Week 01 - Origination

Class Format

The first hour of this lesson covered the logistics and format that each subsequent lesson would follow. Essentially this involves the first hour and a half with a quiz and class discussion, based loosely on the the required reading "The Laws of Simplicity" by John Maeda. A break is then followed by 'Idea generation / exhibition concept / group activities & critical discourse'. The expectation is then that we compile and collate further research and personal reflections with what we have garnered in class into the entries of this blog.

Group Exercises 

General Definitions

For this exercise we split into groups of two (the class has about ten people) to define the following;

• GROUP 1 : DEFINE "Concept"
  - Most modern theory agrees that concepts or ideas are abstractions of reality. Wikipedia.
• GROUP 2 : DEFINE "Origination"
  - Is where a concept makes its first movement toward actualisation, "... something that serves as a preceding event or introduces what follows..." - The Free Dictionary.
• GROUP 3 : DEFINE "Critical Discourse"
  - A critic is by definition external while discourse means to speak. Discussing ideas with others can inform and evolve your own ideas.
• GROUP 3 : DEFINE "Critical Thinking"
  - Refers to the concept of thought outside of your normal paradigm of thought. Many processes may inform this concept including randomisation, inversion and stream of consciousness (these are some of my favourite techniques and are by no means representative of what is an ambiguous and subjective topic). 
• GROUP 5 : DEFINE "Creative Thinking"
  - Combines all of the above is the short answer. The word 'creativity' means to make a new thing and so the literal definition of the term would be; to make a new thought. Although a more accurate definition would be; a new thought to make. Essentially creative thinking uses critical discourse and thinking to inform the physical creation of a concept paired with origination.

Exhibition Definition

Individual research followed by group discussion.

• What is an Exhibition?
  - A public or private showing of artwork.
• What venues would be suitable?
  - A public or private gallery or any other surface you may consider appropriate.
• What media could I use?
  - What media do you have? You can seriously use any media. There is only one don't - try not to use them all. In fact, be specific and be good with it - punters dig that.
• Who are the stake-holders?
  - Artists, curators, gallery owners, institutions (governmental, authoritative, educational and private), the general public, sponsors, friends, family and concerned pets.
• What resources are needed?
  - Primarily a lot time. Secondarily some money and thirdly a bunch of more time.
• How do I promote it?
  - Mailing lists, posters, viral marketing, random stickers, weird lights in the sky and special pants.
• Where can I get more info on exhibitions?
  - A gallery owner, curator, art collector, fellow artist or the interwebs.

Sources of Information

Group discussion and lecturer direction.

• What are the top 5 search engines?
  - Google, Bing, Yahoo, Ask and Aol.
• What is the benefit of using different search engines?
  - Different search algorithms yield different results.
• What alternatives are there to search engine use?
  - Blogs, forums/discussion boards, industry specific websites, libraries, conversation with like minded individuals.
• What are some of the ways to word your web searches?
  - The use of inverted commas with a phrase or term narrows search parameters. You could also use some of these.
• Reference methods: see Visual Diary Specs / Showreel Specs.
  - I must have been distracted by my blog formatting when we covered this in class. Regardless, according to the Unit Information, "All quoted text must be in inverted commas, followed by the reference link".

Research

Video

John Maeda (required reading) about his influences, motivation and goals at Fora.tv. John seems like a nice guy and I can really identify with his philosophy. I have long been a proponent of the KISS principle - Keep it Simple, Stupid. This may be (ironically) an over simplification of Maeda's work, but it serves as an effective mantra when approaching a new project.

Images

These images of and by John Maeda were sourced here, from his book "The Laws of Simplicity" and here.

Reflection

I am looking forward to this semester for a reason that I had not expected - working with other people. This is of course an integral aspect of any design practice. Today I found Peter Houtmeyers mention of a SWOT analysis in relation to critical discourse/thinking insightful and useful. Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. The reading this week was the introduction and first chapter of "The Laws of Simplicity". The chapter covered the first law of reduction through the process of 'SHE' - Shrink, Hide and Embody. I found Maeda easy to read which I suspect is his intention, a complex tome on the topic of simplicity would be simply contradictory. I thought it was a bit of a stretch when he illustrated his point by finding the letters of a word in another word, for example the word 'pity' in 'simplicity' - I hope he does not do that too much. I was also not entirely satisfied by his brief introduction to the complex within the simple in relation to integrated circuitry, but I expect he will further elucidate his view on this later in the book.