The Sycamore Spring 2011

THE SYCAMORE WELLS COLLEGE’S STUDENT MAGAZINE / SPRING 2011

the innovation issue

CONT features 24 55 ACADEMIC ORIGINALITY

Overcoming the obstacles to creating an original thesis.

DESIGN THINKING

Breaking from tradition with inception.

29 62 BUILDING INNOVATION

A study of architectural progress in diptychs.

GETTING THERE

The potential for public transportation.

38 66 BOOK ARTS

An ancient trade made innovative craft.

52 THE OOPS IN ARCHEOLOGY

A look at out-of-place artifacts.

2  COVER PHOTOGRAPHY BY CATE DINGLEY

CLOTHING & INNOVATION

A look at the past, and perhaps future, of clothing.

TENTS constants 6 14 EDITORS’ NOTES

A few opening remarks.

TIME AND MEDIUM

Andy Warhol’s technical advances in filmic language.

8 17 MUSIC FOR YOU

Artist recommendations.

RUINED REPUTATIONS An artwork as its own entity.

10 18 THE LATEST

New artists worth noticing.

FILM REVIEWS

Analysis and recommendations of films.

12 20 CLOSE-UP: STARFUCKER

An interview with Ryan Biornstad of Starfucker.

INNOVATIONS IN THEATRE

A look at what’s to come in the theatrical world.

THE SYCAMORE / SPRING 2011 3

constants 76 ACADEMIC PAPER CONTEST

Sam Share’s “The Inner Path to Overcoming Anxiety Disorder.”

84 SHORT STORY CONTEST

Chris Becker’s “For Our Viewers at Home.”

87 FROM MAPS TO GARMINS

A brief history of navigation.

90 IF IT AIN’T BROKE

The lasting impact of ancient medicine.

91 FROM LEECHES TO LAB WORK

A timeline of medical innovation.

95 DEAR MINERVA

Wells’s resident goddess answers your burning questions.

100 PHOTOGRAPHY CONTEST

Photo by winner Ashley Mercure.

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STAFF ALEX SCHLOOP ANA GIOVINAZZO CHELSEA ERIKSEN CATE DINGLEY EMILY AMBROSE JILLIAN FIELDS JUDY LAVELLE MAGGIE MAHR MINERVA JOSH WILMOTT REBEKKAH MCKALSEN KATHRYN MCNAMARA KATIE PRICHARD VALERIE PROVENZA JENNY CARLOS ALISSA KENT FRANCES STAITI RITA FEINSTEIN DAVID FOOTE CATHERINE BURROUGHS

Editor in Chief Design Editor Chief Copy Editor Music Editor Entertainment Director Graphics Editor Staff Designer Creative Writing Director Staff Writer History Editor Staff Designer Health Editor Theatre Editor Advice Columnist Film Critic Staff Writer Staff Writer Staff Writer Staff Writer Staff Photographer Staff Photographer Staff Designer Staff Photographer

THE SYCAMORE is Wells College’s student magazine.

This is our sixth biannual issue.

In keeping with our mission, we print on environmentally friendly paper and use nontoxic ink.

Staff Copy Editor Staff Copy Editor Advisor

CONTACT E-MAIL

WellsSycamore@gmail.com

WEB

WellsSycamore.tumblr.com

PHONE ADDRESS

315.534.9602 Wells College 170 Main Street Mailbox Number 458 Aurora, NY 13026

THE SYCAMORE / SPRING 2011 5

COPY EDITOR’S NOTE As Chief Copy Editor of The Sycamore, I have the privilege of reading every article before the magazine goes to print, and, in doing so this semester, I imagined that I would be able to draw some thematic conclusion from our writers’ investigations on the topic of innovation. I had expected, for example, that the articles would all lead to some sort of overarching thesis: “innovation results from x,” “innovation leads to y,” “the future of innovation is z”—or even something as weak and simple as “innovation is good and necessary.” While our articles may have asserted some of these points, or even all of these points, what amazed me was the sheer range of conclusions one could draw from any particular piece, and the various conclusions the magazine leads to as a whole.

Readers have frequently come to me after finishing an issue of The Sycamore, rolling their eyes and saying, “How is ‘expression’ a theme? How is ‘identity’ a theme? Anything can relate to those themes if you try hard enough.” I have to agree with them, but I would argue that the open-endedness of our themes is what allows our writers to feel free to explore almost any topic in any way they’d like, but gives each article a focal point from which it can grow.

And that is what brings me back to my original idea—every time I read an article expecting a basic discussion of a topic in relation to our theme, I find something new and exciting instead— and, what’s more, I find my definition of our theme expanded.

For example, Judy Lavelle’s two pieces in our Health section serve as companion pieces to one another; her timeline exhibits advancements in the ever-strengthening medical field, while her article “If It Ain’t Broke” asserts that some ancient medical practices continue to exist more or less unchanged because they didn’t need to be altered. Never did I expect our Innovation Issue to show evidence in support of tradition instead! But Judy was not the only one who presented the counterpoint—in Rebekkah McKalsen’s fascinating article on archeology, she reveals that it is possible humankind isn’t advancing as quickly as we think it is.

Other articles continued to surprise me; Jillian Fields guides her readers skillfully through the map of pros and cons of new GPS technology, and Chelsea Eriksen and Josh Wilmott use their sections and their vast knowledge of music and film to enhance our understanding of innovation in the arts, both through Josh’s analysis of film studies and Chelsea’s meticulous search for new and interesting tunes. Though space limitations prevent me from mentioning every detail here, I learned something new or gained something from every piece I read.

6 EDITORS’ NOTES

In response to another suggestion, we made a conscious effort in this issue to be a little more Wells-centered, but were careful to examine Wells-related topics the context of a bigger picture.

Emily Ambrose presents a stunning piece about the study of book arts, using the Wells College Book Arts Center as research and evidence for her piece, ultimately making assertions about the future of the study not only at Wells, but as a whole. Valerie Provenza makes her debut as a staff writer with her article on the new Wells Innovation Lab, but through her research and interviews, she gives us a wealth of information about design thinking and business innovation in general. Kate McNamara, who has previously written Wells-central articles, ties the topic of transportation into the problem of getting around while living in a small town like Aurora, and Maggie Mahr’s firsthand experiences with Wells’s January trip to London helped her to create a riveting article about innovative techniques in theatre.

I am extremely proud of our staff writers for the incredible work they’ve done; with every semester, The Sycamore is becoming more varied and more informed, thanks to the enthusiasm our writers and photographers have for their work. I thank everyone for their contributions and effort, particularly David Foote, who has contributed his incredible writing and copy editing talents to The Sycamore for years, and Rita Feinstein, who has helped me immensely in the copy editing process and will succeed me next semester as Chief Copy Editor.

I give my thanks and love always to Catherine Burroughs, who has been a source of inspiration and encouragement for both The Sycamore and for me, personally. With her support, our magazine has continued to grow and thrive, and I cannot possibly thank her enough.

But my special thanks go mainly to Alex, whose incredible friendship was brought to me through the creation of this magazine. I have so much admiration for his attention to detail and his eye for design, not to mention the immense respect I hold for him as an academic, an editor, and a person. He is an amazing individual whose pride and passion for The Sycamore is positively contagious, and I am honored that he entrusted me with the content of this magazine for three whole years. I must admit, when I go on to attend the University of Denver Publishing Institute this summer and move toward a career in editing, I will miss having this much authority—and having one of my closest friends as my editor, even if we don’t always see eye to eye. Alex, never change.

All the best, and happy reading! •

EDITOR’S NOTE Innovation surrounds us—it allows me to type this message, Skype with friends abroad, and enjoy a caffeine-free latte. Sometimes we take for granted the extent to which our daily lives are impacted by other people’s ideas—ideas that were once sketches or drafts and have since been executed, replicated and placed into the world. What did we ever do before alarm clocks? Toothbrushes? Soap?

You’ll find in this issue, though, that we haven’t placed innovation on some gleaming altar. The following pieces will (hopefully) encourage you to think critically about your surroundings and evaluate them in a new light. Innovation can come with unwanted side effects, like the anxiety disorder that Sam Share works against in his superb essay on page 76, but can also lead us to appreciate what we already have. Would the craft of book arts, addressed in Emily Ambrose’s glowing article on page 38, be as valued if it weren’t for the emergence of electronic books and glossy computer screens?

The Sycamore, from my extremely biased perspective, is a gem of our campus, and it is truly our staff that have made and kept this to be true. That’s why this semester is difficult—eight of our staff members are graduating this May, and many of them have been with The Sycamore since its infancy.

Jenny Carlos has been on staff since the fall of 2008 and has been a wonderful graphics assistant and photographer. Her soft, beautiful photographs of Minerva on pages 95 and 99 remain as some of my favorite images of the Wells campus.

Dutifully writing and copy-editing, David Foote has been contributing some of our best-informed features since the fall of 2009. David’s articulate and meaningful prose is never satisfied with surface-level answers—his interviews reveal interesting and deep revelations that frequently pertain directly to students.

Kate McNamara has been on staff since the spring of 2009 and has written on such varied topics as green transportation (page 62), the history of the arts at Wells, and faculty/student relationships. Kate is always reliably on time and always well-written.

Reviewing over 25 films, Josh Wilmott has been on staff since the fall of 2008. Josh is an expert filmmaker and it shows in his pieces—well-informed critical writing is his trademark. Josh is intimately involved with his work for The Sycamore, often meeting with Ana to work through minute details and sitting down to make sure that his pages are designed just right.

Emily Ambrose has been on staff as both a features writer and Creative Writing Director since the spring of 2009. An expert on long-form, in-depth journalism (especially from her semester at the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies), Emily is one of The Sycamore’s strongest writers. She knows which questions to ask her interviewees, and how to fluidly convey their essence in writing. As Creative Writing Director, Emily has also worked closely with students outside of The Sycamore staff in managing both our poetry and short story contests.

Although not technically on staff until the fall of 2009, Cate Dingley has been contributing to The Sycamore since our very first issue. Cate has served in many capacities, from model, to writer, to contest winner, to photographer, to style editor, and, this semester, as Chief Graphics Editor. Cate’s supremely artistic eye has allowed The Sycamore to publish some absolutely stunning photography, much of it her own. Cate has worked closely with our staff photographers to assist and educate them with photography basics, and has re-learned InDesign to help with layout.

Cate’s dedication and willingness to get the job done is something for which I’m especially grateful.

Chelsea Eriksen has been Music Editor since our humble beginnings in the fall of 2008. Her unmatched passion for (and excellent taste in) music has been channelled into 66 music reviews, making the music section routinely one of our strongest. Chelsea has also worked diligently and tirelessly to secure interviews with such big-name bands as The Whigs, The Boxer Rebellion, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, and Starfucker (page 12). This is unheard of for a magazine from a school the size of Wells—many of the bands Chelsea has interviewed have been similarly covered by such seminal publications as Rolling Stone.

Intensely involved in her work, Chelsea always makes sure to assist in the design of her pages to make sure that we’re producing at the highest quality possible. Chelsea’s light-hearted, jovial nature always brings energy and laughter to our meetings, and I’ll truly miss her presence next year.

I’ll always remember the day that I met Ana Giovinazzo. The Sycamore was, at that point, just an idea. To gather interest, I set up a table in the dining hall, and for lack of more interesting material, set grammatical style manuals out for display. Ana, at the time a complete stranger, confidently strode over and said something to the effect of, “Hi! I like your grammar books! My name is Ana and I’m going to be on this magazine and we are going to be friends.” She was right, and I can’t imagine this magazine, or much else, without her. Ana has worked tirelessly in all aspects of The Sycamore, from countless all-nighters, to Publications Board meetings, to copy-editing, and, of course, writing. Ana has set an astronomically high grammatical and stylistic standard for the text presented in The Sycamore. We’ve printed fewer than fifteen mistakes in three years and 284 pages. Ana works closely and individually with all of our writers to assist them in both writing style and content. Ana is also, by far, our most prolific writer—she has written an astonishing 14,968 words published in the last six issues. That’s longer than her senior thesis. My only consolation is knowing that we’ll be working, somehow, closely together in the future.

This issue is a work of great care and love—please, take a few moments to really sit down and read it through. If you see something you love, something you hate, or something you disagree with, please e-mail me at wellssycamore@gmail.com. After all, how else will we develop? •

THE SYCAMORE / SPRING 2011 7

Music for YOU Music for YOU Music for YOU

BY CHELSEA ERIKSEN

ATMOSPHERE

THE PERISHERS

If you like CunninLynguists, RJD2, or The Roots, listen to Atmosphere. Although Atmosphere is one of the most successful hip-hop groups and has been around for over two decades, there are many people who have never heard their name. Atmosphere has two main members, Slug and Ant, from Minneapolis, Minnesota. They have released six albums and ten EPs, and some of their more popular songs include “The Best Day” and “Yesterday.”

Their beats are funky and fresh, and Slug’s lyrics are reflective and deep. To find out more, go to http://www.myspace.com/atmosphere.

If you like Aqualung, The Honorary Title, Death Cab For Cutie, or Snow Patrol, listen to The Perishers. This Swedish alternative band started out 1997 with six members, but now has four.

Although they are not exactly a staple in everyone’s iTunes, you have probably heard their music from popular TV shows or commercials. Their dreamy and sincere sound has a truly heartbreaking quality, which comes across best in their song “Nothing Like You and I.” To find out more, go to http://www.myspace.com/ theperishers.

RICHARD HELL AND THE VOIDOIDS If you like The Dictators, Lou Reed, The Clash, or Black Flag, listen to Richard Hell & the Voidoids. They started out in the 70’s in the punk-rock scene in New York City. Their debut album, Blank Generation, is by far their best and features one of their more popular songs, “I’m Your Man.” Their sound is a bit more polished than that of their contemporaries, and Hell’s voice, even with its purposely out-of-tune notes, manages to stay euphonious. It is this very combination of sweet and sour punk that keeps their music current. Find out more at http://www.richardhell. com/voidoids.html.

8 MUSIC

OKKERVIL RIVER If you like Bright Eyes, Arcade Fire, Elliot Smith, or TV on the Radio, listen to Okkervil River. Coming from meager beginnings, including self-releasing their first album (which was recorded in a garage), Okkervil River has begun to blow up. They have released an album nearly every year since 2002 and have appeared on a few late night talk shows. They have toured with The Decemberists, The New Pornographers, Lou Reed, and many more well-known acts. Their sound is an amalgamation of sad, meaningful lyrics, Will Sheff ’s soul-splitting whines, and catchy guitar riffs and drum beats. Find out more at http://www.okkervilriver.com.

M. WARD

SLEATER-KINNEY

If you like Wilco, Grizzly Bear, She & Him, or Fleet Foxes, listen to M. Ward. M. Ward (Matthew Stephen Ward) has become well known within the Portland, Oregon scene and is also a member of She & Him and Monsters of Folk. Off of his seven albums, “Never Had Nobody Like You” is by far his standout song. Accompanied by Zooey Deschanel’s cooing tone, Ward’s weathered voice and pleasantly catchy guitar-strumming creates a lighthearted and vintage effect. To find out more, go to http://www. mwardmusic.com.

If you like The Breeders, Sonic Youth, Bikini Kill, or Bangs, listen to Sleater-Kinney. Their medium-fi and riot grrrl/punk sound has developed a cult-like following. Sleater-Kinney started out in 1994 in Portland, Oregon and disbanded in 2006. Although their last album, The Woods, has a much more polished sound than their typical raw vocals and distorted guitar riffs, it was well received and is one of their most popular. To find out more, go to http:// www.sleater-kinney.com.

THE BUZZCOCKS

SHWAYZE

If you like Iggy Pop, the Misfits, The Clash, or The Ramones, listen to The Buzzcocks. The Buzzcocks started out in the 70’s as an English punk band in Bolton. Peter Shelley’s voice screams of angst and love, and is submerged into an organized cacophony of drums and guitar, which inspires your inner punk. Their stand out song, “Ever Fallen in Love,” comes off of their 1979 album, Singles Going Steady. To find out more, go to http://www.buzzcocks.com.

If you like Kid Cudi, Biz Markie, Wale, or Gym Class Heroes, listen to Shwayze. Shwayze began rapping in 2005 and has released two albums since. After grouping up with well-known rapper Whitestarr, they began to attract interest after releasing “Buzzin,’” which hit number 46 on the Billboard Hot 100. Their sound is light and easy, demonstrating the California spirit while incorporating trendy beats and acoustic guitar. To find out more, go to http://www.shwayze.com. •

THE SYCAMORE / SPRING 2011 9

PETER BJORN AND JOHN

DELTA SPIRIT

Peter Bjorn and John is a three-member indie-rock/pop band from Sweden. They released their self-titled debut album in 2002 and have released five albums since, including Gimme Some, which was released in March of 2011. They have performed with bands and artists as diverse as Depeche Mode and Kanye West. Peter Morén’s gut-wrenching vocals combined with catchy melodies and complex lyrics make this band not only appealing, but also emotionally stirring. Find out more at http://peterbjornandjohn. com/blog. Standout song: “Young Folks”

Delta Spirit started out in 2005 in Long Beach, California and is made up of five members. They released their debut album, Ode to Sunshine, in 2006 and have released one other, History From Below, since. “Trashcan,” from their first album, received a lot of attention, but the rest of the album is consistently catchy and clever. Their blues/garage rock sound is enhanced by their instrumental experimentation, as they have been known to play with orchestral bass drums and trash can lids, among other things. To find out more, go to http://www.deltaspiritbydeltaspirit.blogspot. com. Standout song: “Trashcan”

BOMBAY BICYCLE CLUB

BEST COAST

Bombay Bicycle Club is comprised of four members from London, England. They released their debut album, I Had the Blues but I Shook Them Loose, in 2009 and have released one other album, Flaws, in 2010. The alternative rock band is known for its musical experimentation by way of instruments including the banjo, theremin, triangle, xylophone, and mandolin. Jack Steadman, the lead singer, has a tonal quality reminiscent of Conor Oberst, but their music couldn’t be more different. Their post-punk/experimental sounds in their debut album contrast with that of their sophomore album introducing acoustic guitars that create a far more folksy sound. To find out more, go to http://www.bombaybicycleclubmusic.com. Standout song: “Evening/Morning”

Best Coast is a three-member band from Los Angeles, California.

After many singles in 2009 and 2010, Best Coast released their debut album, Crazy for You, in the summer of 2010. Their sound is considered lo-fi and has an appealing surfer rock meets indie-pop sound, which, when combined with Bethany Cosentino’s hauntingly ethereal and grungy voice, creates a pleasant and profound yet also detached sensation. Their sound is comparable to Peter Bjorn and John and the early Strokes. One of their most popular songs, “Boyfriend,” was listed as a best new track by Pitchfork Media. To find out more, go to http://bestycoasty.blogspot.com/.

Standout songs: “Goodbye” and “Boyfriend”

ARIZONA

FUJIYA & MIYAGI

Arizona is a three-member band from Brooklyn, New York. They released their debut album, Spooky Momento, in 2005 and have released three albums and one EP since. Their sound is typically merry and harmonious indie-pop, but, as shown by the song “Splintering” from their album Welcome Back Dear Children, they can adopt a more wild and rough sound. The voice of Ben Wigler, their lead singer, is comparable to that of Nathan Willett from Cold War Kids. Their music may sound simply catchy, but close listening will exhibit their complicated musical melodies. To find out more, go to http://www.myspace.com/arizonatheband.

Standout songs: “Splintering” and “Thimble”

Contrary to what the band’s title might suggest, none of the members are Japanese. The band started out in Brighton, England in 2000 and released their debut album, Electro Karaoke in the Negative Style in 2003. Gaining in popularity, they are expected to release a new album, Ventriloquizzing, after much anticipation. Their electronic dance-band sound is reminiscent of Aphex Twin and Talking Heads. “Collarbone” is, by far, their catchiest song and has been featured in a few commercials. Find out more at http://www.fujiya-miyagi.co.uk. Standout song: “Collarbone”

10 MUSIC

THE LATEST NEW BANDS WORTH NOTICING

BY CHELSEA ERIKSEN

DEERHUNTER Deerhunter started out in 2001 and is made up of four members from Atlanta, Georgia. They released their debut album, Turn It Up Faggot, in 2005 and have released three more since. Deerhunter is well known for their powerful live performances in which Bradford Cox, the lead singer, has been known to cover his face and hands with blood. This may lead one to think that their music is as brutal as their performance, but Deerhunter considers themselves to be ambient punk. Their shoegaze sound and lo-fi quality is akin to that of Wolf Parade and Best Coast. To find out more, go to http://www.myspace.com/deerhunter. Standout song: “Nothing Ever Happened” STARFUCKER Starfucker consists of four members, but originally began as a solo project by Joshua Hodges. They started out in Portland, Oregon in 2007. Starfucker released their self-titled debut album in 2008 and released a new album on March 8, 2011. Their songs are catchy, and you may find yourself tapping along unconsciously, as the beats are almost infectious. They have been compared to Pinback, Flaming Lips, and Of Montreal. Starfucker has created a very interesting combination of dance-y, breathy, sometimes spiritual, and experimental sound. Every song off of their debut album has a pleasant and appealing quality that should make it a staple in an iTunes library. You can find out more at http://www. myspace.com/strfkrmusic. Standout songs: “Rawnald Gregory Erickson the Second” and “Holly.” •

THE SYCAMORE / SPRING 2011 11

STARFU CLOSE-UP: AN INTERVIEW WITH RYAN BIORNSTAD OF STARFUCKER / BY CHELSEA ERIKSEN

You’re currently touring—what has been your favorite part of so far?

Having three days off and not having to see the other people in my band has been the best. I mean, it doesn’t matter who it is; when you’re in a small-ass van with six smelly men, it can make you feel claustrophobic.

You released Reptilians last month. What was that like?

We were really distracted from the reality of it being officially released, because the day it was released, we were playing a show in San Francisco and we never really announced it as a release show; to us, it was just the first day of touring. It felt like it came and went, like a soft release.

What is your favorite song off of the album?

I don’t really like any of the songs off the album. [Laughs.] Just kidding. It’s hard to say. When it’s your own music, it’s like everything has its purpose, meaning, and relationship to you, and they’re all important. Difficult to be objective.

12 MUSIC

How did you come up with your band name?

[Laughs.] It’s kind of a long story. I had this dream that I was on a roller coaster with Marlon Brando. We were going up and down and having a really good time, and I wasn’t really thinking of it as being a date, but then he tried to kiss me, and then I was confused and flattered. I didn’t know how to handle it, because I kept thinking that he was so famous, but then I realized that Marlon Brando thought I was super famous. In the next part of the dream, we got off of the roller coaster and people were trying to talk to me and get my autograph and I realized at that moment that Marlon Brando was a starfucker, and he was trying to get with me just because I was famous. So then I told Josh about the dream and we thought it would be a funny name for a band.

How does everyone work together to create the music?

We all have a contribution to it. The main songwriting comes from Josh, but everyone has a part. It may not be as collaborative as most four-piece rock-and-roll bands might be, but we all have our roles.

UCKER Do you feel very connected to the rest of the band?

I’d say so. There are always going to be creative differences. Josh and I have been playing music together for six or seven years now, and we feel really close and connected, and our ideas and aesthetics are on par for the most part. Same with the other dudes; Keil’s got a great taste in music and a great sense of musical aesthetics and where we want to be going, and same with Shawn. There aren’t many creative arguments within the band.

What genre do you consider yourself to fit under?

Dude, fuck if I know. [Laughs.] We always get cornered into electric pop with MGMT and Passion Pit and that kind of genre.

Which, if you’re listening to the music, relatively makes sense, but we’ve expanded and grown out a little into a gray area where there’s elements of a lot of different styles. When people see us live, they think we’re kind of like a rock band; we’re more punkoriented. We’re more energetic and punky than most “electric pop bands.”

I’ve heard that during performances, you’ve sometimes been known to wear women’s clothing. Why is that?

Dressing up in women’s clothing is just for fun and happened out of us just wanting to do something that made us have a good time and make our performances interesting and dynamic. We all have had our experiences with women’s clothes growing up. All of us at some point went through that phase. I wore dresses in middle school and high school and wore makeup, because, I don’t know, I was just a weird kid. My sister used me as a model and used to dress me up in her clothes and put makeup on me and make me walk up and down the “runway.”

What’s next?

We have to finish the rest of this tour—that’s another three weeks—then recording and just continuing about what we’re doing. •

THE SYCAMORE / SPRING 2011 13

Time and Medium

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ANDY WARHOL’S TECHNICAL ADVANCES IN FILMIC LANGUAGE >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

BY JOSH WILMOTT

T

he stripped-down technical form and simple subject matter found in Andy Warhol’s early silent films have had a significant impact on the world of cinema, by helping to redefine time in relation to cinema. While Warhol created hundreds of silent films, the three films most pertinent to the examination of Warhol’s redefinition of technique and the changes these advances wrought on the world of film are Sleep (1963), Blow Job (1963), and The Screen Test of Ann Buchanan (1964).

Warhol’s films are comparable to Marcel Duchamp’s paintings, which play with time and medium, but an ideological connection between Duchamp’s film Anemic Cinema (1925) and Warhol’s is also present. In Anemic Cinema, Duchamp uses moving spirals and images of French puns spinning to create a seven-minute film. The puns and spirals are never shown on screen at the same time, bifurcating the relationship between image and language, but more importantly, the relation between time and cinematic convention. By not showing image and text at the same time and in relation to a specific image, the audience is not given a plot, and is thus forced to experience the time relationship between image and narrative. The text and image are not directly related, but this lack of relation creates a new one: the relation between all cinematic ventures, which is the relation of real time and cinematic time colliding.

Warhol takes this idea and expands on it by taking another Duchampian paradox and turning it on its head, this one found in Duchamp’s painting, Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2 (1912).

Duchamp’s painting creates a strobe-like effect on the eye, presenting a moving image on a completely still canvas. Warhol inverts this paradox of movement on a still medium by creating stillness on a moving medium in Sleep (39). Because cinema is only made possible by the movement of film through a projector, the creation of these still works can be interpreted as Warhol’s creating the inverse of what Duchamp did on canvas. This paradox changes the viewer’s relation to each film, because the films are the opposite of every film made before them. What Warhol does is make a film which takes a time frame and dissociates it from the time of the audience. The film is on the screen until it is over, but the audience is not expected to watch the entire film, nor is doing so necessary. Warhol created a film which does not need to be watched in full because its idea looms over the viewer—the concept is paramount. Koch states it best when he says, “Its [the movie’s] time and ours are not melded but irresolvably contrasted, and the operation of that contrast from minute to minute gives the film its life” (40).

14 FILM

When summarizing and thinking of Warhol’s films in relation to narrative, it is crucial to remember that Warhol uses narrative as a means of expressing an idea, not a story. The techniques that Warhol uses throughout Sleep, Blow Job, and The Screen Test of Ann Buchanan are similar from film to film, but each film’s content differs greatly. These techniques slowly synthesize with time into more complicated ideas of what cinema is and how it relates to the viewer, subject, and cinema itself.

Warhol’s first film, Sleep, is widely considered to be one of his masterpieces. It was the first time that Warhol visually expressed his ideas about film form and language. Lasting a little under six hours and showing nothing more than a man sleeping, Sleep caused a good deal of controversy. The incredible length of the film and the minimal narrative make it one of the most talkedabout films of its time, despite being one of the least seen. According to Fred Camper, when Sleep was first screened, it was common for audience members to come in and out of the theater at their own will and carry on conversations throughout the film (Koch 34). While the narrative action is minimal, Sleep speaks to a deeper understanding of cinematic form; more specifically, cinema’s relationship to time. In Sleep, Warhol uses static shots and an almost motionless subject to create stillness. However, the periodic change of camera position, which occurs between film rolls, distorts the cinematic stillness. This change in camera position is a cinematic movement, which Warhol eliminates when making Blow Job. In Blow Job, Warhol again uses a static camera position, but this time he does not change the camera’s position. The film

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depicts what the title states; it is thirty-five minutes of a man leaning against a brick wall receiving oral sex. The act itself is not shown onscreen; however, the reaction of the man receiving fellatio is shown. Blow Job’s subject moves more than Sleep’s, but because the camera position never changes, the cinematic stillness is more exaggerated, and Blow Job becomes a more concise form of Warhol’s Duchampian paradox. However, due to the length of the event being recorded, Warhol is forced to periodically change film rolls, creating a natural cut1 each time. In this sense, the editing is consistent with that of Sleep, utilizing natural cuts exclusively.

All of Warhol’s films deal with time and its relation to cinema and the viewer. As noted above, Warhol operates under a Duchampian paradox as a way of creating stillness in a moving medium. Coupling that with his minimal narrative, Warhol is able to create a new understanding of time in cinema. Warhol changes the relationship between the viewer and the film most obviously by playing with the idea of real time and the reality of cinematic time. Warhol does this by shooting his films at 24 frames per second (sound speed), and projecting them at 16 frames per second (silent speed). By shooting at sound speed and projecting at silent speed, the film enters a very subtle slow motion. Warhol’s intention is not to just show slow motion, although that is a device used to communicate his concept. If he wanted to make a slow motion film, he could have shot at 32 frames per second and projected at 24 frames per second, which is how almost all slow motion was created, but he chose to shoot at sound speed. This is not an accident, nor is it done to be contrary. Warhol is playing with the idea of real time and cinematic time. When a filmmaker shoots a film at sound speed, he is depicting literal time. This is the result of the phi phenomenon, which allows the brain to perceive movement where there is none. By taking this literal time and slowing it down, Warhol does two things at once: he depicts (for the duration of a reel of film) the real time that the subject was living in, and then takes that real time and changes it into true cinematic time (16 frames per second), depicting real and fictional time simultaneously. He does this in Sleep, Blow Job, and The Screen Test of Ann Buchanan, and by doing so, twists the ideas of reality in relation to cinema.

Even though a film like Sleep was revolutionary in the way that it depicted real and fictional time, the production was similar to conventional filmmaking, using multiple takes shot over a period of time that were later cut together to create the final film.

Warhol did not stop rolling the camera once he started shooting

a roll of film, but used a camera that could not film the entire six hours of action in one continuous shot. This may have been due to financial restraints, but it forced him to change out rolls of film, creating natural cuts. Once Warhol changes the film roll, the relationship between the film’s subject and the film becomes a manipulation of time. The manipulation of time deals with the time it took to make the film. Sleep was not made over one sleeping session, but rather several months, including a re-shoot (Comenas). This means that there were hours of footage in which the subject was present and being filmed that were not included in the final cut of the film. Yet that time still existed in relation to the film’s production. Thus, the creation of these films lasted longer than the final runtime of a film, meaning real time was not actually depicted. Through editing, Warhol creates a film that is intended to appear as if its creation took place over the period of one night’s sleep and in real time.

THE SYCAMORE / SPRING 2011 15

“By eliminating all editing, Warhol is able to convey real time, cinematic time, and the subject-time relation—or actual relation to the film's production— all at once.”

In a film like Blow Job, which was filmed over the duration of one blow job, Warhol’s need for multiple reels of film once again changes the subject’s relation to the film because the event is not shown in its entirety. Due to the natural cuts, the subject that was once shown is temporarily removed and the narrative is interrupted. By cutting together any two reels of film, Warhol is manipulating time in relation to his subject’s real time.

However, in Warhol’s The Screen Test of Ann Buchanan (one of hundreds of screen tests), Warhol changed these relations and created something new. The Screen Test of Ann Buchanan is about four minutes long when projected at the intended speed (silent speed2). On the screen is Ann Buchanan, a beat poet of the 1960’s (13 Most Beautiful…). She sits completely still, and over the course of four minutes, does not blink. As the film progresses, tears well in Buchanan’s eyes and she slowly begins to cry as she remains motionless. Again Warhol uses the static camera position, but this time, he does not use any editing to create the final film. The film presented is only as long as the roll of film shot. This can be viewed as Warhol’s idea of cinematic time in its purest form, for it not only plays with relations between cinematic time and cinematic language, but also the relationship between the subject of a film and their relationship to the time of a film. The screen test films only last the length of one 100-foot roll of film. By eliminating all editing, Warhol is able to convey real time, cinematic time, and the subject-time relation—or actual relation to the film’s production—all at once.

The films’ narratives are not important in the traditional sense, but the ideas, which are only made possible by the narrative structure, are tantamount. Warhol once said that his films were more interesting to talk about than to actually watch, which goes against cinematic tradition (Camper). Because of cinema’s almost exclusive dependence on narrative structure, Warhol’s films appear to be anti-cinema. However, when one examines these films closely, it is apparent that they are not anti-cinema, but instead

examples of an artist stripping down cinematic form and language, leaving the idea as the core of the film. Callie Angell has termed Warhol’s films “‘conceptual version,’—an artwork that can be discussed as an idea alone” (Camper).

While there is significantly more to examine when considering Warhol’s films, his technical advances in filmic language are what seem to be his most universally influential factor, thanks to the film techniques mentioned above. His films influenced not only his own work, but also that of the most creative cinematic authors of his time. • NOTES Natural cut is an easy way of referring to a style of editing Warhol used. He did not make a single splice in the film itself. Instead, he took entire rolls of film and pasted the end of the preceding roll to the head of the next roll. Thus, a natural cut is when a roll of film finishes and a new one starts.

2 Silent speed is 16 frames per second.

1

WORKS CITED 13 Most Beautiful... Songs for Andy Warhol Screen Tests. Dir. Andy Warhol. Perf. Nico, Lou Reed, Edie Sedgwick. Plexifilm, 2009.

DVD. Camper, Fred. “The Lover’s Gaze.” Chicago Reader. N.p., 28 Apr. 2000. Web. 18 Apr. 2011. <http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/the-lovers-gaze/Content?oid=902142>.

Comenas, Gary. “Sleep (1963).” Warholstars. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Nov. 2010. <http://www.warholstars.org/filmch/sleep.html>.

Koch, Stephen. Stargazer: The Life, World, and Films of Andy Warhol. 3rd ed. New York: Marian Boyars Publishers Ltd, 2000. Print.

16 FILM

RUINED

Reputations An artwork as its own entity

By Josh Wilmott

T

he 83rd Oscars recently awarded Jean-Luc Godard an honorary Oscar for his fifty-one years of filmmaking.

As one of the founding members of the French New Wave, releasing over ninety-three films throughout his long, distinguished career and influencing countless filmmakers, including Martin Scorsese and Woody Allen, it was about time the Academy recognized Godard. For those familiar with Godard’s views of the Hollywood system, it was no surprise that he chose not to attend the ceremony. However, what was surprising were the articles appearing in The New York Times and several online sources calling Godard an anti-Semite. While these claims were shocking, and while there is plenty of evidence proving the contrary, what I found to be strange were the several individuals who were questioning if Godard should still receive his honorary Oscar. This is not the first time that an artist has been accused of something and their artwork reevaluated because of it, but it does bring up a good question: does the reputation and/or personal belief system of a director really matter when contemplating the value of his artwork?

A few years back, I was debating with someone about Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing and whether it had deserved to win the 1989 Oscar for Best Picture. After a few minutes of debate, I discovered that the person I was talking to had not seen the film but was basing her opinion solely on some inflammatory remarks Lee had made around the time of the film’s release. She said that she would never watch a Spike Lee film because of this, and that he did not deserve to win an Oscar. Her judgment was not a judgment of the film, but of the filmmaker, yet these two things were lumped together.

If an individual does not want to see an artwork because of an artist’s reputation, that is hir choice. Each individual has the right to support or boycott any artist. However, by choosing to boycott an artwork, that individual has stripped hirself of the right to make any judgments about the artwork itself, for they have not experienced the artwork. While an artwork does come from an individual (in the case of cinema, many different individuals), the artwork itself is its own entity.

After a piece of art is completed, the artwork is not dependent on the artist for survival. If it were, the life of an artwork would equal or fall short of the artist’s life. This is not the case. There are countless artworks dating well over a thousand years old, clearly outliving the artist. Once finished, an artwork enters a life of its own, meaning an artwork is its own entity. Because an artwork is its own entity, we must judge the artwork itself, and not its creator. One must judge an artwork’s content, for judging an artwork’s merit on its creator’s reputation is to ignore the artwork itself.

The content is what the artwork puts forth for judgment. Some may argue that because the artwork’s content is put forth by the artist, one can judge an artwork based on the artist’s personal reputation. But what must be remembered is that while the artwork does come from an artist, not every facet of the artist’s life is put into an artwork. So to avoid generalizations and biases, one must judge each individual artwork on its content. By doing this, one is still able to make judgments about an artwork, but only by judging the artwork itself. An artwork’s merits must be judged by the artwork itself, for judging based on the creator’s reputation is missing the point.

For example, a film like The Pianist tells the story of a JewishPolish pianist named Wadysaw Szpilman living in Warsaw during WWII. The film chronicles the real life struggles of Szpilman as he tries to survive the Nazi occupation. While the film was generally well received, there were a handful of people who were outraged by the film and refused to see it, not because of its content, but because of accusations brought against its director, Roman Polanski, a Polish-French filmmaker who had been accused of engaging in sexual activities with an underage girl in 1978. While this rumor is still not proven to be true or false, these complications in Polanski’s personal life had nothing to do with the film’s content, and yet some people disregarded the film for that very reason.

By judging an artwork’s merit on the artist’s personal life, one completely neglects the artwork itself. It is careless and unfair to the artwork and the artist, for neither is receiving a fair analysis. • THE SYCAMORE / SPRING 2011 17

CARLOS (2010) French director Olivier Assayas’s film Carlos is more than an epic; it’s a near masterpiece. Few films have the power to hold an audience’s attention for 321 minutes, and even fewer do it with such charisma and style. The film chronicles the terrorist career of Carlos the Jackal, played by Édgar Ramírez. Ramírez embodies Carlos with an ease comparable to that of DeNiro or Brando as he makes his way through the underworld of criminal activity and activism.

Carlos, originally Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, is determined to make a difference in the Cold War world through any means he sees fit. Feeling that the time for talking has long since passed and the time for action is at hand, the young disenfranchised Marxist plans and executes several terrorist attacks, the most successful and famous of which is the hijacking of the 1975 OPEC conference in Vienna.

The film was meticulously researched, but because of gray areas surrounding certain events, not everything in the film can be confirmed as completely accurate. However, it doesn’t seem that Assayas is interested in recounting history (nor in rewriting it), but rather in exploring Carlos from a non-partisan perspective. Throughout the film, Carlos preaches revolutionary ideals at his comrades and hostages alike, yet he seems completely selfinvolved, even going so far as to get liposuction in his later years.

Assayas continuously questions whether Carlos is the real deal or a narcissist who is more interested in propelling his own selfimage and name rather than his “cause.”

The film’s scope is astounding. Spanning roughly twenty years, taking place in over sixteen countries, and having characters speak the languages they would have spoken in their given situations, Carlos goes above and beyond what most films even attempt. Édgar Ramírez alone speaks six different languages, effortlessly switching between Spanish, English, German, Arabic, French, and Russian. This attention to detail does more than bring the film to life; it forces the viewer into its reality.

Unfortunately for American audiences, because of its long runtime, the film had to be cut down to a mere 165 minutes for it to have a theatrical release. While the first half is still cohesive, the second half begins to jump too quickly between time periods and events, but that is to be expected when one cuts roughly two and half hours out of a film. These cuts cheat the audience out of the full experience. However, the full film is available on Netflix Instant Watch, and a Criterion release of the film is also rumored.

18 FILM / BY JOSH WILMOTT

GEORGE WASHINGTON (2000) David Gordon Green’s George Washington (2000) is a beautiful, atmospheric film about a simpler time: childhood. The plot is almost nonexistent, yet the film takes us on a nostalgic ride through our childhood. This is largely due to Tim Orr’s cinematography, which evokes a mood and feel similar to the early films of Terrence Malick such as Days of Heaven (1978), and in a strange way, Harmony Korine’s Gummo (1997).

The story takes place in North Carolina, a beautifully desolate industrial wasteland inhabited by working class families who don’t seem to work anymore. We follow the lives of several kids, aging from about ten to thirteen, as they spend their lazy summer days walking around, talking, and having fun. One line in particular epitomizes both the plot and the tone of George Washington: “They used to get around, walkin’ around, lookin’ at stuff.

They used to try to find clues to all the mysteries and mistakes God had made. My friend George said that he was gonna live to be 100 years old. He said—he said that he was going to be the president of the United States. I wanted to see him lead a parade and wave a flag on the Fourth of July. He just wanted greatness.

The grown-ups in my town, they were never kids like me and my friends. They had worked in wars and built machines. It was hard for them to find their peace. Don’t you know how that feels? I like to go to beautiful places where there’s waterfalls and empty fields.

Just places that are nice and calm and quiet.”

Green fills the film with beautiful and touching characters, the best example being George, a young boy who is forced to wear a football helmet to protect his delicate skull. In one scene, a young freckled boy playing in the community pool begins to drown with no one around. George, who is not supposed to swim, jumps in and saves the boy, almost dying himself. Shortly afterward, George begins wearing a cape and claiming, “I’m a hero because I like to save people’s lives.”

Part way through, a tragedy happens, which is so surprising it almost feels like a dream, but the film isn’t about that incident.

Rather, it’s about innocence, and how precious it is when we have it. George Washington allows the patient viewer to remember what it was like to live carefree—to waste a summer day and consider it well spent. It makes us remember what it was like to not worry about politics, the rent, or money, and have the only concern be if our crush had a crush on us, too. •

THE SYCAMORE / SPRING 2011 19

Innovation

By Maggie Mahr

20â&#x20AC;&#x192; THEATRE

O

ver the 2011 January intersession, a group of Wells students traveled to England to take part in the OCS London Theatre program, and students were also given the opportunity to visit a fascinating exhibit about the evolution of language at the British Library. Along with listening in on other cultures’ dialects, the exhibit featured a documentary on language in which the narrator discussed how language was slowly dying because of the advanced usage of technology. This led to the question: could the same fear apply to advancing theatre, all in the name of making a profit?

Profit is a recurring buzzword in the theatre world. Like the film industry, producing a stage show costs a lot of money, so it is important that the show is successful enough to both make back what was invested and earn money to spend on developing later shows. Because of the current economic crisis, people are often unwilling to spend the money to see a Broadway play. This causes shows to lose money, so investors and the artistic directors have to find new methods to keep the public interested while saving resources. This is where innovations come to play.

When attending Broadway shows, audiences typically expect to see extravagant effects and elaborate sets, but out of the eleven plays in London, five of them used minimalistic sets that required few set pieces and employed projections instead. Two prominent examples include the 2009 West End hit War Horse (previously seen at the New London Theatre and now on Broadway) and William Shakespeare’s classic tragedy, Julius Caesar (an RSC production at the Roundhouse Theatre). Minimalism is simply one of many artistic choices that can either help or hinder the in-

novativeness of a production, and as we saw in London, some innovative techniques are destined to flop.

War Horse is an example of theatrical innovation at its finest.

Set during World War I, War Horse uses life-sized horse puppets controlled by four puppeteers. To add more to this amazing sight, the other actors in the play ride the puppets, thus making the audience member forget that this effect is all the work of man-made materials. In lieu of a set, there is a screen shaped like a strip of paper that is suspended above the stage.

As each scene changes, the screen reveals the date and a series of sketches that depict what is going on in the scene. These artistic choices are extremely effective for conveying a setting and helping the audience become engaged in the work.

The same cannot be said for similar techniques used in Julius Caesar. In this production, there is also a screen hanging over the stage, and, like War Horse, the screen changes to show audience members where the scene takes place. However, each picture looks like a bad downloadable screensaver, and additional projections are used to simulate big crowds of people.

The effect was unrealistic and terrible. One might therefore ask, “How could anyone think substituting actors with computerized images is creative?” According to a tour guide in the Globe Theatre, the plays performed at the Globe (both past and present) actually encourage audience participation, especially for scenes requiring a big crowd. This old-school method seems to be more innovative than slapping images on a screen.

From a technological standpoint, projections can help in two ways. From the money-saving standpoint, it takes less time and

in Theatre

THE SYCAMORE / SPRING 2011 21

"Part of the reason why theatre is heading in its current direction is because it has to appeal to a new generation of audience members."

labor to put up a screen and produce the images used to simulate a full set. In addition, when the show goes into the touring phase, it is much easier and cheaper to transport the “set” from place to place. However, the line should be drawn at computer-generated scenery, and projections should not include cast members.

Whether the director of Julius Caesar did not want to go through the trouble of casting extras for the big crowd scenes or seriously thought that simulating extras would be a great special effect will forever remain a mystery.

In addition to technological advancements (whether they are for the betterment of the play or not), unexpected casting choices can also be considered innovative. In the Playbill for An Ideal Husband, there was an article about the “highs and lows of 2010.”

Among these highs and lows, there was a blurb on the revival of Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music (which has since closed). The article discussed how people were hesitant to believe that Catherine Zeta-Jones was cast in the lead role of Desiree Armfeldt. There is no doubt that the actress can sing (anyone who has seen the film Chicago can confirm it). The questions were due

22 THEATRE

to the fact that she was deemed “too young” for the part. However, her performance was a pleasant surprise to audience members and critics alike, and she took home a Tony Award that year.

Is the so-called “unconventional” casting of Catherine ZetaJones an innovation? In one way, yes it is. Since the role is typically performed by actors in their mid-to-late fifties, casting ZetaJones (who was in her late thirties at the time) is a more realistic approach. However, this is debatable, considering Bernadette Peters (who is 64) was cast as her replacement and played the role until the show closed in early January. Peters is certainly no stranger to Broadway, so it was not surprising when she was cast in her third Sondheim musical. Since people were so unsure of whether or not Zeta-Jones could pull the role off, perhaps casting the veteran stage actress as the replacement was a plot to make up lost box-office profits.

Celebrity stunt casting is another innovative way to attract theatre-goers. This coming spring, Daniel Radcliffe will be starting in a revival of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. While he has been on the stage before (in 2008’s Equus), only

time will tell if casting him again was a good move, and not just because he’s famous from the Harry Potter films. The role he plays in How to Succeed requires not only a sublime singing and dancing capability; he has to have an American accent as well. It will also be interesting what kind of audience the show will attract. Radcliffe’s previous venture on the Broadway stage was not exactly an “all ages welcome” affair, so this new musical can attract a wider range of audience members.

So, the one question that remains is this: where is this all heading? As technology becomes more intricate and advanced, it will not be long before it is incorporated in all aspects of theatre, and the demand for famous actors will likely increase. On one hand, both technological and casting innovations will supposedly attract more audience members, and the arts will continue to thrive even during financial hardship. But how long before the individuality and creativity that comes with theatre is diminished? Is it possible that innovations are hurting theatre and not helping it?

There is a positive and negative aspect of all this. Part of the reason why theatre is heading in its current direction is because

it has to appeal to a new generation of audience members. Since technological advancements play a much larger role for younger generations, it makes sense that these audiences expect to see it everywhere they go. This is a positive impact because it’s keeping people interested.

As for the negative side, these innovations are making theatre seem more like movies. From casting film stars in staged shows to going as far as adapting movies into Broadway musicals, attending theatre today seems more and more like going to the cinema (only $100 more expensive). Again, producers are trying to appeal to a new generation of theatre-goers, but how long before directors begin to film stage shows and broadcast them in lieu of live theatre? Part of what makes the theatre experience great is seeing a set and thinking, “Someone actually built this.” As for who gets cast in what, the only thing that matters is whether or not they play the role well. One can only hope that future generations of theatre lovers will continue to appreciate the value of a live show, and that innovations in technology and actor choices will only help the tradition of live theatre to thrive. •

THE SYCAMORE / SPRING 2011 23

ACADEMIC ORIGINALITY

OVERCOMING THE OBSTACLES TO CREATING AN ORIGINAL THESIS AT WELLS

BY ANA GIOVINAZZO

I

magine attending a graduate school with immense, up-todate libraries full of information on any imaginable subject; picture these libraries with floors and floors of stacks, each shelf containing perfectly organized rows of the ideal reference books for anyone’s personal topic of interest. Here, graduate students have a practically limitless assignment before them: dissertations, which, for their own sake, they have hopefully chosen to write on an enthralling subject. With years of academic experience and a wealth of information at their fingertips, graduate students can use their acquired intelligence and countless resources to create a truly original piece of work. In essence, they can begin to contribute to their fields; for many of them, their dissertation will be the first truly significant piece of work they ever do. And though it is undoubtedly a stressful process, most graduate students will be well equipped to complete it.

Now imagine undergraduate students in their senior year at a small liberal arts college. Perhaps it took them until the end of their sophomore year to decide on and officially declare a major, and since that point, they have thrust themselves wholeheart-

edly into their particular fields of study. They are passionate and excited, but in only a year, reality dawns on them: in order to graduate, they need to complete an original thesis in their major.

For many students, this is the point at which panic first sets in. At Wells College, most senior theses are restricted to one semester of study, with the best-case scenario being a two-semester long project, such as is required within the art department. Within other departments (especially large ones, like English and History), faculty impose a page limit on students out of necessity.

And if the challenge of coming up with an original thesis within these parameters were not enough, students at small colleges like Wells also face the problem of a lack of resources, from both the library and from individual departments.

The question then becomes: to what extent is it possible for an undergraduate student with around only forty-five credit hours of academic experience in a subject to write a well-informed, original thesis? According to accounts of student experiences, creating a strong thesis is not only possible, but it is something they grew to love.

THE SYCAMORE / SPRING 2011 25

TIME AND SPACE CONSTRAINTS A major issue with writing anything, whether it is simply a onepage response to a reading or a fifteen-page term paper, is the lack of time in which to do it. While the actual writing in a chapter of a thesis might not take more than a few hours to complete, the preliminary research, experiments, interviews, outlining, and planning could take much more than that. And, depending on the discipline, the additional time required can be overwhelming.

In fields where a large amount of research or experimentation is necessary, such as for students doing a research-based thesis in the sciences, majors may be lucky enough to have two semesters to complete their thesis. Yet even BCS major (concentration in Biology) Ashley Marcinkiewicz declares, “I wish I had more time!” The inspiration for Marcinkiewicz's thesis came when she observed that “hand sanitizers kill some of the resident flora on the hands (the microorganisms that are supposed to be there)” and therefore used her senior year to investigate if “users are at risk for picking up more transient flora (the bad kind) after using hand sanitizer and then going to a ‘natural environment.’”

Though Marcinkiewicz says she is “immensely satisfied” with the work she did (and admits she even blew good-night kisses to her growth plates!), she notes that “there are a lot of things [she] would have done … if [she] had more time.”

Nicole Safer, an Anthropology major, did not have the convenience of a two-semester thesis, and feels it negatively impacted her work. She describes her topic, saying, “My thesis explored bilingualism, issues of identity, adjustment, and community-building among three Chilean families that immigrated to a small town in central New York. I’ve given the town the pseudonym ‘Damascus’ in order to protect the privacy of my informants. All of the families I spoke with immigrated to the U.S. as political refugees under the Pinochet dictatorship during the mid-1970’s.”

In order to gather information, Safer explains, “I conducted six semi-structured interviews with members of these families … I spent time with the families before and after the interviews took place, in their homes. I also conducted participant observation at Latino Civic Association meetings in order to get a feel for the kind of issues immigrants in ‘Damascus’ face, and the way the Chilean community is structured.”

Though the overview of Safer’s thesis clearly indicates that the procedure was time-consuming, it still only presents a basic idea of the difficulties she had in attempting to complete a project this large within a single semester. “The biggest limitation I faced was a lack of time to complete my project,” she stresses. “I was asked to do outside research, construct a research plan, apply for IRB [Institutional Review Board] approval, conduct interviews, transcribe them, and write a thesis based on this research—all in the span of three months. This was nothing short of impossible, without compromising my research in some ways.”

Even though it sounds like Safer had a negative experience with her thesis, it seems that these difficulties were simply due to time constraints. She asserts, “I do think that it is much more possible to achieve [an Anthropology thesis like] this in two semesters, rather than one. I also think it is more realistic to expect students who are not conducting research with human subjects 26 FEATURES

to complete the thesis is one semester—for example, a student conducting a survey or a literature review.”

Safer is likely correct in her assessment of time’s impact on other majors. Other students, particularly those within the humanities, fared much better, which was likely because of the major and style of thesis they completed. Christine Becker, an English major with a concentration in Creative Writing, wrote for her thesis “a short piece of fiction about the intertwining lives of strangers who meet on a train ride.” Becker, who feels she had a very successful experience with her thesis, notes that “the student/faculty ratio means that thesising seniors hypothetically have a lot of time to interact with their advisors and receive personalized feedback and advice,” which is extremely important in the practice of creative writing. By being able to go to her advisor, Professor Cynthia Garrett, for “encouragement and feedback,” Becker was able to enjoy the experiences of completing her thesis, in spite of times where she experienced “dry periods of no writing or terrible writing.”

But because English is a popular department at Wells, its majors face a problem that others might not: page limits. While many students (especially within their first couple years at Wells) may fret about meeting a minimum number of pages for their term papers, seniors with page limits on their thesis may worry about surpassing the maximum. For example, creative writing concentrators lament the recently-imposed page limit, and some struggle to fit an idea into thirty pages or fewer. But the challenge does not merely affect creative writers; Alex Lauer, an English major with a Literature concentration, wrote her thesis on “the intersection among the Gothic genre, feminist criticism, and Bret Easton Ellis’s American Psycho,” and, while writing, felt the pressure of the thirty-page limit. One might wonder how a thirty-page limit can feel restricting when writing an academic paper, but she explains, “Trying to fit a strong thesis within a page limit is harder than it might initially sound. For me, that meant I had to be continually narrowing my focus, and stop myself from going off on tangents that I found interesting but my reader would have found distracting.” What aided Lauer through this process, however, was passion for her subject. She says, “The biggest factor that helped me succeed in writing the thesis was the interest I had in the topic. Being interested in the fields I was looking into made the reading feel like less of a chore and more of a recreational pursuit. Even though actually writing the thesis was difficult work, I can’t overstate the importance of enjoying the topic you’re working on.”

It seems that enjoyment and interest in a subject is a major factor in guiding students through any sort of time and space related obstacles, from Marcinkiewicz’s affection for her growth plates to Lauer’s excitement in being able to combine her many interests (such as “the Gothic, fiction, feminism, criticism, and the politics that bind … [them] together”) into a thesis that was “ultimately rewarding.”

But the question remains: how do seniors overcome problems that have nothing to do with time, motivation, or conciseness, but with lack of resources available at such a small college?

LIMITED RESOURCES One of Wells’s immense strengths is its size. With the advantages of small classrooms and a low student/faculty ratio, students receive as much personal attention as they like. Familiarity with professors helps students feel welcome into office hours, and this closeness enhances an already strong education. But as Chris Becker notes, “It can be difficult to be more ambitious in a small school environment like Wells. It isn’t that a thesis turned out under those conditions would be bad or even poorly received outside of ‘the bubble’; I just think that sometimes we have a general tendency to see the size of our school as a limitation.

Also, while ILLs are available and incredibly helpful for research and writing, it can be discouraging when it begins to seem that Wells’s resources are too limited to foster original, free academic thinking.” Becker is right; there are limits to a school Wells’s size, one of which are the number of sources in the library.

Krissy Tuxbury, a Psychology major whose thesis “looked at how principles of positive psychology can be used to create programs which are less expensive and less stigmatized than current methods for helping girls in secondary school [who have had] previous histories of sexual violence,” cited library restrictions as one of the challenges of developing a thesis in her major. However, she doesn’t seem to have been dissuaded by the initial lack of reference material. She states that she was aided in her academic pursuits by the use of the Long Library Interlibrary Loan (ILL) system (as did Alex Lauer), and accepted the limitations upon her, even seeing them as somewhat advantageous. “The articles I couldn’t access, I didn’t,” she says. “If we were to make our thesis more research-oriented, we would need more time and resources, but that might really limit what people were able to explore in a way.”

Lauer did not feel as restricted by the college’s academic resources as Tuxbury, finding that Wells and its connections to other colleges and databases were able to provide enough information for her to complete her thesis. “I did use the ILL system quite frequently,” she says, “and the Wells Library also had quite a few books I was ultimately able to incorporate. The internet databases of ProQuest and JSTOR were also incredibly helpful.” Within this statement, Lauer takes note of something that few students realize: though the Long Library may be lacking in recent sources for certain fields, it does provide a number of appropriate sources on a range of topics, and it is likely that even if the stacks do not have the exact source a student is seeking, the library will still have a few books full of relevant and helpful information. Additionally, Wells’s proximity to Cornell University and its ILL affiliations with countless other libraries across the country enable its students to access almost any desired source, making the preliminary research for any topic more than possible.

The goal here, however, is to think ahead—ILLs can take up to two weeks to arrive. But as long as students stay organized, this delay should not present much of a problem.

In terms of professors as resources, Alex Lauer states that she “had very limited guidance from professors, which was both a positive and a negative aspect of [her] thesising experience.”

Lauer’s statement brings to mind the other major issue with a

school Wells’s size: though professors are passionate about their students’ work, having few professors in each department means less time for professors to devote to each student, and fewer professors with experience relevant to each student’s chosen field of study.

Because of her interest in a relatively untouched field of biological and chemical sciences, Ashley Marcinkiewicz was affected strongly by professor involvement (or lack thereof ) when completing her thesis. Foremost, she stresses that she “had lots of help from BCS professors,” and her interest in the topic of microbiology even came from one of Dr. Collmer’s classes. However, she admits that “it was incredibly difficult [to do a thesis on this subject because] we do not have a microbiologist on campus … [and Dr. Collmer] was on sabbatical this year. So while I had a lot of support from the professors I did work with, I feel it was incredibly independent work.” Though this might be discouraging for a student with less initiative, Marcinkiewicz, like Lauer and Tuxbury, found advantages in what seems at first a disadvantage.

Because of the absence of a microbiologist faculty member, Marcinkiewicz found her work to be “stimulatingly independent.” She says that “not having somebody who knows the field in-depth put me in a position where I had to do more background work. And I overcame it by working!” For Marcinkiewicz, even though there may not have been a professor working specifically in her field, their support was enough to propel her into independent work, which ultimately helped her.

Although it would be foolish not to acknowledge the potential challenges imposed on seniors by attending a small college like Wells, self-motivated students with dedication to and interest in their topic find ways to work around the obstacles or use them as tools rather than viewing them as hindrances or excuses for failure. And in fact, limited time and space and lack of resources are but precursors to the challenges post-graduates will face in their after-college pursuits. Learning to overcome these challenges is not only part of completing a thesis, but also part of the human experience; it is simply an aspect of problem-solving.

The fact is, Wells’s strengths far outweigh its weaknesses. Perhaps Chris Becker puts it best when she says, “A smaller college environment allows students to go very deep into a particular subject of interest and study it in a very unique way, which I believe leads to a lot of innovative ideas.” Lauer adds, “You have all the tools you need at your disposal here. Wells gives you the writing and research skills to succeed, the library has ways to get you whatever you might need for sources, and you can always find a professor on campus willing to help.” By providing its students with the opportunity to work independently with faculty support, by offering classes that are discussion-based and engaging, and by maintaining access to as many resources as possible, Wells enables its students to succeed in their pursuits.

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THE POTENTIAL FOR ORIGINALITY With all the other obstacles overcome, and with enough motivation to work through time and space restrictions, it seems that Wells students should be in a good place to complete their senior theses. However, is it possible that a relatively short undergraduate thesis can also be original?

While all fields require their students to develop original work, originality plays an immense part in the study of creative writing; if an idea sounds like it has been done before, it can be thrown out as unoriginal. And even the style of writing itself can seem clichéd if the writer is not careful. Chris Becker explains this challenge: “With creative writing, I think there’s always a desire to come up with something new or original—it’s creative writing, after all. I suppose what I was most concerned about was creating something that people would want to read while still accomplishing what I set out to do.” For Becker, much of the solution seemed a matter of style: “I wanted to combine modern (early twentieth century) styles with more contemporary fiction. Those are the two types of literature I enjoy and study the most, and so my thesis became a conscious effort to emulate them.”

The study of literature presents a similar problem in originality; many older works have already been analyzed by numerous critics, so one must either approach an old topic in an entirely new way or discover a new topic. For Alex Lauer, the solution was in realizing how to break misconceptions. “With an English Literature degree,” she says, “there’s a perception that whatever work you do is strictly limited to the academic. I wanted to create a thesis that I felt overcame that barrier, that would have real-world implications and not merely be another essay analyzing somebody’s work.” By taking note of this, Lauer was able to use her interest in an somewhat unexplored topic (reading American Psycho in an academic context) as a way to create an original thesis.

The complication of needing to think outside of academia in order to find an original thesis idea, however, brings us back to our original question: to what extent is it possible for an undergraduate student to successfully contribute to a field that is already saturated with the work of thousands of scientists, writers, and academics, most of whom have had years more experience?

For students in the humanities, like Becker and Lauer, the task is quite possible. For students in social and natural sciences who need to conduct studies or research, the undertaking of an original thesis is more difficult.

Nicole Safer struggled greatly with the time constraints of her thesis, and this challenge limited her. However, she is not entirely discouraged by the process, and she even notes several positive aspects of the experience, particularly on how it will be able to start to contribute to a future in the field. She says, “I think it is possible to create an original, well-informed scholarly thesis in that time period [a semester] at Wells, but it is not possible to produce a ‘completed’ one. Whatever you produce in that time period will be a sort of pilot study, if you are conducting any kind of research.” In spite of the challenges, though, Safer realizes that this “pilot study” could ultimately be beneficial in her future pursuits, even though she does not intend to pursue a Ph.D. in Anthropology. She states, “In terms of translating skills, collecting data, making connections in a community, and analysis, I think I will draw upon my thesis experiences in the future.”

Ashley Marcinkiewicz did not have any trouble finding an original topic for her thesis, nor did she find a lack of resources 28 FEATURES

to be an insurmountable problem. She explains, “My topic is one that is not particularly a hot topic in research; almost all published studies on the topic focus on how well cleaning treatments kill microorganisms, not the aftermath of killing the good stuff. So it wasn’t difficult finding a topic; it was difficult finding background research. It was stimulating, however, knowing I am working on a topic that is not researched at all.” In spite of her enthusiasm for her project, Marcinkiewicz, like Safer, realizes that her work within the field is preliminary, and she sees potential for more work on her thesis topic in the future. “I am immensely satisfied with my thesis,” she says. “I learned a lot about the process of creating an experiment. And even though I didn’t get any valid conclusions from my work, there is definite potential to continue the work in the future if I get the opportunity.”

So, is it possible for an undergraduate to contribute original work to a field? The answer seems to vary, but only depending on how one interprets the question. Some seniors are thoroughly content with their work as it stands, while others view their work as merely a beginning, but as significant, helpful preparation for the work and experiences that will come. In either case, students seem to have had no trouble finding original ideas for their thesis, and whether or not the work feels complete, they see the value and potential in what they have done. In this sense, originality is definitely possible.

Krissy Tuxbury concisely sums up the positive feeling many seniors experience after accomplishing their thesis, and she alludes to the potential a thesis gives students to further contribute to their field and the world. “I’m glad [Wells] require[s] a thesis,” she says. “I like graduating with the thought that I’ve done something to really add to my field.”

Other majors feel similarly. Alex Lauer reflects, “I became an independent scholar while working on my thesis and learned that I could make English become a truly interdisciplinary subject area, one that touched on my other interests. My thesis was also the first really sustained piece of work that I’ve ever done, and having that final, successful product was needed evidence that I could definitely take on the challenges of grad school.”

Chris Becker agrees, “By working on my thesis and completing it within a set deadline, I think I’m more prepared to take on the challenge of completing an MFA [Master of Fine Arts] project [in fiction writing].

But graduate school is not the only positive result of a substantial, well-conducted thesis. As Nicole Safer explains, she has no intentions of pursuing a Ph.D., but feels the skills she acquired during the process of researching for her thesis will help her succeed in her future goals. And for Ashley Marcinkiewicz, designing and conducting an entire experiment on her own will likely be a “huge benefit” for her during her future work in the sciences.

Although there are numerous obstacles that serve to complicate even the most dedicated student’s pursuit, and in spite of the fact that each discipline presents unique challenges to its majors, Wells students continue to meet the high standards set in place by this longstanding hallmark of the institution. That is to say, Wells seniors do not simply complete a thesis; they create an original work that they take pride in, and this work prepares them for their future academic and career-related pursuits. •

A STUDY OF ARCHITECTURAL PROGRESS IN DIPTYCHS

BY ALISSA KENT

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BOOK ARTS:

An Ancient Trade Made Innovative Craft

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by emily ambrose photography by frances staiti

M

organ hall sits at the v ery center of half a dozen other distinguished brick buildings on Wells Campus. Smaller than most of its counterparts, Morgan could play the part of any random academic building on a movie set; it even has ivy creeping up its sides. Yet despite its traditional, academic appearance, what lies inside Morgan is far more unique than its exterior may suggest. Morgan houses the Wells College Book Arts Center—impressive because of both the size of the program and the opportunities it affords the Wells College community. As Nancy Gil, the director of the Wells Book Arts Center, proudly points out, “We have more presses than some of the best graduate programs in the country!” Upon walking inside Morgan, all impressions of a stuffy, typical academic building fall away. The white-washed walls, stained-glass windows, and high ceilings are reminiscent of an era centuries past, while the scents of linen and cotton papers, Pantone ink, letterpress wash, and bookbinding glue assail the senses in a delightful cornucopia of unfamiliar scents that combine to smell like, well, art.

Book arts and the artists’ books produced by its practitioners are not new elements of the world of creativity. According to the University of Delaware Special Collections department: “Artists’ books are not really a new concept. Several traditions in book publishing can be seen as precursors to this modern notion. Perhaps the earliest example of a book artist in the modern sense was William Blake (1757-1827). Blake, a poet, painter, engraver and visionary mystic, produced a series of remarkable books in which the illustrations were intrinsic to his text. He not only wrote and illustrated the books, but also pulled the etchings, hand colored the plates and sold them in multiple editions ... In France during the 1890’s ... art dealer Ambroise Vollard began to commission his artists to illustrate texts, often classics, and then to have these works finely printed and bound. The livre d’artiste emphasized the illustrations in the book and produced a beautiful, well-crafted work similar to today’s fine press illustrated book.”

The Wells College Book Arts Center continues in the vein of Blake and the livre d’artiste, celebrating a unity of artistry, craftsmanship, and the form and function of the printed book.

The center is frequently a hive of activity, as book arts students flit between the bindery and the typography lab or incorporate modern technology into their projects in the graphic design lab on the third floor. They choose paper, imported from France or Germany, to build hand-bound books and design letterpressprinted broadsides. Instructors and professors guide their students through the trickier undertakings of the book arts, and seminars on topics such as the history of the book are taught in the conference rooms located on each floor. Additionally, the center houses the Wells College Press, which publishes broadsides in honor of visiting writers and also prints each graduating class’s diplomas in the spring. According to the Wells College web site: “Victor Hammer, an internationally renowned figure in 20thcentury graphic arts, founded the Wells College Press in 1941 ... [He] operated the Wells College Press until his retirement in 1948. In 1991 Wells re-established the Wells College Press in order to publish works of artistic and literary merit ... The Bindery came into being in 1991 when Wells alumna Jane THE SYCAMORE / SPRING 2011 39

Webster Pearce ’32 presented the College with her complete fine art bindery ... The Wells College Book Arts Center[,] established in 1993, provides a broad learning opportunity for Wells students ... In contrast to desktop printing by computer, students learn first-hand the traditions and history of the book through letterpress printing and hand bookbinding courses.”

Each semester, the Wells College Book Arts Center is proud to produce Book Arts minors and the occasional student with an individualized major, and the center has recently begun providing internships. Although it’s one of the newer aspects of the century-and-a-half year old college, the center has clearly and quickly become an integral part of the Wells community.

Timelines and official descriptions aside, the question of how to define book arts and book artistry must be decided before it can be understood, celebrated, or explored. Sarah Bryant is the current Victor Hammer Fellow working and teaching out of the center. According to the Wells College Book Arts Center web site, the Victor Hammer fellowship is “a two-year fellowship that brings a talented, emerging book artist to Wells College for the purpose of sharing his or her expertise and love of books with students.” Bryant’s expertise is undeniable, but it is her enthusiasm for her craft that leaves an impression. She readily explains the difference between art and craft, and their relation to the field of book art. “Book art includes a lot of different stuff. [It] includes book binders, book repair—that’s more of a craft. There’s papermakers, that’s craft, but with extensions into art. There’s a lot of artists working in paper. A place like the Brodsky Center in New Jersey brings contemporary artists in to produce paper. You have printers—there’s a million kind of printers, there’s fine press printers … you have artists working with presses, doing something quite different but still using the skills they have on the press. You have sculptural book artists, people who are making objects out of books, carving books up, making books out of stuff they find. There are people who are strictly working in craft, there are people who are digitally playing around with the book. It’s almost impossible to talk about book art in one breath. You kind of have to ... talk about different aspects of it.”

Director Nancy Gil recalls her first experiences with book art in 1993—nearly two decades ago. “I took the first course [the center] offered. That was a course on book repair and restoration taught by Barbara Kretzmann, who was the first Binder-in-Residence. I worked on a first edition Raggedy Ann book in terrible condition. I disbound it, repaired, resewed, and rebound it with new endbands and a new spine. And that was it: I was hooked!”

Gil asserts that the inclusion of book arts in the Wells College curriculum is a valuable component of the college. “I think that the Book Arts Center is very important to the uniqueness of Wells ... there are not many liberal arts colleges with a full gamut of book arts classes.”

There is no doubt that the history of the center at Wells is an integral part of the college, and that the center itself provides students with a unique opportunity to explore a craft less easily accessible than other three-dimensional art forms, such as metal smithing or pottery. However, it is the very fact that the book arts are a less well-known art form amongst those who aren’t themselves members of its community that merits the question: how exactly does a craft that is so meticulous, so time-consuming— and sometimes expensive—as the book arts survive in a world where one click of a button can print multiple copies of an entire 40 FEATURES

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novel? Can it survive at all? Ask anyone in the Wells College Book Arts Center this question and the answer is a resounding, defensive, joyous yes.

The advent of handmade codices occurred at around the same time that people began to become interested in Christianity on a broad scale. Monks trained in the art of calligraphy would painstakingly copy the Bible page by page, with each copy being distributed not far and wide but rather to an elect few: clergymen in the highest echelons of the church, aristocracy, and the like. Few people could read, let alone afford the works of art that doubled as literature in those days, circa the thirteenth century. The creation of books was an art—an acquired skill, yes, but out of necessity, not because people liked aesthetically pleasing literature.

With the invention of mechanical moving type and the printing press in 1440, thanks to Johannes Gutenberg, books became less of a commodity, literature could be more widely disseminated, and literacy grew exponentially over the decades that followed.

Gutenberg is also credited with printing the first mechanically printed book, the Gutenberg Bible—a significantly more time efficient, if less artistic, method of printing than the monks’ handcopied volumes. Arguably the first innovator in the field of book arts, Gutenberg’s creation changed the world of books forever.

The mechanical press was merely the first in a prodigious, ever-increasing number of printing technologies. In 1867, the first typewriter was invented, allowing the user to compose his own writing mechanically, but at a much smaller scale than one using a printing press. The typewriter quickly evolved into electric typewriters, and then word processors, and eventually computers complete with prepackaged word processing programs such as Microsoft Word. Fonts are now uniform, page margins automatically set, and composing a book is as simple as opening a new document and typing the letters out on a keyboard. Innovation marches onward, with new technologies emerging seemingly every time Steve Jobs can blink. Yet there is a personal touch, a sense of the genuine that is lost as these innovative technologies are acquired. Illuminated manuscripts have not borne the thumbprints of patient monks for centuries, and books can be purchased by the bushel from Amazon or Barnes and Noble. Even personal libraries have shrunk to the size of a Kindle or iPhone.

Fortunately, book art has found a way to withstand the convenient allure of mass production, and, despite its use of sometimes outdated technologies (such as wood block printing and hand-sewn bindings), its supporters will argue that, despite being steeped in history and tradition, there is nothing quite as innovative. Perched on a stool in the bindery, Sarah Bryant explains how innovative a craft book art truly is, even though it employs practices that may appear deceptively obsolete to an outsider’s eye.

She explains that it is because “the universe is full of people using old tools to make new work. Just about everything we touch and feel and see and interact with is probably something that was made, in part, by a tool that was invented quite a while ago.”

She jokes that she would like to call the “Webster’s [Dictionary] people” and request they amend the current definition of “innovation,” which is, “featuring new methods; advanced, original,” to include the amendment, “using old methods for new purposes.”

However, she is also quick to point out that the tools book artists use are not merely limited solely to these historical methods. “The technology that bookmakers are using ranges from the old iron hand press that we have sitting in the type shop all the way up through digital new media. It’s not a bunch of people in a bindTHE SYCAMORE / SPRING 2011 45

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ery, dressed in aprons and making stuff by hand. Even here in the Book Arts Center, we’re using machinery that comes from the twentieth century. We’re using computers to design what we’re going to be printing. We use [plastic] plates quite frequently that come from Syracuse [and they developed] that technology just a few years ago. Making books has a huge historical background ... but it’s never been referred to as an out-of-date technology.”

Michael Bixler teaches letterpress printing at the center and also owns and runs a small press and foundry, one of the few of its kind in the nation, in Skaneateles, New York with his wife, Winifred. The Bixlers cast their own type, and they are often commissioned to print projects for outside organizations. It is Michael’s work that is a marriage of the old and the new aspects of book arts, including elements of book art’s history as a trade and its current and future status as an art. Bixler first became interested in letterpress printing decades ago while a student at the Rochester Institute of Technology. He relates his initial interest in letterpress, explaining, “The more modern, growing process of offset lithography [when print is transferred from a plate to a rubber surface and then onto paper] was taking over fast [but] held no appeal to me. I was really interested in the craft of metal type pressed into ... paper.” Although his beginnings in letterpress and metal type design were in a trade necessary to the publication of all printed material, Bixler is quick to acknowledge its future as an art form. “I think the [printing] industry forgot about letterpress and metal type very quickly. There seem to be less and less profit in it, and the whole idea of industrial printing is to make money, so they dropped letterpress very, very quickly in favor of more advanced, computerized technology ... It’s so much easier, and faster and cheaper. ” Despite this dreary reminiscence, Bixler remains optimistic about the continued celebration of the printed word. “As a craft, I don’t think it will ever be obsolete. I have to say, I really think an introduction to the history of the book, the craft of binding ... are sort of a cornerstone to any liberal arts education. It’s a very simple, almost primitive kind of work, but it was this work for several hundred years ... that preserved forever into the future the thoughts, dreams, discoveries, the ideas of many, many countless past generations. I think a country can be marked in its greatness by the size of its libraries. I’m very suspicious of electronic storage.”

Nancy Gil also expresses her suspicions toward electronic devices used to read and store the written word in relation to the beauty and continued relevance of book art. “People were afraid that finely printed and bound books would disappear with the advent of the computer and desktop publishing. And then the second wave, electronic devices that allow one to read—I will not call them books!—people again talked about the death of the book. Like other arts and crafts, the book arts are influenced by computers and things digital. Photography, sculpture, furniture making, and jewelry have all been changed. Artists can design on the computer and execute by hand. They can even use machines guided by computers to make finished products. But the urge to create beautiful things will not disappear, and that urge involves making and doing things by hand.”

Abbey Williams, a Wells College senior, is a Book Arts minor and an intern at the Book Arts Center, and she attests that book art is “one of those things that kind of sweeps you up off your feet.” She disagrees that book art is a remnant of the past and believes it will remain relevant for some time to come. “The whole idea of book arts is to go back to what we know, [the] original 48 FEATURES

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processes, and then alter it for a modern time period.” Like Gil, Williams believes it is the sense of the authentic and the genuine artistry inherent to handmade crafts that will drive the interest in book art well into the future. “I think [book art] has more than a foot in the door [in the future]. Arts books and traditionally handmade books are entering more of their own place in society.

I think that there’s more of a desire for books that are aesthetically and artistically pleasing. The production of books has gone so commercial there’s no feeling involved ... with the way a book is held anymore. It’s not the flipping of the page; it’s the turning of the screen. People really want beauty, and that beauty is coming from [physical] books. They’re looking for something that is handmade, they’re looking for quality.” Williams continues to point out that popular, fashion-forward retailers such as Anthropologie have begun selling book art-inspired products, which, although not handmade, are indicative of the resurgence in popularity the craft is experiencing. Williams also notes that technology giant Apple has just released news that their iPhoto ’11 program will allow the user to create her own letterpress-style cards. If such an endorsement is evidence of popularity with a contemporary audience, there is certainly nothing stuffy, oldfashioned, or obsolete about book art.

Nancy Gil is inclined to agree. “Contemporary society has a respect for beautiful things made by hand. People were afraid that finely printed and bound books would disappear with the advent of the computer and desktop publishing. I don’t think the trade is obsolete. It’s just that it has changed, and it will continue to change as technology does. But using your hands and making beautiful things—those will never change.” As Abbey Williams points out, it’s hard to argue that book art is, or will become, obsolete when it seems to have caught the interest of so many people and industries.

Sarah Bryant also weighs in on the burgeoning popularity of book art. Recently, book arts have come to the attention of many in the academic as well as commercial forum. “The interest in book art has been growing steadily in the last decade, rather than declining,” she states. “Just in the last few years, the number of master’s programs offered in book art has doubled. It’s still a small number, but it’s growing fast. People are snatching up this equipment at small colleges—like Wells. A lot of small colleges are starting to buy presses, assemble equipment, [and] incorporate book arts into a variety of different departments, whether it’s the English department that may have an interest in printing poetry, teaching their students a connection to the physicality of the book, [or] art departments [that] see it as an extension of printmaking. History departments, library schools, all kinds of places have an interest in maintaining and preserving the book, but also to see what the future is [of ] book art.”

According to its devotees, the future of book artistry is bright indeed. Although the art form employs methods and technologies that at first may appear outmoded or outdated in a world of laser printers and computers, the beauty of the work produced is worth the time and effort such endeavors require. The process of creation, as many artists would argue, is part of the beauty of the art created. And although it is true that a hand-bound, letterpress printed edition of poetry may not be nearly as portable or efficient as a Kindle, there is a magic to the feeling of metal-punched words beneath a reader’s fingertips, and an allure to the precision of a hand-sewn binding that current or future technology will never be able to emulate. There is no app for authenticity. • THE SYCAMORE / SPRING 2011 51

The OOPS in Archeology

By Rebekkah McKalsen

i

Pods, iPads, iPhones—these were all extremely novel when they first came out. But ten years after the first version of the iPod was released, Apple is still simply updating old technology, and we’re on the fourth version of the iPhone after only four years. Speaking more broadly, over a hundred years after the birth of the automobile, the industry has proposed to change little more than the amount of fumes permitted and what fuel is used. Only about ninety years after the advent of “talkies,” or movies with sound, Hollywood has already resorted to hundreds of remakes; everything from Charlie’s Angels and The Dukes of Hazzard to Death at a Funeral and The Jackal has been remade— and in the case of The Jackal, the original movie was already based off of a thriller by the English writer Frederick Forsyth (“The Jackal”). Why does it seem as if new ideas are so scarce?

Some might argue that the last few centuries include many new ideas, like computers, batteries, and the process of modern manufacturing. However, every one of these “modern-day marvels” has existed—sometimes in better form—in ancient times.

Artifacts that demonstrate this contradiction to accepted facts are called “out-of-place artifacts” (OOP artifacts) because there is no explanation in history for their existence (McGuinness). They call into question one of humanity’s longest held assumptions, asking: time may have moved forward, but has humanity? The unpopularity of the ensuing argument—which includes the idea that humanity has gone nowhere and the idea that, as a race, we 52 FEATURES

lack the originality needed for true innovation—perhaps explains why the artifacts aren’t being discussed in public settings such as schools or newspapers.

For example, sponge divers off the coast of the Greek island of Antikythera at the turn of the twentieth century discovered a mechanism with what resembled clock gears. This mechanism was dated as early as 150 B.C. and is a highly complex and flawlessly designed “computer” that displays detailed data about the sun, moon, various stars, and their cycles and other astronomical information available to the ancients (“Project Overview”). According to the official web site, the Antikythera Mechanism is “widely considered to be one of the most important archeological artifacts ever found” (Allen, “What Is It?”). This is because not only does the artifact provide such detailed accounts of the astronomical information that was available to the ancients, but the mechanism is also over a millennium ahead of known contemporary technologies. Over a hundred years later, research teams from all over the world are still unraveling how it is supposed to work, and the mechanism “hasn’t revealed all its secrets yet” (Allen, “Why Has It Taken”).

Although nearly all such artifacts are taken to be hoaxes, this one defies such criticism. The mechanism is covered in inscriptions in Koine Greek, a dialect which replaced ancient Greek dialects in 330 B.C. and gave way to Medieval Greek around A.D. 300 (“Koine Greek”). The inscriptions themselves show an intimate

knowledge of the calendar systems in place concurrent with the time period. Pictures of the Antikythera device show it to be encrusted with calcium carbonate, again supporting the dates researchers have assigned to it. Because the mechanism was made out of bronze, a high-demand metal, researchers believe others existed and were melted down in order to be reworked into coinage. A similar, albeit less complex, planetarium-like device was mentioned in Cicero’s dialogue, De Republica, which was written circa A.D. 60, giving additional credence to the “world’s oldest analog computer” (“Antikythera Mechanism”).

In addition, the majority of bronze artifacts from antiquity have been discovered underwater, where they could not have been accessed in order to be melted down. This again suggests that the mechanism is the genuine article and not some hoax cooked up by divers in order to create controversy or media hype.

In 1938, Dr. Wilhelm Kong stumbled upon what looked like a bright vase while he was on a dig in Babylon. Upon further inspection, the vase was discovered to have been soldered by a lead-tin alloy comparable to today’s best solders. If that wasn’t out-of-place enough, a model was created that was discovered to generate about .82 volts of electricity when grape juice was poured into it. The vase is, in essence, an ancient battery. Other similar “vases” were found in other parts of Persia as well. This brings up the question: what did these ancient Middle Eastern civilizations need batteries for?

Then there are the multitudes of perfectly formed spheroids found in archaeological digs in South Africa. Pamela Willoughby writes of a paleontologist’s discovery of thirty of these together during the 1950’s: “He was content to let the archaeologists debate their significance … He did, however, unequivocally state that no geological process could account for their form” (Willoughby).

Hundreds of these spheroids have been found in a silver mine in Ottosdal, South Africa; examining different ones in detail reveals many mysteries. In 1977, John Hund was spinning a recently recovered spheroid on a restaurant table when he noticed how well balanced it was. Hund decided to have it tested to determine the accuracy of its balance. He went to the California Space Institute, which found the spheroid to be balanced “to within a hundred thousandth inch of perfection” (“A Balanced and Concentric”). In fact, it was so well balanced that it was not possible to detect any imperfections, one hundred thousandth of an inch being the extent of the measuring equipment available at the time. One NASA scientist reportedly said that NASA does not have “the technology to create something so finely balanced as this” (“A Balanced and Concentric”).

Keeping in mind that these are purportedly millions of years old, it would only make sense that, even if they were originally so well balanced, that they would have eroded over the millennia, but they have not. The spheroids are supposedly made from limonite concretions; however, even this is subject to debate. On THE SYCAMORE / SPRING 2011 53

WORKS CITED the Mohs scale of hardness (which runs from 1 to 10, 10 being the hardness of diamonds), limonite is at most a 5.5. However, steel could not scratch any of the spheroids, which indicates that they are made from something much harder than limonite (“Grooved Sphere”). With the technology available today, why is it so difficult for archaeologists to determine what material they are made from? And how could ancient peoples, who supposedly relied on hand tools, create such perfectly balanced spheroids, especially out of such a hard substance? Just one mistake would have been inerasable, and yet there are at least two hundred of these across the northwest region of South Africa.

It is not possible that every OOP artifact ever recovered has been a hoax. Artifacts fitting this category have been found across the world, at different times, and by different people. The only thing that puts them into this category is that they all seem to point backwards at the triumphs of ancient man. No one wants to believe that we have gone backwards, because that indicates failure at some point or another in our collective past that we have yet to overcome; the distastefulness or popularity of a theory should never be allowed to be an indicator of its validity.

A thorough and unbiased examination of the evidence asks the honest question: are we really moving forward as a race, or did we experience the flower of our civilization in some generation long past and all but forgotten?

Consider that question the next time you buy a ticket to see yet another Superman movie, or when you’re standing in line at midnight in order to buy the fifteenth generation of the iPhone.

While you’re in line, think back to the days when spontaneous generation was an accepted scientific theory, and perhaps you will begin to wonder: are our assumptions wrong again? •

Allen, Martin. “What Is It?” The Antikythera Mechanism Research Project. Web. 08 Apr. 2011. <http://www.antikythera-mechanism. gr/faq/general-questions/what-is-it>.

Allen, Martin. “Why Has It Taken so Long to Find out What It Does?” The Antikythera Mechanism Research Project. Web. 08 Apr. 2011. <http://www.antikythera-mechanism.gr/faq/generalquestions/why-so-long>.

“Antikythera Mechanism.” Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. 6 Apr. 2011. Web. 08 Apr. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Antikythera_mechanism>.

“A Balanced and Concentric Ringed Mystery Spheroid.” Community-2. Web. 7 Apr. 2011. <http://community-2. webtv.net/WF11/MysterySpheres/>.

“Grooved Sphere from South Africa (Precambrian).” Govardhan Hill Publishing, 27 May 1996. Web. 7 Apr. 2011. <http://nersp. nerdc.ufl.edu/~ghi/spheres.html>.

“The Jackal (1997 Film).” Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. 18 Mar. 2011. Web. 08 Apr. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_ Jackal_(1997_film)>.

“Koine Greek.” Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. 26 Mar. 2011.

Web. 3 Apr. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koine_Greek>.

McGuinness, Tim. “OOPArts (Out of Place Artifacts): A Critical Presentation.” OOPArts. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Apr 2011. <http://www. ooparts.us/>.

“Project Overview.” The Antikythera Mechanism Research Project.

Web. 08 Apr. 2011. <http://www.antikythera-mechanism.gr/ project/overview>.

Willoughby, Pamela R. “Spheroids and Battered Stones in the African Early Stone Age.” JSTOR. Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 17.1 (1985): 46. Web. 6 Apr. 2011.

54 FEATURES

DESIGN THINKING BREAKING FROM TRADITION WITH INCEPTION

By Valerie Provenza Photography by Sycamore staff

“We are students of words: we are shut up in schools, and colleges, and recitation-rooms, for ten or fifteen years, and come out at last with a bag of wind, a memory of words, and do not know a thing.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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If innovation were easy, we would all be wealthy from creating billion-dollar ideas such as Apple products, Facebook, or Google.

Innovating takes practice, and innovators such as those who work for IDEO, a world famous design and innovation consultancy, know this well. IDEO is based out of Palo Alto, California but has branches all over the world developing services, products, companies, and environments.

Innovative ideas don’t just happen; they take time, effort, and teams to brainstorm and bounce ideas off of each other. The process of creating a consumer product, service, or business often requires a common model to ideate, prototype, evaluate, and build.

Stanford University uses design thinking as a model to teach innovation. The University’s department describes design thinking as “the glue that holds the d.school community together.” The d.school community consists of business, art, and design schools all over the world that work on innovative solutions for a multitude of purposes that focus on advancement. Design thinking is geared towards hands-on work, creating and learning by application, and working on teams that have diverse backgrounds and fields to come together and design for a common goal that benefits the life of the customer.

The design thinking process is not a quick fix for companies, but a commitment to excellence. Where you innovate, how you innovate, and what you innovate are all factors of design thinking.

The first step when creating a product is to define the problem and establish a target audience. To form a cohesive understanding of the working goal, it is important to define the meaning of terms used by the group. Once a goal is defined, the next step is to find inspiration and formulate ideas by researching historical examples and empathizing with users to develop an understanding of the needs of the users.

Developing empathy for users and brainstorming creative ideas are key components in design thinking. Innovative companies realize that customers don’t know what they need, and the responsibility of creating an innovative product lies in the hands of companies that then must empathize with their users and understand their needs to create products that improve the quality of life. Take the iPod, for example. Music lovers were content with their portable music players such as the cassette player or CD player until the invention of the iPod. Apple’s creative process relied heavily on empathy for users and brainstorming ideas to eliminate the need to carry a large stack of discs around with a big and bulky CD player. Hence, the compact digital player.

Brainstorming in groups is essential to the creative process of design thinking in order to build ideas off of diverse teams members and form a well-rounded group of individual thinkers into one. In brainstorming sessions, space and communication are two important components to generating positive energy within the group. Open space is important for the movement and flow of ideas. Whiteboards or walls that allow multiple people to record ideas and open space for everyone to see those ideas are important for visualization and moving forward. Open communication and a fast-paced atmosphere keeps positive energy within the group and allows group members to shout out ideas without second-guessing or giving negative feedback. During a brainstorming session, the word “no” should be taboo; shooting down any idea, no matter how “out there” or wrong it may seem, diminishes the flow of ideas and positive energy throughout the group. In general, the more open-minded a group is during brainstorming, the better the results. And even though a good idea can cause

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a group to become excited and impatient for the final product, creating a prototype of a product is essential because it is efficient for time and money. Using a prototype allows ideas to be tested and refined by user feedback.

Fast Company, a magazine with a progressive focus on business media and innovation in technology, leadership, design, and ethonomics (ethical economics) created a top ten list of the most innovative companies in 2010. With a reported revenue of $36.5 billon in 2009, Apple was named one of the top three most innovative companies in the world next to Facebook and Amazon, with Google coming in at number four. The reason these companies do so well lies within their creative process, much like that of design thinking. Although Apple doesn’t use the term “design thinking” to describe the company’s process, their success is a great example of the process of business innovation. Apple is in its own league by exemplifying a commitment to excellence when it comes to product development. They are constantly developing new technology and “generations” of their one-of-a-kind, worldfamous products.

But innovative ideas don’t only come from billion-dollar businesses. The Stanford University Institute of Design graduate program teaches and applies the concept of design thinking to its students. Tracy Brandenburg, a Stanford graduate, studied and carried over the philosophy and methods of design thinking to Wells College from the Stanford program. Brandenburg was particularly inspired by a Stanford project named Entrepreneurial Design for Extreme Affordability. The goal of this project is to develop affordable devices for Third World countries and communities and respect them as customers, not charity cases. The two-quarter course offered at Stanford already has success stories to share. One of the projects they worked on was designing an affordable portable incubator for the twenty million children born prematurely in India every year. The final cost of the incubator, now in the final stages of testing, is about $25. Brandenburg hopes the concept of design thinking and implementing an innovation lab will be a step in the right direction for Wells College to focus on such tasks both locally and globally.

She says, “We are a school very concerned with issues of social justice, and I knew we were developing a special business program and this program needs to reflect what we care about at Wells.”

The new use of space that is now home to the practice of design thinking at Wells College is called an Innovation Lab, located in what used to be known as the “Smoker’s Lounge” in Main Building. The popularity and benefits of having innovative design schools and teaching the concept of design thinking is a new idea that is quickly catching on in businesses and at universities. For example, Harvard University has announced plans to spend 20 million dollars towards the creation of an innovation lab on their campus in the next few years. Therefore, having an innovation lab at Wells is innovative in and of itself.

Wells College President Lisa Marsh Ryerson was in full support of the immediate development of the lab for the spring 2011 semester. Although the lab only supports one class this semester, students who are taking it only have positive feedback to give.

The future of the Innovation Lab at Wells College will expand classes to fit more areas of study offered at Wells, such as classes combining innovation with sustainability and philosophy.

Brandenburg explains that the unique setup of the Innovation Lab is no accident: “Open space should support the creative pro58 FEATURES

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cess, and we purposely have students sitting on high stools so that they are almost standing, keeping the energy level high.” With everything on wheels, the classroom is always changing; there is no technical front or back of the room, no desks, and no lectures.

The class is based around hands-on activities, ideating, and creating. Brandenburg also emphasizes the importance of play in the classroom: “Fun post-it murals on the walls and foam cubes to sit on and build with, music playing in the background—all of these things set the tone of the class and blur the boundaries between work and play.” The atmosphere of the seminar is not a traditional one. Since the students are the inventors, few lectures, only instruction, is required. When students are asked to give their ideas, they become more engaged in the class and are therefore active and engaged for the full three hours without complaint.

The laid-back environment adds to a new feeling of comfort in the classroom while maintaining a high level of productivity.

The practice and application of the creative process is important for adults to maintain. When you walk into a classroom of kindergarteners and ask how many of them are artists, all of their hands shoot up. When you walk into a classroom of high school students or an office full of adults and ask how many of them are artists, maybe only a few hands will slowly rise. Using innovation and design thinking restores the loss of strong confidence in personal creative ability over time, and it extremely significant that we have begun to foster that development at Wells. • W O R K S C O N S U LT E D Miraval, Nathalie R. “Innovation Lab Approved By BRA.” The Harvard Crimson. N.p., 21 Mar. 2011. Web. 16 Apr. 2011. <http:// www.thecrimson.com/article/2011/3/21/harvard-community-labinnovation/>.

Robinson, Carl. “Tips for Spurring Innovation.” Advanced Leadership Consulting. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Apr. 2011. <http://www.leadershipconsulting.com/tips-for-spurring-innovation.htm>.

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GETTING The potential for public transportation and a greener world

By Kathryn McNamara

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THERE

How many times a week do you drive or ride in a car? For a resident of a rural town like Aurora, the answer can be a lot—especially during the winter, when walking seems like even more of a chore. What if you could take a bus or a train to Ithaca or Syracuse? Would your answer change? Until recently, many Americans would say no. America is well known for its love affair with automobiles, from the earliest Model T to today’s SUVs. Public transportation is often seen as inconvenient, dirty, and even dangerous. Juxtaposed against the image of the successful, car-owning American is the crazy homeless man who needs to ride the bus. Lois Rotchford says that “I got strange looks [while using public transportation] because I didn’t look like a person who needed to ride the bus,” while Ashley Waelti describes public transportation as “unwanted blind date in the sense that you don’t know which homeless schizophrenic you’ll be forced to sit next to.” Today, however, public transportation and other alternative modes of transportation are becoming more appealing, in part due to gas prices. In 2009, more cars were scrapped than sold for the first time since World War I (Goldenberg). Public transportation on a large scale has been slow to take root in the United States, but in the wake of the poor economy and with increased awareness of environmental issues, more efficient, green modes of transportation are on the rise.

ADVANCES IN EUROPE Public transportation has been a huge success in Europe. In England, trains and buses are easily accessible across the country, even in rural areas. Web sites such as Traveline and Transport for London provide resources for planning a journey, and discounts allow for affordable rail and bus travel. The Oxford Bus Company is a prime example of the excellent public transportation available in English cities. The Oxford Bus Company offers several routes,

and it is the most “green” bus company in the UK. Starting in 1995, the company began to replace its entire fleet with more environmentally friendly vehicles. The new buses were fitted with “Continuously Regenerating Particulate Traps” (CRTs), which reduce exhaust emissions. Within ten years, hydrocarbon and carbon monoxide emissions were cut in half. Now, the Oxford Bus Company is also adding diesel and electric buses to the fleet.

American bus companies could easily take these measures, especially if government funding were provided.

In addition to easy bus travel within individual countries, it is also very easy to travel internationally by train in Europe. Nearly every major city in Europe is connected by rail, and there are many discounts available. Purchasing a Eurail pass earns discounts in twenty-two countries, and students save even more money. In addition to being efficient, European rail is also environmentally friendly. According to the Eurail web site, the CO2 emissions for an average train journey across Europe are about three times less than traveling by car and four times less than flying (“Eco-friendly green travel”).

HIGH-SPEED RAIL Considering the advances in public transportation in Europe, the United States is lagging behind. Train routes in the U.S. are based on freight shipments, not passenger rail. There is only one intercity rail company, Amtrak, and it is not available in all fifty states.

Amtrak routes are often inefficient—for example, in New York State, most trains have to pass through Penn Station even if New York City is hours out of the way of the final destination.

High-speed rail, which is readily available in Asia and Europe, is extremely limited in the United States. Amtrak introduced the Acela Express between New York City and Washington, D.C. in 2000. The success of this line could encourage the development THE SYCAMORE / SPRING 2011 63

of more high-speed rail. The government is making some efforts to support high-speed rail, but progress has been slow. In 2008, the Federal Railroad Administration implemented the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act, which offered the Department of Transportation (DOT) grants to Amtrak to improve long-distance routes and develop high-speed rail corridors. DOT has also offered money to the state of New York to develop the Empire Corridor between Niagara Falls and New York City.

In 2009, the NYS released the New York State rail plan, which proposed an intercity rail system that would “provide reliable, faster, and frequent rail travel between Albany and Buffalo, also connecting Syracuse, Utica, Rochester, and the upstate cities in between” (yes, that includes the Wells College area). The plan also outlined the environmental benefits of a state rail system. However, funding was severely lacking. According to the plan, in 2003, only 2% of federal transportation expenditures funded rail travel, as opposed to 49% for highway maintenance. Then, in January 2010, President Obama announced that the government would give $150 million dollars to rail projects in upstate New York.

Recently, state representatives have been debating whether or not to continue with high-speed rail plans. Republican Tom Reed of Corning is vehemently opposed to high-speed rail, arguing that it would cost too much money. “Constructing a high-speed rail line across Western and upstate New York is not practical … Fulfilling this requirement would cost tens of billions of dollars” (McCarthy). The anti-rail sentiment is gaining support, but Democrat Louise Slaughter of Fairport has made advocating for high-speed rail one of her priorities. In an address to the U.S. High Speed Rail Association in February, Slaughter said investment in high-speed rail is essential: “Sixty-five years after the passage of legislation to build our interstate highway system, we face another opportunity to boldly win the future. A national high speed rail network is vital to our nation’s success in the global economy, now and in the years to come” (Slaughter).

In California, high-speed rail is well on the way to becoming a reality. California is designing a high-speed rail system based on existing rail systems in Europe. In addition to receiving money from the federal government, California has also applied to 64 FEATURES

receive the money that other states turned down. The state recently received 4 billion dollars that had originally been allotted to Florida. Right now, the project is still in the planning stage, but California plans to build 800 miles of track and up to 24 new stations for high-speed rail. The high-speed trains will be able to travel between Los Angeles and San Francisco in under three hours. The new rail system will provide an estimated 450,000 permanent jobs and up to 100,000 construction jobs (“California High-Speed Rail Authority”). Trains will also be more sustainable and reduce air pollution in California. If high-speed rail is a success in California, it may encourage other states, including New York, to follow suit.

LOCAL TRANSPORTATION While the state of New York is debating about high-speed rail, what can you do in your own community to support greener modes of transportation? There are several ways to travel in Ithaca. The Tompkins County Community Transit (TCAT) buses are cheap and easy to use. The TCAT company is also making an effort to be more environmentally friendly and now has six electric diesel buses. One can catch intercity Shortline and Greyhound buses from the bus station, and the Chemung Transit line offers service between Ithaca and Elmira. If you need to get to the airport or Syracuse Amtrak station, you can hire a ride from Ithacar, an airport taxi service that uses hybrid vehicles. For more information about ways to get around in Ithaca, check out way2goinfo.org.

Bicycling is a great possibility for short-distance travel. In Ithaca, the organization RIBs (Recycle Ithaca’s Bicycles) runs a community bike shop. Volunteers refurbish old bikes, which are then given to community members. RIBs also offers classes on bike maintenance. The classes require a small fee, but you can volunteer your time in return for taking a class. If walking into the village of Aurora seems like too much of an effort, it only takes seconds to ride a bike to the Market or the Fargo—especially since a lot of it is downhill!

“In the wake of the poor economy and with increased awareness of environmental issues, more efficient, green modes of transportation are on the rise.”

Here in Cayuga County, public transportation is virtually nonexistent, and a car is definitely necessary. On the weekend, taking a Wells shuttle is an easy way to visit Ithaca. The vans recently stopped charging, so now students can ride for free. If you want to go to a place that isn’t included on the shuttle, you will need to drive yourself, but you can still be green by carpooling with your friends. The next time you have to go into Auburn for groceries, see if anyone else needs to go, and you can save money and help the environment by riding together. Take advantage of public transportation when you can and share rides when you can’t, and you can help create a greener future. • WORKS CONSULTED “California High-Speed Rail Authority: Gallery.” California High-Speed Rail Authority. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Apr. 2011. <http:// www.cahighspeedrail.ca.gov/Gallery_Featured.aspx>.

“Eco-friendly green travel by train with Eurail Rail Passes.”

Eurail - Travel Europe by Train with your Eurail Pass. N.p., n.d.

Web. 16 Apr. 2011. <http://www.eurail.com/eurail-passes/findbest-pass/train-travel-advantages/eco-friendly-travel>.

Goldenberg, Suzanne. “America’s Love Affair with Cars Stalls as Car Sales Slump to Record Low.” The Guardian. N.p., 6 Jan. 2010.

Web. 16 Apr. 2011. <http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/ jan/06/us-cars-sales-record-low>.

McCarthy, Robert J. “Two Seek to De-rail High Speed Train Plan.” The Buffalo News. N.p., 28 Mar. 2011. Web. 16 Apr. 2011. <http://www.buffalonews.com/city/article378076.ece>.

Slaughter, Louise M. “A Bold Investment in Our Future.” Congresswoman Louise Slaughter. N.p., 2 Feb. 2011. Web. 16 Apr. 2011. <http://www.louise.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content &view=category&layout=blog&id=69&Itemid=59>.

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CLOTHING & INNOVATION Photographs by Alissa Kent

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MODELING BY BRENNEN DOOLEY AND REBECCA FURMAN / THE SYCAMORE / SPRING 2011 67

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MODELING BY MAC GRESCHAK / THE SYCAMORE / SPRING 2011 69

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MODELING BY DOMINIQUE BRITTEN AND ELSA DIAL / THE SYCAMORE / SPRING 2011 71

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MODELING BY MAC GRESCHAK AND TYLER GRECCO / THE SYCAMORE / SPRING 2011 73

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MODELING BY TYLER GRECCO / THE SYCAMORE / SPRING 2011 75

The Inner Path to

OVERCOMING ANXIETY DISORDER

By Sam Share

I

’m usually not a fan of prefacing a speech or a talk, but I think that it’s necessary in this case.

The only authority I claim to have is my own experience dealing with anxiety—and an unhealthy amount of reading. I’m giving you advice based on what worked for me and what seems to have worked for other people. This talk

is the culmination of an (albeit short) lifetime of dealing with excessive anxiety. I have also talked with a significant number of other people with anxiety problems, because, well, they’re not very hard to find, and tend to desperately seek help after a certain point, and I’ve learned a lot from them.

I encourage you to take what I am telling you with a grain of salt and realize that it is skewed by my own particular experi-

76 ACADEMIC PAPER CONTEST / THIS TALK WAS ORIGINALLY GIVEN AT THE 2011 WELLS COLLEGE ACTIVISM SYMPOSIUM

ences, but to try to apply this to your own situation. I am not just making this stuff up; all these ideas are things that I’ve read again and again from various disciplines, eras, and cultures, and observed to be true in my own experience. Some of it may seem completely obvious, and you will ask yourself why you wasted your time by coming to see me, and some of it may sound completely absurd. A lot of it is blatantly opinionated (rest assured,

you will recognize these moments), but there were no guidelines for this talk, so I’ll take some liberties. Considering my audience, I thought it would be fine to talk very informally and not really censor myself. At all. I am not ashamed of my beliefs, and I say what I think needs to be said.

I’m giving this talk because I think I may have the ability to help other people, and I feel morally obligated to do so. I’m only THE SYCAMORE / SPRING 2011 77

doing what I think is best. In ten or twenty years, maybe I will realize that this is all bullshit. I’m open to that possibility. But this is what helped me, and I guarantee you that if you do what I say, you will be happier.

WHY DOES EVERYONE HAVE ANXIETY DISORDER NOWADAYS?

I can quote you stats and figures, but I think you all know that Western society is being overrun by what is being called an “anxiety epidemic.” In fact, most of the people I know, if I talk to them enough, have revealed that they’ve had a few panic attacks, are on Lexapro or Zoloft, or struggle on a daily basis to keep their stress and anxiety under control. Every month, it seems, the list of people I know that are on antidepressants or anxiolitics gets longer and longer. But I’ll talk more about medication later on.

Why do we feel anxiety? A certain amount of it is inevitable and necessary to survive. Most animals rely, to some extent, on panic reactions to keep them safe. It’s a survival mechanism. In today’s world, our panic and anxiety reaction is overloaded with constant stimulation. The fear of being eaten by a lion, a very appropriate fear, is not any different to your body and your unconscious than the fear of passing out while giving a presentation, or of failing a test and not making it into Harvard. Our present-day world is much more “dangerous” to the body and the unconscious than the world in which humans evolved the panic reflex.

This is one of the major reasons why people today have so much anxiety. But this doesn’t account for everything—the problem seems to have spiraled out of control in the last few decades.

In my humble opinion, the Internet has a lot to do with this.

The invention of the Internet is perhaps the most socially significant single event to happen—ever. Or it may one day be seen that way. A clear indicator of its significance is the fact that the word “internet” (with a lowercase I) gets underlined in red in my word processor. One thinker (who, perhaps not coincidentally, has publicly admitted that he suffers from panic attacks and anxiety problems) describes the effect that the Internet has had on society as a “subjective shift”—he speaks of the “pathological Narcissus” who, “threatened by every encounter with the Other’s desire … endeavors to live in the … computer universe [in which they are free to change their identity at will, and] in which no link is effectively binding, since [one] can at any moment withdraw from any ‘relationship’ [like ‘unfriending’ someone on Facebook]” (Žižek). Whether you think this is all bullshit or not, you should have a tough time denying that the Internet has changed the way most people think and act. Digital entertainment has pampered our brains to be accustomed to constant stimulation. A personal example of the deleterious effects of constant stimulation on 78 ACADEMIC PAPER CONTEST

one’s mental health is the fact that I cannot meditate after being on the computer for an extended period of time.

I am not saying that the Internet is evil and we should destroy it or anything like that. I love the Internet. But like anything else, it needs to be taken in moderation. If you desire to be happy and productive in the real world (which some people truly don’t, and that’s okay), I suggest you take a break from constant digital stimulation and reteach your brain how to relax. If it doesn’t know how now, it used to, and it can learn again. Sitting down and looking at a computer screen for five hours or more every day is obviously not healthy, and is not what the human mind or body was made to do.

Social networking sites like Facebook can be incredibly useful when used correctly. By “correctly,” I mean using them to connect with old friends, keep in contact with current ones, organize events, etc. What Facebook should not be used for is to meticulously mold a virtual identity for yourself like the aforementioned “pathological narcissus.” (It should also not be used by corporations as a marketing experiment, but that’s for another talk.)

Clinging to a particular identity, trying to be someone or something, not only will inevitably fail, but is very unhealthy and leads to a lot of anxiety. Worrying about how other people perceive you can quickly become torturously and addictively consuming.

I have to believe that this sort of obsession is a major factor in the development of anorexia nervosa. The good news is, one of the most important things I’m going to talk about is how to jettison the unnecessary worry over self-image. Facebook and social networking sites themselves are not responsible for raising the public anxiety level to an absurd degree. What is responsible is self-obsession, which is often engendered by such web sites and institutions. I don’t mean self-obsession like being in love with yourself. I actually mean the opposite. I mean being constantly vigilant of your every move, your every thought, of how other people are perceiving you, and constantly berating yourself for not living up to your expectations or goals.

But I stray. Regardless of why, it is a documented medical fact that anxiety disorder has gotten out of control in the past few decades. It could be, of course, that people have always had anxiety disorder and that (a) now we have names for their disorders and formal diagnoses, so it just seems like more people have anxiety (b) more people are willing to talk about their problems to a doctor, or (c) pharmaceutical companies are making things look worse than they are in order to get people to buy their pills. But even if all three of those points are true, it doesn’t matter; people still need help dealing with what can be a horribly debilitating problem.

As corporations have demonstrated time and time again, they don’t care about you. They don’t care about anything, in fact, be-

sides making as much money as possible. I refer you to the movie The Corporation, which posits that because corporations are legally “persons,” they are also clinically psychopaths. Pharmaceutical corporations do not care if people get better or not. They only care that you buy their product. But hey, there is one way that pharmaceutical corporations have helped me: they have helped to give my life meaning by giving me something to justifiably hate with every ounce of my being. At the risk of sounding like a crazed conspiracy theorist, it is quite possible that pharmaceutical corporations either are directly contributing to the current rise in anxiety disorders or are sitting idly by and profiting off of your misery, giving you medications that will keep you coming back and paying more and more. It would not surprise me.

Western psychiatry is a perfect example of why the health care industry cannot be a capitalist endeavor. Healing people for the greater good of mankind has become dominated by the personal quest for unreasonable wealth and profit. I hope that by the time I die, we will be looking back at the state of American psychiatry in the early twenty-first century and marveling at the primitive practice of giving profoundly unhappy people some pills and expecting them to get better. I am not completely opposed to medication, but I think it should be a last resort. After you have sincerely made an effort to overcome your anxiety, and it is still not working or you feel like you need more help, short-term medication may be able to help you. But I’m not sure I even really believe that. I think—in fact I know—that everyone has the necessary tools at their disposal to be happy.

I’m not just injecting my own anti-capitalist sentiments into this talk for the greater Communist good or something like that, although I will unabashedly and wholeheartedly tell you that I truly, truly hate corporate capitalism, and I have never heard a convincing argument in favor of it. I believe that capitalism and anxiety disorder are intimately linked. Every religious tradition in the world that I know about, even Christianity, in which most of the Western world professes faith—in fact, especially Christianity—stresses the point again and again that money does not lead to happiness. Jesus says that it is more likely for a camel to fit through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to get into heaven. Slavoj Žižek, the same thinker that I quoted earlier about the “pathological narcissus,” also said that Western society maintains a thin veneer of Christianity, but our true religion is the quest for profit. The search for unreasonable amounts of money, according to him, is what truly gives our lives meaning. That is a very unhealthy way to go about living. Measuring your own value with a numerical standard can be quite discouraging.

IF YOU WANT TO BE HAPPY, GIVE UP THE QUEST FOR MORE MONEY THAN YOU NEED TO BE REASONABLY COMFORTABLE. The more money you make and the more obsessed you become with profiteering, the greater the void of unhappiness within you will grow and the farther you will get from real, inner success.

Also, I have to mention 9/11. This event shook up a whole generation of Americans very badly, and to give a talk about why everyone is so anxious today without mentioning this monumentally tragic occasion would be a significant oversight. Without any disrespect to the victims, I will simply say that fear is a powerful tool and our government and corporations, between which I have a hard time discerning, have made good use of it.

The bottom line is our culture is sick—sick with greed, vanity, obsession, nihilism, the corporation virus, and a whole lot more.

This brings me to the idea of “inner activism.” Yes, the world is going to shit—but smart people have felt this way since the beginning of time. The stakes are higher now, but the effect of this impending-apocalypse viewpoint on the psyche hasn’t changed.

“Change yourself and you change the world,” “Help yourself before you help others”—I’ve heard these saying my whole life, but didn’t realize their true profundity until not so long ago. I believe that there is no greater activism, perhaps no other activism at all, besides helping yourself become happier. Suffice it to say for now that, in a very non-abstract and quite rational sense, helping yourself is one and the same as helping the world. I’ll return to this idea later on in the talk.

SO, WHAT’S THE BIG SECRET? HOW DO YOU GET OVER AN ANXIETY DISORDER? These are the things have worked for me. I tried to describe one strategy at a time without rambling too much.

LEARN TO OBSERVE YOUR THOUGHTS If you only pay attention to one part of this talk, if you only do one thing that I say, do this. Learn to observe your thoughts.

Don’t react to them any more than you have to. Be like two separate people: one who is undergoing gut panic reactions, and one who is observing those reactions. The I and the Me. This may sound suspiciously like paranoid schizophrenia, but I assure you, it is quite healthy. I learned about this technique from a Tibetan Buddhist teacher and writer, who is most assuredly not psychotic in any way. When you feel a jolt of panic, say to yourself, “that is panic,” and feel it, be with it, and it will pass. Don’t project into THE SYCAMORE / SPRING 2011 79

the future, don’t worry about anxiety itself getting worse, which is a self-fulfilling prophecy if there ever was one. Feel the anxiety, accept it, be one with it, and move on. It passes, and you will be okay again.

This is, of course, much harder than it sounds, and will take you a very long time to get good at it. However, if you start working earnestly, you will see immediate results. Don’t worry that you don’t have the work ethic or discipline to begin doing this, because you do. There is no easy way to get better from anxiety disorders. So don’t waste your time looking for one. Instead, meditate. Every day. Meditation will teach you how to gain some control over your spastic, wandering, easily distracted, made-inthe-late-twentieth-century mind. It is miraculously healthy. Even if you are not really meditating, which you most likely will not be doing for a long time if you have never tried before, just sitting quietly by yourself for ten or fifteen or twenty minutes is still very healthy. (You can find simple instructions for meditation for free on the Internet, but I suggest you find an actual book.) Also, dance. It’s hard to be unhappy while you are dancing. Trust me, I know how hard this can be. Do I look like I am a great dancer?

Trust me, it’s good for you.

If you have been suffering from anxiety for long enough, you know that it comes and goes in waves and gets better and worse again as time goes on. I am pleased to tell you that you can end that cycle and live constantly in the low anxiety levels. This is because high anxiety is not your natural state. Your natural state is one of relaxation, ease, and calm. Take great solace in the fact that relaxation is your natural state. If our natural state was one of tension and anxiety, we would be screwed. You have been perfectly relaxed before. You know what it’s like, and you can know again.

It took your brain years of training to become as anxious as it is now. The good news is that apparently, from what I have read, it doesn’t matter how long you have been struggling with anxiety, because you can always get better, and your recovery time doesn’t depend on the length of your “illness.” However, you will not get better unless you actively do something about it. I learned this the hard way. You can take pills, and they may numb your symptoms for a few months or years before they inevitably stop working, but the underlying cause will still be there.

I should probably clarify that what I am asking you to do is, at least initially, not “overcoming” or “defeating” anxiety disorders. I have not done that yet, but I imagine and am told that it comes with time. What I want you to do, and what I have done, is to accept anxiety into your life. Realize that the anxiety will not last forever; it is part of being alive, of living and feeling, and you should just experience it and be happy to be alive at all. No matter how anxious you get, remember that you will be perfectly relaxed again, and probably sometime soon. I once thought that I had permanently lost my mind, only to discover, minutes later, that I was perfectly fine. You absolutely cannot go crazy or die from having a panic attack. It has never happened. It won’t ever happen. It’s impossible.

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FIND A PLACE OF PERFECT RELAXATION Reaching a mental state in which you know everything is okay, even once or twice for a short period of time, will aid you immensely in overcoming anxiety. To do this, you first have to actually realize that there is really nothing to worry about. Not only realize this, but feel it. It was very important for me to realize that there is no good reason (although there are many bad ones), upon final examination, that I should be anything other than happy.

Not just because I have food, clothing, shelter, friends, etc.—although this is also an important realization—but because on a cosmic, universal, philosophical, but also mundane, daily, pedestrian level, there is nothing to worry about. If you truly see past your cultural conditioning, which is not so impossible as it sounds, you will be happy and relaxed. If you are unhappy, it is for one of two reasons: either a concrete, actually existing threat to your well-being, like lack of shelter or food, or because your social conditioning is telling you that you should be unhappy. If you can get past all the “superego” or “Big Other” commands on yourself as we say in psychoanalysis, you will realize that you are lacking nothing, that you have everything necessary to live a happy and fulfilled life.

Just as much as anything else, anxiety disorder is a social construction. The average human has anxiety all right, and they always have—just look at the books of Jeremiah, Job, and Ecclesiastes from the Old Testament. These are harrowing descriptions of existential anxiety. But the normal human state, again, is not anxious. If you are suffering from overwhelming anxiety, unless it is drug-induced or from some kind of medical anomaly, it is from social conditioning. But you protest: “Just because it is socially conditioned, that does not make it false. I am actually impoverished, I actually cannot pay to go to college, my girlfriend is actually leaving me, my husband actually abuses me, I am actually an alcoholic, etc., and all of your philosophical bullshit cannot help me.” I can’t say that I know what it’s like to suffer from really existing horrible circumstances like the ones I described. But I can try to understand. This talk may be aimed at people who already have the necessary components of a happy life, like food and shelter, but it can help everyone. If you can realize that no matter what you go through during your lifetime, your basic ability to be happy will never be affected, then you can begin to accept your situation with much more confidence and dignity. According to Giri Bala, a yogini (female yogi) who reportedly did not eat for over five decades, “It appears that misery, starvation, and disease are whips of our karma that ultimately drive us to seek the true meaning of life.” Every time something you perceive as terrible happens to you, stop and think about how it is an opportunity to grow.

STOP WORRYING OVER HOW OTHERS PERCEIVE YOU

UNITE YOURSELF WITH YOUR SELF

The only way to do this is to realize the profound philosophical truth that it truly just doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is whether or not you are happy, not whether or not your personal choices please other people. Having taken a few philosophy classes, I feel like I have to defend myself from the obvious attack that I now have coming. “Do whatever makes you happy?” you are screaming at me in the name of all that is rational. “Well, what if I want to go murder and rape and pillage and blah blah blah?

Your ethical system, my good sir, is logically invalid.” If you are at a point where you realize that on a cosmic level the only thing that matters is whether or not you are happy, you will not be raping and pillaging. You will most likely keep doing what you have always done, or always wish you had been doing, but just not be uptight and worried about what other people think.

Jacques Lacan, a stuffy French psychoanalytic theorist and one of my personal intellectual heroes, formulated the “law of desire.”

He was characteristically vague about what this actually meant, but he seems to have struck a balance between obeying the every whim of your unconscious (which of course would not go so well if we are to believe Freud) and between just doing whatever society tells you, which is almost always terribly unhealthy. To do this is to follow the law of desire. According to Lacan, there is no authority in the universe besides what you feel will make you happy.

And he’s right, according to personal experience and all the other philosophy I’ve read that’s worth its salt. In a universe that gives us no clear moral guidelines, in which we are seemingly “all on our own,” a universe where God is dead, as Nietzsche would say, what is capital-T True becomes that which makes you happy.

Why not? If anything is as true or real as anything else, choose to believe that which makes you happy—but don’t forget that everything else is equally valid. According to this logic, any time you think or say something that takes a negative stance, you’re wrong.

Any time you panic or get overly anxious, you’re wrong. Don’t try to work out and solve all of your anxieties—realize that they are all already solved. I think that’s a pretty good logic, a pretty good measure of truth to go by, if they’re all equally valid anyway.

Also, I feel like I should mention this: people seem to suffer from a whole lot of anxiety over relationships. Is he or she “the One”? Am I doing the right thing by dating or marrying this person? I think that this quest for that “perfect someone” is actually very unhealthy and will likely lead you to a lifetime of secondguessing and frustration. Stop looking for a perfect partner. As the cliché goes, you can’t love someone else until you love yourself. And once you love yourself, you can be in love with anyone who is agreeable to you. Find someone like that and love them, and don’t worry about it. If the relationship is abusive or harmful, that’s a different story. But if it’s not, and you are merely obsessively asking yourself if your partner is “the One,” well, they are.

Put another way—unite your ego with your unconscious. Or another way—unite your mind and your heart. Or yet another way—listen to your gut, to what your body and “soul” seem to be telling you, and incorporate that into your self-consciousness.

This will make you happier and less anxious. If you repress your subconscious urges, they will come out another way. Like anxiety, depression, anger, nervous tics, back pain, etc., etc., ad infinitum.

This is one of the first lessons of psychoanalysis. This idea ties in with the law of desire that I mentioned earlier—what do you have to go off of besides your ego, social influence, and your unconscious? Nothing, that’s what.

The best way that I can think of to do this is to realize how much of your own identity has been based off of what you despise in other people. A lot of people nowadays form their identities entirely as a gut reaction to the “stupid” people around them. Just look at American politics. Why do Democrats and Republicans believe what they do? Because it’s the opposite of what the other people believe. Resentment is easy, satisfying, and it gives us meaning and makes us feel fulfilled, and we have been trained to be resentful; our culture is notorious, after all, for laying the blame on others. But as satisfying as it is, resentment is like junk food for your ego. Resentment and stubbornness are the ultimate forms of delusion in what Hindus call maya: the world of human social construction. Once you begin to realize what is actually “you” and what is just a reaction to other people’s identity choices, you can begin to bring your consciousness and unconsciousness into harmony.

Get over your resentment. It can be all-consuming, but with one moment of realization and a good while of practice and observing your thoughts, you can get over it for good. It’s unhealthy, it’s wrong, and it causes a lot of problems.

REALIZE THAT YOU ARE NOT ACTUALLY AN INDIVIDUAL If you go to Wells, or if you are up to date on either current postmodern philosophy or international cultural policy, and are not a racist, you will agree that identity is at least partly a social construct. You are the way you are because you were brought up in your particular time, in your particular place. I don’t have time to go into the particulars of this argument, but basically that’s it.

This can seem kind of claustrophobic and sort of like The Matrix at first, but it is one of the most empowering and comforting facts of life. You are part of something larger than yourself. You are made from it, you contribute to it, and you live it. Your identity is a reaction to and amalgamation of everything that has ever happened before you. The Kybalion, an anonymous work of Western mystical religious philosophy, has some comforting words to this affect: “So, do not feel insecure or afraid – we are all HELD FIRMLY IN THE INFINITE MIND OF THE ALL, and THE SYCAMORE / SPRING 2011 81

there is naught to hurt us or for us to fear. There is no Power outside of the THE ALL to affect us. So we may rest calm and secure. There is a world of comfort and security in this realization when once attained” (Three Initiates 47).

While I have the floor, and you all have to listen to me: Objectivism. Ayn Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism is the clearest expression of the fundamental misunderstandings present in Western thought that we have yet to produce; it is the opposite of realizing that you are not actually an individual. Objectivism is about being the proverbial “island” and thinking that all of the amazing things you do are done by you alone, and no one has helped you or contributed to your success. And so, Ayn Rand, I thank you for your example, and for nothing else.

What does this hippie crap about becoming One with everything have to do with anxiety disorder? Well, it’s a really good reason not to worry about anything. Don’t resent other people— you are those other people, in a way. We’re all in this together; we’re all part of the same “over-soul” as the transcendentalists call it. It has many, many names. As The Kybalion says, take great solace in this fact. This brings me back to the idea of inner activism. We are all connected, we are all One. Every time you make yourself happier, you contribute to the grand total of happiness in the world and make the “over-soul” a little bit nicer of a place to hang out under. Every time you become more relaxed, the world becomes more relaxed with you. Sri Yukteswar, a famous Hindu Guru, said that an enlightened person, even if they are totally cut off from the rest of society, affects the whole world with his subtle spiritual vibrations. You don’t have to believe this literally—but metaphorically, it is a powerful statement.

Also, as a brief note, the currently popular theories of identity politics seem to me unintentionally harmful. Rather than helping to realize the contingency and emptiness of their own identities, and to be at peace with this idea, identity politics helps people to cling to notions of themselves and their own importance.

ALL THE BASICS Of course, making sure you are physically healthy is vitally important to overcoming anxiety. Cover all the bases. Sleep regularly, eat three big healthy meals a day, don’t eat junk food, exercise at least a little bit, avoid soda, excess coffee, or other stimulants, etc., etc. Interacting with other people on a regular basis is also very important. If your anxiety is not totally overwhelming, and you just have a generally unwell, nervous, shaky disposition all the time and you don’t know why, this may be all you need to do.

Trust me, sleeping and eating well can make a huge difference.

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SOME FINAL WORDS You may notice that I used a lot of vocabulary from the world of psychoanalysis in this talk. What you probably haven’t noticed is that all the ideas I discussed are included somewhere in the psychoanalytical discourse. But “Psychoanalysis!” you say to yourself.

The crazed, perverted ramblings of a sex-obsessed Victorian-era bearded German pervert, and something about a cigar being like a penis, is probably what comes to mind. Psychoanalysis has absolutely fallen out of favor as an actual medical practice, probably due mostly to the fact that the analytic process takes a long time and is not as lucrative as drug-based therapy. It’s difficult, uncomfortable, and it can take decades, in some cases, to actually work.

But it takes decades to become unhappy, too. And the changes that psychoanalysis brings about in the patient are truly profound, a substantive change in the way that the patient perceives the world. Drugs (at least the kinds that doctors are allowed to give you) can’t do that. Psychoanalysis may have its second foot almost in the grave as a medical practice at this point, but as a body of theory, it has never been more alive.

I also talked a lot about religion. “Religion!” you are saying to yourself. “Dogmatic clinging to a father-like authority to make you feel better about the fact that there is nothing to look forward to after death, there is no higher meaning, etc., etc. A mere coward’s way out of anxiety that you just better deal with, because that’s life. God is dead!” Point taken. But that’s not the kind of religion I’m talking about. My kind of religion has no dogma, no beliefs, no blind faith. My kind of religion is about embracing the pointlessness, the big Nothing that we have to look forward to, the void, as the very best thing about being alive. It’s about realizing that your mundane, everyday life, no matter how terrible you may think it is, is already the kingdom of God, Nirvana, the world to come, Enlightenment, etc. I used to be a fiery, cynical, resentful atheist. And part of me still is, and always will be.

What passes for “religion” these days is downright sickening, and comes close to as pure an evil as pharmaceutical corporations.

(Pharmaceutical corporations know very well what they are doing. As for the religious, sometimes I can “forgive them, for they know not what they do.”) But I asked myself why I was such a passionate atheist, and I realized that it was mostly because I despise the religious people that I see on TV and read about in the news. But there’s more to religion than the blind obeisance of the fundamentalists you see on Fox News. We just tend to overlook it because, as I have said before, these kinds of people are easy to resent, and resentment is fun, fast, easy, and immediately satisfying. I decided to give religion a fair chance, and I was pleasantly surprised. I, for one, have decided to devote my life to studying psychoanalysis and religion, if I can somehow get enough money together to go to grad school (but I won’t get into another anticapitalist rant right now, although I am tempted). I take this stuff

very seriously, and I can understand why other people don’t, but I think they need to look a little harder.

Also: Doctors would object to most of this talk with their killer argument that anxiety disorder is caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain, and that’s that, so take these pills, come back and see me again in two weeks for fifteen minutes (which is the actual length of a psychiatric session today). Well, they’re wrong. Anxiety disorder causes a chemical imbalance in the brain, or it can be aided in its development by an initially existing, inherited chemical imbalance in the brain. It’s not something you “just have”; it’s something that you develop by repeated negative thinking—and it’s something you can overcome. There are times when the Western scientific paradigm’s obsession with rationality and empiricism can actually get in the way of Reason. This is one of those times. I think Buddhists are closer to the truth here—they would probably say that anxiety disorder is a result of bad karma. And, well, isn’t it? It comes from the culture that everyone around you has created, it comes from your parents and grandparents being anxious and having undisciplined minds, and it comes from the way you teach your brain to react to stimuli. Anxiety disorder is learned. It’s not natural, and it can be unlearned.

There’s one final point I’d like to make. Your anxiety disorder is the best thing that ever happened to you. Without it, you wouldn’t grow; you would just stay stagnant, complacent, and unhappy. Zen Master Dōgen said, “For sentient beings on earth, the more dirt there is, the larger the Buddha can be.” He means that the worse you think your life is right now, the better it will be when you wake up to the beauty all around you. Anxiety disorder can change you into gold. It is the philosopher’s stone of mental alchemy. An anxiety epidemic may be the best thing that could ever happen to American culture—it’s exactly what we need to grow out of its current destructively backward trend. If you don’t do anything about anxiety disorder, it won’t get any better. It will get worse and worse, and eventually you will do something about it. For your own sake, and for the sake of us all, be an inner activist and do it sooner rather than later. • WORKS CITED Three Initiates. The Kybalion: a study of the hermetic philosophy of ancient Egypt and Greece. New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin, 2008. Print. Žižek, Slavoj. “On Virtual Sex and Related Matters.” ARS Electronica. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2011. <http://www.aec.at/archiv_ project_en.php?id=8620

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FOR OUR VIEW

By Christine Becker

We always knew my sister would get herself on television one day.

She was always the prettiest. She just had that kind of face; it would probably make a mugshot look beautiful.

Most everyone thought she was an engineered baby. That our parents had handpicked her beauty in a selection process tailored to give her the best traits possible. That she was beautiful on purpose, and not entirely on accident.

When our parents were young, the procedure was still a novelty. They were a generation too far removed to believe that manufactured genetic beauty would ever catch on. By the end of the century, everyone would look back and laugh.

Science, they said, would help people in better ways than a brighter set of eyes. She might have had the face for television, but she had the heart to do whatever she wanted.

It was probably easy for my sister to believe their consolation when they assuaged her that it was far better to be natural, that the beautiful is in the real.

For someone like me, born with my elephant ears and a crooked, bulbous nose, and nothing to my face but the sharp rounds of the apples in my cheeks, it was harder to understand. There was a point at which I might have traded a pound of authenticity for an ounce of gorgeous.

“But Maya,” they would say to me then, “jealousy will make you ugly.”

My parents meant well. I really think they did.

There was some novelty in it, mixed in with the pride. Did you see my daughter on the news last night? She was the focal point of all my father’s Friday morning water cooler discussions. His coworkers congratulated him on raising her so well: such an ambitious, career-oriented young woman.

And so photogenic! our aunts and uncles would say.

Our younger brother’s friends all found her too beautiful to talk to. Junior Reporter Nina, a genuine television star, was too cool for any of Aidan’s crowd to see as an intrusive, overbearing older sister.

I was still in school at the time, and her successes set the bar high for my inevitable failures. I did not get the advanced placement journalism internship or the full scholarships to study at schools beyond the scope of my ambition. My shortcomings bothered me only in that I fell so far behind.

I wasn’t passionate about journalism.

Or much of anything, really.

But she was beautiful to look at and I loved to hear the news turn familiar and comforting in the well-known curves of her voice. When my sister was on television, I was closer to her than I’d ever been.

When her engagement with the news station terminated suddenly—no one was really interested in the news, not the way they told it, not anymore—they told her someone who looked like she did would have no trouble getting plenty of work anywhere.

During her brief employment with the evening news, my sister was virtually glowing. They introduced her as “Junior Reporter Nina Graham” and she beamed, lit up like a sea of candles, a burning river of fire.

Watching her became a family activity.

Her face took up the better half of the wall in our den, the depth and shadows in her skin as mysterious and cruel as stars even at such a scrutinizing distance. She spoke seriously and strongly, and her eyes cut through the screen to connect with each and every one of us at home.

She wound up selling knickknacks in the after-midnight slot to the under-thirty crowd.

It was a niche shopping program appealing to the demographic associated with the forward-thinking, creative, independent young men fighting a daily battle not to waste their lives in a wave of apathy on their parents’ sofas. Gamers, techies, electronic entrepreneurs living and breathing on the newest and the best; she was selling to all of them.

The channel was called The Edge, formerly The Cutting Edge, and it prided itself on being more modern than any other home

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WERS AT HOME shopping network in the country, having the corner market on the stylish, young crowd, while everyone else sold kitsch to housewives and old women. The Edge was fast lane, sharp and brusque.

My sister looked amazing in the business suits with fakecorseted tops they made her wear, the grommets blossoming like tiny waterbound flowers in the material.

Ginger Graham, or GG, with her strawberry blond but not really ginger hair, wore her blouse with the top three buttons undone. The counter for sales made climbed up and up under the platform of her magenta pumps. She was taller than her cohost, who was always doing something to change the way she looked, first pink-haired and pierced through the nostril, then, a week later, sporting an enigmatic platinum blond fringe. Her show name was Trixie and I just called her Try-Hard.

The first time I saw my sister on this show she was selling figurines of beautiful women and replica swords. They were miniatures, recreations of the props from a movie I had never watched before. I didn’t even know if it was any good, but the sales climbed on beneath a montage of saleswomen trying to model the product.

“And this is great!” It took time to recognize the voice as my sister’s; it was so precocious and bubbly. She was leaning across the top of a sound system the size of my childhood bedroom.

“We think you’ll really like this one.” A basement surround sound set-up; subterranean subwoofers. Price reduced for a limited time only. Installation fee included. Continental shipping only. My sister’s legs draped across the durable black top, her pumps dangling like hazardous stones off the side of a cliff.

I wasn’t interested in buying anything they sold, but I couldn’t bring myself to change the channel. My sister pulled her cropped suit jacket tight around her shoulders and rattled off specifications as though she was reciting the news.

The next time I saw our brother, he asked me what she was up to.

“I think she’s doing retail,” I said.

THE SYCAMORE / SPRING 2011 85

I think I was the only one who found out. My parents never saw or never spoke about it. I wasn’t about to breach the subject. I wouldn’t know how to go about bringing it up, and The Edge remained half secret, half shameful jealousy.

When I finally told my sister, her eyes were the size of moons.

“I didn’t think anyone knew about that.”

I told her, if she wanted, it would be like I never had, either.

There was something lovely about keeping it to myself, like I might somehow share in the success that had once been diluted by water cooler bragging rights and the need to impress friends.

There was something comforting in it for her, too, knowing that I knew. Once in a while, she would call me from far away on the other side of the city, or we’d meet for lunch in a restaurant where everyone’s eyes gravitated to her flash, her burning, beautiful spark.

“Hi, Nina,” I had said the first time, her face registering it slowly, confused and startled all at once.

“You have no idea what it’s like to hear someone call me that,” she sighed.

I hadn’t known she’d be so offended.

“Here’s something for all the movie buffs out there!” she announced a few nights later, her eyes smoky with color and her hair pin-curled like a starlet’s. “You can have the experience in the comfort of your own home with this top-of-the-line date night assembly!”

My sister’s cohost was rapidly disappearing. I hardly noticed her anymore when she was there, and half the time she had no part at all. Tonight, my sister was flying solo, like Junior Reporter Nina all over again.

I could see the boldness and the bravery I’d never be able to muster resurfacing in her with each eager passing moment, and the counter by her skinny thigh increased in non-sequential increments, jumping up by fives.

Brand new. Fits any space, even a studio apartment. Over 100,000 sold already. They left the seat next to my sister open, where she hooked her knees across the arm. Her eyes fluttered, unfathomable, darting across the airwaves and cables and miles to look each and every viewer dead-on.

The next night, they added a no-date clause to her contract.

“I have to be available,” she told me.

“You think it’s a crock, but sex really sells,” my sister reassured me one night. My fiancé was gone for the week, and Nina spent four nights in a row sleeping on the couch in our apartment, wrapped in our spare blankets with my cat on her lap. I made her dinner and we ate on the roof, where she threw food to the pigeons. “You can put anything in a tight top and it looks more appealing. Put something next to anything in a tight top, it’s the same principle.

Oldest trick in the book.”

She flicked the crust of her bread into hundreds of tiny pieces, like grains of sand, and scattered them across the roof. As if magnetized, the birds flocked to her in small, stupid, like-minded groups, fighting with one another for the largest piece. Big and awkward, one of the slower ones tripped over itself, and I remember she laughed at that.

I watched the angles of her knees as she drew her long runner’s limbs up, tucking them to her chest.

“And I get amazing kickbacks,” she added. “I get last generation’s everything. It’s a pretty good deal.”

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Her eyes reflected the birds as something—the cat, perhaps— startled them and they took off into the night.

“Say,” she said, like reading a particularly surprising headline, “did you know that there’s a new, noninvasive implant procedure?” They were encouraging all of their sellers to look into getting something done.

I told her I was considering it myself, and I had never seen her so angry.

Her calls tapered off and eventually stopped entirely. She didn’t come to the wedding, having given up on those of us too mean and menial to understand.

It cut my father deeper than the rest of us, but how could I tell him? Our televised secret had gone on too long, like a very tired lie or unsettled business.

At night, when my husband was sleeping, I made a ritual of sneaking out to watch her sell and sell, figuring it would be easier to be jealous, to hate her.

Only after I heard her speak a few times, reporting on a wine bar as though it were a humanitarian effort in some poor rural community, did I remember how to spot her.

People were still buying, and my sister kept selling, her efforts banking on the oldest method on record.

Eventually, I stopped tuning in.

I caught her show in a bar once a few months later. It was a Wednesday; the lights were low, orange, lonely. One a.m. crawled up like a slug, the night building slow and heavy. Everything rose in a foggy heat and the moon went into hiding behind a swath of clouds.

My sister was selling a virtual reality game—price reduced— that featured a new, hands-free control system. Voice activated command system. Better motion simulation. She accentuated “hands-free” by spreading her arms wide, palms turned up and pliant.

Halfway down the bar, a man too many beers in watched her like she was selling meat, his forehead occasionally creasing as though he was suddenly guilty, worried, supposed to turn away.

“You look at girls like that and wonder how they can be so lonely,” he said.

I said nothing. The counter climbed and climbed. My sister was introducing the representative of a major corporation, and with his eyes not level on her face, he disclosed the details of the latest in home microbrewery.

“I mean,” the man said to the bartender, “a girl like that, they have to be all over her.”

I thought of how dark and deep my sister’s eyes had to be that I could see pigeons reflected in them.

But how perfect she looked. How she shined! •

CHRIS BECKER is a senior English major with a concentration in Creative Writing.

From Maps to Garmins A BRIEF HISTORY OF NAVIGATION

By Jillian Fields

W

ith the rise of the GPS came the death of the most infuriating part of road trips—the constant question: are we there yet?

While today’s children can still ask that question to their heart’s content, the response is hardly as satisfying as it was in our childhood. These days, a definite time of arrival can be given in response, as can the elevation, speed, and assorted other variables—all from one 2x5-inch device. The map has virtually disappeared, much to the chagrin of those among us who prefer the hard copy to the glossy-screened apparatus. It is rare to see a car pass by that does not have a GPS perched on a stand in the dashboard area, and the dependence on these devices is increasing rapidly. This fact is irrefutable, but how much of an issue it can be is up for debate.

The degree of dependency that currently rests upon the GPS makes some forgetful of the role of the map. The earliest maps were made on Babylonian clay tablets as early as 2300 B.C. The Ancient Greeks, however, were considered the primary progenitors of cartography. In fact, Ptolemy’s Map of the World, created in A.D. 150, was considered the ultimate authority until the Renaissance. Maps were not a good source of navigation on the open seas, however; thus, the majority of early navigation methods were based off of the celestial sphere, which was always accessible and reliable as long as the night was clear. Devices such as the astrolabe, which determined latitude, were developed and used.

The astrolabe was originally developed by the Greeks, but was improved in the Middle East.

There are many other devices of varying origins and simplicity.

The ancient Greeks developed the concept of latitude and longitude, which became an invaluable tool of navigation and was used as a measure for almost all of the devices developed afterwards.

One of the most remarkable inventions, especially in regards to simplicity, is the kamal. The kamal was developed in the Middle East and consists of a small, rectangular, carved piece of wood attached to a length of rope. When leaving his home port, a sailor would hold the kamal up, positioning the wood so that Polaris was visible over it, and then tie a knot in the rope, which he could hold with his teeth to standardize the distance. When returning to his home port, he would hold the kamal up again until he discovered the same altitude of Polaris, and then sail that latitude back to port.

The next major invention for navigation was the magnetic compass, which allowed people to find north, whether on land or at sea. The compass was invented in China and was originally used in fortune telling during the time of the Qin Dynasty.

Technology progressed over the years and the compass as we now know it became widely used by sailors sometime between A.D. 850 and 1050.

The map itself has changed greatly over the years. During the Medieval period, the focus of the European map was greatly influenced by religion, with Jerusalem always in the center, and east always at the top. The Arabic maps of this time were more realistic in regards to the lands in that region and those of the Mediterranean region. At this point in time, maps were still rare, THE SYCAMORE / SPRING 2011 87

as they were all made by hand. The Renaissance brought about the practice of printing maps on the printing press. In the fifteenth century, the printing was done by wooden blocks, but by the sixteenth century, the printing had advanced to engraved copper plates, which allowed for more detailed images to be massproduced. In 1507, after the discovery of the Americas, Martin Waldseemüller created the first world map. Scientific methods were applied between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries, making maps much more accurate, though it was not until World War I and aerial photography that many areas of the world were actually charted. The modern practices of cartography and navigation involve a combination of observation, remote sensing, and satellites. The first navigational satellite was launched in 1960 for the United States Navy. In 1978, the first of the GPS satellites were launched, and the constellation—which includes twentyfour satellites—became operational in 1990, was completed in 1994, and was announced to be fully operational in 1995, ushering in a new age of navigation. The world’s first in-car navigational system was completed in 1990, though the portable handheld GPS that we all know today did not become popular until several years later. A 2008 news article stated that, “The number of GPSenabled handsets is set to more than triple during the next five years” (Meyer). There is hardly a doubt that they were correct. It is increasingly rare to find a family that does not own a GPS or have one built into their car.

The traditional map offers several advantages that the GPS will never be able to provide. For one, there are no concerns about losing satellite reception while driving along the back roads of a rural area. Also, the ever-elusive charger will never prevent a traveler from successfully navigating a trip. Maps do not need to be plugged into a computer and updated every few months, and a map allows the navigator to clearly see all paths to a desired destination, and perhaps choose an alternate route that is more familiar or comfortable. A GPS will almost always select main roads and highways, but a map offers a view of the surrounding area which may lead to a more pleasant drive on less heavily 88 HISTORY

traveled roads. For others, the appeal may simply lie in the lack of technology. Many people consider themselves inept in terms of technology and do not enjoy the process of setting up their GPS, changing the settings, or dealing with one of the unavoidable facts of life—technology breaks, frequently and invariably.

The map is not always the best option if traveling alone; driving down the highway while fumbling with a map is a recipe for disaster, especially at night. Maps are also a mess, plain and simple.

Attempting to return one to its original state after use is nearly impossible, and wear and tear is inevitable. Orientation can also be a problem when it comes to navigation via maps. One of the most common cinema clichés is a person attempting to navigate with the map flipped upside down, a likely danger for one unfamiliar with—or not in the possession of—a compass. Unfamiliar areas make orientation (i.e., north, south, east, or west) even more challenging. Another issue with maps is the limited field of view.

They can only show so much before they no longer fit in the glove compartment. Therefore, it is a common occurrence to drive off the edge of the map and end up completely lost with no way of guiding oneself back to the proper route. Maps, in general, are area-specific, so a road trip may require multiple ones. All of these maps, needed in sequence and piled together into a jumbled mess, do not make traveling any easier. Atlases are always an option, but once again, the bulk creates an issue.

GPS devices, the other hand, are able to hold multiple maps within their memory and connect them together seamlessly. They also remain more current than a map, even when not updated.

Probably the largest advantage to the GPS is the redirection feature. This takes some of the panic out of getting lost, because while the new route may be the most roundabout way known to man, it will lead to the destination eventually. Another bonus is the hands-free aspect, which allows a lone driver to navigate successfully without having to fumble with pages of maps, therefore cutting down on multitasking when driving. This, coupled with the backlight and customizable voice, makes the GPS the optimal travel companion for trips alone at night.

“The dependency on a GPS is not so much of an issue as the willingness to follow the instructions blindly is.”

However, those same aspects that make the GPS the optimal travel companion can also make it one of the biggest distractions.

The backlight can impair night driving, and the voice can be distracting—as can fiddling with the settings. While driving with a GPS, it is much more difficult to determine an alternate route when it decides upon an unfamiliar or uncomfortable one. Additionally, the directions it gives are not always clear. A GPS also stand a higher chance of being stolen than a map does, and the uniform downsides of all technology also apply here: they break, the batteries die, the charger disappears, and they lose reception.

Because of all of the pros, and in spite of the cons, dependency on the GPS increases. Many people driving with a GPS as a guide do not learn the routes well, and they might not be able to navigate a trip without a GPS even if they have traveled those same roads a dozen times with one. The dependency is not so much of an issue as the willingness to follow the instructions blindly is. There are many horror stories floating around the Internet about GPS devices that lead their drivers astray and into hazardous situations. They are pieces of technology that are subject to technical errors, and therefore, their advice should be heeded with caution.

That is not say that maps are immune to errors, but simply that when looking at a map, one needs to consider more variables and take more time to plan the route. Having a little skepticism when faced with an odd direction from a GPS could help a traveler immensely; if a traveler learns a route and makes assessments of the device’s instructions rather than simply trusting every command, then that navigator will undoubtedly have happy, safe travels and many successful road trips. • works consulted

Aber, J.S. “Brief History of Maps and Cartography.” N.p., 2008.

Web. 10 Apr. 2011. <http://academic.emporia.edu/aberjame/ map/h_map/h_map.htm>

Bellis, Mary. “History of the Compass.” About.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2011. <http://inventors.about.com/od/cstartinventions/a/ Compass.htm>.

“Early Navigational Instruments.” ThinkQuest. Education Fondation, 2000. Web. 10 Apr. 2011. <http://library.thinkquest.org/ C004706/contents/1stsea/nap/page/n-2.html>.

“GPS Timeline.” GPS Primer. The Aerospace Corporation, 21 Jan. 2005. Web. 10 Apr. 2011. <http://www.aero.org/education/ primers/gps/gpstimeline.html>.

“History.” Pioneer UK. Pioneer, n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2011. <http:// www.pioneer.eu/uk/content/company/company/history.html>.

Ifland, Peter. “The History of the Sextant.” Science Museum at the University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal. 3 Oct. 2000. Lecture.

Meyer, David. “Boom predicted for GPS-enabled handsets.” CET News. CBS Interactive, 15 Jan. 2008. Web. 10 Apr. 2011. <http://news.cnet.com/Boom-predicted-for-GPS-enabledhandsets/2100-1039_3-6226211.html>.

“Navigational Instruments.” Celestial Navigation. N.p., 2011. Web. 10 Apr. 2011. <http://www.celestialnavigation.net/instruments. html>.

“What is GPS?” GPS Primer. The Aerospace Corporation, 3 Mar. 2005. Web. 10 Apr. 2011. <http://www.aero.org/education/primers/gps/whatisgps.html>.

“What is Navigation?” GPS Primer. The Aerospace Corporation, 29 Apr. 2005. Web. 10 Apr. 2011. <http://www.aero.org/education/ primers/gps/navigation.html>.

THE SYCAMORE / SPRING 2011 89

IF IT AIN’T BROKE The lasting impact of ancient medicine

By Judy Lavelle

R

oaming through the surgical suites, laboratories, imaging rooms and hallways of Johns Hopkins Hospital, one is struck with the overwhelming feeling that the future has arrived. Johns Hopkins has spared no expense maintaining its reputation as America’s premier hospital, dropping nearly $1 billion for its new Children’s Center alone. The hospital is known to be an incredibly medically advanced institution from pioneering clinical trials in the newest cancer drugs to offering a full range of diagnostic imaging tests. But wander far enough through this maze of medical glitz and glam, and you might be surprised.

Like many other prestigious hospitals across the nation, Johns Hopkins has set aside space for a medical practice that promises the cure and treatment of over 35 common diseases. No, this practice is hardly the expensive, cutting edge method it is surrounded by—the Weinberg Outpatient Clinic is actually where Johns Hopkins offers its patients services in the ancient art of acupuncture.

How did such a seemingly mystical department find its way into a hospital steeped in a tech savvy tradition? That’s simple—it works. Yes, acupuncture is one of many low-tech, ancient, yet effective practices that are being revived in medicine today. Because of science’s ever-expanding capabilities and society’s ever-growing demands, it is often more remarkable to note what doesn’t change in the field of medicine than what does. Though modern allopathic medicine—the Western medical model acknowledged by the American Medical Association—has experienced a multitude of changes in centuries past, it has also retained a surprising number of ancient practices with relatively little modification (TCPT).

For example, the surgical technique of cauterization, in which a heated scalpel or similar instrument is used to make surgical cuts while preventing excessive bleeding, was actually pioneered by Hippocrates—all the way back in 400 B.C. Surprisingly enough, even maggot therapy and leeching are used today in instances when antibiotics and bloodletting equipment are not available.

In fact, some practitioners regard these methods as more effective and attribute their fall in popularity solely to their “creepy” reputation and resulting stigma (Glass).

90 HEALTH

In addition to these retained practices, Western society has seen increasing interest in “alternative medicine.” This medical counter-culture borrows many of its practices or beliefs from distant times and places. Homeopathy and naturopathy, for instance, emerged in the eighteenth century and place an emphasis on emotional wellness and holistic remedies. Today’s alternative medicine combines these principles with other ideas in medicine that originate from the medical traditions of Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe, the Americas, and the Middle East alike (TCPT).

As the old adage goes, there’s not always a need to reinvent the wheel. It is certainly easy for many medical professionals to become excited about the latest and greatest in medical advancements, but it would behoove those in the medical field to become aware of their history and to employ the techniques that have worked consistently throughout the years. • works consulted

Bennett Swingle, Annette. “DOME: Acupuncture, Actually.”

Johns Hopkins Medicine. Oct. 2005. Web. 05 Apr. 2011. <http:// www.hopkinsmedicine.org/dome/0510/newsreport2.cfm>.

Castiglioni, Arturo. A History of Medicine. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1941. Print.

Glass, Don. “Maggot Therapy.” Indiana Public Media. 2003. Web. 05 Apr. 2011. <http://indianapublicmedia.org/amomentofscience/ maggot-therapy/>.

Gunts, Edward. “Johns Hopkins Hospital Children’s Center: Finishing the New Johns Hopkins Hospital.” The Baltimore Sun. 03 Apr. 2011. Web. 05 Apr. 2011. <http://www.baltimoresun.com/ health/bs-bz-interview-chambers-20110403,0,2329484.story>.

TCPT. “Allopathic Medicine Emerges as the Primary Western Medical Model.” The New Medicine. Twin Cities Public Television, Wyeth, WebMD Health Foundation, 2005. Web. 07 Mar. 2011. <http://www.thenewmedicine.org/timeline/allopathy>.

Leeches Lab work

from

to

A TIMELINE OF MEDICAL INNOVATION BY JUDY LAVELLE Medicine is a natural platform for innovation. New diseases constantly emerge, the many complexities of the human body remain an unsolved puzzle, and changes in environment and lifestyle continually tax our bodies in new and different ways. These challenges often require creative solutions. From advancements in surgical techniques to the manipulation of genes, ingenuity and creativity abound in medical science.

THE SYCAMORE / SPRING 2011â&#x20AC;&#x192; 91

460 b.c.

1280

1575

1628

The “Father of Medicine,” Hippocrates, is born in Greece. This prolific physician was one of the first to base his medical practice purely on scientific observations and rational thought rather than superstition. In addition to pioneering ways to catalog symptoms and describe anatomy and physiology, Hippocrates was perhaps most illustrious for defining a list of duties and responsibilities to which physicians should aspire, known today as the Hippocratic Oath.

Opticians first introduce the concept of combining two lenses—one for each eye—to improve a patient’s vision. An oft-overlooked medical advancement, the invention of spectacles was a momentous step in an evolution of corrective equipment designed for those with poor visual acuity. And though advancements like contact lenses and laser eye surgery have certainly transformed the way people address their vision problems, glasses remain a vital tool for the millions of Americans who need them.

French surgeon Ambroise Paré releases Envers de M. Ambroise Paré, conseiller, et premier chirurgien du Roy, a folio of his work. Over his lifetime, Ambroise Paré was instrumental in elevating surgery from a less respected subset of medicine to the esteemed specialty it is today.

Paré set precedents on conduct for future surgeons, discovered several revolutionary surgical techniques, invented a plethora of surgical instruments, and designed artificial limbs.

Anatomist William Harvey publishes De Motu Cordis.

Though many attempts had previously been made to accomplish the same feat, De Motu Cordis was the first published work to correctly describe the flow of blood through the circulatory system. This expertly illustrated work became extremely invaluable to surgeons and physicians alike when being mindful of a patient’s arteries and veins.

Delvey, Josephine. “Hippocrates.”

The History of Mathematics, Science, and Technology: A Culturally Affirming View. San José State University, 1996. Web. 07 Mar. 2011. <http:// www.sjsu.edu/depts/Museum/hippoc.html>.

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Jager, Chris. “Spectacles: The History and Social, Cultural and Technical Factors of Its Invention.” Technology, Culture and Politics (2009). Scribd.

UC Berkeley, 20 Dec. 2009. Web. 20 Mar. 2011. <http://www.scribd.com/ doc/24339542/The-Invention-ofSpectacles-UCB>.

Castiglioni, Arturo. A History of Medicine. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1941. Print.

MacLean, Robert. “De Motu Cordis.” University of Glasgow: Special Collections. June 2007. Web. 20 Mar. 2011. <http://special.lib.gla.ac.uk/exhibns/month/june2007.html>.

1796

1800

1870’s

1895

British country doctor, Edward Jenner, develops the first vaccination. In Jenner’s time, smallpox was a common illness that proved fatal in many young children and infants. Through myriad case studies and observation, Jenner hypothesized that exposure to the similar cowpox virus could result in an immunity to smallpox.

This innovative idea is particularly impressive because it preceded a full understanding of viruses and the human immune system. His preventative treatment was an enormous success, eventually leading to a complete eradication of the smallpox endemic. Since then, Jenner’s discovery has led to the development of vaccines for many other viruses.

Sir Humphry Davy introduces nitrous oxide gas as a surgical anesthetic. Prior to this medical advancement, surgeons and patients were forced to make do with alcohol, ether, or intentional head trauma as a means to anesthetize during surgery. These methods, of course, were extremely risky and limiting.

Many patients chose to forego the risks of ether and bear the agony of an operation with only a bit of whiskey.

Nitrous oxide was, therefore, an exciting breakthrough in the medical field because it was effective and relatively low-risk. Though several alternative anesthetics are in use today, this innovation was perhaps most important because it opened the doors for more surgical progress to be made.

Microbiologist Louis Pasteur develops the germ theory.

Since Hippocrates, a connection between cleanliness and health had long been acknowledged. However, prior to the 1870’s, pathogenic (disease-causing) organisms invisible to the naked eye were not fully understood. Pasteur first discovered microbes when he was asked by the French government to study infected silkworms. From this research, he concluded that “germs” were the cause of certain diseases and that the removal of such bacteria helped the effected organism. This seemingly simple discovery has since changed the way people think about disease and hygiene.

Wilhelm Röntgen discovers X-rays. While experimenting with cathode rays, Röntgen photographed his wife’s hand through a plate and was astounded to develop an image of her skeleton. In 1901, Röntgen received the Nobel Prize in Physics for his tremendous breakthrough.

Later discovered to be electromagnetic waves of very high frequency, X-rays are still used today in medical imaging and have been the inspiration for many other methods of seeing through the skin.

Scott, Patrick. “Edward Jenner and the Discovery of Vaccination.” University of South Carolina Libraries - Rare Books and Special Collections.

University of South Carolina, 01 Feb. 2011. Web. 07 Mar. 2011. <http:// www.sc.edu/library/spcoll/nathist/ jenner.html>.

Castiglioni, Arturo. A History of Medicine. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1941. Print.

Castiglioni, Arturo. A History of Medicine. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1941. Print.

The Nobel Foundation. “Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen - Biography.”

Nobelprize.org. Web. 07 Mar. 2011. <http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1901/rontgenbio.html>.

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1907

1928

1953

2007

Karl Landsteiner discovers an effective method of blood transfusion. Long before this innovation, the pressing need for blood transfusions was felt greatly by those undergoing surgery and treatments for trauma and blood loss.

However, it quickly became apparent that simply giving donated blood to a patient was not a simple process, as it often led to fatal reactions.

Landsteiner discovered that these reactions are caused by incompatibilities between antibodies in the blood and antigens on blood cells. He discovered that there were two types of these antibodies and a resulting four types of blood—A, B, O and AB— that most people are now familiar with. This life-saving discovery has led to many successful blood transfusions.

Researcher Alexander Fleming discovers the “miracle drug,” penicillin. As the first pharmaceutical antibiotic, penicillin could kill diseasecausing microbes and prevent and treat formerly fatal infections without harming patients. Penicillin was just the first of many antibiotics that revolutionized how infections are prevented and treated, leading to a much lower mortality rate from infectious disease, surgical complications, and injury.

Francis Crick and James Watson discover the molecular structure and many functions of DNA, a molecule that serves as our genetic material. After years of competitive research and theorizing, Watson and Crick discovered that DNA—deoxyribonucleic acid—has a double-helix structure, and they described its mechanism for replicating and translating into proteins. This was a monumental discovery because this replication accounts for how humans pass on their genetic information to their offspring. Among other breakthroughs, the discovery of DNA shed light on genetic illnesses.

A team of scientists, composed of Italy’s Mario R. Capecchi and the UK’s Sir Martin J. Evans and Oliver Smithies, publish research on modifying the genes of mice using embryonic stem cells.

Though ethical and legal debate have impeded further research in this field, many members of the scientific community have theorized a host of practical applications for this discovery. For example, in humans, embryonic stem cells could be used to create cells, tissue and organs for transplants, and gene therapy without risking rejection. •

The Nobel Foundation. “The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1930.” Nobelprize.org. 06 Sept. 2010.

Web. 07 Mar. 2011. <http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/ laureates/1930/speedread.html>.

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Hare, Ronald. “New Light On The History of Penicillin.” Medical History 26 (1982): 1-24. PubMed Central.

Web. 20 Mar. 2011. <http://www. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/ PMC1139110/?page=1>.

Fredholm, Lotta. “The Discovery of the Molecular Structure of DNA The Double Helix.” Nobelprize.org.

The Nobel Foundation, 30 Sept.

2003. Web. 20 Mar. 2011. <http://nobelprize.org/educational/medicine/ dna_double_helix/readmore.html>.

Hansson, Goran K. “The 2007 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Advanced Information.” Nobelprize. org. The Nobel Foundation. Web. 20 Mar. 2011. <http://nobelprize. org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2007/adv.html#>.

Dear Minerva, Wells’s resident goddess answers your burning questions.

PHOTO BY JENNY CARLOS / THE SYCAMORE / SPRING 2011 95

Dear Minerva, DEAR MINERVA,

DEAR MINERVA,

DEAR MINERVA,

This semester a bunch of my friends moved off campus. We used to hang out all the time and now I barely see them. I feel like I’m missing out.

I had a big falling out with an ex-friend of mine. She contacted me recently and apologized. Although I am still hurt by what she did to me, and I have given her countless chances, I am tempted to give her another chance because she might be willing to change. Should I give her that chance?

How do I deal with friends who refuse to talk to each other, but insist on using me as a messenger?

Sincerely, Out of the Loop Dear Fading Friends, This is a situation that I am positive many people living on campus can relate to. Depending on where your off-campus friends are living, are you able to walk/drive there? Since it’s nearly impossible to get off-campus folk to come up here, I would recommend offering to hang out at their place more often. Tell them how much you miss them and maybe arrange a weekly movie night with them so you can see them more frequently.

96 DEAR MINERVA

Sincerely, Afraid to Gamble Dear Cautious Companion, Although I do not know what your friend did to hurt you, your submission of this question and the fact that you are considering this friendship make it clear that you still care about your friend and that you are willing to forgive the hurt. Whether this is a good idea or not is another question. Personally, I’m all for forgiveness. But before taking her back, make sure she understands why you were so hurt and that you do not want it to happen again. If you do decide to be friends again, I would suggest keeping her at a bit of a distance, not forgetting how you have been hurt before.

Sincerely, Don’t Shoot Me! Dear Miffed Messenger, The best way to deal with this is to stop being the messenger! Tell your friends that you are uncomfortable with the situation. Explain that you are not going to pick sides or act as the messenger. If need be, the best way to refuse to be the messenger is remove yourself from the situation. Hang out with some other friends for a while. Saying no is tough, but a very useful tool!

DEAR MINERVA,

DEAR MINERVA,

DEAR MINERVA,

My roommate and I were friends before we roomed together, but now we are having issues getting along. How do I tell her I still love her, but I just need her to stop telling me what to do?

Is it bad to go through college without a roommate?

Why is my life so good right now? It is worrying me because I feel like I’m overdue for failure.

Sincerely, Not Going to Take It

Dear Considering a Companion,

Dear Ruffled Roommate, Rooming with friends is always a hit-or-miss situation. It’s good that you recognize that you still love your friend, and I assume you would still like to room with her if your issues can be sorted out. The best way for any roommates to get along is through great communication and spending some time apart. If you’re feeling frustrated, you should definitely sit down, just the two of you, and explain to her that you love her and want to continue being her roommate, but that sometimes you feel like she tells you what to do. Explain to her that you appreciate that she’s trying to look out for you, but that you need to do things your way.

Sincerely, Not Wanting to Miss Out

Going through college without a roommate is perfectly acceptable. Some people just do better living on their own; it doesn’t mean you’re antisocial. However, living with someone during the college years is definitely a different experience. Not only is it nice having a built-in dinner buddy and someone to hang out with 24/7, but it also teaches you important skills such as patience and empathy. If you’re an easygoing person and you have a friend you think you could live with, why not give it a shot?

Sincerely, Looking Over My Shoulder Dear Worried Wellsian, Congratulations on being happy! That being said, having such a negative attitude most certainly will bring the failure you’re so afraid of. I would recommend enjoying the good life while you’ve got it. Nothing is permanent, but you shouldn’t spend time worrying about it.

THE SYCAMORE / SPRING 2011 97

My boyfriend is getting deploye oon, and I’m having a difficul with it.

What should I do to pas me? Why can’t I get a girlfrie DEAR MINERVA,

DEAR MINERVA,

DEAR MINERVA,

Why can’t I get a girlfriend?

Where should I study abroad? I want it to be fun but still do work—but not too much work.

My boyfriend is getting deployed soon, and I’m having a difficult time with it. What should I do to pass the time?

Sincerely, Ready to Travel

Sincerely, A Loving Army Girlfriend

Dear Anticipating Adventure,

Dear Military Maiden,

Studying abroad is a fantastic opportunity! I would definitely suggest going to study abroad meetings and getting the contact information for students that have studied in some of the countries you are considering. Then either email or use Facebook to contact those people and ask them about their experiences. This way, you’ll know the real deal about each country.

You shouldn’t rely on your boyfriend to solely fill your life. I’m sure it will be tough with him so far away, but think of it as a great opportunity to find out more about yourself. Have a hobby you’ve always wanted to try? A group or club you’ve always been curious to join? A cause you’ve always wanted to dedicate time to? Use this time to explore new things and hang out with family and friends!

Sincerely, Hopeless Romantic Dear Dreaming of Dates, Having trouble finding a girlfriend on Wells College campus? This seems hard to believe. I would recommend joining new groups or clubs on campus to meet different people. Also ask friends and family members to set you up on dates with single people they know. The more you get out there, the better!

DEAR MINERVA, How do I approach a professor and say hir method of teaching is not working for me?

I have tried to understand and change my method of studying, but to no avail. I have resorted to watching videos on YouTube just to learn math. How can I express my concern and frustration without offending the professor?

Sincerely, Sick of Teaching Myself Dear Perturbed Pupil, This is certainly a tricky situation. I would suggest talking to Kristie Zieler, Coordinator of Learning Support Services on the middle floor of the library. She might be able to give you learning strategies or even contact the professor for you. If you must confront the professor yourself, I would be very careful to make it clear that you are desperate for help, rather than barging in and demanding a change in teaching style. If you ask for help and explain that you have trouble learning in this way, maybe the professor will come up with a new way to present information. Professor office hours and TA hours are also great resources if you need a little extra help in the class.

98 DEAR MINERVA

DEAR MINERVA, I’m having a problem balancing my love life, work life, and school work. What should I do?

Sincerely, Unbalanced Dear Juggling Jester, You are not alone in your quest for balance. The best advice I can give is to use an agenda or make to-do lists. Decide which activities are priorities and schedule time to finish them. I often find that using time spent with loved ones as a reward for getting work done is helpful. In addition to those techniques, doing your work in a setting where you will be the most productive is a great idea.

DEAR MINERVA, I still have feelings for my ex, but I don’t know if that’s because he’s familiar or if I legitimately still have feelings. Should I confront him or still try to find a new relationship?

Sincerely, Stuck in the Past Dear Breaking the Bond, I would strongly caution against going back to your ex. The relationship ended for a reason, and most people do not change in a short amount of time. The feelings you have are probably because he is familiar and you know what to expect from him. That being said, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend looking for a new relationship. Relationships usually happen when you’re not looking for them. •

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PHOTO BY JENNY CARLOS / THE SYCAMORE / SPRING 2011 99

PHOTOGRAPHY CONTEST WINNER: ASHLEY MERCURE, ’11