UNIB10011: Poetics of the Body 1

30% group presentation, 30% journal, 40% on a weekend seminar/project

Seminar and lecture:
This subject is basically discussing the various viewpoints of the human body (physical, scientifically, metaphorically etc) without the many details. It was quite a nice break from the other science subjects, and it doesn't take much of your time. Overall I felt it was an easy subject which did not bore.

David Shea is a composer, and is quite friendly and talkative. Unfortunately for me, I am the somewhat opposite of that so hahaha. At least for me, he made the content (which was already interesting) more enjoyable with that attitude. As the primary speaker for the seminar, he'll broadly talk about psychoanalysis, music, religions etc... and how it relates to the human body. There is a lot of 'holisticness' that he talks about quite a bit, believing that different but separate departments will achieve more by working together.

As for the 2 hour lecture, you will get various speakers coming from different fields. For me, I had one talk about neuroplasticity, Daoism, epigenetics, even video games. Listening to various recent discoveries was a nice refresher from the bland content of Linear Algebra. I am not sure about this, but the speakers you get may vary next semester so I won't really write about it in detail.

Assessments:
As part of the assessment, you will need to write a weekly journal about a lecture & seminar you went to (no Lectopia, but it wouldn't work for this subject imo). For me, I wrote on the experiences I had that week and tried to find revelations that connected with science (computer/math in particular). As the handbook mentions, it does not have to be an essay, and you could do it in a scrapbook or even map your thoughts on tissue papers (David Shea might mention it again)! There is no strict format you have to adhere to, just as long as it reflects on your experiences for that subject. On another note, it would seem prudent that you do them every week... It can be messy remembering everything and writing it on the last few days (like I did).

The group presentation component will start on the later weeks of the semester... you simply collaborate and present at least (I think) a 15-20 minute presentation on a topic which is relevant to the subject (prosthetics, human senses, about a weekend project etc...). You get a week to work on it, including the 3-hour contact hours you get per week. If you wanted to you could group up with others and do it earlier, but for us someone had this great idea and that made things easier. I should add that it does not have to be a Powerpoint presentation, and you could make it as creative as you like.

Lastly, you can choose one or more projects that you partake on a weekend. You may decide to go to more than one weekend project, but you only need to go on one. This is the practical component of this assessment. After that you will need to write an essay (the theoretical component) about your weekend experience. This will probably vary next semester, but I chose to go on a drawing weekend seminar, starting from drawing straight lines to models with charcoal. There were also other interesting ones, including a meditation session and the pointless weekend 'wandering' of the city (by David).

All in all although I felt this subject was not difficult (could say it was more relaxing), it brought some pretty interesting concepts and research.

No

David Shea, and speakers from various fields

There are no exams for this subject

3.75/5

A reader for this subject, which was cheap (at least for this semester). You may be able to view it for free from the LMS.

A 2 hour lecture and 1 hour seminar/tutorial per week at Southbank campus.

Semester 1, 2014

H2A