Category Archives: Year 1

This is the parent category of all courses taken in year 1.

Chess and Mancala

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I played Mancala because I grew up playing, and mostly losing, chess. The goal of the game is to collect as many gems/rocks as you can against the opponent. The core rules of the games are: 1. players take turns choosing holes with beads in it to drop into the other holes, 2. they cannot choose an empty hole, 3. they must disperse one bead at a time going counter clock wise, 4. if the whole has more than 12 beads when the beads are dispersed the original hole where the bead was is skipped, 5. if the player lands on an empty hole they can capture the opponants beads, 6. if the player lands on the designated goal they player gets an extra turn. The game was fun for me, I got the free app. Honestly, I read the instructions online, I called a friend and asked them to explain it verbally, but it wasn’t until I played the game I understood it. It was fun because, partly I finally understood what in the world these websites were saying, it was like a math problem and chess had a child. I enjoyed the mathematical elements of counting the bead and figuring out where it would go and how that would afftect the next round. Also that there were some psychology behind it, it made me think about what the opponent would do next, during my turn. I enjoyd that there were some stratigizing involved, but not as complex as chess. I would be interested if the game had a small set of beads that did something. Like in UNO, there are wild cards, take two, skip next player ect, it would be interesting if this game had something like it.

FINAL PROJECT 4

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I wanted to make a piece about the flow of time during the creative process. In order to achieve this I started the design process like another time I would make something. I designed a dress, a simple but elegant dress with a fitted bodice and a handkerchief hem circle skirt. The dress is made of lace so that the view can see into the layers of the dress. The dress is a floral pattern because I wanted it to be organic, since the creative process is organic for me. In the process of designing, I collected elements that were created during the process. For example, my initial sketches, to the flats, to the muslin pattern/mock ups.

When I was done making the dress I had a pile of elements that were made during the process of making the dress. At this point I started building the project. In the process of making a dress there is a mock-up that is created, which is a test run of what the dress is suppose to look like. So that the designer can see how it fits on the body without having to waste fabric that’s 60 dollars per yard. On top of the mock up I started attaching elements from the process.

The individual pieces are a representation of the creative process. So in the terms of semiotics, they are indexes. This is because the individual pieces represent how much time and energy and design process it took me to make the dress.

Ultimately the dress is about the journey that is of making a dress. Of course I had troubles, I’ve never worked with lace before and I was unable to get a zipper foot to install zipper the “proper” way, the machines I worked with were inconsistent and some were not ideal for lace. But that was all part of the process, that was all part of the journey. That was a part of the time flow during the creative process.

 

 

 

 

What is Creativity?

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“When I am in my painting, I’m not aware of what I’m doing. It is only after a sort of  ‘get acquainted’ period that I see what I have been about. I have no fears about making changes, destroying the image, etc., because the painting has a life of its own.
The source of my painting is the unconscious. I approach painting the same way I approach drawing. That is direct-with no preliminary studies. The drawings I do are relative to my painting but not for it. ” -Jackson Pollock.

What Jackson Pollock is saying is that he is does not know what he is doing when it comes to his process. Because of his lack of idea of what he is doing, he is able to freely explore and change what he is working. and not be restricted to his mind. The lack of restrictions is what enables him to freely explore his creativity. When he says the painting has a life of it’s own he means that, by the time he realizes what he has done, it’s become it’s own identity. Like most artists, the art becomes it’s own.

Bridge Project 5

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This is the final bridge project for Integrative Studio 1: Fake.

“In our final bridge project, you will use your experience looking through political/social zines in Bridge Project 4 and your knowledge of how one can understand “fake” to create a zine that addresses political issues in a fantasy/science-fiction world. You will choose one film from the list below to watch and utilize as the microcosm for the society you address. The zine should be at least six pages plus a front and back cover. You will use the content of the film(s) to explore the particulars of social issues that plague those worlds. For example, you may choose to address the poverty of the outlying districts in The Hunger Games or the issue of slavery of house-elves by wizards in Harry Potter. Any social issue presented within the universe of the film is fair game. Remember, however, that social issues are experienced by a multitude of people, problems that extend beyond an individual, and involve perception by the society as a whole. You will take a position on the social issue you choose and create a zine as agitational propaganda for your ideas. Like Bridge Project 4, you will create and use visuals to help better demonstrate your argument.”

Summery of what the objective of the project is: create a political zine created in a film universe. In my case it was education versus politics in the Harry Potter universe, specifically in the fifth film with Delores Umbridge.

What and why I chose to cover:

When bureaucracy gets involved with education, who gets harmed? It’s not the politicians that get involved, it’s not the principal or the office worker, it’s the students. It’s the people that the politicians are supposedly protecting and reforming for. This is obvious in Harry Potter with Dolores Umbridge.

When the dark lord was suspected to return, Umbridge was sent by the Ministry of Magic to reform Hogwarts and step in for Dumbledore. She was supposed to look over children from grade one through seven, yet, she had no credentials. She was never trained to be working in the education field. She was trained to work as a politician. With no prior experience of working in the education field, she became responsible with children from grade one through seven. Why? Because the Bureaucrats in the Ministry of Magic saw her as a good employee, for them assigning Umbridge to oversee Hogwarts was a promotion. As Cornelius said while she was passing stricter and stricter rules in the school, “Umbridge will continue to have power over the seriously falling standards of Hogwarts”.

What’s not ridiculous is that she was sent to oversee the children but also to oversee the professors. See if the professors were complying with the ministry’s “standards.” She checked with the professors were performing to standard with rap sheets, not unlike when the production line was being established. Professors measured but to arbitrary performance grades. For example Umbridge visited Professor Sybill Trelawney, a professor of Divination (what we see as fortunetelling), unannounced and interrupted the class with a clipboard and quill. Her reasoning? To be the eyes and ears of Cornelius. She started by inquiring the professor’s credentials and how long Trelawney had been teaching at Hogwarts. She ended with asking for a “teensey tweensy profacy?” During class, in front of her students. Umbridge not only have no qualifications in Divination, but no qualifications whatsoever in evaluating professors.

All her shenanigans was so that the ministry had a better look at what was being taught. So they can control what is and isn’t being taught. But if the government controls what is taught and what isn’t taught what is the difference between that and a communist regime? The children or the professors aren’t able to explore their education freely and that’s not right. Education should not be and should not get involved with politics.

Here are some process shots:

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This is what the final zine ended up looking like from the front and what the binding looks like from the side

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Binder

 

Pattern making

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So the first draft of the pattern was made from my roommate as the maniquin, the work room was closed by the time I was able to start working.

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I was able to fit the pattern to Jasmine and it worked out fairly well.

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This is what they look like flat.

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This is what it looks like mocked up

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I don’t have a pin cushion, so I had to make do.

 

 

foreshortening exercise

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I’m not quite sure if it’s because of my incompetence or just being tired but I find that for shortening takes a lot longer to do than just regular drawing. This was a twenty minute (yes, 20, not 2 minutes) study.

I also liked this one too.

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