A.) Consider your interest in design in the form of a mind-map.

B.) Write two mini-essays responding to the questions: What made you want to become a designer? What makes you want to keep being a designer?

C.) Following the path of your mind-map and mini-essays, develop a 250-word abstract on a researchable question or topic for possible use as a degree project topic.

D.) Create a 15-minute lecture about the researchable question, including parts A, B and C as well as contemporary and/or historical design examples relating to your question.

E.) Create a printed report documenting parts A, B, C and D.

I’ve been so caught up in schoolwork for the past few weeks that I haven’t had a chance to update with my last batch of Design Research material! This post contains all the materials from Project 3, except for the printed report, which is in the Executive Reports post along with the other reports.

Mind-map

Mini-essays
Available only in RTF.

Abstract
Available only in .doc (Microsoft Word format).

Lecture
Available only in PDF.

A.) design a sequence of sounds using either ordinary household objects or an instrument you make yourself

B.) create a score for this sequence of sounds

C.) have a performer execute your score without ever having heard the sequence of sounds, and see how your performance compares to that

D.) (Newly added!) create a video and a final report, both documenting the experience of creating and performing the score

This post summarizes weeks 3, 4 and 5 of working on parts B, and weeks 1 and 2 of working on part C and D, and concludes Project 2. I’m exploring all the different sounds you can make with a pair of wineglasses.

Revised final score

Also available in PDF.

Rough storyboards for video
Also available in PDF.

Link to final video.
(Hosted by vimeo.)

A.) considering the reason for your interest in design, and the aspects of design that continue to inspire you, create a mind-map exploring an area of research,

B.) work from this mind-map to develop an abstract for a research project (assuming you have been given a $25,000 grant to carry out this research), and

C.) create a PowerPoint about this researchable question incorporating historical examples of the chosen area of research

This post covers weeks 1 and 2 of parts A and B.

Mindmap

Mini-essay
Also available in .txt file. (Coming soon!)

Project 1: Gallery Website report PDF

Project 2: Instructional Score report PDF

Project 3: Researchable Question report PDF

Photo courtesy of phishfromtheroad.

Set I
Back On The Train
Runaway Jim
Brian & Robert
Split Open And Melt
Heavy Things
Punch You In The Eye
Gumbo
Reba
Mexican Cousin
It’s Ice
Halley’s Comet
Beauty Of A Broken Heart*
Guelah Papyrus
Lawn Boy
Run Like An Antelope

Set II
Rock & Roll (Velvet Underground)
Limb By Limb
Ghost
Piper
Birds Of A Feather
Wolfman’s Brother
Prince Caspian
Mike’s Song >
I Am Hydrogen >
Weekapaug Groove
Character Zero

Encore
A Day In The Life (The Beatles)

* First time played.

This was another great show. We bought a 6-pack at a gas station on the way there (I love Virginia) and sat drinking it in the car before we went in. We were on the other side of the floor (house left) from the night before, and the crowd seemed even happier and friendlier. My dad and I met some Sox fans from southeast Virginia (who knew?) and drank more $7 beers. The first set started out great, but the real killer was Antelope at the end there. I started screaming and jumping up and down, along with a guy nearby who immediately offered me high-fives. We yelled things like “OHMYGOD I’m SO EXCITED that they’re playing this!” for a minute or two and then got dancing. (I dance with my eyes closed most of the time, and so during the set break, my dad informed me that other-excited-about-Antelope-guy had tried to engage me in additional high-fives, but because I was oblivious, he got shut down.)

Second set opened up with one of my favorite covers, Rock & Roll. Yay Page! Then later, a nice Mike’s Groove, and an almost anticlimactic Day in the Life for an encore. We stumbled out, bought some more ridiculously overpriced T-shirts ($35 a pop for short-sleeve) including one for our friend Haley, a girl from our hometown a couple years younger than me who couldn’t get tickets. (My dad later dropped it off at the little whole-foods store where she works, which I worried was creepy, but Haley assured me it wasn’t.)

And that was that. We headed back to our hotel (which was a really nice Embassy Suites in Williamsburg, or maybe it just seemed nice because when I go to shows on my dime, I usually stay at, like, Super 8s) and crashed. Because we were leaving a day earlier than most people, we didn’t see too many blatant Phish attendees on our way home, but we definitely chatted up a guy and his son at the terminal and found out they had VIP seats and a sweet view. They admired our courage in braving the floor. I actually read somewhere that there was a serious dearth of ladies on the Coliseum floor, and I can’t explain that except to conjecture that maybe there were a lot of vaguely-unwilling-girlfriend types who demanded a seat up on the balcony. Plus the floor was kind of gross and sweaty. But totally worth it if you truly like the music!

(We were a little bummed to hear that Page broke out the keytar AND Frankenstein the night after. But hey, it was the last night of the reunion. It was always gonna be awesome.)

A.) design a sequence of sounds using either ordinary household objects or an instrument you make yourself

B.) create a score for this sequence of sounds

C.) have a performer execute your score without ever having heard the sequence of sounds, and see how your performance compares to that

This was week 2 of working on parts A and B. I’m exploring all the different sounds you can make with a pair of wineglasses.

Second draft of hand-drawn score

First computer draft of score
Also available in PDF.

No setlist available, although he played “Another Brick In The Wall” and at least one other cover I can’t remember at the moment.

I had my first experience of arriving at a sold-out show and participating in the time-honored standing-outside-the-venue-holding-up-one-finger tradition. Two very nice guys (who had been hoping to get an extra ticket so they could both go in) sold me a ticket and I got in a little late. It was very, very crowded; too crowded, really. I had a few beers and got up as close as I could, and ran into Haley, a friend from back home in Ipswich. It was awesome! For a few minutes, we were those people you hate, the ones who talk through two or three songs. Then she went off to see if she could get to the other side of the stage. At some point, after coming back from the bathroom and standing at the back of the impenetrable crowd, I realized I had had one too many, and that I was exhausted and wanted to sleep before work in the morning, and strolled out in as straight a line as I could.

The sidewalk wasn’t exactly stationary, but I didn’t weave around too much. I got home around midnight, and Robbie came home shortly thereafter. We sat in the kitchen gossiping while I made some fish sticks, and then it was bedtime.

Photo courtesy of phishfromtheroad.

Set I
Fluffhead
Divided Sky
Chalk Dust Torture
Sample In A Jar
Stash
I Didn’t Know
Oh Kee Pah Ceremony >
Suzy Greenberg
Farmhouse
NICU
Horn
Rift
Train Song
Water In The Sky
Squirming Coil
David Bowie

Set II
Backwards Down The Number Line
Tweezer
Taste
Possum
Theme From The Bottom
First Tube
Harry Hood
Waste
You Enjoy Myself*

Encore
Grind**
Bouncing Around The Room
Loving Cup (Rolling Stones)

* Stopped because Trey screwed up, then started again. Then Trey screwed up the lyrics; you know, all four words of them (“Boy… Man… Shit… God, shit!”). Oh well, it’s only one of their best-known songs. No sweat.
** A cappella.

The purest joy of my concert-going life so far. The Hampton Coliseum was one big happy sweaty dance party that night.

My dad and I got into our Embassy Suites in Williamsburg in the early afternoon, went out for a delicious lunch of seafood pizza, and headed out to enjoy ourselves. I don’t really want to cheapen the experience I had by putting it into words, but I will say that it felt so good to look out the car window on the highway and spot other Phish-going cars. It felt so good to be part of something that big again.

Secondly, and much less distressingly, there was such a hue and cry about Tropicana’s new packaging that they’re reverting to the old look. This happened a couple of weeks ago, but I only just heard about it. I rather liked the new packaging, but the vertical “Tropicana” really bothered me because it’s the last thing you see, when what you’re really looking for, scanning a grocery store shelf, is the brand name. I just hope they keep the cap-that-looks-like-half-an-orange, because it was too cute.

Third, the Sci Fi channel is rebranding itself. But that’s no excuse for THIS to be on the internet, where the public can see it.

I was listening to a Penny Arcade podcast, in which they eviscerate the brand change, saying that the language at syfy.com is so ridiculous they can’t even make fun of it. Also, Syfy is a swear in Polish. Also, this is exactly the kind of language that makes people think the advertising industry is populated with a bunch of jerks. I don’t know. Maybe at SyFy, it is.

Between accidentally discovering that my neighbor Twitters, and the constant “Twitter!” refrain from the hosts of my favorite podcasts, it was only a matter of time.