This blog has been on extended hold for quite some time. There are many reasons for this: shotty internet, writer's block, schoolwork, adventures. I think the last one might be the most important. I've been living in London since the end of January, spending a semester abroad. I tend to spend as much time as possible out of my flat. So, what am I doing instead?
Well, looking at art mostly. All major museums are free, meaning that anytime I want I can see:
This at the National Gallery:
Or walk across Hyde Park to see the Victory and Albert Galleries:
Or stop into the Courtauld and see some Impressionists:
Or make the trek down to the Imperial War Museum to see one of my favorite paintings, hidden in a back room on the 3rd floor:
Or, if I'm bored with indoors, I just mosey through Hyde Park and stare across the Serpantine:
There are some thoughts floating around in my head right now. They might start to formulate into cohesive paragraphs that might be written here. Only time will tell. For now, I'm off on more adventures.
My first real 3D rendering, after a semester's worth of tutorials and hours of frustration. I am actually very surprised at how much I truly learned. Hopefully I'll be able to retain it over break.
This is a redesign of the Zem noise canceling ear plugs, developed in Syracuse.
I only have one more class tomorrow, then a few finals and projects standing between me and the summer. Speaking of which, it felt like summer today. 90 degrees in april? That's just as strange as a blizzard at this time. The magnolia's are blooming, the tulips are budding, my fan is out of its box.
I generally don't discuss the weather, as I find it to be the most bothersome small talk, but I have been working a lot with it lately. Here is part what I've made so far:
A few cards that are part of a weather game. Collect all the different categories (the different color stripes) and make a certain kind of weather. The one above is a sunny day, much like today's (with the exception of the temperature).
This is manifestation #1 of this project. I think it may be drastically changing this weekend. As a group, four of us chose a piece and music and divided it into sections. This is 2:00-3:00. The song is Steve Reich's "Groove Machine." Just sort of the landscape I imagined from listening. I wish the song was on Youtube. I shall have to do some digging.
My Symbology and Semiotics midterm, a strange form of puppetry to answer a given question. Can you guess the question? We've been discussing perception in class, in terms of user/viewer understanding. It's interesting, because there were six of us answering the same question, but each of us had different visual ideas (though for the most part, the same verbal answer). Visual versus verbal has kind of fascinated me lately, I've been struggling to find a balance between the two. Hopefully, I'll have time to write up some sort of longer explanation of what I mean.
This was a very fun problem to solve. I really love the forms created by the shadows:
The second simple exercise in Symbology. I'm a vegetarian, so it was a bit awkward as I haven't really looked at tuna fish in a long time. I never liked it when I ate meat, anyway. I'm more of a fluffernutter girl, with raspberry preserves. Or grilled cheese, with some mustard on it. Yum!
I'm watching Billy Elliot while working on making some rough books for my book binding class. Hopefully I'll have some schnazzy three dimensional stuff to show off soon. This semester is a lovely combination of theory (Symbology), computer skill (Alias), process (Plastic Production), intellectual pursuits (Jewish-American Lit and 20th Century American Art), and hands-on skills (Book Binding). I love having such a variety, my brain gets to work in so many different ways. I think in words, images, sounds, and emotions.
I leave you with my favorite scene from Billy Elliot, the "angry" dance:
Assignment: Take "institutionalized" symbols and make them into a uniform system. This probably isn't the "best" solution, but I wanted to be both playful and as different from the established signs. It's hard to fix symbols that have been so ingrained in our psyche. The class is "symbology and semiotics." We spent the first class learning the difference between icon, symbol, and index. Very interesting, but very theory-based and conceptual.
The charrette from the first week was eye opening. I have a manifesto to post soon, the result of my group's weeklong struggle with solving humans' energy problems. That will need a whole post to itself. More to come in the next week!
We've hit the ground running in the ID department, starting the year off with a 5-day charrette. It's all based around the Next Generation contest held by Metropolis. We're working with Interior Design majors. The past two days have consisted of a multitude of environmental lectures, from sustainability to better building processes. Hopefully something great will come of this.
I will have some amazing update when this madness is done. For now, I have to get some sleep and recharge for tomorrow's activities.
