I am in "The Game"

My Paper Lamp

2005-11-25T12:43:00.000+11:00

Honestly, it was my first experience of working with rice paper this semester. It is very nice material and has a lot of very good qualities. It is fine, light, almost transparent, it is very absorbent and lets water through, which increases its flexibility. But on the other hand these kinds of qualities make it very difficult to work with paper, because it is very delicate, it can be torn easily and it doesn't hold its shape.

My first paper lamp was very tall, collapsible and looked like a tube with several wire rings to hold its shape. Unfortunately, i don't have any photos of it, but it didn't look very original. Besides it wasn't comfortable in use, because it had to be hung up on ceiling. I didn't like it.

Then i realized that the paper gives much more opportunities when it is wet. It can easily take almost any shape, it just has to be greased with glue which makes the paper stronger after it dryes. But still it is not strong enough to make it big size.

That paper glove shows that paper can take very complex shapes where even fine and small details are easily seen. It was a mould of my hand. I made it during open day when all of our group were experimenting with paper.

After some practice doing the lamp, I thought that it would be much better to keep all the natural qualities of rise paper. I wanted to make my lamp look light and transparent, i didn't want to make it hard getting it soaked with some heavy liquids.

So the next was an experiment with a balloon.

What you need to make "the flower balloon lamp":
1. A balloon, the bigger the better;
2. A lot of rise paper (in different colours if you wish);
3. Some flexible wire;
4. Water based glue for paper;
5. Big brush;
6. Water;
7. Desire
and
8. Patience.

I started to put small wet pieces of white paper on the balloon. It is better to cover all surface of the ballon then to brush on the glue. It is essential to cover all paper layers with some glue. Then make the same procedure again and let it dry.

In addition i'd like to say that wet rice paper decreases its size after it dryes, thus it is very comfortable to use a balloon, because it easily changes its shape and doesn't brake paper.

To make the lamp durable i put a frame of wire between layers of rice paper. You can make the lamp more pretty making some wire pattern.

Finally, i put some brightly coloured paper to make my lamp more interesting and fresh. Now it reminds me a flower that was turned upside down.

This is one of variations of how the lamp can look like.
But also i had other ideas where i wanted to compose different sizes and shapes of balloon lamps.

Soumitri among our chef d'oeuvres!

My Reflective Essay.

2005-11-24T15:13:00.000+11:00

I’ve surfed through The Corporation Game blog and blogs of all our groupmates from the very beginning reading some posts and their comments. I’ve done it, firstly, to refresh my memory and, secondly, I tried to analize what was happenning in our minds during Studio Course by comparing our thoughts, Soumitri’s and my own thoughts then and now. It was very interesting to find out that some particular words take place in most of the blogs, they are: “annoying”, “confusion” and “frustrating”. But at the same time most of our groupmates said that they felt joy, had fun and, finally, learnt a lot during this course. I was not an exclusion. During the semester I was thinking why we were so confused and frustrated and why these emotions were the one of things dominating at Studio lessons. I couldn’t find an exact answer to these questions and I couldn’t understand the reason of discomfort we all experienced. It’s been a while after the end of the course and I regret that I wasn’t able to write the reflection immediately after that, but on the other hand I believe that it is an opportunity to have a fresh look on what we went through and perhaps to give more objective view than I could do being right in doings.

Strengths.

Firstly, after these Studio lessons I’ve got a strong idea of what Industrial Design is about, who Indusrial Designers are, what their (our) field of work is and how we can be divided to different types of designers. Industrial Designer is no longer a definition of a profession for me, but it is a whole lifestyle, the way I feel, approach and reflect the world around me. That is so interesting to watch myself as a person who can see and notice things that other people can’t. It is not due to their inattentiveness or narrow-mindness, neither is it due to my big head or some incredible abilities. It is just because I am a designer, a future designer. I believe it is always a pleasure to belong to some group of professionals, such as lawyers, musicians, actors, surgeons, etc., because it allows me to communicate with people who see the world from specific angle, with whom you have specific language and gestures. In my opinion, suites that we were wearing united us as a group and helped us feel that we were a team.

Secondly, it was a discovery for me to realise that the field of Industrial Design is so huge. Wherever I am and whatever I see I can easily relate it to Industrial Design. It might remind you a character from the movie “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”, where Tula’s dad believed that every word had Greek roots, but that’s what it is. I started to understand it not a long time ago, namely, since The Corporation Game Studio began. I think that Soumitri’s lectures and reading material helped me understand and opened not a whole, but some part of a design world for me. I was surprised that there were so many and completely different themes of lectures and at the end they were all about design.

Thirdly, on the Studio activities I learnt many ways to generate ideas and provide solutions. At very first lessons we got acquainted with questioning technique and spider diagram, then we played games which we created on our own working in groups. According to all the work we did and the wide range of objects we produced, I believe that every problem has a solution, that it is possible to design an idea fast and even an absurd idea can work – all you have to do is not to be afraid of taking risks, be opened to all offers, try to forget your stereotypes and not to have any predictions and expectations. Undoubtedly, some of these knowledges will help me in my further education, career and even in some aspects of my life.

Finally, The Corporation Game Studio helped me understand myself as a person and as a designer. It helped me find my preferences, desires, abilities and likes as well as reluctance, inclinations and weaknesses.

Weaknesses.

We didn’t have any minimum criteria for this studio and we didn’t have any brief, perhaps it was one of the reasons of my confusion. We were told that we should priviledge the process, not the final outcome, but how can I give myself to the process if I do not know what exactly I have to submit? That kind of tactics made me think that the outcome didn’t matter at all and the essencial thing would be our class activities. However, at the end all of us were asked to show and submit an evidence of what we had done, in other words the outcome, which surprised me. I suppose that it was the aim not to explain us the purpose of the Studio, that we had to learn to make decisions, jump somewhere we’d never been and go out of our comfort zone. Some of my classmates think that because of this fact the course was so unusual, interesting and different from other courses. However, I think I could’ve done much more work, put more effort to this subject and wouldn’t have wasted so much time on confusion, annoying and understanding what and why I had to do, if I had known from the very beginning what exactly was expected from me, because finally it was about the outcome, not the process. Although I know that improving thinking, writing and talking abilities are very valueable, in my opinion it would’ve been fair to have an exact task if there had been an exact date of submision and limited time to do all of our tasks.

Next I’d like to say about the group activities which were happening during all the period of The Corporation Game. As a matter of fact it is very useful to teach us to work in groups, which will be important for us in our future work, but despite this, it is not always productive and it can’t be productive to everybody. I say this because from the Studio experience I noticed that in most cases ideas of those people were heard who talked a lot, loud, more aggressively and more emphatically than others. It is not just about me, but also about some other students who were not taken into account just because they were less noisy or who were in minority. Of course, it was not a rule, but it happened sometimes. I understood that many people can’t listen to others or if they do or pretend they are doing they interpret the words of others in their own way. If the aim of this Studio was to stand on your own opinion and to be more aggressive I can honestly say that I failed it, because it is not my tactic to convince somebody in my truth by saying it over and over again. If I am sure that my idea works I usually make examples and give argumentation and if I am neither heard nor understood I’ll rather go aside than keep convincing people. But if I am not sure about my idea, I can easily go to compromises and support the ideas I am interested in. I willingly participate in activities which arouse my enthusiasm. Thus, it is more important not to impose your own ideas on your team mates, but to infatuate them so that they wanted to develop and realize the idea.

Moreover, I understood that it is more productive for me to work either on my own or in a group of few people. From my study experience I figured out that I need much time generating an idea but at the end I usually make it true very fast, while in a group we have to do everything evenly concidering abilities of everybody, which decreases tempo, productivity and, finally, quality of work. Besides this, I noticed that it sometimes happens in group work that everybody puts responsibility on other person. Nobody takes the initiative as everyone is sure that his partner will do the job, which is more likely to happen in big groups. In this connection there is a good proverb: “Too many cooks spoil the broth”.

Furthermore I’d like to mention another cause of my confusion. Sometimes it was very hard to understand the reaction of the teacher on process of different class activities, whether they were going in right or wrong way. Probably, Soumitri did that on purpose to find out brave and initiative students who are able to take risks. I am not judging it anyhow, I am just trying to analyze that situation a bit. In my opinion, due to that fact those risky students finally took the initiative and the rest of us started to follow them, in other words, if I can say so, there was “the group contamination” there. One of an example of this was the first “paper lamp” lesson. Soumitri let us start doing the paper lamp and we, as a big group, watching each other started doing the same thing, wrong thing. Now I cannot say for sure, but if I had been doing that on my own I would’ve probably done it in a different way, I would’ve probably chosen the right way. I think it was quite an essential experience, because similar situations usually took place at The Corporation Game. Unfortunately, at that point I couldn’t understand that, but now I can say that those situations taught me that despite trusting people, I should firstly listen to myself, because people can choose ineffective and unproductive way.

Finally, I’d like to say that it is always very interesting for me to listen to informative thoughts and ideas of other people, but I don’t like people who talk a lot saying the same things in different words. There are different types of personality, character and temperament. For some people it is very important to have many listeners and opponents, but others feel more comfortable being in calm environment asking a teacher clarifying questions and comparing notes. I cannot understand why it is essential and stimulated to talk and think aloud at lessons. If I liked to talk in public very much and liked to be in the centre of attention I would choose to be an actress, a political leader or a journalist, but I prefer to express my thoughts through visual communication. I’ve never been interested in social activities, for example, to be a part of some student union, to debate or participate in some meetings. Despite the fact that I really like to communicate with people, I am not a public person and I am not bored being surrounded by calm people. I suffer from lack of time to do all tasks, moreover, I get tired by group activities after which I need to have a rest. I respect necessity of saying out for other people, but I would like to have an opportunity to keep silent. As a result, my first passion and interest to the subject turned into a desire to avoid it.

Opportunities.

As I mentioned before it was a good foundation to analyze my abilities and preferences. All knowledge about design and problem solving that I received will definitely help my future education.

Firstly, I understood that I can do and realize concrete tasks in concrete time with particular type of people.

Secondly, I understood that I can enjoy the process, come to a fine result and finish a task qualitively when I succeed in creating good dealings with my teacher.

Thirdly, I have got awared of the fact that there are different styles of teaching and different types of working. The Corporation Game seemed to be strange and disposed irritation, nevertheless, there is no doubt that it led me to reconstuction of understanding my life position. I hope I became more tolerant. Probably every process would’ve been faster and more productive if I had created a closer contact with Soumitri. I regret that I was satisfied with minimum communication and didn’t try to find out my misunderstandings with Soumitri’s help. If I hadn’t understood something it had been my problem and I should have undertaken some actions to solve it.

Threats.

I’ve read some other reviews of my classmates where they consider each of us as threats, because we are future competitors to each other. Personally, I do not approach my classmates as a threat, because despite the fact that we are making friends with each other, finally each of us has different skills and each of us is good in different areas of Industrial Design. I believe that one of my threat is that I am not able to change a course, just because I don’t want to offend a teacher.

Accordingly to this, another threat is that I choose some lessons and projects, where I do not develop and express myself as good as I can do choosing others. In spite of the fact that I got quite a lot from The Corporation Game studio, I think it did not fit me much. I think I would’ve received much more pleasure if I had chosen, for example, the café project. I am saying this, because I know that if I receive pleasure from what I am doing, I work very hard and, of course, I develop myself as a professional.

Overall, the benefit of writing a self reflective essay is that all thoughts take an accurate shape, which gives an opportunity to look at myself from all points of view. I would be pleased if my classmates and my teacher didn’t embrace my words as critique, because everything I’ve said only concidered to me. At this moment the process of writing takes much of my energy and I realized that it would’ve been much easier if I had been keeping a dairy of journey and making notes during the course. It was very useful for me to write everything down, because it brought me self realization and perhaps I would have never made any clear analysis if I hadn’t written it.

Home!

2005-10-20T03:24:00.000+10:00

I am going back home the day after tomorrow!!!

"Solaris" (Солярис)

2005-10-20T03:15:00.000+10:00

Solaris (Солярис) is one of the best movies of a Russian director Andrey Tarkovsky (Андрей Тарковский). The movie was produced in 1972. The story was based on a book of the same name by Polish writer Stanislaw Lem.

The story of “Solaris” is very pointed and strained, it is full of unexpected and exciting moments. It is a story about humans getting familiarized with space in future (in 21 century). Solaris is a planet, which is covered by some kind of intellectual ocean. After the mysterious demise of one of the three scientists on the base, the main character , a psychologist, Kris Kelvin, is sent out to replace him. He finds the station run-down and the two remaining scientists cold and secretive. After first night on the station his wife who has been dead for seven years appears. Later it becomes clear that the Ocean has an ability to materialize people’s hidden thoughts.

Basically, stories of Lem and Tatkovsky are similar, but their pathos’, issues and aims are different. The planet with its Ocean plays the major role in Lem’s book. First of all he is interested in ways of discover “unknown” by humans beyond the Earth. Tarkovsky understoon the book in his own way and made different Solaris. According to the words of Stanislav Lem, it is more likely to “Crime and Punishment” by Dostoevsky, then to his book. Tarkovsky did not want to make a fantasy movie; he was interested to show moral issues between his caracters, their thoughts and feelings. The Ocean was secondary and hostile. In “Solaris” by Tarkovsky the Space is strange, but the Earth is equivalent to Motherland. In my opinion, he wanted to show us that moral qualities appear in every part of our lives and in different conditions, even in space. Human is looking for something new, trying to do impossible; and at the end it finds out that "Human need only the Human". He does not need the Space.

I was about 13 when I have watched “Solaris” at the first time. I did not understand a lot, but I clear remembered that amazing Bach music. It is one of a reason to watch this film. After I have watched the movie again I realized that the author shows us a problem of weekday life and this idea becomes more contrast in space, but it might be my subjective view. I think it is one of the hardest things to receive routine as an actual life. To come home and do not argue with your wife (in this case), to be patience and abide the routine of your work.

Kris Kelvin meets his dead wife, who committed suicide. The Ocean gives her back to him and Kris realized that it was his fault, that he made his wife kill herself, because he was bored of their family life. Now it is clear for him, that there were some arguments, tripe, routine…and he had not have patience to abide this. He turned around and shut the door…He was bored. But she was left alone and she inject a poison.

It is a hard sin in the heart of the main character. He takes everything very seriously on the station, especially the return of his wife. He feels that it is a unique chance to correct what it seems impossible to correct. And now the weekday life is back again with its arguments and new experience. Kris is trying to behave himself in different way, because he knows that even a word can destroy everything, love, family and a person’s life. He holds-his peace when he is intense, trying not to explode and not to be rude as he was before, because love is taking the first place in his feelings now.

the last spurt

2005-10-10T09:04:00.000+10:00

one tense week left...
I always think that it would be nice if i had some kind of time controler, to make day longer...but just for me haha. That is so frustrating studying all day long and at the end realize that you haven't done much, not as much as you wished to do and not as much comparing with time that you spend doing this work. Am i alone?? or everybody feel the same sometime? On a way home after regular school day you watch the sun setting down, and you wished you could negotiate with it somehow to ask it to slow down its routine process...to have time to do more... But it never hear you.
I always wonder how some people can do everything on time and after that have time for rest, that is always a big question for me, i wished i can learn it. Perhaps it comes with experience or...time.
Anyway, the last week left and it is so much to do. And i can hardly imagine that the first yeah of uni has almost gone. That is so strange, but i don't feel it like a year, althuogh i feel i have learnt a lot and recieved very good experience living in completely different place and communicating with very interesting people. I don't regret that i've chosen this studio and feel proud that i've been its part, despite i've done less work then Soumitri expected, i think, and wasn't that talkative. I haven't realized yet what i exactly have learnt from this subject, but i very enjoyed the lectures and that energy which was during playing games and solving different 'design' problems. Besides it is just the begining of our big university journey and i believe it is a good start and a strong foundation. Thank you very much! Looking forward to having summer holidays, but already prepared for next challenging year. And i am very very happy and enjoy it very much!

blog, blog, blog....ohhh

2005-10-10T08:11:00.000+10:00

finally i am here... again.... after a while. I am not saying, that i don't like you, blog, but i just can't go deep or submerge into you ...if it makes any sense. why? i don't really know. Perhaps you take me too much time to post something, perhaps i am not get used to express myself in such way... there must be some other unknown reasons... But the only way to make it productive is to start it, do it and keep doing it. Easy. I believe i can do it, although it is "slightly" late...but late is better than never (according to one of a russian saying). Let's try to make it work. =)

Folding paper

2005-08-01T00:18:00.000+10:00

This is what i was doing with paper when i was in 10 form. We were learning the opportunities of cutting and folding it. Simple and impressive. But there were used counting and a bit maths and geometry :/

Photo could be better...

And paper again

2005-07-31T11:27:00.000+10:00

Elephant poo paper

Technology of making paper of poo is similar: to collect dung, boil the poo down to pulp and then recycle into paper.

I think, not every animal's poo can fit to this. The main idea is that there must be undigested fiber in a poo - you can not make paper of cows poo, because it is obviously doesnt fit (I remember it when i have been to country side to visit my Granny).

You can watch the process on Ellie Poo. Nice card, isnt it?

More paper!

2005-07-31T10:37:00.000+10:00

Australian made paper........roo poo paper

100% handmade and eco friendly

NO to deforest, YES to poo paper! fantastic!!!

Work hard fellow!!!

thinking about paper...

2005-07-31T09:49:00.000+10:00

I was sitting at my table when i took a look at everything surrounded me. I realized that most things were made of paper: printing and drawing paper, exercise-books, design journals and magazines, booklets and ads about Russian ballet and Melbourne fim festival, a folio with Soumitri's tasks, a cup, tissues, boxes and packs, russian-english dictionary, books everywhere on the floor and one in my hands, my family photo on the table and more. I understood that the material we see and touch more than other materials during a day is Paper.