I think my personal motivation when it comes to IT projects we are working on varies a lot depending on the particular unit. Sometimes, I'm really into the topic and I end up enjoying it so much that I do a lot of extra work; other times, I just try to maintain my grades and I can see the difference in the end.
Even though I don't always work to the "best" of my ability, I think I always try to attain the best grades and that motivates me to keep working. As I said in my evaluation, I was very enthusiastic about our Portraiture Technology at first and then lost interest while working on the actual piece, before starting to really understand what I was learning from this. When I look at my Criterion D part, it doesn't sound very personal or unique to me, simply what I was expected to write.
People can't be interested in everything, though, and I think that overall I maintain a positive attitude towards all of our subjects. If things in IT don't particularly interest me, I'll still try to tie the topic to my other fields of interest. For example, art is not nearly as much my thing as computer graphics, so I spent more time on my Design criterion for this unit than I would've done for other projects.
Concerning cooperation with others, I'm afraid I'm not much of a team worker. Sometimes my teammates haven't set themselves the same standards as I have, or they have a different opinion on how we should do the project. I tend to believe that my way is the only way to do it and end up taking control, because I want to be everywhere at once. I think I am getting better with this, though. It's easier for me when I'm working with people I know, because then I value their opinions more without realizing it. As this is my third year in ISU, I'm starting to know all of my classmates fairly well. After each project where I didn't do more than my share and things turned out fine, I grow less controlling and more trusting in others. I believe cooperating is really something I need to improve, and I guess realizing the need for it is the first step towards change. I appreciate other people's work when I see it, and always try to make positive comments, so I don't really know why I can't appreciate it so well when the same people are working with me.
For this particular unit, cooperation wasn't too much of an issue as this was an individual project. I got some good ideas from my friends, which I listened to, but I think I could've taken in even more input. Even though this was a self portrait, my friends are part of who I am. I think this is the biggest aspect of Criterion F I would like to improve this year.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Monday, October 12, 2009
Evaluation
Now that we're done with our technology unit, I can reflect on my self portrait. I think this unit taught me a lot more about myself than the previous ones, which I guess somewhat makes sense since it's supposed to be about who I am. At the beginning of the portraiture technology class, I was really enthusiastic, but this enthusiasm faded a little bit as we started actually working, messing things up, and reflecting on it all. As I got nearer to the end, though, I started gaining a lot of personal insight from this and enjoying it more.
I'm used to spending a lot of my time working on the investigation, but for this unit it wasn't my main priority. I wanted to show myself rather than someone else's ideas. If you tell someone who has never seen an egg before to draw one, they will probably be much more creative than if you show that same person 20 "creative" ways of painting an egg. Looking at other artists' work using mixed media helped me a lot for this unit, though. I had started thinking that I would only use very traditional medias but decided to be a little crazier after I got some inspiration from mixed media pieces.
I was surprised by how much one simple photograph could tell (see my investigation blog post) and through my investigation, decided a little more clearly on what kind of materials I wanted to use in my artwork. I made a list of different things I was thinking of sticking on. Looking back on that list, I didn't use origami, rice or souvenirs, but I do have textiles and torn out paper in my final piece. This was a very different investigation from the ones I usually do, but I also think it was more personal. As I said in earlier evaluations, sometimes I'm a little too down to earth with my investigations and this was a good exercise in being more creative. It was quite challenging for me. I think that investigating more and finding more different materials would definitely have improved it, but I'm pretty satisfied with my investigation considering I had never really written one like this before.
Design was my favorite part for this unit. I love editing pictures at home and was very happy to be able to do that as part of a school project, for once. I came up with 11 designs using various methods such as Picnik, Photoshop or Photofunia. Even though it was really fun, I think one of the errors I did during my design is that I ended up forgetting what this project was about in the end. I started having a lot of fun just editing pictures, without really thinking of how they represented "me" - it's strange how my own image became just another toy for photo editing after a while. I started looking at my various designs in comparison to my design specifications and realized that some of them didn't really make all that much sense. I was able to eliminate lots of design at this stage.
The other problem I had was that again, I forgot I would have to draw this at some point - I think I made a lot of very interesting pictures, using gradients, faded black and white, cool backgrounds, etc. but Ms. Sudra had to remind me these would be a little hard to draw. Finally, I settled for a very simple design where I had just changed the colors and blackened out the right side. Although I think it was the most sensible choice, sometimes I wonder if I couldn't have chosen another design that I liked better, leaving out some of the detail if it really was too hard to draw. I feel like my design didn't give me enough ideas on what exactly to put on my portrait. At this stage, I quickly thought about the layout and the fact I would have a lot of freedom with the entirely black side, but now I think I should've put more thought into which materials I would use. I just came up with them as I went along.
Finally, one thing about my design was that from the beginning, I wanted to use that one picture and barely even stopped to think of other options I had. When I was having fun with Photofunia, I used another ninja-looking picture and I think it also looked great. Maybe there were some other images on my computer that represented me better than the one I used, but I wasn't very open minded about that. I was happy with my design overall, but I think it would've helped if I'd spent more time on it, and tried to think "outside the box".
I think I already described my process in my precedent posts and my presentation, but I'm just gonna go over it quickly. I think the biggest mistake I made was that I didn't learn from my failures. I used too much water on my face, and I did it again on the black side because I was nervous of how bold and final the paint looked if I applied a thick layer of it. This actually really shows the risk taker profile we were supposed to think about for this unit. I was scared of taking a risk and that actually played against me. As I said earlier, I also think it would've helped with my process if I'd spent more time thinking about which materials I would use.
I think my presentation went alright. I was very nervous, because all the people who had gone before me had been so good, and I felt like my portrait just wasn't that nice to look at. Once I started talking, though, I calmed down because I remembered all of the symbolism in my work. I think my presentation might have run a little long, because I was so scared of forgetting something important. I'm not very good at keeping things concise and short, so I'm afraid that some members of the audience started getting bored as I described every single step of the process. It's still better than missing out on the exact meaning of my portrait, I think. One way I could've improved my presentation would've been to have more visuals to show people, such as print outs of my computer designs or samples of my various materials to pass around. I could also have made it more interactive by asking the others for what they thought the meaning of each material was, instead of telling them straightaway.
Once I was done with everything, I decided to test my product against my design specifications by using my test. I think I thought a little too much of solid ways of making sure my design specifications were matched. For example, I asked people if they could see the difference between my original picture and my edited picture. Most of them thought that it was pretty obvious. I don't think I actually needed a test for that. My other test was to ask people what they thought when they saw my portrait and compare it to what I wanted to express. I think this was very effective and proved me that this self portrait really did represent me, because many of their answers were similar to mine.
Overall, I encountered some difficulties throughout this project but I think it worked out well in the end. I learned a lot from it and I think that it was a good way of getting familiarized with the design cycle after summer break. I wish I had worked a little more on my investigation, but I guess that's part of risk taking - learning from your mistakes.
I'm used to spending a lot of my time working on the investigation, but for this unit it wasn't my main priority. I wanted to show myself rather than someone else's ideas. If you tell someone who has never seen an egg before to draw one, they will probably be much more creative than if you show that same person 20 "creative" ways of painting an egg. Looking at other artists' work using mixed media helped me a lot for this unit, though. I had started thinking that I would only use very traditional medias but decided to be a little crazier after I got some inspiration from mixed media pieces.
I was surprised by how much one simple photograph could tell (see my investigation blog post) and through my investigation, decided a little more clearly on what kind of materials I wanted to use in my artwork. I made a list of different things I was thinking of sticking on. Looking back on that list, I didn't use origami, rice or souvenirs, but I do have textiles and torn out paper in my final piece. This was a very different investigation from the ones I usually do, but I also think it was more personal. As I said in earlier evaluations, sometimes I'm a little too down to earth with my investigations and this was a good exercise in being more creative. It was quite challenging for me. I think that investigating more and finding more different materials would definitely have improved it, but I'm pretty satisfied with my investigation considering I had never really written one like this before.
Design was my favorite part for this unit. I love editing pictures at home and was very happy to be able to do that as part of a school project, for once. I came up with 11 designs using various methods such as Picnik, Photoshop or Photofunia. Even though it was really fun, I think one of the errors I did during my design is that I ended up forgetting what this project was about in the end. I started having a lot of fun just editing pictures, without really thinking of how they represented "me" - it's strange how my own image became just another toy for photo editing after a while. I started looking at my various designs in comparison to my design specifications and realized that some of them didn't really make all that much sense. I was able to eliminate lots of design at this stage.
The other problem I had was that again, I forgot I would have to draw this at some point - I think I made a lot of very interesting pictures, using gradients, faded black and white, cool backgrounds, etc. but Ms. Sudra had to remind me these would be a little hard to draw. Finally, I settled for a very simple design where I had just changed the colors and blackened out the right side. Although I think it was the most sensible choice, sometimes I wonder if I couldn't have chosen another design that I liked better, leaving out some of the detail if it really was too hard to draw. I feel like my design didn't give me enough ideas on what exactly to put on my portrait. At this stage, I quickly thought about the layout and the fact I would have a lot of freedom with the entirely black side, but now I think I should've put more thought into which materials I would use. I just came up with them as I went along.
Finally, one thing about my design was that from the beginning, I wanted to use that one picture and barely even stopped to think of other options I had. When I was having fun with Photofunia, I used another ninja-looking picture and I think it also looked great. Maybe there were some other images on my computer that represented me better than the one I used, but I wasn't very open minded about that. I was happy with my design overall, but I think it would've helped if I'd spent more time on it, and tried to think "outside the box".
I think I already described my process in my precedent posts and my presentation, but I'm just gonna go over it quickly. I think the biggest mistake I made was that I didn't learn from my failures. I used too much water on my face, and I did it again on the black side because I was nervous of how bold and final the paint looked if I applied a thick layer of it. This actually really shows the risk taker profile we were supposed to think about for this unit. I was scared of taking a risk and that actually played against me. As I said earlier, I also think it would've helped with my process if I'd spent more time thinking about which materials I would use.
I think my presentation went alright. I was very nervous, because all the people who had gone before me had been so good, and I felt like my portrait just wasn't that nice to look at. Once I started talking, though, I calmed down because I remembered all of the symbolism in my work. I think my presentation might have run a little long, because I was so scared of forgetting something important. I'm not very good at keeping things concise and short, so I'm afraid that some members of the audience started getting bored as I described every single step of the process. It's still better than missing out on the exact meaning of my portrait, I think. One way I could've improved my presentation would've been to have more visuals to show people, such as print outs of my computer designs or samples of my various materials to pass around. I could also have made it more interactive by asking the others for what they thought the meaning of each material was, instead of telling them straightaway.
Once I was done with everything, I decided to test my product against my design specifications by using my test. I think I thought a little too much of solid ways of making sure my design specifications were matched. For example, I asked people if they could see the difference between my original picture and my edited picture. Most of them thought that it was pretty obvious. I don't think I actually needed a test for that. My other test was to ask people what they thought when they saw my portrait and compare it to what I wanted to express. I think this was very effective and proved me that this self portrait really did represent me, because many of their answers were similar to mine.
Overall, I encountered some difficulties throughout this project but I think it worked out well in the end. I learned a lot from it and I think that it was a good way of getting familiarized with the design cycle after summer break. I wish I had worked a little more on my investigation, but I guess that's part of risk taking - learning from your mistakes.
Monday, October 5, 2009
Testing my final product
Am I using at least 5 different materials on my portrait?
I can answer this test easily: yes, as I am using torn paper, colored sand, cloth, napkin and old homework. I am also using acrylic, watercolors, gouache and oil pastels, so overall this mixed media piece uses about 10 different materials.
Am I able to explain the actual meaning of each material I have used to someone?
I explained the meaning of all five various media to Elise, who understood me well and thought that these mixed media did represent me.
Torn homework - because school has always been important to me, and the text represents my love of books.
Torn binary code - because I have a strong interest in computers.
Cloth - because even though I'm into school, I can be really girly at times.
Napkin - to symbolize Christmas, my favorite holiday.
Colored sand - because I've traveled a lot, and this looks exotic.
Can at least 5 persons see the difference between my original image and my altered version?
Ha Young - yes, the colors are different
Elise - yes, pink!
Urangoo - yes, very easily
Sonya - yes, of course =)
Suugii - yeah
Looking at it, is there anyone other than myself in the image? (that's an easy one...)
No, since I darkened the black part of the image, I'm the only person on the image.
Is the photograph I'm using my own? Do I have the original file for it?
If I write ten things I think this picture tells about myself, would a list of 10 things written by two other people match or would they find some things I didn't try telling about myself but ended up doing anyway?
Sarah
Elise
A "thinker/philosopher" and "wants to be different" are aspects of me that I hadn't really thought of, but that I think are somewhat true. I can hold hours long debates on random paradoxes or some issues such as abortion with some of my friends, which I consider normal but that I suppose aren't for some people. I also really want to be different and sometimes get very stressed trying to know if my thinking and actions are really mine, or if I'm unconsciously being affected by others' opinions too much.
Temuleen
If I ask 2 people a list of 10 words describing me in general, how many of those 10 words are also shown in my picture?
I asked Ha Young and Sonya to give me a list of 10 words they would use to describe me. The idea was that I would then compare how many of these words are also represented in my artwork.
Ha Young
Sonya
Would I want to show this image to other people or am I not particularly proud of it? Do I want to hang up this picture in my bedroom or am I not happy enough with the result?
It's a bit hard for me to answer this question, but I think I might show it to other people. I think it really represents me as a person and I would be happy to let others know more about myself by looking at it while I explain the meaning behind the materials. I also wonder what my family might think it says about me when I show it to them. On the other hand, I'm not particularly comfortable with having a huge picture of myself on the wall...especially since I think the final portrait didn't turn out as well as I had planned it to. I guess I would put it up in my room, but not in a more public place like the living room. I wouldn't want people to see it without me having a chance of telling them exactly what it means.
I can answer this test easily: yes, as I am using torn paper, colored sand, cloth, napkin and old homework. I am also using acrylic, watercolors, gouache and oil pastels, so overall this mixed media piece uses about 10 different materials.
Am I able to explain the actual meaning of each material I have used to someone?
I explained the meaning of all five various media to Elise, who understood me well and thought that these mixed media did represent me.
Torn homework - because school has always been important to me, and the text represents my love of books.
Torn binary code - because I have a strong interest in computers.
Cloth - because even though I'm into school, I can be really girly at times.
Napkin - to symbolize Christmas, my favorite holiday.
Colored sand - because I've traveled a lot, and this looks exotic.
Can at least 5 persons see the difference between my original image and my altered version?
Ha Young - yes, the colors are different
Elise - yes, pink!
Urangoo - yes, very easily
Sonya - yes, of course =)
Suugii - yeah
Looking at it, is there anyone other than myself in the image? (that's an easy one...)
No, since I darkened the black part of the image, I'm the only person on the image.
Is the photograph I'm using my own? Do I have the original file for it?
If I write ten things I think this picture tells about myself, would a list of 10 things written by two other people match or would they find some things I didn't try telling about myself but ended up doing anyway?
Sarah
- Traveled a lot
- Likes Christmas
- Not a perfectionist
- Considers school important
- Confused about myself
- Interested in computers
- Interested in books
- Girly at times
- Comes from faraway places
- Can be crazy at times
Elise
- Likes homework/school - english especially, since it's outside the english room
- Has lived in many places
- A thinker/philosopher
- Computer freak
- Wants to be an awesome blonde, you can't be: there is only one awesome blonde in this world and that's me
- Wants to be different in a good way
A "thinker/philosopher" and "wants to be different" are aspects of me that I hadn't really thought of, but that I think are somewhat true. I can hold hours long debates on random paradoxes or some issues such as abortion with some of my friends, which I consider normal but that I suppose aren't for some people. I also really want to be different and sometimes get very stressed trying to know if my thinking and actions are really mine, or if I'm unconsciously being affected by others' opinions too much.
Temuleen
- Likes sunlight
- Very colorful person inside
- But also has the dark sides
- Likes school
- You wanna know who you are
If I ask 2 people a list of 10 words describing me in general, how many of those 10 words are also shown in my picture?
I asked Ha Young and Sonya to give me a list of 10 words they would use to describe me. The idea was that I would then compare how many of these words are also represented in my artwork.
Ha Young
- smart
- knowledgeable
- creative
- crazy
- funny
- disciplined
- cat-lover :)
- dark
- interracial
- experienced
Sonya
- smart
- weird
- international
- ambitious
- dark
- scary
- random
- interesting
- fun
Would I want to show this image to other people or am I not particularly proud of it? Do I want to hang up this picture in my bedroom or am I not happy enough with the result?
It's a bit hard for me to answer this question, but I think I might show it to other people. I think it really represents me as a person and I would be happy to let others know more about myself by looking at it while I explain the meaning behind the materials. I also wonder what my family might think it says about me when I show it to them. On the other hand, I'm not particularly comfortable with having a huge picture of myself on the wall...especially since I think the final portrait didn't turn out as well as I had planned it to. I guess I would put it up in my room, but not in a more public place like the living room. I wouldn't want people to see it without me having a chance of telling them exactly what it means.
Completed portrait
Alright, so after all of this work I finally managed to finish my self portrait. Ms. Sudra helped me iron it so it looked a little flatter, and then we hung it up in the hallway. We had so many portraits it looked like our grade had taken over the school. You can see mine above - it doesn't look too great, but from what I've written, I think you'll understand how it represents me.
Here are some pictures of me working on my project.
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