And then I realize I decided to actually make money with my interests.

Don't worry - you're not alone - I had to google "dilettante" as well. It's a good word, right? ...Your grandma could definitely cross-stich that on a hand towel and sell it...

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Time: 9:17pm
Hours of Sleep: 12
Coffee: 1 Grande w/ milk
Destination for today: Library
Website: www.reiser-umemoto.com
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This past week has been an amusing and frustrating week... It's a strange combination, I know.
On the outside, it seems like our studio could have a lot more work to do... but, on the inside, it's difficult to know which way is up

and when to put down one class to start working on another. Each project seems to be endless and one can get lost in it's idiosyncrasy.
We all have different patterns to our work schedule and different interests to divulge when we find the time. For instance, some of the guys play soccer together... Catherine goes to yoga... Zehra reads the news... Katie watches theatre performances...

Whatever it is that we do, we must get the heck out of the studio... even if we do have a pin up approaching quickly.

We did have a pin up on Friday... Well, not so much a final review of our project, but what Paul (studio instructor) called a Review Up... which is somewhere in the middle.

From what I understand, this current semester with Paul we are working on the idea of control... The control of scale, texture, repetition, etc. while using digital mediums to generate a new set of drawings that allow us to move forward and create something new. ...does this make sense? I don't know how else to describe it because I don't fully understand it either...
It seems easy when you're talking about it and typing it out in a blog; but actually doing it is another thing completely.
The cliche: Easier said than done...

For me, one of the reasons why I am struggling with the idea is because it is lacking intent. During my undergraduate degree, when we designed something we started with research, typically not from the Interior Design field. From that research we found something with value and built upon it layer by layer until we had a final product; usually a well-informed interior.

For my review up, my inital Maya model was arbitrary. I created it and used it to further my project because I liked it... not because it was informed by anything other than my hand on the mouse, the complacent mood I was in, and the music I was listening to. We took sections of the model and began to see what types of spaces were created... From this we were to generate a final drawing that took the sectioned Maya model into a new realm where we can begin to see the potentional for something else.
I am having trouble because I don't know where to begin to harvest the information... for me, the drawings don't mean anything other than a way to catalogue the movements inside of my Maya model.
How do I decide where I want to go beyond the sections? It seems like it could be personal choice and one could go in whatever direction one wanted... but where is the intent behind it? Is it meant to only be informed by personal preference?
My drawing was just that, a composition of personal preference. I gave myself very little rules to work with, which could be where I went wrong... but, then again, how do you decide what your rules are?
Which leaves me with no talking points, just a quick explanation of what you're looking at. My panel of UIC instructors wanted me to speak more about my project but I couldn't because I didn't have anything to say... What I wanted to say "It's an arbitrary mapping of personal preference and has no other meaning than that..." But what I really said "...".

I feel like I'm swimming against the current... grasping in the dark... chasing my tail.
...The real question: How does one find meaning?

*****Please do not misconstrue this explanation of my class as an open attack on the curriculum or on my instructor as I am very excited to learning everything I am; I am just merely attempting to explain my current status in class.

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On a different note: Sanford Kwinter came to lecture the same day as our review up.
He seems like an odd man... He's an extremely intelligent man. He gave a lecture appropriately titled "What is Life?"... I enjoyed his lecture on Chreods and how their existence changes everything. How it changes our understanding of form and how it is generated...
But I particularly enjoyed his critique of the current status of the architectural world. I wish he wouldn't have stopped himself because he was fearful of pissing people off. I wanted the unadulterated version! I want to know what others think about my generation... the good, the bad and the ugly!
From my above remarks, one can understand when I say that I agreed with him when he was talking about how it is necessary in our tiny A&D world to allow for the cross-pollination and researching of other fields to better the final architectural outcome.

...Does that put Sanford Kwinter on Rem Koolhaas's side... or Rem on Sanford's side? hrrrm... I guess it doesn't matter.
What I also found to be fantastic... Bruce Mau was in the row in front of me... I really like his hair.
www.brucemaudesigns.com
http://www.brucemaudesign.com/work_massive_change.html


One section of my Maya model



My Final Product
Real Print Size: 24" x 66"
The sections of the Maya model ran horizontally across the top of the print. And then the sections were multiplied, rotated and scaled to creat my arbitrary mapping of personal preference...