Marketplace Visit
On the campus of the University of Hawaii in Manoa, on the island of Oahu, there is an East Asian concert building. This concert hall is quite different from the usual orchestral venue. Most concert halls are designed to ensure that the only sounds you hear are those that are intended by the musicians. The walls are thick. The design creates a quality listening experience from wherever you sit.
The designers of this concert hall, however, had something else in mind. The walls are extremely thin. The sounds from the outside world come right through, so they blend in with the music being played inside the hall. This is quite intentional. The philosophy behind this design is that while the sounds intended by the musician are to be noticed, contemplated, and enjoyed by the audience, so are those sounds that come from the outside world. Those sounds also need to be combined with those the musicians make to create the aesthetic experience. In this philosophy, a person who wants to fully engage in the musical experience should pay attention to absolutely everything – from the music on the stage to the sounds outside to the lighting – everything.
What does this have to do with your assignment? What you should do is grab a pen and a notebook, something you can write on while standing up. Travel to a local shopping center, marketplace, or main street where there are many people and vendors. Pay attention to as much as you can and jot it down.
Some aspects to consider:
What time of day is it?
What day of the week?
What month in the year or what season?
What is the light like today (color)? Is it sunny, partly sunny, or overcast?
What does the weather today make you feel like: gloomy, bright, depressed, or energized?
What buildings do you see? Describe their architecture, building materials, and positioning in the landscape. Are they well designed or just thrown together without plan, without rhyme or reason?
Are there many people or few? What are they doing? Are they moving quickly or slowly? What are they wearing?
Then go inside the mall, into the marketplace, or into a store or two and notice the following:
What do you smell?
What do you hear?
Is there background music here?
Are there planes flying overhead?
Touch some things. How do they feel?
Your assignment is to list as many such things as you can, taking about 30-45 minutes to do it, not much more, and jot down your reactions to them. Mostly just describe what your sensations were, but also, as in the list above, add what you felt like when you noticed this or that.
You should submit a summary of this experience in narrative form. The idea here is that you are to set the scene for your readers. Describe, in as much detail as possible, everything you captured in your notebook. Our purpose here is to help you develop an aesthetic approach to your surroundings. By sending you to a shopping mall, one would not ordinarily expect that one would encounter beauty there. But we would like to see whether beauty might not, in fact, be found there anyway. Our assumption is that it can, if one only develops the eyes to see it. So this will be your chance to see if you can do it. To be sure, some more recently bulit malls have had aesthetics in mind when they were designed, but some of the older ones had only function in mind, not design or style.
Instructions:
Create your description in a Word document.
Your assignment is due in Unit 2.
You are encouraged, but not required, to share your assignments with your classmates too and learn from what they have done.
Resources
Marketplace Visit Scoring Guide
Description of Aesthetic Experiences
Estimated Time: Three hours.
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MARKETPLACE VISIT SCORING GUIDE
Due Date: End of Unit 2. Percentage of Course Grade: 7%.
Note: Your instructor may also use the Writing Feedback Toolto provide feedback on your writing. In the tool, click on the linked resources for helpful writing information.
MARKETPLACE VISIT SCORING GUIDE GRADING RUBRIC
Criteria Non-performance Basic Proficient Distinguished
Describe the setting of an everyday aesthetic experience. 25% Does not describe the setting of an everyday aesthetic experience. Describes the setting of an everyday aesthetic experience. Describes the setting of an everyday aesthetic experience, with supportive detail. Fully describes the setting of an everyday aesthetic experience, with ample supportive detail.
Compose a vivid description of an everyday experience. 25% Does not compose a description of an everyday experience. Composes a description of an everyday experience. Composes a vivid description of an everyday experience, with several sensory details. Creates a vivid description of an everyday experience, with examples from all of the senses.
Explain the personal significance of the aesthetic experience. 25% Does not explain the personal significance of the aesthetic experience. Describes the personal feelings evoked by the aesthetic experience. Explains the personal significance of the aesthetic experience. Analyzes the significance of the aesthetic experience for personal learning.
Write coherently to support a central idea in appropriate format with correct grammar, usage, and mechanics. 25% Writing does not support a central idea in appropriate format. Does not use correct grammar, usage, and mechanics. Writing supports an idea. Format is inconsistent, contains major errors of grammar, usage, and mechanics. Writing clearly supports a central idea in appropriate format and with few errors of grammar, usage, and mechanics. Writing is coherent, using evidence to support a central idea in a consistently appropriate format with correct grammar, usage, and mechanics.
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