We tested one step, everyone. It's a ground breaker. Using the Extraordinaires character cards, after presenting a unit on ekphrasis, I picked out the tribal child card to test the experimented skills I had attempted to convey through the presentation. The stories, while all vastly interesting, had very similar trending themes. They all established that a strong and determined young child wanted to learn how to hunt. That her tribe wanted peace and lived in a tropical landscape. In a few of the stories, there is mention of fear or hatred of modern technology. But every single one had mention of family, nevertheless of it being positive or not. I was shocked to find some similarities in the story that I wrote as well, hoping my own work would be different than the others in the majority of it; but found the opposite. Great minds think alike, as they say, and surely only great minds seek out design like the members of this club.
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Who are we and what are we doing here. Well, honestly I don't know.Something happened and we are now ever turning in this void of what and why. For one reason or another, whether out of emotion buried under judgement or standards, we pulled this.. course of oddity together and prospered in ways that weren't originally planned. This success has embedded experience within us when we hadn't the clue of having lacked that experience to begin with. I sincerely believe this class has made its own model for itself, and I'm sure each year it runs will reshape the model; possibly going off the sculpture of the previous year or making something entirely new. It's up to the students, after all, to make the class. There is no design lab with only one designer. But to continue on.. Well, I'd have liked to experiment more. Without experimental units, the study remains incomplete. However, the passion of the fire remains within me as I venture these woods. I grade myself an 82/100, as I did my research for modern applications of a subject that I've done research on for the last six years of my life. This post remains without photos, to commemorate the end of a wonderful course.It's me again, blog. I know I don't pay enough attention to you, I'm sorry. But being prompted for an update, so here is some fodder for your feed. Hah, jokes. Before we get into the nitty-gritty, the base of all this is creativity through collaboration. Undeerstand that, Mr. Anchor ( yes I can see your judgement through those cartoon glasses ). Ekphrasis is the first runner.Ekphrasis is roughly defined as a verbal description of a work of art. The use of this for turn based purposes is to begin setting up a foundation for the style in terms of creating a discription; even if it is just visually based. To Beautify theVocabulary is Key.This is simply taking an arrangement of sentences which have very little complexities and allow the students to freely express something through the sentence. This also pushes them to work together to make the sentence interesting. Style EtiquetteTo put this in matter-of-fact terms, the turn-based style has a large amount of rules. However, due to the fact of first time learning, they've been boiled down to a few simple things. The topics covered are Character Control, Non-"Playable" Characters, and Hybrid Characters. Of course, there are plenty more regulations but those three should suffice. Biographies Come into Play.Out of all the things I hate reading, I have to say biographies are up there on my list. Not only do they flesh out a life but they jumble together the different details that stories happen to do. These 'biographies' don't have a real story, they're the beginnings of one. They describe what your character is like, and the only story in it happen to be the background a character may have before entering a new story. A lot of the time, the background isn't made right away; from personal experience some of my backgrounds were made during the process. Blanks were filled in on the spot of making the story, and that's not bad either. The make up of this turn-based style can go extremely indepth in terms of areas to fill in, so for sanity's sake the list has been shortened (and bear with me it's not as much as it seems).
Examples for the Lost AdventurerThe multitude of examples only helps with two areas, as they are the only ones that truly need examples. The first one, and probably the longest, is for the part of beautifying the vocabulary. It takes something I did a few months ago, which was altering a friend's entrance so that it sounded beautiful. The other example were of my own from using this process; as well as one from another friend of mine who knows the style as well. Even though this all sounds like a little too much; not to mention unneccessary and complicated, I'm only a writer trying to assist those who wish they could be creative ( even though they already are without realizing it). This is my contribution, to anyone willing to endure it.When indulging into my wildest dreams, I soon found myself faced with the fact I so hate to recognize. Anything done in a school requires a structured process and explaination. School = Structure. I can't run from this fact.However I've come to understand that within every structure, whether systematically or physical, has many nooks and crannies that I intend to seek out and explore. However I have come to find that some of these crannies were only the desperate claws of the prisoners within these confinds, and finding a true sliver of freedom is a much more daunting task. I've found one true crevice in this school system, And it is quite a large one. Even so, Clubs may not be able to meet the tasks I wish to perform with my project. I will not be dampened by this realization, however. I will push through even if I happened to be shoved out of the hide-y hole. Structure within creativity or creativity within structure. That's the question here.
Moving forward with this is going to be difficult.In fact when this was pitched, upon learning the actual name of this style, many approving faces quickly turned into a scowl and overall unsettlement. So going forth, I'll have to hide the little details while still exposing the whole picture. As if bringing someone to see the Mona Lisa when they have no idea of it; but the name brings dread to their minds.
Even so, I have reasources. These fellow firestarters around me.Through their contributions and my persitance for this project, we will succeeed.
I've come to understand that people weren't as creatively gifted as I was, and I was disheartened by it because creativity is such a freeing feeling. The idea that I could create anything and have little to no judgements upon it because I am my worse critic. It.. saddened me that people ignored their creative side because YES IT REQUIRES EFFORT, and YES IT REQUIRES TIME. But it is WORTH IT, and they've given up on a set of wings for a clock. To be creative is to be lost in your mind and sure it can be scary and yes it may be dark but in that darkness, if you look for it, is a vibrant and warm camfire that'll welcome you with open arms to dance and sing and c r e a t e . Some people build houses in the dark woods of thier minds, they don't know the exileration of fire or they don't dare go find it again. They Adapted To The DarknessThriving withing the touch of a brush to canvas or pencil to paper in forms of creating an image of words or color, a monochromatic word surrounds them when it doesn't have to. I want to show those that refuse to make pictures that they can weave their words into something just as beautiful and touching. That is what I wish to show people, that is what I believe I can do.
Craft Clarity I'm not sure how to express the approach to this one, there was definite creative processes at work when it came to solving odd and difficult problems. However, I'm not sure the inspirational clarity was a major factor in what we were doing? Not sure where to go on this one.
Be Mindful Of Process I don't think this was a huge concern, the attempt made to follow the process linearly seemed to derail what we were actually trying to achieve. Only when we did things in the order we found to be th most efficient did we come together nicely. It's like trying to build a puzzle from left to right instead of just chunking it together and filling the gaps later. Bias Towards Action Well, I have to say this process is oriented around a lot of thinking, but the action comes into play well it comes time to build prototypes. Gathering research is top priority and seems to span the entirety of the project.
The overlapping subjects that went around through all prototypes were very prominent. For one, foam cubes were obviously a huge thing for everyone as well as our instructor. Secondly, but less frequent, was storage. We've come to terms that our organization of storage in this room isn't the best or the most taken into consideration when we go about our business in class. A lot of the times, things will be taken out of storage but become confusing and jumbled when going to put them away. And lastly, the most emphasized necessity that was in literally every prototype was vertical writing spaces, not just to assist in group work or lectures but the idea that vertical writing space would allow people to display their thoughts and ideas openly. Once it's realized that these open displays are for all, it's expected that the following phenomenon should be communal discussions and open forums on the walls. I'm not saying that vertical writing spaces are... persay, the solution to specific things. But, they are something we should be looking into in terms of communication, as well as coming together as a community. Outliers, oh the plentiful that they come. In terms of a teacher, a mobile podium was very clever in relation to the needs to check in on multiple individuals and ideas in a small amount of time. Circular tables was another fantastic idea, however large ones might become problematic and so only one or two might be actually used for group work or accent space. Another quick outlier is the mood lighting that many wish to include, setting a mood in a room definitely alters how one who is within the moody room will feel about being there as well as what they'd like to accomplish while within the room. Lastly there's a tie between a window seat to a limited window space in the room we're providing for, and a cave space for those who're introverted or those who wish to have some secluded work time.
9/16 EXPERIENCE: •More Relaxed •Comprehensive Directions •Freedom with Work •Researching •Understanding Space •☆•☆• ANALYSIS: Well, things were definitely slowed down compared to that first wave of culture shock. I'm looking forward to the class more and more everyday. It's like the only class that combines fun, learning, and productivity into one on my schedule. I would be lying if I said the class isn't refreshing. Almost everyday I finish the class and am ready to face another wave of classes like the ones earlier in the day, it's hard to remember that it's a class when it's more like a breath of fresh air. Aside from that, I find the overall excitement of the class, enthusiasm of the students, and engaged teacher to be magnificent. Never before have I been so ready to learn, motivated to learn, in my career as a student. I'll be frank here, what that class is inspiring in the students it's teaching is beyond what I have grown accustomed to seeing in everyday classrooms. Not only do we like the class, we come to class in anticipation of the matter we'll be learning AND doing. •☆•☆•
IMAGINING: I foresee even more excitement to come; only, I hope it doesn't plateau in the near future. I'm just curious on how exactly we're going to be progressing the redesign. As far as I can tell, a lot of this is up in the clouds, like our imaginations are. And that's not bad for this beginning stage of design, I await more concrete plans. 9/9 EXPERIENCE: •Collaborating •Quick Pace •Leading Skill VS Listening Skill •Risk •Presenting •Social Change •☆•☆• ANALYSIS: Overall the experience was very enriching in terms of the design process. I realize these things won’t go as quickly as they have this week (because there was apparently a rush to finish before parent-teacher night). With my impatience, I hope that things will be just as engaging. Collaborating is difficult for me, as I’ve come to accept that I like to lead; however my introverted-ness is going to be a problem as I’ll tend to silence myself before more boisterous leaders. ▪♢▪♢▪ I also found something very interesting, no matter which group you looked at, there was always a social issue as the main focus. Is it just me or did these characters possibly shed some light upon how we feel, in some abstract way, about the reality around us? IMAGINING:
The deep thoughts on morals and humanity will always be on my mind, as well as a better understanding of the phrase, “You’re not the only one that thinks about things like that.” I’m more curious about the stage of adolescence then ever before, the more I learn about the interesting pieces of life previously out of sight, the more I actually want to learn about it. It’s like having had the same box of toys for years and then finding an older sibling’s toy that’s so much more interesting and has millions of stories ready to be adventured. |