On the first day of the second semester, we started the class with a discussion on what we thought the meaning of some words was.
These words were : critical thinking, imagination and creative writing.
Critical thinking is an analysis we make based off of facts to form a judgement. Imagination is the ability to produce and simulate ideas in the mind without any immediate input of the senses. Creative writing is any form of writing done using critical thinking and imagination both.
We were then asked to write an essay on a space – my bedroom; using the three phenomenons we had just discussed.
Having been absent for this week’s class, this post is based on my understanding of the class through my peers.
In this class, there was a discussion on the essays we wrote in the previous class and also the 5 chapters read from the book “Invisible cities”. This book is about the city of Venice and it is written in a very interesting way.
Then everyone was divided into groups and assigned an aspect of the author’s life to research on i.e Italo Calvino.
Then they made mind maps about the aspect they were assigned and had a discussion about the same.
Week – 3
Having been absent for this week’s class, this post is based on my understanding of the class through my peers.
This week there was a discussion held on the next few chapters of the book “Invisible Cities”.
Everyone listed down the key words of the chapters they had read individually, this would help in better understanding of the structure and the workings of the city.
Week – 4
In this class we discussed the various design elements of the cities that we had read about. This helped me imagine what the city might look like.
We then were told to imagine a city of our own and start writing 6 stories for the same. This could be about a city that exists or a city of my dream.
I started by making a list of what the main element of my city should be and then decided upon one that I thought could be made interesting. I chose to write about “A city of special gifts”. It’s a city where everyone has special powers. The key elements of my city were: sustainability, less population, less pollution and proper architecture.
This requires me to use not only my imagination but also logic. My city is magical yet imperfect and I need to find a way to portray this properly.
Week – 5
In today’s class we talked some more about the cities we read about. Then we discussed some of the chapters that my fellow classmates had written.
We were then teamed up to conduct a peer review of the chapters we had written for our dream city.
I had decided to name my cities after the names of flowers. Flowers signify a lot of different things but the main aspects of it that made me choose it were that they signify relationships, emotion, beauty and elegance.
I was teamed up with Praful for the peer review but since he had no chapters to show me, I couldn’t grade his work.
Week – 6
Having been absent for this week’s class, this post is based on my understanding of the class through my peers.
In this week’s class we discussed the 6 chapters we wrote on my dream city.
We were given feedback on our chapters and the title of our chapters.
Week -7
This week we submitted our chapters to ma’am and got feedback on the same.
I realised that my chapters were a little too short and I had to find a way to get over my block and add more details to my city.
I extended my chapters to an extent that I was happy with. I made it more detailed and gave a bit more character to my cities.
In this week’s class we submitted our final prints of our book.
I was quite happy with my cover and the overall layout of the book.
This entire process taught me the various factors that are considered while publishing a book and how every detail was important for the book to come together in the end.
Week – 9
This week started off the class by having a conversation about our programme pathways.
We discussed what good design and bad design was and where did we see it in our day to day lives.
We then made a list of categories and elements for 3 pathways of our choice.
The pathways that I opted for were communication design, product design and interior design.
We were then asked to make mind maps for our 3 discipline by breaking them down into categories and further into their elements.
Week – 10
Having been absent for this week’s class, this post is based on my understanding of the class through my peers.
This class, we presented our mind maps and discussed it further.
We were given input about the same. On how we could work on and improve our mind maps.
We were shortly briefed on the report are going to write on our programme pathways.
Week – 11
This week we were told to write a report on our chosen discipline.
This report had to consist of what we understood about these disciplines.
I chose to write my report on Communication design which is my first choice.
Writing this report helped me understand my discipline of choice in depth and helped me navigate my way around my confusion regarding the same.
Week – 12
This week we were asked to make 5 inquiry questions based on design contexts like psychology, economic influence, impact, form, etc.
These questions were to be based on our objects so mine had to be based on posters.
Week – 13
In this week’s class we did a peer review on the 5 inquiry questions that we each came up with based on the design contexts.
This review helped me understand how I could improve my questions and conduct my research.
Different Strokes 