Week 3

What I did
*Organizing new posts in a clearer way: habit from last week. 

Monday: 2 hours spent during the evening after I was sick all day, and came up to print out templates from The Packaging and Design Templates Sourcebook included cd. I built a few designs just to work with my hands and see what certain features were used for and whether or not they were necessary.


Tuesday: 3 hours during studio hours spent building more templates and folding materials. Spoke to James about where I am at in my process. We came to the conclusion that I would sacrifice the social benefit of the package in order to keep a shock value. This was something I discussed in the classroom with my group and what I had found the best advice was that no one should sell themselves short by staying within a self-promotional boundary. IP allows you to push the limits. That is something I want to do whether in the object itself, what it is used for, or in what setting it takes place.
I also began to use my life-cycle journal for objects, but it's proving to be less successful than I hoped because my first object is a pencil, and I'm obviously using it at all times if I'm writing about it.

Notes taken during discussion with group

Notes taken when talking to James

Wednesday: 1 hour looking up artists who work with transformable packaging. 
These are two that I found of note:

Elke Decock transformable cake box into a cake platter.

elke decock transformable cake box: Surprisingly, this was one of the only transforming packaging designs that I found on the web by a named artist. It begins as a cake box and transforms into a platter with a given set of instructions.

'Floor Lamp':

This project wasn't necessarily about packaging, but more about folding an object flat and sustainable design. The lamp is made of wood pieces that can fold down.

 .5 hours spent doing sketches of possible packages. I realized that trying to write my draft project proposal was extremely difficult when I didn't have anything more than vague hypothetical scenarios to put my idea into. So, I came up with very bad designs for objects off the top of my head, but it was a useful exercise since I have had trouble of knowing where to start with this.

My brainstorm of transforming packages

.5 hours spent talking to Mark (my contact to the homeless shelters) about potential observation. He told me that with confidentiality laws and privacy, that most shelters won't allow someone to come in and watch anyone. He said the only way to do that would be to volunteer working in the shelters, then observe on my time. Interviews were much more likely, but it's not what I want to do right now.When I asked if I could just stay at a shelter, he got slightly irritated and said they would assign me a caseworker, a file, and other resources that I wouldn't need if I was just staying a few nights. Even so, when speaking with him I realized that this sort of audience wouldn't be an appropriate start for my project since most packaging needs to be purchased (unless it is ordered in bulk). It is still possible, and I wasn't discouraged, he just reminded me that it wasn't as easy as strolling into the shelter and asking to watch people. After our conversation, I thought that a school environment would be more appropriate due to the mandatory supplies students are required to purchase.

1 hour spent in my Slavic class discussing Schulz's The Street of Crocodiles and it's theme of 'modern degradation'. The polish guest professor said something that I thought was very relevant to my project. She said that western ideas in economics influenced specialized products that "only work in one specific way for one specific thing" with short life-spans. This allows our economy to bustle, by requiring more items to do all the things we need, and to replace them. Yet it made me think of sustainability and how this cycle is wasteful. If I could prolong the life of a package for a short while longer, I might have made a difference in people's behavior towards packaging.

Reading The Street of Crocodiles- Bruno Schulz

Thursday: 40 minutes spent in groups evaluating proposal drafts. When mine was discussed, people had a hard time figuring out what my purpose was, understandably, since my proposed design issue isn't existent yet. We spoke about ways to think about it, basically to work from my own personal design issues as practice.

3 hours spent in the studio working on template exploration as well as discussing future goals with my partner. I decided that the best route to take from here would be to come up with various scenarios as well as various items that I can sketch their preliminary package and their possible transformed packages. I started to do this last night, and I think it is the only way to get my mind working. I also talked about habits that I want to enforce, such as tracking my time more efficiently, and taking care of myself. One thing I want to do is to leave the studio when I'm feeling 'stuck' and take notes outside to clear my mind. I think the change in scenery might help me think.

What I've discovered
This is frustrating, really frustrating. I have an idea that I'm passionate about, a medium that I'm excited to delve into, but I'm having such a hard time finding a starting point for my design issue. On top of that, writing about my project becomes more and more obscure as I try to explain it in abstracted ideas. AH. I think that I'm on the right track. I also think that deciding on an audience right now is running before I can walk. Right now, I need to think of design issues anywhere, just so I am thinking of them.

Next
I plan to develop ideas about potential packaging and their transformable counterparts. I think this exercise will be more productive than what I've been doing so far, although I've been trying. It is crucial that I come up with some ideas, however weak, to talk about in my IP proposal. I also want to continue to find inspiration from other artists. That is a comforting feeling for some reason. Everything I've been doing thus far has been productive, even though I feel like I'm in a rut. I will continue the process I've started and more.