Juteopolis: Tonight Matthew, I'm going to be an Engineer

*snore*

Today, myself and Christina went to go and speak with the Head of Engineering, Dr. Robert Keatch. After cautiously snooping around the Mechanical Engineering department, and looking completely out of place with my leopard print earrings, Beetlejuice jacket and SLR, and Christina dressed somewhat like an eager October Santa, we finally got directed toward the right place by a kind couple of students who took pity on us poor, intellectually inferior, design students.

I did however manage to cast my mind back to 5 years ago, in higher Physics where I learned about diodes and not gates. This impressed him, as I suspected he thought we would aim to resolve this armed with some poster paint. Christina's vacant expression however, needed no further explanation. By the time we left, we had done two things; resolved our issue and come to the conclusion that our design was in fact possible (and was actually reasonably simple), and also managed to shock a Doctorate in Engineering at the (poor) level of the average persons knowledge of his field. Whoops!

the partition allows for
two separate exhibition
spaces

All in all, he actually was down to earth with us about it, and didn't make fun of us too much. I say too much, he did say he'd hide if we needed his help in the future. Turns out that what we are trying to do is virtually the same process as a newspaper printing press, and also, as I pointed out, similar to that of the process involved of pressing aluminium into tin foil. I can actually now thank my Dad for subjecting me to these awful how-to programs! This however, does not mean I will not watch them at my own free will, Dad.

 the partition provides two
separate experiences. One
based on industry, the other
society.

We then also made a quick trip to the DCA to get some pictures of the area that relate better now we know how we would like the partition set out. Fortunately for us, it was laid out exactly how we had planned. Win!

It was also rather handy that the windows currently had black-out blinds pulled, again - exactly how we had planned. It gave it a much better sense of how it would work out if we actually got the opportunity to exhibit our design. The projector being set up gave us a rough idea of the lighting effect we would get, as part of our space is to be lit using words written in light. Anyhoo, enough chit chat, hi ho, hi ho, it's back to work I go...

My Sunday Ramblings: A Never Ending Story

Ok, so although this post is not so much University academia related, I thought I'd just update you with the swirling vortex of nonsense that is currently going on in my head, on a Sunday afternoon.

There's always one. Maybe she
just wants a blue pencil
for her map. Unlikely.

As I was posting my previous post I was reading over it thinking; "I was always told I was pretty rubbish at school in English, I don't want to show myself up for everybody to see", while frantically checking grammar and spelling. As I read it over it again after posting I came to realise, school may teach you the basics, the grammar, the spelling, but how much you continue to develop as an adult cannot be taught. They don't teach life in school!

At school, it's all up on the board in black and white. You copy it out. You practise it. But if you're really just that rubbish at it, it will follow you about forever. Or so it seems, but I think somewhere along the line, I told school to get out my car and it can hitch a lift off of somebody else. That well known feeling of leaving school and thinking "pfft, don't have to think about that garbage any longer" is still true for some subjects - for me it was Geography. I mean come on, what a useless subject. I coloured maps for 2 years and got the top mark! Thats hardly the basis for a degree. Apologies if you're reading this from your Geography lecture. I'm not apologising for what I've said, I'm apologising for your degree. However back to the topic in question - subconsciously I don't think you ever stop learning the likes of English (or French, or German, or Vietnamese, whatever is your first language). What I'm trying to get at, is that I hope my English teacher somehow through the wonderful vast realms of the internet, gets a hold of this, and gives me a long awaited pat on the back saying, "Shona, you finally got better at this".

Wow, that really was some ramble - but it made sense up in my noggin.

VRC - DCA [DJCAD's "Centrespace"]

Secondly, in this black hole of a brain of mine, I was also thinking a lot about this Juteopolis project, late at night in my bed (it's what I find myself doing when I can't sleep). I'm thinking it's a much better task than I had originally suspected, as due to doing a Jute related piece last year, my heart sank at the word coming up again this year. I therefore had reservations about my motivation to go into that research area again, however on saying that, it is amazing what your individual ideas and designs can be transformed into while working in a group. I'm impressed. Who knew we were actually pretty good at this stuff! Handy, studying it and hoping for a career within it, and all.

Right now, I'm pretty excited to execute this final idea and present next week, as I would genuinely enjoy the exhibition if it were to be created! Yay - go team us!

So after all of the above off my chest, I'm figuring that I should probably use this new found lease of life for Jute and get the heck out my bed and off my blog and GET ON WITH IT! (I just love blogging so dang much!)

Juteopolis: Group Work FTW!

Evidently Norman had not looked after
mothers raw jute wig as well as she
would of liked. Useless boy.

Firstly, I shall get the basics over with, and quickly get you folks up to speed on the first project of the semester. Initially we were introduced to Louise Ritchie, who would later be our mock client for the project. Her aforementioned exhibition, aptly entitled "Juteopolis", was an installation of a series of wooden cubes, which had been designed based upon artists interpretations of the jute industry that had once been thriving in the Dundee area.


The brief which we had been issued, was essentially to design an exhibition space within a predefined space in Dundee's Contemporary Arts centre (that's the DCA to you, me, and anybody else who likes a tipple in their appropriately named bar, "Jute"), which was inspired by Juteopolis. It could display and/or promote the history of Dundee's jute era, question the future of jute in Dundee or exhibit an installation that had been created upon researching into the area. It also had to have several key elements, such as being sustainable, and transportable, as hypothetically it would be a potential travelling exhibition.


After deciding upon our groups in which we would be working in over the course of the project, we had to obviously map out our strengths within our groups. As we got into talking amongst ourselves, it became apparent we had a wide range of strength that we would be able to play to, which is, quite frankly, not only rare, but extremely lucky! The group as a whole did not get off to a fantastic start for one reason or another as various absences amongst us caused us to fall temporarily behind. This however, did not phase us, and soon we picked up the pace, if anything overtaking those other tortoises. However, as the story goes, haring it to the finish does not always bode well. Slow and steady after all, wins the race.


Currently the research has increased tenfold, and after deliberating over several ideas we have come to an outcome that has gone down well amongst tutors and clients alike. Most of the groups are reasonably hush hush about their ideas and designs, so in fear of being outcast from my group, I shall refrain from detailing our final designs until after deadline. Then all shall be revealed. Oh how exciting!


On a general note; I think working in groups is a lesson in itself, as nobody will work in industry in a one man band practise, it just aint gonna happen. Therefore, regardless of anybody's outcomes after the next week or so, the lessons learned in terms of compromise within teamwork will be invaluable.

As I said, group work ftw!