kya hai kate!

2006-09-02T23:35:00.000+10:00

hello my blog! I'm glad you're still here... So much has happened since I came by on my way to somewhere else. I am now a wise woman, having turned 30! Hmmmm. I have been visiting whole other worlds, I went off to Alaska for a few weeks with my parents. That was a very amazing trip, I met some wonderful people. They're very laidback up there, a lot like here but - I think they might be more polite!
I was also very lucky to go back to Queensland twice. Once was for my cousin's wedding in Brisbane, and the other was to go and see my sister and her boyfriend while they were back from the UK. Now it's time to start doing some serious uni work, but I just wanted to come back gently first. I also thought it was time for some new pictures. One is from Alaska, it's a place where we stopped for lunch one day. The other is from when we were diving up in Cairns last month, the dive master took it on the second dive (which I wasn't on). Both environments where I need lots of help to survive, but am so lucky to visit.

my friday night

2006-03-28T20:47:00.000+11:00

This was worth queueing for an hour to visit. The whole structure is hand made from very thin vinyl, and the intense colour is the sun shining through it. Thankyou, comm games.

every million mile...

2006-03-06T18:54:00.000+11:00

lurid green i love you

2006-02-28T15:40:00.000+11:00

www.englishdroid.com/ assets/ing_form.jpg

riding round like crazy trying to figure out displays for the PPVW exhibition. I hope people come along! The bikes are awesome, and it was such a great studio. I'm thinking long semi-translucent drapes with images sewn to them and drawn/traced on. Some white, some PPVW green. I've got so much to do between now and tomorrow. A couple of the Aikido guys are not being quite so cool about dropping my responsibilities to the club and to Sport and Rec. I guess I can't blame them, but I'm not going to change my mind either. It feels great not to have so many commitments, although I'm finding that the ones I do have are keeping me pretty busy.. I want to join a choir, I might go and do that tonight if I have time. It's moved from where I thought it was, so I'm a bit daunted now about going. It's quite a long ride from home.

I wonder what will happen with research methods tomorrow, I think there will be clashes with some studios, from what i can see. It's getting a bit ridiculous i think, double-booked rooms, the 3rd year timetable still showing prof prac on a friday instead of research on a wednesday, short-staffed and under-paid and no-one helping. AARgh! not my problem, not worth losing sleep over, not worth being manipulated over. Bugger off, all you guilt-trip manipulators.

I'm so looking forward to sculpture. I can't wait! It's definitely a bonus that Fanny and Carl are doing it too, some familiar friendly faces are always welcome. How funny that all three of us chose to do this elective instead of an id one. Now I just have to make sure that I keep myself disciplined and sticking to my timeline. I just have get around to writing the timeline....

so blind it's scary

2006-01-31T19:34:00.000+11:00

today i had training at RMIT as a support student for new students starting at rmit in the refugee assist scheme. I knew nothing about refugees in Australia when I volunteered for this, and now i am ashamed. i'm still thinking about it all, this is my own place to rant and rail at the world but i'm still too sad. but luckily i'm also angry.
Basically if you arrive in Australia without a visa, you're an asylum seeker and you go into detention, and you can stay there for a long time. If you're lucky, you're accepted as a refugee by the government and issued with a temporary protection visa (TPV). This means you don't have to live in the detention centre anymore. The visas only last for 3 years or 5 years, and if you aren't granted permanent refugee status after that, you go back into detention until you're sent back to the country where you were too scared to live in the first place.
People on TPVs have no rights under Australian Law - as a matter of fact neither do Australians. We have no independent Bill of Rights and are therefore at the mercy of policies set by whichever government is in power.
It's worse on TPVs, however. Not only are you unsure how long you might be able to stay in Australia, but your family can't come and visit you, even for a holiday, and DIMIA can throw you back in the detention centre if they say you have broken any rules.
You cannot get money from Centrelink.
You cannot earn money by working.
If you are caught working for cash-in-hand, you will lose your visa.
You are not provided with accommodation.
You are not provided with food.
You can only go to uni as a full-fee paying international student (except at rmit)
You cannot access ANY government services such as medicare or english language studies.

Some charities are able to provide a limited number of refugees with money ($25/week) or board, and some local people let refugees come and live with them for free.
This is a hidden third-world country within our own first-world society, our "most livable" city.

It gets worse. Some asylum seekers have been in detention centres for a long time(5 years, 8 years) with no possibility of permanent refugee status. They won't be sent back to their country of origin (for example if your country of origin no longer exists, like Kashmir) but they won't be allowed to be permanent refugees. They get a "removal-pending bridging visa" which means they're permanently without resources, permanently threatened with return to detention, but the government no longer has to pay for their food or bed in the detention centre either.

For the last few months I've been looking at working with ngo's in developing countries. There are all kinds of projects based on designing products that locals can make and sell to generate income. I think this kind of project will work here in Australia for refugees. Maybe it already exists, i have a lot of work to do.

http://images.google.com.au/imgres?imgurl=http://www.abc.net.au/cnnnn/firthfactor/img/ep08firth03.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.abc.net.au/cnnnn/firthfactor/s720615.htm&amp;h=180&w=240&sz=10&tbnid=af-Nfy-5uhNyKM:&amp;tbnh=78&tbnw=104&hl=en&start=9&prev=/images%3Fq%3Drefugees%2Bin%2Baustralia%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26rls%3DGGLD,GGLD:2005-03,GGLD:en

whoo-oo0?

2006-01-24T22:13:00.000+11:00

a new pet

2006-01-18T17:36:00.000+11:00

so my new stress-relief project is Design for Inner-City Survival. I'm going to VENT, none of this being nice and tolerant, i'm going to design locks for wheelie-bins so my neighbours can't fill up my bin with their rubbish. Also an AC/DC override to shut down their industrial-size sound-desk and speakers at 1am. There will be anti-car devices that protect pedestrians (me) from insane businessmen in bmws who wouldn't know a green man if it bit them in the @**. Eye-protection for umbrella-filled days, proximity-alert alarms for girl gangs, and instant bridges for crossing lonsdale st at rush-hour. tbc
Tolerance OUT, Vitriol IN!!

evil milk

2006-01-17T17:18:00.000+11:00

oooh no pretty pictures today. just turned down a job back in a pub kitchen, i realised that committing to 2 days a week was not the best way to stick to my plan of finishing projects and being focussed and all that. Plus the more money i earn the more i lose from Austudy, so that's just being dumb. Spent a lovely couple of hours in the local library reading about health and how dangerous the chemicals in my home are and why milk is a conspiracy by the Dairy Farmers Union and if we were meant to drink milk then women would have udders (it's always the poor bloody women). I could spend my whole life freaking out about all the dangers to my life, and still never get the perfect combination of things to avoid at all deadly cost in order to live longer. I'm not saying all this stuff is wrong, but it's definitely harder to remember that even a magazine apparently published for your well-being, with your best interests at heart, will publish articles which are one-sided. I mean, you expect it from Time. I have taken to heart the article on choosing how much media input you let into your life. It's true that i get really upset watching people dying in massive natural disasters or wars - how much can i really do to save those people? (I can hear the derision thundering towards me even now)
After spending time listening to my parents and grandparents talikng about decisions they made in their lives, I 've realised how irresponsible and carefree my life is. They decided what jobs they would do based on their skills and resources, with the ultimate goal of earning the greatest amount of money combined with job security and the opportunity to emigrate to Australia. For my Dad it was a simple decision between medicine and engineering. My grandpa had even less choice. He took work wherever it was, and always aimed for something which would give him greater opportunities, but his first job was hauling flat car batteries through the streets to his bosses' generator, charging them up and then dragging them back to the shop the next morning. He was an electrician, then joined the AirForce during WWII and was an electrician there too before becoming a pilot (flying Tiger Moths!!). He's run petrol stations and been an insurance salesman. My gran was a nurse and a cook and a cleaner and probably other things too.
My point is that they had very clear goals, especially my parents. They wanted a good life, with opportunity to improve their lives through hard work and good investment. That was possible in Australia in the seventies. They chose their country, whereabouts in it they wanted to live, what jobs they would do, etc. ANd here i am just dawdling along, spending all my money, saving nothing from one pay to the next, doing another degree, not too sure where it's going to get me, not married, no investments, no real goals...is this what they wanted for me? Maybe, and i feel very lucky, but i also don't want to waste it. I feel i should build on the headstart they gave me, work out where the next employment boom will be and take advantage of it, not just refuse to do it because i don't like it... i feel like a fool, a girl who still hasn't grown up and she's nearly 30. I know lots of things and i know i'm not such a kid, i've learnt some hard funny wisdoms - and one is that each year I look back and think "wow, i knew so little. Did i really think that was right??" Now i want to use it, learn from it, build from it not let it slow me down with uncertainty.

Cairns, so much more than mangoes...

2006-01-11T20:03:00.000+11:00

Hello blog, I missed you, believe it or not. It's been so long since I visited! I'm not sure how I'll cope going back to full-time work after uni, I found it so hard to do other work for myself while I was working in the shop before Xmas. It was great to be back in Cairns, I chilled out and only left the house occasionally to see friends or go to a movie. Narnia was really good, I went with my parents and we took my Gran too, and then went out for dinner in a Thai restaurant. It was Gran's first time eating Thai food. I think she liked it.
Kevin's gone back to Singapore until uni starts again, he's going to host an event whils he's back there. I hope it goes really well, it's a pretty big thing to take on by yourself. I really want him to succeed, especially since it sounds like his friends back there aren't supporting him at all. He's going to do work experience with an events company too. I think he'll enjoy it, it would be good for him to find what he really wants to do, since it's definitely not IT!
I have been doing lots of little projects, re-painting chairs and cutting glass bottles down into candle lamps and mucking around with wire sculpture and clay sculpture. There are a couple of weeks to go until the PPV workshop, and I'm trying to decide which things I most need to do. I'm going to take Jules' and Simon's advice this year and not try to do everything, just do a bit of stuff but do it well, and finish it! I'm pleased to say I finished all but one of the projects I started in Cairns - the embroidery got pushed aside... But I've got it here with me, so there is hope!

Creativity Techniques - wot i lurned in kya hai

2005-11-26T19:27:00.000+11:00

This is a summary of the Creative Technique Cards I bring to Playgroup. I've posted it here rather than on PGblog because I need to show Soumitri that I have it, and I don't want to overload the PGblog either. If I can work out how to backlink, I'll do that.

I have tried not to expand on any of the techniques more than was written on my cards. That's because I wrote the cards when the studio was fresh in my mind, and i was working through my notebook while i did it. If i try to elaborate now, I'm afraid I'll overdefine the concepts (see "Lucy Church Amiably").
Playgroup has collected many more techniques (I'm still waiting to find out what mind-bottling is) and we keep trying out new ones. The hardest thing is finishing a technique. They're fun to play with, but we're starting to get a bit frustrated with not having outcomes. I've tried hatting the MX, and perhaps it would be good to start using current affairs as complex problems? It will all grow and change over time anyway, i'm sure we'll have plenty of use for the techniques once uni starts again.
I'm expect that my explanation of these techniques will be quite amusing to Soumitri, because i think they've been re-interpreted a few times between his brain and mine, changing context and meaning through discussion like Chinese Whispers. I don't see that as a deterioration. If a technique has changed but it works in some way, then it's a technique. If it's so bound up by context and restrictions as to be useless to all but pedants, then I don't consider it to be a creativity technique at all - rather, it's a ritual.

Actor Network Theory

As far as i can understand, this approach regards all objects as having the same importance in a network as people. Playgroup did a lot more research on this when I raised the question with them. I thank Not Ben for this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actor_network_theory

Backcasting

imagining future scenarios and then working out milestones on a timeline to indicate how we would get from our current situation to the future one. The 3 types of future scenarios could be described as

idealistic
business as usual
mad max

Bionics and Analogy

sidewinder snake http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidewinder_(snake) informs the development of a missile. It's not all doom, velcro is another example. Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biomimicry to feel happier.

Also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analogy *i love wiki*

Blimp

create tiny changes; you don't need to have the answers to act

Eight Categories

Can you divide a scenario into 8 equal categories? Use a pie chart similar to the Spider diagram, but forget the smaller circles. The only time i tried this, we couldn't get the categories down to 8 equal ones because we were talikng about types of designers, and no-one could agree. Maybe that's the point - to show which problems are complex and can't be broken down neatly into packages.

Form Development

elsewhere - setting the origin for a line or centrepoint of an arc off the page you're drawing on, and then using those lines to inform the shape
flow - erm, i can't remember, because I didn't use this technique. Rugrollers, can you help??
primaries - using only primary shapes to develop the form: not just a composite of blocks, but also using the shapes to cut away sections of the form

IDEO Brainstorming

(as experienced by ME at the masterclass with David Webster in April 05)

search for your problem: observe, talk to people, take notes and photos. Work in a team to do this
write each idea or observation down, and pin them up
sort and re-sort observations into themes or categories
choose categories supported by largest number of observations
brainstorm possible solutions - How can We Make this Better for the people who are having this experience?
vote on your 3 favourite ideas
choose one to work on in a small group
make a mock-up and act out the story of using it

Lucy Church Amiably

defining words and meanings restricts them and their possibilities of use

Questioning Technique

what is the problem?
why is it like this?
what else could it be?
what should it be?

Scenarios

prerequisites: what happened before?
personas: who is involved?
activities: what is happening?
results: what is the end-state of the scenario?

6 Hats

Edward de Bono, not originally from Kya Hai but I ended up using it for the laptop adoption work. Approach a scenario wearing a specific hat to use a specific mindset:

red = intuitive
green = creative
yellow = positive
black = negative
white = investigative
blue = connective (?) /how do you organise the thinking for this scenario

Spider diagram

3 concentric circles divided into 8 equal wedges by lines. Each line represents something different and perhaps opposing, such as cultural capital, self-confidence, creativity or project management. The smallest circle is the least, the largest the most. Identify where on the diagram your abilities in each of the 8 aspects lie. Then identify where you would like them to lie. This is a great self-mapping tool when used repeatedly.

SWOT

self-reflective practice: identify your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats

There Is No Problem

we have situation A; we want to have situation B - and we don't need expert opinions

What is the Question?

simple, i know, but often overlooked

Paper Lamp

2005-11-26T19:00:00.000+11:00

My first full-sized paper lamp! It's taken me a while to work on this one, hours of sitting down with wire and pliers watching Brittany's copy of Carnivale. I started with a frame and no idea what i would do with it. The frame was originally supposed to be a cylinder, a core for rice-paper wrapping. This was the lamp that was supposed to go into Fringe with the ribbon lights. Then I started playing with the wire. I think I'm so attracted to it because it's shiny. Over time I ended up with a cardboard box full of sculptures of leaves and flowers and pods and vines and other strange things. It was funny to find myself making leaves, it reminded me of the wire exercise we did on Camp in 1st year. Eventually I started to work them onto the frame. That's how it stayed for quite a while, I wasn't sure at all that I wanted to add paper to it. After looking at it for a few days, i thought that paper might add definition to the sculptures and make them easier to see. I tore up bits of rice paper, wet them and molded them onto the leaves. I had no idea if they would stay in shape and stuck on once they were dry! After admiring the transparency and the way the light was affected by the layers of paper, i decided to start playing with colour.

While I was still in the process of making the sculptures, i could see them in my head layered with lurid reds, pinks and oranges, like the hothouse flowers you might find in an Agatha Christie plot. I resisted the temptation for some time, convincing myself to go for a colour scheme based around the natural rice paper. Perhaps a little pale blue would go well with the off-white? I hunted out my acrylic paints, and mixed some blue up with water and pva glue. It was a lovely pale colour, and when i dipped the paper in it i picked up globs of darker blue where the paint had stuck in lumps. This kept me happy for a while, and then I decided to make the colour darker. The rest is a blur. Blue, green, black, purple, light purple...it all started to be very pretty. Too pretty? So i added the lurid red flowers. After all, it already looked like a fairies' tea-party, and i still had to incorporate the budlights. And i really wanted some luridity.

Next was the lighting issue. Twining the lights around the stems and in through the flowers, as I had originally planned, was out of the question. Too too cute. After walking around it for a couple more days, i decided to try a clump of light dangling down, like a root ball or a nest of spiders. It turned out that i needed another wire structure to help it all sit properly, which was a great excuse to play with more wire. I'm really happy with the result. When the lamp is outside in the breeze, the loosely fixed sculptures shift slowly around the stem, and small extensions like the springs and leaves wave back and forth. When it's inside and the lights are turned on, the ball spins slowly and the light is diffused through the coloured paper. The photos don't really show it all, perhaps they're more of a taster. I'm glad I finished the lamp, now we just have to work out where it looks best in the house!

Reflective essay - what have i learned?

2005-11-24T19:09:00.000+11:00

naked house

2005-11-24T18:53:00.000+11:00

http://www.shigerubanarchitects.com/SBA_WORKS/SBA_HOUSES/SBA_HOUSES_24/SBA_Houses_24.html

perhaps it's a cactus

2005-11-21T16:25:00.000+11:00

I certainly hope so after my neglect of playgroup this month. It's all just dropped to the ground from my nerveless fingers. Everything. i have become disengaged from my life in the last few weeks, just going to ground and reading, eating, sleeping. And now I have stuff due for Soumitri and i haven't done it. Why do i always post when i'm hungry? It's alwyas time to go home and eat before i get too tired and don't have the energy to do my work when i get home. Anyway this is just a post to keep my little blog stumbling along.

playgroup progress

2005-11-01T19:00:00.000+11:00

Playgroup is going better then i imagined. I can't believe we're having two meetings in a week. I am a bit worried about how to look after it from here on. It seems like a plant that could be really well maintained or go to seed or die. I guess I'm guilty of the same things that worry me within the group - a need for too much outcome assurance. For example, we spend far too long worrying about whether or not a technique will be useful, rather than just trying it out. I'm getting a much greater understanding of what it must've been like for Soumitri, trying to get people to trust him and just do things. There isn't an end-point to these exercises. If there were, there wouldn't be much point doing them. We're not looking for answers to a particular problem, we're looking for ways to think about things. I don't have a goal of reaching a concept for the Hermes window that we all agree on. The playgroup is supposed to be about ways of thinking, and it seems like it's turning into a project group instead, and I'm not sure where to step to from here. I feel it's too early to be discussing making money out of it by doing outreach. We're not "robust" yet. And anyway, the point was to create a space for people to do this stuff without an agenda. Now it seems like it's purely agenda-driven. I say that it isn't mine, and that all the people in it have as much say over what happens or what they want next, but i really am uncertain about the direction it's going in. I don't want it to become a consultancy, and having projects proposed by people who haven't even been to playgroup really makes me feel like we're chasing the wrong goals. I really don't know what to do about it. I am moving away from controlling my environment, and am doing really well at home, finding creative ways to respond to noisy neighbours and stuff. I'm so uncomfortable, it has to be good. Actually it is good, it feels like I'm getting a different perspective on relating to the world I'm living in. It's tempting to fall back on the punishment/reward model that i know so well, but knowing that's not so effective in the long-term drives me to seek other approaches. Hmmm.

headspin

2005-10-30T20:15:00.000+11:00

Wow a week plus since i posted. Well, i guess the last week of submissions is a good excuse. Except there's always more. I spent hours sitting in my study making wire sculptures while i watched carnivale on Saturday. I have a box full of flowers and leaves and vines and stuff. I have a picture in my head of lurid hothouse flowers spiralling up bamboo - this is going to be a lamp, by the way. It was going to be the paper lamp but i'm enjoying the wire work too much. Perhaps i'll bring in paper too. My head is on fire, so many possibilities, which do i want to do, can i do them all at the same time? Perhaps not. But it will be fun trying. Hey look i even called my sculptures "sculptures" instead of cringing away from naming it as anything recognisable. So playgroup blog is up and running, it's going well so far. The most important thing is to keep it fresh i think, pour enthusiasm into it. the others are, which is really kicking it along. i wanted to ring my Dad last night, to tell him how awesome everything it. I've been reading a book Soumitri lent me about design, and design methods, and alternative approaches to the yuppy furniture and product design which leaves me so cold. I just wanted to tell Dad that i found out that there is a whole other world of design that doesn't require blind adherence to Wallpaper's edicts. All these doubts I've been having about being in the right place are falling away. On the flipside, after starting to read this stuff I've realised that Soumitri expects us to learn how to think. I know that sounds dumb, but we are actually going have to form ideas. Not just reactionary opinions, but contemplative philosophies/explorations. We're not just learning at the feet of "those who Know". This is much bigger than that. I'm a bit scared, looking out off the edge of this particular cliff.

update on my brain

2005-10-21T18:50:00.000+10:00

which has actually left the country....
you would think that now most of my submissions are in, life would be calmer. but no (mais non!) it is actually the opposite. All the things i've been putting off to finish the semester are now back on the list. I really want to go to vietnam as a chef for KOTO http://www.streetvoices.com.au/wiKoto.htm
so i guess i'll have to defer uni. That idea disturbs me somewhat, but i'll possibly never get another chance to do such a thing. I don't think I've got the skills to apply to Aust Volunteers Abroad. I really want to get back to the glass studio, and go do some work at Mother's again (fingers crossed) and then what will i do after the holidays?? Not too sure, but i'd really like to learn about gardening. I was at bunnings yesterday and really wanted to get some plants, but i haven't got a clue what to do with them when i get them home, guess i'd better do some research...another thing to get excited about! Anyway i've been here way too long, and i'm hungry. Gotta go home.

PLAygroup5- Hermes competition

2005-10-21T18:47:00.000+10:00

It's starting to feel like i only use this blog as a noticeboard at the moment. oops. Anyway, in response to Ben's request, there will be another playgroup next thursday at 12:30, studio level 5 (if it's free) to brainstorm/6 hat the Hermes window competition. The theme is the Air of Paris, and you should've received an email from Soumitri about it. I am completely confused about what it actually is. Is it stuff, or exhibition display, or ???

Playgroup4

2005-10-19T13:32:00.000+10:00

Sorry it didn't happen Wednesday, things are a bit all over the place plus my motivation has dropped off. So I was talking to Haley and Majendie. They are both keen for a Playgroup tomorrow, Thursday at 11:30 am, before the 1st years hand-in for modelling. So i will be there, level 5 studio. Probably do some brain stretches and then get into our fabulous explorations of ideas that wander off into the distance - half the fun is figuring out how we got there at the end!
Hope you can make it, and i apologise for the short notice. I do intend to continue with Playgroup during the break, we'll have to figure out good times for everyone :)

continued

2005-10-12T20:35:00.000+10:00

had to jump off line for a bit there. So hash is thinking that a Playgroup would work at monash too, wouldn't it be great if we could open up relations between students at the different unis. If we can get the Assimilation studio going next year, we could have a chance of creating an on-line community with students at unis all around the world, but more important to me, with other Australian students. In my guts, i just KNOW there's got to be something about the Aussie mindset that will give us a niche to work in. Perhaps the smc mentality is it, but i think it's worth investigating. What are we good at that will help us hold our own in wherever we want to go. I worked with an artist at the shop the other day, an awesome lady called Aly. She just got back from an artist residency in Milan for 6 months. She says the italians aren't interested in Aussie artists. They don't even want to see it. They're nurturing their own locals. Fair enough. What can we create or encourage here? One of the things i think about not having traditions is that you have less fear about social context. I know it's appreciated about our cooking style in London. Why shouldn't it be the same for design? We're going out into this community, so we should be prepared to affect it. well, don't you think it should be affected by our goals and not just our static presence?

Playgroup3- review

2005-10-12T19:15:00.000+10:00

Thanks everyone who came along to playgroup today. It got off to shaky start but really picked up as the group warmed up and also as more people came by. We got up to 10 today -it's a new record! Of course it's quality not quantity! A few great ideas came out of today's chats, including the idea of continuing Playgroup throughout the degree and after we graduate. We want to be able to go into static situations and shake them up, turn them over and find new ways into and around them. Braden's idea of an anarchistic non-collective is definitely one to explore further. We talked about the idea of a successful designer, what we think might stop us from being in those categories. We realised our fear of failure, but when we actually tried to define failure, what would be the worst thing that could happen, it seemed like giving up or not trying was the worst thing anyone could think of. So that took care of that demon, at least for the moment. We also talked about the things that inspire us the most at the moment, and whether it's a good idea or not to look at other design. ok more later

be young and shut up

just because i have nothing else to do

2005-10-11T21:34:00.000+10:00

so i've just spent the past couple of hours at Forum 4, for RMIT Sport and Rec, learning about fundraising and sponsorship. Whether or not VSU goes through next year (which we don't know any more about yet), we will have to become more competitive as a Club (Aikido, if you don't already know. I'm part of the exec). Unfortunately sponsorship is qquite alien to Aikido, as our O-sensei disapproves of endorsement of products. That's fine and understandable, but makes establishing a relationship with a company a little more complicated than it would be if we could just be seen to be drinking their beer or whatever.
I'm hoping to bring the Aikido situation as a complex problem for Playgroup tomorrow for help from you guys. The exec are all volunteers and mostly students, and we're by nature quite happy to avoid change. There is a tendency to complain about solutions rather than focusing (there's that word again) on what could be done to improve them. I find it hard to continue to remain positive in a role i didn't want, but when i go to meetings i'm inspired to do my best for the club. This year and next year could be the deciders for the continued existence of the Club, and i think many things in Sport and Rec will change. I've just volunteered to be on the Sports Council, which advises the union on the sports teams needs. It seems that the communication channels between the different groups could be more effective. Tomorrow before Playgroup is a meeting of the VSU workgroup, made up of students, union reps and university reps. It's good to know that they've identified the maintenance of student life on campus as a key goal.
My hope is that by being involved in these kinds of bureaucratic environments at the same time as Playgroup will allow me to bring ideas across from us to them, and maybe to approach difficult problems in a different way. Big dreams, I know, but hey, I was looking for a new goal!
We also heard from the senior lecturer in Marketing at RMIT, and one of the other goals i now have is to become more professional in the things i do. Not to turn into a conservative suit, but to keep my irritation under wraps and follow through on the things i commit to - and develop a personal life that allows me to separate my professional life and deal with people there without needing to control everything around me. So yeah, just a couple of new goals :)

playgroup

2005-10-10T20:20:00.000+10:00

I'll set up for another playgroup this wednesday, same time place etc. (how rude of me - level 5, end studio, from 12:30 onwards)
If anyone can give me directions to the details of the Corporation Games themselves, that'd be great. ( i can't find them on the blog, although the posts are interesting to read)
Otherwise bring in scenarios/problems if you have them and we'll chew them up. If anyone wants to change the time so they don't miss a class, let me know.

is there an "off" button on the back of my head, please? Anyone?

2005-10-10T19:49:00.000+10:00

Such dilemmas, so many questions and doubts in my head. I knew when I started this degree that my self-doubt would be my own worst enemy. I swing between bravado and knee-shaking fear. Many questions from people over the last few days/weeks have made me question my wisdom in choosing this course. I often feel that I'm in the wrong place because i don't get excited about designing products. I admire and appreciate beautiful things, and I enjoy selling them in the shop, but the idea of being a product designer in the only model i know - a design consultancy - leaves me cold. Boxes with compound curves and shiny bits do nothing for me. And belief in them as the next big thing is beyond me. But neither do i wish to be a furniture designer producing intimidating looking chairs for very rich people. Rich people will always find something to spend money on. I've had this discussion with Ben, he says to take their money if they're prepared to spend it. That's not something that would make me get out ofbed in the mornings. I've always felt that i could be awesome at something if i just knew what to focus on. I don't know what my passion is - although i seem to be quite good at annoying people. Is there such a thing as professional irritator?
So then kevin said i should be doing philosophy and someone else said politics, and a customer on Sunday said "THERE ARE NO JOBS IN INDUSTRIAL DESIGN, SWAP TO INTERIOR DESIGN but don't listen to me" and I didn't get to ask him where he was coming from. And my Dad wants to know where i see myself in 10 years time and apparently the things I'm most interested in as part of this course are quite similar to professional communications analysis.
Phew.
Then comes this huge soul-search about where do i think i'm really going. I should be setting goals so i can work towards them, apparently. All this time i've been approaching this like an apprenticeship, accepting that i know almost nothing and prepared to wait with an open mind to see where i end up. Trusting that I'll know my way as i go.
Depression :( another wrong turn? Can i truly say i've made wrong turns? No. But everything looks like crap when you're doubting yourself.
Then, epiphany! I'm a better designer because i'm more interested in the context, emotion and meaning than in the outcome! Everyone will love me, because i won't be clinging to an end-point image i have in my head. In fact, there will be other people to do the glossy finishing stuff. And i will be free to do the stuff i like, brain-storming and day-dreaming.
But here comes more doubt. Won't that mean I'm far less employable? I like hanging out with my dad and having nice meals and going on adventures - which cost money. What if i can't look after myself when i retire? Oh why didn't i just take a money-making sensible job?
Maybe what i should answer when I'm asked, do you want to be a product- or furniture- designer, is say i want to be a Versatile Designer. If the future of careers is flexible short-term contracts, then it would be better to be flexible. Obviously, that would require me to be pretty good at all the aspects of design, from concept to prototype. Which brings me back squarely to the start. I'm going to have to learn how to draw and quick-render and put bosses in things and choose the font size for a drawing layout. SO BORING. (Is "I don't wanna!" going to cut it?) Where is my own opinion in this muddle? Like rosencrantz & guildenstern...do i stay on the boat or get off the boat?
BUT if i can feel my pulse quicken and my energy levels rise when i discuss the kind of design life I want, and feel it all drop away when i think about drawing sets, does that mean i should follow my feelings - or will I cripple my future chances? i don't want to create my own failure. Does it mean i only dislike these things because i'm not good at them yet? How much faith does it take? Lots, i know that. One of the film-makers at AG Ideas said to never let anyone tell me i was wrong, to stick to my ideas no matter what. But what if they're bad ideas Does getting decent marks mean anything with regard to my chances in the "real" world?

success? not yet...

2005-10-06T20:11:00.000+10:00

I've been in the library all day continuing my research into the perception of success in different cultures and philosophies. It's really blowing my mind, especially all the stuff that Kevin's been trying to tell me about the value of community in asian culture, and i've been fighting with him all this time about the supremacy of the autonomous Western individual. (It's alright, I've already apologised, over dumplings at Camy Shanghai). The concept of civil society and how it may not have a place in any other culture, and in fact may be offensive to non-egocentric cultures. I should be writing this in my essay, not here, but it's so interesting. After getting so angry about the tension in studio yesterday (sorry to anyone who read my blog and had no idea what i was on about) i really struggled to let it go last night and all today. But i'm learning about the traps i set for myself. I catch myself part way through a vengeful daydream, and can't even remember how i got onto that topic. I read something a while ago about people who would otherwise be successful hijacking their own chances because they insist on thinking on "the wrong level." The analogy the author gave was of driving down a rain-driven pot-holed highway at 200km an hour with artics on both sides and 5 people in the car and turning round to ask everyone what they want for dinner... Now i can stop myself when i'm wasting energy focussing on unhelpful thoughts. (like, is that how you spell focussing..?) Ah now i can tell I'm drifting, back into self-censorship, chatting with the anonymous web instead of streaming thoughts. Must be time to go write some more Studies stuff.

digital living

2005-10-05T19:14:00.000+10:00

i still hate the idea of a remote, liam. Unless it's round, or soft, or in the sofa, like someone suggested (sorry, have to check the video to remember) or if it was made of jelly.

Aargh!!! and thankyou, playgroup2 people

2005-10-05T18:59:00.000+10:00

Thanks everyone who came today, i hope you had fun - i did! It nearly made up for studio... Hash, hope it was what you were expecting. I really like Raph's suggestion of creating our own scenarios, just noting down different situations we think could be brain-stormed or 6 hatted. Soumitri suggested making up my own game instead of relying on 6 hats. Definitely worth considering. How the hell is this supposed to be reflexive not narrative? Damn, i thought i was getting somewhere. i hate confrontation. Just so you know, i don't ACTUALLY enjoy putting my hand up to contradict people, especially when i know they're not going to cope with it. I would like everyone to like me in a perfect world, but i can't accept complacency, decisions that i think are very poorly made - i can't let such things slip by and become acceptable by default or because no-one wanted to deal with any repercussions. It would be great to just sit back and watch it all just drift by... but i'm not that kind of girl. If i come across as negative, maybe it's because some of the ideas are just plain STUPID. There you go, if you want something to dislike, latch onto that and take it home to bed with you. Common sense - hah! Let's do a studio in that next.

Phew, glad that's out. So i wonder what a new game would look like. I had an epiphany about reece design while i was talking to simon yesterday. i just don't know how to build it in rhino or solidworks. There is so much to learn, so much to do, so much to be excited about. I realise i'm not passionate about anything because i've seen mortality close up in the last couple of years, and so the briefness of our lives has made me unconsciously sit back and wait to end, since it's all so unpredictable. I didn't even realise i was doing it. But what a terrible waste, to live as if it didn't matter whether i were here or not, to disengage and merely observe.

panic buttons

2005-10-04T17:12:00.000+10:00

see that big red button? I'm about to hit it, really hard. The emergency brake is looking like an appealing option right now. I have no idea what's due tomorrow for studio. My paper lantern looks better without paper. It may end up being a wire sculpture with lights. Don't like it? Too bad, it's MY lamp, not yours. We have had all sorts of visitors around lately, and it's been so much easier than i thought it would be. It's all a warm-up for me, with Kevin's Mum and sister on their way. Hmm, maybe I'll just leave the state. Anyway, see how easily i procrastinate? All this babble about things that i can't do anything about, instead of going home and doing my school work. I have no idea what to do about design studies, apparently i was at risk with my very late learner contract. Bollocks all over the place. When was the last time i actually did some design?? NFI Interesting how i'm starting to be grumpy with the lecturers about the course content. How much of that is stress, not having done the work and now scrambling looking for a way out?? Quite a lot, i suspect.
I was thinking, out in the dandenongs the other day, i actually really enjoy design. I like the stuff i sell at work, I like the excitement of a new interesting product, people taking risks. I've been reading Malcolm Gladwell's "Blink", and he uses Herman Miller's Aeron chair as an example of something which failed the Aesthetics market research because it was so different that people weren't ready for it. When do i get to do such things? That stuff seems like fun. Is it just because it's successful and i'm looking at the end=point, ignoring all the hard work that led to it? Is the only barrier between me and that kind of fulfilled outcome just my boredom and lack of confidence? Why am i talking about something instead of DOING it? Why are there so many question marks in this post?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
heh heh my brain is SO fuzzy, and i love the creativity games but they're not bringing me any more clarity. I feel like i want to hit the pause button just to have time to take stock of what's going on, what i want to do next, how it will all work. Instead i feel i'm constantly scrambling up the face of a land-slide and if i even think for a second, it's all over. Where does all this time go? I know logically that the successful designers are so good partly because they CAN operate at such speeds. I also know i'm not going to get any more time for these projects as i get further into the degree. But part of me yearns to be sitting quietly with a cup of tea, thinking about where I'm up to with a sculpture of clay, watching the sunlight smudge through the chaos of my study. Unfortunately, when i'm on holiday i don't use the time well, i get bored quickly and spend much of the time reading fiction. I have almost NO self-discipline. My old Indonesian teacher said the army helps with that. I somehow don't think that's the right answer for me - even if they were crazy enough to let me in. I so often judge myself by other peoples' behaviour. It's so easy to forget there's only one of me, and no other person can be a yardstick for my own life. Oh well, time to go eat, make some grapefruit marmalade and roast some pumpkin. My cooking is the best way to procrastinate. Fetta, green beans and roast pumpkin all mopped up with olive bread. I don't regret those 8 years!

Playgroup2: Wednesday 12:30, studio level 5!

2005-10-03T09:44:00.000+10:00

Well i haven't been here for a while, and this may not be the best time to be blogging, as i have 2 presentations today. I've been hanging out with my parents this weekend, checking out an awesome house out in the Dandenongs. It's a beautiful wooden house, and the guy who owns it is an amazing musician, heaps of instruments everywhere. My favourite was the 12 acre garden, which we didn't walk through all of, but many of the trees were in bloom and they perfumed the air. I thought at first I would like to live there, but then i realised it wouldn't truly suit me, i'm not a very good gardener. What i did think though is that how you feel about where you live depends on how much effort you put into it, how much personality you contribute. Anywhere is fabulous if you treat it like that. Also spent heaps of time this week thinking about partners and crushes and choosing the right path. I read a book that says the most important thing to look for in a partner is kindness, and to cultivate kindness in yourself. Also the killer for a relationship is contempt between partners. It's been a big week! See you Wednesday!

playgroup

2005-09-21T20:33:00.000+10:00

the first instalment of Playgroup went well, thankyou to Miss B, Haley and Braden for coming along, and thanks to everyone else who showed up and joined in!

safari

2005-09-20T19:02:00.000+10:00

I trekked out to the glass studio again today to get my last 2 pieces, and hit Irena and Miles up for work-experience. Hopefully they'll find something for me to do. The pieces are awesome, i love them and all the "flaws" are my favourite bits. On the way out there i saw a guy sleeping in the shade on the pavement on the other side of the highway. It looked like he was sleeping, with his jacket under his head, a bit like a safety jacket, bright green. I thought it was a strange place to sleep, but kept walking. When i came back later there were ambulances and police cars all around.

miss B?

2005-09-19T21:50:00.000+10:00

Hey Miss B,
i keep getting all your comments (thankyou!) but how do i reply to you? TheHitchfactor is taking foreverandever to open?? Also are you just cruising around or do you know when people are posting? Anyway.
i think i did better in the exam than i thought i would, but i have no idea what the block with the arrows coming out of it was. I don't think i've ever seen that before... how did you go? you looked pretty relaxed :) I don't know what the point of a lot of that stuff was. And how the hell are we supposed to remember Poisson's and Young's and shear and break modulus for a material of our choice??? BOLLOCKS. No-one was going to kick butt in that exam - and there was no discussion of local minima in the lectures, only global minima. My lady, it stinketh to high heaven.
oh the eyes on crossings completely disgusted me. heh.

paranoia

2005-09-19T21:42:00.000+10:00

are all my posts about me? am i egocentric? aarghh!!!

Glass-blowing day 2

2005-09-19T21:33:00.000+10:00

Even awesomer! We blew glass. It's obsessive. I was totally mesmerised by the cooling blob of glass on the end of the blowpipe. Everyone is so proud of their little blobs! It's totally daunting, the heat and the weight of the white-hot glass and you have to "keep turning, keep it level, watch that hand, block, gently, flash it, lean out" and you can only focus on the glass, everything else has to be automatic. I hope i can go and play there over the holidays. I can completely understand not wanting a day-job if you can do that all day.
I made a drinking glass and then a twisty branch-like vase. Everyone got to choose what they wanted to do for their last piece - it was fascinating watching how such different pieces are made. I haven't seen my last 2 pieces yet, but the paperweights are safely at home - my sea-creature is very sea-like. *content*

happy birthday Dad!

2005-09-19T21:24:00.000+10:00

I even remembered the date! Of course, i haven't sent anything home but I'll see them on friday anyway. I don't know why i started this particular post. I've been staring at Rhino for way too many hours and I wanted a break. really i need some food. I refuse to crash health-wise this week. I refuse to go days without sleep.... hmmm famous last words.

fringe flop

2005-09-19T21:21:00.000+10:00

ok so it's not so bad, but i only got one of the two sets of lights into Fringe - the other is still in my head. I chose sleep and exam-readiness over pride. Maybe i'll learn to pace myself one of these days! I love my other lights though, they took ages to do. I'm really nervous about seeing peoples' reactions to them on Thursday night - i think no reaction would be worse than criticism, but i could be wrong. maybe i just won't go near my own stuff!

Glass Blowing, Day 1

2005-09-17T20:50:00.000+10:00

Glass-blowing is FUN! I made TWO paperweights today, one plain and one all green and seaweedy (that was the plan - i haven't seen it yet cos it's still annealing) MMm annealing, physics exam Monday, mmm better go make those lights for Fringe... I walked to the studio out in Docklands. The weather report said SHOWERS. Lucky Miles lent me some tracky pants while my jeans and socks dried next to the GloryHole (if you don't know, i'm not explaining). Just as well it wasn't a papier-mache class or i might've frozen to death. Collecting the stories of the other people in the course... Also the melbourne Bob-sled team are training in the middle of the studio too. There's a huge length of rail track down the middle of the warehouse and witches hats along each side. Quite a bizarre combination, the methodical rolling of molten glass to the tempo of whatever was on PBS, and whistles and rattling bobsleds and encouraging shouts. Oh and the freight-train-winds accompanying the "showers". Pop-quiz: what do you do when a section of your roof has blown away? Put your pot plants under the hole and save water.
What a fabulous example of craft, the slow down to the pace of the material, the dance of two people who don't need to anticipate the next tool or gather because it's part of the dance. "What shall we do next? hmmm let's try the Venetian Goblet..." *sigh* i think i could be happy spending my days like that

open design

2005-09-17T20:40:00.000+10:00

Really glad I went to OPen Design last night, i wish I'd been around for the others. What a huge stunt to pull the whole thing off, congratulations to the 3rd years. Completely daunted at the idea of having to add to that next year, likewise Wonderland. Unreadable as it is, it still looks damn slick. Reassuring to hear that it's still true - a design career is still about what falls into your path and what you can run down - no pre-packaged meals here, it's slow food and smoke and mirrors all the way. *Random food references, guess I'll always think in terms of the Kitchen.* Met a 2nd year from Monash, noticed him when he asked a few questions, then chatted after the conference ended. I recently ran into a guy I know in Honours ID at Swinburne. Both of these conversations have consisted of explaining how things are evolving at ArmIT and why we seem to be so happy and team-oriented. Interesting. I've invited both people to get more involved with us, come to exhibitions and maybe Playgroup?

playtime

2005-09-15T19:25:00.000+10:00

I am starting a playgroup. You are all invited. It will be focused on creativity. I have a whole set of Edward de Bono games, like the hat game. The hat game involves looking at different situations and approaching them from the point of view of eco-awareness, or emotion, or branding (this might be wrong, I've only played it once). Anyway it's a bit like brainstorming but not as stressful :) I have some ideas for a starting point. Studio level 5 building 87. A big pot of fruit tea. A time limit. Music?
This should be a good brain and spirit refresher. Never mind not having enough time - this will help us "work smarter not harder" - these are the things that will get us through these last few weeks, like food and sleep and laughter and hugs - all very necessary.
I think the first one should be next week, on wednesday at 12:30.
What do you think?

EV

2005-09-15T19:22:00.000+10:00

I think an EV would be good if it was made out of bamboo. It would be light and strong and flexible and compostible. Also EVs should have gardens on the roof, because then everyone could have a garden that went out in the sunshine most days. I love these ideas.

Who is designing for the rest of Australia?

2005-09-15T19:01:00.000+10:00

I started a picture mind-map today of all the things I have to do in the next couple of weeks. Actually only the next week. It's a big picture. I imagine I'm holding different coloured threads in my hand and each one leads to a different project: fringe, FEA, physics...As long as i see it like that, I can follow one thread at a time to the end without muddling my thoughts with too many ideas. It was strange being out in the bush and in small country towns last week. I get so wrapped up in this city and its ideas of Cool and Sophisticated and Useful. Who designs for the woman who has two little kids and a husband on a peanut farm out in the red soil and cool green frosts of the Atherton Tablelands? What would she want? In Cairns last Christmas a local businessman opened an industrial/interior design consultancy and import store. He built the space for it and everything. My parents emailed me to tell me about it. It closed down within 2 months - he said he completely misjudged the market. What does this mean? I don't know. Perhaps everyone outside the big cities buys their stuff from Woolworths. Or they make it. There are pottery shops everywhere on the Tablelands. Who is designing for the rest of the country?

check in

2005-08-19T18:26:00.000+10:00

Everything I'm reading and researching is all starting to be a big picture, instead of separate streams. This is not that surprising, since it's all being viewed/interpreted by me, so of course there's at least one common denominator. But nothing is ever surprising in hindsight.

EchoEcho....

2005-08-06T21:37:00.000+10:00

This Blog is only useful as a link to other blogs. I do not wish to use this blog as an online journal, since all my time online is spent replying to emails. I think that design:dissent and problem kya hai are better places to be and to chat. This is just a cold lonely spot for navel-gazing.
I am too busy to tell this blog how busy I am.

i don't need to fight the system...

2005-08-03T13:58:00.000+10:00

To me, the system that my friends are engaged in is a valid model of design in Melbourne. I don't need to change it for them, they're content to explore it. It's just that it's not right for me. I'm more interested in proving that it's not the only system available to us as designers. I just want to get out of bed looking forward to my day, excited about my work. I believe that exists, and if I follow my instinct I can live there.

new tricks!

2005-08-03T13:44:00.000+10:00

ha! Ben just taught me how to put pictures IN my post, instead of hosting them somewhere else. Thanks Ben!

this is a glass piece called "seeking light". It is not mine. the picture's not even mine. I won't make any money out of showing this picture. But it's a beautiful piece!

very short career

2005-08-01T22:56:00.000+10:00

i just quit my first design job! it lasted less than a week. Although i was grateful to be invited into Lasso design consultancy, i just couldn't stay. I can't bring myself to do straight Product Engineering, especially as part of a studio based on lateral thinking. Some friends think I'm foolish, and that once I'm out in The Real World I'll just have to put up and shut up.
Bollocks to that!

Wastoid Proposal

2005-07-26T20:20:00.000+10:00

Who needs design dissent when you've got group work??
Our proposal for the Walton Group...we went a long way through heaps of ideas, only to return to something very simple. We're going to follow the Kaisen approach of the Toyota group, and suggest that Walton provide incentives for anyone on their sites to propose approaches to material use that will ultimately reduce the waste on a site. Proposals are followed up by the company, perhaps through management students at uni, and collaboration with design students could be encouraged (this is my further take on it, sorry fellow Wastoids) and the proposer receives 75% of revenue saved by the company if they follow the proposal.

2005-07-19T23:16:00.000+10:00

"A person in a rented apartment must be able to lean out of his window and scrape off the masonry within arm's reach. And he must be allowed to take a long brush and paint everything outside within arm's reach. So that it will be visible from afar to everyone in the street that someone lives there who is different from the imprisoned, enslaved, standardised man who lives next door." - Window Dictatorship and Window Rights, 1990

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Friedensreich_Hundertwasser

This is not a rant, but it sounds like one

2005-07-19T23:03:00.000+10:00

Our Western approach to materials as affordable and disposable is not the way many other cultures look at building materials. It constantly surprises me that we continue to regard our own Australian lifestyle, with all its excesses, as normal. I am SO sheltered. If normal is the majority, and Western lifestyle is not the majority by any stretch of the imagination, then we are far from normal.

The 'Wastoids' are investigating ways to reduce the LANDFILL generated on construction sites at the moment. How did we come to a state where we could buy too much, use the parts which suited our immediate needs and throw the rest away, only to buy more of the same later as we needed it again?

inauspicious start

2005-07-16T05:49:00.000+10:00

well i never thought i'd have a blog. Especially since i already don't know where I'm going to find 20 hours a week for studio??

Teahorse: moveable community

2005-07-15T18:19:00.000+10:00

Teahorse: moveable community
Originally uploaded by OzDezineChick.

"The purpose of the T-Horse is to have neighborhood tea parties in parks, giving neighbors an opportunity to meet each other in a unique yet informal atmosphere."

http://cityrepair.org/t-horse.html

Dignity Village

2005-07-15T18:08:00.000+10:00

Dignity Village
Originally uploaded by OzDezineChick.

"On December 16th of the year 2000, a group of eight homeless men and women pitched five tents on public land and Camp Dignity, later to become Dignity Village, was born. We came out of the doorways of Portland's streets, out from under the bridges, from under the bushes of public parks, we came openly with nothing and no longer a need to hide as Portland's inhumane and Draconian camping ban had just been overturned on two constitutional grounds."
http://dignityvillage.org/

Houseboats

2005-07-15T18:06:00.000+10:00

Houseboats
Originally uploaded by OzDezineChick.

The image is from http://www.inn-california.com/sanfrancisco/Marin/Sausalito/houseboats.html

An explanation is available at http://www.americanprofile.com/issues/20020324/20020324we_1973.asp

I'd love to live on a houseboat!

hundertwasser_house

2005-07-15T17:57:00.000+10:00

hundertwasser_house
Originally uploaded by OzDezineChick.

This house is by one of Stephen Mushin's favourite people, Friedrich Hundertwasser, an Austrian painter and architect. Check him out!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedensreich_Hundertwasser