Although this semester has been crazy and time was limited, I feel that my time and learnings here were extremely valuable. At first, many things seemed vague and random but I later realized that everything had a correlation and all contributed to my final project.
A couple of exercises and projects that I believe helped me/I enjoyed:
-DAI: By using this process over and over again, it helped me to notice and interpret aspects of design that I never observed before. It forced me to really think about the underlying meanings and by listening to others observe my works also allowed me to get an insight on some ideas that I never thought of.
-Artist Posts: Although it was a nuisance in the beginning, I began to enjoy searching for artists that I have never heard of before. I discovered a plethora of underground artists that are so creative and helped me to stimulate my creativity. There are some ways of art that I never believed could be categorized as art until I observed their works. These artist posts actually made me want to go to a museum and underground art shows/galleries.
-Annotated Bibliography: By doing these bibliographies forced me to actually read the lines clearly and not just skim over the words. Often times, I end up forgetting what I read even an hour ago and this way, I can just skim over the annotated bibliographies to refresh my memory.
-Printing my paper and reading it out loud: I did not realize just how useful this was! I reread my paper on my laptop over and over again and I was 99% sure that there were no errors. However, after reading my paper out loud, I was shocked and disappointed just how many typos I had. This is a very important lesson and I will make sure to do this for every paper in the future.
-Interviewing/Bridge 4: Admittedly, in the beginning, I disliked this project. This particular bridge gave me the most stress due to the fact that I had to go out of my comfort zone and interview strangers. Yes, there were times when I was very discouraged because every person I stopped would ignore me and it was very disheartening. However, I gained a valuable lesson from the barber shop owner. Her family’s pride and loyalty to their history made me take a step back and think about my own family’s traditions and made me want to learn and protect this important part of my family. Also, by even attempting to interview, I believe my people skills have drastically improved.
-PICOIYER Ted Talk: Out of all the videos in the class, this one was my favorite. His metaphors and anecdotes of home were really inspirational and it made me feel more comfortable about the notion of “home.” Home is where we find ourself, not where we were created.
Overall, this summer session was chaotic, yet super effective. I honestly believe out of all of the classes I have taken so far, these summer courses were two of the most valuable. I believe I am better at making connections, allowing my brain to dig deeper and visualize themes/ideas, and working under pressure. I definitely wished we had more time in order for me to produce the work I truly wanted to (short films). Although I stumbled a couple of times and it was very overwhelming, I enjoyed seeing the creativity of my fellow classmates and my brain feels a lot more stimulated than fried!
-Do not get caught up on your failures, there is always room for improvement!
-When you think you are done, always remember, you can always do more!
