On Wednesday, started out with our homework which was creating an visual mapping of the game we had played. Jimmy placed them on the board and we got to see the different methods that the students used. Some were just words, some were mostly pictures and some we words and pictures. After we watched couple of short films/episodes about different motivational speakers, designers and companies. There was one on Charles and Ray Eames and what they have created. What I learned about them is that whatever they plan and always try things out and see what it looks like. Also, they designed houses, furniture and made a film about toys, similar to Powers of Ten. Other short films we watched were about a design company in New York called 2x4, Elizabeth Gilbert- a new way of thinking about creativity and the creative process. The most interesting and entertaining was Tony Robbins. He spoke a little about "how to make dreams into reality", Emotions - shape, Decision, and destiny. Also he mentioned about seven important points which are 1. Certainty 2. Uncertainty 3. Critical/Significance 4. connection of love 5. Grow 6. contribute 7. Emotion. He gave very interesting speech and chose touching and true words to get his point across. He is the kind of speaker that can make a great positive impact on people like us that are just getting into this field.

Our homework for the weekend is to draw/sketch 20 pictures of a game. A game that we are creating and thing about questions like what are the rules, who are the audience, main idea/topic, target, Ideas, Materials, ect.

Adjectives:

Dramatic- pertaining to the word drama.

Theatrical- Pertaining to theater or drama

Pompous-characterized by an ostentatious display of dignity

highfalutin- Informal

Vain-excessively proud of or concerned about one's own appearance

Vacant- having no contents, empty

A.S.

October 30, 2009

Playing Games

So far, this was the best class time I had. It reminded me of my childhood years when I used to get together with my brothers and play games. We don't really have time to play games anymore, each one of us are so busy studying, working, and running around like robots that we don't have the time to sit and play games as adults. When I play games it disconnects me from this world and I feel like a kid again. I forget that I have responsibilities and loose track of time, especially when I'm playing poker. The whole class time we played games in groups. Our group played two games. The first one we played was Uno and Sorry, which I never played before. They were both fun and exciting. I liked Uno better better because card games are my favorite and also involves more strategy and thinking. However, Sorry is as exciting and fun but its all based on luck. I like a game that involves a little challenge. Im also very competitive when it comes to games but I don't take games seriously because you cannot play a game and have fun at the same time being serious. You have to talk and joke and laugh and distract the opponent.j.k.

Our homework for Wednesday is to map out the game that we played. We have to pick one of the games that we played and we have to visually structure on a piece of paper. We have to focus on some questions that Jimmy pointed out like, What is the experience of the game? What was your experience playing the game? Experience? Conflict? ups & Downs? I think this is going to be pretty exciting.

Adjectives:

excessive- Going beyond the usual

desirable- worth having or wanting

Alluring- very attractive or tempting

Bewitching- Enchanting

Prepossessing- that impresses favorably

Engaging-winning; attractive; pleasing

A.S October 27, 2009

FILM: Power of Ten/ Why men creates

On Wednesday we went over our homework and put our 3 pictures on the wall two at a time in pairs. We had to describe the others story just by looking at the pictures. Some were really obvious and some were hard to describe. Some were really confusing and didn't make sense at all, but most of us did pretty well, I think. Next we viewed two films. First one was Powers of Ten which was created for IMB and it was about 9 minutes long. It was pretty interesting because even though I took astronomy class in college it was very pretty interesting how far it went into the space. Same thing with the 10x maginified, how deep and close up it went into the human body. The second film was Why men Creates which funny and interesting then the first. There were seven different scenes in this film and its was about creations, ideas, inventions. It was a cartoonized film how people create and come up with ideas and inventions. After we spoke about our final project which was The creative Process Map. The main question was, What processes do you go throught when you have to make or do something? On monday we have to bring in a game that you can play in group or pairs. Jimmy Moss said that we were going to play an game. Honostly, I didn't like the sound of that. I am sure it's not going to be the same games that I played when I was young.

Adjectives:

Perfect- conforming absolutely to the description or definition of an ideal type.
Joyful- delighted
transported- emotionally moved
Gala- festive; festal; showy.
Saturated- soaked, impregnated, or imbued thoroughly
Clammy- covered with a cold, sticky moisture

Story Telling

Our homework was to gather ten pictures and figure out one phrase to go with all ten pictures. At first I started to collect pictures and then tried to figure out a phrase that went with all the pictures, but I was not really successful on that. So, I tried to pick one picture and come up with a phrase for that picture and then gather the rest of the pictures that fell within that phrase. That was much easier because one you have the idea what you are going for, you can search for pictures on the Internet.

On Monday, we were divided into two groups because we had show the pictures that we had collected and the phrase we chose for it. We started to go around in circle and some students had really good phrases and pictures, which made sense, but a lot of them it didn't really make sense to me. As we do more and more of this exercise, I am beginning to understand the concept of this assignment. I am actually really glad that we did this exercise even though I was confused at first. It gave me a better understanding of the advertising companies and their goal or target.

Later on that day we were divided into groups of three, however ours was four. We each had to put random items from our purses or backpacks and put them on the desk. We as a group had to come up with a story in ten minutes using all the items that we had came up with. I though it wouldn't be a big deal but It was. First off, coming up with a story right away is hard and second in ten minutes made it even harder. I need at least ten minutes to think about it. It was an interesting assignment and even though we did not get to finish our story, we had fun doing, at least I had.

Our homework assignment is to come up with large pictures, no words or any writing and with that 3 pictures you are supposed to tell a story. Basically, the audience is supposed understand your story without even explaining it to them. I don't think this one is going to be that hard but lets see how it goes. I could be wrong.

Adjectives:

Radiant- Bright with joy

External-Pertaining to the outside or outer part

Fascinating- A great interest or attraction.

Seductive- Tending to seduce: captivating

Superior- higher in station, rank, degree, importance

extravagantly- spending much more than is necessary or wise

A.S

October 20, 2009

Video-Sir Ken Robinson

On Wednesday, we watched a video on Sir Ken Robinson. He was a motivational speaker, originally from England. I have never heard of him before, but he pointed out very interesting fact that we don't really analyze in our daily lives. For example, he was talking about watches and why people wear then when it only has one function, and that is telling time. But most of has cell phone now a days in this modern society and every cell phone has the time date and much more. But yet, it is a tendency to snap on a watch in the mornings. Also, that teens are less likely to wear a watch because they are too trapped into this superior, advanced technology. He spoke about finding your essential and finding the things that you are good at, which many people have not discovered yet and he calls that dis-functional community. Discovering your individuality, who you are and what you are capable of doing. Another interesting thing he mentioned was the 5 senses and the spooky and the most important one, which was the balance sense.

Our homework for Wednesday was to get 10 pictures and find one word that makes sense to all ten pictures, but shifts the meaning. I thought the one picture was challenging, but this one is more complicated but interesting.

Adjectives:

Harsh-ungentle and unpleasant in action or effect

brutal- Cruel, savage

Criticizable- to find fault

reeky- strong, unpleasant smell

Edgy-nervously irritable; impatient and anxious

sour- having an acid taste .

A.S

October 15, 2009

Words to shift the meaning

Our homework for the weekend was to bring 10 simple photographs/pictures to class, but we had no clue what the next assignment was going to be. Today in class, we were divided into groups. Out of the five people in the group we had to choose one picture and choose words or phrases that shift the meaning of the picture. At first, I thought we got off easy today and it was going to be a simple assignment for today. But, it was actually harder than I thought. You would think its only ten words, but it was difficult coming up with ten different words to shift the meaning of the photo we chose. For our homework, we have to choose another simple photo and do the same thing. I think a lot of us misunderstood the assignment or didn't really understand what type of words or phrases that Jimmy was looking for. Hopefully, after this assignment I would have a better understanding of what the target words would be, because as of this moment it is kind of hazy to me.

Adjectives:

Graceful-characterized by elegance or beauty of form, manner, movement, or speech; elegant
Sheer- Very thin or transparent texture
Flashy- momentarily Dazzling
Delicate- Pleasing to the senses
Trendy- very fashionable
Powerful- having great power, prestige or influence .

Film

Today, in class we saw a film by Akira Kurosawa called "Dreams". I'll be honest, as soon as I saw the first episode "Sunshine Through The Rain" I didn't understand the meaning and I thought it was going to be an extremely boring movie. But, as I viewed more of the film, I was astonishingly surprised. I was beginning to understand the meaning of this film and the hidden messages. This film does not have a lot of dialogue, basically the Cinematography speaks for itself. The scenery, color scheme and sound effects makes up the whole film.
The first two scenes, "Sunshine Through the Rain" and "Peaches Orchid" were about a little boy and the consequences that they faced because of their innocent actions. Basically, about their childhood "Dreams". First one where the boy secretly goes to watch the fox wedding, which is against nature and culture and then he has to pay the price by killing himself or asking for forgiveness. Second one was about a innocent boy who had to pay the price because of cutting down all the Orchid trees, even the boy didn't do it, he had to pay the consequences for his parents actions. When at the end he started to cry, he was crying not because he was being punished but because he loved the Orchid trees and he feels bad for having them cut down.
The Blizzard was inspiring because it shows that no matter what obstacles that you face in life to never give up and always get up and keep going. Even thought the rest of the mountain men failed and gave up, there was one that encouraged and strives to survive with the help of an Angel like lady.
The Tunnel was interesting and has a lot of hidden messages. At first, I didn't understand why he feared the dog but when I saw that he was being haunted by the dead soldiers I understood that he was afraid of life itself. Because of his misconduct many of the soldiers died in war and he was the only one who survived. He feels guilt and old memories never die, they will always haunt you. Even going through that tunnel, the sound of his footsteps were haunting and creepy making him fearful of life and his surroundings.
The next one was the"crow" where its telling us to not follow anybody but find your own path and discover your own dreams. Find your inner self and this occurs in our adolescent years where we try to find out who we are. Being inspired by Van Gogh and a struggle to find him, he was surprised by the reaction he got from Van Gogh. I guess it means to discover your own path, not follow someone Else's. He was trapped in Van Gogh's wonderful, colorful world and yet he found a way out.
Mount Fiji in Red and The weeping Demon is pertaining to the environment. How humans destroy the environment for their convenience. Mt. Fiji shows that the world has come to an end because of all the nuclear bombing and that the innocent children of the future are going to pay the consequences for our actions. The Weeping Demons is a vision of hell. Again pertaining to the environment were the demon with one horn was paying for his wrongful actions on earth by polluting the water so he can keep the prices high of the goods.
Last and my favorite one was completely the opposite of The Weeping Demon was the Watermills Village were it was like a vision of Heaven. It shows pure, beauty, clean, colorful and innocents and just like the beginning of the story where Akira started out with children, Pure and innocent and clean. Again this is pertaining to the environment. How we tend to destroy a place so beautiful and glamorous. Where in this village they celebrate death because they have lived a life so pure and clean. Where everyone lived a long, healthy life. Also, mentions the alternatives that can be used for our necessities. Like a candle instead of electricity because we destroy the beauty of nature by eliminating night.
Over all the film was an explicit film and I would watch it again. This is also similar to the project we did where had to draw like a storyboard of us. Where words were not necessary, picture mean a thousand words.

Adjectives:

Colorful- abounding in color
Bright -radiating or reflecting light
Glamorous- full of glamour; charmingly or fascinatingly attractive
Sharp- having a thin cutting edge or a fine point
Luminous- radiating or reflecting light
Explicit -fully and clearly expressed or demonstrated


October 7, 2009
A.S.

Mind Mapping

Today, in class we had sit in a different order. This time it was by the months that our birthdays fell on. Starting from January and so on. I guess every class Jimmy Moss wants us to sit next to a different person to mix us up and meet different people with different ideas. I think next class it's going to be arranged by the color of our shirts. We should all wear red.

Today's topic was mind mapping or idea mapping. it's a way of brainstorming. Basically just trowing all your ideas on a piece of paper without analyzing it. Jimmy showed us lots of interesting example and then we had to create our own. At first, I thought this was going to be hard because I have a hard time coming up with ideas instantly, but becuase it was an open topic and we could choose whatever we want, that kind of made it easy. After coming up with the topic, it didn't take me long to finish it. It was interesting how your mind comes up with lots of different ideas one after another.



Adjectives.



Rosy- bright or promising

Optimistic- disposed to take a favorable view of events or conditions and to expect the most favorable outcome.

positive- confident in opionion or assertion.

Flat- level, smooth

Flashy- Flamboyant, in poor taste.

Rocky- Rugged, stony.

Cloudy- Hazy, darkened

Spooky- frightening

Large- Big

October 5, 2009

A.S