Cross-Course Reflection
If my freshman year in college could be summed up in a single word, it would be growth. By that, I don’t mean physical growth, but rather a growth in my character and academic performance.
If the last semester was a semester for foundations, this semester could be the semester for me to establish my personal style. The classes I’m taking now have helped me to explore more artistic abilities, most of which I wasn’t even aware before.
Fashion Seminar class has taught me how to clearly elaborate my ideas in a written formality. I’ve always considered myself is a creative person, I have lots of ideas that I can show in my project but I had a hard time wording them on papers. Through the seminar class I’ve definitely learnt how to express my thoughts written in detail. Moreover, I’ve learnt how to write a research paper which has been a brand-new experience for me for that I’ve never written something so deeply illustratively before.
Fashion Studio Class is a first step for me to establish my fashion major. I’ve grown familiar to the process of making a cloth from the first step of brain storming to the last step of sewing. For the first “Hum” project, I made a video about pearls, which was one of my favorite projects in this semester. It was my first time shooting a video. What’s more, it’s an awakening for my artistic instincts through which I gained the general idea of what my personal style should be like; I experimented with the camera with multiple approach to my subjects. In the end, I decided to go with a feminine view point, and I liked how it brought a sense of delicateness to my work. For my final project Past and Future, the dress being the most exemplary work, I extended the ideology to make my dress a hybrid of western and eastern aesthetics. The finished work was to my satisfaction, with a pertinently balanced composition of my color palate. Moreover, I laid ground for a future direction of my personal style, which is to draw connections to multi-cultural background and combine the appeals of it in many aspects.
In the class of Time, for the first time, I touched upon the film shooting and editing experience. Over the course, I was made familiarized with and proficiently using Premiere. I find myself attracted to the visual representation of urban life. And I like to underline the film with a narrative story.
Last but not the least, ESO introduced me to a brief literary practice in the field of fashion. To me, it’s a good break from the production process. The practice allows me to exercise paraphrasing articles with my own words in a comprehensive way. At the same time, I have to maintain a subjective view which hasn’t been easy. But I took on the challenge and received an elevation in my writings in return as a result.
In conclusion, it’s been a productive semester. Even though it’s only the second I’ve had, I’d already exceeded myself so significantly. I can feel myself gradually forming a self-identity as an artist which is an incomparably crucial first step. It’s made aware to me that as an artist, I need to gain more maturity over the next few years, but after the year I’ve had, I look forward to what’s to come next and more excitingly, what’s more for me to become.
