portfolio.

UGH!

explore online methods to make yourself some spare money. hmm. maybe i should find the time to do that.

electracy.

chugging along.

studio.

murdering me.

shakespeare.

what class?

color graphics.

hmm?

one month.

it has successfully been one month since i blogged last.

on october 1, we had to put our dogs down. it sucked. and it still sucks. i know they're in a better place. it just sucks.

i'm trying to get back on track with everything. the next two weeks are really going to murder me. i'm not looking forward to it.

i'm at the point where i'm freaking out about the work and simultaneously not doing a damned thing. the freaking out needs to turn into stressed production mode. hopefully tomorrow will do that for me. it needs to happen basically NOW so i can get going on this thing. it is getting a little ridiculous. haha.

i need to get my portfolio in gear. and my reading in gear. and my drawing in gear. and my studio project in gear. oh, and my mystory. all of it is a total mess. i hope it pulls itself together soon, because otherwise i am just going to melt and this semester is going to be a total bust.

sigh.

9.30.10.1

thinking about mystory pt1:

develop a webpage showing an invention in my chosen career field.

idea: present through drawing- architecture is about moving ideas from the mind to the paper, then moving drawings into three dimensional objects.

invention: ?? the actual term, architecture?

excerpt from wikipedia:

The earliest surviving written work on the subject of architecture is De architectura, by the Roman architect Vitruvius in the early 1st century CE.^[2] According to Vitruvius, a good building should satisfy the three principles of firmitatis utilitatis venustatis,^[3][4] which translates roughly as -

• Durability - it should stand up robustly and remain in good condition.
• Utility - it should be useful and function well for the people using it.
• Beauty - it should delight people and raise their spirits.

idea: to show how a building stands up- structure- using the definition of architecture. dwellings/shelter have existed since the beginning of man. what makes a building architecture? show the transformation of a building into architecture.

9.23.10.1

yesterday_shakespeare was ok. professor moved everyone into a circle instead to facilitate discussion. class is still pretty stagnant. we have a paper due monday. i haven't chosen a topic yet.

color class was cancelled. i have some good stuff for whenever the next class is.

studio_we went to greenville to look at the peace center. i'll put up pictures from our tour with a better description later.

today_ portfolio class was a set of presentations about various graduate school programs. interesting. i'm working on developing my list of schools to apply to. i'm hoping to apply to ten of them.

electracy (now) learn to do something by giving it meaning. that's what we're doing. watch the electracy blog. go to electracy.wikia.com to see the me_morials my class produced about 9/11. i'm not thoroughly pleased with how mine is working just yet..... i never thought to use video instead of pictures.... i think i'm going to try that.

9.21.10.1

was more organized when i was using this more.

i bought a planner and started using that, but i think the combination of the blog and the planner work better with my need to become more organized than anything.

our professor emailed us this morning to remind us of a project she never assigned in class; everyone is angry. the only people who have it done are the ones that were able to churn it out this morning; i was busy working on electracy homework. the readings for that class are kind of killing me. they're interesting-ish and i understand them, but i think the ideas could be represented better. i guess that's what the mystory project will do?

i have too much to do this week.

studio is getting interesting. we are working on a blind? corpse drawing where everyone in the class draws a detailed section of a piece of a theater and then we place them together in random frankentheater ways. i am loving my professor's way of teaching. he's letting us use tools and methods we're used to to come to conclusions in new ways while still teaching us so much about construction.

at the same time, he organized a field trip to the peace center in greenville for wednesday. (a theater). we are getting the tour from the architect of the theater which is super exciting. a few calssmates and i are going early to eat a picnic and sketch in the park. should be a good use of the weird time we usually have before studio.

shakespeare_ i am behind. we talked about sonnets the other day in class which was cool. (we're supposed to be reading 12th night) i read all the sonnets in british lit last fall so it was fun to revisit them. we have a paper due monday and a midterm in 2 weeks. i know i want the paper on a midsummer nights dream but i havent chosen a topic, which i need to do before friday.

that's all for now

9.16.10.1

i am so busy.

9.14.2010.1

a. electracy is starting to pick up in complexity now that we have started the ulmer book.

b. portfolio took longer than expected.

c. tomorrow (today) is going to be a long, long, long, long day.

goodnight.

9.13.2010.1

shakespeare. professor tried to do a "shock" type lecture today to get people more involved with the lecture. he dropped an f bomb and everyone was just kind of awkward. merchant of venice is now over, moving to twelfth night for wednesday.

bought a planner (finally) today. chapter meeting last night made me realize how much was going on this semester and that i actually do need to make a plan.

started on my audit project for portfolio. should have started weeks ago (like the prof said) but my files were/somestillare in limbo due to the death of wallace, my old computer.

studio:

this week we're developing giant wall sections that are severely detailed. gotta partner up. group projects kill me in school. when we live together in a house or in a real office it is different (like when we were all basically roommates in genoa, we could always find each other, especially since we all had the same classes). in school it is much more difficult because everyone has different schedules and classes...

yay theatre!

9.9.10.4

lighting design research

found a book, theatre buildings a design guide, (edited) by judith strong (british book so it might have different standards/practices than the united states?). currently researching lighting design/accessibility within the auditorium/house. other groups are taking the stage lighting access, other types of research.

we are more interested in creating a space for teaching/learning technical theater/set/tech design (at least this is what the competition brief tells me) so the question right now (during the research phase) is:

what are the necessities for this environment?

current research points:

"the most restrictive spaces are ones where the lights are supposed to be out of sight. hiding lanterns, especially in the auditorium, often prevents them actually seeing the stage in the way a lighting designer requires. it is much better to give the designer a large choice of positions, some of which will not be used all the time, and could be removable, than to limit the angles available" -paule constable, lighting designer (strong 123)

question posed: does hiding the lighting system within the house limit the audience's experience? which is better for designer? is this aesthetic sacrifice necessary? does our current place embrace both the theater, the set design, and the architectural design? must we hide the lighting? should we hide the lighting? should we showcase the lighting?

lighting within the auditorium proper:

• box booms
• slots
• advance bar
• high front light
• lighting bridges
• slips (high sides)
• circle fronts
• bars in circle ceiling
• additional auditorium positions and temporary cable routes
• followspot positions

my current position: there is only so much the architect can do. lighting design is DESIGN, so there must be concessions made from time to time. we try to accommodate as many situations as possible, but a creative design is, in fact, creative, and will have to come up with some creative solutions from time to time. simultaneously, we must anticipate several lighting angles and be aware of the amount of work it takes to position these lights and provide appropriate accessibility.

last, but not least: control room position. back of the auditorium/mid auditorium (dependent on show)/other location?

must have:

• clear line of sight
• acoustic protection as much as possible
• acceptable lighting for during the performance plus out of performance task lighting
• appropriate seating/during-show access/egress
• safety egress

9.9.10.3

feedback on bbq project (studio charrette) overall went well. i got the grade range i expected after the review, would have appreciated an a, but an 8.8/10 is acceptable.

the bbq project was overall a bit of a ball of stress for me. combination of computer dying, rush stress, and getting back into the swing of things could have gone a lot better. organizational issues were pretty awful.

i didn't complete a good model so it was a little frustrating.

hand drawings of the project turned out good, section could have better views? (says prof.-- mentioned in review, and i agreed. that's the problem with hand drawing. limited time.)

all image files are currently in psd format so i'll have to convert to upload.

overall, i got the feedback i needed. we've learned throughout studio to integrate with the site and create contextual buildings.... the lesson learned through this project is when your SITE is lacking in character or overall integrity, it needs new architecture to define it.

9.9.10.2

9/11 blog actually turned out okay. i still want to redo it. we'll see for this weekend. maybe i'll do charcoal and then do some mild saturated coloring in photoshop.

i'll link a separate one to this post when i redo it.

9.9.10.1

9/11 assignment didn't pan out the way i wanted it to. 9/11.1 will be initiated this weekend. the images didn't work well with the blog layout, among other things. maybe i should work on the layout, too.... the images were made to look like cartoon pages, and they kind of started working, but they're just not getting the aesthetic that i'd like. we'll see.

portfolio class. my professor said "you are graduating in may... you can call yourself designers." and i felt simultaneously old and good about it. it feels good to have something accomplished in my life (well... by may.) i'm feeling weird about my portfolio. i have good quality work, i just don't know if it is "there" intellectually or something. i have to find some confidence somewhere so i can put together something good.

i'm in my electracy class waiting on it to start.... the professor is late. not normal. i hope we have this class today. i like it a lot and i was rushing to get my new post done this morning.

for studio tomorrow, i'm researching lighting practices for theaters. i'm running behind. where does my time go? i need to get into a schedule so i can incorporate writing into my life. this is a new development and i'm just not used to making time for it.

oh, theres the professor.

9.8.10.1

today.

was exhausted last night so i went to bed early, woke up early and did some color sketches for graphics class. i'm scanning some soon, don't want to have to scan for hours when it comes time for the portfolio.

got to school early to get a good parking spot-- was driving to the firm crawl later so i wanted to be close to lee.

shakespeare class. we discussed the merchant of venice. i'm not into this play as much as i was midsummer night's dream. my professor keeps bringing in religious dialog, which is fine because the play is about the jewish/protestant/catholic relationship (shylock is jewish, takes place in venice aka catholic, but to be seen and was written by (a) protestant during the english reformation.) however, he is obviously a very religious person and seems to be bringing in a little more of his faith than i'd enjoy in a lecture. i mean, everyone gets a little taken away with a discussion now and then, but this has been four classes now.

i guess what i'm trying to say (which means i should go back and edit, but hey, whatever) is that the discussion is where it needs to be, i just would rather have a seemingly neutral professor in the position.

anyway

afterwards i grabbed lunch, printed out some fliers for my firm crawl group, and headed to greenville.

the firm crawl was a success-- i'm going to actively try not to ever mention names of any sort on here-- my group had 2 freshmen and 9 fourth years, no second- third- or grad students, which would have been nice, but oh well.

we visited five firms-- the first of which was a bit painful, they had really seen the burden of the economic crisis.... it truly showed in their office and their demeanor-- not my cup of architectural tea. the following three were really active and collaborative-- they have seen economic pain as well, just not as pronounced as the first. their work was good-- i totally feel like i could do well in a firm. i was afraid before. the last firm was alright, it seemed like a lot of people had left for the day or something.... it was quiet but the setup was really collaborative and spacious, which was nice.

working now on a project for electracy, mapping my experience (when it happened) through 9/11. it is getting kind of intense, i just watched some videos on youtube of the day and then read some accounts on cnn.com of victims and survivors. i never realized how thoroughly young i was when it happened. i had no idea. i was close to tears tonight watching those videos, but then i was just too young to understand, i think.

for the project, we have to use images that we have procured-- i am going to put up a picture of myself when i was 14 (closest to 12 that i could get in south carolina) and then some pictures of my hometown, etc., and then i'm going to do a few quick graphite sketches and see how they turn out.

i'm excited about it. hopefully i'll enjoy how it comes out.

9.7.10.1

portfolio class today.

late because the lee hall library printers were so slow. photography discussion.

electracy.

love this class. view new post here that i did for class. last week on the blogging book, moving to ulmer next week. he's going to have a skype lecture with us, which is exciting. more later.

9.6.10.3

aias meeting.

9/25 write article on genova for charrette.

studio culture: event next week-- culture in the courtyard

membership/graduate studio involvement

membership rights document

inclusion of general members

group leader for firm crawl.

carpooling for tomorrow.

south quad: figure out money.

freedom by design.

social events:

movie night 9/30 in lee 100 @8

football tailgating/block

christmas party

wednesdays downtown!

9.6.10.2

studio today:

separated into groups to research theater design and typology for the usitt ideal theater competition, which will be the project for the remainder of the semester. my group is working on the house/auditorium. we will be investigating the relationship between the section and plan of a theater house, lighting design, sight lines, acoustics, set design and audience circulation and accommodation, through a few different case studies. other groups in class are looking at the lobby/site design, theater history, theater typology, backstage requirements, space accommodation, past and current theater technology, and one group is looking at our campus's theater (the brooks center). they are looking into how it accommodates clemson's theater program and highlighting the good design practices and also flaws (such as the auditorium having a tin roof= awful program quality when it rains)

we then talked about our studio's branding for the presentation. current plan is to create an infographic of a theater, showing which piece of the theater we are talking about, and a large timeline highlighting different pieces of the theater in history.

presentation friday!

9.6.10.1- welcome

welcome.

goals:

post about thoughts in class

post about process through projects

post about homework

post about academic organizations

get organized. post often. sort out life.

i am going to be linking my electracy blog to this blog, so there will be cross posting from ginkgogogo.blogspot.com to continue the discussion.

EDIT: just kidding. apparently that is pseudo-illegal-ish. i will post an update with a link to my electracy blog.