PSAM 3060 G
Currents: Communication Design Workshop
Room 603, Parsons 2 W 13th
April 15th, 2022 – May 13th, 2022
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Instructor: Mianwei Wang ([email protected])
Teaching Assistant: Danny Lian ([email protected])
0) Buffering reading: Charles Broskoski, On Motivation
1) Introduction
—break—
2) writing workshop
after-class:
1) Consolidate your writing
2) Can you re-sequence your writing?
Submit your writing work latest by Wednesday night
readings:
Verlyn Klinkenborg, Several Short Sentences about Writing
Richard Maxwell, Artist Statement — need scroll down the page to see
Jenny Odell, Inhabiting Negative Space — less relative to “artist statement,” but good to look at how she writes about what she’s interested in
Before moving forward, we invite everyone to take a look back at the work that was already done...
Please prepare 3 of your old projects that are representative from your design portfolio / work collection. CHANGED OF PLAN: Let’s present as one entire group in the next class. Sign up presentation slot, and submit your presentation document.
pecha kucha style: 10 images, 30 seconds per slide, 5 minutes talk per person
1). Pecha Kucha Timeslots here
—break—
2). Peer critique: share the writing in groups of 3, and discuss the relationship between the writing to the presented design work (30 min). Topics includes but not limited to:
- Share your favorite / proudest part with the group
- Key words or themes that emerged from the writing
- Your mood at the time
3). All class check-in: Exercise
After-class:
Let’s put away the writings from last week for now, you are going to do a new writing based on the fragments you gathered today and try to profile your writing from last week. Start with something is tangible, the chair you’re sitting on, the view outside of the window, the door of your apartment... No word limit, and have fun. Submit your writings here (free writing from in-class exercise and your weekly writing)
Readings:
Bryce Wilner, All at Once
Samuel R. Delany, Of Solids and Surds (§59-§63)
Angie Keefer, An Octopus in Plan View (excerpt)
1). Moodboarding: collect 5 images that go along with your profile writing from last week, not necessarily newly found images but could also from your old image collection.
2). Identify 3 of your old projects that have certain connection to your profile writing, the connections don't have to be fully externalized, could be something that only you are aware of. Write down the reasons for each briefly.
3). Attributes: make a list of attributes of the 3 projects, 10 at least and the more the better. Attributes include formats, tools, language, topics, design elements, categories... as well as any descriptive words you can label the works.
After class
Now we are pivoting into the creation for the final project — you are doing 1 from the 3 following options for the sketch work:
a) Moving image work
Use the 5 images from your moodboard to be the visual content, and create a voiceover by using (partially) your most recent writing piece. Feel free to iterate your 5-image collection as well as make edits to your writing.
b) Typographic work
Instead, images are optional but not required to be included. But specific information such as format, sizes, page numbers etc are required to bring to the meetings. Use your most recent writing piece to be the content, and need to be typographically expressive and strongly related to your writing.
c) Interactive work
This will be more challenging than the 2 above as you need to plan out a whole event for the presentation. Creating 1 webpage (if multiple, there's no leaving-the-page experience) only that incorporates your 5 images as well as your writing. Explore the way how text and images interact with the audience. As this homework is a sketch for the current purpose, interactive work is not a recommended approach, but you're free to explore if you feel strongly about it.
For next class
Sign up individual meeting slots
Sign up final presentation slot
