Expansion: Leonardo da Vinci

Title: Leonardo da Vinci

Date:1452-1519

Nationality: Italian

Medium: Human being

http://worldarts.info/treaty-of-painting-leonardo-da-vinci/

Leonardo da Vinci is known as being a true “Renaissance man.” In other words, he was involved in learning of many different types. He was involved in areas of painting, sculpture, art, anatomy, math, music, botany, engineering, inventions, and much more. This reflected the attitude common in the Renaissance era that a learned person should be well-versed in many different areas. Leonardo’s different areas of learning involve many different aspects of learning such as skills, knowledge, application, etc. In addition, since Da Vinci is a person, he has learned more than skills and knowledge—he has learned through his experiences. Thus da Vinci represents many different types of formal learning and many different aspects of broader learning as well.  This will be the first object presented to my civilization in order to emphasize learning and expanding in many different ways. A broader realm of learning brings a greater appreciation of learning and life in general, and leads to the ability to think well, be creative, and act with better context, which are all important in a civilization. 

Expansion: Brave New World

Title: Brave New World

Date: 1931

Nationality: English

Creator: Aldous Huxley

Medium: Paper and ink

http://humanitariannews.org/20130115/brave-new-world-liberal-dystopia-pt-i

In Brave New World, Huxley outlines a future society where all pain and discomfort are removed in order to attain stability and supposed “happiness.” One character, the Savage, speaks out against this and determines that he would rather suffer and feel even horrible things instead of merely floating through life in “happiness.” He says that he is “claiming the right to be unhappy” (Strong and Davis, 731). Through this story, Aldous Huxley is subtly arguing that in order to have meaning and feel joy, you also have to feel the negative and be open to the experiences of life. This artifact is valuable because it shows another way of expansion: the need to appreciate the full range of good and bad in order to truly learn. In other words, we might expand through negative experiences as much as we do through positive experiences. Only when we are open to both good and bad can we fully learn experientially and scholastically instead of staying in a rut of comfort. Nothing of value can truly be learned without expanding in all directions. For example, we don’t learn a new concept without realizing we might have been wrong before. We don’t learn to improve from our mistakes unless we see the bad our mistakes have done in the first place. We don’t fully learn the beauty of life till we have seen some of its horrors. It is vital for my civilization to understand this type of expansion because without this understanding, they might not make the choice to grasp concepts that only the suffering in life can teach them.

Choice: Impression, Sunrise

Title: “Impression, Sunrise”

Date: 1873

Nationality: French

Creator: Claude Monet

Medium: Oil on canvas

http://www.claude-monet.com/impression-sunrise.jsp

This painting is one of the most well-known and earliest impressionist paintings. In order to make sense of this genre of painting, the viewer has to interpret and “fill in” the rest of the details in order to fully grasp the painting. This requires work and investment on the part of the viewer, and this participation of the viewer was one of the hallmarks of the impressionist era. Strong and Davis remark that, “It is up to the viewer to make the brush strokes and color into a whole and give it meaning” (667). In learning, the “viewer” is the learner. They are required to make sense of what they are learning and synthesize it into a broader meaning.  No one can accomplish this but the learner; individual choice is key. This would be presented to demonstrate the next part of my definition, that you have to expand yourself.  I would use this to show how in learning, the learner is, in the end, responsible for his or her learning. If a civilization is built on people waiting for others to make or help them learn, the civilization will struggle and float aimlessly along. But if a civilization is instead filled with people investing in their own learning and deciding to make sense of whatever information that they can receive, then the civilization thrives and has a strong drive toward progress.

Choice: Man's Search for Meaning

Title: Man’s Search for Meaning

Date: 1946

Nationality: Austrian

Creator: Viktor Frankl

Medium: Paper and ink

http://www.thesatirist.com/books/Frankl_Meaning.html

            This book was written by Viktor Frankl, a Nazi concentration camp survivor, discussing the power in each human to ultimately decide his or her attitude in any circumstance and find meaning in their present situation. In other words, each individual has the opportunity to learn despite the circumstances they are in. This artifact was chosen because it clearly shows how even when circumstances are not ideal, a person can choose to learn and grow and make meaning from his or her surroundings. Frankl’s conclusions are especially powerful given the circumstances that he had to go through. I would present this artifact to again emphasize that you have to expand yourself because circumstances will never be ideal and learning will likely not come automatically. Each person must decide for themselves if they will choose to learn and expand themselves. This ability to learn, expand, and progress in an imperfect society is key to any civilization that thrives and values learning. In the end, learning is always a choice to be made by those who have the drive to be successful. 

Process: Founding Fathers

Title: US Founding Fathers (George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, etc.)

Date: Late 1770s

Nationality: American

Medium: Human beings

http://questgarden.com/103/60/6/100513110756/

The American Revolution spurred by these founding fathers changed some fundamental things in society, but it did not live up to every ideal and solve every problem. For example, there was still slavery and women had no suffrage. However, through the Constitution they set up a system that could eventually deal with many different problems of society one at a time (such as slavery, civil rights, equality, women’s rights, etc.). In contrast, the French Revolution tried to deal with all of these issues at once and their revolution struggled. Thus these founding fathers show us that learning is a process that takes place over time. This artifact illustrates the next part of my definition of learning—learning and expanding is a process. I would want my civilization to understand this so they can have a better grasp of what learning looks like. Learning is not necessarily a few big hops to perfection, but instead it is steady, small, consistent steps over time. This means that people in a civilization should be diligent and patient as they grow and expand a little at a time. In addition, the US constitution is an example of a system that allows this type of learning to happen. My civilization should be based on a system that allows consistent learning over time, or else rash “leaps” of learning could destroy us.