ART 220 - DAY 2 - March 30 - What if______?

Second day of class and we start off as what have we recently learned. I believe it was Rudy (I could be wrong) explained that he learned something about Wordpress, which was a software that is used to be installed in a web server in order to run a blog type based program. He also mentioned CMS (Content management system) which helps build the look of the website, call it the skeleton of the web server (I believe Dustin said this). Also such terms as template on how the basics of designing a website and the layout content of it. I have personally use wordpress before and it was somewhat confusing at the time when I was only in high school... and used a part of a host server that my friend offered some space for me to run my day to day blog, so I knew some of the key terms that Rudy was explaining to the class.

So in class, we went back to discussion about Concept Development, which in turn placed us in a situation where the term, Methodology comes into play. According to the dictionary off my Macbook pro,

methodology |ˌmeθəˈdäləjē|noun ( pl. -gies)a system of methods used in a particular area of study or activity : a methodology for investigating the concept of focal points | courses in research methodology and practice.
Professor Moss gives us the example of a bicycle. We cannot learn how to ride a bike by a book or by just watching a person ride one. One has to test out how to and actually experience how to ride it. He also states that the is a certain order or process in which how we ride a bicycle, such as how we mount the bike before taking off since no body really does give a heads up run and jump onto the bike and expect it to move for us. He also gives another example explaining on the approach about FedEX, in how they have a system or diagram on how the process works with the packages that are being deliver. Although it does take an idea to process through many years or development.
Although process takes time, the real problem Professor Moss believes is "How do we get started?" For example he gives us an exercise on having all the students in the class put themselves in alphabetical order by first name. It honestly did take us awhile because I personally was confused on which way was which for the order, and until that was cleared, I wasn't going to sit down, though I did have an idea where I would be. Also there was slight hesitation to each and every student since none of us were close related which forces us to come out and talk and interact with each other so that we can work as a team to finish the exercise in a matter of a time limit. Also it was also a reason to have a view from perspective from where one was sitting before versus where they were sitting after the exercise. Also this could be related to an idea or design itself and how much time is needed to work on the project. It is just a matter of developing ideas and making it come out the most of it to one's desire look. Hence it goes from a problem to a process to options of solutions.
Professor Moss also mentions a study on how well students can do depending on where they sit and the perspective view they get while learning. Students who sit where the "T section" is will have higher grades compare to students on the sides and back back row. I personally like sitting in the front due to a better view and easily be able to hear the professor, also because I am short and I need to see.
We then proceed to asking "WHAT IF_____?" questions. I like a few responses from other students such as
What if there was......
no money
no internet
life on another planet
no clocks/watches
time is not linear
time travel
Those are what Professor Moss considers as thinking BIG, thinking outside of the box. I wish I could of gone a bit more elaborate on my answer. Despite the error, there are lots of things to consider on the response on which my peers gave in class. If there was no money today... would we still be trading items to be fair? Or would there be another method. What if there is no internet? How would my life be today? I personally like the whole What if time is no linear? Why? It's like a construction and we do not really know if time is absolutely correct in a sense today. Personally I wish there was more hours in a day though. There is just so much to do in a day and how do we know if twenty-four hours is actually a full day? Time is never enough in life and therefore time has to be used wisely in a sense.
Therefore what if things in our life were different compared to the how it is today. There could be so many changes and differences that even ourselves could ponder and wonder on how much it could be different today. Just one little shift can adjust or affect millions, but what exactly is it that makes that change?

ART220 - Day 1 - March 28 - What is Concept Development?

Exactly what is Art 220 designed to teach us students. Concept Development, what is it? What was this course suppose to teach? It was a beginning day question to ask from Professor Jimmy Moss at California State University of Los Angeles. He asked us to fill out a blank 3'' to 5'' index card with our name on one side and the back side to answer two specific question....

A. What do we think the class is to teach us?

B. What is expected/learned/known about the class?

Like usual, under the instructions of the professor, students would answer them.

If I recall what I answered to the question was, based on the what the class was to teach, I stated something along the lines of "Generating ideas to create a design for the audience or the viewer."

And for B, it was along the lines of the same idea, "Creating something or getting the experience to do so."

I could be wrong, I honestly do not remember what I wrote, since it is an 8 am class. I did like some of the response that Professor Moss read out from certain individual's cards, whomever they are I give them props for giving such an educated answer for such an early class.

We have concluded that Concept Development is a class where we generate ideas and have general ideas to get to a stand point of the product we are creating. Professor Moss gives us an example about our technology today such as our cellular phones. We did not have cellular phones in the old days since they were all house phones connected to a wall port and had direct lines outside. At first, a student suggested perhaps it was the idea of communication that was the factor that generated the idea to somehow reach the end product of a cellular phone, but the Professor pointed out there would be something more then communication itself. The reason to creating cellular phones today is not due to the idea of communication, but to the idea of mobility since in the old days, we would have to stick nearby a pay phone or for however far the cord would go in our home. Why? Because the problem was how were we able to bring communication outside of the home and be able to move around instead of sticking to one spot for a long time just to communicate with someone. The solution was to create a cellular phone based on the mobility factor as well as convinces on the product itself. Although the process did take awhile to get to the end product seeing how there were such things such as a pager back in the old days as well.

So for concept development, it is based on a critical thinking idea, but I believe that aside from critical thinking, there should be experience and that is what this class should be. Professor Moss wants his students to be involve, to speak their mind, and to interact with each others aside from himself.

He started off with a fun exercise concerning a fruit called a Mandarin orange, in which he had ask us to spend a few minutes observing our little orange friend. Afterwards, he instructed us to face about a partner and describe our orange to them within roughly two minutes. In my honest opinion, I thought the process to observe is much easier compared to throwing our thoughts together, though I feel that I didn't observe enough to gather the proper terms and ideas to talk about my orange though and putting into words to describe the orange we had in our hands to our partner was much harder then I had anticipated.

Now the assignments that came to this class, I believe is going to enhance the students skills. Why? It gives us a change to launch an idea, explore it, research it, and get involved with it (gain hands on). For example, one of our on going projects dealing with our little Mandarin orange friend makes me ponder on how much would it change as well as would it even last ? Aside from those questions that linger in my brain there is also the idea of how many concept ideas of technique and design can be acquired and used into the progress of change of the the drawings, especially since we can use the media only once. It will be a difficult challenge but I think it would be worthwhile to poke fun at our brains for the quarter. It would also be interesting in how much the orange changes itself and how we incorporate the design to the changes. There are also lots of things to considered aside from the design. The fruit itself is a living specimen and it might also pick our brains on questions such as how long and what conditions would be good to consider to keep the orange from decomposing fast or slow. Aside from that, on the funnier note, hopefully all the students have their oranges kept in a safe place, seeing how this assignment also requires it to be kept alive somehow.

Besides the orange, there is also the reading aspect of the class, and it does require us to read and reading will help one learn, because it is a way of getting information and somewhat of a research process, after the readings there will be the blogs as well as the writing response to the readings, so it'll help retain information.

Many of the approaches can cover different styles of learning for each individual students so they can fully train themselves to experience the different ideas and situations they could come up upon in the future and be able to access and deal with it. Concept Development is a class where critical thinking, involvement, interaction, and experience to further develop one's skills as well as make them a better designer.