The End of an Era: Bella Corman Interviewed by Wenxi Chen
Wenxi Chen looking at your drafts, it looks like you wanted to do some kind of protest poster on USA’s party system – are you passionate about this topic and what led you to the poster you eventually chose to make for your final project?
Bella Corman Yes the concept I was going for was about trying to address the US political party system that has become substantially polarized in the last decade. This is a topic I have been extremely passionate about for years because I believe the polarization within this country brings so much hate to this world. So when Prof. Avery asked us to create a protest poster that meant something to us I immediately knew it would reflect something about the political system.
WC i see – what is the message that you’re trying to provide in your final poster? i’m curious on what painting over the “vote!” signs mean to you
BC I struggled with finalizing what I wanted to the poster to say. If you look at my drafts I have signs that said “stop claiming my vote” and “when will my vote matter?” I decided to go with the phrase “My party ≠ My vote” bc I felt like it was fitting for the graphic. I wanted the graphic to portray someone painting over signs displayed on a wall. The signs would say “Vote Blue” and “Vote Red” to acknowledge how the parties try to polarize the voters instead of giving reasons why to vote for the candidates. No longer are voters caring about policies and who the person is-it has become completely about party affliction. Which I believe is the problem.
WC oh i see, that makes sense! and for the color of the paint, did you intentionally make it blue or was that an unconscious choice?
BC Being completely honest I couldn’t figure out how to change the color lol! But I actually think that it was a great choice for the design because the color blue was lighter and showed a youthful sense to it—which was my intention. To show that the youth of America is what can change the polarization in this country.
WC haha no i get it! blender is a difficult tool to use, i struggled on my own project so much that makes sense and i understand your sentiment if someone were to ask you about the name of your piece, would you also say the title is “my party =/= my vote”, or would you give them another title?
BC That is a great question. I think I would title it “The end of an era” or something along the lines of ending the polarization that exists today.
WC interesting! i think that title is fitting – “the end of an era” sounds almost bitter, but it is actually a hopeful message that you’re trying to put out if you don’t mind me asking, could you elaborate on your own views about how the USA party system has been polarized? do you feel a specific affinity towards a certain group (or have you in the past), or have you always rejected this bipartite system we live under?
BC I don’t mind at all. I actually wrote a whole Op-Ed about it last semester. In recent years both parties have taken on the notion of compromise=bad. You see time and time again the US House and Senate facing gridlock because they have different parties representing the majorities in each chamber. Along with Presidents claiming to the media that they would never sign a bill presented by the other party. Compromise has died in this country and without the resurgence of it our democracy will fail and that is my biggest fear.
WC i think i agree with that – it’s interesting how a nation that prides itself on democracy is so split on
issues. i think my own political stance has softened over the years bc i became demotivated with how ineffective the system is… there’s a lot of issues that i feel like are just about basic human rights that government officials constantly argue over (Bella emphasized this message) for the op-ed you wrote last semester, was it for a writing seminar? if so, which one? also feel free to respond to me abt the thoughts i mentioned earlier if u want – i just think talking with people abt politics is interesting, especially on subjects like this. it also provides valuable insight on art projects like these that kind of depend on our political stances
BC Yes it was for writing sem. My class was about neoliberalism and we kinda had free rein to talk about anything we wanted. I really enjoy talking about politics too especially with my fellow classmates! I think when we stop talking about politics because we are too afraid someone might have a different view or disagree than we are also at fault for allowing polarization to exist. We need to have conversations about these issues and understand others perspectives
WC no totally. conversation is so important when it comes to political and social issues
BC I think we should definitely continue this later but I would love to ask you some questions about your design!
WC ah yeah for sure!
Memory Overload: Wenxi Chen Interviewed by Bella Corman
Bella Corman When looking at your poster I see you decided to emulate a twitter post suggesting advice from a professor—what led you to choosing this topic? And how has this statement (the one on your poster) affected you in your life/career? Sorry if some of these sound so similar to yours!! They were such good questions
Wenxi Chen honestly when i was initially looking for ideas for this project, i was really stumped lol. it’s true i’m passionate about a lot of issues i can “protest”, but i didn’t have ideas for many my friends actually joked about making a protest poster regarding the math dept at penn – which made something click in my head for this project hahaha
i really hate the “flipped classroom” learning style that professors at this uni have adopted. we learn the content through videos that go over general concepts and a couple of examples, and then we’re expected to apply the rest on our own with minimal guidance from professors. i really hate that. math is supposed to be an interactive subject, and not only that, but students are often on entirely different planes of learning. expecting all students to have the same capabilities on applying new concepts to things when not everyone has access to the same education is really irresponsible imo
the message in my poster is actually a real thing one of my math professors posted on piazza…and tbh it kind of pissed me off (haha)
i don’t understand how professors expect students not to worry about their grades or the curve in the class when the instructors are not really being accommodating of them anyway. so sorry for the long messages – i feel super passionately about the accessibility of stem education, which is why it’s the subject of my protest poster
BC I can relate to you so much! My roommate took math 104 and did the flipped classroom thing and hated it. Everyone I know at Penn hates the math department and I loved that that led you to your design
I loved how you expressed how passionate you were about this matter. Do you think that your passion towards expressing the flaws within the department started at penn? Or did you always feel passion towards the matter of the education system being flawed? Like in high school and so on
WX i think a lot of the frustration is becoming apparent because i’m at penn, but a lot of the reason i feel so passionately about stem education is because i actually really like the way math and science were taught at my high school, specifically for math and physics (which are the departments i kind of have the most beef with)
in my high school, our math teacher was so interactive with his students and would make sure we understood concepts and ran through problems step by step together. he made us do problems we didn’t understand on the board, and then we would learn how to do concepts as a class. the disparity between that experience and the experience i have with the math dept at penn, which allows for little to no interaction and poor instruction, is a source of a lot of my rage.
physics at my high school actually was taught with a “flipped classroom” model, but my physics teacher actually taught it well! he would have us problem-solve during class time, but to accommodate for how poorly grades reflect your effort in a “flipped classroom” model, he would not give us grades. he would instead give us colors between red, yellow, and green. if we didn’t understand a concept, we started at red, and we would be able to take requizzes until we reached green. there was no penalty for failing on the first try (when there is in math103, 104, 114, etc.)
i think that’s what’s wrong with how the flipped classroom model is used at penn. there are things linked with direct instruction (like number grades!!!) that you MUST accommodate for if you’re going to completely flip the learning style. otherwise, it has more cons than pros than direct learning in my opinion.
BC The experience you had in high school is so fascinating to me because I had such terrible teaching at my school. Some teachers were amazing but they really never taught anything they just wanted to be liked by the students. But it is inserting how you had such but successful experience. Do you think your high school teachers shaped your interests into stem or did it come from your family or another experience
WX oh for sure we had teachers like that too. i might never know how the electoral college works bc of my gov teacher lol
BC That is sooooo funny gov teachers are the best or worst
WX but in all seriousness, i think they definitely have. even with the model that my physics teacher taught with, i still failed with some concepts and did not do well on the ap exams or like physics in general LOL. but he still influenced my interests in stem a lot a lot. he made physics an interesting subject, even if it wasn’t for me, which influenced my interests in math and cs (which tackle a few concepts that can apply to physics or use physics)
BC That is amazing to hear because I felt the same way about my AP gov teacher. He was the best
I also saw when looking at your piece you included percentages/fractions. Something I struggled a lot with in high school was grades defining me. Did you eve struggle with focusing too much on your grades and not actually understanding the subject matter?
WX yeah! i wanted that to be in the background kind of looming behind the professor’s message to emphasize the kind of? hypocrisy? of professors to want us not to focus on grades when our academics kind of depend on it
and definitely. in high school and in college, i still struggle with not defining my worth based on grades. i don’t think it’s a surprise or a secret that students cram or even cheat in penn stem classes bc the stem curriculum is so rigorous (and sometimes uncurved) here that they feel there is no other option instead of focusing on truly understanding the subject material.
and sometimes i really don’t blame the students for that, which is also a message i want to bring out through my poster. it is on students to adhere to academic integrity, but it is also on the professors to teach well, or else (and sorry if this is harsh) they really don’t deserve the title of professor?
BC That was the most shocking thing for me when I got to Penn. So many people care so much about their grades that they are willing to do anything to get to the top. Sometimes I want to say you can be successful without a 4.0 but then they would ignore me.
Do you think the grading system should be changed or the teaching system?
WX no it’s kind of scary… in one of my classes, we’re allowed to work with 1 or 2 partners on the hws but i’ve heard rumors that there are groups of like 20 ppl working together. i have my own qualms with not being able to collaborate with a lot of people on difficult material, but i wonder how much you really learn if you work with that many people.
i think it depends. i think if it looks like a class looks like it desperately needs a curve (the average for my phys150 class’s midterms was consistently a C) and the professor or department is not offering it – why? what’s stopping you?
but also, if you’re not going to change the grading system, then change the way the class is taught so that students can succeed in it without selling their souls lol
BC That is such a good point because I know so many people that take exams together and things alone those lines.
I just think that there has to be less pressure on being perfect
That is the biggest stigma at our school-everyone has to have the best gpa to get the best jobs and to make the most money
What happened to enjoying what you do?
WX i agree 100%
it’s hard to enjoy what you do when there’s so much pressure on career-planning and just planning for the future in general… and so much of that also relies on grades so it all just builds
i’m grateful that i have passion for the major i’m in, but i know too many ppl at this school who are in pre-med or pre-law or pre-grad just for the money when they aren’t sure of where their passion actually lies
BC Everyone is always in shock when I say I don’t want to go to law school. They ask “well what are you going to do then?” Like there isn’t any other career in politics. It is hard honestly to deal with the environment here but it does make me want to do better
Do you feel the same way about the environment?
WX i agree, from kind of the opposite way as well. in computer science, a lot of people are like why go to grad school or go into teaching or research when you can just enter the industry and make bank out of undergrad? which really makes me sad bc there’s so much more that can be done with cs than just… working for a big tech company and earning money
BC That is funny because we have different outlooks on our future but both go against the norm
I think it is so important to do what makes you happy
WX no i agree fully
BC I really have been passionate about the arts my whole life but knew there was no money in it. It is sad to give up your dreams for a different career
But I love politics so it’s ok
WX yeah i understand. i also love art, which is why i want to explore more design courses in the future!
it’s also fun to experiment through our design projects our other passions. like for your project you touched on your passion for politics and for mine i touched on my passion for stem education
BC I love making my projects super meaningful. I feel like not all of my projects this sem have been that important to me but this one definitely was
WX no same, which i think is really fitting for the final project of the semester to wrap things up are there any questions you want to ask btw?
BC You are so right! And nope I think I have enough to talk about! Thank you so much for all the info