some sculpting

we finished one of our figure poses last night. I didn't get to finish mine, but it's okay. I learned a lot and plan to continue. I've been thinking a lot about what one of my profs said; which is essentially that we should be thinking about what sort of values we have, and how that defines us as a person, because THOSE convictions are what we take with us throughout our life; they are cemented at this stage in our lives. Do we care about sustainability as designers, or about preservation or are we incredibly self indulgent, caring mostly about things that look 'cool' but have no longevity or usefulness within a span of over an year? It reminded me of The Rem's argument on Junksp@ce (if you haven't read it, it's a GREAT read; the man (K00lhaas) is hilarious). I remember seeing a showcase at one school, and part of the design process was 'things I like", that would inform their design choices. Or sometimes it's defining what a client likes (this is popular for interi0r design). I was thinking in the manner that it was done (ie a stick up of things like iPh0nes and other gadgets) that I would be completely LOST. As a person, those sorts of 'things' don't mean that much to me; in fact, a lot of the things I 'like' can't be showcased by a simple photo, really. Reading a lot about other designers of the past, I am happy to see that I am not alone. I remember seeing how Aalt0 would convey the sense of comfort a person felt in a home by making the psychological material association; he would put leather on the doorknobs because it felt warm to the touch and we would therefore have positive associations with certain rooms or the house itself. What we design has an inherent association with memory and nostalgia (getting all B@chel@rd here). Visiting the E@mes house last weekend, he was clear about two things; he wanted a bookshelf to accommodate the couple's love for reading (in this case, it was a floating one, which was actually double sided to have all the nice art books on one side and the paperback crappy ones on the other side that wasn't exposed as you walk into the room) and his love for travel and art (shown in the tonne of gifts he obtained from friends when they travelled, along with the pieces he bought when he travelled. And of course, the hanging of paintings and photos parallel to the ceiling; those are the things that defined the man and his wife. I can relate to things like that, and I feel that THAT is actually at the core of design, more-so than the homogeneous 'stuff' that is being pushed on us as a society to 'define' our identity (because it really doesn't). Anyways, enough philosophy....