this is going to be a long one, folks. hold on to your horses, or is that even the right way to say that
anyhow. the other day i had a thesis meltdown & then i had a momentary flash of inspiration / idea-generating & then i came back to this blog & read all the things i had written over the summer about thesis & decided i should really get back to recording that, if for no one else but me.
so here is some catchup on what i have been thinking w/r/t thesis.
ideas that came up the first week of thesis (or, typin' up my notes)
+ series of small projects.
+ gimmick vs things that work.
+ interaction, intelligence
+ collaboration: writers, artists, designers—process, writing about form
+ designer as collaborator or author? (note: this one is a NO)
+ significant objects.
+ what makes the physical memorable (or the other way around), or the personal universal (also other way round)
+ participation (thanks barfield)
i came out of the first week of thesis a bit confused still. i'd written up a whole mind-map of ideas & had set forth a preliminary project, which i mentioned before on here: a kit containing items that tell a story of what happens when you are in a house that is swallowed by a wolf. i approached sasha with the idea & told him what i wanted to do & roughly how i wanted to communicate & he wrote (& continues to work on) a series of short snippets about this topic. i was pretty excited about this idea but didn't communicate it all that well in class.
second week notes:
+ consideration of form & function
+ creating opportunities to share experiences
--> "show us how you did this" for gain
+ brand / experience
+ authenticity / simulation
--> what is authentic? raw?
--> extremes of significance; inherent qualities of ____ (sensory, audiovisual)
--> disneyland; postmodernism; neoclassical revival
+ authenticity in process
--> handwork, lack of polish; is this a trend or something we are hungry for & why?
--> artisan / artist / art's place in commerce
--> art vs branding - the thing
+ authenticity vs appreciation. privilege in the authentic.
somehow this week devolved into discussion of creating a branding experience, determining the authentic. i think it was in the air that week because it came up in other classes too. this is still a consideration in my work but i want to take the word 'branding' out of it. for the purposes of the thesis solely, i want to free myself to not think about realistic expectations, which is basically what branding is.
after class, i met with debra, one of my thesis resources, & in talking with her we came up with the idea of dissecting a book, examining the form & experience of the book / reading, investigating the compelling. we talked about how the beauty of a book is how it exists in one state when you are not interacting with it but then really just disappears when you are interacting with it, allowing the text (or narrative, or whatever) to exist in a space more prominent than the physical. i mentioned this earlier, too, about how i was going to be a book entomologist; while i have my resources, i still haven't gone through with the dissection. more on this later.
third week notes:
+ mosaic / gestalt
+ survey of book objects; ideo's book ideas
--> something about ideo makes my skin crawl. figure out what it is.
+ scale of objects?
--> miranda july / why not industries
+ collaboration. living with designers / writers / artists / etc.
--> how the best design works as collaboration, with respect
--> maybe take video of the collaborative process that happens w/s in the apartment?
+ think about limitations, not just delimitations
i was really not prepared for this week. i had been recovering from a number of things & hadn't had time to make anything or do much besides think, if that. so what i did instead was bring in some of my recent & in-progress work in the hopes that the class could help me do what designers do & look for patterns, look for themes, look for something that's already happening in my work that i couldn't see because i am too deep in it.
somehow the topic still kept coming back to books & i got frustrated. i don't want to focus on books. i keep saying it & i think i just have to not say anything about books at all anymore. it doesn't do anyone any good to talk about what a thing is not if i can't define what it is.
we talked a little about how my idea for a 'kit' could really be understood as a 'book', but a book made of objects. i liked this idea a lot but i mentioned that i hadn't yet started making any of the objects yet. that when it came down to it, i hated pushing type around, which is what i felt like i was doing. but i have been thinking about it more & reframing the way i view it & i think if i start small, with something like a notebook for you to record all the things you will do once you are no longer in a house swallowed by a wolf—something tangible & actually usable, i mean—i can make some progress.
while i loved the idea of dissecting a book, something about the process of it (even in the name of Science) felt kind of unbearable to me—even though the book i was using was a $1 used book from the strand that meant nothing to me personally. i would still like to undertake a less physical dissection, but every time i start working on it, i get caught up in how subjective it is & feel like this whole thing is insular & stuck. i seem to run into this thinking a lot & it's really detrimental to my work but i don't know how to step out of it.
this week, we are not meeting, which is partly why i am blogging. i am using this time productively!
in class on wednesday, one of our professors / speakers was talking about the role of designers, & said that designers must now be creators of systems, not ephemera or images. i totally disagreed with that & started writing furiously in my sketchbook about it. in my mind, our work is always ephemeral, whether it is a system or an image. nothing will last for ever; nothing will be relevant for ever; thinking that it will has, i believe, led to the recent move towards 'eco-friendly' design, 'design thinking', etc etc. i am not interested in looking at sustainability but instead at paradigms, at perception, at understanding & communication. plus systems are great but ultimately they too break, they too must be replaced, they too become 'ephemeral'.
so this has led to a new framework for this 'dissection': it becomes an exploration of the temporality of design, trying to figure out what lasts & what doesn't (we have some heirlooms from ages past but how many of the things made in the last 10 years are going to last 10 more? probably not the things we intend!), & encourage an awareness in / by the user of the temporality of design, too. my notes read something like:
+ ordinary objects for extraordinary lives
+ best made: emphasis on long-lasting, simple, connotative
+ modern heirlooms. how to create objects that encourage cherishing? is this possible?
--> opium vol. 8—lengthy, temporal design
+ how to move towards not fearing but embracing change / temporality / use
--> i am scared of change! i don't want to mark things up! get over this!
& i think this is going in the right direction. i can get excited about this. & i like how even going over all the notes that seemed irrelevant makes a larger picture. feels like i'm starting to get on track with all this.
NOW TO GO PUBLISH MY INNERMOST THOUGHTS ON THE INTERNETS, THIS IS THE MAGIC OF BLOGS AMIRITE
anyhow. the other day i had a thesis meltdown & then i had a momentary flash of inspiration / idea-generating & then i came back to this blog & read all the things i had written over the summer about thesis & decided i should really get back to recording that, if for no one else but me.
so here is some catchup on what i have been thinking w/r/t thesis.
ideas that came up the first week of thesis (or, typin' up my notes)
+ series of small projects.
+ gimmick vs things that work.
+ interaction, intelligence
+ collaboration: writers, artists, designers—process, writing about form
+ designer as collaborator or author? (note: this one is a NO)
+ significant objects.
+ what makes the physical memorable (or the other way around), or the personal universal (also other way round)
+ participation (thanks barfield)
i came out of the first week of thesis a bit confused still. i'd written up a whole mind-map of ideas & had set forth a preliminary project, which i mentioned before on here: a kit containing items that tell a story of what happens when you are in a house that is swallowed by a wolf. i approached sasha with the idea & told him what i wanted to do & roughly how i wanted to communicate & he wrote (& continues to work on) a series of short snippets about this topic. i was pretty excited about this idea but didn't communicate it all that well in class.
second week notes:
+ consideration of form & function
+ creating opportunities to share experiences
--> "show us how you did this" for gain
+ brand / experience
+ authenticity / simulation
--> what is authentic? raw?
--> extremes of significance; inherent qualities of ____ (sensory, audiovisual)
--> disneyland; postmodernism; neoclassical revival
+ authenticity in process
--> handwork, lack of polish; is this a trend or something we are hungry for & why?
--> artisan / artist / art's place in commerce
--> art vs branding - the thing
+ authenticity vs appreciation. privilege in the authentic.
somehow this week devolved into discussion of creating a branding experience, determining the authentic. i think it was in the air that week because it came up in other classes too. this is still a consideration in my work but i want to take the word 'branding' out of it. for the purposes of the thesis solely, i want to free myself to not think about realistic expectations, which is basically what branding is.
after class, i met with debra, one of my thesis resources, & in talking with her we came up with the idea of dissecting a book, examining the form & experience of the book / reading, investigating the compelling. we talked about how the beauty of a book is how it exists in one state when you are not interacting with it but then really just disappears when you are interacting with it, allowing the text (or narrative, or whatever) to exist in a space more prominent than the physical. i mentioned this earlier, too, about how i was going to be a book entomologist; while i have my resources, i still haven't gone through with the dissection. more on this later.
third week notes:
+ mosaic / gestalt
+ survey of book objects; ideo's book ideas
--> something about ideo makes my skin crawl. figure out what it is.
+ scale of objects?
--> miranda july / why not industries
+ collaboration. living with designers / writers / artists / etc.
--> how the best design works as collaboration, with respect
--> maybe take video of the collaborative process that happens w/s in the apartment?
+ think about limitations, not just delimitations
i was really not prepared for this week. i had been recovering from a number of things & hadn't had time to make anything or do much besides think, if that. so what i did instead was bring in some of my recent & in-progress work in the hopes that the class could help me do what designers do & look for patterns, look for themes, look for something that's already happening in my work that i couldn't see because i am too deep in it.
somehow the topic still kept coming back to books & i got frustrated. i don't want to focus on books. i keep saying it & i think i just have to not say anything about books at all anymore. it doesn't do anyone any good to talk about what a thing is not if i can't define what it is.
we talked a little about how my idea for a 'kit' could really be understood as a 'book', but a book made of objects. i liked this idea a lot but i mentioned that i hadn't yet started making any of the objects yet. that when it came down to it, i hated pushing type around, which is what i felt like i was doing. but i have been thinking about it more & reframing the way i view it & i think if i start small, with something like a notebook for you to record all the things you will do once you are no longer in a house swallowed by a wolf—something tangible & actually usable, i mean—i can make some progress.
while i loved the idea of dissecting a book, something about the process of it (even in the name of Science) felt kind of unbearable to me—even though the book i was using was a $1 used book from the strand that meant nothing to me personally. i would still like to undertake a less physical dissection, but every time i start working on it, i get caught up in how subjective it is & feel like this whole thing is insular & stuck. i seem to run into this thinking a lot & it's really detrimental to my work but i don't know how to step out of it.
this week, we are not meeting, which is partly why i am blogging. i am using this time productively!
in class on wednesday, one of our professors / speakers was talking about the role of designers, & said that designers must now be creators of systems, not ephemera or images. i totally disagreed with that & started writing furiously in my sketchbook about it. in my mind, our work is always ephemeral, whether it is a system or an image. nothing will last for ever; nothing will be relevant for ever; thinking that it will has, i believe, led to the recent move towards 'eco-friendly' design, 'design thinking', etc etc. i am not interested in looking at sustainability but instead at paradigms, at perception, at understanding & communication. plus systems are great but ultimately they too break, they too must be replaced, they too become 'ephemeral'.
so this has led to a new framework for this 'dissection': it becomes an exploration of the temporality of design, trying to figure out what lasts & what doesn't (we have some heirlooms from ages past but how many of the things made in the last 10 years are going to last 10 more? probably not the things we intend!), & encourage an awareness in / by the user of the temporality of design, too. my notes read something like:
+ ordinary objects for extraordinary lives
+ best made: emphasis on long-lasting, simple, connotative
+ modern heirlooms. how to create objects that encourage cherishing? is this possible?
--> opium vol. 8—lengthy, temporal design
+ how to move towards not fearing but embracing change / temporality / use
--> i am scared of change! i don't want to mark things up! get over this!
& i think this is going in the right direction. i can get excited about this. & i like how even going over all the notes that seemed irrelevant makes a larger picture. feels like i'm starting to get on track with all this.
NOW TO GO PUBLISH MY INNERMOST THOUGHTS ON THE INTERNETS, THIS IS THE MAGIC OF BLOGS AMIRITE
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