When we launched the Waves of Surveillance Project, I was very confused about the debate between the security and privacy. I did not think the two had anything in common, and it didn’t click for me until later in the project. When we started looking at different contemporary artists, I only understand a few of the art pieces. Balloon Dog really caught my attention because I thought it was very pretty; on the other hand, I thought the house project was very interesting but I did not see how it was “art.”

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In physics and mathematics, the lesson that stuck out to me the most was the Slinky Lab. First of all I love Slinkys, but this lab was as confusing as it gets - and that’s saying a lot for physics. I had absolutely no idea what we were doing and no idea what we were supposed to be learning. It was a discouraging and frustrating experience. Once I cried in the bathroom, and then started the lab again, I figured out what was fluff and what parts of the lab were important, and  it turned out to be very straightforward. I actually enjoyed learning about how the waves move within the Slinky.

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Most of the time that I spent in engineering, I was working on my physical product. I learned some new techniques, the most noteworthy being how to sandblast glass. I really enjoyed this project and it went pretty smoothly. I had to wait my turn for training, but I think by the second or third sandblasting attempt, I was setting up and doing my work without supervision. It was really fun, and I feel like now that we have worked through my project, more people will choose to use the sandblaster in the future.

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Like I stated in the first paragraph, I initially had a hard time understanding some of the contemporary art pieces. However, after working through this project, I feel like I have a deeper appreciation for the significance of the artist’s mindset and effort as they create art that interprets important issues. I also learned how necessary it is to balance privacy and security. Both are important, and although no one has complete privacy or ironclad security, a strong balance keeps us reasonably safe and private.

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For this project I chose to work alone. I originally had a group of peers to work with, and I do like collaborating, but I told them upfront that I really didn’t want to use cameras. Every idea, of course, involved cameras, so I decided to work alone. I think it was both easier and more stressful to work alone for this project because I could envision my final art piece and create it without compromising.

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At the start of exhibition, I was very very nervous. I felt like everything that could go wrong, would go wrong. Looking back on the exhibition now, I think it went as well as it could, I could not be happier. So many people were eating the cookie, but it took almost two hours to reveal the mental health aspect of the piece. I remember one older man came up to me and I was cutting more pieces, and he said, “I’m going to be honest, I’ve already had a piece, but it is so good I want to take another.” His wife asked me to explain my piece and they thought it was really interesting and creative. The only frustrating experience were the three girls that kept cutting very large pieces of cookie - I think they ate an eighth of the whole cookie! I felt like I was a good speaker and represented my piece well.

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I would give myself an A plus. I felt like I really stayed on track throughout the whole project. In the project tracker, all of my boxes are in the green. I constantly worked and was striving for the most perfect product I could produce. I even practiced the cookie four times. I set very high expectations for myself. Rarely do project s come out as I picture them in my head, but this project was an exception. I thought the cookie tray looked beautiful and the cookie was even more amazing. I had times when I doubted myself, but I did believe I could do it. I persevered and made it happen!