HEY
I am Marcelle Olivier. I’m a first-year student at Parsons School of Design, and I’m studying Product Design. I’m currently in my final few weeks, so I’m going to be doing some reflecting on my first year of college. In all, it was a really hard year- but I know I learned a lot. I can visibly see the level of improvement between my initial and current projects. Not only are my ideas better, but my stuff just looks better.
Throughout the year, I noticed many connections throughout my courses: we studied some of the same artists in different classes, and applied their methods to our own projects. Another commonality between all my classes is that you have to be able to work fast; you’re not given a ton of time to develop an idea and make something of it. Also, in most of my classes we worked a lot on refining brainstorming techniques. Lastly, I noticed that in my art classes- the decision to use digital VS. analog techniques played a big role in our work.
I refined my woodworking and wireworking skills in Space and Materiality, and was then able to use those techniques and materials in all of my other art classes. Also, I learned how to sew for a Space and Materiality project, and have since sewn for other classes as well. This semester, I am taking Drawing and Imaging, and taking this class has led to me being more confident in using drawing in my other projects.
In my academic classes, I have to practice critical thinking skills, which in turn allows me to make faster connections within my art projects. And in classes where I’m required to do a lot of writing, the writing assignments that I find most enjoyable always have a creative element to them because I really like creative writing.
I have received a lot of instruction on how to research when writing a paper, like in my Seminar classes. However, when researching for artistic projects, we never went much further than studying other artists who have done something similar. So, if we were given instructions on how to further our own personal research for artistic projects, it could be helpful.
Two projects that I would consider “highlights” of this academic year are my first big wood assignment, and last semester’s Studio final.
For my first big woodworking assignment, we were instructed to create a wearable wood object. I chose to make a wooden lunchbox. During the planning process, I had to first plan the dimensions, sketch and re-sketch until I got it right. Then, I had to gather all the materials (wood, screws, etc.) It took more time than expected to actually cut the wood and assemble it into a lunchbox, especially since we weren’t allowed to use screws or nails. We had to use three different types of joinery. After I assembled the pieces into a lunchbox, I painted the whole thing red. Then, I went through the dollar bins in a comic book store, and cut out clips from some comics that I liked. I glued them onto the lunchbox. Lastly, I added velcro on the inside so that it would be able to open and close.
For my Studio final last semester, we were instructed to choose a community, identify a problem within that community, and make something that addresses the problem. Almost everyone in my class made a piece of artwork that brought awareness to the problem, but I wanted to attempt to solve the problem that I was addressing. I chose to address the flaws I saw within the American prison system. First, I had to do really broad research about the American prison system, and then more refined research that was specific to the system I was creating. Then, I had to research in order to figure out what the best way to communicate my idea was. For my project, I created a dossier that outlined that outlined my plan for CJC (Criminal Justice Co-Op), a non-profit prison system. The project was very taxing and I spent many many hours researching and writing, but I was really proud of the end result.
These two projects were both individually important to me because I worked hard on them, learned a lot in the process, and am proud of the final product. However, I also like to think of them as an interesting pair because they showcase some of my main interests. I really like product design, so I enjoyed the lunchbox, and I’m also passionate about social justice, so the prison design meant a lot to me. If I were to change something about the way I did these projects, I would just allow myself more time, as they were both down to the last minute.
In the future, I want to make more projects like the nonprofit prison system. I really love making art that is for personal or aesthetic reasons, but when I graduate I want to do something that really helps people. I want to start designing more for the benefit of society. If I continue doing more theory-based projects like the nonprofit prison system dossier, then it will help me work my way up to designing actual products that help other people. I want to keep refining skills like woodworking, wireworking, sewing, etc. in order to make products to the best of my ability.
