|
V5: It pushes them further ahead.
BC: Yes and that is the whole objective. It is a completely paperless class, we don't print out anything, all the critiques are done over the network and they hand their assignments in on digital files or over the Internet. Nothing is printed so we are trying to keep them from being locked into the rational of, "Well, I know I can make a cube in reality, so I am going to make a cube in cyberspace." We are trying to move away from the three dimensional, and even though the guideline of the modeling program is to produce three-dimensional objects within a virtual reality, we are trying to play around with the "n"-dimension, to make them forget gravity, the laws of physics and materiality. The only construction barriers that they have to address, not the cost of materials or what you can do with the particular material, but how much RAM or disk space the computer has. Since we are not running on the most advanced or biggest of computers here at Cal State, we run into that quite a bit.
V5: Do the students have difficulty learning to visualize the objects since they are only seeing them two dimensionally?
BC: Yes, I think anytime you are asking someone who is as inexperienced in relating form as beginning design students, to visualize a three dimensional form through a two dimensional media on a computer screen that is flat, you will run into difficulties. So half the semester is getting them to understand the four screens they are looking at represent different views of the same object. Then there is a point half way through the semester when most of them wake up and say, "Okay, I get it".
V5: You see their eyes light up .... (laughs)
BC: Eventually we would like to get into some virtual reality technology, simple headgear where you can actually go in and see the object. The modeling program that we use is a really simple interface that allows them to rotate the object or rotate themselves around the object so that they have an easier time than with a more complex program where they are trying to grasp what these series of things are. The big difference is and part of the contradiction for me which makes it a little more romantic, is that we are three dimensional entities trying to view into a fourth dimensional world. We are using our eyes and computer screens, which are three-dimensional realities, but we are tying to talk about something that is not a reality. That's for me when it becomes intriguing and I think that is the frustration for the students in the beginning. As they start to realize it's kind of this perverse underground and what's possible, so they begin reveling in the perverseness of the impossibility of what you are asking them to do. I think they really start enjoying and getting into it towards the end of the semester. In fact, I have a lot of students repeating the course, since is a repeat option class, and you get quite a few of the better ones that are coming back saying, "Okay, I know that the first time is a preliminary, but now we really want to get into the meat of the substance and produce some incredible work."
Thank you Bryan
return to volume5
|
