Thursday, Feb 23rd, debates

On Thursday, Jimmy talked about our final project for the first half of the class. During the class, one student had said that fear causes one to not do anything and another student spoke out in disagreement by stating that fear pushes one to do things. And Jimmy had found this fascinating. Somehow the class became sort of a talk show where Jimmy was the talk show host asking questions to the two students in disagreement. The rest of the students became the audience. He eventually had four students take one side and another four students on another side as to debate with each other. One of the students had tried to prove her point by stating one thing that causes the fear of not doing anything is was because of the fear from the unknown. Another student proceeded to give an example of fearing to do work because of not knowing what to do. Another student then debated by using the Concept Development class as an example that because of the unknown, it was pushing him to do more work. There was then a discussion amongst other students who also agreed that the concept development class was a very different experience towards how their other classes were. I also agree with the majority of students that spoke out. That the class was significantly different from previous classes that I had taken. This class is very philosophical towards finding yourself that also allows you to critically think about reasons towards certain subjects. Reasons and solutions that might help towards your own projects or own self. Another student also mentioned that there was a lot of psychology usage in the class. A question of psychology and design then arose as to how they were related to each other, which had several reasons such as how design focuses on trying to find a solution towards a problem. Normally it would be a visual problem that would require one to see so to fix the problems, one would have to think about a person's cognitive ideals for a solution. The debate eventually ended and we were to discuss what we found for the Graphic Design Option at CSULA. 

Adjectives:

Dynamic - energizing, changing
Majestic - impressive, magnificent
Eerie - creepy, spoky

Tues, Feb. 21, "This is a what." "A what!?"

On Tuesday, Jimmy had the class sit in a circle to discuss the Gauge event that everyone had gone to on Thursday. The discussion was interesting to hear other people's views on the event. Some had negative views and others had positive reviews. I found this interesting because I myself had found the event had inspired me towards my future and to hear that others had thought differently. For example, I had found Kali Nikitas's stories interesting and inspiring whereas another student had found that there wasn't really much to this event. From her experience, she had gone to other previous Gauge events where speakers had given their life story so it was all the same to her.

There was something later that one student had said to try and relate to the event that had Jimmy input his own words. The words were certainly something to think about. The student had found and stated that it seemed to her that most people in Los Angeles were always about "go, go, go." Meaning that most people would always be in a hurry for certain things and that the pressure is always there, like the pressure of getting a house. Jimmy objected by stating that most people weren't always like that especially since Los Angeles very large. He eventually pointed out that this need to always rush and the pressure or stress coming from our minds is all internal. That it could only be ourselves to make us feel this way. It made me think about all the things that I've been stressing about and wondered why I've put this load on myself. It was strange to have something pointed out to us that's right in front of us and yet not have realized it all this time. I feel like his words had changed the way I now think about things... For now at least.

The second part of class was very, very enjoyable. He gave us a game to play. Since we were already all seated in a circle, he pulled in another chair between two students and demonstrated how to play a game. The game starts off with one leader who has two objects. He or she can choose to call the object a name but lets just say for now that one object is called "Who" and the second object is called "What." So he or she would hand one object to his right or left, saying "This is a what." And the person being handed the object must ask, "This is a what?" And the leader must confirm by saying, "This is a what." Now, with the second object, he or she must turn to the opposite direction from which he or she had led with and now must hand the second object off by saying, "This is a who." If any one of us were to mess up, we were to start from the beginning.

When the game first started, we practiced with just one object first until we succeeded one round. Then we proceeded on practicing with two which proved to be greatly difficult. But all the while, there were much laughter amongst us as we tried to figure out ways of getting around the problems we were having. Eventually, Jimmy came in and informed us that we had been playing the game wrong. We had started the objects at the same end but by different people, despite them being near each other. The objects were to start initially from only one person. We continued to have problems so we changed our words from "who" and "what" to "he" and "she" but that proved to be just as confusing since the words were similar. We were finally successful when we used the words "dog" and "cat" and boy were we proud. When we had finished, we had brought our hands to the center of the circle and yelled our team number with enthusiasm. I can honestly say that I don't think I've ever laughed so much in class this quarter till we played this game.

Now, what were the possible purposes of this game?

During the game, Jimmy had also suggested that we listened carefully towards the person handing us the object. It was a simple suggestion but very much needed. In the game, we found ourselves relying more on the patterns of the words so that we wouldn't have to listen. Changing the words several times had helped us adapt to relying on listening rather than the usual repeated patterns. Listening carefully is certainly an skill asset that one would definitely need in the future especially towards their clients. One could also say that this game was also to help us communicate with each other. A lot of us who didn't normally speak aloud spoke to suggest things on making the game simpler for us to accomplish. And of course, I'm sure the game was also meant for us to have fun since there had been a great amount of laughter between the students in the group.


Adjectives:
Surreptitiously - done stealth like or in a secret way
ostensibly - pretend
impeccable - perfect

Thurs, Feb 16th: Presentations pt.2 and creative briefs

Thursday was a continuation of presentations for our game concepts. Similar to Tuesday, it was more critiquing of our presentations. I think the second round of people who presented had more confidence in their presentation, possibly from preparations or taking note towards what people had critiqued to others on Tuesday. There was one presentation that seemed to get a bit of argument from one of the students. The student had criticized the presenter for having been too sarcastic about his game but he hadn't been. He had been trying to use humor to keep the audience interested. But it was later though that the student critiquing was being criticized for his own way of critiquing for it had been... rude. His order of words certainly made a difference.

When it had reached my turn to present, I had been quite nervous. However, I took the time to try and write down what I had planned on saying the previous night. Though there were quite a bit that I missed on explaining my game concept that I had wished I had explained but when questions came around, I was able to explain it a tad more. I remembered when one student asked something, I remembered crossing my legs without realizing it. No one had pointed out my stance since my presentation had finished but I had felt the need to guard myself against this student's question. So I learned that I should probably try to avoid doing.

Another thing that I learned from Thursday's set of presentations was choices of words to use to ending your speech. A simple "Thank you" or a "Thank you for your time" was enough rather than "Any questions? Comments?" which I sometimes also find myself doing for other presentations. It's something sometimes one would forget when someone is nervous.

The second part of the class was dedicated to creative briefs. There were several examples he showed us but basically it would describe things such as how you would want your audience to feel, think, know or do. Jimmy mentioned that when he would do briefs, he would first meet with his clients then write it out, then show the brief to the client and the client would change a few things, send it back, you edit it and it basically becomes a contract. This is certainly very important to remember because I had a friend who had graduated with a degree in animation. So she doesn't really know the design process but she's a very talented artist and can creatively come up with a good design through her artist skills. She had worked under a company who basically screwed her over because there had never been any contract. So this information is definitely something I'd always remember especially after hearing about such a bad experience from a very good friend.




Adjectives:
Succinctly - to express with little amount of words
Dowdy - lacking style; plainly dressed
Effervescent - highly enthusiastic 

Tues, Feb 14th, AIGA and Presentations

In the beginning of Tuesday's class, there was a student from Gauge to talk to us about AIGA. To be honest, I wish he had gone more in dept into what benefits AIGA provides. He did go into the basics of it's benefits such as things like StimuLatte and events where you can communicate with other designers from other schools to see what they're doing. It was later though that Jimmy Moss told us that most of the things he listed were free. But after being told about it, I did take the time to visit the AIGA website and my goodness! Did you know they even give you discounts for health insurance!? Just seeing that was enough to convince me to pay 50 bucks--discounted from 95 bucks!-- to join AIGA. Not to mention that you can find AIGA design jobs or internships as well as a whole bunch of other benefits! I feel like I'm accidentally advertising AIGA but hey, why not? It seems like a great thing to be a member of. I'm not even a design student and I feel convinced to join!

By the second half of the class time we had left, we had presentations for our game concept ideas. Our previous assignment had been to refine one of the nine concept ideas. We were to make it better and presentable. So we did. We were then to critique our peer's presentation itself and not the concept. I had found this very beneficial to us because there aren't too many classes that requires us to present in a professional manner. Though I've had done many presentations in front of a class in many of my previous class but they had all been informal and simple. For these other classes, it didn't seem to matter if we were constantly fidgeting or saying "um" a bunch of times, or just simply reading off a sheet of paper. But for this presentation, everything mattered. Our speech's pace mattered, our volume of our voice mattered, eye contact mattered, our stance mattered, our body language mattered. Even the way we designed our presentation mattered.

There was only time for about five or six people to present. There were several things that I took note of when people were being critiqued on their presentations like body language. I remembered one student who seemed fairly confident in her presentation. Her voice was firm but she gestured a lot. I think she was the first to present. And at first, it was difficult for the class itself to critique our own peers. There was a lot of complementing and more questions on the game itself rather than the presentation. Then Jimmy proceeded to tell us about constructive criticism. He had mentioned how people at CSULA are quite kind to each other especially to our peers and I don't disagree. But he also said that constructive criticism is something we all needed to learn in other to better ourselves for the future and to learn. Because really, we're all learning from each other. After that, critiquing seemed to come a little bit much easier amongst the students.

There were a couple of observations that I hadn't even noticed until other students pointed out. For instance, there was another student who's idea was brilliant. I even thought her speech was good. But a few people pointed out her body language. She had her arms crossed unless she was pointing out something. She also had her legs crossed as she stood. Jimmy mentioned that the stance was telling the audience that you're not open to suggestions when you do this. Or that you're trying to protect yourself. I had noticed I had done this accidentally later on Thursday. But more on that later.

There was one more observation that I found helpful. She was the last to present for the day but she was quite nervous. She spoke really fast. By the end of her presentation, Jimmy spoke to her in a very smoothing gentle voice, asking her to take a moment to breathe. Now, if you've never met Jimmy Moss, Jimmy has a very loud voice. It can be scary at times but really, he's just excited. So for him to speak in a gentle soothing voice, it was very calming. But his simple request from her to ask her to breathe I think was enough to make even some of the audience relax a little. Sometimes when the presenter is tense, the aura sometimes seeps out and becomes contagious almost. It happens vice versa too. It happened after the first presenter had finished. A lot of us had become tensed up from the critique that the vibe also affected the next presenter. So by the last presenter, Jimmy told us that sometimes he liked to relax his shoulders before speaking and to just take a deep breath. I had found this really helpful because later on Thursday, I had done the same and found it quite relaxing. It didn't take away all the uneasiness that I had but it was enough to get me through just fine.



Adjectives:
burbly - uttered with unrestrained enthusiasm
etheral - delicate; heavenly
sedulous - working hard

Tues 2/7, game day

Today, majority of the students brought many different types of games for class. We started the class first by listing out a bunch of different games and then went into details for one game as an example of purposes. For example, why was this game created? What is it trying to teach us? An example that was used in clads was the game monopoly. It was made around the great depression, in a slight way of making fun of the rich. It also served as a purpose to teach people about capitalism, which our country runs on.

The rest of the day was dedicated to playing the games we brought in. It was up to us to decide on which games we wanted to play but eventually we were to switch off with a different group of people to play a different game. So the first game I played was the game I brought from home. The game is called "apples to apples." this version was a smaller version to play to go. So the game consists of two colored cards, a red and green card. The green cards are all adjective words. The red cards consists of random nouns or noun phrases. Each person is receives seven red cards and the first person to go draws a green card. Everyone except the one who drew the green card chooses only one of their own red card from their hand that they think would fit for the adjective, and places it face down. The person who drew the green card then picks up the red cards and chooses which card they feel should be chosen. The first person to gain a certain amount of green cards, wins. Depending on how many people are playing, the amount of green cards needed to win changes. We were then to refer back to the game and ask ourselves what it was that made this game fun. With apples to apples, what made the game fun was the humor. Sometimes when an adjective appeared, it was difficult to choose a noun to fit the word. Sometimes the word chosen are completely ridiculous, enough to make one laugh. This game uses humor a lot in order to make it fun.

After playing this game, we moved on to another game. It was a word game called Boggle. It was a bit fun for the first few rounds but after the fifth, we kind of just got tired of it. This was probably because the interaction between playing wasn't very social. We would spend three minutes in silence writing as much words as we could in order to win. There wasn't much socializing amongst each other so I found that a tad boring. We then switched to UNO which was more amusing. Though we didn't say much when playing the game, the constant push towards trying to make the other person to lose was amusing and much more fun. It was a lot more tense too because you don't know what card the other player has.


There was also something that Jimmy said today opened my eyes. He had written on the board instead of homework, something else. He had said to the class that our work should not actually be work for us and that it should be fun for us. Otherwise, what the heck are we doing here? His words were certainly enough to make me think twice before complaining about "work."


 Adjectives:

Intense - strong pressure
Awesome - impressive
Fresh - new

Thurs, 2/9 Game Concepts

Today in class, we had a sort of a kind of critique session on the homework we had to turn in that day. Our homework had been to design nine different game concepts. It wasn't really a critique but more of a close up presentation where everyone in the class was looking at your work while you presented your nine concepts. Jimmy Moss would then either say it was a good idea, or if it needed more work, or if the idea was boring or had been done before. Before we started though, he went into a lecture of writing words next to a drawing that weren't necessary. Jimmy told us about words that compels us to write down when it's not needed. He had mentioned this after noticing that someone's drawing of a die had the words "dice" above the drawing. The drawing of the die, however, had been already obvious to it's audience that it was a die. As artists, we should be able to draw or design something clear enough that it wouldn't need words. It made us more aware of our drawings and what things we would write down because after he said that, everyone started shuffling through their concepts to see if they had written unnessary words to describe our drawings.

The first person who had their concepts laid out on a table for all of the class to see, it felt terrifying to see some of their ideas get shot down. As he went through the ideas from students who had done nine concepts, he gave out a lot of pointers and advice towards ways of presenting, especially when it got to my turn. I think though that I'm just not too used to speaking aloud that I had quite a problem pitching my idea. He mentioned at one point that when pitching an idea, you're to use something called an Elevator pitch. An elevator pitch is to simply define what it is that you're trying to pitch. I think that I found this difficult because it was something I never practiced. I also had a really bad habit of saying words like "um" "just" and "like." Something I ought to practice not doing.

I remembered also that a student who presented before me when handing his concepts to Jimmy, he had said that he had been afraid of what Jimmy would do. Jimmy then proceeded to tell us to not be afraid because though he seemed harsh now, he can be quite gentle talking to you one on one. He encouraged us to speak with him. He also informed us that other clients can be worse, which is something that I don't doubt. The same student, when presenting, had variations towards some of his ideas, which Jimmy liked and showed that when presenting ideas of variations of ideas, you could pitch it in the way where you would mention that the idea could also apply in different ways.

In a way, I was glad that he had gone through our concepts the way he did. It helped give an idea of how clients can be in the real world as well as giving out pointers towards presentations. 




Adjectives:
Inopportune - caught at a bad time or inconvenient time.
Generous - kind
Cozy - comfortable

2/2 A Pie Chart's Title and a video: Sir Ken Robinson

Today, during the first half the Art 220 Concept Development class, we had our homework up on the push-pin boards. When all our work was up, we took the time to look at our classmate's work and their interpretation on process mapping. In my previous blog, I had mentioned that we worked on making a process map in class on "How to get an 'A' in Art 220." This became our homework, to make a better version. When everyone had finished examining everyone's work, Jimmy pointed out one of the maps.To be specific, it was a pie chart of what percentages were needed to receive on certain tasks in order to get an A in the class. Jimmy then asked for the whole class to agree on a title for this particular pie chart. He had stepped out after that, and students began suggesting titles. This experience was similar to Comic assignment that we had previously done. I had reflected about this experience on my Thursday, 1/19 blog entry, but once more, there was student who seemed to dominate on trying to find a perfect title for the chart. There were several times that she lead and spoke out. We eventually, listed about three or four titles by the end and later choosing one.

What I did experience differently though from the previous Comic Panel exercise we did was that I honestly didn't realize how much fun I was having. I remembered laughing because someone had suggested a silly pun for a title which I really loved. I'm the type of person who enjoys many types of humor. But while in the process of this enjoyment, I hadn't even noticed that Jimmy had returned to observe us. And I remembered hearing someone say, "Eight people having fun." I'm not one hundred percent sure it was Jimmy who said this so I won't assume that it was. When our time ended, Jimmy then gave us a talk on what he had examined from us. He mentioned that only a few of us were having fun and there were several people not interacting, possibly because of students who had dominating personalities. I didn't disagree. While we had gone through titles, I had suggested one title to be silly and obvious as a joke. And I thought that what title would be best but a broad and obvious one. So I had put out the suggestion of the title "Pie Chart," that was immediately shot down but another classmate with a dominating personality. Her reply made me feel dejected some how.

The second half of class, Jimmy showed us a lecture that Sir Ken Robinson did to talk about his book, "The Element." The element is about why it is that so many adults have no idea what their true talents are and the importance of this. I found the video very inspiring so I really recommend anyone to watch this: Sir Ken Robinson, Hammer Lectures

The reason why I found this video inspiring is because always there's something inside me asking me if I'm making the right decision. But he mentions how people have had jobs where they truly didn't enjoy, despite the amount they get paid because it wasn't a matter of money. It was a matter of personal fulfillment. I also found the video an eye opener. A lot of us don't realize the problem we have in our systems like how we encourage more towards some sort of academics like an art career versus a doctor's career. Or that college degrees are like any sort of currency that would eventually devalue. Or how we sometimes take for granted our own capacity. There were a lot more eye opening subjects he had discussed but I feel like these three stood out the most to me because I find myself reflecting upon the previous steps I taken to getting where I am now.

College had always been encouraged from near the beginning of time of starting school. I was never really told to follow any other option. The system that was embedded in my mind were these steps: Kindergarten, elementary, junior high, high school, and then, of course, one had to go to college. I mean, I don't regret my choice in going to college but I truly thought about the other options out there that didn't need this college degree path. And there were paths that didn't require a college degree to get handsomely paid. Now that I'm near the end of my college experience, I see this more clearly. True, I am aiming for a degree. But what does a degree matter if one doesn't have the knowledge for the actual focus when getting out into that world?

I've often taken my capacity for granted. There would be several times where I'd feel as if I were drowning in a pool of misery when I reflect over my drawing abilities and the things that I lacked for it. I would then question the choices I've maid in deciding to follow this path of instability. And by Sir Ken Robinson's lecture, it was a simple realization that this capacity that I have is barely at it's minimal. Though small, I take for granted at times by how much I truly enjoy drawing. Today I went to Blicks to by some art supplies. When I came home, I was as giddy as a little girl, excited to use my new art materials. I was even so excited that I told one of my friends that I bought a mini sketchbook to carry around to draw! She judged me, but that didn't stop my gleefulness. Though, I feel that this eye opener may be considered not as significant maybe to some people. But it truly was significant to me. This is because sometimes I tend to trial off the path I've taken and forget by how much I truly love what I do and I need that reminder as to why I've chosen to take this path in the first place.


Adjectives:

Dejected - falling into low spirits
Combative - to argue
Diligent - hard working