1st, 3rd, 4th and 5th Day - Mindspace, Studiospace and Playing Hooky

FIRST DAY (Tuesday)
First day was a Tuesday but actually a Monday.
Since last Monday was Martin Luther King day and a holiday, they decided to move the whole Monday-schedule to Tuesday, and just skip Tuesday....
I had Professional Practices. It made me a bit worried. I knew that Cooper was smaller in its student population, but this class was made up of me, the instructor, and one other guy! (James)



James and Mindy



On the postive side: I hopefully will have access to my instructor
whenever I need, and be able to have in-depth discussions with her.

The Professional Practices class is about working with a real client.
No pay, but your work (if accepted) will actually be used by the client
and chances of further work are possible.

The instructor showed us the work of the students from last semester's class. Sure, it was nice, but there was no evidence of imagination and deep emergence into (or resurfacing out of) the subject. Basically, it was a logotype and some stationery. Not very much on the theoretical background, no explained colour scheme, very little explanation of usage, no inventive applications...

At the time I got very much a "Here's their stuff. They need a makeover"-kind of feeling. I believe my instructor, Mindy Lang (not Asian) has more to offer than that, partly because I saw some of her work, but also she seemed to understand where I was coming from when I mentioned that Emily Carr is a very process-focused institution and that I'm really into (I guess I'm brainwashed now) not only academic, but also experiential research to really understand the whats and whys of who I am communicating with.

I feel that this is a project that is very much up to me how far I will take it. This could present a problem, seeing as I want to do a great job, but have a severe tendency of over-extending myself.

Anyway, me and James got to choose between two different clients. I chose a not-for-profit organization by the name of PWP, Professional Women Photographers. It excited me, because I have never done a project with a gender-angle like this (yes, I considered the irony of the fact that I'm a guy) and it also feels like its loaded with substance. I'm not just helping someone get richer, or promote another useless product.

I haven't met the client yet, but expect to do so next week so I'm doing some initial research on female photographers and the history of the female photography. If anyone out there is interested in this subject and want to help me out by recommending some essential books, artists, webpages or just inspiration, please do, do. Also, tips and ideas on what would make this project truly well-informed and thought through are very welcome.

Now, the PWP's logo is in dire need of a remake. Both my instructor and me immedeatly noticed at a first glance that the logo, with its super-tight kerning, actually tends to read "PIMP", which is particularly unfortunate for an oganization such as this.



The current logo










Inspiration: Poster in my
sketchbook for an exhibition.












I will continue posting on the progress of this project.

After class, I hung around for a bit to attend a class I've been registered for, but that I will probably drop (too many credits). It's called Interdisciplinary Seminars and has some kind of equivalent at ECI. Now, as I was on my way there, I noticed a poster that advertised that the architect Shigeru Ban (who is also an alumni of Cooper Union) was having a lecture at the very same time! Agh! So, after a bit of bandying about I decided that the lecture might be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and thusly planted myself in the Great Hall instead of the classroom. Apart from falling asleep for 15 min. or so, the lecture was quite inspiring. (Seriously) Shigeru Ban is widely known for his use of paper tubes (Jeff, was this the inspiration for your bed?) and how he uses his knowledge of cheap, waste-reducing materal to help, among other things, building shelters, churces and apartments in disaster-affected areas. Very inspiring. I've been thinking about how I can use my design-knowledge after graduation to actually make some real change in the world.



Shigeru











Lots of people at the lecture






SECOND DAY (Wednesday)
Started terribly. I woke up at seven to check up some classes that I was considering sitting in on, but fell asleep again, and set the alarm clock all wrong, so I missed both of them. Went to fika with Sara and took care of some administrative stuff at school. I also managed to forget my computer at the café but luckily nobody had nicked it. My only class this day was "Mathematics in Art" which I was quite excited about, but it turned out to be not what I expected.

#WARNING: Here starts a mini-rant on school premises#

The Engineering Building is a terrible, terrible place. It brings up mental images of Stasi interrogation offices with it's fluorescent tubes and mint-green concrete walls. As we entered the classroom there were nothing but the empty blackboard, the row of battered desks and chairs, and a wall-clock that had forever frozen in time (somewhere in 1975 I presume). Anytime now, I thought, there will be men coming in through that door, dragging me howling away for "state security reasons". Oh wait. I guess that's actually possible here as well. Zing!

Good things that ECI should consider:
1.)I, as a design student get my own studio space.
2.)Even though they don't have wireless internet everywhere in the school, I get 500 Kb/s when downloading.

#END OF RANT#







Engineering. #Shudder#









Helen Turner from Chelsea College, London.








My studio space.









Part of the library. High bandwidth! Woot!







Although a great guy, the instructor, Paul Bailyn, is teaching us strictly the history of Mathematics (and some Physics) and how we are supposed to incorporate this knowledge into our art- or design work is strictly up to us. Although the material is selected as to have relevance to art students, we really have to concentrate on trying to get our heads around the math first, and think about meaning later.
This is what I'm a bit afraid of. I don't know if I will be able to have enough fun with the math. I'm in a serious dilemma as to whether this is a waste of time or a chance to get out of my comfort-zone.

After I got out of class, I met up with Sara and Rickard (the Norwegian) and went for some Thai food in the East Village. Yum!



THIRD DAY (Thursday)
My day off, except that I wanted to check out a Climatology-class at 7 pm. Again, the same "surprise" as with the other Engineering-class: Climatology turned out to be a series of stacked facts about how to interpret meterological data. I don't know if I'm going to be able to muster enough energy to sit in on that class. It was however, the only section in the Engineering building that was new and fresh.
(Note: I get the feeling that Engineering deals with "how"-questions gladly: i.e. how the machinery behind things work, but doesn't care as much about the "why". To me, the "why" is what makes something worth learning.)



FOURTH DAY (Friday)
Went to "Design Production", a class on learning the printing process from original to printed reproduction. My instructor, Norman Sanders is 80 years old, and he's got an iPhone(!) A lot of people had told me before coming to Cooper that I had to take a class with Norman Sanders because he is amazing, and it's true. I have met few people with such enthusiasm and knowledge, specially at that age. It seems like there are a bit more people interested in Design in this course as well. I shall look into this. Oh yeah, he also told me that Cooper has an original copy of the Gutenberg bible in the art building. Wtf!!?? I'll check that up on Monday.






Mr. Norman Sanders








After class, I met up with with Cesc (from Barcelona) and Sara to go to a portraits show of New York-based photographer Irving Penn. The link is not from the show, but some of these photographs were shown. Amazing.

The last part of Friday evening was spent at an Italian restaurant with the exchange student group as we wanted to discuss the upcoming Exchange Show. However, it was futile to try to organize anything, so the night went to bar-hopping and more hanging out.













Above: parts of the exchange group, from left to right:
1.) Zohar from Israel
2.) Sara from Sweden
3.) Antonina from Spain
4.) Sofia from England
5.) Maria from Germany






Tonina and Zohar







Today is queasy stomach-day.
Some random pics:







My current pillow cover.















The painting office.













Ad for the Graphic Design Program at SVA on the train. I'm glad I'm not there.