Mali Tribune

1. How many hours of practice time per week would you consider excessive? How many hours would not be enough to create sophisticated work? Where are you situated?

It’s all relative towards your goals or needs of course. In this stage of my life and given that I practically a liberal studies major as well, I would say anything more than 10-12 hours a week might be quite excessive just because other studies need attention to. A lot of the time the techniques that I am trying to learn or get used to isn’t so hard but studying for a different subject is a different story. I would say if I was doing this full time that 10 hours isn’t nearly enough but I’m still yet a student. How many hours would not be enough to create sophisticated work? I don’t know. Some people classify sophisticated differently; people learn differently. For me, I need around 4 hours on something in order for it to start getting somewhere. For my definition of excessive, I exceed excessiveness but it’s not always for school so maybe I’m overworking myself.

2. What is “sophisticated” work? What is sophisticated in the designs of your maps?

Sophisticated work is work that is purposeful. It’s work that is designed with the intent to be place somewhere where it will thrive without much explanation—looks like it belongs there. But still yet sophistication is a relative to the person. I would say that I tried strongly to suggest some type of personality with my maps. It’s hard for me not to include any type of personality or character.

3. What was some meaningful feedback you received about the maps and what did you do with that feedback?

I got the majority of my feedback from your desk crits because I really didn’t show my progress. I was working on too many things at once and wasn’t exactly on the same projectile as most of my classmates. But I did receive some good insights about placement, color, and different relationships between things on the page.

4. Describe what level of challenge you encountered in the creation of your maps. What was the hardest part / what was the easiest part? What was the most enjoyable part of the process?

The most challenging part about this project was just doing a map, plain and simple. I always try and spice it up a bit. I always want to make work that I feel like is worth taking some time to observe. It is very difficult for me to sort of do something and then move on, which brings me to my second point. I don’t know when to stop, at least in this setting. I felt like only one of my maps (out of 2) could stand alone just because it seemed the most finished. You could say that that map, the Tony Pierce one, is all three wrapped in one. It shows me deducing to figure out where Tony Pierce lives (process) , it has an example of a topographical map that has some depth to it, and it has graphs on it. The most fun thing about this project was figure out where Tony Pierce lives. It was almost obsessive.

5. Did you do anything else outside of class, extracurricular, related to art, design, or creativity?

Yessir. I did a few things. I am a graphic designer and stylist for the fashion magazine on campus, CABRA. I am also on the creative team for a music promotional team on campus called New Waves. I basically take photos and videos of our events and makes logos, posters, and designs for merchandise. I guess I do the same for CABRA as well. I also help artists setup at ATM gallery studios. I also took a theatre class this semester so I had to do 30 hours of work outside of class hanging lighting fixtures 18 feet able everyone’s head (which was pretty cool) and help design sets for the shows. Plus a did a couple things for money, attend shows, and watch how people on YouTube approach different creative crafts.

6. Whether positively, negatively or neutrally, how has your life outside of school impacted your school work?

I definitely think I try to do too much at once just because I have an urge to be working and being involved with my community. I seen a lot of growth in my work because I have been making an effort to live breathe and think in terms of design. I have exponentially gotten a bit better but I’m hungry for more. The maps in this class just felt like a formality assignment that’s why I tried to make it more interesting with my Tony Pierce map, but when it came down to working on my other two, it was quite difficult because of the time crunch. I lost many many many hours of sleep. I also got other classes too which made my life a living hell.

7. What does the most ideal classroom environment look/feel like to you? What does it mean to be part of a class? This semester, what was your part / role / contribution to this ideal vision?

My perfect classroom environment probably has more of an open forum and discussion. I feel like when people are willing to express their viewpoints and ideas all the students can learn from various different points of view, but I learned that it takes some level of maturity to speak up and seek being corrected if wrong. I tried to break the silence in our classroom by doing that. I only wish that more people would be expressive about their process and their mindset.