Event: Global Engagement Night
Date and Time: Tuesdays at 6PM
Location: Enarson Classroom
This month I attended three global engagement night meetings to meet new people and learn about different cultures and ideas through discussion. In the three meetings I attended, we talked about global street art, social media, and India. I felt the most interesting topic we discussed was global street art because I learned about the different political and social messages street art can carry. We talked about Banksy and his role in making controversial and thought-provoking art to get a message across. I think this type of art is inspiring because it gets people’s attention and forces them to think about issues greater than themselves. Although street art can carry a deeper message, other forms of street art are done for aesthetic and recreational purposes. I learned there are a lot of fun street murals around Columbus so I am looking forward to finding these and exploring the artistic ideas that are expressed in the city. I appreciate how street art is a public and free way of viewing art. Art museums can be expensive and not everyone has the luxury of being able to go, so street art provides an easier method of viewing art.
At the next meeting, we talked about the rise of social media and its prevalence in society today. The discussion was based on how we use social media on a daily basis and the different types of social media that are popular around the world. We were shown a video that was basically a timeline of which social media platforms were most popular every year since the 90’s. Facebook is currently the most popular and has held this position for a long time, but one thing that I thought was interesting was the rise of the Chinese blog app Weibo. It is currently ranked near Facebook and has been popular since MySpace was around. This surprised me because I, along with most people at the meeting, had never even heard of it. I never really thought about how different countries use different forms of social media that are not as popular in the United States, but considering each country has different cultures and lifestyles, this makes sense. After talking about how we used social media, we ended the meeting by watching Vine and TikTok compilations.
At the most recent meeting I attended, we learned about India and Indian culture. We learned about the history behind the name of India, its geography, its population dynamics, and we learned a little bit about the culture. We kicked off the meeting with an activity that was based off of an Indian artform of Henna. We traced our hands and drew things that were important to us in the open space. Next, we watched videos explaining India’s geography and population in comparison to the rest of the world. The following presentation continued to talk about Indian culture such as popular foods and dances. At the end of the meeting we watched a tutorial on a popular Indian dance and attempted to recreate it. I had never thought to learn more about India, but I am glad I was given the opportunity to hear more about Indian culture.
Global Engagement meetings are a way for me to learn about topics that have adaptations all over the world. Street art and social media are topics that I already know a little bit about because I have experienced them here in the U.S and in my daily life. I knew they existed outside of the U.S. but I never took the time to learn about how these concepts differ around the world. I think these meetings relate to international affairs in this way as these general topics are being applied on an international scale. I appreciate these meetings because I am able to learn a little more about a topic I never thought to learn more about. Not only are the discussions we have educational, but it is a great way to meet people. Everyone there is really welcoming and I feel comfortable sharing with them because they share as well. Overall, I enjoy attending global engagement meetings and I plan on attending more.