Book Subversion

 

These are images from an older project- we were told to go to the library and check out three unrelated books that appealed to us.  I chose “How to Think About Weird Things: Critical Thinking for a New Age”, “Essay on the Origin of Human Knowledge”, and “The Art of Translating Poetry.” 

Once we selected our books, we were directed to make three collages that related to the content of the book.  Above, I have my solutions shown.  If you want to see the originals/ better understand how they relate to the books, all three books are back at Jackson Library, waiting for you.  Go check it out.

Interconnected Project

So, the final collaborative project can be found at interconnectedproject.wordpress.com As it involved three people, we decided to make a new blog specifically for the project and would appreciate it if all comments were directed through that particular blog so that all of the members of the group can access the feedback easily.  Thanks for listening to it.  (Seriously.  Thanks- it was a TON of work… really.  Go listen to it.  Please.  NOW.  )

Extra

 

            The little matchstick girl contains no dialogue, so in a way any of the characters could be argued as extras.  At 1:18, a family comes out of a toy shop heavily laden with packages and enters a sleigh.  The smallest child, standing to the back left of the runners as they walk out, waits for his mother to pick him up and place him in the sled before darting behind his father and settling into his seat as the sleigh takes off, adding a human element within a very domestic scene. 

            The child never glances at the camera (perceived as the viewpoint of the little matchstick girl) and acts as the antithesis of the girl’s life.  He represents all of the girl’s dreams (later illustrated); he is warm, well-fed, and part of a seemingly loving, well-off family.  His addition serves as the “jumping off point” for the rest of the story, justifying the girl’s dreams while portraying the dreams’ fulfillment as a basic human right.  He serves to balance out the girl’s existence within the story- a small bit of positive space within the hollow subsistence of her life.  He represents the average child- cared for, wanted, and loved.  The inclusion of this scene serves to further illustrate her alienation from society. 

Ethical Milgrim?

In social psychology, the Milgrim experiment toes the line between what is ethically questionable and permissible in the face of scientific curiosity.   In the experiment, a subject was led to believe that they were the “teacher” within a pre-constructed test set to study the effect of “mild” electric shocks on an individual’s learning curve.  This  youtube video gives a basic description of the specifics of the experiment in an effective, if crude, manner.  In a similar exercise, we were instructed to march around 80 times drawing a line on the wall at hip level.  Unlike the Milgrim experiment, there was no inhumane aspect of the assignment, but the entire class obliged without question to the simple direction- arguably due to the perception of authority and the norm of obedience within the classroom setting.  Even while tiring, no one in the class made any attempt to stop, with or without the presence of the “authority figure.”  This can be argued as a result of social comparison (wanting to fit in with/exceed the percieved mean ablility of the social group) and obedience, two of the founding principles of social psychology.

Critique and a new project

The critique went very well today- everyone had deep insights and made wonderful points about each piece.  The project assigned afterwards… ha ha…  I have NO IDEA what this one will entail.  I’m excited to start, but I wish I had a clearer mental picture of what the finished result will be.  Regardless, I think this project will be pretty fun. 

~Suzi

Scanning, printing, and playing with values

We were assigned our third project today- a mass of stenciled objects defined only by value.  (Lines will be dealt with harshly. ;D )  I didn’t get very far on it in class- I had to do two prints from my “mask” as the tiny details didn’t transfer well on the first try.  I do at least have an idea as to the final composition…

I was amazed with most of the designs people came up with for the project- I’m glad I wasn’t the only one going crazy while cutting out microscopic shapes.  The final prints I saw today came out really well.  I actually experimented at lunch with an “ultra fine” sharpie to clean up some of the lines on the first “crap” print.  It worked amazingly well.  As of now, I’ve finished the touch-up and I’m waiting for the ink to cure before I scan the final image.  I sincerely hope that everyone else is as satisfied with their results- this was a phenominal project.  In the words of Joel, it was amazing to see again how everyone interpreted the assignment differently.  Some of the quotes used were twisted in unusual ways, while others were very straightforward.  Somehow, both approaches worked very well.  I can’t wait to see what we’re going to do with the value assignment. 

~Suzi

Eavesdropping and paper-cutting

So- our second assignment was to “convenientlyoverhear” the conversations that surround us in everyday life.  It was weird to slow down, turn off the technology, and become aware of the people that surround me everyday as more than faceless strangers.  (The “slow down” ideology is becoming a bit of a motif lately- it seemed unnatural at first, but I’ve found it makes things more interesting and personal in a strange way.)

The conversation I overheard practically fell into my lap.  I’m walking to the EUC late at night, when these two guys fell in step behind me.  They must have assumed I was out of range, but the wind was blowing their words towards my back.  They were quiet for a while, then one guy just stops and at the top of his lungs, yells “Why can’t I be with her?”.  It was awkward and sweet all at once.  The other guy tries to calm him down and they start having “girl talk”- which was amazing to me.  It’s nice to see guys not being all macho all of the time. 

The assignment was to create an image that would go along with the quote from the overheard conversation and translate that image into a design that could then be cut out and used as a mask for a print.  At first, I was leaning towards the overdone “crumpled heart” image that every thirteen-year-old emo kid draws a hundred times a semester.  I then realized that I didn’t want to emulate an immature adolescent and opted instead for the roaring young lion that seemed to convey the anguish heard in the frustrated guy’s voice.  The image only took me five or so minutes to sketch, but ended up consuming my entire day to cut out.  Apart from the large void of the background, the largest piece I cut at once was less than an inch square.  Most of the bits removed were only a centimeter or so in width- so it was pretty slow going.  Overall, I’m happy with the result and am looking forward to printing Wednesday. 

~Suzi

Shape assignment, continued.

So I definately forgot that class was going to start 30 min. later than normal- which actually turned out to be a good thing as I forgot my sketchbook with the assignment sitting on my desk in my room.  (I had just enough time to run across campus and back before class started.)

We (that generic class term again) turned our random shapes into small prints in the lithography studio.  I have never seen a lithography studio that nice!  (Sure I’ve done lino cuts and made prints, but never on a scale like what we did today.)  The amount of teamwork involved in the project was astounding.  It amazed me that a class could work so well together after such a short amount of time around one another.  A few of us actually “finished” today, but I found it more interesting to stand back and look at the shapes other students found.  It astounded me that all of the shapes chosen for the project were immensely different from one another.  (It’s amazing how we all think so differently.)

We will “finish” the assignment Monday.  Good luck to those students whose first day of class was today! 

~Suzi

First Assignment- Shapes

We (the collective class “we”) were given our first assignment  (view syllabus)Tuesday morning.  After going over the syllabus, the class was dispersed with the direction to go to the EUC either during the remainder of class or before class Thursday and catalog the various shapes found there. 

Initially, I debated going home and going back to bed for the rest of class, but on the LONG trek back to the apartment, I realized that if I were to shrug off my work this early in the semester, it would set a bad precedent for the completion of all future work, leading to dismal grades.  I trudged up the three and a half floors and switched out my sketchbooks (I was initially carrying my 18 x 24 ginormous drawing pad), opting for the less awkward, more reasonably sized 9 x 12 book. 

I was pleasantly surprised to see so many of my classmates in the EUC when I returned.  I sat at a table outside of Charley’s Coffee and one of the girls joined me.  We chatted while drawing for about two hours, bouncing ideas off of one another.  We decided to move when I was half-done with the assignment, (I completed the functional and implied shapes first) as we had exhausted nearly every surface around us.  She went to her next class and I grabbed a little lunch, leading to a rather philosophical internal dialogue dealing with the impermanence of life and bio-matter as I sketched the “ephemeral” category. 

I was still having difficulty with the “non-functional” shapes, especially as a design major.  Everything has a purpose.  Architectural details provide visual interest.  Crumbs feed smaller creatures.  Plants provide atmosphere. (both ambiance and the literal air we breathe.)  No matter what I looked at, I could easily find a purpose for it.  In the end, I opted for objects that did not serve a structural or initially practical role, though the “non-functional” label in the upper right corner of the page still bothers me.

On the positive side, I was able to use part of the time brainstorming ideas for my drawing class- and I now know where and what I will be drawing.   Overall, this was an enlightening assignment as it really made me pay attention to the tiny details I often miss in my rush to “get to the next thing.”

~Suzi

Hello world!

Welcome to the first installment of my blog for Design 1.  I’m still learning my way around wordpress, so please pardon the dust and any irritating bits of fluff as I work out bugs and find the best way to present information. 

~nekobunny