Imogen
Imogen and I moved to Melbourne from Cairns together about 2 and a half years ago. She was my first friend at Cairns State High, which was my twelfth school. By the time I arrived there I was just about sick of my parent’s nomadic, roller coaster life style and refused to make any friends, until, Imogen turned up on my door step with a suit case and basically did not leave my side for the next five years (whether I wanted her to or not.)
Although now I am eternally grateful that she did, because she taught me three very important life lessons;
1. It’s ok to be a slut.
2. It’s ok to laugh, all the time.
3. It’s ok to give a fuck, never.
She studies fashion at The White House Institute of Design here in Melbourne, and has always been praised for her controversial and unique eye for style.
(For example in grade 11, when she sent three 15 year old girls in the school fashion parade wearing sexy fur lingerie, the principal didn’t know where to look.)
Read about her fashion endeavors, and see what ridiculous outfits she wears in public here; http://ladehsunshine.wordpress.com
Design Research Conference (day 1)
Well, technically day 2. But the first day was a half-day of workshops that I would’ve have to pay for (my fees were waived for the presentations!), so that doesn’t count.
I missed a lot of really interesting presentations in the morning as we struggled to figure out a way to get our research prototype up and running before lunch. The problem was that the demo didn’t work properly on any other laptop other than mine…so much for cross-platform code.
Speaking of which, I helped build a human-computer interaction prototype that aids as a conversation started in events such as the DRC. Participants would fill out a survey with several conversation starting prompts. During breaks (such as a cocktail hour or lunch), an interactive table shows the responses of participants in the vicinity on little post-it notes on the screen. Several different cluster views highlight similarities (and differences) and hopefully start conversation between attendees.
Anyway, several hair-pulling hours later, we found a way to hook my laptop to the old, short throw projector underneath the table. I got the ok to go listen to the last couple lectures of the day and then watched people interact with the table during the cocktail hour/social right after.
There’s something really delighting about seeing people interact with something you put countless hours of work into building. Especially when they have no clue how it works. It’s just magic :D
Learning to code
codecademy.comCodecademy is a great resource to learn how to code. They just released an API set of lessons, which is convenient timing for the class.
Also, on main campus The IdeaShop, MonkeyBars, and Nerdly host beginner coding activities. The dates are still being discussed so once I have talked to the team at MonkeyBars I will post the dates.
-d
ps Also, if you post on the Tumblr please TAG your post so it is easily searchable. Thanks.
Education of photos not related photos.
石元泰博の写真には、コンストラクテッドな、いわゆる構成美を感じてしまう。日本的な情緒や感情を排した作品群を見ていると、海外で写真を学んだ人は、根本で違うのではないかと思えてくる。
モホリ＝ナギの創設したシカゴ・インスティチュート・オブ・デザイン（ID）でハリー・キャラハン（もちろん写真家。映画の主人公は名前を拝借しただけ）に師事。写真の歴史で有名なこの学校は、どんなカリキュラムだったのだろう？
石元の証言によると、まず落書き。点、線、テクスチュア。そして立体の訓練。「写真を目指して入ってきたのにカメラなんか触りもさせない。ようやく写真の授業に移ると、最初は一枚の印画紙に火をつけたマッチを近づけ、その遠近による現像の調子を学ぶ」――なんのことはない。造形のための基礎中の基礎を徹底して教えるだけだった。
ふーむ、すごい。基礎をやり続けるなかで、あきらめるヤツも出て来るに違いない。これが何のために必要か、本当に理解していないと真面目に取り組めない。写真を生半可にかじっていたら、すぐに技法を覚えたがる。音楽の場合だと、楽器なんか触らせず、延々空気の振動を肌で感じる訓練をし続けるようなものかもしれない。
いまのIDは、石元が学んだ時代と大幅に変わった。フレームワークの開発から始まり、相互作用の計算、戦略的デザイン、ユーザー調査まで、一貫した産業主体のプログラムを組んでいる。デザインって元来がそういうものだろうけれど、学校が出来たころのニューバウハウスの思想は、少なくとも人間に目を向けていた。
この一言に触れただけで、きょうはよしとしよう。
