Archive for September, 2009

Papers tell how to design

Sunday, September 27th, 2009

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One of the first projects of my senior studio class was to address the questions “who are you?” and “how do you see yourself in the design world?” The project was really open ended- you could go in any abstract direction you wanted. In class we made quick prototype sketches and I came in with a pinwheel-like thing made of cut up papers. I thought the cutting up papers and weaving them together again was reflective of how I view the design process; In any work we have a little bit of ourselves in it. We take our knowledge, background, and experiences and cut them up- from there we take relevant and necessary parts and combine them with other visual information and sources to try to communicate a message. Different pieces get woven together. Sometimes this new woven piece does not entirely work so you have to cut that up and put it together with something else again. Design can be describes as a process of cutting and gluing ideas together. As a designer, we have control of what pieces we are using and what image we are weaving all this into.

I decided to show this idea by making a stop motion animation. I set up cameras and lights in my room and took many pictures while I worked with various paper cut outs. In the end I had over 1300 photos taken! Now I need to work on finishing it and editing the sequences.

RA Training 2009

Wednesday, September 16th, 2009

After coming back to Providence, I’ve been busy at the Resident Assistant training at school. For two weeks several student leaders learned about dealing with tough situations, organizing and implementing community programs, and about activities happening this upcoming year. We made door decorations for students living on our floors and also made bulletin board art.

One of the best parts of training was going to Camp and do fun bonding exercises as a team. We did low and high ropes courses. I was really scared of the high ropes, because I do not have much upper arm strength, but in the end I mustered enough courage to try the easiest course. It was encouraging to have people cheering me on from below. At the end of the course though, I was happy to have my feet on the ground again.

Back in Providence

Friday, September 4th, 2009

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After a long flight and several hours waiting in transit, I’m back in Providence! From Providence airport I took the bus back to school and despite jet lag, have been cleaning and moving in. Now I’m working with other students from school to be RA’s so we are going through lots of community and leadership training everyday. We just came back from a camp to do outdoor team building exercises, do ropes courses and go boating. I’ll have to post more pictures of that later today!