Class Reflection (3-21)

I had such a nice time last class. The sun was warm and bright and I was so excited when Beth wrote on the white board to meet on the balcony.

After we spent some time chatting about our spring break, Beth told us to close our eyes. I didn't know what to expect but I trusted it would be an interesting experience so I obliged. Beth's voice was so soft and calm as she performed  somewhat of a meditative experience. She had us focus on the sounds around us. Normally, I feel I am so busy that I that I don't stop to be calm. It was really interesting to stop and focus on the small sounds around me. I thought it was interesting when one of my classmates said he didn't like the way he felt like he was loosing control because I loved the way it felt! I felt so relaxed and in the present. I would love to try some more meditative experiences again.

Freakin' Out!

What is fear?

I would describe fear as a feeling of concern, distress, and anxiety about a situation that is either real or imagined.  Fear can cause people to feel panicked, frightened, and alarmed when presented with something or some experience. It seems the word “fear” is applied more specifically to a particular attitude a person may have toward something. For example, simply the thought of spiders triggers feelings of horror and fright in me. I feel the hair on my neck stand up and I squirm at the thought of a spider touching me. Spiders aren’t the only things I find fearful. I also tend to worry and be afraid of things or ideas that have yet to happen to me. For example I have feelings of trepidation when I do not write down my tasks (related to school or otherwise personal plans) or if I know I need to have a difficult conversation with someone.

Fear can significantly affect your life if you are unable to control the thoughts and feelings of apprehension and fright. Since I was an elementary school student I can recall feelings of horrible test anxiety. To this day, the night before a test I am unable to sleep; what-if thoughts and concerns explode in my mind as I struggle to quiet the noise of doubt. When I sit down to take the test, fear consumes my body. I feel my heart start to race, my body gets hot, and my mind is so overwhelmed with possible bad outcomes that I find it very difficult to simply focus on a question long enough to finish the sentence. Rarely am I able to control my anxiety for the length of the test and I always leave feeling frustrated that I might have done better if I had just focused harder on the questions and answers. Maybe this is why I ended up in a mostly project-based major… :)

Fear Experiment

            For my Fear Experiment, I will be exploring what it may be like for an average student to feel test anxiety. To better understand why some students and myself feel test anxiety I looked up some of the common contributing factors. According to WebMD, there are various factors that include prior unpleasant experiences, poor preparation, perfectionism, and a social atmosphere that places excessive importance on test results. My hope for the experiment is that my classmates will be able to immerse themselves in the experience if just for a moment so they will understand why this is a fear of mine. However, it may be difficult to create feelings of concern and anxiety in my classmates because they know at the end of the class my experiment will not affect their grade or overall wellbeing. 

Stuffed Animal Inspiration

In class, Beth gave each of us a stuffed animal from a big trash bag. There were all types of stuffed toys from the wild, television shows, and movies. I did not recognize the stuffed animal that was tossed to me. Other students in class told me it was an angry character from a cartoon television show. 
The goal was to create contradiction and also harmony between the stuffed toy and whatever we would create. I did not know where to begin so I took a picture of the toy and put it into photoshop. I played around with the image, duplicating it, turning it, adding filters to it. Eventually an image resembling a kaleidoscope appeared. I liked the way it was looking so I continued to manipulate it. I created a cutout frame around it to make the image look more complete. 
The contradiction is that I took a stuffed toy that represents an angry mean cartoon character and turned the image of it into a pretty piece of art that is interesting to look at. The harmony is that I used the actual colors of the toy to create a new product. 
The bliss assignment was helpful in this because when I sat down to create something I was very open to whatever may come. The end result is below!

My Bliss

I could not believe my ears when Beth explained the 'Bliss' assignment! I was thrilled to hear I would have 2.5 hours to myself to reflect and to gain inspiration. One of my favorite things to do when I need to clear my mind is to spend time with my dog Regis. I love petting him and taking him for walks. I find I am able to clear my mind and relax when I am with him. I spent about one hour of my bliss time with him.
The rest of the time I spent with my mom drinking coffee and talking. I can talk to my mom for hours but because I am always so busy we don't get together as much as I would like to so I took this opportunity to hang out with her.
I loved this experience because I find when I take time to myself to relax and not thing about all of my obligations I am a more creative person but it is not always easy pulling myself away from all of my commitments.

Exotic Feline Rescue Center-Design Process Product

The second portion of our assignment was to use the design process we evaluated and “create something.” I looked through my gallery of images to try to find some inspiration since the assignment was so vague. I came across images from a trip to Indiana’s Exotic Feline Rescue Center that I visited over the summer. There was a beautiful lion that I took a picture of and when I viewed the image I felt the motivation or inspiration to get started. I decided to create a charity brochure to bring people to the Center.

            When I got started, I was conscious of the design equation but I tried not to think too hard about it while I was working. Once I was finished I evaluated my process. I followed the design equation exactly as the it was drawn out, however, before I got to the final product I refined and tried the process NUMEROUS times before I found the fonts, effects, and layout I feel looks best.

            The first image is my final product and the second image was my inspiration.

Evaluating the Design Process

Inspiration>Idea>Concept>Trial>Refine>Product

Inspiration

•   My definition of “inspiration” is a sudden thought that comes to mind that causes me to feel motivated or encouraged to act.
• When I feel inspired I usually feel overwhelmed with thoughts that need to be brainstormed into ideas.
• To me, this is a very exciting ‘step’ in the design process. It is what encourages me to complete a project.

Idea

• My definition of an “idea” is an inspiration that appears in my mind as an image.
• I feel like an idea needs to process in my mind before I am able to vocalize it as a concept.
• The idea is the result of brainstorming on an inspiration.

Concept

• My definition of a “concept” is a general idea or theory that attempts to explain something in my mind.
• It is a plan to conceive the idea.

Trial

• My definition of a “trial” is the process of testing a concept.
• It is my attempt to test the idea I was inspired by.
• A trial may be successful or unsuccessful.

Refine

•  If a trial is unsuccessful it will need to be refined.
• My definition of “refine” is to improve or make a process better to make a more perfect product.
• The ability to refine a process is very important because a good idea is not worth much if you cannot successfully complete the product.

Product

• When a process has been successfully refined, a product is the result.
• My definition of “product” is the end-result of a process.

When I first began to evaluate this design process I thought I started with an idea. The reality of it is I must always have some kind of inspiration even if I do not immediately recognize it as my inspiration for a particular idea. I feel this is exactly the design process I use when I create a product. Although I may repeat “trial” and “refine” multiple times, it is always in that order.

I missed the day we discussed the design process in class. I am unsure of the previous discussion about New Media and Target Audience so I will discuss my opinion about the relation. I believe it is very important to keep the Target Audience in mind when I design New Media products. Different Target Audiences view art in different ways. If I artfully design a very abstract New Media product for a conservative company, they will likely not be happy with the end result because it is not cohesive with their business appearance (and vice versa).

Most of the time, New Media people (especially students) start out with a product or project. We are told what the end result should be. This tends to cause me to have a delay in my design process because, initially, I tend to get stuck in a box. When I am told what the product should be like it changes my design process, but only slightly.  Regardless of the end result, I still need to start with an inspiration. That inspiration needs to be nurtured into an idea and then a concept. That concept will still need to be tried and refined until I feel the process will generate a product I am happy with.

Field Trip!!

Today we spent the day touring the incredible technology that New Media students have available to us. A man named Chancy (I hope I'm not spelling that wrong...) from UITS was the tour guide.

First he took us to the huge 3 screened projection room that provides an immersive 3D experience in any programmer's "world". I have never seen or participated in anything like it. It was awesome! The next room he took us to had a very large television with (I believe) 4 individual screens working as one. He showed us how clear the resolution is by pulling up an image from Google as well as a 4K video on YouTube. It was amazing how clear the resolution is. There was also a 3D television in the room. He showed us an educational video that he created for middle school children. He explained that grabbing the attention of middle school aged kids is typically very difficult, so their idea was to create a video that is fun and interesting for them to watch.

I learned so much from this tour. I had no idea that (1) IUPUI had all of those impressive technologies and (2) that students are able to use them!! As long as a student has a well developed plan, the UITS techs are able to help you use the technology.