Holy Crap

Top email.
I'm so excited I can barely type.
Details soon.

I would encourage everyone in this class to try and contact someone in their field they admire. Shoot for the ones you don't think will answer.



Here it is! /pre-teen girl concert scream

Week 5 happs

Here's a recap of this week's work...

LOGBOOK:

a) swapees met and discussed each other's progress and methods of scratching for one another.

b) HW for next week: Collect 20 more specimens, but this week take a more research based approach. Find the "experts" on your topic in another discipline besides your own and scratch there. I encourage you to look to the Science fields for experts. You'll probably need to visit the Public Library. ALSO, employ two of the Oblique Strategies to your scratching process this week.

RESEARCH HW and classwork:
+ Continue with the "Chaos Machines" exercise, do at least one more using your Logbook content as a starting point.

+ Daily Ritual: document a personal daily ritual or routine. See PDF of project sheet for details.

Can't wait to see how your Daily Ritual documentation turns out!

Have a great week!

Chaos Machine resources

++++ Random Word Generator ++++

Oblique Strategies Widget

Here's that widget implementation of the Oblique Strategies card decks that Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt invented: Oblique Strategies-One hundred worthwhile dilemmas (Right click on the link to download a zipped file of it to your desktop, then follow the installation directions once you double click on it to un-stuff it)
It features the complete sets of the Original (1975), the Second (1978) and Third (1979) Editions, as well as the elusive, commercially not-available Fourth set (1996) by Brian Eno and Peter Norton. Selection of the Editions is user-controllable via a preferences panel. The timing for the Auto-Flipback feature is accessible via the preferences panel as well.

Each card contains a phrase or cryptic remark which can be used to break a deadlock or dilemma situation. From the introduction to the 2001 edition: These cards evolved from our separate observations on the principles underlying what we were doing. Sometimes they were recognized in retrospect (intellect catching up with intuition), sometimes they were identified as they were happening, sometimes they were formulated. They can be used as a pack (a set of possibilities being continuously reviewed in the mind) or by drawing a single card from the shuffled pack when a dilemma occurs in a working situation. In this case,the card is trusted even if its appropriateness is quite unclear. They are not final, as new ideas will present themselves, and others will become self-evident.

Here's a couple more info on the Oblique Strategies...

An unofficial, yet thorough website complete with an online version of the deck in case you don't want to load the widget onto your machine.

A simpler online version of the strategies.

Week 4 happs

Good to see most of you in the Auditorium for Jay Coogan's forum, and SO awesome of those of you asked questions! 

Power to the people!

Here's  a recap of what's assigned this week:

The lives of others HW from last week–hang on to it, we'll be tackling that exercise in the future.

LOGBOOK: 

a) swap with a peer

b) interview that peer to get a full grasp on exactly what their topic is, why they're interested in that topic, how they've been observing and collecting so far, etc.

c) collect 20 observations for your peer's LB–do each other's scratching!

d) you may still choose to continue to scratch for your own topic, you'll just need to collect and document in another form to be later transferred to your LB next week.

RESEARCH HW and classwork: 

+ Watch at least three Art: 21 short films (available on DVD in the library, they are on reserve for this class so you'll need to ask for them at the front counter). At least ONE of these three should be of an artist that you've never heard of before. You can visit the website first to watch excerpts of the films to decide which season of the DVD's you'll want to check out. 

+ For each of your 3 screenings, do your best to generate responses to the following questions. Please print out your responses to turn in next week. 

1. Identify 3 insights into your own creative practice from each film/artist. 
   
2. What are the recurring themes in the artists work? Any insight as to "why" these themes reoccur for the artist?
   
3. As best you can from what is covered in the film, map out each artist's creative process. (How do their ideas arrive for them? Do they work more consciously or more intuitively? Etc.) 
4. Any similarities/differences to your current creative process?
   

Questions? Post them here, or email me directly and I'll respond w/in 48 hours.

Have fun!

On The Subject of Random Information Generation

Here is a website that will allow you to submit a sketch anonymously and receive one in return from anywhere in the world. Check out this result for my meager doodle, I would have no contact with this person otherwise. Something to think about and addicting nonetheless.

www.sketchswap.com

Tai-Pog-Raw-Fee

An awesome resource for people who have wanted to toy with the idea of type creation. This web-based program allows the creation of modular typefaces, which can be saved and downloaded as fully functional. Hot damn.

Fontstruct

My first quick attempt!
Experimental

Try it. You know you want to.

Launched!

Welcome welcome WELCOME to our class resource blog.
This basic template should suit our needs just fine, but please stay in communication about what's working/not working.

There's just bit of starter content for now, but we'll be populating the blog with our research and observations throughout the semester. Feel free to explore and use the comments area under the posts to ask any questions. And if you know the answer to a peer's question, feel free to answer it yourself if I haven't already gotten to it!

And in case you lose it and need it, here's a downloadable PDF of the syllabus.
And here's a downloadable PDF of the Logbook project brief.

Hearts!