#gd4

http://code111japan.eu/science-sensei%E5%85%88%E7%94%9F-that-dont-fit-in/

Writing initiative #8

In doing this self directed assignment I learned that I needed to learn how to make executive design decisions when working on self directed assignments. There were so many times I had ideas of what I wanted to do, thought of different mediums I’d like to attempt, but with so many options because of the nature of my word being so ambiguous I kept getting paralyzed to hone in on a narrative and try to make them work. I learned I need to stop being so fickle and comparing my progress with others as it was holding me back from even trying to make. I learned that I can’t design in isolation and collaborative environments are almost necessary for producing something of substance.

I found almost all of these aspects difficult for my chosen assignment. I kept running into creative blocks, found it hard to find research as I was having trouble focusing on a topic that could relate to my project that I cared about, connecting my designs to research initially was difficult when I was exploring themes of unity, love and design process. Finding out different methods I haven’t tried before made craft difficult, 3D modelling is definitely not my strong suit and I’ve learned this now, packaging design was also hard initially but thankfully I had friends that were knowledgeable in both aspects and were willing to show me how these things were done and help me out in the process. My organizational skills initially were really bad but in the past few weeks I felt like I was more locked in due to the time pressure and how little margin for error I now had. My time management was abysmal and I began feeling overwhelmed by the amount of work I had to do and felt like I kept failing and falling behind. Overall I found this course to be difficult not because of the work but because I honestly kept getting in my own way. Once I had my friends literally talk sense into me and give me the push and support I needed I was able to get back on track.

I enjoyed the opportunity to do whatever I wanted in a semi-structured environment. I liked the fact that I was in charge of my own brief even though I found it difficult to manage. I think I enjoyed this opportunity because it also taught me that in a self-directed assignment like this, I’d really have to make it something I care about or obsessed with in order to have the motivation to push through it. Usually courses have assignments that are just 3-4 weeks long and you don’t really get a chance to sit with them, rework them, or completely redefine them. But even though most of my iterations up until the final critique were failures or just non-existent, once I really found a topic I was interested in and became obsessed with, I felt more driven to get the project done. 

Oh man. Over the course of the semester I’d honestly probably fail myself. I think I kept trying and failing and getting discouraged seeing everyone else’s projects flourish while mine kept running into roadblocks or kept getting redirected (with myself to blame). In the end I feel I figured it out but the road to getting there was long and tough. I learned my lesson in the end, but it took me quite some time to get back on track. 

In this class I presented my rough 3D slipcase, with the CD and notebook as placeholders, I also showed a rough snippet of my 4D where I had the design process overlayed and motion tracked on top of the monolith like case with each of Eriksons existential questions overlayed on top of the case. My intent here was to model the questions of Eriksons existential questions on top of the book and match them to Tollesons design philosophy and design process, associating ranges of questions with each stage of Tollesons design process. I also modelled the slip case to look like the Monolith from 2001 after Paul suggested I watch it and I thought of the case as being the thing that sparked and acted as a catalyst for making the rest of my projects. Hrishi and Christian said the case looked nice and gave me the advice to sand it down a bit so the CD would have more allowance and fit flush to the case. Paul said that the form wasn’t communicating or reading as the monolith - which may be a good thing. After that he also said that maybe I should lean more towards the side of Eriksons stages of development as he found that more interesting. 

This week I didn’t go to class because I still had nothing to show - Instead I had a long talk with Aiyana because after the reading week I tried documenting myself making the project in terms of the 3D case design and slip case, but felt like documenting and putting the work back into a designed artifact was difficult and felt disingenuous. Aiyana said she understood what I was trying to do but without an anchor to ground my project in order to make something, id just be stuck in a constant cycle and feedback loop of documenting my work - putting it into a program and not knowing what to do with it - like a snake eating its own tail (ouroboros?) 

This week I decided to pivot my topic from the topic of love and unity to figuring out how to represent a design process in a meta way after going back to my word and discovering I was leaving out a crucial part - the power of imagination. After converting my 4D experimental video to a 2D book/manifesto of a topic I wanted to pivot to, Paul said I was getting somewhere with this and to research more into it. Atasha said she liked the translation in medium but thought I was playing it too safe and to try different materiality to play around with and represent my proposed pivot with more intention. After class I showed my booklet and manifesto to Roderick where he gave me a few books to read over the break - La Jetee, and the Zone Books section in a Bruce Mau book to discover how to translate the same content/themes across different mediums and representing something honestly.