I am Dahee Byun who is studying Communication Design at Parsons. I enjoyed art when I was six years old because it allowed me to freely express my thought. However, when I came back to South Korea, I did not liked art when the art teacher forced me to color the sky in a certain color. I decided to study art and design in my senior year of high school because I was again attract by the idea that I can freely express my thought through color and texture. Moreover, the reason why I chose Communication Design as my major is because I believe visual is a “bridge” that allows easier communication and interaction between people.

During the first semester, the courses were mostly about connecting individual to the context of the world, while this semester, they were more about deep exploration of one idea as if Alice went to the wonderland and explored her identity. The skills that I’ve learned across my first year course is process, exploring, and editing. I might have done the process unconsciously, but I learned how to organize my thoughts in depth and step to step to reach my objective. In the past, I tend to just go with one idea and thought it was waste of time to approach in different direction, which ultimately lack deep thought and research. However, by brainstorming I could explore different approaches within one idea. Then by conducting thorough research or thought and constantly looking back at my work, I was able to come up with strong final work. For academic writing and studio making, I realize both of them could undergo the step to step process to reach the objective so that I can develop more strong idea.

The two highlights from my first year course would be Studio and Seminar 2 and Photography class. I was interested in cosmetic and beauty perception since middle school and I decided to do a deep research about it and came up with a question: “How does cosmetic advertisements influence women’s beauty perception?” for both Studio and Seminar 2.  During Seminar, I first did general research about the topic to have a background information, then I did research based on reliable sources. Throughout this process, I was able to do deep analysis, interpret different strategies and psychological theories, and therefore come up with a well-organized paper. I was especially satisfied with the last two paragraph where I could counter-argue possible solution and could present more practical and promising solution. For Studio, I first brainstormed several ideas and narrowed it to one idea. After I decided one idea, I kept exploring different mediums and editing the work to communicate my idea in a best way. This Thursday, I am going to present my final work, which is showing the process of wearing makeup and showing the distorted view through multiplying transparent layers. Unlike Seminar, where I came up with some solution, I wanted to question the audience, “What is your beauty perception?” by showing the process of wearing makeup and demonstrating the possible effect. The interesting thinking process that I’ve experienced through Studio and Seminar is that I could express same work in different approach.

From Photography, I did class exercise that allowed me to learn the basic functions of DSLR camera. Then I learned photoshop skills and went to several exhibitions to broaden my perspective. After these basics, our class conducted self-directed projects and was able to do deep exploration about our interest. The self-directed project was the most interesting and challenging project because I was the one who need to manage my time and progress the work. I first brainstorm and question myself, “What do I want to capture in the camera?” I had to do deep observation to seek for inspiration and explore different topics with different approach. Finally, I come up with  a unique work that has a strong identity. I’ve presented photographies that is half reality and half painting. I took a photograph of an object, drew it on canvas with acrylics paint, and place it next to the real object. Therefore, it was a combination of an abstract world and reality that questions the absolute truth. From this self-directed project, I learned how to manage my time and thought I successfully demonstrate the process and progress by exploring different mediums and undergoing trials and errors. One of the most outstanding learning from this course is that I found my interest n the topic of the class, fact and fiction, which is the boundary between abstract world and reality that I would like to pursue in the future as well.

In conclusion, from the foundation year, I learned valuable skills such as process, exploration, editing. I’ve realized that it is important to progress step by step because that allows one to build up a strong basis for the final objective. Moreover, along with the process, exploring and editing could generate another idea as I progress from doing basic exercises into coming up with my own project during Photography. From Studio and Seminar 2 and Photography class, I became interested in taking different approaches within one idea; I suggested possible solution in Seminar, while I question the audience during Studio. Moreover, I would want to keep exploring the topic fact and fiction. I believe the boundary inspires the audience to question oneself and question the absolute truth. Throughout Parsons and in the future, new skills that I would like to learn is to well-organize my thoughts and to do more deeper exploration and research about my interest.