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.

Jimmy gives us the World

The most interesting day so far started like the past days. Everyone's trying to wake up as class starts and Jimmy begins class. Today everyone refused to speak about their weekends when asked. Still half asleep remember! 
Jimmy's response was to explain to us that despite us thinking everyday is essentially the same at the core they're all unique and different experiences, and its true since we do not do the exact same thing everyday. This talk led to him explaining that we need to take all of our life experiences and apply them to our work because we all have a unique perspective. After our morning talk it was time to deal with our comics that were our homework over the weekend.
Our task was to arrange the comics in order from best to worse and we had ten minutes. Jimmy walks out and we have to get to it. Having taken way too long according to Jimmy in our last class exercise we had time as a priority, the most outspoken people became the leaders and everyone agreed on a point system to determine the ones we believed to be the best. We get to pick three we like, the ones that got the most votes when to the left where all the top voted ones went and then were ranked according to the numbers of votes, the rest were mostly ties of ones and zeros and with votes and raises of hands we determined their rank in the lower half. We finished and sat down with two minutes to spare.
I was never happy with my drawing ability and certainly not with my comic, I felt had I tried a little more it would look better, so I did not look forward to it being judged and ranked, but I was surprised and sorta taken back when it was first placed 5th and then moved to 6th.
 I was flattered it was in the top ten to begin with, but that's not important. What is is what Jimmy mentioned when he came back. He stepped back in with a few minutes to spare and said we could have done it in 10. We had asked for more since we believed we couldn't do it in 15. Then he asked if everyone was happy with it. I didn't expect any hands to go up but five did. Those five were asked to go up and try to arrange them in their view of best to worst. At that point I realized they would never be truly content with their rank. Everyone had a different view and different criteria on which they were judging them from, this is something Jimmy pointed out and said was our flaw. 
I found all the different ways incredibly interesting. Some had pictures and no words, some were only words, few had color, some were inked. The different reasons why everyone decided to go to college were endless. Jimmy was completely right, we all had different and unique experiences about everything. You just have to slow down enough to think about it. 
For the rest of the class we had the people who attended the Seth Johnson seminar go up and speak about it. It sees everyone but Mark thought it was a great experience, and thoroughly enjoyed it. They taught us the six points he mentioned he worked by:

1. Tell your client what they need
2. Make your own work 
3. Do a lot with a little
4. Shut up and listen
5. Its your obligation to make things better
6. Be curious and never satisfied

I thought this was very interesting, but I had to work and to be honest I need the money. I'm grateful to these people for sharing the information they felt was important so that we didn't completely miss out on things. 
I really enjoyed the class today because we learned from our past experience with the comic exercise, and worked well together even if we had some disagreement. It was a shame we didn't get to watch the film I was looking forward to that.Until next class then.