Prompt: Each class meeting, you should be writing one page on the topic we covered in class. You can also use this as a time to do independent research, create photo essays, or similar. If you’re unsure, contact me about it. You should also use this space as an opportunity to write about inspirations for your own work, and to put your sketches, illustrations, etc. online.
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In this fourteenth reflection, I will be:
a/ sharing my highlights among the feedback we received at the fair
b/ wrapping up my learning experience in this class.
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a/ My highlights among the feedback we received at the fair
People in general liked our idea. We were also happy about it. I was telling Professor Scott about how I had to readjust my expectations when it was time to implement the idea, and that thankfully our final product actually exceeded my new expectations. One idea an NYU New York student gave us was to apply our system to water testing, and have different animations as the water quality changes. I liked the idea and thought it was very relevant. Professor Scott made a link between this idea and the initial idea I had about lighting the green area at the roundabout. He proposed the lighting animations to change as the city’s air quality changes. I liked his idea very much and thought it would very relevant and eventually useful to Shanghai to have such a system. He also gave us feedback on our circuit. He said it is better to use the smallest number of wires possible and to generally keep it tidier than we did. Mr. Kyle asked us about the context in which we picture such a model of work. We told him how we picture such a model in houses, parks, as well as in schools. I personally am very interested in education and thought that such a model could be very efficient when it comes to developing within kids good habits such as watering plants, since the kids will be deriving so much pleasure from the lighting animations.
b/ wrapping up my learning experience in this class.
I am convinced that there is more information and stimuli from this class that I am still digesting, compared to what I have already assimilated, which I will be elaborating on below. This is not to say that I have assimilated only a small amount of information, but I am rather trying to make the point that I learned immensely in this Interactive Media Arts class, and I am sure most of it is in ways I am not even fully aware of as of yet. This course unveiled a whole world to me and was the best introduction to the field of IMA I could have asked for. Moreover, it pushed me to develop new ways of thinking, perceiving and producing content. I loved the very practical-based nature of it. It was also an opportunity for me to explore the Shanghai landscape in depth when it comes to contemporary art, the hacking culture, as well as the electronics business. It was an intro to so many different things and programs for me and thus was a priceless experience for me as an aspiring teacher, in a sense that it will allow me to empathise better with my students who will be once in a while presented things their backgrounds never exposed them to in the past. I was very inspired by and grateful for Professor Scott’s patience with people like me, who were uncomfortable with fields such as coding at the very beginning of the course and needed critical help. This was a huge opportunity for me as well to sharpen my learning techniques. I became more self-aware of my natural reaction to an exposure to something new in a classroom setting and I am today better prepared to take on anything, learn it and apply it in real life. At the end it was absolutely worth it for me to step out of my comfort zone by taking this class, in order to learn such powerful tools of expressing the Self. I am so grateful to NYU Abu Dhabi, and to Professor Scott, whom I cannot thank enough for having impacted me in such deep ways (some of which I will only become fully aware of in a while from now).