Week 6 was honestly one of the more hectic weeks. We had to do an RPO review where we peer-reviewed each other's research proposals, prep for an experiment showcase, and I was spiraling about my project direction. On Tuesday we were supposed to print out our write-ups and I remember just staring at mine thinking, "is this even making sense anymore?"
Looking back now, I'm confused if I was sane during this week—it was such a big stretch trying to do everything at once.
Over the last weekend I got the chance to see the reinvention event from design week and also the Sausage Exhibition. The sausage exhibition was wild; it was this experiential thing about food culture and craft which ended up sending me down a weird tangent.
WEEK 6
Accurate Dimensioning
I modelled the class table in Blender for peace of mind. By actually measuring it, I realized there was a height difference I wouldn't have guessed. I learned the importance of accurate dimensioning for prototyping.
Reframing the Process
After consulting, Andreas mentioned that the way I was working reminded him of Critical Making, which is about questioning the social and political dimensions of technology through the act of making.
Key Takeaways
Reviewing 10 RPOs was rigorous but useful. Key tips were: using simpler, concise language; ensuring all claims of investigation are delivered; and using visuals effectively to aid comprehension.
I was really lost in terms of direction on what to do for my next experiment because I understand that I wanted to make this visual toolkit but I don't know how to start making without a specific theme or goal. In my mind, I worried: if I do all this exploration, would it not be too aimless?
The Sausage Exhibition tangent led me to try visualizing food and culinary experiences with code. I wondered if I could make a visual system that captures the craft of cooking. Looking back, I realize this was me just grasping at anything interesting rather than staying focused on the visual toolkit. I was letting the tangent inspire a whole new direction.
After consulting, I realized I was straying off, but we also realized my process aligned with Critical Making which is questioning technology through the act of making.
On Thursday, we had a showcase for our experiments. The only hint Andreas gave us was that he wanted to see "how we think" through our work rather than just seeing polished final outputs.
I tried to make the showcase with determination, even if it was quite last minute. I was scrambling on Thursday because I had an event on Wednesday.
Ultimately, I was satisfied with how it all turned out, even though I presented mine on Friday instead of Thursday. To adjust, I focused more on clearly showing the thinking and process, making it much simpler than what I would usually do. My main areas for improvement are definitely the explanations of my work, as I hadn't prepared them clearly enough.
