Alternative Media Fun

I really enjoyed this project! It was very excited trying to create a martini glass with nontraditional media and challenging! I did try a few objects and media that didn't work for me but I came up with many ideas that were very interesting and turned out great. I am extremely happy with my final pictures as well. In a sense I would have enjoyed making a book of them, like I have seen in previous years, but that would have taken more time. I can still always work on that over winter break though! It was also a great exercise to get us geared up for the next poster project. It was interesting having "commission" my mom to help and having all my neighbors help out too. The photoshop pictures were a bit difficult for me, because I have very little experience with the program. Though I did become familiar with some tools I had no idea existed. All in all, I thought it was a great project.

Have a look!
http://picasaweb.google.com/racheldumskydesign/AlternateRepresentations?feat=directlink

So, this post is for permission to start on our next project. I really wanted to try and use a martini glass in the first logo project, but it never came out real well so I thought it would fit for the second project.For my second choice I have an ice cream cone. But I am really attached to the martini glass.

Graphic Stories

Here are my graphic stories. I found them very frusterating when starting out, trying to fit a whole story into one picture was not my idea of an easy exercise. But, in the end, I think I grasped the concept. Simple images, positive and negative figures, and combinations read the fastest and simplest. Here are my first tries. The one on the right is my very first, obviously.

And for my final product...

So if you haven't figured my stories out by now I guess I just didn't do well enough on the project. So from right to left here are the "answers": I got a blue ribbon on a science project and I was really excited about it; my best friend got married; and last, I bought a lot of shoes for a low price and I was very happy about it.

Gestalt

I've been familar with Gestalt pshcology sicne I was little, most of us have. I have always had an interest in images playing with our minds. The Gestalt theory explains that our brian has the ability to put lines and curves into forms with the help of our senses. There are four key principles in this theory. The first is emergence. This is when a bunch of lines, dots, blobs, etc. create an image that takes a minute to come together. You first see the image as a whole and then the individual parts reviel themselves. Second would be reification. This plays with contour lines that aren't really there or invisable. Usually they are created by other objects. Third we have multistability. Multistability includes an object that can be viewed as different images and has the ability to jump from image to image.

For example to make an image stable we would color the bottom left square red to indicate that it is the front. Then you could no longer jump from image to image. Last is invariance where a single shape can be rotated, morphed, scaled, or translated but still be recognized as the same shape.

Frustration With a New 2-D World

Yesterday Babcock gave us our assiagnment, and at first I didn't think anything of it. I sort of viewed it as another exercise. but as he continued talking throughout class I realized I was getting way ahead of myself. Being an Interior Design major I like to keep my eye on the end product. I like to make sure everything flows together, and in designing 3-D spaces that comes very easy to me. As soon as Babcock said just draw one word at a time and then maybe later things will work together I started struggling. I never realized how different it is to design something on a flat surface that has no depth or percpectiveto it. That night my roommates and I brianstormed words that fit with my subject. We got around 20 words per subject and I finsihed drawing for half of them. It still presents itself as a challenge for me, but maybe if I just take a deep breath and really hold myself from leaping towards what the end will look like then I might come up with something I really enjoy.

Semiotics Lecture

Semiotics, in the way I understand it, is basically understanding a symbol or a sign and what it is trying to communicate to the viewer. In Friday's lecture alot of terms and new vocabulary was thrown around but throughout the semester as they are used more, I believe I'll be able to really get a grip on it all. Concerning the readings, the examples helped alot. I understand that an icon is very realistic and as we simplize that photographic image we move closer to a sign. Seeing the definitions first don't really clear much up for me, but once I see more examples and try to come up with a few myself then hopefully I'll understand semiotics as a whole.

This is an icon of a winding road.

This is a sign of a winding road.

We read both pictures as a winding road but the purpose of the second picture is to read it quickly and clearly. If the first picture was used as the original road sign to communicate that the next few miles or so are curvy, its not efficient enough for the driver, and most likly would cause a wreck anyway. To use more new language learned during class, this picure denotes a curvy arrow, but it conotes a winding road.

My Courses

I am a junior in progress of earning a B.F.A. in interior design.

I have taken all of my general art courses except for sculpture. I plan to take sculpture next semester. I also have a few courses for interior design left and some general education. I would like to do an internship next summer. So here's an example of what my last two years at UCM will look like...

Spring 2010
Sculpture I
Corporate and Institutional Design
20th Century Art and Architecture
General Education (6 Hours)

Fall 2010
Studio Seminar
Artists in Contemporary Society
Major Elective
General Education (3 hours)

Spring 2011
Professional Practice
General Education (9 hours)

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