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RESPONSE #5: 2/21/06
I thought this was an interesting reading, but it was pretty tough to
read at certain points in the various stories. Looking back, I
specifically remember cringing at some of the descriptive details. It
is really sad to see how bitter one race could be toward another, and
that it could continue on for so long before anyone realized that it
was wrong and inhuman. It is also a real shocker to think that all of
this took place when my parents were children, and that was not very
long ago. It is crazy to think that slavery ended in the mid 1800's,
but that hatred, bitterness, rage and violence were still occuring
regularly across our nation, especially in the south, 100 years after
the fact. I cannot imagine how it must have been in those days (the mid
20'th century) to see segregation everywhere - from schools to
restaurants, buses to water fountains and public restrooms. Today,
those things seem so distant and unreal, but they were occuring only
about 50 years ago, right here in our state of Alabama. And, with all
due respect, it seems like the leaders of our nation weren't doing a
very good job at the time of maintaining justice in the states, cities,
and streets nationwide. It really seemed like the armed guards were
acting not to promote safety for the public, but were rather acting out
a bitter and evil malice against the negro people on the bridge that
day. The fact that they were using whips to drive back the crowd was
very hard for me to comprehend... what kind of policemen or possemen
use whips to "keep the peace"? It appears that the negros tried to keep
to Martin Luther King's approach to achieving justice with peace,
atleast as best they could, because eventually they had to throw bricks
and rocks to keep the armed guards off of them. I am just glad that all
of (or atleast most of) this has been settled today, and that
segregation has been dealt with. Like MLK said, we are all God's
children, He made us all equal, and we all came from the same
ancestors. Everyone needs to see that we are all the same and we need
to treat each other fairly. Imagine that! approx. 450 words.
RESPONSE #4: 1/22/06
I thought the assigned reading/response for the
weekend was the 18 page handout that Becky told us would be due Monday
morning (along with the charcoal drawing assignment)? Did you guys mean
to give us two reading assignments at 49 pages? Haha, I find this to be
humorous and somewhat ironic: I am reading the second assignment, it is
12:30 a.m. Monday morning, and have been working since 3:00 this
afternoon. I also spent my Friday night in the studio, and all together
have put in nearly 50 hours this week just doing studio work - not
counting any work we could have had for IDM or Concepts of Science or
English 1120 or Philosophy, Intro to Health Ethics. I am on page 9 of
this assignment and just read "where do we draw the line between hard
work and exploitation?". Ah, well... let's think about it. I don't know
what I think about this reading, but it is all true. All of the
symptoms produced by studio "culture" (if there is or should be such a
thing) are present in our studio, but I'm nearly positive that the work
we strive to produce could not be produced in the specific set time
frames without leading to these results... This is good stuff, but I
doubt it will produce any change, because the work still needs to be
done and the deadlines are waiting. I believe that there are other
things in life that should take priority over a design studio, but it
is hard to fit anything else into your life when it is always consumed
by "time at the drawing board" (no pun intended). I'm not saying that I
don't love doing what we are doing - it's the most fun work I have ever
done in any educational institution, and I feel like it is definitely
the most rewarding scholastic work i've ever produced; but are we doing
it the wrong way? When it comes down to the bottom line, there are
only 24 hours (or 1,440 minutes) in a day. How many of these minutes
can we designate as "design time"? I hope none of this sounded rude, I
am just presenting my case response on the reading - this is just my
position. But, I do agree with the article (and the rest of the studio)
that things could be structured better, and that our work could be
evaluated and thoroughly looked at and discussed before moving on to
the next assignment. That way we can actually know how we are standing,
and we can bring some closure to a specific project/assignment/charet
before blundering on through a seemingly endless list of short burts of
creativity, leading to no final analysis or disclosure of what we have
achieved on an individual level, and as a studio in its entirity.
approx. 476 words
RESPONSE #3: 1/22/06
After reading Betty Edward's Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain I learned a couple of things. One thing I learned was that the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, and the left side of the brain controls the right
side of the body. What did I read that can help me actually draw
better? Well... not much. In retrospect, I believe this portion of her
writing was mostly dealing with the scientific research proving that we
have two seperately functioning hemispheres to our brain, and that they
both serve different purposes. She kept referring to how "in the next
section" she would tell us and show us how this knowledge can help us
in drawing... Maybe we were given the wrong section of reading? I do
see that we need to use the right side of the brain for artistic skill,
because it is the more artistic and abstract side of our brain. The
right hemisphere of the brain controls the left side of the body
though, and is more directly linked to the left hand. At this
discovery, my initial response was to begin drawing with my left hand
instead of my right, but as I read further I saw that Betty Edwards
noted that it has no positive effect on drawing skills, but only makes
it more awkward in some cases. What I do know that I need to do better
on in my drawing (copying) is to not see the whole picture as I draw,
but only focus on the mark that I am making, and its length, width,
darkness, and angle in proportion to the rest of the drawing as an
entire entity. This is what I need to focus on, but I didn't really
find it in the reading, I learned it from our professor Becky, and
noticed what she meant as I looked at my own drawings. For example, if
you are drawing a hand, dont draw fingers, but draw the shapes, shades,
colors, lines and angles of the fingers. (no word minimal requirement).
RESPONSE #2: 1/15/06
I
really enjoyed hearing Martin Luther King Jr.'s speach. First I
listened to it, and then I read it online. I learned a lot in the
speach, especially that it does not begin with "I have a dream". I
hadn't heard the whole thing since elementary school, I think it was
third grade. There are many other important parts in his speach that
are very powerful and effective in King's wording. For example, he
humbly but strongly pointed out the hypocrisy of our nation in
proclaiming freedom for all men, while not delivering it. He
metaphorically compared the Emancipation Proclamtion to a "bad check" -
something that the negro people were promised, but were never fully
given. And although it wasn't the main focus of his speach, I thought
it was interesting how he referred to the writers of our nation's
Declaration of Independence and Constitution as "architects". I think
Martin Luther King Jr. was very wise in petitioning for a peaceful
restoration of our nations injustice. Although he, and all other
African Americans of the time, could have been very hostile, bitter,
and violent about their mistreatment, King knew that the best way to
get justice was by acting out justly in his revolt. His peaceful and
humble stamina (though also very strong, confident and serious), along
with his faith in God caused his followers to have a great sense of
trust and a great deal of resolve in standing for their liberty from
racial segregation and mistreatment.
I also liked how he began his
speach with "five score years ago". The reason I liked this part is
because it is so similar to the way Abraham Lincoln started his
Emancipatioin Proclomation in 1863, "Four score and seven..." I think
that he used this portion of his speach to cause the effect of dramatic
irony, because he later refers to the Emancipation Proclomation, and
its uneffectiveness to bring justice to the American negro -- sort of
like criticizing the mock-attempts to settle previous rise-ups for
racial equality by just stirring the pot and allowing it to resettle
back at the bottom.
The last part that I liked about his speach was
listening to his voice on the audiostream, and hearing the crowd's
responses to his words. His dramatic voice and differing volumes of
voice was perfect in stirring the emotions of the crowd and gaining the
support of everyone else listening in on the radio, television, or
what-have-you on that day in 1963. approx. 418 words.
RESPONSE #1: 1/11/06
The
Paradox and Predicament of Learning to Design by Donald Schom was an
interesting piece of literature. Much of it seemed very redundant and
repetitive, the author saying the same things ten different times by
using ten different methods. It also appeared to be written in a very
philosophical nature, almost like various compilations of philosophers
such as Aristotle or Plato, being critical and analytical. I was able
to relate to many of the described circumstances and situations which
faced the "student" and "studio master", as well as their initial
awkard relationship defined by confusion and frustration on the part of
the student, while simultaneously entertaining a feeling of wonder, awe
and excitement as the ideas and fundamentals of design and
architectural thought begin to unfold in the mind and hands of that
student. Many parts of his piece seemed very familiar, and it helped me
to understand what exactly I have been through this semester. I knew
that whatever I had endured during the fall of 2005 was difficult but
rewarding; tiring but exhilirating; but I never knew exactly how to
catagorize or document my first semester experience in design school
until reading Donald Schom's essay. Schom was correct in his
description of the students gut-wrenching, jumping off the edge of a
cliff sort of feeling that we all experienced sometime during our first
semester of desing. At one point or another, each student encountering
this during different projects, we came to a crossroad where we had
been working long and hard on a project, only to realize (half way
through) that which we should have done in the beginning. At this point
of design revelation, the student is faced with a choice. He can either
continue following in the same path that he has been on since the
beginning, wishing not to see his hard work and toil go to waste -
creating no final product, or he can choose the alternative: knowing
that he has finally understood the design problem, and in this
understanding has figured out the answer to that such problem, he can
stop dead in his tracks, do a 180 degree turn, and pursue what he now
knows to be the answer to his problem, although it will cost him much
more time, blood, sweat and tears. This is the moment where you have
come to the edge of the cliff, and after a short pause, you decide to
jump off and go for it (as Magdalena used to say)! approx. 430 words.
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