's Eye

The Mind's Eye is a very interesting article to read. The article mentions that when we look at something, the point is to see how we can open our minds and hearts to seem more than just the image. We are supposed to be inspired with the vision we have in our minds. For example, when we see normal people doing every day things like walking on campus, we put an image of them in our minds.  If they are walking fast, we are supposed to associate them with ourselves when we are in a hurry when we are running late for work or class.
The article also discusses about the people who are denied their use of senses. It was said that people who are denied of the senses sometimes see with greater sharpness than the people with all of their sense do. I feel like sometimes we take being able to see special paintings or creative sculptures for granted. People who are blind have to use their imagination when they are told about a painting. We sometimes think a lot of things are boring and we have yet to learn to appreciate them.
Recently I visited the Bloomington Antique Mall and I thought the place we really neat. I think I will find myself going back there to see what new items are put on display. There were a lot of items that are really old and then there are some items that look like they were put into the store just a few years ago. I really enjoyed the section about the records because they are something that is not popular today.  Going to the mall connects with every day life because it shows what the people who we interact with today used in their life just a few years ago.

The Gloom of the Museum

Have you even though of how museums in  America or around where you live would look like in forty years? Well I have and I think they will be a little different. The article, The Gloom of the Museum    mentions that no one can say with authority how the art will be developed in the next few years. I can almost fully agree with this. No one can correctly say what art will look like but they can guess what they look like and could be correct in a few. I think art will be more creative because there is so much more outside influence today. Artist have an easier way to connect with others and they have multiple opportunities to learn and become inspired.
We visited the IU Art Museum on Thursday. We learned about and explored the Ancient Greece, Rome, and Chinese arts. There were several items on display that were really interesting. The people who designed these arts or owned these possessions probably could never guess they would go into a museum and this connects with the statement that I mentioned above from The Gloom of the Museum. Back in this time,people probably really never knew what items will be valuable later on in life. Today, we can probably guess and be right.
This article connects with everyday life because the article mentions that a museum must teach and advertise. As a future educator, I will have to connect this with my teaching. When I am teaching a certain subject, I will have to advertise it in a certain way. I will have to make the subject look appealing and be excited about it so I can motivate my students. I believe when teaching, teachers should always have an excited outlook on everything because it is such a great motivational factor.

What I Saw in the Museum

    After reading, What I Saw in the Museum my opinion changed a lot about museums and how I feel about going to them. Usually when I walk into a museum I have a lot of negative thoughts toward them. When I read this article, I realized that I usually dislike museums because most of the items there offer confusion because I do not know what they are or what the meaning behind them is. I have always wanted to just be told what something is about instead of actually thinking of the reasons why because I do not want to be wrong.
   The article suggests that the best collection is about what is missing. I now believe that the point of some items in a museum are supposed to confuse the viewer and the artist wants the viewer to think more about what is in front of them. The items in a museum are supposed to capture the viewer's mind into thinking more about the object. They want the viewer to engage themselves with deeper thinking such as, why did the artist do something this way, how did he or she think of that, or how was it put together. The viewer is supposed to leave the destination they are standing by with more dependence on their thoughts and not their vision.
   The article quotes, "We do not grow or learn by going to something, we learn by going through something." This phrase can be connected to museums and everyday life. It can connect to museums because a person has think thoroughly about what is in front of them instead of just going up to it and depending on what we see with vision. This is connected to everyday life because the quote can pertain to school, jobs, or the relationships people have with each other. We cannot grasp life with just what we see. In order to understand something or build stronger values, we have to learn every day and participate and not just sit back and watch.