Medium is the massage

So when I sat down in the library to read this I didnt get at all what I expected. I have to admit at times I was even confused by what I was reading, but overall I found this book really interesting and definitely worth the read. What I did find interesting was the fact that most of the book is talking about how writing a book is pretty much an inferior way of communicating, like the tv or radio the book is a one-way communication as opposed to a conversation.

After reading this book I did a little research on McLuhan just to see where his insight was coming from... and this guy is everywhere! Its funny tho, after reading this and feeling like the guy hates book it turns out he is a professor of literature, he says "he teaches books from morning to night"

I found this interesting interview with McLuhan from the 70's



The other readings from this week were also interesting, the fact that these 2 articles were written at 2 different times gives them completely different meaning. In the earlier article what is being said seems very relevant because who really cared about design back then, it wasn't until sometime in the 90's people really started focusing on the design of your every day items. Again while trying to figure out when people really started caring about the design of every day items I stumbled upon this book called "The Design of Every Day Things" by Donald A. Norman and I started reading the first few pages that Amazon lets you see for free. Here is a bit of the intro... "Poor design predominates. The result is a wold filled with frustration, with objects that cannot be understood, with devices that lead to error. This book is an attempt to change that." Kinda leads me to believe they still hadn't figured out design by 1988, the date this book was published.

SK4 Remix

So I think I am going with the port-o-potty idea and although it would be real fun to make a mini model of it I dont think I will be able to so instead I am going to have my sister teach me a little sketch up so I can at least make a 3D model of it. This will be a first for me so hopefully I can figure it out!

Another Lindsay inspiration...

I bought a crocpot today all cuz of lindsays damn ribs!

SK4 Remix

With a little help form Lindsay I might have a better idea of what to do for my Remix! Dieter Rams revolutionized design by presenting this object normally hidden in ugly furniture and presenting it in a new contemporary way. From then on the record player was designed with the inspiration of the SK4 record player.

So..... I have 2 options...

1- I sort of "destroy" the sleek feeling of snow whites coffin.
2- turn something else that is normally ugly and not viewed as a designer piece

I haven't come up with a way to fulfill option 1 but how about a SK4 Port-o-potty




So maybe I make a Hybrid of these two things...

Creepy good

I found this horoscope today and its creepy good...

Sagittarius- "Be humble for you are made of dung" says a Serbian proverb. "Be noble for you are made of stars." I expect that you'll soon be getting vivid evidence of that truth, Sagittarius. Your challenge will be to resist the temptation to believe that you're more dung than stars, or more stars than dung. That might be hard, given the fact that practically everyone around you believes that you are one or the other. But I promise you that you have the power to do it. You can exude cheerful equanimity while dwelling right at the crux of the paradox.

Second assignment and im already spacing...ieee

Like my situation wasnt stressing me out enough my dog decided to contribute instead of help. Saturday she figured out how to run away, she had never done it before but i guess she enjoyed it and did it again later that day! Luckily my neighborhood is sooo dog friendly and as soon as someone saw her they promptly swept her up and dragged her home!
Anyways...
The end of last week really threw me off, so much I guess I completely spaces writing this post.

The Bauhaus seems to really balance the idea of form and function, it is a sort of balance between the manufactories and artists of that time. It does not get caught up in making the function of the object so literally it loses the look an artist would apply and vice versa. It is a visit back to craftsmanship, where not everything was made by machines. Like this piece says "Design is neither an intellectual nor a material affair, but simply an integral part of the stuff of life, necessary for everyone in a civilized society." It is a revisit to craftsmanship. Walter Gropius, the founder of the school helped create a huge part of design history. Many big names came out of the Bauhaus such as Charles R. Mackintosh, Eero Saarinen,Eileen Gray, George Nelson,Marcel Breuer and Mies van Der Rohe, all which have produced some of the most iconic pieces of furniture to date. However, I like to think Dieter Ram has got to be at the top of the list.

Dieter Ram was pretty much the man who Braums design style. Starting work there in 1955 and continuing to enhance their design until 1995, he redefined their design standards! The interview with Dieter (I feel like we should be on a first name basis) really made me respect him as a designer and a person. His rule of design was "less but better" and we really see this influence in the SK4 record player, which happens to be my object to remix!

Dieter's innovation of the clear top took the record player from being a bulky piece of furniture to a piece of art. This being my design remix object I feel like I have a challenge. By taking an ordinarily hidden object in the house and displaying it to be seen by everyone he has made this record player visually appealing thing, so my thought was to take it a step further and display it as art... but guess who has done that, Dieter Rams. While in class we watched an interview with him and I noticed he had already deigned another record player that hangs on the wall just like a piece of art. So much for that idea.

Why I hate my internship-

My third day, after following the story board I was given. MY FIRST PROJECT!

"This is way to long if this were a paid project it would NEVER leave the office."

SORRY I FOLLOWED MY DIRECTIONS!

In referance to the flash project I was working on, the FIRST project I was working on. Right after I explained that I spent time out side of work to get the programing to work!-

"Sorry I tought this is what you did...what do you do anywyays?"

me- "I do everything else I just never got into programming!"

"Oh so what you just a BASIC designer? Well dont even worry about the programming. Anything at your level is worthless to us!"

WOW THANKS!

Another fun job for me. Adding the registration mark to letterheads!Keep in mind I DO NOT HAVE WORD on the computer THEY have given me!!

"This is not what I wanted, I wanted two word docs just like I sent you...or do you not have word on your computer?"

me- "no I dont have word"

"Well this is worthless to me I want two word DOCS... two...just like the two I sent you!" (i sent him 2 he could open in word)

me- "I thought since I dont ahve word I could send them to you and you could resave them as word docs?"

"NO, I want a finished product please!!!"

AHHHH. I ALMOST LEFT THE OFFICE RIGHT THEN!

Whats going on?

Just a few things I found that are going on around town.

Portland Open Studios. This happens annually on the second and third weekends in October. You can go in and see over 98 individual artist studios.



Another interesting show that is going on right now is neidhardt & davis : PRETTY UGLY . This is a found object show going on from Oct. 2- Nov 2nd. It looks pretty entertaining!

What inspires me!

So I really started thinking about my project this week, and while I was at work I got some ideas from a typography book. The work of David Carson might become a big influence in what I do this year. I never have gotten into typography but always have wanted to so this might be my chance.

My initial idea: I have 3 influences that this project will hopefully grow from-
1. Being my first time to live in a "big" city I really wanted to use this experience to create a project for this year. It will be what I want to call "digital impressionism". I will record my first impressions from around the city with digital photography and notes I take along the way. The city is broken up into many well known neighborhoods (hawthorn/belmont, old town, pearl, sellwood, alberta arts...etc.) I think I will explore these neighborhoods and record all my first impressions...
2. A previous project that I worked on, Possessions, was the first conceptual project I have done. It also was a project where I really pushed myself outside of my comfort zone. Im not one to approach strangers and ask them questions but I made myself do this in this project Possessions, it resulted in something unpredictable and very interesting. These unique results I got were so uncontrolled and unpredictable I have decided to include outside influences into my project this year. I am thinking of making the digital photographs (maybe i will draw on them edit them add text to them balh blah blah..) into postcards. the postcards have postage on them and pre addressed to maybe a PO box I get. I will leave these post cards around this city in shops and such for people to add their impressions to and send back to me.
3. My last influence is David Carson and his influence will help me design the postcards into something interesting.

Flex time- "time to do what you see fit"

Ok I dreaded todays arrival. Its Thursday, that means I get to go sit in an office for 8 hrs, do about 2 hrs of work, and slowly let the people around me deflate my self esteem to almost nothing! During my 3.5 hrs of "flex" time and 2.5 hrs to work on a project I have already handed off I saw it fit to go home, take a nap, play with my dog.... anything but sit in an office, not get paid, and waste my time. But guess what I got to do, yes, sit in an office and try to act like I had something important to do for 6 hrs! The only positive thing that has come out of today is I got to browse a really cool new site- ffffound.com- I found this really cool project where someone took the movie Clerks and graphicly represented the entire cast and how often they are speaking. How cool would it be to do this to all your favorite movies!



"Each colored block represents one second in the movie with individual blocks grouped into rows of 60 seconds. These rows form a single column the length of the movie. The color of each block indicates the character speaking at that specific moment in time. Seconds with no active speaker are indicated by a split grey block and character lines containing profanity are indicated by white dots in the corresponding blocks."

I just saw it fit to spend my flex time sharing this really cool project with you all!





Ha and look my desk flare has become fashion!!

What's going on?

So I have been trying to keep somewhat of an idea about what is going on in Portland every week. Im new to the area and know there are so many opportunities to get out and see music, art, performances, and a lot more. Here are some of the sites I have been using to stay in the PDX loop- Oregon Live, and Travel Portland.

School kicks works ass!

I think there will be a lot of talk about my internship here. This is a brand new experience for me and take up half of my week, so I feel its only right I share what I am learning, feeling, and any good stories. My internship is at Quango and while I don't get paid for my time I am hoping I will take a lot away from there that I can use in the future!

These first two weeks definitely have been a challenge, not only am I struggling with the fact that I have to sit in an office for 8 hours of my day but it really is making me second guess what I want to do with my life. This could be a good thing... at least I am figuring out now. Who knows tho, maybe once I get into the swing of things I will enjoy it more.

Art and Technology. Readings

This weeks s reading's, Seeing is Forgetting and E.A.T Nine evenings, talked about some explorations on art and technology. In E.A.T Nine Evenings they talk about an experiment where they combined artists and engineers to create a performance, and in Seeing is Forgetting the curator of a museum paired famous artists with technology companies to create a sort of experiment as well. The results of both experiments resulted in everything from dance to sculpture. Art today seems to have naturally grown with technology and is using some sort of science behind it. After reading these I searched on line for art & technology and an endless list of examples became available to me, so I tried to narrow it down by searching for collaborations between artists and engineers. The name that I seemed to stumble upon the most was Robert Rauschenberg. He was such an influence in the art-engineering world. I also found an article written to the New Your time editor from Billy Kluver, one of the collaborators in E.A.T Nine evenings. this quote by him really illuminated the idea behind the experiment

"I have always thought that engineers and artists shared a hands-on sensibility about working with material, but I have never seen engineers as mere ''facilitators'' of artists' ideas. I have always called for one-to-one collaborations between artists and engineers or scientists, each acting in his or her professional capacity. Such equal collaborations will open up possibilities for the artwork that neither could have predicted before they started working together."


Stepping back to Seeing is Forgetting, I really enjoyed this idea that "All art is experience, yet all experiences are not art." This really made me think about the experience behind different pieces of art I have seen, and even though I do not have that piece of art with me I do have the experience that came from the art, and that that really is what you take away from all art.