Molly Adams and Elizabeth Merrill Awarded Faculty Senior Thesis Prizes
11:37 AMLeft side of the “Spectrum of Life” exhibit in the Hall of Biodiversity at the American Museum of Natural History Source: Image taken by Molly H. Adams September 2011 |
View of the Old Field, pond and trails from the deck on the East side of the South Fork Natural History Museum Source: Image taken by the Molly H. Adams, March 2012. |
"The Hall of Biodiversity’s installation labeled the “Spectrum of Life” uses
more than 1,500 specimens and models, organized into 28 living groups to show over 3.5 billion years of evolution and to display the awe-inspiring diversity of life. The Linnaean taxonomical approach of categorization, which is used in this display, groups all life into three kingdoms that are divided into classes, and then into orders, families, genera and species. It helps viewers to see an extremely wide variety of different types of organisms by separating microorganisms from mammals and bacteria from birds. This technique of organization emphasizes the quantitative aspects of biodiversity rather than qualitative ones. Because of this, the visual display of replicas and specimen fails to communicate the importance of each organism in the ecosystem of which they are a part. In other words, somewhat ironically, the roles of ecosystems themselves are neglected, and rather the emphasis is placed on the range of different species and the diversity of their visual characteristics. For example, several organisms are shown either in a linear fashion according to size, ranging from smallest to largest, or collected in naturalist boxes, neglecting to visually represent any ecological relationships that add biological meaning and context. These organisms have been dissected from the communities and ecosystems in which they actually reside in nature, making it impossible to realize the greater context that they are pulled out of."
"My goal is not to judge the merit of the philosophical concepts credited to Althusser, or to place those concepts in relation to those developed by other philosophers. Rather, I will discuss these concepts, and their revision in light of personal revelations, as they present themselves in Althusser’s memoir. The ways in which Althusser’s reflection on his experiences leads him to revise his theories of repressive and ideological state apparatuses shed light on the relationship between philosopher and philosophy, particularly when something as powerfully disruptive as mental illness is at work. Any claims made about Althusser’s mental illness will be derived solely from his own commentary on it, though I also hope to investigate the place of the creative and mentally ill in society generally. In presenting the life and work of Althusser as representative of the complicated relationship between the often private, lifelong project of Merrill handling mental illness and the individual’s public creative output, I hope to understand how these two factors can exist together and inform one another."
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