I’m Ellie, a Czech girl who moved to New York to start her next big adventure. I’ve never moved and come from a small city filled with the outdoors and nature, so the move to New York City was a big change. I am interested in combining the design artsy side with the computer science/technological side by studying design and technology at Parsons. Parsons is one of the only school that allowed me to combine these two topics because in Europe they want you to either, become an artist or a computer scientist.
By looking over all the work I have accomplished in my first year at Parsons I have noticed many differences and similarities in my pieces. A common theme I have included in my work is nature and AI technology. From my project in studio 1 making alien creatures that were based on the outdoors to choosing my space and materiality house project being in the middle of a forest in northern Norway. I used the topic AI in several projects, in semester 1 I used it in both studio and seminar projects, either literally or the concept taking on public surveillance systems etc., in my drawing and imaging class for an eerie poster, and in my Time class in a video about AI among us. And in seminar 2 I’ve used it in my research paper about how AI turns into choice anxiety. Including the seminar and studio courses over the entire year within topic, it really helped deepen my research and understanding in the topics I was creating projects for. It deepened my knowledge for the topic because it would not be just one type of research, either online or sketching, it was both. It was the process of investigating each individual aspect like facts as well as creating it into a visual, allowing you as the maker to really get a grasp of what the big picture is.
One of my main highlights of my first year at parsons was creating a 3D model of my invented house, in my space and materiality class. This project started out as an idea, that then turned into intense technical drawings of the floor plans and elevation views, that then turned into making a a smaller version model of the imaged house. The only criteria were to create a communal area, thats sustainable, where you go to unplug. My idea was to create a observatory cabin in the forest in northern Norway on a Lake, over looking the northern lights and stars in the night. The sustainable aspects were drains for water collection and storage, dry toilet, and solar panels so that the cabin could be completely self sustainable. This was an important project for me because it was a rigorous, time consuming, lots of adapting process that allowed me to learn a lot about my abilities and about my self and how I think. It pushed me to achieve greater than I believe I could which is what I hope to do in every class because that is the ultimate lesson. The final outcome turned out really well, and I am proud of my achievement and dedication to the project. I have never worked with many of the materials that went into this project so it was a lot of figuring out and self learning. It was an area of work I have never explored so it was as successful as it was interesting to me.
My second highlight would be my teacher John Jerard for my space and materiality class. His class in general over the course of the second semester was truly educational, inspiring and motivational. John is a very exceptional teacher that brings in insightful knowledge from the outside real world through his many years of experiencing it, and his the other schools he teaches as well as the hospitals he comes to to help out making art. He makes use of the class time most effectively and everyday (i had the class twice a week) would push me to do better, to do greater. He supported me while at the same time told me the harsh truth about what needs to be done, or what is needed from me in my presentation boards, photography, presentation, and dedication. Teachers area very important to my learning, and I am very thankful he was one of those teachers that truly made an impact on me.
The skill of being able to create and understand technical drawings as well as knowing my capabilities of creating objects from my hands will definitely impact my future projects in the next years at parsons and life. It allows me to have a better understanding and thinking of how I can take on my next assignments in ways I never thought I can display them. John class also really pushed me to use all the great resources the school has to offer, which a lot of classes never talk about or encourage. Like the professional photography room on floor 10 (photos above taken there). These elements do generate better quality and presentation for the future. I have dabbed a bit in the wood working shop and the laser cutting area this semester but I would like to expand my skills in those areas to get more familiar and comfortable to generate wicked projects in the future. I also want to get a deeper skill in coding which I hope to learn in my coding class in the fall. From my drawing and imaging class from my first semester, we had a woman come and present to us her work and told us about how important the presentation is for the visual of your object in the real world. That is when I learned the first steps in incorporating my projects to blend in the real world to give the audience a glimpse of my thought of how the product will be used. I would like to improve my photoshop skills so that the presentation editing looks flawless.
