The personal philosophy project was a project that encouraged students to explore their biases, thoughts, and faith. We did this by looking through old philosophers eyes, exploring religion and much more. Our final product consisted of two parts: a writing and a visual piece. These were supposed to represent our view on the world and what we believe the purpose of life to be. I classify myself as an artist, and I love creating things especially when the prompt is all encompassing like this one. To start my final product, I took all of the snippets of writing that I had done throughout the project and looked for themes and ideas. In the end, I came up with an idea for a piece of art that would show how important sight and perspective is to me. I also wrote a poem that goes with this theme and dives even deeper into what I believe.
Over the course of this project, I pondered my existence every day. I realized that my life was insignificant, and that is what makes it so significant. Every moment counts and should be spent learning and loving and living. A lot of the topics covered in this project have a special place in my philosophy, such as materialism or transcendentalism. A topic that I especially connected with was meaning. Many students argued that we have a meaning, otherwise we wouldn't be here in the first place. I disagree with this. I think that everything that has happened before now is a puzzle being solved by the universe. Life and death on Earth does not affect the asteroids orbiting in our solar system nor does it affect the outer reaches of our galaxy. But to us, life and death are momentous, for humans live in the moment. Throughout this project, I tried to look past the human perspective and consider all of the living beings on Earth as well as the general rules of the cosmos. This helped me see a bigger picture, and created the basis for my art project about perspective. A huge inspiration for my project was Allan Watts. Part of his philosophy is recognizing how connected we are with the universe. A quote I found especially intriguing: "You are an aperture through which the universe is looking at and exploring itself." - Alan Watts. We are not separate, rather a part of something huge. I strongly agree with this and so decided to use these ideas to connect to my own.
From here, I want to look at life as a grand series of lessons. No day or hour is less than another, and life is so short that it must be spent to the fullest. I am still constantly questioning all that is around me and learning more and more every day. Overall this project has helped me to not answer the questions of life, but to look at them in a different way that makes them more explainable and personal to me. I can now relate these questions to myself specifically and know how I wish to continue living: with purpose and curiosity.
Personal Philosophy Visual Piece
Below is my final visual component to my project. For this piece of art I used pencil, watercolor, colored pencils and pens.
Personal Philosophy Writing Piece
For the writing portion of this project, I chose to write a poem that represents my personal philosophy.
A scavenger on the deep blue Two wet eyes dart in ultraviolet They are seeking the unknown The truth is taken in slices And each sliver of reality sits in a certain plane of time
At the center of all visions twirls a beautifully simple dot Hung in the void by its own mass The rock has no eyes but among it crawls many And we pursue ourselves as we watch the cosmos For the stars are the mouths of God And we swam from the center of the plasma To burst apart in kaleidoscope rays And find torture among our own thoughts
High up in the atmosphere there is always rain waiting to fall And splatter clear and wet onto the faces of the worshipers But that rain may never come And that is why they wait
All I can ask of this amazingly improbable existence Is to watch and discover and explore This majestic and absurd planet And to die upon it My organs to be eaten by insects And soul turn to dirt I will never exist in this form again.
I do not know the meaning of life But time moves on whether you are hitching a ride or not So I search for the truth Past the layers of make-believe And into the heart of reality