#and my thesis is due on 15th April

[shrews-studies]

Rating/reviewing my Russian lit compulsory readings (Part 1)

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin (Евгений Замятин - Мы) 8.5/10

I had a lot of fun with this one!!! I was actually surprised by how much it pulled me in and how much I enjoyed it, I finished it in two days and I usually read really slow. If you like 1984 by Orwell, this was what inspired it so you can expect something very similar in vibe and themes. There's racism in the descriptions of one character and it really irked me so that's what made my rating drop a bit.

Red Cavalry by Isaac Babel (Исаак Бабель - Конармия) 6/10

It was not bad but not to my tastes, it's a short story collection and some of them I liked, some I didn't enjoy as much. It's quite gruesome at parts in the "realities of war" kinda way so if you don't take those topics well, I don't recommend.

The master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov (Михаил Булгаков - Мастер и Маргарита) 9.5/10

I loved it!!! I know it's a big classic and I actually read it many years ago and now that it's required for class I only leafed through it again, but still it's among my faves. It's suspenseful, the story and the characters are all great, overall just such a good read. Not giving a 10 only bc I rarely give a perfect rating to anything vsjdgskgdjd

Invitation to a Beheading by Vladimir Nabokov (Владимир Набоков - Приглашение на казнь) 8.5/10

I read this back in high school too but it was really fun to freshen up my memories about it, it's quite a condensed and hard read if you ask me, as it's very surreal and philosophical, but it's very good! If I had to describe it in one expression, it would be fever dream.

Liompa by Yury Olesha (Юрий Олеша - Лиомпа) 7.5/10

It's just one short story but I decided I'd rate anything longer than two pages so here we go. It was fun and I really liked the atmosphere of it, it gave peace of home (other than the obvious theme of dying gdksgskdhjs).

[middleearthpixie]

Proof of Life

I know I've been absent 'round these parts lately, and it looks as if I've abandoned my fics, but no, I'm not dead nor are said fics abandoned.

I'm in grad school. Finishing up my Master's. Which means I am eye-deep in research for my thesis (seriously, I haven't seen the top of my desk in weeks,) the rough draft of which is due to my advisor no later than March 15th. My own personal deadline is March 8th, so between now and then, I'll be spending every free moment I have working on getting the draft done to send to my advisor as well as finishing up my coursework to graduate in May.

But, I WILL be back and I hope you all remember me and for those who are waiting for me to update, I promise you, I WILL be updating as soon as my schedule eases up. If you've tagged me in anything, please know I'm not ignoring it, I will just have a lot of catching up to do come April.

[all-gods-children]

oh y’all

I am in a rage today. Long rant about my thesis ahead.

So me and 4 of my friends who comprise our entire honors class are having an issue with the due date of our theses. (Supposed to be due in April, they’re telling us they’re due November 15th). So we tried to meet with the chair of the program, and I emailed him a week in advance to set it up at a time I knew he is usually in his office. Well he never answered, so we went over to his office, and he wasn’t there (found out later he went to lunch instead of meeting with us). But the dean of the honors college happened to be there, so we just stopped and talked to her instead and she said it would be taken care of.

Well today my friend runs into class crying because this man has called her research advisor, demanded her thesis in the next 10 days, and said he would revoke her scholarship if she didn’t have it. He’s saying we went behind his back to talk to the dean, but we had literally tried to talk to him multiple times, and our honors advisor tried to email and call him with no answer as well. 

I hadn’t told my research advisor about it yet because I thought we were handling it and I didn’t want to involve/worry him when we were getting it taken care of anyways. But I spent all of class emailing him about the situation and copied the honors advisor and the dean on it because this whole thing is ridiculous and petty. Our theses are not done because of a miscommunication between the honors college and our advisor, and that’s not our fault. We tried to talk to him about it, and he refused to answer us. But now he’s too cowardly to talk to us about it and has to start calling our advisors? Nope. I’m about to go to war with this man over it. I’m scared he’s gonna give us failing grades, which could keep me out of medical school. And I’m scared they’ll take away our scholarships  because I don’t have the money to pay for next semester. I thought at the very least we could act like adults and talk to each other face to face about it, but nope. There’s so much more to this story but basically he’s started this over nothing and he doesn’t understand that I’m not about to let him ruin my life over something that he failed to communicate correctly in the first place. I will have my thesis due in April just like I’ve planned for the past 4 years, and if I have to go to the president of the university about it I will. At least have the courage to talk to me about it before you go to my advisor.

[brkfstclubnyc]

Columbia MFA Visual Arts 2020 Thesis Show

Columbia University had to delay their MFA thesis exhibition for the graduating class of 2020 last year due to covid.

The in-person show finally opened at the Lenfest Center for the Arts on 125th Street in Manhattan last week, so Breakfast Club went over to see it in-person on the first viewing day.

Visual Arts Class of 2020 Thesis Exhibition April 28 - May 22, 2021 Columbia University MFA 2020 Visual Arts and Sound Art School of the Arts (SOA) Wallach Art Gallery - Lenfest Center for the Arts 615 West 129th StreetNew York, NY 10027 (enter on 125th Street, west of Broadway) Wednesday - Saturday at Noon - 6:00 p.m. (by appointment only, via Lenfest website)

* This exhibition is not open to the public and alumni due to covid. We highly appreciate Columbia University & Lenfest Center for the Arts for granting us access to this very special show.

** update: they're creating a virtual exhibition tour right now.

https://www.artandeducation.net/announcements/309371/mfa-thesis-first-year-exhibitions

#Show announcement

https://www.artandeducation.net/exhibitions/340597/mfa-thesis-exhibition

#Announcement on covid issues

Highlights:

Cara Lynch

http://www.caralynchstudio.com

https://www.projectgalleryv.com/interviews/cara-lynch

* this is a video clip that Breakfast Club received from the artist (Cara) where she activates the mechanical part of the installation.

More highlight from the same show below...now we are inside the gallery building:

Kathryn Ann Miller

https://katiemiller.art

Interview with Kathryn Ann Miller (we caught one of the artists in the show!)

How do you feel about the show?:

I’m just glad that this exhibition opened…. We have been preparing this show since last year after the coronavirus lockdown in New York [on March 15th, 2020]. This thesis exhibition is for students who were supposed to graduate in May 2020. We initially tried to postpone the show for a couple of months without knowing how serious the situation was. I already graduated, but there were students who tried to postpone graduation for one year and they are graduating now.

What’re materials for your sculpture?

I used liquid plastic and fabrics to make this shape [resin]. It was actually very toxic when I was making this piece in my MFA studio, but there was a ventilation booth in the building that I could use.

What’s inside the sculpture?

Lamps are inside [see the photo below]. I used various objects such as chairs to structure my fabrics this way.

Is there any relationship between your sculpture and video?

Some of the fabrics that I used for the sculpture are in this video of mine, so I think there are some relationships.

Is this exhibition combined with MFA 2021?

No, this is only for MFA 2020 (Visual Arts and Sound Art) and another MFA show will open after this one, with all MFA 2021 graduates, which maybe in the fall (?).

Was there an opening reception with family members last Saturday?

No, the exhibition didn’t open before today. There was a notice for students stating that we might have a different opening date for this exhibition, but it did not happen and we were waiting for the school to let us know which day the show could open for viewing, so you are one of the first visitors in the space!

Is this show open to the Columbia University community?

I wish! The show is only open to current students, faculty, and staff at Columbia University. It is not even open to alumni, which is unfortunate, but again, I am just glad that the show opened in this gallery space.

Thank you and congratulations, Katie!

More highlight from the show below...

More paintings on the next issue!

reported by Nozomi Kato 2021

[iris16stuff-blog]

Professional Critique Journey

Feb 1st,  Narin Gulec

Narin Gulec is a great designer work for the United Nations, graduated from the same school with mine. She has a strong view of design. Maybe due to her work experiences, not only the visual look was considered by her, also the user experience.

She’ve given me a very good advice with my website. Before her advice, the content page is like this (figure 1). It’s just the black spot with the content.  

                                                       Figure 1

She suggested me to consider the people who do not understand English. After the critique, I add some icon on the black spot refer to the content with makes the content page more understandable（Figure 2).

                                                      Figure 2

Additionally, I asked her about my logo’s color. My logo is colorful lines, which looks good when it in a large size but not looking good when it in a small size. She told me to consider about black and white. I’m glad she told me this. I used the white line logo in my video which looks very nice.

March 15th, Luba Lukova

Luba is a great artist. Internationally renowned, New York-based Luba Lukova is regarded as one of the most original image-makers working today. Whether by using an economy of line, color and text to pinpoint essential themes of humanity or to succinctly visualize social commentary, her work is undeniably powerful and thought-provoking.

She’ve given me a lot of advice on my powerpoint, which let me know how important the details are. I keep that in my mind and really care about every detail in my thesis. That makes my thesis better.

April 5th, Peter McKinley

Peter McKinley is a great graphic designer. He also has given me some good advice. He suggests me something with my logo：remove one “s” from my “mussit” logo to makes it sounds more like what I want. And try to play with the logo makes it more cohesive. I tried what he said but I have no more time to makes it perfect, so I insist on my old logo.

[greniercommunication]

Midterm Project Summary

Midterm Project Summary

Topic:

Focusing on the drastic increase of mental health issues and declining rates of physical activity among society I wanted to connect the two by creating a fitness system made to improve your mood and wellbeing. My goal is to promote the use of fitness as a form of therapy; a natural way to relieve daily stress and improve your mood.

Goal:

Midterm Project: My goals for this project is to refine my app and increase functionality from a campaign perspective. As well as refine my pictograph system created previously. Apart of the pictograph system, my goal is to create a logo that fits within the system as a “home” button.

Final Project: Continuing on from the first project my goal is to create a logo and brand identity for “wellbeing”. Carrying on to a business model and fitness book while maintaining the brand image. If complete I hope to have the opportunity to redo the promotional posters within the brand image.

Proposal:

My completed outputs will include:

Midterm

o   App: The app suggests workouts based on your mood in order to improve it

o   Pictograph: Icons used in app  

Final

o   Fitness company: “Wellbeing” is a company that I created with a business model supporting the idea of fitness as a form of natural therapy.

o   Brand Identity: Logo and stationary for “Wellbeing”

o   Fitness book; offered within company to log workout progress and mood

o   Promotional Posters

Course timeline:

Thesis:

Wed 830-250

NO CLASS MARCH 29TH

Term Proposal (5%) Jan 25th

Jan 18th Progress

Midterm Project (40%) Feb 15th

Jan 18th / Group

Jan 25th Work in Progress/ Individual

Feb 1 Work in Progress/ Group

Feb 8th Work in Progress/ Individual

Exhibit Sketch (5%)  March 15th

CLASS PRESENTATION

March 1st Progress/ Individual

Final Project (40%) April 12th

March 1st Proposal

March 8th Work in Progress/ group

March 15th Work in Progress

March 22nd Work in Progress/ group

March 29th NO CLASS

April 5th Rough Draft Process/ group

Critique notes:

Feb 8th

After discussion areas of opportunity are:

Show stages of workout so user is aware of timing and stage in program.

More visually appealing

more information per screen

Header size is too large

More meaningful design

Major turning point in design of workout pages

Decision Point:

half way through this midterm project I chose to switch up my software. Instead of continuing with Adobe XD, which I used in the previous semester, I switched to us InVision.

Last semester I felt the software was hindering my project and didn’t offer some tools or features that I planned my original design around. After spending many hours playing with InVision I have noticed it is a very different software, but the features I did not have access to originally are available.

Final Conclusion

Over the previous six weeks I had the opportunity to take idea from September and a project from last semester and take it further. Improve design elements, functionalities, and behaviours which were not successful at the end of the previous semester. As this project due date approaches I am much happier with the outcome. As stated above I made a decision about three weeks into the six-week project to switch my building software from Adobe XD to Invision, an online software. Switching software’s is a decision I wish I made last semester. This software made this project much more successful and user-friendly, although this software forced me to design within Adobe Photoshop instead of Illustrator I would say I worked out for the better. I wish text and design was able to be done in illustrator to increase precision and details, the photoshop and Invision due still worked out better in the end. Lastly, I would like to highlight some areas of great improvement and areas that hope to continue working on throughout the semester in order to get the best possible result.

After competition remaining Opportunities

·      design could be elevated specifically on extra functions

·      type clarity

Identifying successful improvements made

·      Behaviours

·      Functionalities

·      Software

·      Workouts and workout designs