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post-review let down

ArT.

So our thesis is a two semester deal. 1st 2/3rds of 1st semester were spent doing research (a), last 1/3rd schematic design (b). Just finished that. Next semester will be design development (c). So here's how my review went:

ArT.: So i've done this (a) and this is what i learned...

Reviewers: Oh this (a) is very interesting. (discusion about possibilities of (a) followed)

My Professor: We have 5 minutes.

Art.: Then I did this exploratory design work (b) (truncated explaination)...

Reviewers: Oh...um...I don't really understand (b). We think you need to put (a) into (b) and get (c) for this project to work.

ArT.: Yes, that is my next step. a, b, then c.

Reviewers: yes, you need to do (c).

ArT.: I know, that's what next semseter is for. (c). Can we talk about (b) so that I know how to put (a) into what I found i (b)?

Reviewers: You really need to do (c).

ArT.: I know, but how about all this (b) that I've done...


This went on for about 30 to 45 minutes. Never did get around to talking about the work that I had done for design. It's annoying. I didn't get any feedback for what I will do next. I think I had the wrong crowd for my project. Overall, a very corporate, conservative crew, not too interested in fantastical projects. Has anyone else had reviewers that were simply not suited to your project? How did it go?

 
Dec 12, 06 11:36 am
evilplatypus

One day you will look back and think, "my God, what a waste of time" when recalling this experiance.

Dec 12, 06 11:48 am  · 
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ArT.

yeah, that day is today. I can't believe i had to sit through 8 hours of reviews yesterday (and 8 friday and saturday) for such a worthless waste of time.

Dec 12, 06 11:57 am  · 
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treekiller

do you want a peanut gallary of archinect jurors commenting on your thesis?
if so, start posting... (that isn't cheating, is it?)

Dec 12, 06 12:02 pm  · 
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ArT.

No, I was wondering if anyone else had good, mismatched-reviewer stories. I'll figure out my own damn thesis, no thanks to my professor. Is there yelling, screaming, crying? I feel a little bad because we had this guy visit from GA Tech, and he started to ask a question that might have had a place for someone else about three months ago, and I kind of cut him off. He didn't say anything for the rest of the review.

Dec 12, 06 12:55 pm  · 
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brand avenue

I once nonchalantly walked into what I thought was going to be a very informal pin-up somewhere in the middle of my thesis (me + 3 or 4 other students, and our advisors), only to find a moderately famous european architect sitting with my professor, who announced that this person just happened to drop in to see what we were doing. When I presented, I had a massively difficult time articulating--not only because my project was just getting off the ground, but also because I was totally starstruck by my audience. Of course, the famous person hated my project, and spent valuable time telling me how inarticulate I had been. We didn't even discuss the project.

I was totally speechless and embarrassed afterward. I still cringe thinking about it.

Dec 12, 06 4:29 pm  · 
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ArT.

Ouch. it is definitely a pain when your review doesn't cover your project. What do we go to school for? Oh right, to learn how to talk to famous people.

Dec 13, 06 11:57 am  · 
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snooker

I did a presentation where the guy I was presenting to had been dumped by the friend of my lady. So you can only imagine how
that went. During the middle of the conversation we we got into the size of columns where he went a bit ballistic...and I just told him
he was nuts because I know they will work cause I have spent the
last ten years of my life drawing them in buildings which have been built. Well he nixed me and my professor gave me an A. Thought long and hard about it and protested to my proffessor and he said his hands were tied they had to split the difference, so my gpa went to hell in a hand basket. He told me I could file a formal protest at the University Level. I thought about it for about ten minutes and said well I will think about it over the summer. I decided over the
summer, design studios with professors with blinders was not a health enviroment for me. Took a job, took the exam, Registered,
and In Practice for myself, with a nice body of work behind me.

Dec 13, 06 6:26 pm  · 
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mdler

try to get them drunk...that is what I did

Dec 13, 06 6:46 pm  · 
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thehoule

… there was my classmate in first year who deeply seduced and engagingly mystified her panel at her interim review, until she took a second look at the trace paper drawings she'd posted and realized that she'd pinned them up backwards …

… there was another classmate in third year whose unrehearsed project presentation given in his honest small-town accent was the derisive focus of the phony-ivy-league-accented guest critic, in spite of the great quality of the project itself … at one point, the guest stood up to attempt to explain a difficult idea when he turned to my classmate and chuckled, "I'll try to be as inarticulate as you." … that's when I got up and left the crit audience (and one of the profs followed me out to say he agreed with my disgust) …

… there was the group presentation where we were told the "inappropriate darkness and sadness" of our urban design was the result of my grief over the death of my grandmother half-way through the project work …

… then there was my classmate in fourth year who felt that one of his crits dwelled on an earlier stage of the project and did not prepare him for the next stage (that particular studio was structured along the development of a single project, like ArT's) … so, at the next studio meeting, he explained his situation and asked for another crit … and the profs were cool enough to oblige …

Dec 14, 06 12:55 am  · 
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i think i've told this one before somewhere: i once had a reviewer go on and on (5 min or so) about how wonderful my drawings were. his last sentence of the whole soliloquy was: 'that said, i don't like anything i see IN the drawings.'

Dec 14, 06 7:21 am  · 
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strlt_typ

I've had this happen once in first year...i assumed all my visuals we're enough and talking about them would be plain repetitive...I went "that's the diagram...that's floor level...etc."...i didn't give the jurors anything to talk about besides my shitty drawings...

it was one of those reviews where 3 students present after each other then the jurors comment on the three...i didn't get any feedback...i thought everything was obvious...wrong

Dec 14, 06 10:42 am  · 
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JerkStoreCalling

One semester, the geniuses at the university scheduled my studio's review the same time that the outgoing university president gave her farewell address, in the very same building. And we were all told to attend, so the review took a break for this stupid lecture. What would have been a long review was extended by 2 hours, and when we got back from the lecture, all but one of the jurors had to leave. I was last on the presentation list. I got a 5-10 minute crit from one tired juror. It was an awesome conclusion to the semester.

Dec 14, 06 11:05 am  · 
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I once had Kate Diamond in a review. The project was a school based off of a real LAUSD program and site. LAUSD recently converted to the 'small learning community' method of building schools, and my concept took that to its utmost effectiveness.

Kate Diamond HATED my concept. She started going on about this is why kids are alienated in school, this is what she hated about her high school, why she moved schools so many times, etc. It was obviously very personal to her, we couldn't get her to understand that LAUSD mandated that we use the small learning community format. Because I embraced this format instead of working against it, she unleashed her fullest venom on me.

Dec 14, 06 11:11 am  · 
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lletdownl

i always found it so frustrating, thank god it only happened once, when a prof who has your back all year, suddenly switches sides on you at the end of the year.

final semester of my final year... project was a monastery, and granted, it was my final semester so i didnt 'bust it' as best i could... however, i was happy with my concept and felt like it was an interesting project. My prof was behind me pretty much the whole semester and on several occasions throughout the semester said things such as... 'this is getting really nice' and 'lord have mercy on your soul as i think youve created a likeness of him'... you know, typical studio prof stuff...

then... final review comes... i get 'ehhhhh' so so reviews from 2 people, 1 solid review from another, and then its my Profs turn... and he says... "i think youve lost your way"
i almost lost it while i stood there remembering the praise he showered upon it less than a week earlier.

Dec 14, 06 11:17 am  · 
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Rogue Agent

Wow, this is what I have to look forward too, huh?

Dec 14, 06 3:59 pm  · 
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brut

Yes, I do suffer from manic-depression when it comes to architecture & reviews...and I just came off the manic.

Dec 14, 06 4:48 pm  · 
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TED

ArT. you were in control of what the conversation was going to be about so it appears to me you shouldnt blame the folks who came in for the show but perhaps your own work. with my students i work them to completely unerstand that they set the tone. if the project is about 'THIS WHATNOT' you need the bit to pull your jury into the belief to start-usually a exceptionally crafted model that the can look through and pass around is the best thing. it is also best if you can to record your presentation so you can here what you didnt do and didnt control.

Dec 14, 06 5:44 pm  · 
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the silent observer

I provide you the commentary from my last crit of my masters course:

"You know, you've spoken very well about your work; However, I have to say, you sound like your a salesman from Autodesk, trying to sell me on 3D Studio max...."

"After all that work, you've come up with this? I mean, it's so banal."

"That's a good answer, but still...."

Perhaps no one else on that jury will remember me or my project, but at least I can say that Peter Cook called me banal.

Dec 14, 06 10:37 pm  · 
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ArT.

Wow TED. Do you happen to teach at GA Tech?

Dec 15, 06 10:16 am  · 
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Museum of contemporary art contains the finest collection of great art works from different parts of the world.There are lot of paintings,sculptures of famous artist in these collection.

Aug 19, 13 7:34 am  · 
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David Rutten

I've had a few very good crits at TUDelft, but mostly they were pretty vapid. The worst ever was a teacher who broke his word to a number of students. One of the guys in my group wanted to investigate whether he could raise the population density from 30 to 50 and then maybe even 75 people per hectare within an existing built city environment. I.e. no removals, only additions. The teacher felt it was a departure from the course brief, but agreed that if the student got to 50 with a credible plan he'd get a passing grade. On the day of the crit he was failed despite achieving a >50 density.

A number of other students (including me) were also failed while others whose work was mediocre at best passed (the one thing I noticed about those students was that they had much nicer waist-hip ratios than me). I went to the semester supervisor and explained, got a minor additional task (which I think was mostly pro forma) and then a good grade. The guy I mentioned earlier wrote to the teacher saying that unless he passed him without further discussion he'd kick up a major stink, and he got his passing grade for free.

That was the day I lost faith in the integrity of TUDelft, and it was never fully restored.

Aug 19, 13 2:06 pm  · 
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drewjmcnamara

Thread back from the dead.

Aug 19, 13 10:27 pm  · 
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drewjmcnamara
Wait this thread is 7 years old.
Aug 19, 13 10:28 pm  · 
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Art and Artist are highly related to each other.During the schooling on words the inborn talents of the students have to find out and we have to give them proper training classes.

Aug 20, 13 6:53 am  · 
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