thetic : a & e

DXB101 If my aesthetic were words, I would be the last to find them.

[aesthene-blog]

Today our tasks in our tutorials were our Evolutions through this course as a designer. Once I heard, I was running out the door, basically. Okay, not really – but I wasn’t keen.

I wasn’t keen because I felt like I hadn’t changed.  I hadn’t moved on.

But it was also because I wasn’t keen – at all. I hadn’t been keen for a while then – whether it was about life, my course, or myself as a designer. The prospect of looking back at my semester wasn’t a fun one, but I moved on and did the work.

Before we did that however, we spoke of our definition of design – which led us back to the first tutorial we had. Previously, the definition was “A Creative and innovative process spanning from mental to physical concepts with intent to create a refined product/idea.”

I was, however, in a different tutorial at the time, but that remains to be what I had agreed on with that class. I did, technically as previously said, did not quite agree with it, mostly due to my attachment to my own feelings with design, and certainly now I do not feel as if it’s so personal, due to my negative feelings towards the course and my disconnect with design as I’ve learnt more about it. In our groups, we discussed Design once again and my group came up with a definition that I was rather happy with, which was “Purpose driven Creativity”.

However, I still felt as if now, my view of design wasn’t so fun and free, but rather taxing and essentially, it felt like the capitalism of art. I’m not sure how I felt about that, or even how I continue to feel about it as I write this blog post, and I won’t try to conceal my displeasure in what I’ve come to learn through this unit and hot it has shaped me to consider finding my real calling in life – as I am no longer sure design is what it is.

Moving on to the work, despite being a hard ask, most of my work was actually a little comedic but also a little depressing – which is essentially a good descriptor of me as a person, so I guess I’m not too far off prom the point of the tasks. The first task was to essentially make a graphic of how our journey has come, and I decided, with how disappointed I had felt in my own work and my passion, that I would trust back in my graphing skills of senior year in Maths B, and it took me back, I do have to confess.

What I ended up with was again, pretty depressing.

Even my small comedic commentary (“”can’t speak if you’re dead” or “imagine ugly crying & lots of Zoloft” or even “I’m going to be asking for some Xanax right about now”) couldn’t hide how badly I thought this semester was going, and nothing I could do – not even my excellent graphing skills, could hide that.

So I tried my hardest to do it again, maybe drawing it out, and I honestly came up with close to nothing. And by close to nothing, I mean a half-baked sketch of me in the middle of a fork down the road, one heading to design and one to somewhere else I don’t quite know (the one heading to design was a cliff to fall off of, if I’m honest.)

Basically, I wasn’t having a fun time. When our tutor, Gen, told us to make a comic strip of a risk we’ve taken, I also drew a blank – quite metaphorically, at first. But then I soldiered on and literally drew a blank – three to be precise, for my comic strip. I decided to draw one of my assessments, essentially.

As you can see, I’m sombre once again. But at least I know how to make light of a quite heavy comic – to me, it’s heavy anyway. My risk that I chose was, as shown, that I had chosen to use Adobe Illustrator for my poster assessment for another class of mine, DXB102 (which was Visual Communications). I had chosen it as I actually had used it once before – the once before being the logo I made for my first assessment for the very same class.

I had never used any adobe program before, and I felt an immense bout of anxiety and fear going into it, but with some encouragement from my tutor, I went ahead with it, and currently, I’m facing a problem too big for me to conquer myself. I’m about to fail miserably, and eventually die alone and without any hopes or dreams, - no, maybe I’m exaggerating slightly. But really, It feels as if I’m going to not do well at all with this assessment, and I’m not sure if the risk I’ve taken is worth it, as there are so many easier avenues I could have pursued – avenues I’m slightly more comfortable with.

Object Permanence

The next task we had was one everyone was all too familiar with; designing a tattoo for yourself.

This time, it was more like we were redesigning it, however if you wanted to go on a tangent, there was no-one stopping you. Showing progress and change as the outcome, I think. I struggled again with this, for many of the same reasons I did before. Maybe now I struggled a little more, due to my bout of insecurity with my work and my lack of motivation in design.

Again, I had focused on the number 1301, and again, I tried to stick with geometric shapes. This tim,e I tried to soften it a bit by using a heart as an outline, however I scrapped that and decided that maybe something more feminine was more apt for what I was trying to convey.

((pic))

As you can see, I did move away from the whole idea of geometric shapes and to something softer and more feminine – based on my friend’s henna designs. I did end up quite liking the design, despite not being very confident in that sort of art form. I feel my interpretation was rather pretty and quite nice, but again, I’m not entirely sure if I would want it tattooed on my body for more than a few weeks.

Then I realised all I wanted was 1301, plain and simple. And although it is bland, maybe a little cliché, that was what I wanted. And so, that’s what I went with, and this is what I finally achieved, after a few long minutes on the computer deliberating;

(pic)

This tattoo, I think, I would actually consider. But then again, watercolour lookds much too complicated, so I would always just settle for a the 1301 in the rectangle in pitch black, or even just a small “13♡1”.

What do I want?

The next segment we spoke about was our dreams, our hopes and what we wanted to be in the future. I was terribly lost, once again.

I thought I knew what I had wanted to be, I honestly did. But this first semester has taught me that I probably actually don’t. I have no idea what I’m even passionate about, as now I‘ve come to realise I’m not sure if I even like design anymore, it’s like it all has become a chore. The only thing I genuinely enjoy doing is writing, but I fear it’s something I could never do – because of a lot of reasons, money and financial security being one of them. However, I suppose being a designer is equally as unprosperous in that department, which leads me to consider if I should ever leave.

But our tutor Gen did comfort us, saying it could be anything we wanted, anything at all, and so I basically started a list of things I felt were important – things I felt like I should take the time to do, since well, forever.

So, I drew, and drew more, and then drew some more. What I ended up with, was this;

(pic)

As you can see, it’s very much filled with some personal goals of mine, none of them quite particular to design. There are some general ones, like finding my passion and myself, to some incredibly general ones, like live on my own.

There are some that I’ve struggled with for a long time – like my mental health in particular, as well as finding my happiness. I’ve struggled with depression & anxiety since I was young, but I was only diagnosed and treated for it only recently – around mid-senior year, when I couldn’t keep it under wraps, what with the added pressure to perform and my subjects being much too hard – in particular, chemistry and physics piled on with Maths B was a tough burden on my egg of a soul.

With my lack of attention, my mental health has deteriorated once again, and my anxiety and depression have dragged me on day by day now, and without seeing either of my psychologists for a good 7 months now, I have begun to notice signs that I’m relapsing back into my rather anxious state. So, I’ve decided it to be one of the most important things for me to address and take control of, as I’m finding it hard to progress with it hindering me so majorly.

The other thing I am quite adamant on is finding my happiness – and that means focusing on my writing. I’ve enjoyed writing since I could string words together, and it means more than anything for me to advance that, as I’ve forgotten about this and left it behind for more than 5 years now. This year I had begun to write again, and it brought me such relief and joy that I had neglected many and most of my studies for it – including this class. I dropped close to everything that stressed me out – as I usually do, and focused so much on it that I had begun to lose a lot – and I mean a lot. I’ve become stressed beyond belief, and added on with the pressure of disliking my course, I’ve figured that I should most likely take a semester off at the least before I continue my studies.

SO essentially, this class has taught me a lot about myself, but mostly the bad. It’s always something though, and I continue to wish that it will fuel me to become a better designer (if I ever get there) and a better person.

[aesthene-blog]

The Big Feed

This week we had the honour of getting feedback from our tutors. My group had decided on an idea with hide and seek – a sort of gamification of campus tours. We had gone with our small group and met with our tutor to discuss what we had thus far, and get the big feedback we needed for our Charrette.

What we had presented was such;

Our idea was basically a workshop for making a cute mascot head in groups, where you would connect with people and do a light-hearted, creative activity whilst making friends. We were inspired by our recent design camp for the DEB101 unit for Introducing Design, where we went on camp and essentially built structures to solve some problems as a group. I (as well as another girl in my group) felt that it was a great activity for building connections with people, having one central object for all of you to work on as a united group, all having something in common to work on as you built your bonds with one another. We felt like doing something light-hearted would lighten the mood as well as the atmosphere, and allow them all to discover more of each other as they worked.

We had also wanted the event to occur in orientation week, as we felt that building these bonds would be most effective before the critical period where they decided if they were to stay or leave – the academic and the census dates.

After the workshop, we had decided on hide and seek– except with the use of mascots. After we encouraged them to have lunch together before returning, we, the mentors, would essentially hide their mascots, like it was a sneaky attack that they did not foresee beforehand. We would hide them  and give them hints as to where to find the next clue that would then lead them to another clue, and another clue, before reaching their mascot heads, giving them plenty of time to do so, to promote a relaxed environment. They would be instructed to take pictures before heading back with their mascot and prizes would be held at the end for the top three groups that returned first– an initiative to have the students stay until the end of the day.

Our tutor received our information well, and then it came – The Slaughter of 2016.

Okay, maybe not, but she did give some pretty good criticisms, mostly stemming from our lack of research and audience. At that point, we had not explained our inspirations, and once we had, she began to understand where our idea was coming from, but highlighted that we should most definitely look more into research and audience, as well as keep iterating our work.

I had understood her meaning, however I was still quite lost on the whole aspect of “forward-thinking” that she had described earlier.

I think Gen understood how lost all of us were, so she tried to explain it the best she could – and it was essentially, “What makes QUT different?”

We identified that QUT made us feel like a community and that it had a stronger sense of friendliness and understood the important of connections in industries, as well as with peers. She clicked on to our view rather quickly, and explained that was exactly it – or at least that was what I understood.

Having a clearer idea of where we were headed and what we wanted, we left the session feeling slightly lost, if I was honest. Sure, we had a clear idea of what we were supposed to do, but we felt as if our idea was shot down, and we had immense trouble trying to think of another. With one of our members in an entirely different state, we were left leaving it until the last moment where we began to become incredibly confused and increasingly panicked.

We had decided to stay with the idea – but improve on it. We felt like it was the best decision to move forward, so we had tried to improve what we could on the design.

First, we identified an audience – People wanting to find friends and connect with people of similar mindsets who were also school leavers entering university for the very first time – people unsure of their course, essentially.

Then, we had done research, and extensive amounts of it. We created a survey online, and distributed it to people in the Creative Industries Faculty, and focused and honed in on the idea of a community in QUT. Apart from that, we had also gone through Dr Ruth Bridgstock’s Lecture and identified key problems she had identified and shown us in the lecture that had specific connotations and connections with community. We used that information and applied it to our design, thinking specifically of ways we could improve it and allow for a better design.

The session with our tutor allowed us to think of certain ways we could change or improve on our idea, and I felt it was beneficial for the whole group, however with a person missing during it, we felt that it could not have been as effective as it could have. We felt that with a person missing, they couldn’t realise the same problems and eventually lead to miscommunication.

Although we weren’t sure if it would hinder us that badly, we tried our best to communicate the session we had with our tutor to the member who was not present for the session or most of the work we had done directly after the session with our tutor.

Generally, the experience led us to some problems within our group idea, and it definitely helped us in the long run, however I felt like we could have used more of her insight and her criticisms better, as I felt we had not used up all our potential. However, not having all of our group present I feel hindered us in our progress, and I’ve come to realise that having people around and meeting with people in person is a definite easier and more successful option than speaking online.

If everything failed me, this one feedback did tell me one thing; every single detail is important.

[aesthene-blog]

The Mini... Big Day?

It was the big day – well, the mini big day, but it was a big day – sort of.

We had met up early in the morning (too early for my tastes) and went to a small briefing for our big day ahead – Jaz had informed us we were to do exactly what our previous tute had instructed us to do – create an experience catered to orientation and the first few weeks at Uni. We quickly split up into groups and with our small time limit, decided to think of our idea quickly, brainstorming our ideas in a small group.

We came up with the idea of a universal website that could do it all – a new and improved QUTVirtual. We had decided that when you first get in, you were quite confused about close to everything – classes, friends, tutorials, assessment. You name it – you were probably confused about it. There were also way too many things to figure out all at once – and check continuously too.

So we had decided to make a more informal sort of setting, called “QUT:I”.

The idea was basically a website and app that would link all your major things into one place, saving you the hassle of checking 5 or 6 different things regularly – even sometimes daily. Essentially, the website would have tabs – Home (where all links to Blackboard and our Email will be, if needed), Study & Events (where your calendar and events will be), Announcements (where your Unit Co-ordinators would post messages, as well as your tutors) and Forums (where people would message one another).

This website would be directly linked to your Facebook (or similar SNS) account, but could also be created with an existing email. This way, the website could offer you notifications through your Facebook (or equivalent), allowing you to be updated regularly on your account and what’s happening, instead of checking and checking on 5 different websites what’s on, only to find out you’ve spent half an hour wasting your time.

The website would also have an added feature of forums, which would be an area where students in the same tutes may talk about their tutorial – and is a place where they can also ask questions to their tutor, and although it is called a forum, it will almost be like an instant messaging sort of function. The Forum tab is also where you may message other friends and keep track of work shared between people and you.

In the announcements tab, not only will students receive the same announcements they get on BB, but it will also be a place where tutors and mentors can post messages, announcing that they will be free if anyone were to need help. This was an initiative to create more of a bond between students and their tutors, and have a more community reliant and hands on experience. Having these will not only allow the student be more comfortable, but also have more connection to their subjects, and feel much more stable and safe in what they’re learning. An example would be; “I’m free between 2-3, so if anyone wants to get a coffee in front of D-Block come on over! I’m free for both conversations and questions, feel free to drop by and say hi J”

The atmosphere created is a casual one, and hopefully, will create more of a connection between the students and tutors, and allow for them to ask questions freely as peers.

If I’m honest, I did feel as though our Website was a rather huge ask, and that we didn’t go and take any risks and fell back onto a safety net. I would have quite enjoyed having a risky idea and doing terribly then what we did – which I considered wasn’t too bad.

We had focused a lot on our research, and presented it well – but I felt like it was so much that sure, our backup and back story was rich and made our idea that much stronger, however it left us not much time at all to describe our idea, leaving it falling sadly on its own.

I feel like we could have definitely improved out idea – because honestly, it just seemed like yet another option that might not even work that well in the end. It also seemed like a tall order – an order than seems almost inconceivable.

I think in our teamwork itself, it was definitely more positive than negative. I felt like we have pretty good communication, but I feel as if our time management probably wasn’t the best, as well as our distribution of work. We all had jobs, don’t get me wrong, but one person in our group was in charge of the presentation, and we left it quite late, leaving all of us a little out of the loop when it came to our presentation.

Our presentation was mostly dominated by one person, and although that wasn’t too bad, it wasn’t too good either. We were all so confused that we had let him take the reins and in the end, I feel like that had left us looking not consistent or united as a group in our presentation.

Due to our lack of time management, we had also not left enough time to make the pitch video, which was a minute long. We had shown a video, but it wasn’t the most spectacular, and I felt that we could have done a better job if we had spent less time discussing the idea and talking of the finer details we actually had not been able to include in our presentation – again, because of the vast amount of backup research we had done.

Overall, I think the Mini was a fun activity and definitely helped me feel like what the major Charrette would be like, and it certainly allowed me to recognise the problems my group had the first round. However, we may have different groups the second time round, so the same rules may not apply. But, this mini Charrette did help me at least identify some of the problems I had faced along with my group, so I felt at least I had something to start with for the Major one that would be worth quite a bit of our final grade.

Although I feel unprepared, I feel slightly confident with what we’ve been prepared with, and I hope to do my best in the next Charrette, and with some luck, I won’t be hindered by similar problems or a hitch in the group.

One can only hope, but so far I’ve only had the best – so it must, hopefully, be a sign for more.

[aesthene-blog]

The QUT Hunt

In our tutorial this week we spoke about the trials and tribulations of people in orientation and we went through the FYE again, discussing about our personal experiences and problems.

Together as one tutorial group, we compiled an entire list of things we found problematic, and listed things we could do if we were to do a reorientation.

The list was as follows:

1.       ORGSYNC?

2.       Tailored Experience

3.       Approachability

4.       What do we know what is expected of us?

5.       How do I find out what’s going on?

6.       Unnecessary advertising of subjects

7.       EXPECTATION vs. REALITY

8.       How can I meet new people?

9.       What are the places on Campus?

10.   Compulsory? (Informative)

11.   More hands on

12.   Age 17? (Underage?)

13.   What are the extra-curricular?

14.   What will I gain from Orientation?

With the end of the discussion came about our task for the day: creating something in Orientation to improve the ordeal. Essentially, we were to design an experience.

We started off moving into our groups, before discussing in length what we were to do. Our group had decided on an event – a scavenger hunt of sorts, made tailored especially to Design kids. We wanted to improve on points 2, 3, 8, 11, and 12 that we had discussed in our earlier conversation.

So, essentially, our first ideation process was that we made some boundaries – We want the events to be clearly advertised and have a campaign that made sure most QUT kids would see – and that they would want to join in on the fun. We had decided then to include an Instagram campaign and a hashtag to be used on the days of the fun event, which was so inclusion could be achieved through a fun medium like Instagram. A personal Idea of mine was that we could also possibly make a QUT event on Snapchat – and have filters to boot, but it proved impossible considering the event.

We had also planned for it to include people under 18 – so no pub crawls or anything to do with alcohol so as to not alienate people who were under that age – or even people who did not drink alcohol or were uncomfortable in that setting.

We had reflected back on our personal experiences and decided we didn’t want to go into the clichés – we didn’t want to have the really awkward icebreakers (isn’t that ironic?) or the passing silences in groups or individuals.

We also really wanted to make the event a thing with a certain society – essentially create a regular event that would happen more than once, as we felt like making friends and connections within QUT was important, and that it couldn’t just occur in a single meeting.

But that was a lot of restrictions, so what did we want exactly?

The QUT Hunt

With all the previous ideas and restrictions in mind, we decided on an initial event called the QUT Hunt, whereby people would essentially go on a scavenger hunt in groups around campus as well as Brisbane. The target market would be school leavers entering university who are in need of new friends and some connections, as well as students out of Brisbane who are not familiar with the area.

The event would be catered to the masses and advertised not only on Instagram, but also through Medias like Facebook on the QUT page, on the QUT Orientation site as a banner, as well as on ORGSYNC as well as an e-mail towards students.

The Event would be divided through certain days, with focus on the school of design as a starting point. If the event becomes popular, there would be a possibility of expansion.

The event itself would start at the QUT entrance on mains road, near the botanical garden, and offer a walk up to the city – getting kids to know that places around the GP campus are in abundance and not only limited to Southbank.

The kids would be divided in groups through a small, simple game before heading off to the city, and each group would be given a list of things to do. Each group will be equipped with their own mentor, specifically a QUT student familiar with the area, and at least one person in the group will be a person familiar with Brisbane to expand the possibilities of finding new places.

The list will include, but is not limited to, the following ideas:

1.       Find a new eatery or cafe for your new friends – can’t be a franchise or fast food place!

2.       Find some street art and take a few fun pics!

3.       Take pictures of things that make the shape of certain letters to spell out “QUT Hunt” or your own name!

4.       Go to the Suitcase rummage! Buy some trinkets and take some pictures!

Things that will allow kids to be familiar with their area and do something light hearted and fun – to inspire some talking and connections, and allow them to ask any questions to their mentors who will be aiding the process of friend-making.

Next, everyone will find their way to the botanical gardens again – either by bus, walk or any other means and there, they will show and tell their work and what they’ve found in the form of some fun show & tell, before gnawing their teeth into some delicious food at a small sausage sizzle.

Through the event, people are encouraged to befriend people on their social media sites and before the event finishes, people who want to sign up for more events become members of the QUT Hunt, and will go on adventures like these through the year.

Other events will include:

1.       Game Nights with interactive fun games

2.       Movie Marathons of a series before going to the cinemas at Southbank and watching the new addition to the series

3.       Art Day where people will go to GOMA and do a small scavenger hunt to find art and get inspired and relax

4.       Beach day at a beach nearby, with volleyball, swimming, and sandcastle building

5.       Tree top climb, an ending sort of event whereby kids go somewhere a little further, as now everyone is closer together – Mt Tambourine to see the fresh waterfalls and enjoy a treetop climb, relaxing the day away.

By the end, our team thought we had made a good idea, but weren’t entirely sold on it. It was a great idea, but we felt that there would be a reason why we would restrict it to the school of design, apart from the prospect of making a small pool of students. The event itself was not focused on design what-so-ever so we thought we needed to improve that aspect, or at least make it more general and to the entire public.

An improvement I think we could have made now, looking back is maybe the event itself – was it too general? I had myself a little idea – I quite liked the idea of going around and finding shapes in the environment and our surroundings that were similar to numbers and letters (but weren’t directly numbers and letters) and spelling something out. I had wondered if The QUT Hunt could become something like so – something fun and exciting and novel, but also light hearted.

The possibilities were really quite endless – we could start with one every event that would hint at what we were doing later that day – whether watching a movie or sitting on the sidelines of a quidditch game the Harry Potter Society holds – the possibilities were in abundance. There wouldn’t be a day where people couldn’t find a letter, unless they had exhausted the entire campus – and although the possibility is unlikely, it would be fine, as there would be many other places to find an adventure in.

With this improvement, I feel like the event really could have been a hit, and I myself would have loved to attend.

This activity was quite fun overall – it brought some critical thinking into our complaints of orientation, and led us to think of solutions like designers and address the problem we found – a problem that was specific, to an audience that was equally specific.

It trained our critical thinking as well as our quick ones, and our process of ideation and iteration became a little stronger. Overall, another good tutorial with more experiences to boot.

[aesthene-blog]

This week we were given the task to complete called thoughtless acts – documenting acts people did in certain situations; how they responded and the like.

I chose areas I knew – like South Bank and the park nearby, as well as some in random areas I had visited, and I had gotten to work quickly, thinking of what I could take and the people around me.

Reacting

For the reacting portion of the work, I had chosen Southbank and Mt Cootha. The first picture is during the lion dance, where many people had gathered to watch the flurry of bright reds and yellows, their eyes captivated by the lions. My friend, a girl by the name of Zen, used to be in the wushu academy that held these lion dances and wushu performances each year told me that this was the busiest time, and where the most people would gather around. The fact I had even gotten a seat was pretty rare, according to her. It goes to show how people were so easily distracted, as I could tell many of them were out having a picnic with their children, who were also rapt in attention to the dancing lions. It wasn’t a surprise that so many of them had stopped and stared instead of looking for a nice sunny spot to eat their homemade lunches, however since it was such a dreary and rainy day, I was surprised that they had paused when the sun was bright and shining – and the weather was slightly cool but abundantly sunny to see a dragon dance that would be repeated later on in the day. Were they not hungry? Tired from all their walking? Or was a spark of colour and magic enough to lure them in from other comforts?

The second set is from my night at Mt Cootha, where I saw an array of people reacting to things – most of all, the lookout. Almost everyone had their cameras out – including this gentleman, and including me. No one didn’t have their phone or camera out, if I was honest. The only people without a phone were children, who were playing about by the stairs and garden, disinterested in the view in front of them for more than 2 minutes. It wasn’t that surprising seeing people with their cameras out, but I supposed that it was because of my own mentality. Seeing so many people care more about the quality of their snaps then the memories they were making was slightly saddening, however I don’t think even I’m innocent in this case. I don’t think many people are, if I’m brutally honest.

Responding

I had taken quite a few pictures of responding, however these were the ones I had decided on – that I felt were the most apt considering my definition of responding to the environment around them. The first is a chalkboard placed in south bank during the festival, and whilst the parents were busy praying and giving thanks to Buddha, the children had all clustered and gathered around these little animal chalkboards and drawn on them enthusiastically, ignoring the park nearby or even the swimming pools. They were so immersed in something they had never seen in south bank that they were enthralled by just some chalk and a black canvas. It was interesting to watch the kids more so than the adults, I noticed, as they had an innocence in them many adults did not have, although I do admit to the sentence being a little odd, if not alarming, I assure you it was merely due to their playfulness in their surroundings, compared to the sombre tone of the adults.

The second picture is of a child playing on the BRISBANE structure made permanent a few months prior, climbing and treating the S as a slide and playground for them to play with. Many children were in fact playing around, and my sister herself had run to the ‘A’ and climbed into the small triangular area, making a home for herself while I took pictures and took a lunch break. I had noticed that the children all had found ways of having fun wherever we went, whether it was the swimming pools, the lunch areas, the BRISBANE structure, sitting areas or anywhere else. They had always managed to make something fun for themselves to do, and were all pretty self-reliant on their search for games and the cure for their boredom as their parents did something that they concluded wasn’t fun.

Co-opting

When it came to Co-Operating with the environment, I was sitting in perhaps where it was most obvious – the seats. Everyone was co-operating with what was available – they sat in the seats and although they weren’t the best seats, the seats that were actually at the back side towards the stage where they would essentially see the dancers backs and the lion dancers taking off the lion, they sat, unbothered. Many people had begun to fill the seats, regardless if they were watching the performance or not, and they had all stood up and made way for people who wanted to reach a seat, allowing them space to move.

The second picture is of the rope and although I didn’t get the best picture – no one dared cross over it, despite it not doing much at all, there being a gap for the performers to go through that was easily used. Someone who was not a performer could have easily slipped in, and my friend, who wasn’t, actually did so to prove my thought. Don’t worry – she didn’t get in trouble, as she found her previous wushu group and only went in to say hi –she could technically easily get away with it. In fact, she had told me anyone could actually come in – no one was really restricted, no one would tell you that you couldn’t – it was just a simple method of solving possible overcrowding. It really gives perspective to how people see a rope and immediately conclude that it’s a restricted section, when in really it’s just a control.

Exploiting

For exploiting the environment, there were a few examples I had found. A girl, sitting on the edge of the river, where you’re not entirely supposed to – due to the danger of falling.

People who had put their belongings on the wall where people sat instead of the tables all around them in abundance, and finally my sister who ran away from me angrily, sitting down and propping her feet up where she most likely shouldn’t.

The picture of people putting their belongings – which were most likely wet, on the wall behind them made sense to me, at first – they wanted to put it there because it was already semi-wet on the walls, and not on the tables, however when I looked back onto my table, I had not done the same. I had merely put my umbrella wherever and used a table for its intended use – to put things on it.

I soon realised however that the people were with a rather large family that crowded around the table leaving no space for some wet belongings that could possibly touch their food. In comparison, I was only with my sister and another friend, who were on the other side of the table, leaving enough space for me to leave my umbrella.

The image of my sister putting her feet up on the chairs is one familiar to me – because really, who hasn’t put them up before? You see it on trains, on chairs, in classrooms, hell, they’re everywhere at QUT.

But the thing is, my sister reacted angrily with me and sat away from me and put her legs up, and she immediately put them down when other people came to sit in front of her. Not even directly, but a row in front of the row she was putting her feet on. It goes to show what people do when they’re embarrassed, or even just for their image, despite the people making impressions being completely strangers – people my sister most likely will never meet in her life.

Adapting

I think this one is quite obvious. The first is a man clearly adapting to his surroundings and sitting down on the stairs – much like I and everyone around me were doing. He used his surroundings much like we all di d- to our favour. It shows how much we can really change the interpretation of what something may be for if we need it enough.

The second is one of many people using an umbrella against the rain – everyone adapts to rain on a picnic day, and most everyone would bring an umbrella on a day like today. The most obvious and simplest ways of adapting is definitely using an umbrella against the rain – because seriously, everybody does it. Everybody adapts to what they’re given with, whether it’s walking in the shade when there’s rain, waiting undercover for the umpteenth bout of rain to stop, or simply popping open an umbrella, for those who had been fortunate enough to remember one. Some may even just make a desperate dash to where they’re doing, much too desperate and much too dead for a thing like an umbrella.

Conforming

For conforming, I decided on the image where people stood up for the prayer – I unknowingly, also stood up, despite not even being Buddhist, Everyone around me had stood up, with the exception of some young children and some elderly, and many of them did it essentially to conform to the masses – you didn’t want to be the odd one out in such a large crowd.

The second picture is a little more obscure, but its essentially quite a crown of people around the gazebo standing whilst watching the scene of dancers and performers in front of them. Many had stayed for the entire, very long performance, however they had not grabbed a seat at the back or even many available seats at the front – entirely because some people feared it might not be seats for the regular public, when in fact, they were. People who had come after wards, seeing the big crowd, had seen the abundance of seats and then seen the big crowd standing up and joined them instead of sitting down and enjoying the dance fully as they relax. It really does go to show how far following the majority can go sometimes.

Signaling

[aesthene-blog]

Going in for his week’s tutorial I didn’t really know what to expect – but once we were given our tasks, it was easier than anticipated, but then it was also harder.

Before going into the task however, we spoke shortly about designers and design and the process of design in our tutorial, before moving on. We kept our tutors words in mind as we worked in our little group of three. Our task was to research a well-known designer. We had chosen rather randomly, and had gone with Deborah Sussman, which ended up being quite a good choice.

We were instructed to research her in general, as well as her design process (which they quite like mentioning as much as possible, I have found), three popular designs and her ethics and who she had worked with in the past. We were given a rather loose timeframe and set off to work, researching the designer that is Deborah.

Of course, our initial search was for her name, to get a gist of what sort of designer she was. When I saw her work, I was a little taken a back. It was very upfront and to the point, all very much geometric shapes and incredibly bright colours and big structures all at once. It was an attack on the senses and a little overwhelming at first, but once you look into more of her work, the more you begin to appreciate it. Her work in structures and how she designs them all is particularly creative and imaginative, and I found myself scrolling through the pictures with my group for an inconceivably long time, all of us impressed by the quality of work she had.

By that point, we were rather enthusiastic to find out more, and we soon realised what an esteemed designer she really was. Although her designs can be specifically related to a certain era if one analyses it, it’s not a stretch to say that her work spans over time and can and will still be relevant in this day and age. Her use of bright colours can be so confronting that it makes anyone stop and stare for a moment; no one who’s suddenly attacked with so much colour in a world of greys and chromes will pass by without a single glance.  Her use of colours is also never random – which was a fact we found out through reading through her work on her design company’s portfolio online.

Through one of her commissioned projects, The Walt Disney Signs in the resort in California, we were able to analyse her work and the use of colours directly from something she had said beforehand about her work. Sussman had spoken of how she took in consideration greatly of the surroundings of where her work is to be placed – whether it be California, Nevada or Orlando. She considers her environment and the area, not wanting to reflect an entirely different city in her work.

With this information, we were able to connect the dots of her process in finding her colour palette. With the Walt Disney Resort Signs in California as a guide, we had found her usage of colour ingenious.

She uses the colours in a meaningful way – the orange and yellow hues for the Florida sun – and the ever so renowned Florida sunset. How she cleverly used the reds of the sand of the Beaches of Florida and the greens for the ever-so-famous palm trees running through the resort. How it is all laid out horizontally to show the actual landscape of Florida was ingenious, and her touch of Disney magic in the Mickey-shapes signs was a stroke of genius.

She continued her interpretation of the occasion and surroundings in her Olympics work, which highlighted what her work is, supergraphics. Supergraphics is a term Sussman uses to describe her work in a single word. It means for something to be largely scaled, brightly coloured and in your face. It was bringing Urban Landscape into life more than the architecture she built itself. And most of all, it was about the design of her architecture and structure being more than just that; a piece of work.

Sussman is also described by Times Magazine to be the best of her time, especially with her speciality in Urban Branding and City Identities. Her work is everywhere to say the least, from Olympics to the entire City of San Marina.

Before her success however, she was already tackling major heights, working with esteemed designers Charles and Ray Eams (Popular for their sofa, by the same name) for a decade, working alongside them as the art director for the company and practice. Before long however, Sussman wanted more – and no one could blame her for it, with talent and vision with a strong mind to boot, she was a force to be reckoned with, and deserved her own lime light. She soon opened a company with her husband, Prejza, and dubbed it Sussman/Prejza & Co..

She was a hero in her own right, having bagged the Olympic Games in 1984, creating one of her most iconic designs, and being the first one to ever accomplish such a task. She used technologies from other countries in her designs and structures, most notably Bamboo used widely in Japan. Her dedication to strive to deliver the best and inspire was what truly caused such an impact in the world of environmental design.

Learning so much about such a pioneering designer and a legend in her own right was a really beneficial experience. Presenting her work after only a short amount of research almost feels like it’s a waste, all of her experience and work not able to fit in a single blog post or even a small presentation.

Understanding is always the first step to becoming, and I really felt this way when I looked through the life of Deborah Sussman. A woman like her had lives such a colourful, illustrious life and had achieved so much in a lifetime, and it gives hope – of course, but also gives some insight and direction.

The Sussman

For our homework, we were told to make yet another sandwich, making me slightly nervous – were they going to tell us to make a sandwich every week? My Pockets are sadly not filled with overflowing amounts of money and this was beginning to become a little costly.

However, I ploughed on and eventually had a pretty good idea with what I wanted to make. Essentially, I wanted to make a veggie rainbow. No, really.

May I behold to you, HRH ‘The Sussman Sandwich’:

Looking at these pictures now, I could not have been more proud of myself. And yes, it is mostly because I made pink bread. But there is some thought behind it, I swear.

The ingredients are as follows:

1.       Pink (De-Crusted Italian Bread painted with Pickled Beetroot Juice)

2.       Green (Lightly dressed Spinach Leaves)

3.       Orange (Lightly dressed peeled Carrot Strips)

4.       Maroon (Pickled Beetroot)

5.       Red (Roasted Peppers)

6.       Purple (Red Onion)

7.       Salmon (Spicy & Creamy Chili Mayonnaise)

8.       Yellow (American Mustard)

Together, they make a mean looking sandwich.

Apart from that, however, you may notice almost everything is a vegetable – sans the mayonnaise, mustard and bread. That was a conscious decision I had made – Sussman was incredibly renown for her environmental design and work in the field, and I had decided the best way forward was to make everything entirely out of vegetables, the treasure of nature (despite not being my treasure, I’m sure she would have enjoyed it).

Apart from that however, I went to our local farmers markets early on in the day to hunt for my ingredients and find myself some good produce as well as contribute to my local farmers – a small sustainable and environmental movement that I feel Deborah would have appreciated and done herself with her designs.

I essentially took the idea of environment a lot in my ideas, and was entirely inspired by Sussman herself, who liked to inspire and not follow. I, being a follower, was entirely on board with that, and I took from her charismatic and upfront personality to create something I felt was incredibly, well, her.

I also considered vegetables because they were, well, vegetables – which aren’t everyone’s cup of tea. Sure, some people would absolutely adore a bright pink Vegetable Sandwich, but some would also cringe and order a sub with enough meat to feed an entire village (that person being me). I wanted to reflect that although Sussman was a great artist and designer in her own right, sometimes her designs were a little crazy and sometimes quite dated – and not everyone’s cup of tea, just like a vegetable burger.

The bright pink bread is rather shocking, an effect I quite like and enjoy, and I feel Sussman’s work is much like that. The greens and the yellows are of her work – she particularly likes using these bright warm colours I have found, and I thought not putting in the colours would be an injustice to her work.  

I had decided on a more stable bread – toasted lightly to make it more hard to withstand the amount of leaves I was essentially putting in, as well as the thought that Deborah liked structure – she likes domes, clean cut edges and she likes colours – so I tried my hardest to fit that all onto one.

The results? Well, I will say I’m pleased, and I feel like it does do her justice, however I would have liked to be less rushed about the entire process and maybe think about it more – could I have added meat? Or could I have made rectangle cut sandwiches and shaped them into a small structure? The possibilities were endless, and I felt I may have settled slightly for what I made.

However, I’m sticking with it and in the end of the day, my satisfaction should matter as well, and so far, it’s happy with what I see on the screen.

The Lesson

I hope in the future to gain such experiences and benefit from them like Deborah much has, and the lesson I take from this is mostly from Sussman herself and not her work. My enthusiasm and my devotion and motivation for tasks and even my passions has decreased monumentally through the years, and personal struggles have gotten the best of me and my dreams. However taking account what Sussman has achieved in her life – and much of it in the later stages, I realise that if I come out of this, I’ll come out of it stronger and more motivated than I ever have before.

So, to Deborah Sussman – Thank you for your life and thank you for fighting your way through to the top of the pack before you lay rest. You’ve succeeded and pioneered and paved the way for many young others, and helped a little soul like me. For that, you are more than just a designer, more than just your work.

[aesthene-blog]

[aesthene-blog]

We had our very first Design & Creative Thinking Tutorial today, and much of it was rather what I had hoped it would be – fun. Some of it was rather confusing and a little mind boggling, however I soon became comfortable. Admittedly, I hadn’t been organised enough that day and forgot to put down the number of my tute class; and without access to a phone or laptop, I couldn’t really check it either. Thankfully Jaz, our lovely lecturer had informed us that “mixing it up” and going to other tutorials was encouraged – which allowed me to let out a rather large sigh of relief and follow a friend to her tutorial class – Studio #5.

There, we had all started with a very general – but very warm welcome, and suddenly we found (very suddenly, if I may add) ourselves in circles, going around and rotating around the group every two minutes, telling one-another our strengths and weaknesses in design – which was a rather awkward topic to start with when you’re talking to someone who’s virtually a stranger. But it was a situation I found enjoyment in, and if I’m honest, it took me the first few people I met to really understand my own strengths and weaknesses. It actually took longer than a few seconds for me to even pin point, which worried me, but also intrigued me – how much of myself did I not know creatively? Could I ever know myself that well?

While we went around the circle, getting to know one another and slowly forgetting the objective of the game, I started thinking more and more about my strengths and weaknesses, and it stayed with me through the entire game – and even beyond that.

So, what exactly are my strengths and weaknesses?

Strengths

Let’s start with the positive; I suppose I’m more comfortable with drawing on pencil and paper – but am I just more comfortable with it, or is it a strength? I’m still not sure.

But I can say that much; I’m a sucker for sketching. I love drawing things by hand, and learning how to draw things is always a fun experience – and in my experience as a student, also a valuable one (Unrelated Note: My Line of Best Fit was always nicer than other students in Maths). It helped me with a lot of stuff in school – whether it was something creative or not (e.g Molecular Structure in Chemistry and Maps in Geography – not the most creative things, but a practiced hand was always better than not).

So, I suppose that’s one strength. As I struggled to come up with more, I thought back to compliments my peers and teachers had always bestowed on me – I was, as they had said, quite imaginative. It started in my writing – I had always enjoyed creative writing since I could string words in a sentence, and it had grew over the years and eventually transferred to other things – like my fixation on art and design. It led me to work on the senior class and formal spreads for my school’s yearbook, helped me to found the first student newsletter for my school, helped me gain a lot of confidence back in my work and myself.

Weaknesses

Now this is where it goes north; I have a lot of weaknesses. I suppose it’s always easy to nit-pick and find incorrectness in oneself but I always found myself to be lacking in a lot of things.

The biggest thing I had always been very conscious about was my lack of confidence in digital media – I had no idea how to use Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign – you name any Adobe program and I’m most likely very, very lost. I wouldn’t be able to navigate left from right, even if I tried – even if I wanted to, and to this day, it’s still a huge factor to my lack of confidence in what I’m learning.

Design – Where am I?

In the next portion of the class where we were – thankfully – not so surrounded by people, I found myself rather confronted by another task – Designing tattoos for ourselves.

At first I was rather confused on where to start – where to draw my inspiration from. Even considering that I’m designing a tattoo that would possibly stay on my body forever was just really much more daunting than I would have anticipated.

Of course there would be an element of hesitance as a tattoo is something that is virtually permanent, but I think it was more than that. Honestly speaking, it wasn’t too hard to figure out something meaningful to me to put on my body, but the hesitance I think stemmed from my lack of confidence in what I would produce. I had always wanted a tattoo – something geometrical and minimal, but I had always wanted someone else to be designing it – I wanted a piece someone else made on me.

So that was a struggle I had met, and it wasn’t something I had particularly wanted to conquer, but alas, it was a task, and so I set off to work. Really, it was a lot of arrows and doodles and triangles and squares and lots of shapes essentially – hopefully you get the picture. It was like learning 2D shapes again basically – and nothing I made was ever quite what I wanted it to be – I just had too many ideas.

So I tried to weasel it down to one idea – one source of inspiration, and I decided on the number 1301 – a number I identify with being important. And so I worked, and eventually I got something I was okay with (which is a little bit of a stretch, because in reality we were just moving on to the next thing).

What I got was alright if I’m honest with myself – not necessarily anything I would tattoo on my naked body, but something I would potentially temporarily tattoo on my body – not that risky, but what with the whole permanent aspect of tattoos, I wouldn’t want to risk putting something I would potentially hate on my body.

As shown in the pictures above, I did genuinely stay on the whole lane of going geometric – I felt like it really suited the sort of aesthetic I enjoy – which is sometimes a little pretentiously cliché and overused, but I quite enjoy it. I quite like a lot of different things, but the minimal look is one I really quite enjoy – something I want to emulate and show, and so I decided that I would want to keep it.

However, now as I look upon it, I’m not so sure. The message the actual tattoo holds to me is so much different than how it’s portrayed and I’m not sure how it translates. 1301 is a number that holds significance, and it’s tied to some very soft things – soft messages and a lot of encouragement and gentle dreams. Conveying it through geometric shapes without something to back it up seemed rather mistranslated and not well explained or thought out, so if I were to pursue this, I think I may try something similar, but with a softer, sweeter edge – or maybe even something entirely different.

What is Design?

For our next (and last) activity, in two’s we figured out what we thought to be design. We then combined with another group to refine and choose a better definition, before moving on to an even larger group and finding out their definition and continuing on the same process, before figuring out one definition that we all agreed on. From there, we compiled our definitions in the class – three in total, and in the end, we had achieved these three definitions:

1.       Understanding a problem and finding the best solution for your needs

2.       The creation of new systems to solve problems, to improve quality of life, entertain and to increase practicality/productivity.

3.       A Creative and innovative process spanning from mental to physical concepts with intent to create a refined product/idea.

After short deliberation, the class had decided upon the third definition being the most apt, and we all had almost unanimously decided it reflected what we had learnt in class and in our lectures.

However, personally, I feel like Design can’t be explained – not in words that short, anyway. I mean, it’s an accurate definition for what we have learnt, but a part of me can’t seem to get over the fact that design means, metaphorically, a lot more than just solving problems. Hell, designing could mean creating problems that are solutions to a problem that’s a solution to a problem that’s a problem to a solution. It’s messy, to say the least.

That is also not including the fact that to me, design is more like art – and it’s hard letting that idea go.

The Sandwich

As the class ended, we were given a rather peculiar task for our homework over the next week – to design a sandwich that represented ourselves. Now, using the word design for such a measly task seemed so pretentious – but I got the point. It wasn’t about just throwing a sandwich together, but actually thinking about what you’d make – and why you made it like so. Of course, I still think it’s a little pretentious, but that’s only because of what sort of person I am. It actually took me ages to think this out.

I started with ideas about my heritage – should I make an Asian fusion sandwich? The ingredients being Asian and the concept being, well, white? Would that be a good idea? I had it all drawn out – some chicken bao for my buns, some tempura dried seaweed for my “lettuce”, and a little bit of cay sum, my Favourite Asian vegetable and even some hot sauce and some braised Indonesian Chicken my mum makes (another personal favourite). I had even begun to design my own sweet version of this Asian sandwich (built with PapaRoti bread and various pocky sticks and Asian chocolate bars with some Asian puddings and some rice pudding) but I decided it wasn’t for me.

S I pursued other avenues – another sweet sandwich, a sour one, one made purely out of paper and drawing utensils and even one made from coloured ice (which was a cool idea, I’ll be honest here). But I couldn’t really connect it to myself as a person. I don’t believe myself to be developed as a designer quite yet, and so I based it entirely on myself.

So, what was my sandwich?

The Jelly & Jelly Sandwich.

You may have heard of the pb&j, but this, this is on a new level. This is a sandwich more like a burger, if a burger was like a children’s birthday party.

The J&J stars;

-          Milk Coffee Jelly as The Bun

-          Lychee Jelly as The Onions

-          Mango Jelly as The Lettuce

-          Chocolate Jelly as The Patty

-          Raspberry Jelly as The Beets

Some behind the scene stars also include Lemon Jelly as The Mustard and Fruit Punch Jelly as The Tomato Sauce.

Sounds like a dream, no?

Well, essentially, it was.

It was a rather hot day when I was craving for some relief – and I was on an empty stomach as well, and for once, despite not being the biggest fan of sandwiches, I wanted one. The only problem was that I also wanted something to cool me off, and my mind had begun to wander to the packets of Jelly in the cupboard. As I was boiling water to make these packets, I had an epiphany – What if someone made an entire sandwich out of Jelly?

And it hit me; why can’t that person be me?

And so, like I was set on an impossible task, I set out on my mission, building a sandwich of epic ingredients, all made from Jelly.

Soon enough, I had accomplished my task, and it was more accomplishing than I had assumed. More so due to how hard it was to build my masterpiece (Hint: Use toothpicks) but the fact I had built something entirely based on my own train of thought was pretty nice.

II had decided on this concept mostly because I felt that it reflected me better than I had initially thought – I’m bright and bubbly, and although Jelly isn’t necessarily bubbly, if you were to imagine it as a person, it certainly would be. Jelly also, as I has said, isn’t the most stable structure – it needs a lot of support, whether that be in the form of toothpicks or friends – and I’m much the same (I would most likely fall apart if it weren’t for my toothpicks). I’d also really like to describe myself as colourful, despite my rather minimal aesthetics (Then again, who said minimal can’t be colourful?).

Jelly is also quite notably – fun. Not just in its name, but also in its flavour and looks. Jelly is just super fun to play with – and I’d like to think I’m like that too, or at least I emulate that vibe. Jelly also isn’t a food you’d necessarily connect with being formal and practical – and again, I’m much like that. I’m methodical at times, sure, but I’m also incredibly laid back and casual – I enjoy that setting very much, as formal settings give me much anxiety, and I would like my art to reflect that.

Thinking about it now makes me realise that by basing the sandwich on myself as a person, I’ve actually reflected on myself as a designer as an extension. I enjoy being creative and fun, and I hope my designs or my work reflects that, and it’s something else I strive for. As my knowledge of IVD has increased and slowly understanding my degree (but not quite entirely) I’ve come to hope that if I were to design something Interactive, it would be something fun and something people would enjoy.

I’m also pretty confident that I’m not confident in much at all – especially not design. Why I would choose something I feel so unstable in, I don’t know. But, I’ve come to realise I need a lot of support – whether that comes in the form of constructive criticisms, some help or even just some inspiration.  I’m the sort of person that needs a lot of toothpicks – more than what a Jelly Sandwich would need. There’s also the point of the flavours – they don’t entirely go together, and it’s very much reflected in both myself and my work. I can give so many flavours and so many experiences, since I like so many different things. It’s a mix and match process with me, and I quite like that.

Overall, this first week has been a long one, but it has been a good one. The tutorial was challenging, and the homework more than. It has been a good start to a unit during a very rocky beginning, and has helped me gain insight into IVD and design in general, but also gain a little confidence about doing this degree. Hopefully this feeling continues during the course of the semester. I have confidence it will.