        1011 glaserDylan MojherONE I believe the main points worth noting in my reflection upon the studio exercises were areas where I overcame my doubts and exceeded my own expectations. Each exercise consisted of trying to understand the assignment and what we were trying to learn, often followed by brainstorming, planning, execution, evaluation and revision. I believe there was a definite growth in my character throughout the class, for the most part in that I felt a push to learn new skills rather than to simply work on assignments. TWO I felt that the most important thing I learned in 1011 had to do with presenting my ideas. While I had dealt with most of the other aspects of the class to some degree before, I do not usually prepare my ideas for understanding beyond my own personal use. In 1012 I plan to pay special attention to the assignment definitions so that I can avoid constant revision of my work to satisfy the requirements. I would also like to focus on areas that I feel are valuable to the learning process rather than simply executing work to pass the class. THREE the instructor Served as a guide and interpreter for the assignment instructions. the project or exercise brief/handout Served as a basis and framework for the assignment the review process (pinup, final jury) Gave context for my work and allowed criticism for improvement the inquiry book Allowed me to review my work and gave my professor a summary of my work to allow grading your fellow students Served as a basis for judging my work and source of inspiration the studio space itself Served as an area to meet, work and store assignments Jenny Drinkard Part I The first thing that comes to mind in reflection of challenges this exercise brought forth was the overwhelming emotions that started to eat at me about 1/3 through the exercise. I was mentally burned out, and studio was starting to become a heavy burden, not a playing ground. I remember one morning feeling particularly horrible, and Mike took us out side for one of his normal long speeches, and something he said in it really clicked like a light bulb in my head. I can’t remember exactly what he said, but I do remember how it made me feel. I wanted to stand up and tell everyone that I had a huge breakthrough in that moment, but kept it to myself until a few days later when I talked to Mike individually. I thought to myself, “Studio cannot be a burden. Industrial Design is not a major for those just looking to get a degree. I have to have fun and find inspiration within if I want to stay in this major”. During my individual conversation with him the idea popped into my head to bathe myself in color, and to just have fun like I did with the fresh mind of a child. After that photo series took place, it acted as a catalyst to get me through the rest of the semester. The last few weeks of studio were hard, but they were tremendously enjoyable. New challenges faced us every day, I could name so many more than three. They ranged from intellectual challenges (like, “how do I take this wonderful picture of paint in my hands and explore it on a new level?) to physical (such as printer jams and straying art boxes). The biggest challenge for me, as a very passionate person who earnestly cares about many facets in her life, has been, and always will be TIME. 24 hours a day, with at least 28 worth of commitments now that studio Is such an integral a part of it. It has gotten to the point where I think studios should be in the bottom of apartment buildings, and everyone in the College of Architecture should live together and only have to go down an elevator to get to studio. To overcome this towards the end of the project, Alyssa and I just ended up literally camping out under the stairs. There was work to be done! Part II I am personally very excited about the results of my competition boards, although as a perfectionist, I look at them and wish I could have done more. I still look at them and imagine even more ways to explore and riff color. Although I had a slow start, once I hit the point of rolling around in paint and wondering “Can you wear your mood?” I couldn’t stop thinking of ways to explore and I still can’t. I believe the initial question of, “Why color?” was an intelligent enough start to give myself a very broad range of opportunities for riffing. However, sometimes that broadness got in the way and pieces lacked fine tuning. I was delighted about how the color palette springboard piece mid-project began to take forms in other color palettes. I see everything as a color palette now. It is fascinating. Overall, I think my springboards and investigations were colorfully rich, and ending with the idea of “Color in Context” was fair, but could have been even more developed. I made a bad decision of creating an object at the last minute because it just seemed so natural to have something tangible as an afterthought. It was a great choice to remove it, although not a popular one apparently. I was more than humbled when it was chosen to move on. I can’t describe the self worth I still feel from it. Part III Mike’s role was one of the most pivotal in our learning experience. It wasn’t necessarily if he liked what we did or not on a personal level, but the insight he could give as a reflection to what we did and how we could make it better that really defined his role as the instructor. I specifically remember him pointing some things out on my rough sketches of how I would organize my final diptychs that were so valuable to the results produced. Such a simple idea like layout, seeing that specific alignments and positions of works on the diptychs could produce such a better result was very valuable, and something I couldn’t have seen without his guidance. The general exercise handouts that everyone received were, in my opinion, generally pointless. They had very vague and confusing instructions, and we almost always had to interpret their meanings on our own or ask Mike. When Mike started writing his own versions of them they were much more clear and we could see what to do. To be honest the general instructions did not help at all. Pinups were always very helpful. I could always judge how well my investigations went before pinups because I would either feel very confident and excited to, or a bit of dread, because I wasn’t proud of them. The final jury for the competition was interesting, but they took too long and tried to do too much at one time, so people got restless and stopped paying attention. Fellow students were probably the most pivotal aspect, because everyone saw everything a bit differently and definitely made huge contributions towards everyone else’s success. For example, I had a group of people look at my investigations of color and it was my peers that gave me the springboard idea to investigate color and emotions. From that discussion I decided to take pictures of them in shirts of different colors. The Inquiry book was a nice way to tie everything together, and I look forward to showing it to my family and friends who are curious as to where I am these days. Finally, the studio space itself was dirty, sometimes noisy, and always, ALWAYS alive with busy working students. I think the only time I saw the lights off was when people were drawing the curtains on the wall. I just wish the space was in my apartment building. =) Part IV I feel like I answered this question in the other reflections with my analogy, so I’m going to copy a portion of it into this space: I immediately thought of this question as a triathlon. Section One was like starting on a bike. We had an objective, and many tools to get us there and protect us (helmets and knee pads like charcoal and sheets hanging on a wall). We had to keep our faces straight forward, there wasn’t really time to look around and enjoy the scenery of creativity. From day one we had to accept each new challenge as it came without asking as many questions. Ride around the bend, make contours of your hands, and get better with a certain medium, and keep going towards the next bend. Following this, we jumped into a pool, where we still had a destination, and well as the confines of space, but a little more room to look around and start thinking for ourselves. Our instructions were often vague during Exercise 2, and we really had to figure out ways to explore our razors, just like a swimmer tries to figure out the best way to get oxygen without slowing pace. Exercise 2 was less structured than Exercise 1, but with an equal amount of importance and eventually conclusive thoughts. By this point we were dead tired, and we imagine someone in a triathlon would be. We were very surprised to see a return of the razors after jumping out of the pool and getting ready to run. But the final run and sprint of the race (where, quite literally the competition was ignited) we suddenly had no limits. No confines of a pool, no gear or bicycle setting our motion and direction, but endless space for new thoughts and ideas, and a very specific physical endpoint at hand. In Exercise 3 we had surprisingly even less structure, which was so obvious seeing how different everyone’s Diptychs turned out. We were allowed to take our fascinations and run in any direction we wanted, as long it was towards the finish line of our first semester in common first year. In addition, I don’t think that I could choose between whether I liked the first or last exercise best. I certainly enjoyed the structure of the first exercise, but I also liked the freedom given to us in the third to explore what made us interested. I loved working with Photoshop, although I also loved exploring the different mediums in the first exercise, and would like to continue doing that. Eric Morris One – I feel like the true lesson that the exercises gave me, was that observing is just a skin-deep thing. That it should be something that is taught regularly in schools or life or something. When I wrote my first reflections I don’t think I was able to see the bigger picture on things, but now that I do, it’s awesome. Some patterns that I experienced through this course was mainly centered on: me being exposed to something drastic, me getting discouraged, and then me finally getting it as the exercise ends. That was the major trend that continued from start to finish of my studio career. But as I said before, I learned how to apply looking into my life. Not only was I able to do that but I could draw better, a lot better than I thought, and I could also focus on something for a much longer time after this course. I have always valued art and drawings and models, so I don’t think that there was much change there. The process of formulating and exploring ideas, I feel like I had begun the course with a curious and creative mind, but it was cool to be able to apply it to something so different. The same can be said with the analysis and inquiry portion of the course. As to designing, this course made me a designer; there was nothing before the class to work with. I completely became a designer from this experience. Two – The learning from 1011 that I will carry through will be the knowledge to think about these three things. Craft, decision-making, and technique are the most important things that were stressed to me during the semester. This class gave me the right method to create what I want to express and what I want to achieve. I think the thing that I will be paying the most attention to would be to how the instructor teaches me to express my ideas differently than my teacher did this semester, the gap between how they do it could either make me better considerably, or make it so much harder for me to succeed. So I think it will be at the top of my lost to pay attention to that aspect. Three – Instructor – He was there to give me the right guidance during the hardships of the entire process. It would have been hard to do these exercises otherwise. The Project Handout – These were here to give me the at-home guide needed during the times of need, otherwise they were here to give me the assignment that was due for the next class period. The Review Process – The diptych process would have been much more relaxing had there been more than two plotters working at any moment in time. Otherwise it was good to see a culmination of our final work being pinned up. The Inquiry Book – When I am doing the pages I don’t feel that they are necessary at all, they seem like a hassle to document all of the work. But after looking at what I had been doing I’m satisfied that I had done them. Students – The best part of the projects and exercises, the community formed from the experience has made the course so much more valuable to me than any other class, Studio Space – The space provided gave me a blank palette to create and a nice positive atmosphere to make whatever I wanted to, that was in the guidelines of the project. The way that the studio was taught and the way that the course played out was a new experience to say the least. The learning experience was effective but cumbersome, because of the workload I felt that the learning was easily overlooked. Four – The exercises I think each gave me a different quality or lesson that are all important for anyone who wishes to pursue this field. The first gave me the means to effectively express what I was thinking, the second one gave me the means to dissect something completely to think of it in the most fundamental of elements, and the last one taught me how to interact and have fun with what I am designing. The most favorite of the exercises was the last one because it kept me fascinated with what I was pursuing and was a driving force in what I wanted to do. It gave me a method to design while having fun with it, and that is what will keep me involved with architecture. Jake Thomson Part One I think it is interesting to note how much of a full circle this class was with regards to my mindset at the beginning and the end of the semester. Looking back at my Exercise 1 reflections, I am reminded of just how naïve I was in the beginning of the semester to many of the concepts and ways of creative thinking that were introduced in 1011. In my reflections, I responded to my naivety by showing how much I “woke up” and learned how to truly examine and investigate certain things. A certain pattern I found as each exercise went by was that I was almost completely befuddled by the exercise prompt in the beginning, and then I started to find relations between the prompt and my own discoveries. As I began to feel like I had a total grasp over what I was doing, I would suddenly find myself wondering if I was on track or if I had gotten completely off and hadn’t realized it. At the end of each exercise, I felt both accomplished and inquisitive at the same time. This continuous process is really how I grew in understanding, confidence, and skills, because it taught me to learn from my mistakes, pick up any pieces, and move on to attain a better understanding of what I was learning. The way I think about making drawings and models has changed in that I have learned to think of them as being more than art and aesthetic in their appearance and more as visual representations of creative thinking. Part Two The ‘learning’ I will take with me to 1012 would probably be the act of closely examining and analyzing something and using the pieces, or ‘riffs’, I found to make new unique discoveries. This type of learning and applying was something that I only truly found within myself during Exercise 3, and I think that with the concept of riffing still fresh in my mind, I will be able to effectively use this skill in 1012. In 1012 I plan to pay attention to whatever new procedures that are presented and try to relate them back to the first one. Part Three In 1011, the instructor was obviously there to guide the students and inform them of the assignment up to the specific detail, but there were several qualities about them that made them different than most teachers. First of all, they had to have an extensive and flexible understanding of what we were doing to match the extensive and flexible thinking of the students. They also needed to connect to the students in a way that lets them feel comfortable with expressing themselves and asking for assistance whenever possible. It is the instructor’s job to “show them the door” and prepare the students for “opening it themselves”. The exercise handouts gave a physical reference to review instructions with and organize objectives into written documents, and acted as a supplement to the instructor’s lesson. The review process acted as a reflection on our work and a way for people to look at each other’s work and comment on it. The inquiry book was a good way for us to document our work and keep it organized in a clear, professional manner. My fellow students were also key to my success in this class, because they gave me constructive criticism for my work and helped me make sure I was getting as much out of the work as I could. In this way, the studio is really a lot like a community of common-minded people who work together to get things done. The studio space itself played a large role in the class, as it was a place for everybody to meet together in one room and have enough space to move and work freely without many constraints. I got so much work done in the actual studio that I would never have gotten done in my dorm because of its open, work-friendly environment. Part Four Exercise 1 was about preparing our minds for investigative study and opening ourselves up for learning new things. During this exercise, we practiced certain drawing methods that trained us to draw what we see, not what we know. Our observation skills also increased in order to get ready for the next exercises. Exercise 2 was a group project and involved a lot more collaborative work than in the first exercise. The point of this was to take the skills and experience that were gained in Exercise 1 and apply it to our object, which was a disposable razor. Exercise 3 let us use more of our own creative effort and ideas, as it involved us ‘riffing’ on the object and coming up with ideas that had nothing to do with the original object, but instead with ideas that went all over the map based on certain elements of the razor as a physical object. I think that my favorite exercise, Exercise 3, was also the most challenging, and it really made me use my full creative energy to make new discoveries about things I never noticed before taking this class. Changsup Crimson Lee PART 1 As I re-read my reflections again, it seems like I concerned too much about each moment rather than concentrate on more of final results. I am flashing back past three exercises and I am thinking I could do it really different now. I had a sort of pattern that I pushed my self too hard at first time, and stay there too long. I could adjust my pace steady and sturdy. I had tendency to go off from the group and far from everyone. However, in some aspects it turned out to be creative. I definitely feel I have grown up a lot past six months more than studying myself like years before. Before the CFY 1011, I saw things too abstract or artistic way, now I am creative in more ‘tamed’ way. Also, I am trying to see stuff in architectural way. I think 1011 was very necessary to everyone to turn more professional way. PART 2 The learning in 1011 is all about the new experiences. The point of education in 1011 is giving new eyes, visions and aspects to students to see things differently rather than teaching us specific technology and skills. As we go forward with next studio class, we will eventually use more of computer work with more ‘specific’ questions. In 1011, there were not much of limitations. It was very free and liberal. As we carry forward to 1012, we should keep our eyes and accept new skills. I am planning to prepare with learning computer software. PART 3 The instructor interprets homework and gives us information to take our actions. In our case, the instructor was very creative and quite different from others (I think); I enjoyed thinking outside of the box and class discussion. The handout was very useful to think about exercise as a whole. Also, it was very useful to write reflections with because it has questions that I can think about more. The review process got casual later on. It seemed very formal on the first exercise. On our last exercise, it was quite sloppy. Pinup is necessary, should encourage. The inquiry book is good exercise to prepare portfolio and looking back what I did. My class mates are my measurement to figure out I went too far off or not. The studio space is very public, small sometime, messy and noisy. The role of the studio for me is the courtyard for judge. The main difference between my 1011 class and AP art studio is that 1011 talks a lot. This means 1011 class have intensions to promote communications with students. PART 4 On exercise 1, we started with changing out sense of art into sense of design. Personally I had big confusions between aspects of art and design. On exercise 2, the group work was required, learned how to deal with other students. On exercise 3, I did my first professional pinup. My favorite exercise was the first one, it changed a lot of my viewpoints, and I succeeded personally. The exercise one should stay for the first one, since everyone start with 1011 with artistic eyes from their high school. Then exercise 2, careful observations requires and exercise 3 finishes with computer works. Willie Blair Part I: What I find most noteworthy isn’t something that I learned or anything that I did – it’s my attitude. Throughout this entire CFY breakdown period (yes, it’s a definite breakdown of mental capacity – good and bad), my attitude in my write-ups has continued to be a playful one. Making jokes, having fun – my reviews have definitely been the most colorful and personal ones. I believe that this is because this Fall CFY has helped to unearth a lot in me that had been dormant – mainly my self-confidence, work ethic, and pride. As Mike knows, this semester has been a hard one for me outside of school, but I drew strength for life from my love of investigating which I gained from this semester. The pattern I find in the learning I’ve done is one of stubbornness. At first, I always seem to resist. Don’t put enough effort into craft. Want to do it my own way. But the more I give in and try new things, the more I find myself enjoying studio and applying my lessons to everyday life. Each exercise whittled away at this stubbornness until I was completely open to learning and discovering new things. There’s definitely a cumulative growth in learning that has occurred over the past several months. How can you stay the same throughout a process which is designed specifically to make you keep growing? Beats me. I’ve never stopped growing through this process. I used to see drawings or models and take them at face value. “That’s nice – looks pretty. I bet it’s got some more meaning behind it.” That was normally it. I didn’t have the mind to delve behind the meaning of things like that. If I had an idea, I would think about for a day . . . or an hour . . . and then it would leave me. If I inquired into something, I would just ask questions to myself. If I was designing, it would be fun for the time being, but then I would forget about it. After 1011, all of that has changed. I can read all kinds of value into models or drawings (even the blue PacMan painting I saw today), ideas stay with me for weeks, I inquire into almost everything I see, and when I design, it gives this high that keeps going for hours. Part II: For 1012, I know that my self-confidence, knowledge of mediums, inquisitive mind, desire for a high level of craft, and love of discovery will carry through. I plan to pay special attention to putting my mind on paper, since that is my biggest hurdle to overcome. Part III: The Instructor: Someone to provide guidance. Whose job is not so much to tell, but to teach. Someone to impart knowledge and experience to us and act as a sounding board. The Handout: Something normally useless without the Instructor. Usually confusing and vague, these little slips of paper serve only as a checklist and scratch paper. Needs deciphering by Instructor. The Review: Priceless. A necessary step for learning how to handle yourself in a potentially embarrassing situation. Builds character and confidence. The Inquiry Book: Not terribly important. More of an added “have-to” than something to learn from. Although it does come in handy later to see how far you’ve come. The Classmates: Family. You go through tears of frustration and joy with these people – and sometimes spend more nights with them than with your roommate. Friends for many years to come and a strong support group. The Studio: Way too cold! Does the heat even work in there? Burrr! Why did I choose to sit by the window . . . But on a serious note, the studio is a safe space. Not a comfortable space, but a comforting space. It lacks its own personality so as not to impede on the personalities of those creating within it. Maybe that is its personality, then. The studio learning experience is nothing like a classroom, lab, or job experience. For some reason, studio is a life lesson. Not just something you forget after your final exam or paycheck. You can’t escape the lessons of studio – even if you try. : ) Part IV: Ex. 1 served to break us down and make us ready for further learning. You can’t mold clay that’s already set – you need it to be malleable. Ex. 1 turned us into that malleable clay. Immediately after, Ex. 2 came in to take advantage of our newfound and newborn designer’s minds. Only after Ex. 1’s breakdown could we then apply that same breakdown to a physical object: our razors. Ex. 3 then required a combination of these two exercises. We needed our broken down sense of seeing from Ex. 1 in order to have a sensitive eye with which to view patterns in past work and in our own new creations. We needed a critical eye from Ex. 2 in order to critique the work we were creating and see improvements which we could make. I don’t see any other way in which the exercises could’ve been positioned. However, Ex. 3 stands out for me. It was the first time Mike really took the reigns off. I was free to choose what I did. How I did it. When I did it. And what I wanted it to become. I definitely learned the most from learning from myself through Ex. 3. Alyssa Hutchison Studio Exit ReflectionsONE What I really noticed looking back is all the things I have struggled with throughout the year have pretty much stayed the same. I still struggle with time management and thinking in a whole new way, but I have progressed some. Exercise one reflections reminded me about how excited I was about this class and how much I learned from it. It also made me think back to the first few weeks and how I was so nervous about this class. I realized how far I have come and how everything that we did in previous exercises led up to the final one. We would not have been nearly as successful in exercise 3 without our craft and composition skills from exercise one, and our thoughtful and deep learning from exercise 2. The way I think about things has also changed drastically. Before I thought drawing had to be articulate and I had a distinct way of drawing, very sketchy, because I wanted that perfect line, curve, etc. Now I know its ok to make mistakes in drawing, its ok to do things over and go back and fix things, actually it is necessary. Modeling was something that scared me in the past, and I didn’t realize there were so many different materials and ways to model before this class, and so many different ways to portray an idea. Every person in our class had a different view of things and it was really cool for me to see the differences. I also think I look at things, especially simple objects (like the razor!) a lot more in depth. I look at things now and find myself wondering about them, like how they were made, and how many people worked on it, and how each little piece or detail was a conscious decision of the makers. I think designing is the thing that I need to improve on most. I have made improvements since starting, but I think designing has to do with the two things I struggle with the most, which is why I’m not exactly where I want to be yet, but I’m making progress and slowly but surely getting there. TWO The skills learned in 1011 that will help us in 1012 came from each individual exercise. Exercise one brought us the initial thinking and the fundamentals of drawing, choosing materials and overall composition and basically good choices to, in the words of Mike, “set yourself up for success” (not to be cliché or anything..). Exercise two was not about the razor, it was about developing skills to look at an object closely, to realize things that would not be apparent at a first glance. These skills of close looking and observation and getting what we want across onto paper helped us move on to exercise three, which taught us how to look outside of the box, to be a designer and come up with our own ideas and our own vision. I need to pay attention to the things I’ve struggled with previously, like time management, and keep improving until I get to where I want to be. THREE The studio environment had many encouragements and many things to help us get through. Our instructor I felt was really good. He was there when we needed help and he was really encouraging. He was the one that made our class so successful because he would push us to our limits, which is what we needed. He also taught us how to be designers, how to make good decisions. The exercise briefs were really confusing. I felt like I had to have someone translate them into English for me. The review process, however, I really liked. It was a good way to end the exercises because we could see exactly how far we had come, and see what other people had to say about our work. The inquiry book I thought was kind of pointless. I thought we reflected on our work a lot through our actual written reflections, our reviews, and throughout the whole process, and felt like I was saying the same thing over and over again. My thoughts had not changed because of the book, nor should they have. I liked the studio space a lot and the people in it. In the beginning of the semester I did a lot of work in my own room, but then decided to come in and work in studio. I found it to be a great environment to work in because I would actually do work if I went somewhere to do it, and also the people around were really motivating and encouraging. It was also fun to see their thought processes of their work, not just the final products. The studio experience was unlike any thing else I had experienced before. It was completely hands on and learning from experience. We were the ones that pretty much made the class for ourselves. We were given instructions that were completely vague and open to our own interpretation (which can be seen by the different variations of the exercises from instructor to instructor) as opposed to other classes where what we had to do was pretty much set in stone and there were no exceptions. FOUR As far as the goals for each one, I have already said what I learned from each one (exercise one was the basics, how to draw, the base work for what we needed, exercise two was the close looking and noticing details, dissecting objects and learning about the creation process, and exercise three was using our minds and being creative, taking what we had learned from the previous exercises about craft, skill, materials, set up, and the ability to look closely at things, and bringing it all together), and how that sequence led to the final diptych. My favorite exercise was exercise one. We had no idea what to expect and exercise one challenged us to break every notion we had about design before. It really laid out the framework for the class. It gave us the fundamental skills we would need for basically everything in the future. Andrew Harvard 1011 exit reflections One I feel that I have defiantly learned a lot about design in general. I thought that I had a critical eye to things in the environment but I now realize that I did not have one at all. I could see a pattern of being completely lost, having a breakthrough, reaching a plateau, and then finally pulling through at the end to be successful. The hardest part was not when I was at the point of being lost but it was at the point when I reached that plateau. I got to see what I was really made of when I could not think of anything else to do. I have become more confident in my decision making especially when it comes to composition. I have still a lot to learn in specific how to draw a model with an industrial design slant. I am excited about going further and exploring those things. Two The learning of decision making processes and the general theory of design will carry me on towards 1012. I will defiantly pay close attention to the instructor’s personality. I am going to view them as a client, but not a regular client that does not know what they want but as one that knows how to get to the end result and is willing to help. Three The instructors’ role was being a guide in educating us about the design process. His role was not an easy role because he had the difficult job of interpreting what the curriculum want towards us. 1011 was somewhat like the game telephone. The curriculum was given to the instructor, he explained it to us, we interpreted it to ourselves, and then we executed our own plans. The process leaves a great deal of room for misinterpretations. The project handouts were very vague but there role was to inform us of what was expected. The review process gave us a day to be proud of what we have done and it was the day in which I learned the most. The inquiry book reinforced ideas and concepts into my head that were given along the way. My classmates helped me when I was stuck. They also provided fun times and moments of silliness. It is important in the design industry to balance work with play. The studio space itself gave me a place where I could spread out all of my stuff; it really enabled me to get focused on the task at hand. The studio space also promotes design. The studio experience is more physical that just learning in a book sense—being there at late hours and away from home makes it so unique. But within the studio are many ideas flowing around from one person to another. Four The first exercise allowed and taught us how to describe what we see in a drawing fashion. The second exercise developed thoughts on how to think about objects and their manufacturing processes. Exercise three taught us how to take qualities presented in the already existing built environment and apply them into a new context. My favorite exercise looking back on the semester was exercise 1. I was able to effectively complete the assignments because I had some previous knowledge of what to do. Candice Bullard Looking and thinking back over the semester, I want to laugh at my naïve self of the beginning of the semester. I started off spending 4 hours on homework, then complained when it increased to 7, and kiltered off around 8 hours per assignment at the end of Exercise 1. Exercise 2 started off with 4 hours again, but quickly increased to 8 and surpassed that up to 12 hours that I spent on most of the assignments near the end of the Exercise. Exercise picked up at the 12 hours per assignment and averaged about 12 hours per each assignment that I did. With each assignment, I always felt like it shouldn’t be taking me so long, but yet there was no way for me to complete it successfully without spending so much time on it. I started off looking at each assignment as just that: an assignment. But by the end of the semester, each assignment had become much more: it was my personal will and desire to strive for the best results even though I didn’t always know what they were. I wasn’t receiving instructions from my professor, I was receiving them from myself and each week I poured more and more of myself into the work I was producing. Sleep became a luxury and anything more than 6 hours was a rarity. This class felt like a full-time job because I made it feel that way because I wanted to do my best. This class won’t even count for anything for me- I’m applying to grad school and won’t continue with the undergrad program- but it was more important than any of the other classes I had taken. It was a really rough semester and I pushed myself to the limits several times, often to fall short of my own expectations, but always to be able to look back and be proud of what I accomplished. I feel like I picked up each new assignment where the old one left off and this helped me learn a lot from every assignment. I wish I could redo Exercise 1 because I feel like a failure in that area, but I’m really proud of myself with Exercises 2 and 3. My eye has grown in many ways I wasn’t expecting and it makes me yearn for more challenges. Nothing in college has ever challenged me like this (and I’ve already gone through 4 years) and I hate it and I love it at the same time. I don’t know why I care so much about this class except for that I enjoy it- the time spent in studio and the amount that I’ve grown by. I started off one of, if not the worst student in my section, but I feel like I’ve finished on top and I’m proud of that. I was always afraid to try drawing something, even doodling, or playing with clay or anything artistic like that because I felt like I’d be a failure if I tried. Now I know that I can accomplish anything if I just take enough time to carefully view and observe and translate it to paper or model. It’s like a freedom that’s opened a lot of paths in my life. I’ve always had a very scientific mind, but I never put that mind together with the artistic mind that I’ve been building until the last Exercise. Once I did, it all started to make sense and I was able to compile a lot of scientific detail and data into my artistic drawings to produce rich results. When I met with Dr. Khan and Dr. Allen this summer, I just knew I was interested in green building, but now I feel more strongly interested in designing buildings and cities and just designing in general. I think if I was more artistic or more interested in ID, I could even pursue that field. But with my more scientific mind, designing buildings and cities is more apt to my capabilities and skills. I’m not continuing to 1012, so I will answer this question in regards to graduate school instead of 1012. I learned how to see the world, how to experiment and create and be confident with my skills. That my skills are neither better nor worse than anyone else’s, but different. I learned how to explore and investigate and have that inquiring mind discussed in day 1 of 1060 lecture. I learned how to see the world and translate it into 2-D on paper or 3-D in model. Even more important, I learned how to portray the mental image in my head in 2-D or 3-D so that others can see it and understand what my vision is. The most important thing is probably my desire to design and my confidence that I’ve built in myself through this course. I’ve learned that I can’t just play it safe by following the book; that sometimes the best results come from pushing the limits into whatever realm I wish. I want to build my visual tools in grad school as I feel they’re still somewhat weak. I plan on paying attention to all the different ways in which I can grow as a designer and architect and urban planner and seek to gain as much as possible from every class. One thing I won’t do is think that I can spend 4 hours on an assignment; I’ve learned that it’s not about the time I put into it, it’s about the results and I’m fine with spending 12 hours on one assignment if it accomplishes what I want. The instructor’s role is to mentor and guide the students verbally. The exercise brief/handout strengthens and confirms what the instructor has described and is good to refer to when working on the assignment. The review process compiles all the work from an exercise and is a good way of seeing how you’ve progressed throughout the course of it. This is one of my favorite times because I get to appreciate everything I’ve done. The inquiry book is a way for me to write my thoughts about each assignment, or at least the important ones, that I’ve done and also lets me look back over the exercise to see my growth, triumphs, and failures. My fellow students are a great sounding board, especially in the studio setting and are there to help me keep from going insane when I’m working until 5am because I see them right alongside me working just as hard. They were a real support system and can provide some good feedback. The studio space is what I will most likely be calling home in grad school. I spent all my spare time here and found this the best place to do my work because it’s just the most productive. The studio learning experience is much more open, supportive, and encouraging than the other environments. In classroom, you learn from the professor and not the other students. I’m a science major so I love labs, but they are really a time for individual work and not collaboration and are a place where you get a right or wrong answer. The workshop is another area where you learn from the professor mainly. Tutorials are one-on-one reading a computer usually to teach yourself something without any human contact. Internships and jobs are not places where you can experiment because you have a client who’s paying for your services who you have to satisfy and do things right for. The studio is collaborative and an opportunity for risk taking. Emily Connor ONE Even without rereading my reflections, but highlighted even more by my responses, I noticed as I processed throughout the exercises that as I was going through each exercise I did not appreciate the experience. I did not realize the benefits of each exercise, each individual task, but quite to the contrary was not particularly pleased with what I was being asked to do. However, having to reflect upon each individual exercise, I really had to look at each exercise critically and with a little distance, the benefits of each started to appear. I am not sure that I yet fully appreciate or understand everything I was taught/ was supposed to learn this past semester, but I appreciate the exercises more now than when I was having to go through them. I started out the semester quite rocky. The first few exercises we were given, the blind contours as well as the gesture sequence were so different than anything I had ever done before and so unmechanical ( I come from a drafing background of straight lines and curves dictated by tools, either the compass or French curves, with every move carefully measured before placing pen to paper) that I felt completely uncomfortable and out of place in the class. However, as we moved into perspective drawings and beyond, I started to come into my own. I became more confident and my skill level grew. Then, we started Exercise 2, and for whatever reason, my skill level, my confidence, and my passion for the class decreased dramatically. Exercise 3 did not look too much better at the begging, but after we began to move on from riffing, I again found my place in the class again. With the increase in confidence at the end of exercise 3, the freedom I allowed myself to experiment grew too and my project turned out all the better for this newly found experimentation. Many people over the course of the semester claimed to have a ‘click’ moment, where they finally realized their new abilities, however, that never happened to me. I believe the changes were so gradual that I didn’t even know they were happening. Even now, its difficult to pinpoint what has changed because before I didn’t know to take note of how I saw the world and the changes were so gradual that along the way, I didn’t notice how my perspective was changing. My work has I believe become more sophisticated, both in technical skill and in thought process. Now I take numerous factors into account when thinking of design where as before I only worked towards a single final goal under strict guidelines. In other words, I learned that not only am I free to experiment, but it’s a necessity. TWO Since 1011 wasn’t so much about the individual tasks, but rather teaching us skills, I think much of this will carry forward. The technical skills of recording information will be useful for the rest of our careers, not just in 1012. The skills of experimentation and thoughtful analysis will also prove beneficial for the rest of our careers, whether we choose to enter the design and built field or another field entirely. In 1012, I plan to pay attention to having fun to the best of my ability. I noticed that the more I enjoyed my work the better the end results. THREE The role of the instructor was to act less as an instructor, and more as sort of a tour guide. So much of what we had to do over the past semester was self-discover. Because of this, they could guide us, they could give us tools to help us, and they could even give us guidance and feedback, but they could not force us to learn what we needed to learn, they couldn’t even really teach this to us. We had to teach ourselves. The project/exercise briefs/handouts again, served sort of as another kind of tour guide. This was a way for the project developers to give us their instructions for a task in an easy to access and concrete manner. The project briefs told us of the assignments that would lead to the next self-discovery. The review process allowed us to look back through our work, look back at the process and reevaluate the experience. It was done in a formal setting so that not only would we take it seriously, but also we would feel it necessary to really examine every decision made so that we could defend that decision if the need were to arise. Additionally, the review process gave us the opportunity to get outside opinions. Our classmates and our instructors had seen us struggle through the entire process, but by bringing in an outsider they were able to tell us without bias if our work communicated the intended data. The inquiry book, though not as formal as the review process, made us again reexamine the entire body of work from an exercise as a whole. It helped us to realize unintended successes and previously unrealized failures. By having fellow students critique my work, it helped me to see my strengths and weaknesses. They were going through the same process as I, struggling with the same things and succeeding at the same things. They understood the fatigue, the emotional strain, and the frustrations with the assignments, and so often, I took their critique more to heart than I did the critique of the instructors. Just like a jury of one’s peers is important in the judicial system, a jury of one’s peers is critical for the learning process. The studio space itself created a sense of community. By having an area where everyone could come and work, we were able to learn from one another more readily than if we had all worked sequestered from one another. The studio learning experience was definitely different. Never before have I felt so exposed to a group of people. Never before have I had to be so vulnerable. I had to grow up a lot over the course of the semester. The tests weren’t once a month, they were daily and the grade didn’t come back written at the top of a piece of paper, the grade came back in verbal critique and publicly. I had to learn to deal with criticism. After putting so much hard work into something, only for it to be torn apart and publicly was difficult to deal with and at first I took it very personally. I still take it personally from time to time, but I have learned to distance myself more now and I realize that I am being critiqued only so that I can fix mistakes and become a better designer. Studio also forced a group of people to come together and work as a coherent teacher. In the traditional classroom or seminar, or tutorial, one person generally teaches the class, but in studio we all taught each other and we all learned from one another. FOUR The first exercise taught us a basic skill set. It taught us not only the technical data collecting skills, but also skills of craft and composition. With the first exercise, we also learned time management skills and how to deal with criticism. The first exercise in essence gave us the building blocks with which we built every other exercise. Next we moved on to a slightly less structured assignment and a more inquiry based assignment, moving us a little further out of our comfort zones and gradually into the design world. With this we had to start analyzing the numerous decisions that went into product design though we ourselves were not yet designing anything. With the third assignment we finally made it into the design world. The stipulated rules vanished and we were free to devise our own. In addition, we finally had the freedom to pursue our own interest versus something someone else believed should be of interest to us. We chose the path we wanted to take, but we still were given plenty of support to help us out along the way. I am torn as to what was my favorite Exercise. In some ways I enjoyed the simplicity of Exercise 1, but I also enjoyed the freedom and creativity that Exercise 3 allowed. The one thing I know for sure was exercise 2 was no walk in the park for me. Victoria Do Part I What was beautiful to me about the entire process of my own personal experience was how everything i learned continually built upon itself and eventually snowballed into so many skills about design and seeing the world in general. I now am walking away from this class with so much more confidence and volition with my curiosity and thinking. Another obvious characteristic of the transformation was my work ethic. I've never lost so much sleep in my life, but in doing so I've seen what I'm capable of if I'm pushed and it's a really good feeling of accomplishment. Part II The main learning that i will take with me are methods of visual communication. How to compose every detail in a piece so that it can speak for itself. From sketches to final drafts, to layout, to zooming in and out, there are so many methods. So much so that the perfect visual story almost seems unattainable. But I look forward to the attempt. Part III I couldn't have asked for a better learning experience of environment. With the wrapping up of classes and the holidays coming, I'm actually really thankful for the sort of family that i feel like i grew up with this semester. From the late nights in studio together, to brutally honest critiques of each other's work, it all had so much more weight and led to so much more growth as designers and as people due to the intimacy of the class. Part IV The way each assignment within each exercise built upon each other was a really rich journey. Starting with very raw concepts and then to apply those in a long process leading up to a final project really had an impact on what the process meant educationally. The learning that came from doing things in the order that they were done really does make so much sense in after thought. Matthew Salazar One My reflections for the past three exercises were . . . personal and elegant. Those are the only words I can think of in describing them. A lot of my writing tends to be like. I wrote my reflections not like an essay, more like a light, one-sided conversation, as if I was talking to studio instructor directly about what I had learned and how I had used it. After reading my reflections I also noticed that they also seem to mention a unique learning curve that I had to work to overcome in each exercise. Each exercise started out hard and slow and then progressively got better with time, as did my performance and work quality. This cumulative growth of craft and quality was a common trend in all the exercises. There was also a longer and slower growth that occurred over the entirety of 1011. On the first day we were shoved into the hot sun outside and told to just draw what we saw. Little did we know this was a preview of the entire semester, being told what to do and how to do it, the only true freedom being in when we did it and what it really told others about us. Over that long time, though, we learned new skills such as showing our thoughts through drawing and investigating the most random objects and ideas ever. We came into the class as hard rocks and emerged as designers. Two After 1011, the journey into 1012 will be greatly eased by the skills learned in the past three exercises. The most important skill I think was knowing how to take an object and investigate it fully and thoroughly. I feel almost certain we will have to do investigation through photos and drawings next semester. Another vital skill was knowing how to present our drawings and ideas visually and vocally during pinups and juries. We will probably have more of these projects in which a final presentation is a major part of our grade. However, the skill I think I personally will pay most attention to next semester is time management. I found myself running short on time during several instances over the last semester and so I will definitely work hard on better time management in 1012. Three Instructor – My teacher and a quasi-mentor throughout the exercises, it was his job to introduce new ideas and concepts to us in easy-to-understand terms. Often I would go to him for help in times of confusion, but he was usually not my first line of help as I even more often would try to help myself or go to fellow classmates. Briefs – The handouts weren’t usually helpful, as the instructions our teacher gave us often contradicted what the briefs said and the goals they laid out were often unrealistic or unachievable in the time frame given. I read these but rarely ever followed them to the letter. Review Process – Pinups and juries were always exciting because they meant the end of a project and a chance to get my thoughts together. As these approached, they gave me both a sense of urgency to prepare for them and a sense of relief that things would end soon. Inquiry Book – The inquiry book always felt like a waste of time to me, but I enjoyed doing it nonetheless. It was always a bit work that felt tacked onto the end of a project just when we thought things were over, so it was always a bit annoying too. Fellow Students – My peers were more and more helpful as the semester dragged on, to the point where in the last exercise they were my major source of critique on my diptych. It was also fun to compete against them but just as fun to help them. Studio – Hell on earth, but also fun at times. It was always messy and proved to be my sleeping spot several times, but it’s main purpose as a workspace was well met. Studio is not just a class – it’s a lifestyle. You don’t just do studio work like other homework, you can’t just sit down, start on it, then finish it. Studio is an entirely different type of class where you have to really consider what you are doing, how you will do it, and where it will lead you to next. By doing this, studio is made personal and so distinguishes itself from other classes where you usually do the same work as everyone else. There are much higher expectations in studio and a completely different system of grading, but it works out well. Four Exercise One was the introduction to studio. We learned basic skills and concepts, such as how to use charcoal and draw 3D objects, that would later serve us to great length. The very broad overview that it was, it lead perfectly into Exercise Two, which dealt mainly with taking an object, investigating it fully, then making something new out of it. Here, we had to learn at not just how to draw things, but also how to think of them and correspond them to other things. This too led perfectly into Exercise Three, the last exercise. This time around, we were asked to conceptualize everything we had learned from investigation in the previous exercise and make it into something personal and productive. The logical flow of the exercises was not always apparent at the time, but looking back it is obvious that there should an introduction, an in-depth analysis in the middle, and a nice conclusion. My favorite exercise, therefore, would have to be the conclusion, because it was so personal in the way we did it and because all the loose ends were tied up in the final presentation. Link to this Page
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