BLOG PROMPT #5:
Explore through image and text how the built environment affects (supports or detracts) who you are. Speculate in terms of frameworks, clockworks, phenomena and oppositions.
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My environment. Well right now I'm facing a wall in the library. There is a man next to me who is sniffling. My computer and open books that surround me would indicate to others that I am a student. I AM a student. Therefore, my environment harmonizes with who I am. However, I am not just a student. I am a sister, an athlete, a Catholic, a Sconnie, a Will Smith enthusiast, etc--which this immediate environment does not manifest.
Lancaster, WI: "City of the DOME"...Minneapolis, MN: "City of the METRODOME"
Some would argue that who you are is based on what you do. Others say what you do that determines who you are. But maybe it's not what you do, it's how you do it. In any case, in order to know where you are going, you must remember where you came from. Where I came from was an entirely different environment than where I am now. Lancaster, Wisconsin: population ZERO (and 3900 other folks). If you were to take a drive through town, you would see: a nursing home, a McDonalds (that was a BIG deal), a car dealership, a VFW bar, a bank, a bank, a church, a church, a church, a bar, a store...then, at this point, you would (like all out-of-towners) go down the wrong way one way street around "The Square" where our Courthouse is. (which is actually a fine specimin of architecture now that I reflect on it)...and then you would continue to pass three more bars, four more banks, and a handfull of churches and a Pamida (because we haven't quite made it up to "Wal*Mart" status)...then you would drive through the rolling hills with farms and silos.
Describing the built environment of Lancaster, WI describes me as a person more than I thought. The values and morals that "my people" share are manifested in the buildings. We value religion (with our 16 churches), our beer (with our umpteen bars), our money (with our gaggle of banks), our cows (with our barns and silos). I didn't realize how much my lil' ol' town affected me until I was immersed in a different setting/environment in Minneapolis. While living in Lancaster, I didn't like country music...but now I do. (I haven't figured that one out yet). I think it is still too soon to say how Minneapolis has affected me--I won't entirely know until I get immersed in a different environment and look back on it.
