2020 Spring Project Weeks – In the order they were received.
Click on photos in the photo galleries to see a higher-res image.
Travis Meggiolaro
Charcoal on paper drawings
Xiaoxiao (Wendy) Li
Jewelry
Jinting Wang
Experimental Natural Dye
Leila Young
Little Library
Spencer Tepper
Trombone Quintet
Phoebe Macintosh
Skin Cell Structures and Functions
Solomon Ponzio
Graphics Based Projects in Python
Robert LeFevre
Paint It Brown
The idea behind this movie “paint it brown was to create a false sense of reality for the viewer. paint seemed like the best piece of symbolism for covering something up, and painting a shed seems like something that children would mess up, so that’s why I went with this setting in the final version.
Lingwen Zhang
Flameware Pottery
Isanna Moodie / Asata Rothblatt / Sadie Hiam
Gender Identity and Expression Through the Ages
This project is about telling the stories of people who did not conform to gender boundaries put on them by society. We believe that it is vital to tell their stories because the history of those that society deemed less than human is often forgotten. We chose to tell the stories of these three people because they had both a profound impact on society in their time and today. Asata chose to tell the story of d’Eon, a spy, a Dragoon Captain, and whose gender identity created betting pools about her sex. Isanna chose to tell the story of Herculine whose birthday marks Intersex Day of Remembrance and the tragic tale of their reassignment. Sadie chose to tell the story of Tracy ‘Africa’ Norman who paved the way for transgender models.
Asata
I chose to do this project because I wanted to expand my knowledge of people from the past whose stories have gone untold. In addition, I wanted to learn more about how other people may identify and express their gender. I chose d’Eon because she was an amazing individual of whom I think we should talk about more. She was a spy and a captain, as well as a transwoman. In fact, one of the terms for her return to France after her exile was that the king publicly recognized her as a woman. I just found her very inspirational and wanted to learn more about such an accomplished individual who has been ignored by history.
Sadie
I chose to do this project because I wanted to learn more about gender and its importance to society. Throughout history the people didn’t conform to society’s gender standards were ignored, ostracized, and used as an excuse to forgive hate crimes. When looking through history texts books there are almost no, if not none, figures that weren’t cis-gendered. I wanted to learn more about the people who were told they weren’t valid human beings simply because they chose to express themselves. There’s still a lot more a hope to learn about gender and its impact, but thanks to this project I was finally able to take the first steps in expanding my knowledge on such an important topic that has shaped so much of humanity today.
Isanna
I chose to do this project for a few reasons. First I was very curious about the topic we picked. It piqued my interest and I was excited about learning new things. Second I also wanted to do this project as I believe that it is important to share the stories of Herculine, d’Eon, and Tracy. This project also has personal ties. The stories of gender-nonconforming individuals are covered up and forgotten. This past year I discovered things about my gender identity that I never would have thought about had I not attended Putney. In public school (and many private schools) you don’t learn about these people and education on gender identity, in general, is watered down or not talked about(in my experience). I believe that it is important to share these stories so that young people who are trans/gender-nonconforming such as myself can find historical figures to look up to.
Eric Printz
A Continued Exploration of Generative Art
Juan Diego DelPrado
A Civil Action, A Criminal Action, A News Media Action
Zoe Mickle
Wendla- A Character Analysis
This project week, I decided to study a character from my favorite musical, Spring Awakening. I read through the script and studied this role very thoroughly for the past week. Then, I learned and performed two of the character’s songs and a monologue.
Caroline Macintosh
Individuality in Fasion
Cole Nelson
C++ Learning
Gerrit Blauvelt
Creating a Watch Box
I wanted to learn how to make models in Fusion 360, and I wanted a convenient place to store a few of my watches. This was my first time working in Fusion, so everything was a bit confusing at first, and everything still is very confusing. The watch box is designed to hold five watches, and has two small drawers to hold extra watch straps. Watches with normal straps can (in theory) easily be placed on top of the grey bar, with room between the drawers and the external walls for the strap to hang down. There is a gap on the left side of the grey bar to slide in a watch with a metal bracelet. The box is 34cm wide, 9cm deep, and 23cm tall at the back. The grey bar may not look very well supported, and that’s because it isn’t, when I make the actual box, I will probably add a support of some variety somewhere in the middle.
Reed LeFevre
Continuing to Develop Scenes for A Short Play
This project is a continuation of a project I started during Theater Intensive class. The 22 pages in this document are the result of last trimester and this project week. This is also a first draft. Further revisions could include anything from switching around scenes, changing language, or even changing elements of character. To start with, I gave myself a set of parameters. I said that “It would be about two characters trapped in a room together, and It would all happen in my room.” During Theater Intensive, I filmed myself doing the first two scenes, and had planned on doing the same for this project, but ended up focusing on finishing the play instead.
Kayla Grutter
Clay-Like Home
Tess Boutin
Surviving Crisis: Prioritizing Well-being in Business
The purpose of my project is to investigate business practices that are driven by prioritization of employee well-being over profit, as well as how such businesses are faring during the current pandemic. I conducted a comparative case study on three companies, investigating how they function both typically and during the pandemic. Based on my findings, I created a video presentation to disseminate information that hopefully can help demonstrate to new businesses the benefits of focusing on community sustainability, whether operating through normal economic conditions or weathering mass disruptions.
Matthew Parry
Bentwood Rings: A sustainable jewelry line
Naomi Lurz
Cyanotype
Owen Bonneau
Mountain Bike Trails
Charles Moodie
A short series of animated landscapes and a timelapse of their creation
Ella Blood
Artistic Repurposing
Bailey Casey
Responding to a Medical Emergency
Konrad Fuhs
Impressions of Cologne
Rei Kimura
Jewelry Making
Throughout these past few weeks I explored stone wrapping and chain making, and the incorporation of both. I made various byzantine chain necklaces as well as bracelets (as seen in the images), and in addition explored the box chain pattern with bead wrapping (not shown). Throughout my time on this project I also wrapped stones, adding them to byzantine chains and other bracelets and necklaces. Towards the end of the week I also used copper sheet to wrap stones and make pendants I plan to later add to necklaces and bracelets.
Lane Dreslin
Making a Zine
For this Project Week, I created a zine about artists and the general art world in quarantine.
Corn Cook
A Gift- Faculty Customized Ceramics
Corinne Byus
An Insight Into Human Trafficking
The first time I had ever heard of human trafficking, or modern-day slavery, was in seventh grade. I had to create a piece of art that symbolised any topic we chose to research. After telling my mother about this she had chosen the topic of Human Trafficking, specifically the children involved. From then on I could not ignore it, the topic came up during television shows, on my social media feeds and youtube recommendations. So I decided to take these coincidences as a sign to learn more about this horrible crime. Ever since then I have been baffled by how little my peers and I are taught about these vile acts which occur daily. The purpose of this project was for me to continue to educate myself and others about one of the many unseen and unspoken horrors in our everyday society.
Olivia Nelson
Modern Embroidery
For my project, I wanted to do some contemporary embroidery. I created two pieces and I am still working on a third. The bee is inspired by the Mexican game, Lotería, which is like bingo but with pictures instead of numbers. The cheetah was inspired by Lily Davenport and her love of big cats. It’s embroidered on painted canvas. My work in progress is going to be the outline of the state of Vermont with some mossy textures around it.
Yishan Hong
Fashion Design Collections Inspired by African Art
Magda Sharff
Pythagorean Dissonance: Making Music With Mathematical Significance
Broden Walsh
Graphic Design Through Coding & Design
Isabelle Armand
Understanding Food Security Through Jewelry
Angel Baikakedi
First Shadow Weave
Bodhi Kamitses
Building an Outdoor Bake Oven
Check Out Bodhi’s Oven Progress
Louis Greenfield
Epidemiologic Methods : Exposome / Biomarkers
Linus Venzke
Memorization with Binaural Beats
Griffin Gooch-Breault
Shooting in the Dark
Marcie Cummings
Sustainable Closet
Xiao “Bob” Tan
Workers
Andrew Scharte
Putney Quarantined
Juening Mao
The History of Pandemics – Humanity’s Resilience
Darius Parker
Sick World – Medium Format Film Project
Quinn Muth
Sculpture Tide Clock
Quinn’s Project on Voicethread
Gavin MacNeille
Exploring Abenaki
Avi Moses
Fermentation and You
G Korth-Rockwell
Art Inspired by Classical Music Across History
Zeke Zutshi
Ekphrasis From Objects
Mark Quehl
Dido and Aeneas: Aeneas character study
Eliot Barrengos
Farming and Ethics
For project week I made a short film on farming ethics and teaching, I interviewed Michael Vercillo for the project, he discussed what it means to teach through work on the farm, where farming and ethics intersect, and how he became a farmer. I worked with Andy to develop a basic understanding of how to use adobe premiere pro as well as the Putney school film camera. My goal for this project was to learn how to make films.
Liza Bell
Spring Flora and Fauna of Vermont
Beau Guenther
Jewelry Making
Leonarda Giannini
A Wooden Foal
Caroline Cook
The Milky Way
Josef Von Gwinner
Farm Worker Josef
Lucy Glueck
Labrador Labs: Dog-related Research & Training
Kai Crowley
Designing and building a Small Cabin
Bella Lee
For my project week, I explored immersion in a new culture and language. I spoke Spanish for four entire days, listened to Latin music, and watched television in Spanish. I wanted to experience the challenges of change and the immersion into a culture. My final work is a small essay on the experience and how it connected me to a larger concept.
Leighton Laughlin
Forging Knives by Hand
Special End of Year Slideshow
Thanks for looking at all of the amazing project weeks. Here is a special slideshow put together by all the advisories. We hope you enjoy!