finalities

Tiffany asks that we look at

Saul Bass: The Evolution of an Artist
Simon Arms, 2 July 2012 at noupe,

and

A Cut-Down History of Collage
Lauren Wallach, 15 November 2012, at artspace

There's also the title sequence to It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963).

after that you can stay on...

this came my way, thought I'd share.

All the time my ideal of teaching has been to argue with people on behalf of the idea that they are responsible for their own activities, that they are really, in a sense, the question, that ultimately they are what it is they have to contribute. The most critical part of that is for them to begin developing the ability to assign their own tasks and make their own criticism in direct relation to their own needs and not in light of some abstract criteria. Because once you learn how to make your own assignments instead of relying on someone else, then you have learned the only thing you really need to get out of school, that is, you’ve learned how to learn. You’ve become your own teacher. After that you can stay on — for the facilities, the context, the dialogue, the colleagueship, the structure, and so forth — but you’ll already be on your own.

from —
“Seeing Is Forgetting The Name Of The Thing One Sees: Conversations With Robert Irwin”

I am sympathetic to this view, even for design where work is frequently — but not always — for a client.
Sometimes, all one needs is a single idea or prompt, to get the thing going. And then you're off!

More here.

form and function, reading for Monday

Here are links to two think-pieces that Caroline would like us to consider.
We recognize it's on short notice, so if it appears we're not ready tomorrow (Monday), we'll put this back to Wednesday.

They are

Form Follows Function, Right? Not So Fast
by Tom Dair, FastCompany
www.fastcompany.com/1282208/form-follows-function-right-not-so-fast

and

Function is Dead – Long Live Function
Gary Dickson
www.graphic-design.com/DTG/dickson/form_follows_function.html

Hope everyone's restored, and ready for our last two weeks!

wednesday, and an observation

The observation, first: Whitney, on Monday —
That we ask ourselves what we want to get out of, learn from, our work.
Does it lead to acquisition of new skills? a changed/broadened framework in which we operate?
Does it help us move from point A to point B?

One way of thinking about work, is that it is construction of a scaffold, that then falls away, to yield new work, that itself is a scaffold that falls away, and so on.

For Wednesday —
Read Darek's text — Richard Hamilton on Di(e)ter Rot(h), 1961 — and Caitlin's URL, Hyperbolic Space / Crochet Models at the Institute for Figuring. There is also the IFF's Magaret Wertheim her Crocheting the Hyperbolic Plane : An Interview with David Henderson and Daina Taimina, here.

Regarding mathematics, mathematical modeling and 3D printing, which we discussed on Monday, take a look at the projects at Neri Oxman's website. Oxman was one of the presenters at the Smart Clothes conference at the Radcliffe Institute, last week. For a report on that conference, see Samantha Wuestman's Oracle Road Report No. 3, The Oracle Goes to Radcliffe.

Reviews Wednesday and Thursday evening; Darek's opening Wednesday at 5:00pm.

discussion leads

Weds 20 Nov
Darek (tbd); Caitlin (on fractals? mathematics and design?)

Mon 25 Nov
Amanda (tbd); Rebecca (tbd)

Mon 2 Dec
Tiffany (collage); Caroline (tbd)

Weds 4 Dec
Whitney (branding); Nico (tbd; art and landscape?)

Mon 9 Dec
Daniela (Marc Dion?); Liv (tbd; techniques/artists of relevance?)

reviews

Weds 20 Nov
6:30   Becca
7:00   Amanda
7:30   Daniela
8:00   Tiffany
8:30   Caitlin

Thurs 21 Nov
6:30   Darek
7:00   Whitney
8:00   Nico
8:30   Liv
9:00   Caroline

Will list reviewers when confirmed.

note —
Don't miss Darek's opening on Wednesday, in 301 Gallery at 5:00pm!

another note —
Students planning on continuing on with Seminar in the Spring, will present their work and plans at a review during the end-of-semester evaluations (12 through 16 December).

wednesday

Congratulations to Rebecca for last week's "habit" installation in the Queens! show. People were clearly interested in that bifurcated column of text. Some tried to read it aloud (I know I did). Others may have looked for orientation, perhaps from the colored markings on the floor!

For tomorrow Wednesday, please read the essay I distributed last week, Jennifer L. Roberts her "The Power of Patience." It appeared in the November-December 2013 issue of Harvard Magazine, and can also be found directly here.

Two other items on the agenda:
We'll fix dates for student presentations and discussion leads; and
Discuss timing for the second round of panel reviews of work in progress.

See you tomorrow!

wednesday

Reminder, we'll meet at 8:30 and walk (those who wish may drive, cycle, helicopter, teleport, etc., but I'll be walking, anyway) to Porter Mill for our visit to Melissa Gruntkowsky's studio, PressBound.

I won't mind if some just show up — on time, not later than 9:00am — at Porter Mill, at 95 Rantoul (just beyond the Beverly Depot).

Melissa will also be giving a visiting artist talk at 11:30, in H-201.

presentations

As we discussed on Weds 30 October, and several times earlier in the semester, each student will assign a reading (or some other learning activity), and lead a discussion of it. The topic should relate to her or his work in some way.

The lineup, as I caught it:

Mon 4 Nov
Weds 6 Nov   (visit to Melissa Gruntkowski studio)   /   Caitlin, Liv
Mon 11 Nov   (holiday)
Weds 13 Nov
Mon 18 Nov
Weds 20 Nov   /   Darek
Mon 25 Nov
Weds 27 Nov   (holiday)
Mon 2 Dec   /   Tiffany, Caroline
Weds 4 Dec
Mon 9 Dec
Weds 11 Dec

I haven't heard from Caitlin or Liv about what they'd want us to be reading; we'll probably need to push their day back to Weds 13 November.

I'm happy to help you figure out a reading, or online search, or whatever it is that you think will best serve the discussion and your own work in progress. The total time for presentation + discussion might be 20-30 minutes. You've seen me do it: assign a reading, walk through it, provide some context, encourage some reflection about how it might pertain to one's own practice.

Now it's your turn!

Show your work.

Show your work.

Something I picked up today re: math homework in K-12.
Applicable elsewhere, nowhere more than in art and design school.
"Show your work" also applies to things like calendars and other personal time-management systems.

monday a.m.

Just a reminder, that we'll be meeting tomorrow with Mary Bucci McCoy's section of Graphic Design 1.
Class starts at 8:30, please be on time.

Bring physical work you might show to class, but we'll also be able to present on the flat screen monitor, via either my laptop or a school machine. The GD1 people are interested in what goes on in Seminar, and about the design concentration in general. Our having two Book Arts people in Seminar makes it more interesting. There should be time for some discussion about your work and any questions they might have.

The GD1 class will be completing their current project for Wednesday. I hope we'll be able to get a glimpse of that, too. If we're done early, we can repair back to H-309.

See you tomorrow, 8:30am, in the Design Lab breakout room (H-207).

guests

Designer (and Montserrat alum) Aaron Bouvier will be joining us on Monday 21 October, at 9:30.
Aaron has a background in drawing, painting and printmaking; his work can be seen at aaronbouvier.com. You'll also find links to his tumblr and other channels.

Aaron will be back the next day (Tuesday) for a Visiting Artist talk at 11:30. He will speak about his experiences designing the iconic image for One Heart Boston, which benefits The One Fund Boston and all victims of the tragic events surrounding this year’s Boston Marathon.

—

The next day (Wednesday, 23 October) brings another Visiting Artist of interest — Jennifer Hom will talk about her work as a Google Doodler. She'll not be coming to Seminar, but speaking in H-201 at 11:30am.
blog.jenniferhom.com

advance notice —

Monday 28 October — Seminar may be doing a joint-venture meeting with a section of Graphic Design 1 running at the same time. Seminarians make brief presentations of their work, and talk about Seminar generally to the GD1 students. Stay tuned, this may get more involved and two-way.

Design alumna Lindsey Mason will be joining us on Wednesday the 30th. Some of you will remember her process documentation of work with a (dismantled) sewing machine, and costumes.
Spring 2011 (esp costumes)
Fall 2010 (esp machine parts)

Further ahead, Melissa Gruntkosky will be joining us on Wednesday November 6. She is a designer and letterpress printer with her own business – Pressbound — in Beverly, and sells her work through etsy as well.

shrines, rivers, hats, detritus, colors

all Wednesday morning, 9 October 2013


up river (the Hudson), and a shrine (of pins).


hair, hats, and a rope from the past.


Gloucester detritus, rope and colors (background, tho' near), and fellswalker Alfred Wainwright (1907-91 *) his Western Fells (foreground, tho' distant).

oracles, shrines

[Anna] Schuleit Haber’s “The Beverly Oracle” design was selected from a field of 75 applicants. According to her preliminary proposal, this is how it works:

A visitor enters a free-standing, ground-level, single-room structure with a roof and tall glass windows located on Beverly Common, in front of Montserrat College of Art.

The person sits in a chair and is welcomed by a voice from speakers. The voice then asks, “What brings you here? What is your question?”

At that point, the windows, made of electrochromic smart glass, automatically change from transparent to opaque, providing privacy for the visitor. The visitor asks a question. The Oracle responds with sounds and language, and a printer prints out the answer, in the form of lines of poetry, for the visitor to take.

The windows change back to transparent, and the visitor leaves. At the same time, at four other locations in the downtown, the same answer is transmitted and displayed for the public to see.

more here.

reviews wednesday and thursday evenings, 9 and 10 october.

Weds 9 October

6:30   Rebecca Wallace   (final semester)
7:00   Daniela Thomas   (Book Arts)
7:30   Caroline Lares
8:00   Darek Bittner   (Book Arts; final semester)
8:30   Caitlin Hatfield

reviewers — Alain Blunt, John Colan, Justin Gagne, John McVey, Brian Savignano, Dorothee Weinlich* (guest critic)

Thurs 10 October

6:30   Tiffany Valcourt
7:00   Whitney Chin
7:30   Amanda Foley
8:00   Nicole Reilly
8:30   Liv Varney

reviewers — Mary Bucci McCoy, John Colan, Justin Gagne, John McVey

a catered event.


* Interdisziplinäre Design-Grundlagen
Hochschule Hannover
Fakultät III - Medien, Information und Design

things, unmade

worth keeping track of —

UNMAKING THINGS: A Design History Studio

Unmaking Things is a website founded, edited and run by students from the History of Design MA at the Royal College of Art and Victoria and Albert Museum. The site was established in October 2011, and has been relaunched in November 2012 by the new cohort of second year students.

The aim of Unmaking Things is to provide a creative online space for exploring ideas relating to the history of design, objects and material culture. Unmaking Things is not restricted to any specific type of design history or class of objects. Nor is it limited by geographical location or time period. It is a place to reflect critically on, and to facilitate investigation into, new ways of writing and conceptualising such a vast and disparate discipline.

here, and
@unmakingthings

tools and questions

Let the tools you make ask questions, not just solve problems.
Sara Hendren, "All Technology is Assistive Technology."
here

Tools are intrinsic to social relationships. An individual relates himself in action to his society through the use of tools that he actively masters, or by which he is passively acted upon. To the degree that he masters his tools, he can invest the world with his meaning; to the degree that he is mastered by his tools, the shape of the tool determines his own self-image. Convivial tools are those which give each person who uses them the greatest opportunity to enrich the environment with the fruits of his or her vision. Industrial tools deny this possibility to those who use them and they allow their designers to determine the meaning and expectations of others. Most tools today cannot be used in a convivial fashion.

Ivan Illich (1926-2002 *), from his Tools for Conviviality (1973)
here

assistive technology

For Monday, read Sara Hendren her essay "All technology is assistive technology," at medium. This is an elaboration of shorter post at the author's own blog abler.

Also, read Alan Jacobs his discussion of this essay as a so-called "long read," at textpatterns.

Alan Jacobs continues his rumination on the same topic, at Technology as prosthesis.

artifacts

Sebastian Kalwak. Artifacts.

"Imagine someone traveling back in time. Cast away on earth 3,5 million years in the past.
His presence in the past changed the way of time on earth and created a parallel universe - ours.
This book is an index of the items found in the time capsule."

via cinoh.

why post here?

it's minimalist, and maximalist — 140 detailed black and white illustrations on more than 300 pages depict[ing] organic and artificial objects from another universe — and it's for a design program.

exploration

for Monday, please read Chapter 4, "Exploration," in Karl T. Ulrich, his Design : Creation of Artifacts in Society (2005-11).
I've left a stack of copies on the Seminar room table — it includes both chapter 3 and 4, but at this point, only chapter 4 is necessary.

You can also find the pdf via the author's website.

Looking forward to seeing movements, from points A to points B!