Aquarius you are amazing! Just wanted to let you know I saw your posts. Can I ask what your field of study was in?
Thank you so much, Journey! I must say I'm sure many of us here have our own interesting stories, each of them unique too!
Um, a multi-disciplinary degree that studied human behavior and patterns, combining aspects of the performing arts, psychology, anthropology, sociology, semiotics, and a bunch of other stuff. If we looked at a play, we would look at the whole mise-en-scene of the performance process, not just the text. If we studied a street festival, we'd look at what observances were repeated year to year and why and what that could mean. We might explore what "play" really is, and how do infants (or animals, for that matter) know when another is playing with them and not threatening them? etc. Somebody studied the self-determined repeatable patterns of the crowds in Washington Square Park over a 12-hour period by taking photos from a nearby rooftop every minute for 12 hours. Why did the crowds organize themselves like that? Why did they go here and not there? Turns out there were coherent patterns that made sense and explained the crowd behavior, but were not discernible from the street level.
This sounds kind of weird as I write it, but really it was fascinating stuff and very practical in a way I can't explain. My chosen area was how technology changed the actual nature and experience of a musical performance. Not directly relevant to my later work, but something I still love to explore for fun.
It was a new and innovative department at the university and the first in the country, now very well-known in that area and well-respected. Several other universities now have similar departments, but this was the first. It was fascinating and gave me a perspective on how we human beings are with each other and our patterns and rituals of all kinds that has served me very well in life, including informing my consulting work... go figure.
I got in very early on while we could still be a bit wild and experimental with our studies. I hesitate to say the exact name because there are very few departments with this kind of name. It was, however, in NYC.
Thank you for asking.
I didn't mean for tonight to be all-about-Aquarius, btw!
