Snapshots of Civil Unrest

It is the end of the spring term at GCE which means it is the end of my junior year. Next year I will be applying for colleges and thinking about the rest of my life from high school. People always say that junior year is the hardest year and it was, but not for the academic reasons people may expect. In April the world began to shut down due to the pandemic we were rushed out of school not really getting the goodbye we all wanted. We have celebrated birthdays, mother's days, and veteran's day through Zoom calls and facetime. Now we celebrate graduation 

The past two weeks has been full of emotions. Anger, Sadness, Grief, Joy, Vindication. It's hard to put into words all of the ways that people have felt at this time.  This has been the first time that I've seen Black Lives Matter so widely accepted in the mainstream media. Its the first time that I've seen musical artists and influencers recognize the impact that black culture has on them. And for that I am happy. It seems like a cultural reset. It seems like something is changing for the better. And yet when I leave the echo chamber of my social media, I still see blatant racism spewed everywhere. Below is a collage of images that remind me of the Black Lives Matter protests. In these pictures, I see beauty, depth, and joy behind all of the pain people are feeling. 

In conclusion, although this is not what we expected out of 2020 I think that a new revolution was bound to happen with my generation of changemakers. I am no longer sad that we missed out on a lot of this school year, I am glad that we had the experience of distanced learning. However, I can't wait to get back into school albeit maybe in a mask!

On My Block| Reimagining a space for good

Hello and welcome to the final action project of my Junior year! For this action project, we were asked to take space from any city in the world (including our own) and imagine it. I decided to use a closed/abandoned school in my own neighborhood. This used to be a special needs elementary school that was also a place for neighborhood kids to sled on snowy days. Ever since the school shut down no one has been allowed to use the space for anything. I wanted to design the space so we can give it back to the kids of the neighborhood and I also made some age-appropriate changes since everyone that used to sled there has grown up.

TN Sketch 2020

This is my rough draft sketch of what I feel like the area should be turned into. The unused buildings from the school can be turned into a cafe, a restaurant, and a bookstore and the playground in the back can be upgraded to a skate park to fit with the growing ages of the neighborhood teens.


Below are images of a 3D model I built using the Sims 4. I thought using sims would replicate the feel of the future construction billboards that you see at construction sites

TN park 2020

                             

TN park 2020

TN park 2020

In conclusion, I really enjoyed this project. To begin I sketched out an idea for the empty space in my neighborhood. Then I made a 3D model and made my slideshow. The hardest part of this project was finding a medium for my 3D model. I started out in Minecraft but quickly realized that I did not have enough time to place each block piece by piece. That's when I came up with the idea to build my model in The Sims. In The Sims, it is easier to build because you are able to place a whole wall in one click. The hardest part of that was posing the models. I think that this was a perfect AP to end off my Junior year. See you all in Senior year!