A very bad video, of a very bad Creative Process

Sketch of self  inspired by my constant yelling.

                    
Despite the huge amount of trouble when trying to publish, which by the way cost me the credits, I managed to get it uploaded. In case its totally nonsensical here's what the idea behind it was.

Some work done on inspiration that came from shows I like

I have two ways of having ideas become what they must. If I'm very interested I will start way ahead of schedule and will be done ahead of time, using all the ideas I can and spending tons of hours on it. Most of the time, I procrastinate. I think its a huge part of my projects, sometimes I work best under that time pressure. I thought that depicting how much I procrastinate and then complain about time and how I'm not finished was a good way to show that my creative process is through procrastination. So I depicted all sorts of ways I waste time away, with my close friend Raqqayah, and my cousin Freddy. It was fun to film and a terrible time editing.

Inspiration

Worse was publishing. After trying to do it in a mac studio at school it kept freezing so I ended up lowering to Windows Live Movie Maker, who apparently can't handle the project. The next part, was the real hell..so I won't bother to talk about it. It was that bad. After all that, the YouTube upload was heaven. 
I hope its not as bad as I think it is, and what a shame those credits had to be cut.

As the last post...I will admit I'll miss ranting :] I met some really amazing people this quarter. Thank you for putting up with me, I'll miss you, hope to see you again, and have an amazing summer. 


The video can be seen Here. 
And is posted below as well. 

 


I will be re uploading it with the credit s later if anyone cares to see that.  : ]

Signs of Days to End

Until we meet again

As many of my other classmates, and people who I happily call friends now, have mentioned, Wednesday was our last class meeting. I walked in and sat down and felt a little sad, while I can't lie and say I won't enjoy being free of work for a while, I really got to know some amazing people this quarter. This includes Jimmy, as though as he is, I learned a lot about design as a career and as actual work.

 

 

: (

We discussed what worked for the class and what didn't, in all aspects. I think I was the only one who liked the blogs, but that's because I get a little too much into blabbing on here. They can be a pain if you have nothing to say, but clearly that wasn't a problem for me, ha ha. I'm kinda gonna miss posting on here. 


I can't say I'm excited about the video, what I imagined and what will come out..not the same =[ but we'll see! I wish everyone the best, I can't wait to see your videos, I'm feeling bitter-sweetness from all of this.

This is a Blog. A Blog? A Blog...Ok....*awkward silence*

"A what?" "Noo!!" The class shouts and follows with laughter.

This is a rant. A rant? A rant. As most of my blogs are. Sorry about that. I'm not very good at this.

Monday's class was very interesting, but in Jimmy's class, when isn't it? Jimmy had us sit in a circle and we played the "This a what" game. Please refer to Julie's wonderful blog to see how it is played. I tend to dislike ice breaking games since I am a shy person and they put you on the spot. I was afraid I'd ruin it for everyone and at some points I almost did! The game, though very difficult with more than one object, was surprisingly funny, when people made honest mistakes everyone had a good laugh, though sadly at their expense, which is why it's so important to be able to laugh at your self! Laughing is the best! When you have one of those really good laughs, the kind that you can't even breathe and you tear up, its like having a great meal!

It was a really interesting experience, maybe I'm just bias because I really like the particular group of students in the class, but to me this class is special, we all understand each other so well that perhaps its why don't talk much!  That's just me though. I wish I could have these very same students with me in many other classes. You guys are all so smart and funny, I feel Jimmy was right in that we could have accomplished that second round. It just takes us a little longer. :]

For the second half of the class, we watched a Hammer talk by Sir Ken Robinson. Aside from my love of his accent, I should confess I like all sorts of exotic accents, he did a really good job of explaining his point with humor and interesting stories. I love how he poked fun of Americans' love of Independence Day, and how we assume so many things of each other. He, more importantly, made several issues quite clear. Such as how degrees can become devalued if every one's out to get one just for the money.

Robinson also pointed out how you don't have to have a degree, how your passion should lead you, and how often talent is hidden, and goes undiscovered or even put down. I think it is extremely important to do something you love to do. I am in, by no means, good at drawing, at all. REALLY! But I love to do it, so I chose art. I would have never been good as anything else, especially math. I don't think it is worth having a big pay check when you're miserable. Besides that is what these classes are for, to learn how to improve my art work. Do something you love and you'll never work a day in your life, they say, I think it holds a lot of meaning. Jimmy is a great example of this, he's told us how he's much happier as a teacher than at higher paying job. Thank you Jimmy.

“To be humble to superiors is duty, to equals courtesy, to inferiors nobleness.”

"The force? No, That's wrong!" Jimmy fired back confused. 

Wednesday's class was a mellow one. Class began with Jimmy asking us to find the next number in a series of numbers he had written on the board. He split the class between men and women. That alone meant this was going to be a fun competition. Other classmates have posted the numbers and explanations so I won't be doing so. I'll just write the fun parts.

Ladies first, so Astrid stepped up and after a miss she got Jimmy to understand our logic, without being given a number crucial to the pattern, we found another pattern. Thought it was the incorrect number the fact that the explanation was rational won the argument. The boys had the correct number, but it took three of them to finally sell it to Jimmy.  It was, of course, an exercise on how well we explained something. On how well we can convince someone. Jimmy you're straight out of a movie, the kind of teacher that teaches you without knowing. That's a amazing. First time I ever have that kind of teacher, and sorry for you but You'll be seeing me next fall.

For the last part of the class we did a circle discussion ran by Rudy. We went around talking about how we felt about it and everyone was pretty much on the same page. Jimmy made a point to mention that guest speakers always talk about how lovely we are as an audience. I must admit I was quite flattered!
Jimmy also mentioned that we're the only school that seems as if we don't feel entitled. I think that humility is wonderful, this way we will never get in over our heads. I did find it odd that we're the only school said to be doing this. In a way it made me feel special.

CSULA is not by any means one of those schools people are dying to get in too, and despite the crap we face everyday with budget cuts and what not, I think there's a charm about it. The reason I came here is familiarity. It may not sound like the best reason but I think it is. As a high school student my sister, who graduated as a microbiologist from here, would often bring me along with her. As time came for me to graduate, the fact I know the campus well gave me comfort coming here. I was overjoyed when I was accepted. Since this would later lead me to where I am now I have no regrets. Hearing that we're liked by GAUGE speakers is only the icing on the cake. Sweet, sweet CSULA cake.

We then cleared up video final questions and I came to the conclusion that I am doomed. I have no equipment or experience. Or a Mac. I'm a PC.
I will never the less do my best.

Sunshine Through the Rain and The Weeping Demon.

"こんな夢を見た"

^{Konna Yume o Mita}

^{"I saw a dream like this"}

^{I saw a dream like this. Today's film was Dreams by Akira Kurasawa,  a film made up of eight different small stories, said to be based off Kurasawa's dream through out his lifetime, I also picked up on some Japanese folklore in it. I admit I'm ashamed that I couldn't read that, Konna Yume o Mita, I took  three quarters of Japanese, this was an easy one, but I couldn't figure it out? Shame on me! That phrase was at the beginning of each dream story.}

^{When we first started class, Jimmy gave us an option of two films, I and about three other people wanted to see an actual documentary on dreams. So did Jimmy by the way. I was disappointed everyone wanted to see this film, but that's just me since I had seen the film on the primarily Asian media site Crunchy Roll out of interest. So when Jimmy showed this as an option, while I had found it beautiful, I really wanted to see that documentary, maybe we could have learned some interesting techniques! I love lucid dreaming.} 

^{Dreams are something amazing to me. They can be absolutely ridiculous, nonsensical and down right stupid. But they're something we create! We dream every night and don't remember most of it. I find it amusing when dreams aren't silly and could be something that actually happened. I find those weird, when they follow a story line that could make sense.}

I wondered, What dreams did he have?

^{One of the most amazing aspects to me about dreams are the emotions that come in them. It amazes me that I have had certain dreams which make me feel emotions very strongly. As an empath, they are very very important to me. I have had dreams where my great grandmother grabbed my arm and told me something, I didn't hear her, but I felt her grip. She had passed away a couple of year before I had it. My cat, who passed away almost a year go and that I don't go a day without missing, constantly appears in my dreams. They're simply fascinating. That and I'm a total daydreamer.}

My Profile Pic

 ^{I'm curious as to who else has had a lucid dream? Lucid dreams are, for those who don't know, dreams where you realize you are dreaming and you can control what happens. With enough practice, you can lucid dream, control the dream, and thus have the ability to do anything you want. I have only come as close as to knowing I'm dreaming, but I have yet to get control over it. I have made it a personal goal to pay more attention to my dreams, and base art work on them. I particularly hate that I don't write down my dreams, I did for sometime but fell out of it, and I thought it was a great thing. When you look back on them its amazing what you dreamed up. I think it's something very unique, after all dreams are extremely personal. Perhaps this is why his film was so successful, because he took something from his dreams and showed us all.}

"A Story of Transformation and Transcendence"

Shin'en Kan, Work by John Coy

On Thursday night we had a lovely and lucky opportunity to meet a John Coy, a well known man in the Design community. I must admit that as a design student, I am terrible at my information when it comes to other designers, I recently declared and I am just learning more about the entirety of the field. I am glad to know who John is now and how much he has contributed to our community. 

Thursday for me started at 7 am. I hate that. No sleeping in for me any day of the week. That makes me cringe. I got up after repeatedly abusing my snooze button, well not really, my phone's touch screen. I lugged around my wire sculpture to class, dreaded presenting, got coffee while at school, presented got over it and headed home. I only have one class on Thursdays and Tuesdays, so admittedly I was a bit annoyed that I had to return to school. But not to worry Jimmy, it wasn't  because of the meeting, it was because I had to get up for work early the next day. I should have used it as an excuse to call off. 

I made sure to leave early because traffic doesn't move for hours. I got there too early though. So I went to eat. From every one's blogs it seems I'm the only loner in class! Everyone seems to find each other and do all sorts of fun things to get to know each other. Ouch guys, ouch. I did find a group of my classmates near by afterwards (Ow, loner again)  and joined in, sorry if I totally butted in!

Soon the music hall was filled with my classmates and other students, and we patiently waited for the meeting to start, cracking jokes, Kum bay ya circles and random things. I will also admit I was a bit annoyed at the technical difficulties, it seems it was only the slides and that is something that I would expect to have had fixed before the start, it is part of preparing for a presentation. That and the room was awfully hot. Astrid is amusing and energetic I love that, it was entertaining and kept us on hold. I love you guys. 

We went in around 8 and were seated in the center. John Coy is an enigma. There in front of me was a person I assumed to be incredibly well know and super talented (and he was), and yet he seemed so down to earth. I think that's what I liked most about him. I assumed he would be there in his 'highness' and lecture us onto what we should and shouldn't do. He did not. He asked us to ask him any questions we had. He showed us his work, how he had lived as a student, as a designer and what his experiences have been like. He was so..like us, with you know a super repertoire of amazing work. (I shouldn't say that I'm sure some of my classmates have as well.) He mentioned he liked meditating, awesome, that he didn't know the computer all too well, how down to earth? I don't either!...eh..not too proud of that. 

I have a feeling Jimmy was disappointed we didn't ask enough questions. I must admit that I, like Astrid, didn't feel like I learned anything knew, but I am very glad I got to meet John. He is clearly a very accomplished man. I can only hope to live and work half as well as he does. He does work he genuinely enjoys and that's all I could wish for in a career. His work is inspiring and I hope to see him again at some point. 

Thanks for making it a requirement, it might not be the most desirable thing to do on a work night, but I got to meet a great designer and experience my classmates outside of class.

Oh and in searching up John Coy, I found Jimmy!

Increase the Volume- Reading #6

This week's reading is all about communication. They begin with the most obvious connection of communication and design. Design is "the art of communicating an idea" and because of this, most of the process is an issue dealing with communication. They emphasize three parts: Encoding, the message itself, and decoding. They introduce us to various types of possible audiences. They are the Client, Corporations, Manufacturing,  and Associates. 

This was one of those long chapters with so much information, its hard to choose which to talk about without just spitting out what you read. What I liked about he chapter was the section on methods of presentations. They present the methods in musical terms. they use Andante, Crescendo, and forte-piano. My favorite part is the illustration techniques, they go through several materials we already use and the pictures used in the book are wonderful. I loved that it reminded us of our limitations when using color in Photoshop and computer related programs.

Feel Better Jimmy!

Professor Dustin

I walked in today looking forward to the film we were suppose to see, but around 7:59 and no sign of Jimmy meant something. That it was about to be 8. Just kidding. I need to stop with the lame jokes.
Today's class was non existent. Well somewhat, Jimmy's assistant came in and told us he was sick, for those who didn't attend class today.  It was odd. Jimmy is not here. Sick?? But Jimmy's invincible!
We all looked around awkwardly for a bit. We then decided it was a test! "Jimmy! You can come out now!" Astrid shouted. We laughed and then I realized, Jimmy wasn't hiding! He's much more clever. He was disguised as one of us. It was genius! But I guess we were wrong.

Our very simple Goal..and Julie :D

We then got to work, Jimmy's message was to discuss our final project goal for at least 10 minutes. With Angel settling down the class, Dustin got up and began to write down what we all agreed on.
We decided that, especially because of time, we should have a video that is no less than 3 minutes long but no more than 5 minutes. We clashed a bit on what the exact goal was. Since everyone had something different we agreed on a broad phrase. It was to simply demonstrate your creative process. We figured that in this way we could have many options with few limitations on what we can choose to do.

We all agreed, turned in our Creative Briefs that were homework to Astrid, and headed out.
I found it interesting, as Gilbert pointed out, that someone mentioned how it was possible for Jimmy to still be directing the class even when he wasn't present. I think it goes to show how well Jimmy has installed his power onto us! Just joking. But not really, it is true to some extent, it shows how much of an influence you've had on us. That we know what you expect, and we do it so that you're not upset. As well that we're not completely irresponsible, after all we stayed well over 20 minutes. =]

My only regret? I spent an hour in traffic getting back to school. I do not have another class until one thirty, and I was not gonna sit around school for..well I don't even want to count the hours. At least during that time sitting in traffic I was day dreaming of all the fun things we could have chosen to do instead of heading home!  They were all in a musical montage style since I was blasting music.
We could have gone to Olvera street, carpool style and gotten a churro from Mr. Churro! They're amazing! Alamada Swap meet for cheap candy and food! No? Anyone? Can you tell I'm Mexican yet? Picnic on the grass by the building from snacks hastily bought at the student store? Karaoke in the class- OK there were many, and I'm sure no one would have wanted to.

Yum.

I look forward, yet again to next class, I hope we still see the film.

"The Dream I weaved last night, Entangle it onto that little finger

Title derived from the lyric: 夕べ紡夢をどうぞ その小指に絡めなさい

from

Ichinuke by Mamiko Noto

 I do believe I'm running out of good titles. The title is my over excitement at Jimmy's mention of the next class having a film about dreams..is it inception?? Because if it is then I got excited for nothing. And by that I mean that I thought we'd learn how to decipher our dreams and find the meaning of the universe and life...so by comparison Inception isn't that significant is it? OK enough bad jokes. I'm a dreamer, dreams and their interpretations always interest me, the fact that our mind comes up with such irrational images and wonderful ways of presenting our selves with our problems and possible solutions. Of course that depends on what you believe dreams to be. Either way I find them incredibly fascinating and complex.  

How does this tie in with that link up there? Well the title is a translation of the song in the link, one of my most favorite pieces, it is from the Anime Series Hell Girl, and to those who saw my doll in the exhibition, that's who she is. Our ceramics teacher Stacey, who's awesome by the way, asked us to pick a song or poem and make something that we see or feel about it. As seen in the clip, which is the short version of the song, its all about her, so that's what I saw and that's what I did. The lyrics are somewhat nonsensical but are haunting if you know the story. Too bad the clip is not of very good quality. 

But enough of things off topic, I just felt I had to express how interesting I find dreams. Today was a very informative day in class. Jimmy warned us that it would be him talking most of the class time. Oh Jimmy you know we rarely talk. I still don't know what keeps me speaking up. Perhaps my ideas are just not good enough to those I hear around me, so I feel no need to express them. Yeah that's probably it. Besides, I like hearing Jimmy's ideas and thoughts they've got experience all over them. Its like having a TED talk every time, and I get most of his jokes! I think it was one of the most informative, as much as Jimmy hates speaking for the whole class, because we learned so much about the actual paying and work aspect of being designers. 

The creative briefs that were our homework got us one step closer gaining experience. Jimmy showed us actual creative briefs from a wide variety of works, from a website project to Pasadena logos. Mine were no where near as good as they should have been that's for sure. I appreciate that Jimmy went through the trouble it was useful to see how close we were to the actual briefs. When he asked us if we had any questions relating to the design field in general we had a couple of people ask about how pay works and couple other questions. I found these to be of great use as well. I had always wondered how one should decide to and how much to charge for our services. I never stopped to think, as Jimmy explained that we should consider the time limit, project and the client's budget to see if we should take the job. So that was very informative, Towards the end of the class we always got away with no homework, but since we couldn't figure out the entire creative brief for the final project in time, it was then our homework. Bummer.  I do look forward to next class though. 

The Edge of the Universe to the Power of Ten

Post Man, the Game of Racing Letter Men!..or Women

That title is completely inaccurate, disregard it please, I couldn't come up with a good one today.
In today's class we all brought in one of the games fully developed and in a presentation board to be discussed or presented, which ever is more fitting.

I don't know about everyone else, but I had no idea that a large, if not most or all of the presentation, was on the actual physical board. It's probably my fault for missing class, but I will accept the consequences. After every one's project was on the board Jimmy asked us to pick one that was the most presentable, the one that looked cleanest and professional. I kicked my own right off the list. I had focused most of my time on making my game not have so many flaws that my presentation was thoughtless. My papers were just a bit uneven, noticeable basically, I like many of the others did not remove the sticker behind my board. And in all honesty I didn't because it was a class presentation. I completely understand Jimmy's point in professionalism, but, and maybe I'm the only one, you don't think about these things because your job isn't dependant on it. Of course this brings up the point that Jimmy made on how he would suggest us were we showing that we were reliant and professional. I would say the same thing. If the project were presented to potential clients, yes I would have gone through the extra effort to remove said sticker...but I needed it for my name show up well on the back. Just kidding.

I guess I'm trying to find an excuse, I can get it perfectly done if I need to. I looked at the situation and I felt I didn't need to. I learned my lesson. But I can't say I wont do it again. If I have use the back of the board after ruining the front I will, I need all the money I can save, and I wont spend it if is for a point. So Jimmy don't get upset! Smile more, and trust us to do the right thing when the time comes to present it to clients..unless you want to hire us =] I think we were all just so rushed we didn't stop to think about all aspects of it. I will try, I will.
The second half of the project was how we presented our ideas. A couple of students, including my self, went up to pitch the idea of the game. I learned from what others were told but that didn't stop me from doing my usual mannerisms. I was told it was good that I stood behind my work. I did this because previous students had to stand to the side and blocked it for a while, so I wanted mine visible. But that was the only good thing. I had planned everything I wanted to say, it was simple to the point and clear.
Then I got up there. I stuttered, I forgot my lines and ruined it. I have a tendency to speak super fast when I'm nervous. Man do I need to work on that. After wards I didn't know what to do with my self, knowing that you're being judged on body language, how do you not do the opposite of what you normally do?
                                               Post Man Rulesss

I feel uneasy about body language, it feels like you're judging someone by looks, and you are, but how much does the way we sit and hold our hands really reflect how we feel. I cross my arms, yes, but I am not a closed minded person, nor am I protecting my self, this is the most comfortable I can be standing up!
In the end it was a good class. We got to know a little more in terms of our grade. We have to be more professional! And we learned about body language, we got some good laughs out of that as well. Evey one's different take on the games and their layout were incredibly interesting. Mine could not help but look like the simplest, pardon my french, crap up there. But anythings good I guess.
See you guys in class next Monday, have a good weekend, we all need it.

What is the name of Pocahontas' best friend?

Whole League How

The answer is Nakoma, who doesn't know that! I was given three choices, I thought they were referring to the talking tree or cuter yet, the raccoon. I got it wrong in case you were wondering.


Game day for Class Art 220. We started off right away finding out who had brought what. I brought in two, Taboo and Scrabble, both of which were played. Just not mine, Two other students had brought them as well. We had Spongebob Monopoly, memory, Mad Gab, Pictionary and several others. My self and Guady along with Mark played hangman for a while, then switched to memory. We heard everyone else laughing quite often. After Jimmy came in we switched around and I got to play Disney Trivia Pursuit. Which was quite fun despite the lack of rule understanding. The random thoughts I got when I remembered that we were suppose to also pay attention to the parts of the game were quite a few. With a game like hangman, the lack of rules took a lot of time for us to decide what to do it on, a movie title, a person. I found I didn't quite know how to spell out the number of letters in the words or the little dashes. It was more difficult if what the person chose wasn't very well known. So in certain times its better to have more restrictions.

With a game like memory...Having an average memory helps, when there are too many cards though, it takes a while to get through a round. When I played trivia pursuit, it was at first somewhat difficult because there were so many rules to consider.  However I think it was pretty fun despite the amount of things to consider. This might be for a couple of reasons. The Disney theme being one of the main things, since its such a universally well known subject, many of us had no trouble with the questions asked. pieces we had to collect, and dice rolling. I think the large amount of players that can and did play also made it very fun. We had a diverse group, and the difficulty of the questions sometimes brought us to laughter. Which is another thing that makes games very successful. The more humorous the game play is the more fun it tends to be. I heard a lot of laughter coming from games like Mad Gab, where the words are often funny, and as Jimmy mentioned, basically public humiliation. Despite it being quite fun we ran into a couple of bumps in the road when we neared everyone completing their little wheel thingy.

My only regret is that we didn't get to play other games like Taboo and Pictionary, that is totally my fault though, I should have made up my mind from the start. Truth be told I do not look forward to coming up with nine games my self, I'm not a good sales person, I know even if I have a good game I will probably screw it up when the time comes to "sell" it, either way I guess I look forward to seeing what everyone comes up with.

A Class Full of Sins

Seven Sins represented as homunculus fromin the Anime and Manga Full Metal Alchemist

 

 

Today's class was a rather easy going one. Was it cause it was a Monday? I know I had one of the worst work weekends every, thank you very much Costco! 
To start the day off, Jimmy's idea for a different perspective today was to sit on the opposite side of the table we were in. The light, it burned! It seems that our row is always smiling apparently. It was a funny and interesting way, but for some reason I didn't like how front row-ry it felt. I like I was in the way of people behind me. It wasn't that big of a deal. We started off the usual discussion with..what was it..Oh! The art exhibition. He mentioned some students in the class had work in it. I stopped by before 4 and recognized some work from classmates from other classes. From our class I only saw Gilbert's, a painting from one of our past quarters, it was a great painting, congrats on having it there Gilbert! 

Gilbert's work, Hope he doesn't mind..or sue. I really like the colors especially on the bread.

We discussed games in relation to our next class meeting being game day. We are to bring in at least one game, preferably  a board game. We discussed the types of games, the themes of games, what makes them good, and various other subjects. Monopoly got us into the thought of what is capitalism. While I understood what was being discussed, it didn't interest me, anything with politics is frustrating, people just differ too much in views. Besides it won't matter once I take over the world! 

The Calabera made my Enma Ai look like crap XD

After our discussion on games we took a look at the seven sins. Some of my images were also picked by others, Jimmy was right, we should have been more original, truth be told I didn't spend as much time on them as I should have, I think I could have done better. This did show me that there are different sets of the seven sins. The most common being the one I am familiar with Pride, Sloth, Gluttony, Wrath, Lust, Envy and Greed. Sometimes Vanity is used over Pride, but I think they're not interchangeable. Jealousy and Envy on the other hand I think are, and so on. It was interesting to see what images people picked. 
I look forward to game day. Though I don't have any games now, I'll be borrowing one for it.

A students work from what I will assume is Jimmy's class, renderings of an apple.

 

Simply Complex: French Fries and Gangster Fish

Today's class was more humorous than usual. Our homework was to bring three unrelated images into the class that told a story when sequenced together. Easier said than done of course. When everyone placed their three pictures after moving the tables back we walked around and took a look at them. Jimmy picked some to place on the board, and then asked us to, as a class, determine which one told the best story. After nominating some, I now realize we had little to no criteria to judge them on, we voted on which one we liked best. We picked one with the subject of cosmetic surgery. One picture was a little girl looking at a barbie doll in a store, one of a woman with lines and patterns on her face and one of ...well I'm no quite sure who that was, I'm gonna say Jone Rivers, after surgery. We then stopped to discuss why we believed this was a good set of pictures, so that we would know to explain why we picked it. In the end I dont' think Jimmy was satisfied with what some people said, but we never returned to the subject.We spent some time figuring out one of a fish, drugs and money and a desert. This one caused quite the funny moments in class as most saw the fish as a character who got into some bad situations with bad people and ended badly, same thing I thought of, Jimmy didn't like the fish being the character, never the less his expressions to anyone who thought of the fish as a character were hilarious. After a round of who watches what on TV and who doesn't, the pictures were taken down and we were to come up with a story from all the pictures. Some people went right ahead and came up with some pretty amusing ones, like a woman having surgery to turn into a man.

What we learned from this was that this is a form of if not editing. Our discussion on TV came from this. This way of forming stories is how many of the shows we watched are put together. And I know it takes a great amount of work and effort to simply come up with a half a minute scene! I think what makes some of these pictures work well into a story is not only what is in the picture, but what it implies to us to allow our brain and imagination fill in those gaps in between to the next picture. Like a very good small summary of a movie, or book. What I didn't consider was if everything in the picture was in context of your idea of the story. One of the pictures had a woman dropping a camera, Jimmy made sure to point out that  you can't say she's taking a picture if she's dropping the camera. This occurred in a few others, I never took a second look at that.

In the last part of the session we watched another TED video by John Maeda. I found it to be really entertaining. Jimmy always asks us to pay attention to the way these artist present. I find that I tend to like the  talks that use a lot of humor. I'm someone who loves to laugh so these always keep my attention. His speech on simplicity began with how he noticed there are a series of books with the "...for Dummies" or " The complete idiot's guide to..." and how they are meant to simplify things for us. After doing work with simplicity he discovered simplicity following him everywhere, and how we as humans love complex things. He also mentioned tofu. He's completely right. Tofu is amazing if you don't think so you haven't had it cooked right, as a Vegetarian I felt special for that, though there truly is nothing to feel special about.  

He mentioned some of his work and how he loves living, often dropping a joke here and there. His pace was good, not to fast, simple words and humorous. I love people who can stop and admit how everything can and is beautiful, my art 109 teacher is one of these people. Someone who can look at a chair and speak about how beautiful its design is for hours, and appreciates everything in life. It's sad that most people who through life in despair worrying about tomorrow, I know the future is important, but we often miss the beauty in today worrying about it. I envy an animal's ability to live in the present, I liked this video and I hope others got a similar message through it.

The Purple Mouse and The Mysterious Objects

Eraser I bought at Blick's

Today's class was another real interesting one. For one it seemed like today's first morning talk was rather slow. A classmate spoke of Laotian new year, but no one else wanted to talk about their weekend. Jimmy decided to give us another perspective on the class again and we moved and arranged our selves by our birthdays. The class wasn't gonna make the same mistake as the first time and Dustin took the rains and got everyone started. It was fun to see how fast we did it this time, and how many people each month had. Though when asked it seems everyone wasn't absolutely sure we had the right order. We did .=]

After we had our new arrangements in seating Jimmy gave us the assignment for storytelling. We were to pick two items we thought were interesting and use them to tell our story. We were given ten minutes and then an extra five as needed. I put in an eraser with the word delete on it, and a mother of pearl mirror. With every one's super creative ideas we came up with qualities that these items had. In fact we had so many we had to cut them down to a camera, a yoshi key chain, crackers, and the eraser. I probably forgot something.  We had so many ideas for a story it was really tough to pick something to stick with, we didn't even write down anything. This was something I mentioned too, first time I talk I believe ha ha, that there were so many possibilities and ideas we had to cut out some interesting ones. We had originally started out with objects a murderer had kept, and then we ended with a story that opens up explaining that there was a missing person's case. The only evidence found had been the said items and that after certain events had been found to have interesting abilities that had mostly terrible consequences. Well not mostly, they were terrible. Our wonderful story teller did an amazing job of remembering all the facts we came up with and using very interesting science terms to explain them. I was just as impressed as Jimmy. This showed me that its not all in the story. You could have a great story but if the speaker isn't keeping your attention it won't be as effective and the story will loose quality. 

This grants you 3 wishes! Don't do it though.

We then went over every one's projects by going around and switching pictures till we found some we liked. Though there were some we liked, it turned out that hardly any were "good". Most images kept the same meaning for the phrase just changed the context. I got a better understanding of the purpose of the project and realized..it was even harder than I first thought. We have the change to redo it for Monday. I see stress in this story's next chapter.

Here are the Monsters- Reading #4 Identification

This weekend's reading, by far the lengthiest, is very informative as it touches on many important road blocks and decisions we must face.

It begins with constraints. Now I know what constraints are, but in this chapter we learn an incredibly different amount of specific constraints that are for designers. There are the constraints we face for the product we're creating in terms of functionality, form and even societal constraints. They can be Imposed or Inherent. More constraints are made further down the road in the production area. We have to be careful that our designs whether computer or pencil made, are a possibility in construction.
Constraints of the designer include information, time, materials and budgets. This one scares me a bit. Admittedly, this is the first time in a while I have really made my self stay on task. I have a horrendous habit of procrastinating. Terribly. Here they break down some of the work we as designers will face. They break down time allowed for a certain job, and it gets to be quite busy, so we have to plan our time well . They mention Murphy's Law, anything that can go wrong will. I'm already quite familiar with this one.
There is a good part  of the reading focused on resources. As the author mentioned earlier in the book, as designers we are responsible for our creations to be a help to the planet. Brower Hatcher is the perspective person of this chapter. An artist who does different kinds of work, says that he finds thrilling that there are people out there who believe that he can create something amazing, and calls it symbiosis. I found the word interesting. In the case of a designer and clients it is a mutual relationship where we depend on each other. He makes a great point, and this is something we always have to remember.
The exercise section in this chapter is very interesting, it involves creating a product. I thought it was rather fun, you start with asking your self what you will design. You then describe its nature, who its for, why it is needed, what are its benefits, and so on. You identify the constraints as we learned in the reading as well as the sustainability issues.
It is interesting to think a product and ask the right questions to see how attainable the product is.

Chinese Fire Drill!!




Today's class seemed longer to me than most for some odd reason. We started off by once again pushing all the tables to the back and gathering around the first projects that went up from our homework. The assignment was to an image, any image, from anywhere and come up with a good phrase or word that would alter the meaning of the word. His example was the apple logo with "Think Differently" on it. An ad that was common for Apple Computers. It is far more difficult than it sounds since Jimmy has high expectations and I'm not as clever as I'd hope to be. *rimshot* See?

In face He didn't seem to like many. Some students came up with some on the spot. It had a lot to do with the image you chose. The busier it was the harder it was to come up with clever phrases, though of course it wasn't impossible to come up with good ones based on busy photos. Some didn't get to present but still received credit. Good and Bad for those including my self. Sure my picture that was peeling at a corner won't be seen, but I don't know how badly or well I did. Our homework for today is to do the reverse. Ten photos one phrase. I don't know if I should be worried, I felt this one was difficult in the thought process, so we'll see how much more harder this one is or if I'm lucky, how fun.

One of the more interesting aspects of today's class was  the discussion after those projects. Jimmy brought in several photos he believed were really good examples. We sat in a semicircle and looked at the Band Aid ad with what we all think to be the Hulk's hand, see it above, and started discussing it. After what seemed quite a long time to not be having a good discussion Jimmy stepped in. People had been disagreeing in certain ideas and weren't making a discussion of it. Jimmy is upset many of us do not take the ideas and create dialogue out of it. We sit back and expect others to do it. On my behalf although I am timid, most of the time, my ideas are often mentioned and said before I get to say them, and yes that is my fault, because I should speak up. But I am a shy person, and it will take a lot more for me to speak up, perhaps a subject I'm more in the know of. I will continue to try to speak up more during discussions, I want to be told I can't participate anymore too, sounds fun.

PS. I learned what a chines fire drill is. It's hilariously dangerous and can be pointless.

To Swallow the Sun

Today's class discussed the subject of story telling and what makes a story good. We began with jotting down, in a mind mapping way, the words that came to our mind when we thought of what makes a story interesting to us. This brought up a lot of words many of us had previously heard of. Setting, Plot, Rising Action, Climax, Theme, Moral, and many more. We were taking too long in this and Jimmy decided that we would be better off watching some videos.

Our first video had Amy Tan, a writer, speak about her creative process and how her life and culture influences it. I must admit I felt lost at certain points of her speech, unlike Gilbert's where I was able to follow along, never the less she made various interesting points and thought provoking phrases. Creating something from nothing, save a fish from drowning, and there's a reason for everything. Spare the fish, be a vegetarian! I found these points to be interesting, yet still felt as if the speech skipped around topics. In the end, it was a good speech, I liked her idea of her dog being her inspiration as he strutted off stage.

Elizabeth Gilbert's talk was my favorite of the two. She begins with mentioning that in older times, we did not just credit our selves for whatever creative work we made, we would attribute the work to muses or Daemon.  I found this particularly interesting since she goes on to mention that in later times we changed this to put humans in the center and when from  having a genius, to being a genius. I think that we would all be a bit less self absorbed or avoid being cocky if we still went by this idea. It can be silly though. I also enjoyed her description of a poet's inspiration and creativity as an animal that comes rushing by and you have to catch it even if it's by its tail and get it down on paper. I think this was her ultimate point. A point she made through was that when we create something that is recognized an a great piece of work, we have a fear of not being able to top that off, to create something even better. And in the end you cant let that slow you down, because you were able to at least create something at some point that is worth thanking whatever muse or inspiration one has.

I enjoyed seeing how the videos tied in with our reading homework about inspiration.
I can't wait for the third video.

An Act of Creation- Reading #3 Inspiration

DaiDai, was and is a costant inspiration to me in different works.

This weekend's homework was stage 1, inspiration. Before beginning the reading I must admit I though it somewhat amusing that someone would try to write about being inspired, and while I'm not saying it's not possible, it is something that to me is like a dream, you can't ever really fully explain it. So I looked forward to the way Inspiration would be explained. 

They begin with inspiration being the force that drives creators to create. What I enjoyed about this section was how they were sure to mention several aspects relating to inspiration. Muses of Greek myths are recalled, and shown as being the inspirations for the Greek's art. I found this interesting since they were the definition of inspiration in such times, and an interesting personification of it. They continue on with ways of finding our muse. I noticed many of these are things I wish I had the time to do, they're wonderful suggestions. Play somewhere, be still and just listen, clear your brain of all the excessive thoughts, just sit on a couch and think. For me, this is the first time in a while I do not procrastinate, I would probably think of my self as doing just that if I just sat, but I wish I could do it. I think most of us have so much to do that we don't have time for many of these, and thus why we lack inspiration. I know I do. Never the less, I enjoy they suggestions and look forward to trying them out, I have plenty of sources just little time. 

The perspective in the inspiration chapter is Yeohlee Teng, a fashion designer from Malaysia. I'm thinking we will have some designer for each chapter now and I'm excited to learn who they are. Teng explains how her inspiration comes to her through information. Since we receive information, I would say at all times I would say she's set for life on that subject. She mentions architectural work as a source of her inspirations and the desire to solve problems of diminishing resources. Pictures of her fashion work look simple but elegant and economical. She mentions how sometimes she throws out ideas because a new better one comes along, I think this is a perfect example of some points the chapter makes.

The exercise section is extensive and has 13 steps into sources that might be of inspiration to you. I really like the variety of these and how well they're presented, they make you ask questions that really help you get to know your self better. What makes you feel alive and awake?  The smell of nature, of cool air, fresh flowers, warm sunlight, dirt, the energy I pick up as an empath from energetic people.  Number 8 I knew but never put thought into. Communicating feelings is a reason I sometimes create, its inspiration. Number 11, define normal. I have never been called normal by friends, this was just amusing. Number 12 I was a bit let down. This deals with pain as inspiration, while having a child I'm sure is inspirational, I think the emotional pain we have all been through at points in our lives is also a great source of inspiration. 

I enjoyed this section far more than the previous ones, and like that while it does tell you to just explore all these sources, not to forget to not dive in so much into it or we'll end up plagiarizing.

Comics Video- Scott McCloud

Comic Book Artist Son of an Inventor

Part of our class today involved seeing a video on comics. I had been disappointed we didn't get to watch it before because as a fan comic book fan, Japanese comics more specifically , I figured it would be very interesting to watch. I was right. Scott McCloud made it clear he knew his work. He spoke at rapid pace yet despite how quickly he spoke, you could catch all his jokes. Which I found very amusing, they all tied in to his topics and even his own history tied well in, but I guess that's expected. 

As a response to the video Jimmy asked us to re-watch it, done, and to find 3 things, any 3 things, that we do not understand and research them in any way. There were some things I found I didn't know, and one that I found interesting that I would like to mention.

One of the things I didn't understand was his reference to a man named Vannevar Bush. Boy, It took me quite a couple of tries to get some info on this man, from hearing his name I could have never guessed his name's spelling correctly. After getting it correctly I learned a couple things about him. He was an American engineer, and was involved in numerous projects important to American history, he was even part of the politics that came with the development of the atomic bomb. McCloud referenced him for his idea of memex. Something he thought up that would now be comparable to the world wide web. 

A second thing I didn't quite understand was his reference to Moore's Law, this was also researched and I found its often referred to as a prediction by Moore and it says that,"An empirical observation that the density of transistors on a chip doubles every two years" 

I did not know what a transistor is so I found that as well. It is a device used to amplify electronic signals. I find it amusing that one thing lead to another as I do this quite often when I do not know something.

The most interesting part for me, aside from the jokes, that really struck me and stuck to me was his explanation that comics are a visual medium, that tries to incorporate all the senses. When he mentioned this I stopped following for a second and realized this was something I saw all the time but never realized. I found it incredible interesting and since that time today I haven't pictured a comic panel without remembering that. To me that alone makes comics that much more dynamic and the video worth it that much more.  

Over all it was enjoyable and I learned twice as much by re-watching it and doing this assignment. 

Mapping the Mind

Today's class was focused on the topic of Mind mapping. It was surprising to me that we actually kept to the topic. We tend to run astray from the main topic a lot of the time and to be honest I sort of missed that today. Conversations and Jimmy's wandering talks are always interesting.

Jimmy stated that mind mapping is a diagram used to explore words, ideas and all sorts of mindful things. In high school our teacher referred to it as just brainstorming. I think mind mapping sounds a bit more fancy, I like it. Our current maps differ from the ones I did quite often in high school in that mind mapping in class was much more fun...if it weren't for the lack of drive in my part to go somewhere more fun. 

Our class activity  was to  pick anything at all and make a map of it. Anything?! I chose to do something normal. What if I quit my job? When we walked around everyone had various interesting topics. What if I woke up dead? What if I could control the elements? All fun questions. 

I seem to have trouble putting it on paper and pick something safe, yet boring all the time. I guess I just don't have the guts. I will make it a point to break out of this a bit later on. As I was saying, the high school maps were always  about essays, so this was much more interesting. I didn't get my map put on the board because I wasn't trying very hard, it was too simple and was off topic, I focused on choosing a major rather than why they should come to art.

I realize my notes of the assignment weren't finished well, and I hadn't realized I misunderstood this until I began the work. I will make up for that in the homework for this weekend. I also really really enjoyed the video, but that's info saved for the blog specifically on it.

Design Process is a Relationship - Reading #2

Our second reading assignment consisted of the Introduction, perspective and exercises. 

The introduction was the the most difficult for me to get to, I'm unsure as to why but  I felt it was something that was being repeated again from the preface. While I understand that its common for this in all books, I just had felt it had summarized the stages well and condensed enough before, but I guess its for the best since this way we will get used to the steps and know them well going further into the book.

What I enjoyed most on the Introduction was his explanation of a Designer's idea. A while back we had a discussion as to what was an idea and I had trouble putting it into words. He begins, "...an idea exist only as a possibility in a designer's imagination, it can be anything at all. As soon as designer makes a decision for the design the idea has been isolated from an infinite number of other possible ideas."  This helped me to understand and put into words what an idea was, and how as we go through the process described in the book we turn it from an idea into a design.

I also enjoyed reading the section in which he clarifies that designs isn't simply something on the surface, it goes down to the products functions. This along with being responsible "green" designers gave me a good feeling that the book covered many more aspects than I first thought. To be honest I had never stopped to think about how my career could affect current environmental issues, he does a very good job reminding us and asking us to take this into mind as we continue on. 

I found "Perspective" a very interesting and easy piece to read. The author tells us about his life and his work and how it has come to where he is at now and how it lead him to write the book, something he mentioned the preface. I can only hope and work to the best of my abilities to achieve the freedom he felt as a freelance designer. Like he mentions, its also nerve racking to think about those times when you will not have work, the uncertainty. He was fortunate to have one job after the other.

In the exercises section, it teaches us to better understand the process by reversing it. Take the end product and ask your self questions pertaining to the original inspiration. I found this interesting, but difficult, it suggest we keep a journal with this in it, and to see as we proceed if we can answer those questions as we learn. 

I look forward to doing so.