“Bodily temperaments have a common course and rule which imperceptibly affect our will. They advance in combination, and successively exercise a secret empire over us, so that, without our perceiving it, they become a great part of all our actions.”
-François de la Rochefoucauld
“Temperament lies behind mood; behind will, lies the fate of character. Then behind both, the influence of family the tyranny of culture; and finally the power of climate and environment; and we are free, only to the extent we rise above these."
-John Burroughs
“The artistic temperament is a disease that affects amateurs. Artists of a large and wholesome vitality get rid of their art easily, as they breathe easily or perspire easily. But in artists of less force the thing becomes a pressure, and produces definite pain, which is called the artistic temperament."
-G. K. Chesterton
Ay ay...
How things roller-coaster..
One day I feel like I'm on the top of the world, the next I feel like the loneliest person in existence...
Tired, uninspired. Not knowing whether I want to stand up or sit down. I just want to do....nothing. Or rather, what always hits me is, that if I could choose, I would sleep in and hang out with friends.
There is loads of stuff to do for next week and I'm only doing half as much here as I was at ECI, so I should have more energy, but alas...
As many of you guys know, the ECI peeps with Paul and Clement in the lead, came to visit New York. I got to accompany them around the school as well as joining them in their visit at Sterling Brands, an identity firm handling some of the world's most well-known brands. Later that week, we also went to Rocco a little Italian restaurant that Paul and Clement had managed to locate. It was nice seeing a lot of friendly, familiar faces!
How many ECI students can you fit into an elevator?
Paul together with our tour guide Samantha and Joyce Bishop, International Coordinator.
At Sterling.
Also, Sara, Tonina and me managed to get to PS1, the MoMA-affiliated museum in Queens. The show "Wack! Art and the Feminist Revolution" was on, and even though I knew we were selling the book in the bookstore at ECI, I didn't know it was also a show! However, we didn't get far, since there was a seminar on Feminism that started when we got there and then we were stuck for 5 hours! Very interesting, but I didn't get to see the show. Will return.
Apparently, the president of the school has a "Round Table" lunch very month with a guest of honour and two students from each faculty. I was asked by a student council representative if I wanted to join (not as the guest of honour though. An odd thing was that nobody seemed to want to go, nor like the president very much) Apparently last month, one of the creators of The Simpsons was the guest of honour, so I was kind of excited. This time, it turned out to be this guy who had made a fortune in the construction business, and even though I tried to sift out the nuggets of wisdom that I thought could apply to me, I felt this one was mostly for the engineers. Free lunch is never wrong though!
The bald guy was the guest.
The person furthest to the left is the president.
Also, the very next day, all of the exchange students were invited to snacks and wine at the dean's office. More free food! Yay!
Speaking of food. Around lunch time the day after that, me and Sara wanted to heat up some food brought from home. As the Painting Office (where they keep the microwave) was closed, we were referred over to the Engineering building to solve our problem. After being misdirected a couple of times within in the building, we finally met someone who seemed to know. I guess he thought we were engineers too, or maybe he simply wanted to prank the two lost art students, but here is where we ended up:
Idiots. We can't heat food in there.
I love how there are so many different types of lectures at Cooper. Especially those who seem completely unrelated to "art" or "design". I find those the most inspiring ones. Last week there was a lecture on biological warfare by James Corrigan from St. Francis University. According to the business card we recieved, he had served on a advisory committee with the task of anticipating terrorist threats. He was on the committee up until 9/11. We were told that they had accounted for every type of attack: Train, bus, car, by foot, by boat....but not by plane.
It was gruesomly interesting to learn of what different viral and chemical compounds can do, and how they can be activated and disseminated. There were vials passed around, and even though they were "simulants" (fakes), it was still kind of unnerving. Also, as to show how easy it was to kill someone off, he revealed at the end of the lecture that the business cards we had all received were laced with Anthracene!! (a harmless, invisible substance derived from coal) To prove it, we were asked to put our hands under a black light and sure enough, the stuff was all over our dirty paws. Had he only replaced the Anthracene with f.e. Saxitoxin(of which we also learned), we would all have been done for.
Last weekend, there was the Princeton Design Conference which I enjoyed immensely. I had booked a hotel room and enjoyed being able to walk around in my underwear without anyone minding. At 8.10 the next morning I took the free shuttle to Princeton University to partake in the free breakfast. (Is there anything better than free food?)
The whole Princeton campus is a bit unbelievable. It's like attending a design conference at Hogwarts. Everything gothic and castle-like. I was impressed that the students that arranged the conference all seemed very young. If you go back to your junior high-school days and think about that guy or girl who was president both of the chess club and the student council and had all the answers in class you can imagine what these kids were like. Also, another thing that struck me, is that Princeton does not have a design program. Not even design courses. So these students had formed a design agency and were now arranging a design conference attracting some of the best-known names in the design industry! Amazing what a little passion and huge wads of cash can do.
The last two pictures are of the dining hall we ate in.
Now, I know ECI has a pretty design lounge, but...
While munching on my fruit salad, Paula Scher appeared, and I decided to go talk to her. One tough lady, she must be tired of having snotty students coming up to her asking inane questions and trying to push their portfolios on her. Even though she was nice, her attitude conveyed that I had to prove that I wasn't just a star-struck little fan-boy that was going to waste her time. It made me a bit intimidated but I managed to get some 20 minutes of quality one-on-one conversation about design, life and everything in between. Some opinions of M(r?)s, Scher that you can either agree or disagree with:
*Choose your place of work by the quality of the work you have seen coming from them. The type of people that produce the work you like will probably be people you like as well.
*Emerging into the world of your client is what brings out good work from you, and is what keeps designing interesting.
*The old "logo-centric" and "what you see is what you get"-view of the likes Milton Glaser and Paul Rand, that full trust should be put in the designer and that the final deliverable also be the final decision of the designer, is crazy.
From left to right: Donna Ching (of ChingFoster), me, Paula Scher.
Then, the lectures started and Paula was up first. The theme of her lecture was "Citi & The Public Comparison" and with a seemingly effortless elegance, she went through the processes and history behind the Citi-logo and the Public Theatre.
There were a bit too many lectures for me to describe the content of here, but apart from Mrs. Scher's presentation, Jonathan Harris, a Princeton graduate, did a presentation that was very heart-touching. Harris' has a degree in Computer Science but combines it with a desire to document human emotion from all over the world. Out of these two interests, he makes projects such as We feel Fine, The Whale Hunt and Word Count. I also got to see a project which is not yet finished, but documented a trip to Bhutan (the country that invented Gross National Happiness), investigating what happiness means.
Lecturers from left to right: Jonathan Harris, Joey Roth, Glen & Israel from 2x4, Alice Chung of Omnivore.
In the middle of the conference, there was a t-shirt charette that I had signed up to participate in. The challenge was to create a t-shirt in 30 minutes that would make students do something good for the environment. My group made a t-shirt with areas of checkered patterns with dotted lines around them that could be cut out and made into rags and handkerchiefs once the t-shirt was no longer desirable as a garment. I hate to say it, but even though the other groups produced crap, we didn't win. I found some consolation in the fact that the Director of Publications and Creative Strategy at Princeton came up to me afterwards saying that she though our group's shirt should definitely have won. It's all politics ;)
A group working on their t-shirt.
Later on, we moved on for dinner in the ultra-nice wood panel-clad dinner hall. I couldn't believe their kitchen!! Even though the students pay a fixed amount at the beginning of the terms which averages out at $11-$15 per meal, the selection and quality of food was amazing! Not only could you get hand-made, stone-oven baked pizza made to order, but there was everything from breakfast to desert to be had. Ice-cream, grilled chicken filets, fruit baskets...! Ay ay... Also, the dinner was of course catered and delicious.
The only fish I have come to like was served as snacks.
The most important point saved for last:
I'm going to get this blues off of me. I need to get out and dance!
