Thesis thoughts

[Sana]

Thought today:
In what way would i want my thesis to be meaningful or helpful for someone else?


Sent from my iPhone

[Minnie]

This week: help my mom set up an etsy store. She's been meaning to make and sell few simple baby accessories. This will include quick concepting, gathering materials, quick branding, shooting images etc and launching.

Thought of the day: sometimes..learn to listen to my heart

Action of the day: i emailed two of my Muslim friends on thoughts about my subject matter- veiled, young and creative

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Minnie Choi
www.minniechoi.com
@minibeom

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[sana rao]

Thesis artifact for the week: 

I will be a voyeur this week - listen for the signs of a communication gap

start from the obvious problems and by the end of the week have concrete examples of spheres where language fails us.

Thought for the day:

I haven't defined my problem space clearly, so far what I have is fairly subjective. I need to come up with a 

clearly framed problem statement to find clarity myself.

Cheers,

Sana

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Sana Rao

MFA Interaction Design Candidate

School of Visual Arts

New York

sanarao.com

blog.sanarao.com

@sanarao

[sana rao]

Thesis thought for the day and the past couple of days-

Singling out specific scenarios from observation and experience, where despite a common language, communication is not efficient-

1) Romantic relationships,  2) Parent-Child relationship( which evolves from non verbal and more gensture heavy conversation during infancy- to highly verbal but ineffective conversation)

Thesis task for the day- 

Reading up on International auxiliary languages, and other methods of bridging communication gaps.

Also started reading Heinlein's 'Stranger in a Strange Land' as an entry point into the sci-fi world (the book where the word Grok originated)

[tash wong]

I'm plowing through Brilliant, it is fascinating to read about what was used for light before electricity, and about the implementation of the power grid.

Thesis thoughts: Lighting is wonderful. How can my work bring about more delight?

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tashwong.com

MFA candidate, Interaction Design at the School of Visual Arts

Co-Creator of Coastermatic.com

[Guri Venstad]

Sana, I found this very interesting article on language's role in shaping our thoughts. Must read!

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703467304575383131592767868.html

(There are also 200 comments on this that might be interesting to skim through...)

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Guri Venstad

MFA Interaction Design

School of Visual Arts

www.gurivenstad.com

+1 917-868-6771

[sana rao]

Thesis artifact for the week- make a chart of a person- mapping the high and low points in their romantic relationships 

against the points in their relationship with their parents as children.

Thesis thought for the day- The idea of anonymity in extracting stories with sensitive or intensely personal content is an interesting direction for gathering content.

[sana rao]

Thoughts and actions-

Wednesday- Read up on various research studies around attachment theories in close relationships- several theories have been proposed spanning 1987-2010. Some say attachment patterns build from cradle and stay till the grave. 

I need to choose one that I personally relate to and then build on that.

Thursday- More reading currently- 

Bell hooks- 2 books on Love and attachment. 

Also on different kind of intelligences and personality types

Tipping Point-Malcolm Gladwell

Where, when does storytelling come in? Is it a constraint, a medium or an irrelevant fancy?

Also, If anyone has any more suggestions for reading or articles around this area, please pass them on!

Happy Thursday!

Sana

[sana rao]

Friday- Continued reading Bell hooks and Tipping point came across the concept of cultural microrhythms and other subtleties of persuasion.

Starting to think that I should continue research on body language and microexpressions and other communication nuances this is what I'm going to keep. 

Saturday- Thesis artifact mapped high and low points in my relationship with my parents to the one with romantic/close ones.

Did not expect to see such clear patterns and phases. Continued reading.

Sunday- Wrote a long overdue blogpost as a result of the artifact and my motivation in this area. Too emotionally draining.

Hope everyone had a great weekend.

Sana

[sana rao]

Hi all,

Monday- Started categorizing users according to the theory of multiple intelligences to see the kind of activities/mediums that surface.

Tuesday- Read up on flow in games and music and defined the three key scenarios for my project. 

Came across an article talking about children revealing their actual ambitions through drawings. 

So many of these go unnoticed. Is it just the right lens/sensitization that is needed?

Wednesday- Asked Liz for an introduction to Art therapy department chair, for which I had to define my thesis in a sentence. It was hard.

Thursday- Spoke to Amit about coming a full circle and backing in to my original thesis idea. Realizing that my thesis should be a place for me to have fun, and not be uncomfortable.

Friday- Starting to build the truth meter as a playful experiment. Talked to a friend whos family runs a school.

:)

Sana

[sana rao]

Sunday- Finished making the truth meter, though still haven't quite learned how to interpret the readings. Working on it.

Reached out to SVA art therapy dept chair. Waiting for a response. 

[sana rao]

Monday- thesis blogpost http://blog.sanarao.com/post/34102162792/a-bit-of-thesis-love and a song to start off the week!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQoijFax5Ic

:)

[Tash Wong]

Your truth meter makes me think of this:

http://hdm.wikia.com/wiki/Alethiometer

It's a key part of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy.

[Amit Pitaru]

Hey everyone,

For next class, please print out your new paragraph (the larger the
print, the better), and hang it on the wall prior to class. Please also
include one graphical element that represents your prototype (it could
be a whiteboard drawing ala Tom and Prachi today, or a printed image).

Please also take the first tangible production step towards your printed
materials - and be prepared to share with us.

Also, I know it's a bit hard sitting idle while I do the rounds,
especially at times where time is a rare resource (thank you Tom and
Tony for bringing this up!). Moving forward, we're entering the
production phase, and I'll introduce workshop elements, as well as
guests who can work with you in groups.

That said, I'll also be happy to break into discussions with individual
students during class time, while the rest work on.

Onwards!
Amit

[Tom Harman]

Hi Amit,

Great to hear about your approach to next weeks class. I'm looking forward to it.

One question: please could you clarify this sentence a little: "Please also take the first tangible production step towards your printed materials - and be prepared to share with us."

By printed materials, do you mean our first artifact?

Thanks,

Tom.

--
harmantom.com
@tomharman

Amit

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[Amit Pitaru]

Hey Tom,

The printed materials (words + visual element) are representative of the
end-semester deliverable. I'd like you guys to also start working on the
deliverable - take the first step towards its production - and share
with us what that step was.

Let me know if that makes sense, happy to elaborate as needed.

Amit

On 10/22/12 10:53 PM, Tom Harman wrote:
> Hi Amit,
>
> Great to hear about your approach to next weeks class. I'm looking
> forward to it.
>
> One question: please could you clarify this sentence a little: "Please
> also take the first tangible production step towards your printed
> materials - and be prepared to share with us."
>
> By printed materials, do you mean our first artifact?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Tom.
>
> --

> harmantom.com <http://harmantom.com>

> @tomharman
>
>
> On 22 October 2012 18:36, Amit Pitaru <api...@sva.edu

> <mailto:api...@sva.edu>> wrote:
>
> Hey everyone,
>
> For next class, please print out your new paragraph (the larger
> the print, the better), and hang it on the wall prior to class.
> Please also include one graphical element that represents your
> prototype (it could be a whiteboard drawing ala Tom and Prachi
> today, or a printed image).
>
> Please also take the first tangible production step towards your
> printed materials - and be prepared to share with us.
>
> Also, I know it's a bit hard sitting idle while I do the rounds,
> especially at times where time is a rare resource (thank you Tom
> and Tony for bringing this up!). Moving forward, we're entering
> the production phase, and I'll introduce workshop elements, as
> well as guests who can work with you in groups.
>
> That said, I'll also be happy to break into discussions with
> individual students during class time, while the rest work on.
>
> Onwards!
> Amit
>
> --
>
>
>

> --
>
>

--
Amit Pitaru
Co-chair
MFA in Interaction Design
School of Visual Arts
phone: 212.592.2435
email: api...@sva.edu

[sana rao]

Hi all,

Here's my update for the week:

• Posted two blog posts on my tumblr : http://blog.sanarao.com/

• Read up a LOT on self quantification, sentiment analysis, Kinesics, Paralinguistic communication, Autism and Aspergers, Creative arts therapies (bibliotherapy, poetry therapy, drama, dance, art therapy)

• Talked to 3-4 people trying to explain my not so fully formed concept and get reactions.

• Started measuring my own mood through this mood-tracking app called Experial (beautifully and simply done)

See you all tomorrow!

Cheers,

Sana

[Sana Rao]

Hey Hey! 

Here's to a great start to the week.

I posted my first experiment on an exchange of soundscapes yesterday. The experiment turned out to be a lot more powerful and nostalgic than I thought. Here is the link to the blog post: http://blog.sanarao.com/post/35556825763/experiment-1-the-sounds-of-celebration

Also got a great crit today in the class (thanks Tash, Barbara & Prachi)! Things are starting to piece together.

Im thinking along the lines of working with soundscapes and honing in on my finding from the experiment to refine that experience

as opposed to throwing it away. Something like a the soundscapes of the places that one is connected to/feels nostalgic about. 

Continuing to track my mood through Expereal , Sleep through Sleep time and food & exercise through Livestrong MyPlate. 

For the week: need to order binaural sound headphone/or get the dept to order it. 

experiment with a wider demographic than myself :p

Have fun!

Cheers,

Sana

(PS- Amit let me know when we can catch up- skype/inperson)