Roundup for Collective:08 Site

Hey, guys! Remember Matt and I need your images and text for the Collective:08 Website by this Thursday. You can place them under my server name (bfuselier), in my public folder, under "Collective08-Drop Box."

Choose 3 images: 300 px wide by 200 px tall (72 dpi). We'd prefer them to be .png, .jpg, or .gif. You can see an example of its context in the above frame. The user will be able to scroll through your images. Remember, choose images that you feel best represent your degree project. If sketches are your choice, try and make them inviting enough at such a small crop.

Next, also upload, as a text file:
your title of your degree project
main question (old or revised)
and sub-questions.

(these can be .txt or word files)

The naming convention for the files should follow these examples:

images:
gfuselier_image1.jpg
gfuselier_image2.jpg
gfuselier_image3.jpg

text:
gfuselier_text.txt

Have these to us by this Thursday so we can have the site live by next Wednesday!

Belger Idea

I thought I would bring up a small idea that I had on my drive home from Arkansas. I don't quite know what the Belger team is up to, but, if you guys have already thought of this, just tell me. What if we dyed a batch of string hot pink and ran it from each person's space to another (relating to our publicized graph). We could make some interesting connections and really liven up the space more.

Rhianna also had a good idea of taping a grid on the ground.

I dunno.... what do you guys think?

what do blogs mean to you

Around the beginning of this academic year, the kcai design department began to institute a mandatory policy of creating class specific web-logs as a tool to keep students up to date with ongoing projects easily. These free yet canned websites, basically serve as virtual bulletin boards for the on campus design community. This was probably a good idea in its initial spirit, because they can help clear up confusion amongst students and allows for a convenient platform to disseminate information. However, this “original spirit” has become so illusive that it does not even exist anymore.

Teachers have begun to mandate more and more activity on every blog from students. This normally wouldn’t seem like a ridiculous requirement even for me, but only if there was a point to this online activity at all. What has happened is that students are for the most part commenting on readings or links which we have already discussed in class. This is the embodiment of useless busy work, which is something that I am not paying a ridiculous amount of money in tuition to participate in.

The other thing which teachers instruct students to do on these blogs is to create “discussion starters.” If you think about this phrase for a solid minute within its context you’ll be lucky if your brain doesn’t explode from the shear absurdity. The idea that real discourse can happen through 12 pt Arial (notice this is not set in Arial) on a blog when people are posting hours apart based on how they’re interpreting an out of context statement that someone else wrote is impossible. If there is something worthy of a discussion starter, then it should be discussed, this means face to face in person, in class or just whenever in the studio. There is no substitute for a real conversation, no matter how saturated this generation gets with myspace I think that even the other students would agree with this statement.

As I said before, I appreciate the service that these blogs can provide, however they have been tainted by how we are forced to use them. More and more I hear students complaining about these bulletin boards and I know for a fact that they posting just to post. There is no thought behind it, no reason, no desire. Posting has become something students do simply to fulfill a grade. My hope is that the entire community can reevaluate what these blogs mean and what is their purpose. If this is supposed to become an archive for future generations of students to view, they will be very disappointed by the monotonous posting which was done out of nothing other than necessity to “Get ‘er done,” as Justin Ruggeri would say.

If you have made it this far, please feel free to respond as much as possible with whatever comments you may have. But of course, since this is only a “discussion starter,” these comments are limited to this online bulletin board only.

NOT DESIGN RELATED AT ALL BUT MUSICLY AMAZING

does anyone else remember the days before itunes 7 when the entire campus took full advantage of an amazing program called ourtunes so that we could share music with all our artskool friends? well those days are back, kind of.... theres this new program called mojo, if you have this running then you can share music with anyone else on campus using it, or you can add friends who also use the program from anywhere in the world! oh shit, i think we might break the new fast network larry just put in....

http://www.deusty.com/software/

DOWNLOAD IT

writing exercise march 14

spend some time reflecting on the work you've made. tell me what revelations you've had about the following areas throughout your process:
- conceptual / ideation
- formal / craft
- project scope
- technical / building / coding
- organization / deadlines / discipline

exploration three: what's due

deadline is wednesday, march 26.
include the following, for 100 points:
- exploration three sheet
- final artifact(s)
- process work in a very organized fashion (digital is okay)

also include new evidence of actual input from your advisor. (30 pts)

making+writing+speaking

just found this quote from malcolm gladwell, author of "blink" and "the tipping point", both new york times best-sellers. it has great relevance for both your writing and speaking about your work:

"The written word, to my mind, improves to the extent that it comes to resemble the spoken word—and the discipline of having to present my work orally has helped to make me a clearer and more succinct writer."

i spoke to takach about this relationship after his process presentation with our guest critics. matt's writing is very well considered, and full of good insights, but to read it aloud sounds very dense and is hard to process. the above quote is something that i am realizing as i give talks both in class and at education conferences, but of course gladwell puts it better than i could have. have you found instances of your classmates (or your own speaking) being hard to process? what kind of connection exists, if any, between your making, writing, and speaking about your work?

pollution will send you to hell!

hey kids doing green thesis projects, i thought you would enjoy this read! so...enjoy

http://green.yahoo.com/news/nm/20080310/hl_nm/pope_sins_dc.html

♥

tina