Communication is an art form, as well as a form of learning. Whether it’s related to feelings, or ideas and concepts, artists and learners deal with communication as a medium in which to work. As I developed myself as an artist and learner, I found that the concept of communication could be broken down into reflective and explanatory means. This realization was insightful, as it helped me to look at my art and learning as either acts of reflection or attempts to illustrate ideas. Within my journey as a learner and artist, I found my piece “Crescendo” a collaborative literary journal, and “From Hermione Granger to Albus Dumbledore: from a consumer of knowledge to a facilitator thereof”, a reflective essay on my learning, to be indicative of these traits.
Writing takes recognition of audience, context, and diversity while being able to blend evidence, claims, and reflection in a way that is not only engaging but knowledgeable. In my reflective essay “From Hermione Granger to Albus Dumbledore: from a consumer of knowledge to a facilitator thereof”, I explored this skill, utilizing my own work as both qualitative and quantitative evidence of my claims of learning. In order to make use of this evidence, I needed to identify the audience of my essay, and develop a context in which to create a consistent narrative. This forced me to imagine who was reading my essay, why they were reading it, and how to make the reading experience something they felt inspired by. Once I had done this, I began to see the importance of reflective writing. Reflecting on my pieces of work and how I wanted others to understand them assisted in me delivering my personal narrative, allowing me to take my reflective essay and turn it explanatory.
I continued this reflective to explanatory cycle in my piece “Crescendo”. “Crescendo” is within a google drive with labeled folders, all relating to multimodal art. Contributors submit their pieces via instructions found in each folder. This means that the documentation within the piece becomes crucial to be able to interact and understand with the pieces. Therefore how we as a team were able to convey how to use the drive as a journal and submit content was incredibly important. Working with my team, I began to examine how writing should be structured to assist in identifying the audience of our journal. This examination bolstered me to think about how our multimodal pieces allowed us to communicate with a wide range of diverse audiences, as we encouraged pieces that didn’t depend on a specific language or written form. It helped me see communication beyond writing and evidence. While these forms are important but are not the barometers in which I should only measure my skills.
In conclusion, my journey through myself as an artist and learner has helped me understand communication. I realized reflective communication was introspective and was the visualization of my own thoughts, feelings, and ideas to myself as well as the outside world. This contrasted with explanatory communication, which is my attempt to offer my understanding around a subject, or offer up my reflective thoughts to an audience.
Works Cited
Raymond, Rachel “Crescendo.” BISIA 207. Introduction to Creative Writing, Professor Chelsea Grimmer. Winter 2019. https://drive.google.com/open?id=1nKjDzkjXK4I8Cjznxyv2t0dkRCL__nBd
Raymond, Rachel “From Hermione Granger to Albus Dumbledore: from a consumer of knowledge to a facilitator thereof. Final Portfolio Reflection Paper.” BIS 300. Interdisciplinary Inquiry. Dr. Keith Nita. Autumn 2017. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1XOsWdW-8ev9KtXy2w-lc9mNY-0ITU72s