week one day one

january tenth, two thousand and nine

Orientation week has finally finished. I received almost everything I should have. I have my I.D. Card, parking permit, classes all 6 of them. I will let you know about those later. The one thing I didn't get was my library card. That will have to wait until I need to check something out.

As of this moment my class schedule consists of:

Monday 8-12:30 Communication Design, 1-2 Critical Practice

Tuesday 2-7 Design 2: Color and structure

Wednesday 12-3 Critical Practice

Thursday 8-1 Materials of Art & Design, 2-7 Draw & Aim

Friday 8:30-11 Writing Studio: Intensive

Saturday 9-11 Writing Studio: Intensive

Communication Design 1:
This class covers historical aspects of the advertising and graphic design fields, as well as addressing communication strategies including the effective use of metaphors, iconography, idioms, allegories, clich233s and methodologies. The nature of symbol and cultural essence are considered in assignments where the dynamic role of image, photography or illustration is stressed. Problem solving and conceptual thinking are strongly emphasized, as are the development of philosophical and professional attitudes related to the role of the designer as interpreter of society and promoter of products and services. This course provides an intensive introduction to both the creation and critique of original ideas.

Critical Practice 1:
Critical Practice I will provide a basic visual vocabulary or rhetoric. The primary learning objective is to understand how images work, successfully or not, to convey the intended meaning of the artist/designer to a desired audience. Rather than ask what images mean, the emphasis is on how they work in a variety of contexts. In other words, students will learn the rhetoric of visual communication1/rhetoric understood here as a form of persuasion that produces an intellectual and physical transformation in the viewer. This is a different approach from the usual critical theory class in which the goal is to understand different theoretical frames, models of interpretation or a prior condition of meaning. Instead, following Wittgenstein, the question of meaning begins only after a desired effect (or affect) is produced a model based on intentionalism.


Design 2: Structure and Color:
This course expands on the initial exercises introduced in Design 1 concerning non-objective 2D and illusionary 3D space by building more complex color and spatial compositions.

Materials of Art & Design:
This foundation level class is dedicated to enhancing the student's understanding of the inherent characteristics of a variety of materials in order to explore their best applications for art or design projects. For this reason, assignments are experimental in an effort to discover innovative solutions to the development of form, structure and texture. Materials may include wood, plastics, plaster, metal and paper. Students broaden their understanding of creative problem-solving, originality, and analysis of visual information. Material covered includes the safe operation of woodworking and some metal-working machines, as well as techniques of mold-making, and material safety.

Draw & Aim:
Students study for 4 weeks each with 3 successive faculty members to learn the fundamentals of perspective, object drawing, form description, location sketching and digital photography.

Writing Studio: Intensive:
There isn't a course description but basically I failed the writing exam because the only writing course lower than this is ESL. However its pretty easy and I am hoping that I will get an A in the class.

As you can see my schedule is pretty packed. A couple of the classes I am told don't have much outside work but my days are pretty full.

My first class was today, Writing Studio: Intensive. Basically I failed the writing test and was placed into this class. The only class lower is an ESL writing class. Oh well hopefully it will make me a better writer even if I don't think I should be in this class.

Going home today to get the rest of the things I wasn't able to bring up last weekend. It will be nice to watch the Charger game in San Diego. It will probably be the only time I get to go home for a while.

On the home front the wifi we were "borrowing" was locked down so we won't have net access until the DSL finally gets hooked up on Wednesday. This happens to be the same day our gas gets turned on. It will be nice to eat something other than fast food or something that was cooked in a microwave. Until next time...