Karim Rashid's Creative Manifesto

Karim Rashid's "Creative Manifesto."

I particularly enjoyed Karim's manifesto, out of all the ones we've read. I really connected to his point #9. which reads: "Experience is the most important part of living, and the exchange of ideas and human contact is all life really is. Space and objects can encourage increased experiences or distract from our experiences." This is actually something I grew up hearing, because it is something my mother would probably include if she ever wrote her own manifesto. 


My parents are artists, so we never had any notable amount of expensive material possessions, fancy cars, or lavish houses like some of my peers had. My parents built our house, the car I learned to drive in is turning 20 this year and looks it, and when we went on vacation we didn't buy souvenirs for ourselves or all our friends because we simply couldn't afford it. 


Which leads me back to the point Karim is making. 


Where we didn't buy a lot of material items, my parents made up for in experiences. In the end all you have is your memories, and that's what sticks with you the most anyway. I actually read somewhere that Queen Elizabeth I's last words were, "All my possessions for a moment of time." In the end possessions don't matter. So my parents made darn sure that my sister and I got life experiences few other kids can boast of. I have backpacked in Utah canyons so remote the only roads to the trail-heads are not even gravel, but dirt, touched ancient Anasazi ruins, snowboarded in Colorado, participated in a month-long program to bring peace to Northern Ireland (and went there the next Spring), swam in glacier-fed mountain lakes, taken the train through Germany and walked to Austria, and many, many others. 


Karim says that experiences are imperative for understanding the world and learning about yourself and others, and I agree completely. I read a quote that said "The world is a book and those who do not travel read only a page." You cannot begin to understand how the world works unless you experience it, and likewise you cannot lead a creative life exploring these kind of things unless you have experienced life. 


Looking at Karim's work, I can definitely see a connection between his manifesto and his work. He talks about creating and buying culture, and he shows that in his work. It is all creative and out there, and you know he has soaked in all the work of others he has seen throughout the years to create his own stuff. He also says that "Normal is not good," and this is apparent in the weird yet fun and organic shapes he creates in his works. His manifesto is fun-loving and prompts thinking outside of the box, and his work mirrors that. 


Here is my own Manifesto:


Gretchen's Super Duper Manifesto

• Travel, travel, travel. There's always another culture out there that you've never experienced, and you must experience as many as possible if you want to understand the world outside of your own little bubble of your home. 
• Do something every day that scares you or puts you out of your comfort zone, or just something you never thought to do. Run in a race, get your ears pierced, see an opera, cut your hair, get in your car, throw a Rand McNally in the backseat and just see where the highway takes you. 
• Explore! Go for an adventure! The real world can wait. 
• Take a class way outside your major for no other reason than because it sounds kind of interesting to you. 
• If your're interested in something, do it. Don't just sit there and go, "Gosh it sure would be fun to paint something." Buy yourself some watercolours and do it. 
• Don't worry. There's a song called the Sunscreen Song that says, "Do not worry about the future; or worry, but know that worrying is about as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubblegum." Worrying will accomplish nothing but stressing you out, so for goodness sake, refrain from it. 
• Relish the weird. 
• Don't be afraid to show your work to others. In fact, show it to everyone who will look. 
• If you have an idea or a goal, don't wait for some undetermined future date to put it into motion. There won't be some magic date when suddenly flashing lights will appear saying, "Now!" You've gotta live in the moment. 
• Sing loudly and break out into dance. Frequently and with abandon.
• Don't be afraid to fail. There's a great Samuel Beckett quote that says, "No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better." One of my greatest acting teachers once told us, "You have to be able to say, 'Look at me! I am a trainwreck! I am a debacle! And I will dance in the flames.'"

FREAK FACTOR

Freak Factor: click me!

In this article, David Rendall is talking about existing between your strengths and weaknesses, and figuring out what needs to be "fixed," versus what can actually be used to your advantage and shape you into a successful and society-accepted individual. He talks about how instead of fighting his weakness -- such as being hyperactive, needing to be the center of attention, and talks to much -- he used them to find a career as a professor, always standing and talking to his class.

He talks about taking your weaknesses and finding out how you can create a strength out of them -- how you can work with yourself instead of fighting yourself. The latter will only make you unhappy and uncomfortable, whereas the former will give you a sense of being in control of your life.

One point Rendall makes is to Find the Right Spot. He uses the example of Rudolph: all the other reindeer laughed at and belittled him, and he felt as though he was a freak amongst the others with no purpose. Rather, Rudolph's "flaw" was what caused him to become Santa's favourite, lead the others, and save the day! Rudolph's nose was the "perfect fit between his unique qualities and the situation." You don't have to change yourself or hide who you are to be successful, sometimes you're just looking in the wrong spot. You need to choose situations that fit you, fit your strengths and spotlight you for the difference you can make.

Another point Rendall makes is to recognize the Power of Uniqueness. Here, he uses the example of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. The Tower was, of course, a complete accident but as we like to say in the creative world, it was a happy accident. Because of its uniqueness, tourists have simply flocked to Italy to see this landmark, spending absurd amounts of dollars to do so. People are attracted to its "flaw" because it makes the Tower interesting and unique. Quite simply, it is better to be interesting than normal, because we are surrounded by normal and people trying to be "normal" every day of our lives. What we want is a breath of fresh air, and that is what uniqueness gives us.

A third point Rendall makes is to Put Your Quirks to Work. Throughout this article he has made very clear that being unique and working with your strengths and weaknesses is the key to success, so how do we do all that? How do we channel our individuality like he says we must? Rendall put together a wee list explaining this, and they are an excellent way to get started. You need to do things like seeking out situations that maximize your strengths, and keep yourself from situations that highlight flaws. Stop doing activities you don't like, because they will only drag you down and stop the creative juices from flowing. Find people who complement you and bring out your strengths, while you bring out theirs. This kind of partnership will benefit all parties involved. Finally, find the uniqueness in others, and that will help you understand them and understand yourself. These connections, bringing together all his points, really helped me understand everything he was saying and how I could relate it to my own life.

I have found out a lot about myself and my strengths and weaknesses. My weaknesses include:

• I am a perfectionist, and it is often hard for me to be satisfied with an end product and stop continually tweaking it.
• I can get restless. 
• I can sometimes bite off more than I can chew, and then be very reluctant to admit this and ask for help. 
• I am easily distracted. 
• I am very impulsive and will jump into one thing or another, sometimes without taking the time to really think it out. 
• I often like to be in the center of attention. That might be the product of my theater major. :P

Some strengths I have found include: 

• I am a very good listener. 
• I am good at self-entertaining and am very patient. 
• I am very organized and like to keep everything in order in my head. 
• I am always punctual. In fact, the clocks in my room and my car (and my wristwatch) are set 5 minutes fast so I am never late.

Audio Response to "Collapsus"

Trans-media piece "Collapsus": click me!

Here is my audio response to "Collapsus":
(There's some extra time at the end, it didn't stop recording when I first hit stop... Oops.)

Gaming Presentation Reflection

Our game was about evading the OUPD coming home from Fests; basically the ultimate OU-encompassing concept we could come up with. One thing that didn't really come across during our presentation was that each level would be its own Fest. I think it sort of sounded like you were just running from the police, when really each level will begin at a different and distinctive Fest, and then you must get back to your dorm safely and without being arrested. This will add difficulty to the game because you can't just memorize easy routes -- each Fest takes place at a different location, so therefore you must really strategize while getting home.

Our game was not super complicated, so other than that I really felt that we got across what we were hoping to. One particularly strong point of our presentation was explaining the rules and objectives. We worked really hard to make these very clear and I thought we did a good job of explaining them to our classmates. The rules were simple: navigate your way back from the Fest, get a drunken-muchies snack, and get your friend home before returning to your own dorm. Since this is basically how real-life is for many college students in Athens, our audience was able to understand these rules very easily. Basically, the main rule was don't get caught. This is not a difficult concept to understand, so we were very successful in getting everyone to understand this.

The hardest thing to discuss and explain were the mechanics of the game. When we were designing the game, we had to pull a lot of references from pre-existing games before we could all decide on how the game was going to function and the characters move around the screen. There are so many options to choose from in designing a game, you have to be really specific about what it's going to look like and how it's going to run or people can mix it up. And since there are all these options, people get an immediate image in their head when you mention something, and if that's not what you want it can be very difficult to change that image in their mind.

Super Hero Powers!

The "First Act" of This American Life about superpowers: click me!

A cool superhero in my opinion:Wind Dancer.
-Ability to control the movement of air
--generate wind
--lift and carry objects with wind
--fly
--amplify small vibrations in the air to hear faraway conversations
--disrupt the equilibrium of the inner ear, cause unbalance

For some reason the audio got a little funky at the end when I recorded it, but here it is anyway:

Hero/Villain: Aqua Woman versus Evaporation Girl

Our hero, Aqua Woman:

Her nemesis, Evaporation Girl:

Our video:

My critiques of other heroes/villains:
Brendan Trepal's hero/villain project:

Brendan does not list his hero's name on his blog, but he is dressed in colours of shiny gray and black, with a helmet. There are gold accents to his outfit, which appear even brighter against the black and gray. This contrast of brightness creates visual interest to the character's costume, and also distinguishes him as a hero. Villains do not wear striking colours that pop out at us like that, so we know he is a good guy.

The lighting on his costume is that of stark contrast and shadows. Although it is mostly gray and black, it is made of metal and therefore very shiny and bright. The shadows help the highlights stand out. The mood of this character is that of confidence and power. In the animation, he is surrounded by fog but then the hero comes in and forces it all away. He is like a light in the middle of all this fog, and that helps to show how he is a hero.

For movement, this hero is able to teleport. He crouches down and the poof! disappears in a cloud to the next location. There is not a lot of weight in his movement, although when we walks he moves slowly and deliberately, which might attest to the weight of his armor. The character also moves with linear motion, opposed to overlapping, since only his legs move when he walks.

---

Maddie Schneider's hero/villain project:
Maddie's hero is named Sonica, and her villain is Psycho. Sonica is dressed in yellow, which is very bright and makes her look like the sun. This use of colour makes us realize immediately that she is the hero. The saturation is very intense, and it contrasts Psycho, who is wearing black and a deep purple. Sonica is dressed in warm colours, whereas Psycho is in cool colours. Just this difference sets them apart significantly.

The lighting is very clear between the two characters. Sonica has almost no shadows to her costume, whereas Psycho is nearly all shadows. Even his power involves purple "shadows" that spread out at Sonica. This symbolizes his evil-ness, and how he is a "dark" individual. Sonica evokes a mood of goodwill and triumph, of good over evil. On the other hand, Psycho evokes a mood of darkness, deceit, and trickery. All this is done through the lighting of the two characters.

Weight is used very well in this animation. When Psycho stands up, he does so slowly, like a real person would. He also uses a cane, which shows his weight being lifted. Sonica floats in the air, and they actually show her hair rippling in the wind, which adds to the realism of the piece. When Sonica hits Psycho with her power, he is sent backwards, back first and then his arms and legs fly outwards. This shows overlapping movement, and makes it more believable. It was really difficult to show weight in Pencil, and I think they did a really good job of showing it here.

Joke Video Reflections

Joke One:






Joke Two:







In our second video, we focused more on line and shape than we did in the first one. We had the actors sitting against a cinder-block wall, where the lines of the blocks directed the viewer's eye to the action. When the shot changed to a tighter frame of the actors, the lines even worked to create an actual connection between them. At one point they stop talking and glare at each other, and the virtual line of their gaze is accentuated by the literal line of the blocks at their eye level. Since the punchline of our joke landed one character in considerable trouble, the lines even created a sense of being imprisoned. We also used movement in this one, with the bike wheel spinning at the beginning and end of the film as a reminder of their crash. This also helped set up the space they were in, giving a sense of depth.

The first video took place out on a road, and the line of the road and sidewalk was what connected the two actors there. However the background did not offer the virtual lines that the cinder-blocks offered, so it was less emphasized. Both films used minimal movement in the sense that the actors remained sitting throughout the majority of the films. When they did move, it was to exit the scene and in both cases, to leave one character in a state of panic. In the second film, the space was deeper as there was not a wall marking the end of the space. Instead, we could see the background going on and on to the horizon.

Text and subtext were used in our films. In the first video, they were literally drinking liquor and had literally gotten in a car crash. In the second film, they had gotten in a bike crash and were drinking cool-aide, but the subtext was that they had gotten in a serious crash and drinking something illegal. At the end, Gretchen's character giggles, "I'm going to tell your mom you were DRINKING AND DRIVING!" While they were drinking Kool-Aide, the subtext is that they were drinking alcohol.

The only affinity in our films is the idea that the two characters crashed and are dealing with the aftermath. They also both used dubbing for the text, instead of using subtitles like an old silent film would. The time periods were also similar, both being in the present-day. However, the contrast between our films is really much greater, and provides more to comment on. Instead of both casting adults, the second casts "kids." Instead of drinking alcohol, they are drinking Kool-Aide. Instead of driving cars, they are "driving" bikes. Instead of calling the police, they  are calling a teacher. We really liked the differences between these two scripts, and how it had been adapted to fit for children, which is why we chose to film these two. We felt it really helped explore the joke in different ways.