Students keep a journal throughout the semester, submitted in weekly installments to the Discussion section of the Canvas website. The journal is a place to record observations of individual sites, light and other landscape phenomena, and reflections on readings and class discussions. It also serves as a source of ideas and written material for the final essay of words and images. After you have posted your journal to Canvas, you will be able to read the journals of other students.
From time to time during the semester, we will discuss the role of journals, writing as a form of inquiry and means of investigating landscape, the interplay between journal writing and photographing, and related issues.
For the first two weeks of the semester, observation of light is one subject for the journal. Start after the first class. Make entries on light at least 6 times a day, every day: on awakening in the morning; on going to school or work; at midday; in the afternoon; at sunset; after sunset. Note the time. Describe where you are, your surroundings. Describe the light, its intensity, clarity, color, and any other qualities you notice. Describe how light interacts with, reveals, or conceals materials, surfaces, forms. Note the quality of shadows. Notice the sky. Describe your observations as precisely as possible. Search for words that convey what you see (poetry is a good source for expanding your descriptive vocabulary).
Journal Submission: Due by 8AM every Monday (post to Canvas: Discussion ). Note: journals represent 25% of the final grade.