1. Please identify (at least) one way in which creating visualizations (as a form of annotation) supports your research/ creative process: In Seminar we made storyboards using post-its to help plan out our essays (a brief, visual outline of sorts). I consider that assignment to be comprised of “visualizations”, and in that case it was helpful to freely move things around as we went about organizing/reorganizing our essays. In the case of our boxes in Studio, I felt that creating individual visualizations per resource required that we have good understandings of what each of our sources are really about (enough to convey what a source is about to someone who’s never read or heard of it before), and seeing all of the visualizations working together in a cohesive piece gave me a sense of what my essay might be like.
2. What was surprising/ interesting to you about the connections you made between sources as you organized your visualizations in the collection/ in the box?: Organizing my sources in my box, I was surprised to see how interconnected some of the sources were to each other. Of course, if all of my sources are being used to help prove the same claim they’re bound to have similarities, but I noticed just how closely related some of them are. For example, I saw how my books Nature by Design and Color, Environment, and Human Response and Environmental Psychology for Design can both be used to help prove/cover a lot of the same things, or how Environmental Psychology for Design in some way is able to help back up almost all of the other sources. It was nice to see how well they all worked together.
3. What inspired you in the work of one of your colleagues? (Was it a question, a research area, a source, how the collection was organized, the craft or techniques used?): I found it interesting how the sustainable tote bag MaryJo incorporated in her piece had a label on it that showed that it was made in another country for cheap labor. This tote bag helps work towards our need for sustainability, but doesn’t work towards solving human rights issues – and I believe both should be worked on hand in hand, especially when it comes to the fashion industry. It was an intriguing thought that could potentially serve as it own research essay. In addition to this, I felt inspired by Jonathan’s use of the school’s laser cutter to do his project (giving me ideas for a project I’m working on in another class) and how Austin reimagined what a “box” could be (initially thinking he’d use a tv).
