I was thinking the other day about why we at the Lawrenceville Main Street Artists Network decided to produce a paper wall calendar as a fundraiser in this day and age.
We have our smartphone connected to the electronic date book on our laptop that is synched to multiple calendar sources throughout our network and beyond. These online tools are programmed to update automatically, to allow others to input information, and to alert us daily or even hourly about our schedule. And not just appointments are “recorded” in cyberspace. So are birthdays, vacations, days off, soccer games, ballet recitals, and all the events that both enrich and complicate our lives.
So why do we need a paper calendar hanging on the wall when our lives are controlled and tracked online, and the world can access our agenda with just the touch of a button? Pondering this question, I went in search of valid research supporting the use of a simple paper wall calendar in conjunction with a digital one.
And I found a paper published by the Center for Human-Computer Interaction in the Department of Computer Science at Virginia Tech. The research, “An Exploratory Study of Personal Calendar Use,” was exploring ways to improve the digital calendar. But in doing so researchers discovered that the paper wall calendar is a virtually irreplaceable tool for keeping track of our lives.
“We do not believe that paper calendars will disappear from use,” the researchers concluded. “They serve several useful functions that are hard to replace by technology. Electronic calendars in general are more feature-rich than paper calendars. Yet we found that paper calendars and proxies continue to be prevalent in the use of calendar management. They provide support for easy capture of calendar information, are effective at sharing, and support the display of the calendar in public view with ease.”
That’s it! Paper calendars are just easy.
As a creative type, I need a tangible place to record a multitude of ideas that bombard me throughout the day or funny things that happen, for memory’s sake. During the day I think about calling this or that person. While listening to the radio, I hear about a wonderful exhibit. The accessibility of a wall calendar allows me to write a quick note and follow up later.
The nice thing about a calendar that hangs in plain sight is that whatever I write on it stays there. It is, at a glance, a very quick reminder and a permanent record of my thoughts, commitments, and family events.
In my experience, a wall calendar is a must for any mother juggling school events, birthday parties, athletic games, and more. The family shares it; family members can see what’s happening and how it affects them. We gather there and connect, discussing who is going where, and with whom. And it’s a visual tool to teach our children how time goes by.
We see the days coming, and we see the days going. The months get flipped away, and welcoming the new month is a celebration because we can see that Halloween or our birthday is right around the corner. The year passes, and a new calendar goes on the wall. As we bring the old one down, we can look back at the events that made the year special, but we turn to a clean slate — the New Year is right in front of us! Our wall calendar becomes part of a yearly ritual helping to move us forward.
So that’s why I think that we cannot do without our wall calendars, even in this world of smartphones and ubiquitous Internet connectivity.
This brings me back to the fundraiser that I mentioned at the beginning. I figured, if I’ve got to have my wall calendar, why not one that shows the beautiful artwork of friends and local artists as well as familiar scenery in my hometown?
And so the Lawrenceville Main Street Artists Network has created a professional, premium-grade wall calendar. It showcases and celebrates our artists’ work in settings throughout Lawrenceville that you are sure to recognize. The playful associations between the images and their surroundings are understated in their elegance. Each calendar page is 8.5” x 11” with a center spine so the calendar opens up to a full 11” x 17”. The calendar is printed with in four-color on acid-free, 110-pound card stock.
Calendars can be purchased at the Lawrenceville Main Street Artists Network Gallery. For a preview of the calendar, go to www.lmsartistsnetwork.com. Or stop by the gallery to see it in person, along with our current art show. Get your calendar early — this way you won’t need to schedule that reminder on your smartphone!
The Lawrenceville Main Street Artists Network, “The Art of Lawrenceville” 2012 wall calendar, $20. Gallery hours: Wednesdays and Thursdays, 5 to 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sundays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 2683 Main Street (corner of Main and Gordon Avenue), Lawrenceville. www.lmsartistsnetwork.com. 609-512-1359 Moulder is an artist and graphic designer. kimmoulderinfo@verizon.net
Fans of wall calendars may also be interested in the U.S. 1 Calendar, available for free at 12 Roszel Road. Call 609-452-7000.
Jeff Bezos, the founder and CEO of Amazon.com, and his wife, MacKenzie, will donate $15 million to Princeton University to create a center in the Princeton Neuroscience Institute. The gift will establish the Bezos Center for Neural Circuit Dynamics.
Jeff Bezos was an electrical engineering and computer science major at Princeton who graduated in 1986. MacKenzie Bezos was an English major at Princeton in the Class of 1992.
Princeton President Shirley Tilghman said the Bezos Center “will bring the university’s strengths to bear on a frontier of scientific knowledge that has far-reaching implications for the understanding of behavior and the treatment of neurological disorders.”
According to the university, researchers at the Bezos Center will look for patterns of activity that reveal, for example, how decisions are made or memories are recalled. Researchers will collaborate with the Princeton Institute for Computational Science and Engineering, a consortium of scientists and engineers who use high-end computing in their research, as well as the university’s theoretical and computational neuroscientists, who will test theories of brain function.
The home of the Bezos Center will be within a new complex under construction off Washington Road, on the south edge of Princeton’s campus near the Icahn Laboratory. It will house the Princeton Neuroscience Institute and the Department of Psychology. The facility is expected to open in the summer of 2013.
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