Module 6: Modeling
James Frye
I perceive modeling as the process of taking an idea, or an abstraction of that idea, and molding it into an alternative form that is different than the original and provides a new way of understanding the original concept/idea.
James Frye
I perceive modeling as the process of taking an idea, or an abstraction of that idea, and molding it into an alternative form that is different than the original and provides a new way of understanding the original concept/idea.
In an earlier module, I developed a formulaic process for my topic, reflection, that breaks my topic down into dimensions. This pattern, graphically represented to the left, is representative of how I explore my topic's dimensions as well. Any experience deemed worthy of reflection by the beholder serves as the qualifying starting point for any type of reflection. From that point on, it becomes the responsibility of the reflecter to decide what form it should take following a remembering of the experience. This happens in a combination of the processing/perceiving and creating/sharing steps.
For my graphical representation of reflection, then, I decided to link a series of different potential representations together which complement one another, but not all of which are graphical in a traditional, tangible sense. The first representation is this photo to the right with credit to the work of Tom Hussey.
Taken in a nursing home where an elderly woman is looking at herself in the mirror in in a moment of reflection, having a photo of a much younger nurse in the mirror instead of the woman's actual reflection serves to highlight several different layers of reflection to this reflective model. We can see role reversal because the woman has become the patient we can assume she has always cared for, recall and memory of being in that nursing role years prior, and a LITERAL, PHYSICAL reflection in a mirror of an INTANGIBLE, METAPHYSICAL reflection on the woman's past. This is a very multi-faceted model of my topic, as the photo is loaded with symbolism and highlights every step of my process of reflection indicated above (Experiencing, Remembering, Processing/Perceiving, and Reflecting/Creating/Sharing).
However, since my topic is the process of reflection through writing (and I love to write and record music), I decided that writing a lyric and singing/recording the song would also serve to model the process of reflection in yet a different manner. This is not to mention that it aids the interpretation of the photographical representation, as well.
My recording and lyrics follow (please pardon the advertisement that will play when you click play):
Taken in a nursing home where an elderly woman is looking at herself in the mirror in in a moment of reflection, having a photo of a much younger nurse in the mirror instead of the woman's actual reflection serves to highlight several different layers of reflection to this reflective model. We can see role reversal because the woman has become the patient we can assume she has always cared for, recall and memory of being in that nursing role years prior, and a LITERAL, PHYSICAL reflection in a mirror of an INTANGIBLE, METAPHYSICAL reflection on the woman's past. This is a very multi-faceted model of my topic, as the photo is loaded with symbolism and highlights every step of my process of reflection indicated above (Experiencing, Remembering, Processing/Perceiving, and Reflecting/Creating/Sharing).
However, since my topic is the process of reflection through writing (and I love to write and record music), I decided that writing a lyric and singing/recording the song would also serve to model the process of reflection in yet a different manner. This is not to mention that it aids the interpretation of the photographical representation, as well.
My recording and lyrics follow (please pardon the advertisement that will play when you click play):
I'll Always Remember - Jamie Frye:
Verse 1: Woke from a dream this morning Woke from a dream of lost memories All shaded in black and white; I sit back, and the tears release In my mind I walk a thin line; Below me is the endless sea And above, the clouds turn grey and swirl; The air becomes thin and I can't breathe, no Chorus: When my eyes darken, I still see you When I stumble, you carry me through Despite the voices that crowd my head It's only yours that still rings true Verse 2: I spend the days collecting my thoughts Trying my best to keep my sanity You save me in my dreams But you left me in reality, yeah ----- |
Even though your heart chose another, Mine stood firm, still reaching for yours Is this what love does to a man-- Sail him across memories, to lonely shores? Chorus: When my eyes darken, I still see you When I stumble, you carry me through Despite the voices that crowd my head It's only yours that still rings true Bridge: One day, I'll leave it all behind; The pictures, the gifts, and all the good times Just to make a new life I won't look back, but I'll always remember I won't look back, But I'll always remember |
While the writing of this reflective lyric in and of itself seems unlike a model (except in that it takes the idea of reflection and turns it into a tangible passage of text), the song and recording is a model.
In the lyrics above, the song opens with the narrator reflecting on a dream they had the night before. In that dream, they were forced to interact in a very real manner with memories of their past which they did not want to remember because of the pain it brought them to think of it. This is the process of remembering. In the Chorus and second Verse, the processing and perceiving takes place: the narrator sees the unnamed individual when their "eyes darken," they are the only voice that makes sense of the many left in their head, and then they admit that the unnamed person is a savior to them, within their dream. However, an explicit articulation of the pain brought by this memory is made clear here: "Even though your heart chose another, / Mine stood firm, still reaching for yours / Is this what love does to a man-- / Sail him across memories, to lonely shores?"
My recording is the alternative manner of modeling my process of reflection by actually engaging in the entire process through a reflection, step-by-step, and is therefore, in complement to my graphical representation, an articulate and thorough representation of the dimensions and modeling of my topic.
In the lyrics above, the song opens with the narrator reflecting on a dream they had the night before. In that dream, they were forced to interact in a very real manner with memories of their past which they did not want to remember because of the pain it brought them to think of it. This is the process of remembering. In the Chorus and second Verse, the processing and perceiving takes place: the narrator sees the unnamed individual when their "eyes darken," they are the only voice that makes sense of the many left in their head, and then they admit that the unnamed person is a savior to them, within their dream. However, an explicit articulation of the pain brought by this memory is made clear here: "Even though your heart chose another, / Mine stood firm, still reaching for yours / Is this what love does to a man-- / Sail him across memories, to lonely shores?"
My recording is the alternative manner of modeling my process of reflection by actually engaging in the entire process through a reflection, step-by-step, and is therefore, in complement to my graphical representation, an articulate and thorough representation of the dimensions and modeling of my topic.