20 Time Final Post

So, for my 20 Time Project, I focused on spreading the benefits of upcycling and recycling through social media and a sculpture made out of recyclable materials. Starting and finishing my final product was rather a struggle, but I am glad that I finished my 20 Time journey. Along the journey, I made a website and posted weekly on blog, which are shown below. I also researched on the benefits of upcycling and recycling, which is shown in my video below.

Sketch of my sculpture

Part of my website

My TED talk could have gone better. My script was memorized for the most part, but I rushed through my presentation, stumbled, and forgot to mention some parts of my presentation. I have to say that actually practicing in my room and the classroom were two different experiences. I felt that I was more prepared at home than in the classroom environment.

Watching the video again, I would have graded myself the same as what I had gotten, for the most part. I agreed that my volume and speaking skills are not perfect, but I saw that I did mention two references. References, from what I understood, were primary or secondary sources that we have used in our presentation, but correct me if I am wrong.

My biggest take-away from the experience was learning more about the subject I was researching. Upcycling, I discovered, is a rising topic in our society, and people are reusing materials for other purposes, such as the arts and fashion. And listening to other presentations was a revolutionary experience. I learned topics that I would not have thought to research, such as the kimchi presentation, and the speakers' input on their topics was analytically deep.

The whole 20 Time experience, and I think everyone can agree, was a learning experience. We tested out our boundaries and strived to complete things outside the box. Though we stumbled along the way, we reached our goals in the end and learned more than we thought we could have.

20 Time Individual Reflection

For my 20 Time Project, I challenged myself to accomplish three goals, which are the following:
- Conserve our natural resources 
- Preserve the environment for future generations by creating an artwork out of recyclable materials 
- Spread the benefits and procedures of recycling and inspire others to start recycling

These are goals are centered towards self-improvement but more towards to helping others save the environment.

Of the three goals I set for myself, I accomplished one of the three goals, which was to inspire others to start recycling. My main resource to inspiring others to recycle was through using social media, such as my blog that I post on once every two weeks and a website that I created for spreading awareness about recycling. Although I did create two resources to spread the benefits of recycling, I did not publish much information relating to the benefits of recycling. Sure, I posted every two weeks what I did during that time period; however, I feel that I could have accomplished more during the time set for us every Monday morning. Eight or nine weeks into the project, for example, I stated in my third or fourth blog that I would post an interesting fact about recycling in order to bring awareness to this project. I, however, did not do such a thing because I felt like in the last few weeks of the project that I was cramming. Yes, cramming. Cramming the last few weeks to start a recyclable project that I should have started months ago. As it turns out, the project was crafted badly-- my recyclable figure could hardly stand out and was made out of flimsy, recyclable material.

Had I been given a second chance, I would have totally do the whole recyclable project differently. I would start the website and the recyclable sculpture back in February, which would have given me enough time to accomplish all my goals for the project. Despite all the failures in my project, I surprisingly learned or at least re-learned some information about myself. I re-learned that I am a great procrastinator (not in a good way) and that I have terrible time management skills. What I learned was that creating aesthetically-pleasing sculptures are hard to create. My aesthetic-pleasing sculpture looks very ragged and could be improved very much. 

For the future, I would be interested in spreading awareness on recycling to save our environment. Though, I do not plan on continuing my recyclable project in any time in the future, due to the fact I found the constructing part troublesome. I faced troubles in gathering materials to create thickness for the sculpture and time management. A new challenge, or a reiteration of part of my challenge, for me would just spreading awareness about recycling. I would relay the message to others by setting up recycling bins available to them conveniently and spread more awareness through social media.

Progressing

The purpose of my 20 Time project was to spread awareness of recycling. In addition to my blog, I created another website for the purpose of documenting the progress of my project and the benefits of recycling each week. I have not updated all of my progress on the blog up to this date, so there is more to come. Probably starting next week, I will start posting one cool fact regarding to recycling and continue posting one piece of trivia each week.

A constant struggle for me during 20 Time is time delegation. I believe in every class or assignment that is a struggle for me. However, through this project I hope to achieve better time delegation and spread awareness about recycling.

Starting the Third Part

Over the past two weeks, I have been working on the third part of my project- creating the stand for the falcon. I first started to make triangular-shaped objects made of newspaper and eventually linked them together to create a border that was 30 inches by 30 inches. I made another set of the triangular shaped objects to make the stand have a height of 5 inches. Moving onto the covering for the stand, I sewed together magazine articles together, making a woven covering. I pasted the covering on top of the borders, making the stand a stand.

Making the stand was rather time-consuming and the process overall was quite repetitive. However, I enjoyed pasting the triangles together and sewing the covering together. I have not really explored into creating sewing before; therefore the process was quite fun and innovative.

The next steps of the project involve actually starting to create the falcon. I have not exactly decided the dimensions of the falcon yet, however, it will be 25 inches by 25 inches. The height of the falcon is undecided as of now.

Progress Report

Two weeks into the 20 Time Endeavor, I progressed more into completing the project. I finished the outline of my recycling project and started gathering some of the materials together. I collected plastic bottles, newspapers, and magazines for the project. Originally, I was going to create a falcon to represent the red pride at Saratoga, but I now want to add a pedestal for the falcon to stand on.

Setbacks on this project were time management and efficiency in work. I fear that I will not be able to accomplish all I want to do in class, but hopefully I will be able to finish what I want to make in the end.

The Beginning

20 Time is a time period set aside for students and professionals to work on a project that they are interested in. Students and professionals would work on this project 20% of their school or work day and reveal their findings to a selected audience. 

When approached to do the 20 Time project, I decided to answer the question: How can I, individually, promote recycling materials other than solely recycling those materials?

My plan moving forward is simple. Each week I will be blogging on what I completed the previous week and then start working on creating my project, whether it is collecting recyclable materials or creating the project. I hope to expand my project in my community by blogging of course and maybe asking the school to consider my art to be a symbol of the importance of recycling. My goals of reaching out to the school now do not seem reachable to me, but perhaps I can achieve it by the end of this semester.

I finally answered this question when I decided to create an artistic sculpture or portrait out of recyclable materials for my 20 Time project. You might be wondering why I am creating a sculpture when I can just recycle these materials. People, for the most part, recycle materials; however, I am attempting to attract a wider audience. There are many places in the United States which still do not have the option of recycling materials. Although my main focus is to promote recycling materials in my community, it will be my ultimate goal if I can promote recycling outside my community.

Although there is no definite object to measure progress or success, my definition of progress is to move forward in project rather than staying stagnant or moving away from the purpose from my project. Even if I only made a dent in working on my project or completing a blog post in the 20 Time period, that time spent doing something productive is called progress.