Please show documentation of your process, some written reflection, and the outcomes.
– What are the salient things you learned through doing this project?
– Consider the feedback of your peers. Do you agree? Disagree? How will it inform your future?
Through out my process I went through a few very different ideas. The first idea I jumped into, focusing more on the medium than anything else, looking for an excuse to make jewelry. I was going to make jewelry to document systems in order to draw parallels between how we function and how animals function. My next idea was to make a stuffed animal that a participant would deconstruct and reconstruct into something else, while they follow an instruction guide that breaks down the difference between nature and society. The third major idea that I came up with was writing a children’s book about the BP oil spill and hidden plastics.
Upon reflecting on these ideas and why they weren’t functioning, I realized that I was overcomplicating my concepts. Not that they were super different or needed to be simplified but just that I had to be decisive about what topics I want to address. The more specific I get, the more into depth I can go and while they are for sure all related, they lead down different paths. When I realized this and made sacrifices was when I was actually able to write my story board after weeks of being overwhelmed by it. Something that was really drilled into me by this process was the importance of presentation. I really challenged myself to make my project speak for itself and I do feel that I ALMOST accomplished that but there were a few more things I could have put into writing. For example, I did not have it in writing really anywhere what the materials of the oyster were, and ended up getting questions about that. I also learned to trust the process and the system. If I’m being honest, I really did not understand the point of the observations but when I think super far back, I was really intrigued by a tree that was below our window. The scaffolding forced the tree out of the way and the tree morphed to be bent to accommodate the obstacle. Then, when it was gone, the tree was still bent. This in no way has anything to do with petroleum or hidden plastics but it started me down the path to get there. I know that if I stuck with my original idea, it would not have been nearly as multidimensional and I think that is maybe what it means to be an integrated designer? I think that I have gotten much better and being okay with not being sure exactly what I am doing.
Some interesting feed
