Arani Halder
15th December 2016
Integrative Seminar 1: Avatar
Eric Dean Wilson
Reflection & Moving On: Progress Statement
In the beginning I came to the city to study Communication Design at one of the best design schools in the world. I wasn’t very proficient at creating digital art, nor was I particularly proud of my writing abilities. But naturally, I thought these would few of the skills that I would learn here. When I started out with the year, the first thing that I was introduced to was annotating texts. It gave me a deeper understanding of a text instead of just surface level reading. It was really interesting to hear and be part of discussions/arguments where different people put forward so many different interpretations of the same reading. It made me analyze my thoughts and think about questions like, ‘why didn’t I think of that?’ It helped me locate relevant information in large texts. All the different readings introduced me to the varied styles of writing and therefore pushed me towards experimentation. The Bridge 1 assignment didn’t seem all that difficult at first, but it really pushed me to think deeply about everyday items that I had learnt to take for granted. The Studio counterpart of this assignment, was the first time I used Photoshop. Though I struggled with it initially, it helped me explore different aspects of creating digital art. The Bridge 2 project was interesting because it was the first collaborative assignment. It was the first time we were encouraged to consider and combine ideas with someone who had a completely different artistic style than yours. Both the Seminar and Studio assignments taught me how to display my sense of creativity along with effective collaboration.
By the time I reached Bridge 3 and 4, I was familiar with the basics of analyzing and working with people. Bridge 3 was about deeply exploring various aspects of a thing, for example a park. It helped me analyze design elements, behavior of people, demographics etc., from different perspectives. Bridge 4 was challenging because I had never written a research paper before. Writing such a long piece of text and putting forward my opinion in order to convince the reader about something, seemed really intimidating at first. But this assignment helped me explore new topics, including data and facts, and form connections between seemingly unrelated things. It also helped me dig deep into subjects, study them and form opinions about them. The Studio project introduced me to weaving, which I found to be really enjoyable, and something I could incorporate into my art in the future. It encouraged me to use materials that I probably wouldn’t have thought of using. This helped me develop my research skills and improve my time management skills. The critiques throughout the semester were really constructive because they helped me grow as an artist and also gave me a chance to help other artists get different perspectives on their work. It was interesting how during a critique, people would interpret works in ways that the artist probably didn’t even think off. This helped both the artist and the people critiquing in widening their artistic horizons. I learnt that iterations were very important to make a successful piece of art. It is important to make variations of the same think in order to truly understand what suits the piece the best.
My iteration skills got better throughout the semester, and this is one field in which I wish to improve in the next semester as well. I hope to express my thoughts more effectively in class and improve my time management skills even further. I want keep improving my reading and writing skills, explore new styles or writing and work with different people and hopefully, ultimately become a designer who can make a difference.
