Posts tagged senior work

Gustave Le Bon, a man of the crowd

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I love looking up pictures of the authors I’m reading. This is one of my favorites. In 1895 Gustave Le Bon wrote the founding document of crowd psychology, a slim book called La Psychologie Des Foules or The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind. He’s one of those people who’s had an influence on the way everyone thinks, even if very few people have heard of him.

He wrote about the characteristics and psychology of crowds in the French Revolution, describing them as irrational, unruly, and needing to be controlled. His writings opened up the door for 20th-century mass manipulators, including Mussolini, Hitler, Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels, and public relations/propaganda genius Edward Bernays.

Le Bon’s speculations about crowds turned out to be accurate in a profound way. They’re timeless truths about what crowds are and how people in them are vulnerable to influences that come from within and without the crowd.

(My guess is that Gustave was doing his best to stand out from the crowd with that facial hair.)

I think everyone should read his book. But maybe that’s just because it inspired my thesis.

- David ‘13

Wait, 3-5 pages? I heard a senior talking about his plan and how it's going to be 80-100 pages. Which is it? O.o — Asked by Anonymous

Hi there,

Evan was referring to the Plan essay, which is written in the beginning of your sophomore year, and involves a description of what you intend to do during the rest of your time at Bennington. This only ends up being about 3-5 pages, and is read by a panel of three or more faculty members who then discuss your Plan with you during a Plan meeting.

Senior work, on the other hand, can be a whole range of things. Some people choose to write a thesis on their chosen Plan topic or question, which can definitely reach 80-100 pages, but others choose to do projects that are discussed and determined with the same Plan committee.

Hope this cleared up any confusion!

- Rachel ‘14

Greg O’s senior music show. Photo credit Dmitri (I think). He recorded an album of the same material for his senior work. You can check it out here. I especially dig Farewell to Arms. I’m going to miss this bro. Liam

Greg O’s senior music show. Photo credit Dmitri (I think).

He recorded an album of the same material for his senior work. You can check it out here. I especially dig Farewell to Arms. I’m going to miss this bro.

Liam

Here are some photos from the class of 2012’s senior visual art show!

All images were taken by Kate!

- Ellie

Please put that senior film on the blog. — Asked by Anonymous

I’m guessing you’re talking about the spectacular Harlots From Venus. If so, none of the Admissions Interns were involved in the project, and the rough cut final version was just screened for the school two days ago, so I doubt it’s been put on youtube yet.

That being said, hand on my heart, I will do my best to track it down and get it up here at some point because it’s great.

Liam

Check out this trailer for Colin ‘12 and Dee’s ‘12 senior work in video. Their planning on screening the film at midnight on Monday in Kinoteca our mini theatre space.

Kinoteca

[Part 2 of the Posters at Bennington Series]

One of the most common questions I’m asked on tours is “What is there to do at Bennington?” I know that before I came here I couldn’t for the life of me imagine what one would do all day at a small liberal arts school in Vermont. But when I visited campus I realized that everywhere I looked, the walls were plastered with posters advertising clubs, performances, discussions, lectures, films, and more. 

So I thought, for those of you who can’t visit campus just yet, that I’d start a weekly series where I showcase some of the posters around campus over the past year or two. All photo credits go to the folks behind the Bennington College Flickr!

-Ellie

sepc: Dance at Bennington presents the Senior Dance Concert featuring new work by: Lydia Chrisman Emily Climer Mary Gordanier Theo Koppel Veronica O’Leary Naomi Washer Show A: Naomi, Theo, and Mary Friday, April 27th at 8:00 pm Saturday, April 28th at 2:00 pm Show B: Veronica, Emily, and Lydia Saturday, April 28th at 8:00 pm Sunday, April 29th at 2:00 pm Come see what we’ve made, bring your friends, it will be a good time. In Martha Hill! [reblogged by Ellie]

sepc:

Dance at Bennington presents the Senior Dance Concert featuring new work by:

Lydia Chrisman
Emily Climer
Mary Gordanier
Theo Koppel
Veronica O’Leary
Naomi Washer


Show A: Naomi, Theo, and Mary
Friday, April 27th at 8:00 pm
Saturday, April 28th at 2:00 pm

Show B: Veronica, Emily, and Lydia
Saturday, April 28th at 8:00 pm
Sunday, April 29th at 2:00 pm

Come see what we’ve made, bring your friends, it will be a good time.

In Martha Hill!

[reblogged by Ellie]

This is the thing I am most stupidly proud of this week: the outline for my senior work, a 35-40 page paper exploring the relationship between art museums and archaeologists in approaching commercially exploited artifacts through the controversy over a proposed exhibition at the Smithsonian. To summarize, the Smithsonian’s Sackler Gallery wanted to put on an exhibition of artifacts commercially salvaged from a 9th century shipwreck off the coast of Indonesia. Archaeologists at the Smithsonian and across the States objected strongly due to the questionable ethics of exhibiting commercially exploited objects. In an amazing turn of events, a meeting that convened in December to discuss the issue decided to propose to Indonesia a re-excavation of the shipwreck instead of putting on the exhibition. This issue has been one of the foremost things in my brain (along with sushi and Twitter) for the past YEAR. It’s been almost an entire year since I proposed this topic for my senior work to my Plan committee. Now, after researching the topic over the fall and interviewing the actual people involved in the debate over field work term, I’m in the process of turning all this information into a 35-40 page article that will be my advanced work in anthropology and art history and that I will eventually publish in a peer-reviewed journal. This was all really intimidating and scary until I brought this outline to my advisor, Carol Pal, who looked at it and said, “This works!” Which in Carol-ese means, “GOOD JOB I HAVE NO CRITICISM KEEP ON WORKING.” Emboldened by her accolades, I’ll begin writing this week. - Meg ‘12

This is the thing I am most stupidly proud of this week: the outline for my senior work, a 35-40 page paper exploring the relationship between art museums and archaeologists in approaching commercially exploited artifacts through the controversy over a proposed exhibition at the Smithsonian. To summarize, the Smithsonian’s Sackler Gallery wanted to put on an exhibition of artifacts commercially salvaged from a 9th century shipwreck off the coast of Indonesia. Archaeologists at the Smithsonian and across the States objected strongly due to the questionable ethics of exhibiting commercially exploited objects. In an amazing turn of events, a meeting that convened in December to discuss the issue decided to propose to Indonesia a re-excavation of the shipwreck instead of putting on the exhibition.

This issue has been one of the foremost things in my brain (along with sushi and Twitter) for the past YEAR. It’s been almost an entire year since I proposed this topic for my senior work to my Plan committee. Now, after researching the topic over the fall and interviewing the actual people involved in the debate over field work term, I’m in the process of turning all this information into a 35-40 page article that will be my advanced work in anthropology and art history and that I will eventually publish in a peer-reviewed journal. This was all really intimidating and scary until I brought this outline to my advisor, Carol Pal, who looked at it and said, “This works!” Which in Carol-ese means, “GOOD JOB I HAVE NO CRITICISM KEEP ON WORKING.” Emboldened by her accolades, I’ll begin writing this week.

- Meg ‘12