Carl Frisk - Diagram and Portfolio

I began by thinking of what topics in life interest me most. The five topics being, craftsmanship, soccer, materials, off the grid living, and the design process of the Eames'. From there I branched out with the reasons these topics interested me. I took the four that peaked my interest the most, those four being self-sufficiency, perfection for ones own sake, constant revision/evolution of design, and using old materials in new ways. I branched off again, trying to analyze what makes each of these topics so important to me. From those offshoots, I picked another 3; more control/elimination of variables, pride in your creations, and practice makes perfect. Instead of branching off into aspects of these topics, like before, I looked back on my original five and made connections with my last three.

The development of those original five topics through these diagrams has allowed me to see the relationships between them. What began, in my mind, as five unrelated interests of mine has become a web of topics with many intersecting relationships. The most surprising relationship is the craftsmanship/soccer connection. The pride, practice, exploitation of strengths and weaknesses, striving to be better, and being critical of yourself are all aspects that embody both of those topics. If taken further, I'm sure the diagrams would bring about further similarities and relationships between all of the existing topics and new ones.


These images are the three portfolio projects that I am most proud of:

Karen Tinney - Summer Assignments

I began my diagrams by thinking about my two passions: furniture and trees. After thinking about these two subjects on a less-superficial level, I discovered that I was more deeply interested in the interaction between localized craftsmanship and wildlife preservation. I am particularly drawn to American Craft (or the loss of) and the foundations of our country that are rooted in small scale communities which were very much self-sufficient. I also became especially interested in the relationship between cultural diversity and bio-diversity -  that if a community works strictly off of the resources given to their region they may create an aesthetic and set of objects which react not only to their needs but also to the materials at hand. 

My final three topics ended up being "American Craft," "Wildlife Preservation," and "Community." What I am most interested in exploring is the ways in which American Craft and Wildlife Preservation work towards building Community. Through the diagrams I began to think about the ways that respect for land is created through its utilization for the creation of local businesses - thus creating an empowered community through local income, communication, and culture. 

Here are three pieces from my portfolio that I think best represent my work to date:

Posting pictures

Of course, it's very easy to add images to posts. Images can be uploaded from you hard drive, like in the example below. You can also place an image in a post from using an Internet URL. To do this, click on the photo icon in the post editor, and fill in either the URL where the picture can be found on the Internet, or click the browse button to find the picture file on your computer.

User Accounts

You will be using this blog a lot in the next two semesters as you develop your design arguments, carry out research, and do many other activities contributing to your ultimate thesis projects. I would like everyone to jump in and learn what you need to know to get the most benefit from this resource. I have posted a bunch of instructional messages dealing that you may find helpful. Please take a look at these.

To use the blog, you do not need a Gmail account, although it is a very useful thing to have, and will give you access to many of Google's amazing free online tools and cloud computing capabilities. However, if you do want to use a Gmail account, you will need to link your newschool.edu email to the Gmail one. To do this: go to www.gmail.com, and if you do not have a gmail account, click on "Create New Account". Once you have set up the account, link to your newschool.edu account by going to Settings, then click on "Accounts and Import". Where it says, "Check mail using POP3, click on the button labeled, "Add POP3 email account". Then, enter your "yourname@newschool.edu", and click "Next Step". You then need to enter your newschool.edu password. That's it. If you want messages that you send from your gmail account to look like they come from your newschool account, you can do that by clicking on "Send mail as" under "Settings".

Posting video

There are two ways to post videos to the blog.

1. You can embed a YouTube video. To do this, find the video on YouTube, then click on "embed". Click on Edit HTML in your post. Paste the code from YouTube into your post. Here's an example:

2. You can upload a video directly from your computer.

Welcome

Hello,

My name is Steven Landau, and I am the moderator of the Parsons Product Department Fall 2009 Thesis Blog. I'm also the Design Research Instructor for the class. This blog will allow students and faculty to post materials related to the class.

I'm looking forward to working with everyone!

steven