Pentathlon | Jenna Dietrich

PENTATHLON SEMESTER 1

As an experiential component of College Park Arts Scholars, I attended a selection of five art events during my first semester. These events ranged in art mediums and each sparked dialogue among my peers.

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#VisualArts

For my first pentathlon project, I decided to paint something for my dad. On August 29, 2019, he went into emergency open heart surgery due to a genetic condition. Having just passed the one year anniversary of his surgery, I decided to paint him a heart as a testament to his strength throughout his pain and recovery. I started by cutting and staining the wood as a canvas for my painting. I then outlined the heart based on an anatomical image, as well as lettering around the heart. When I began painting, I experimented with mixing paints in order to get certain levels of shading around the heart. This project embodies so many emotions; love, hope, and gratefulness for each day that my family and I get to spend together. I painted this at home on September 2nd, 2020, which was exactly a year since my dad was released from the hospital.

Image Credits: Mark Seliger for Rolling Stone

#Theatre

For my second pentathlon project, I decided to stream the musical, Hamilton, on Disney+ on September 19th, 2020 at home. This musical tells the life story of founding father Alexander Hamilton through a two-hour musical composed almost entirely of songs. I absolutely loved finally watching the brilliance of the story brought to stage, especially the originality of the songs. I have always been drawn to musical theatre due to the realistic and beautiful nature of each song, and how each one tells a part of the story and the inner thoughts of characters. I was captivated throughout the entire film due to the impressive songwriting and emotive acting. Lin-Manuel Miranda geniously incorporated hip-hop- R&B, and classic broadway songs into a masterpiece, and I look forward to further investigation of popular broadway show tunes as a music major.

#Film

For my third pentathlon project, I chose to stream the documentary The Social Dilemma on Netflix at home on September 21st, 2020. This film explored the extreme dangers of social media, and how it has continued to negatively impact our society by consuming our time and crushing self-worth. The documentary featured social media creators, who have since turned their focus to the ethical issues with social media, as they all spoke about how they had a moral responsibility to fix the problems they had created. One of the biggest points that resonated with me was that social media is constantly manipulating and enticing people to give social media their full attention. Creators refer to humans as a "product" that advertisers can "buy;" social media's goal is to see "how much of your life can we get you to give us" in order to earn the most money from advertisers. After watching this documentary, I am much more conscious of how social media impacts my life, especially in respect to how it consumes my time.

Image Credits: Netflix's The Social Dilemma

#Presentation & #ArtsScholars

For my fourth pentathlon project, I chose attend the Arts Scholars Among Us game night event on October 17th, 2020 at 3pm. Among Us is an online game where the crewmates must figure out who the imposter among them is, completing tasks and fixing emergencies as they go. I appreciate the quality of the animations in this game, and the complex features yet simplistic goal. There are so many colors and hat combinations to choose from, even including buying a pet or an outfit for your character. In the three different maps, the layout is completely different and each has such unique features that makes that game completely different. In each of these maps, there are also different tasks, which all are designed beautifully to keep the player engaged. Attending this event definitely gave me a different outlook on the game, and it gave me a new appreciation of game design and animations. After discussing this game with my peers, I will be much more aware of the artistic complexity of this game and other games I play in the future. It was so much fun to get to play this game with my fellow Arts Scholars, and get to know each of them better.

#VisualArts & #ArtsScholars

For my fifth and final pentathlon project, I chose to attend the Arts Scholars event, Halloween origami night, on October 13th, 2020 at 7:30pm. At this event, we learned how to make an origami pumpkin and bat, even down to the artistic decorations. This origami craft was such a relaxing experience that helped to distract me from the overwhelming nature of online school. Origami is an intricately beautiful craft, and I'm always amazing by the incredible results of simple folds. I was especially impressed by how origami can add a third dimension, especially in this pumpkin and bat craft. After attending this event, I plan to seek out more origami crafts to decorate my room and relax after long days of class and homework. As an education major, we are required to participate in peer-teaching activities, and I plan to investigate origami more in order to incorporate an origami craft into one of my peer-teaching lessons. Overall, I loved completing this beautiful craft and getting to interact with my fellow Arts Scholars.