Jane Philipps

After completing the gathering assignment, I've begun to feel more at ease in my new surroundings. I discovered many things about Firenze that I might have normally overlooked. For our in class assignment I chose to focus on two things that struck me particularly: 1) the chocolate festival and 2) an accident I witnessed between a bicyclist and a motorcyclist. I enjoyed the mind maps exercise because it allowed me to focus on free thinking and make stream-of-consciousness associations. For the chocolate festival I tried to focus on both the idea of chocolate and the festival. In one of my ink drawings I tried to capture the environment of the crowded festival whereas in the other I focused purely on the chocolate. My second mind map was a little more difficult because it was a fleeting event rather than something that I have solid documentation of. I focused on the idea of the motorcycle vs. the bicyclist on many levels, showing two drawings - a single motorcycle wheel and many smaller bicycle wheels - photographed together. I also tried to get a sense of place with the bus stop sign. Finally, I included details of my mind maps which show specific thought patterns and associations I made.