More thinking

Point 8: Opening up your ideas to other people is hard – being honest isn’t. So why is there a culture of dishonesty – why do you lie? Are you so scared of saying something?” Are you so scared of taking a position? Why?

Honesty is hard at times because we have to admit that we are humans who have emotions, and feel things. To be open enough to let other people see your ideas leaves you vulnerable, people can use this information to bring you down and destroy you.

They can steal your idea for their own, they can misinterpret the idea completely and see you as insane, they can attack you with it later and never let you live it down, or you may never follow the idea through and fail people’s expectations.

When there is a culture of dishonesty it shows there is a lack of trust, and there are too many competing individuals and egos. When there are moments like this and you can predict a minority outcome it is better to remain silent or not take a position, unless you want to take the risk of upsetting people and then letting the defensive talking begin. I for one don’t take enough risks at trying to upset people and challenge them, and I am to willing to back down for there to be anything of great worth coming out.

I am not sure if it’s a female thing but I often when I am talking leave out bits and pieces because I think they already have some idea what I am talking about. Or it could be my mind is never ordered so most things come out as jumbles and I rely on other peoples experiences to link together tings, or piece together meanings.

reveiwing the discussion

Lets examine all of this – because I think that something is finally happening in your heads (not to say that other things don’t).
My responses are in colour.

Raph said...
So I started looking at blogs again, since I now have an internet connection!Studies, ahhh studies, the subject i used to love to hate. why? because it had probelms! Now studies has another problem! Attendanec of students! interesting! This isn't the first time i have heard about students not turning up to studies class! So why don't people turn up ? who cares! Well someone must if there is disscusion about it! so what to do! Nothing I say. Sit and do nothing! let them not turn up! let them miss out!I had a disscussion recently with one of the lecturers from the "old School" of thought on industrial design education. He raised some interesting points about studies. He feels that its not entirely releveant to design! he feels that it is totally dispicable that his second year students are not aware of most apsects of the business of design. He feels that design studies should be studying design from the perspective of actually studying design and things related to design - one example being contracts - yes by studying something along those lines we could learnt something from studies, something that has a foreseeable use in our design carrers!
Point One: Why should you (as second years need to be “ware of most apsects of the business of design” – you have your whole working life to become aware.
Point Two: You are aware of contracts – you made a learning contract – which for many you have not yet honored.
Point Three: 1).“foreseeable careers” – what does this mean in the context of design education. In design education (especially in design studies) you bring the content, you pick the topic, you do the investigation – so if what you are choosing to study is irrelevant to your “foreseeable careers” – then surely that is your problem- it is your choice. 2)are you actively “foreseeing” what your career in design will be – or are you allowing others to tell you what that should be?
Now on one hand i agreed with him, on the other is do see the value of studies as it is today, a class that no one turns up 2! Maybe a balance is needed between what is learnt in studies. Many feel what occurs in studies at the moment is a waste of time. Talk to people and you will of course get varying response as to how bad studies is - although you probably can't talk to anyone about it since the attendance of the class must be hitting an all time low. In the grand scheme of things is studies really of any value to people as designers? some would argue yes, others no. Me well i can see both sides - although i think i like studies the way it is, as when i do turn up i learnt and expand on the most valuable skill one can have as a designer, which is the art of talking, writing, debating and bullshitting to get by, admit it though, it is studies that gets pushed to the back of the pile everytime that another assignment from another subject comes along and don't forget for the last 2 fridays you have been hung over or very very tired, so have decided to be apathetic and said bugger it i'll take the day off and waste my money! Cause its my money and i'll do what i want with it!
Point 4: Self direction and self determination – Raph has it and realizes that it his choice. So is is taking responsibility with his idea of what is meaning full to him – and will be guided by those choices – some things will be open to him and other won’t – but it is his conscious choice and he is not “blaming” others.

Tan said...
It's very simple actually. People don't turn up because a) they find it irrelevant to designb) they find it boringc) they can get excellent marks without getting out of bed on Friday mornings.I can attribute point c) to the peer review assessment process, which, in my opinion is a complete and shameless cop-out by the lecturers, who want us to write these essays but can't be bothered reading them (no offence). I recall last year I spent an enormous amount of time and effort piecing together this brilliant essay and what happened? The 'lecturers' were too lazy to even read them, so they got us to read each others' and they gave it this cute name, 'peer assessment'. Riiiight...No wonder why the attendance is so low.
Point 5: What is Irrelevant to design?- this statement is predicated on a decision that design is one thing – one practice that is more relevant than others – if only the world was this simple! How can you judge what is Relevant when you have spent all of a year and a half studying it?
Are you going to let other people tell you what is relevant to YOUR design practice – where is the intellectual rigour in this, where is the sense of self worth, where is the confidence in just exploring ideas?
Design studies is not about telling you what is relevant – it is about giving you opportunities to find your own path – to make your own meaning.
Point 6: “It’s Boring” – it’s Your work that is discussed and examined – so if it is so boring isn’t that a symptom of your collective disposition?
Point 7: Peer Assessment – Tan I am afraid you really don’t get this – so here it is again – Peer assessment is not a cop out by your lecturers – a cop out is looking at what you work looks like and sticking a mark on it – or making a judgment on who the lecturer thinks you are and sticking a mark on you.
Peer assessment is a way of you interacting with the content that other bring – of broadening you potential understandings.
It is also a way of your work and your ideas being pulled into a greater cultural discourse (building a culture of ideas and practice).
And yes we do read them – and we give you multiple opportunities to refine and draft and make your ideas sing – If you were doing an engineering degree (or some such) you would have no option in this – the work you submit would be it – no feedback – no mechanism for review.


Haley said...
I agree peer assessment was one of the worse things to ever happen, really in the end no one is honest and people just lie. Really we can ignore the problem of attendance and just be thankful that people do turn up at all. If it’s our money to waste then let us waste it, if we don’t want to value studies as part of design let us sneer at it and focus our time on something better and more relevant.
Point 8: Opening up your ideas to other people is hard – being honest isn’t. So why is there a culture of dishonesty – why do you lie? Are you so scared of saying something?” Are you so scared of taking a position? Why?
We laugh at you Liam when your back is turned, we dislike what you turn designers into there is no guilt in fuelling consumption, or thinking about the worth of a product within culture and society I want to make my money, and making something that looks hot and is innovative will do that, not looking into design literature let me just spoon feed people, when they have the product why should I care about their lives and what the do with the product. Designers are not bad people, not just anybody can do Industrial Design, I won’t listen to all that crazy talk you deliver and Industrial Design is not dead!
Point 9: I agree Industrial design is not dead – but is absolutely isn’t what it was ten years ago. The world has changed. Industrial design needs a new meaning – so your job is to construct that meaning – are you doing that?
Point 10: designers are not bad people – but they can be stupid people and mean people, and careless people – like any one else.
The thing about this is that industrial design is about people (and material in peoples lives) – so what type of person do you want to be? Are you practicing that in your design work?
Those weirdo’s who actually want to listen to you aren’t really designers, I’ll put them in a category of ‘different’ look at their work it’s strange it will never sell, and if it did it would be a waste of money. I know what design is and for one thing it’s sure not studies and its sure not something which looks handmade or a one off piece.
Point 11: (ouspensky aside) – we are all designers – I am a product designer – but I am also an educator. You are all designers – but you are also students – University is not industry and never can be. So the context is different – and that is fine.

Tan said...
Gee that's a bit harsh Haley! Although I can't say that I agree with everything you say. Despite my low attendance, I think that understanding where a product lies within culture is hugely important to our careers. I believe that design is not about selling products to pay the bills, but rather about improving our quality of life.
Point 12: Tan – Haley is playing devils advocate – she is winding you up – and yet you agree.
Although I didn't attend the class when the topic you mentioned was spoken about, from what I gather, there seems to be a bit of a mixup between design and art. Fine arts is (arguably) superfluous and a lot of it is bullshit from people who believe they are creative. For example, the cane thing you guys (I walked out as soon as I found out what we were doing) made at the start of the semester is not design, but art. I once saw written above a toilet roll in a public toilet "Fine arts degrees: please take one." This isn't to say that all artists are hacks, I'm sure there are many skilled artists who are brilliant at what they do. But then again one could argue that "fine artist" is an oxymoron. Whatever the case, we should draw a clear barrier between design and art.So here's the place of fine arts in social context: It is selfish and is limited to the paintings on our walls, or the vases on our shelves. Design builds culture and improves our quality of life
POINT 13: Irrational statements:
A] Who are you to determine what fine art is? Are you an artist?
B] Vases are the domain of Industrial design not fine art.
C] “Design builds culture and improves our quality of life” – the quality of who’s life? What culture (do you mean consumer culture?)? For what purpose? At what expense (environment, debt, materialism)?
D] A Completely naive understanding of Art: Art is not about the object anymore – it is not even about the idea of the artist – it is about the practice /making / thinking of art (sound just like design) – so if fine art is an oxymoron – perhaps industrial design is simply moronic?
Ok so the problem with all of this is that your take on things is completely screwed up – and deeply conservative – and based on complete fantasy and lionizing of and idea of what being and industrial designer is. Stop and listen to what you are saying about yourselves.
Think about where your ideas and statements are coming from – are they yours? Or are you simply regurgitating other peoples myth of what design is?

big ideas can happen beyond design studies

the first year students are having a fantastic discussion on aesthetic theory - on the meaning on "ugly' - and it is coming out of mechanical engineering /design project from studio - -
s
[see] http://radiomachine.blogspot.com/2006/05/ugly-ugly-ugly-ugly.html

So theory can enter into 'the practical' - it does have a place, but you have to feel like you are equiped to bring those ideas into the "designing" of something.
IS this something that you do in studio?
or IS this stuff - that useless {dispicable} design studies terrain?

You have 5 semesters of your under graduate degree to go - and a lot can happen - a lot can be discovered, but you need to want to make discoveries - and to do that you need a Pioneers attitude - you need to be an explorer.
Einstien didn't develop the theory of relativity because some other older / more experienced physicist told him that that is what physics was - He worked it out for himself.
buckminster-fuller didn't devise geodesics from the "normal" discourse of recursive and rectalinear architecture - he did it becuase he was commited to descovering a new 'way'

Designing can be what you want it to be - it can be about responding to a demand of another, it can be your response to the problems you see in the world, it can be anything that you wnat it to be - so waht do you want it to be?
Is the answer to that question "your answer" or is it what you are told to think it "should be"?

design studies is a space to work these things out - are you working them out?

Ummm yeah what ever he said…

It is hard to place a large amount of trust on lectures, especially those who seem to be far away from the mass manufacture, tech and CAD, as skills can fit nicely into what we can do later on. As I know that when I am out there I’ll be using these to some extent. Skills are something which I can show off nicely to others a visual representation to look at fast.

Skills such as language both spoken and written are hard to communicate across as these involve more time, the hardest of all thing to communicate is thinking. So much goes on inside my head that is never recorded so many ideas. Learning for me is one thing I particularly value as with it I can find personal growth along with understanding, discussions, debate, confusing, anxiety and most of all confusion.

I know that with studies and the time I put in this semester has already for me paid of as I understand more of the way I think and learn as a person and to appreciate that others have had similar ideas to me. Though the hardest thing at this point in second year is to see a direction or future career where an appreciation of studies, thinking and learning can all be used beyond our studies at uni, or maybe the most likely answer the one which I fear is I seek for something which doesn’t exist and holds no tangible value viewed by others.

I don’t claim to have knowledge of what design or studies is instead I try my best and make my own meaning upon it. I value the subjects which can give me satisfaction, this may in different forms such as marks for Tech, but studies and studio don’t need marks at the end as I go along a struggle with myself each time one with confusion and total fear of not knowing an outcome, the terror of finding myself alone with my thoughts.

Forming my own meanings about what design is the hardest thing as it alters every day. I value skills over others to follower what ever the general vibe is from classmates. Though I never seem to value skills which I have been told that I am good at, I never value my artwork at all.

It is easier to sit and listen to why you lectures value certain things, and then go off and try things for ourselves or simply to just agree with one view point and cut off anything which doesn’t surround it, at times I realise I can be convinced of many things when ideas share similar values or understandings. Though my worst fear is to come out at the end of four years with a piece of paper and a false idea of how the world works, and what is valued by others. I don’t have enough faith to raise ideas which are still unspoken off.

On your comments re: attendence

Wow!What an interesting and disturbingly selective self defence.
Re: Comments
TEN things about NOT comming to class is that :
1) you don't know enough about what design studies is to actually make a claim to know (this goes for students and lecturers)
2) How can you judge if it is "boring" if you choose not to experience it?
3) How can you know if it is irrelevant to practice if you are not practicing as "professionals" yet?
4) How can you know that it is irrelevant to "studying" if you make a choice not to engage as a student
5) The Culture of Learning is created by YOU - so if it is not working for you then isn't that a problem with your attitude.
6) You have the rest of your life to do the "work" of design - to learn about contracts, to engage in the economics of industrial design - so why rush into it?
7) The content that you could encounter - the theory, the politics, the capacity to really understand a particular social context with the space and support that design studies affords is something that you will probably never find again (trust me I know this)
8) there is an intellectual dimension to industrial design that if you choose to enter into will help you deal with change and complexity where ever you go and whatever you do - Designing a toaster or a bit of luggage will not provide this.
9)So you want to "be" designers - so what? Then what? - ther is more to life than what your job title is - design studies is the space for working out what that could be, how you orient yourself, how you find meaning.
10) If you simply want to design "stuff" - quit university. If you want to come to some understanding of your own meaning of design - not my meaning - or someone with a "design" barrow to push - then do design studies - make it yours

The attendence dance

Some good points raised but not tackling the actual problem... So here is my take on it.
The fair perspective...
1. Some students don't come to class (but most do) this is.........
a) their choice, b) their right. c) their money,
We need to respect that.
2. Some classes are best with no students (or just the deeply committed ones)
We need to respect that.
3. Some courses (like studies) work/ unfold as a discussion - you need something to say and a desire to listen to engage in such a learning event
Perhaps not all students are at this point yet.
We need to respect that.
4. Some courses just aren't worth getting out of bed for.
We need to respect that.
5. Using "attendance" as an assessment tool may get people to class - but it is no gaurantee of quality or learning.
The instrumental perspective
1. Knowing who is comming to class is a "duty" of teaching
2. Some students (international) have a visa requirement to attend 80% of classes - we must keep them aware of their contract / visa agreement.
3. RMIT has a policy on not being able to use "attendence" as an assessment measure (I support this policy)
4. Assessing students in some sort of incremental manner is proscriptive - and leads to institutionalised mediocrity.
5.Using attendence (or lack of) in a punitive fashion is a power trip - a return to the dark old days.

Ok So here is the rub...
It is very likely that
a) We are bad at being teachers
b) you are bad at being students
and
c) that the common interest (design) is actually really boring - and slowly milking us of energy, ideas reasons.....
That classes are boring to attend, and that doing work and being involved is too much like hard work.

So it is not a "process / structure problem" it is a "people problem" - a community problem.
So how do we make it exciting?
How do decide to work very hard?
How do we use assessment as a reward for being creative, for being committed, for being individually responsible?

Ideas for getting more students to attend studies

1. The idea we said in class that if you want I mark which is above a pass you need to show commitment and turn up to a certain amount of classes in order to attain that mark. Attendance increases with each aspiring grade.
2. The lectures and whole class discussion is good in the morning, after they finish can maybe show short films which are different and interesting during the break?
3. Showing the importance that others can have when they suggested new things and pull out ideas – is there a way to convince people that they are actually going to learn more and have better more critical essays.
4. Involvement the four groups break into two so there are 8 groups of people – these people bring in a small amount of food to share and the food some how relates to the area of study.
5. There be more to come off to cook dinner now

An exhibition for you!

Location level 5 building 87 end of corridor, come along and have a look please leave comments, and read about my studies research and ideas.If you would like to see more photos just visit my blog.

Just the usual ranting

Damn it a really bad night, after many hours on solidworks went round in a big circle and got know where it would seem, I still have much to do. It’s so frustrating and I am quite behind on what I said I’d do in my brief, at this rate I’m not going to have time to do the one fun thing about cad the rendering.

I wish I could be more apathetic and stop caring; caring is just bad when it makes you feel like crap why should I care about CAD at all? Or even better if there was a switch inside your head that you could turn off and stop feeling so stuff wont matter at all. Or that you could just throw all the crap feelings away.

I really think that we should photocopy some of the pages out of Kim’s quit smoking Christian book and put them around your office Liam, now you’ve stopped liking it, you can find religion and quit smoking is there no down side?

I find that quite amusing actually like finding faith will solve all your problems, I think that’s because so many things are sinful that you’re so limited in what you can do… But many people actually do find their happiness that they look for; I don’t think I’d have that much faith to believe everything without questioning it all.

Well if anybody wants to see what I’m up to for studies check my blog out. www.studieself.blogspot.com
I’ll post up more on this blog later when my head clears if that is at all possible, I seriously think that soildworks has this evil curse around it for me as when I use it I always feel so bad.