Studio Class Visit Reflection (Week 11, 3/23-27)

Today's class was structured like a demo, and then we discussed students' ideas and sketches for their upcoming photoshop project. During Nick's demo, I went around the room and helped students. One student came late to class, so I caught them up to the point in the demo we were at. Another student couldn't get the shape to fill in a color. Other students didn't know where the lasso tools were/that you can right click them to get different options. I gave some students keyboard shortcuts as I was helping them as well. I stayed wandering the room looking at students' screens to see if they were getting it or lost/stuck/messed up. 

My favorite portion of class was going to each student and help brainstorm from their sketchbook ideas. Nick was helping students who weren't there on the first day get caught up while I was doing this. Some students had a physical sketchbook and their 5 sketches. Lots of students had more than five or very complex sketches; I was impressed. Some students had their ideas sketched using photoshop to make like a rough draft. These students obviously already had some prior experience in photoshop. I was surprised how well done and complex the students' ideas were. It was super cool to learn more about the students interests and inspirations. Based on how the students talked about each of their sketches, I geared them towards the one they seemed most excited about. We talked about how they imagined different parts of their compositions turning out. We talked about combining elements from different sketches. I mentioned ways of possibly realizing their ideas using different tools in photoshop. I gave some artist recommendations as well. Super lovely group of passionate people!

After I made my rounds and Nick finished catching up those students, he went around the room hearing about students' ideas as well. 

Studio Class Visit Reflection (Week 12: 3/30-4/3)

This week’s class was structured like a group critique. In the first 8 weeks class, I was a part of the small group critique. It was interesting to see how the two styles differed. In small group critiques, there’s less timed pressure. It is also sometimes easier to talk when just focusing on the few people in the room. Although, people are more biased with their friends or have time already talked about their projects outside of critique. In the large group critique, there’s more succinct feedback due to less time to talk. There is more of a group flow state/collective though, since you have to be sensitive to when people are done speaking/about to speak. However, people who are quieter/more socially anxious may end up not speaking. I was surprised how equal people spoke and the flow. It seemed like there was not much dominating or being shy. Everyone spoke at least once, and the feedback was all very purposeful. There were some students who liked to give their feedback first, and some caboose students.

For the first half of class, I was in charge of the timer and teaching people how to projection map their image corners to the wall. My timer didn’t always go off (I think it wouldn’t go off when my phone when tot sleep). When I noticed it didn’t go off and felt it was 3 min, I set my timer to 1 second. It went off immediately and then made the person speaking finish their thought. It flowed so well. The timer was always a suggestion, sometimes if there was more to say we’d continue. Sometimes, I would ask a question, guiding the critique if sometime wasn’t brought up yet. For instance, “how does this piece address lighting in the foreground, middle ground, and background?”

For the second half of class, I led critiques. It was fairly simple since I’ve been in art critiques since high school. I have the flow and questions down. I prompted overall critique with “what are the highlights and drawbacks of the piece”, “how cohesive are the images/elements when combined in photoshop”, lighting, colors, layers, composition, etc. For each piece, I prompted critique with the primary features of the piece. For instance, there was a large block of text in one piece, I asked about how that works or doesn’t work. I asked how the colors of a piece go along with the theme (Blues, teals, greens, purples = ocean snail vibes).

At the end of class, Nick announced what to do for next class. After class, Nick discussed with some student coming up to him. Then, we discussed my mini lesson for next week’s class and my EFAC show.

Studio Class Visit Reflection (Week 13: 4/6-10)

We can’t get Touch Designer installed on the laptop computers, so I did a demo where students came up to my laptop. We did a collective project where each student did a step on my laptop. At the end, we’d have an exported project. I think it’s important for students to move, be engaged, and not be stuck sitting at a desk. I tried not to touch my laptop as much as possible to give the students more experience. However, I did get confused/flustered at the end realizing how much time it was taking. 

I have no idea if I was being fair. I let some students not do as much in the program, especially when they were first and just seeing it for the first time. As it went on, the students in the back I had slightly higher expectations, since they had been watching it for longer. Some students’ steps didn’t end up working out. For instance, I couldn’t figure out how to do audio analysis. I wanted to show the true process of creating something. That sometimes things don’t work out and you move on. However, I hope that specific student didn’t feel like they failed, because it didn’t work out. Some students also seemed very anxious being in front of the class, using my laptop, or possibly “messing up”. I wanted them to push through a tiny bit so they felt like they did something. However, I also didn’t want them to push to the point of not learning because of anxiety.

I also messed up and fixed some parts. They were common mistakes people (like me) make, so it was good to show how to fix it. It was IRL troubleshooting. For instance, when exporting a video, it can be frustrating to make it smooth (not glitchy) and have the audio come out too.

I totally blacked out during the Micro Lesson. I did not realize time at all. I taught way over 15 minutes. After Nick did a summary of class/what to do for next class, I looked at the time and realized I must have been talking for over an hour. I have no idea what students were thinking, since it was me talking for most of it. Towards the end some people asked questions, but it was mainly silent during. I was so happy when people started asking questions. There were so many confused faces. I think I may have made my lesson way too complicated. Someone said they had a headache from it… which was not my intention. However, I think that is the case when learning any new software. It was super important for me to have an actual video exported, so people can feel accomplished.

After class, one student asked a question while downloading TouchDesigner. I was so happy someone was downloading it!! It made me feel like the lesson was interesting, and that people were inspired to create with it.