first issue

The Covers! The Covers! The Covers are still blank!

2005-11-17T22:04:00.000+11:00

I posted this in the comments of the previous post but i realised that i should probably put it as a full post -

could someone please investigate the prices of binding - i think orginally we were talking about having wire binding - similiar to what is on the wonderland book - so if someone would like to find out where and how cheap we can get it done. As for the covers - they are still sitting on my desk - what do we want on them? if we don't make a descision they will basically be blank - although that could be an idea. I was thinking we could just put the corporation game logo that was made up on them. but it all depends on what everyone else wants. oh and majendie the covers came in at $1.80 - that is for a back cover and front cover like i did on the copy of the mag i did up - so the paper was 90 cents a sheet

When is the date to pick up the mag?

2005-11-07T14:10:00.000+11:00

Ok so now it's all done and at the printers when is it going to be bound and a frount cover made? So then we can pick it up... There's this pretty cool stensal of a man in the suit Braden made i think that can be on the front and then just the title the corporation game in some font somewhere on it anyone else have any ideas?

a minor setback

2005-10-24T20:26:00.000+10:00

hi again folks. hope the "holidays" are just going great for everyone.

as to yonder magazine, we have another setback. unfortunately the great wheels of the rmit beaurocracy take some time to get turning, and soumitri is unable to get the funds cleared for another couple of weeks. what this means is that we will print what we can with what we have collected so far as soon as we can. and then later, soumitri will print up a big pile for the graduate exhibition, which means that unfortunately we can't get them for the upper pool exhibition, which is dissapointing. still, march on.

raph, we'll need to finalize the cover/binding situation, so could you give us an update on what pricing for that paper you've managed to source, and we'll have to talk about the binding. for our copies we may have to go a different route to the final copies soumitri prints.

money wise, we don't have that much. we were relying on the uni to provide the funds to get us into a bulk pricing bracket - without the extra copies being printed, that brings our unit price up unfortunately. i will see what i can swing.

so far, as of 4pm this afternoon, we have 8 people of the 15 odd who have paid, giving us $96 so far. To print 15 copies we need about $180, this is at a unit cost of $11.80, and is however minus the final cost for the covers.

we'll figure something out, and will sort it out tomorrow.

until then.

- a

Ideas for the wall

2005-10-19T22:52:00.000+10:00

I was hoping that every body could print out blog posts, or photos or what ever they think of when the corporation game is mentioned. Like paper types, the crinkled texture of Kelly lantern and such. We could maybe start the wall Friday if people are free or Monday. I’ll see about paint but mostly I think of gluing things, or taping them. The people who come could help out by painting other corporation members, not looking at photos but by memory, and we’d paint on quotes and such things.

I don’t think that it should be to much work, as there’s quality work in the blogs, We could also make frames like the ones I made for studies where we just use bits and pieces, I don’t think we should paint large pictures like down stairs as that’s time consuming and takes to long to dry and not necessary. Any ideas are welcome, but I think that we’ll just make it fun it won’t have to look all professional and organised. Ohh yeah and ink blots and lino cuts are cool. I see what art thing I can scrounge up, and other people can look for things as well.

Oh theres more stuff on my own blog.

hot off the Press

2005-10-19T17:01:00.000+10:00

Well here it is hot off the press a full colour copy of first issue - with an idea of how the cover could look - this cover was printed and although we have been discussing a cover that isn't printed i think this one looks pretty effective!!! this one also has a back cover that is the same stock as the front - i will bring it in tommorow with the paper samples to see what people think and we can discuss the front cover options for all the other magazines. Unfourtunately there were some printing problems with this one. I think that the final bindings on the others should have circle holes like the wonderland mag rather than the square holes.

free as a bird

2005-10-19T11:58:00.000+10:00

i feel bad that i havent done as much as i would have liked for this magazine, so if people need things done - let me know. Haley - what are we doing for the wall?

Covers - paper and colours.

2005-10-19T09:08:00.000+10:00

I think a big thanks goes to you andrew for doing a huge amount of this magazine work.

So now that it is ready to go to print the next thing on the list is of course covers. So we must decide on several things. firstly the paper for the cover. I have had a squiz at a bunch of papers that are out there and there are of course alot to choose from in terms of coulour texture etc...
In terms of coulours i was thinking that we should choose from something that is either - blue, green, grey - as those are the most dominant colours in the colour version of the mag. The next thing is texture. we can have something that is like the rest of the paper in the mag slick and smooth - however this would defeat the purpose of doing the front cover seperately.

Awhile ago i headed down to one of the major paper providers in melbourne and picked up a few samples, some people have looked at these samples, although the majority haven't. those who have seen them please let us know which you think could be best.

So in terms of finishes and texture there are several that i felt would suit our mag and below i have tried to describe them however they are hard to describe and I feel that you could only make a descision if you can hold the paper.

there was a metallic finish, a semi-translucent silvery grey(i think this one comes in other colours), a pearlescent finish (i believe this one probably gets julians vote), several cream ones with different patterns printed on - so basically they are smooth (pretty broing really).
In terms of texture there are a 3 that i had a look at - one with indented stripes that run horizontal over the page, one that is hard to describe but is very textured and feels great and the final one is one that is a plain cream colour, but it feels soft and sort of porus - reminds me of soap stone actually - only on paper. these come in several colours - except for the cream ones.
There are of course a many hundreds of different papers and colours so if anyone has a paper that they feel would be good please suggest it.

I think the best plan of attack for the paper choice would be for as many people as possible to meet, have a look and feel of the papers and make a descision on paper.

It has been suggested that we screen print onto the covers(i believe ben has screen printing gear) or It has also been suggested that we could spray paint something on using a stencil - any other ideas are most welcome. if everyone feels that this would be to much work to screen print or spray paint and wants to do it the qucik but more expensive way, it is possible to print onto all the papers that i have looked at - however this would probably just add alot more cost and would degrade the magazine a bit.

Julian also suggested that we could use two strips of aliminium cut to size and then pop riveted or bolted to hold the mag together and we could do this ourselves, all that would be needed is a large hole punch and the bolts or pop rivets.

So lets hear some ideas people otherwise a small few are going to make the descisions about the outside of what is everyones magazine! If possible we should have a meeting about it - maybe tommorow as i know alot of people would be coming in to hand in their models.

So a SUMMARY of what has to be done for people who don't want to read the rant above -
- choose paper
- choose colours
(note that not all papers come in the colour we might want so the two are connected - the colour determines the paper and at the same time the paper determines the colour.)
-choose a method of putting what we want on the cover - currently screen prinited or spraypainted using a stencil
-choose a binding method - currently spiral bound or bound using aluminium + pop rivets

My vote would be for a semi-translucent cover in grey or blue that is screen printed on in black and is bound using the aluminium and pop rivets.

done (again)

2005-10-18T23:43:00.000+10:00

well those last little bits are polished off. it was well worth it, i'm glad i had the extra time. the file was 90mb, but thanks to the format optimizations i've just done, it's now only 25mb, which will keep the printing guys happy because their printer isn't having to rasterize hundreds of massive vector files.

which is a good thing.

here's a link to the pdf (50mb). i've uploaded the colour version, which is what will be made available electronically, however print wise, only the title pages will be colour. (if anyone wants a colour version - which would be really really nice to have) it'll cost about $90. just putting it out there :)

i'm in a good mood now. and i'll be in bed before midnight, so i'll actually have some sleep and be able to perform basic tasks, and focus on things.

*satisfied sigh*

well, it's been fun. talk to you all at a later date.

- a

extra time

2005-10-18T21:49:00.000+10:00

hi folks. here's some good news - i have some extra time to get the copy done, which is excellent. speaking to the printers today they say they can do a 24hr turnaround (since they don't have to send the printed work from perth, as i thought they did (they do with offset, not digital printing, don't worry about it)) that gives me a couple more days to get everything tidied up, which is excellent.

so that's what i'm doing right now.

and i've realised i don't have an introduction to the cultural capital stuff. if someone (not haley, as she's done so very much already) could write something for this it would be great. just something short, nothing too detailed. i have pics i can flesh it out with, but do need some words. failing that i'll write something myself, although i don't know that much about it, so it would be better if someone could do it.

other than that, i'm doing some general housekeeping on the files and images and things, both to keep it better organised and to streamline the printing.

i went to the printers today and got a proof done, which is very nice. it will look good. the colour pages will be on nice thick glossy stock, while the black and white will be more matte but still good.

there are two issues to resolve.

firstly, the money.

i think sarah was sort of organizing this - i hadn't given it much thought - but now she's gone and we need to pay on thursday. so, what i suggest is this - as soumitri was saying they want to print some copies, i suggest we get 50 copies printed straight up. in that quantity, the books come to $9.55 each (or $477.50 for the lot). this is less whatever the covers cost, as well as binding costs. binding is (as previously mentioned) expensive, at a minimum of $3.50 odd per book at a printers. that's for wire binding. it's possible that we could get this done somewhere else like the rmit union copy centre. can someone please look into this? i don't have time tomorrow unfortunately. bit of a tangent there that i'll cover later. how i suggest we pay for this, as there's no way to get the class together before thursday is this - we ask soumitri to cover the upfront cost for us, so we can get the thing printed. this is not what i wanted to do, but we are left with little choice. he was willing to cover at least some, and the amount he was thinking of was something like this, so i think it will work out ok. we then buy our copies off him, and he can sell them at the exhibition night. i would suggest we pay $11-12 for our copies (this is dependent on the binding/cover costs) so that we are covering the cost of our own prints. then if he wishes to sell the rest at a subsidized cost on the night he's free to do so. conceivably he may want to print more - i shall discuss this with him tomorrow. we're pretty much already in the bulk printing bracket (we're printing just over 4000 pages) so more copies won't really translate into a decreased unit cost. i shall talk to him tomorrow about this (i wanted to talk to him today but was busy and couldn't find him when i wasn't).

the cover is the second thing, following hard on the heels. raph has been exploring this - i think the general consensus is that we screenprint the corporation game logo onto some thickish card/textured paper and bind it somehow. this will be easy enough to do, will give a great effect and be relatively cheap. just to clear up the technical details, for the cover we will need a back cover as well - i suggest basic brown box board (to alliterate unneccesarily), as it is cheap and does the job well without looking shabby. we then need the front cover material (and possibly some clear acetate to go in front of it - simple overhead transparencies are perfect and cheap). i would estimate the cost of the covers would come to $2-3 a book, and that we work within that budget as best we can. binding again comes up here - there are presumably student usable facilities somewhere in RMIT that will enable us to do a decent wire binding ourselves. almost all the printers do this by hand, so there's no reason why we should pay them so much damn money to do something we could easily do ourselves. again, someone please look into this, we'll reconvene about it tomorrow night. any other ideas for cheap but nice binding solutions are most welcome.

as a footnote, i saw a sign in 87 today about an ID exhibition on the 28th of october - is this the one we're aiming for? cause i'm going to be grumpy to say the least if it is, and i've been busting my arse all week trying to make this happen for friday . . . i haven't heard anything really aside from what mick and soumitri have said about an exhibition other than this one . . . but hey, if it is the 28th, that gives us more time again for cover and binding stuff.

anyway, i have work to do and would love to get to bed in double digits tonight.

- a

done.

2005-10-18T06:45:00.000+10:00

well, it's 6:44am, and after nine and three-quarter hours sitting at my computer (with a break at 4am, god bless 24hr drivethrough), and before that roughly 30 hours over the weekend, i am currently outputting the final pdf ready for the printers.

now i'm going to try and catch a couple of hours sleep before i have to get up and go in to modelling lab.

by an unintentional coincidence, the magazine is exactly 80 pages.

hmmm.

after this we need to sort out the money and the front cover.

i'm going to bed.

- a

hmmmmm

2005-10-18T03:27:00.000+10:00

so it's now 3:27am, i've been sitting here working for a good 6 hours tonight, and i'm getting rather weary.

however, cultural capital is finished, game descriptions and outcomes is finished, lanterns is nearly finished. so all that's left is the intro stuff, the lecture stuff, and various odds and ends.

*andrew heaves a sigh*

-

hands up who's going mental

2005-10-18T01:28:00.000+10:00

i'm tired. i made this. you never know, it might end up getting shoved somewhere inconspicuous.

- a

2005-10-17T02:57:00.000+10:00

Review on "Solaris"
by Anara

Solaris is one of the best movies of a Russian director Andrey Tarkovsky. The movie was produced in 1972. The story was based on a book of the same name by Polish writer Stanislav Lem.

The story of “Solaris” is very pointed and strained, it is full of unexpected and exciting moments. It is a story about humans getting familiarized with space in future (in 21 century). Solaris is a planet, which is covered by some kind of intellectual ocean. After the mysterious demise of one of the three scientists on the base, the main character , a psychologist, Kris Kelvin, is sent out to replace him. He finds the station run-down and the two remaining scientists cold and secretive. After first night on the station his wife who has been dead for seven years appears. Later it becomes clear that the Ocean has an ability to materialize people’s hidden thoughts.

Basically, stories of Lem and Tatkovsky are similar, but their pathos’ and issues are different. The planet with its Ocean plays the major role in Lem’s book. First of all he is interested in ways of discover “unknown” by humans beyond the Earth. Tarkovsky understoon the book in his own way and made different Solaris. According to the words of Stanislav Lem, it is more likely to “Crime and Punishment” by Dostoevsky, then to his book. Tarkovsky did not want to make a fantasy movie; he was interested to show moral issues between his caracters, their thoughts and feelings. The Ocean was secondary and hostile. In “Solaris” by Tarkovsky the Space is strange, but the Earth is equivalent to Motherland. In my opinion, he wanted to show us that moral qualities appear in every part of our lives and in different conditions, even in space. Human is looking for something new, trying to do impossible; and at the end it finds out that Human need only the Human. He does not need the Space.

I was about 13 when I have watched “Solaris” at the first time. I did not understand a lot, but I clear remembered that amazing Bach music. It is one of a reason to watch this film. After I have watched the movie again I realized that the author shows us a problem of weekday life and this idea becomes more contrast in space, but it might be my subjective view. I think it is one of the hardest things to receive routine as an actual life. To come home and do not argue with your wife (in this case), to be patience and abide the routine of your work.

Kris Kelvin meets his dead wife, who committed suicide. The Ocean gives her back to him and Kris realized that it was his fault, that he made his wife kill herself, because he was bored of their family life. Now it is clear for him, that there were some arguments, tripe, routine…and he had not have patience to abide this. He turned around and shut the door…
He was bored. But she was left alone and she took a poison.

It is a hard sin in the heart of the main character. He takes everything very seriously on the station, especially the return of his wife. He feels that it is a unique chance to correct what it seems impossible to correct. And now the weekday life is back again with its arguments and new experience. Kris is trying to behave himself in different way, because he knows that even a word can destroy everything, love, family and a person’s life. He holds-his peace when he is intense, trying not to explode and not to be rude as he was before, because love is taking the first place in his feelings now.

$$$$

2005-10-16T22:13:00.000+10:00

just quick question wen is money being put forward into a pool for collection?

photos!

2005-10-16T19:50:00.000+10:00

guys please, i need photos and stuff. come on. this won't work otherwise.

any photos you have, so long as you tell me vaguely what they're of, are great. anything. seriously.

this is proving very difficult, due to the ambigious nature of much of the submitted content, and the lack of supporting material. if anyone can find any pictures of the film nothing that laura reviewed, that would be great. i can't find anything useful.

pics of films, pics of lanterns, pics of class, pics of anything.

argh.

- a

games coverpage

2005-10-16T02:58:00.000+10:00

hi folks again. just been putting together ideas for a coverpage thingy for the leaf layout. this one in particular is for the games pages, with the descriptions and outcomes all together.

so.

here is a picture of the coverpage thingy. it would be this one for the games section, a modification of this for any other section using the leaf template, and then something based on the other template for, you guessed it, the other template stuff.

also, because life's not yet annoying enough, here's a pdf of some of the progress so far. this is the games section, as a pdf.

now because of all the crazy vector stuff it's an uncommonly huge file, on the order of 50mb, so only download if you are keen, or have a loverly fast connection.

ackles.

other than that, we still need headshots and such, ja? now, this is bad, and kinda slack of me, that i forgot about these silly things what with all the other stuff and whatnot. so. if people have good shots they can send through, then do so. other option is that we take them on monday with a digi, and i pop them in before i take the file down to the printers. that will probably work, i guess, if we're organized about. so lets organize, folks. anyone with a decent digital camera, please bring it on monday. (don't think that other people will bring one, the point is that yes, some people won't, but someone has to. just like tattslotto.) we can take it from there.

that's about all for now. screw it, it's 3:23am, i'm going to bed.

ja.

- a

attn ben, raph, braden, sarah, mei, brandon

2005-10-15T16:05:00.000+10:00

can one of you guys give me a name for your corporation game? i have the review but the game has no name. it could be "the game with no name" - and if you don't give me one, that's what it will be.

as well, if you guys have any photos of the game, or the dice or whatever, that would be cool.

also, everyone, as i'm doing the layout for the mag this weekend, i'll probably need bits and pieces here and there, which i'll let you know about here, of course. so if everyone could check back relatively regularly? (not like once an hour kinda thing, but a couple of times a day, that would be great)

- a

attention someone from the g'raf chair thing

2005-10-13T20:40:00.000+10:00

to the folks who did the compressed air desklight chair thing - do you have any pics of it?

would be much appreciated.

- a

Soumitri imput

2005-10-12T16:43:00.000+10:00

hey ppl

I quickly mentioned to Soumitri after the peer presentations it would be nice if he could possibly write a reflection on what he felt thru the semester. I will email him to ask him officially. Let me knwo what you think of this idea.

cheers big ears

layout stuff

2005-10-11T22:02:00.000+10:00

hey guys. barring horrible accidents, i'm going to be somewhere in the labs tomorrow doing the layout stuff. i'll likely be there all day, so if anyone wants to help, i'll be somewhere on level 7. if i'm not there, it's likely i said "screw it" and went home. always a possibility.

as to other stuff, we still don't have any blog posts nominated.

*stern look*

so.

- a

haley...

2005-10-11T09:34:00.000+10:00

i think its really important that everyone check out haley's blog and some of the posts. i think they are really insightful, and also would be a great inclusion in first issue as reflective posts.

photos

2005-10-11T01:14:00.000+10:00

hey ppl

i have contacted brian and the guy he recommended but neither have hard copies of our camp phots. can everyone pls just send their mug shots to andrews email address.

Thanks

redesigning the course

2005-10-10T17:36:00.000+10:00

About halfway through September, we were asked to solve a tough problem by re-designing the course. So we split up into 2 groups and came up with the following ideas:
keep the basic content similar (i.e questioning technique, education, spider)
change the emphasis of the production to a design magazine company - Soumitri as editor, producing documentation of the learning process throughout the semester.
making a lateral thinking, how to learn and problem solving bumper edition
have a publication at the end of the semester including documentation of process, Soumitri's lectures, photos and articles etc. the structure of the course (when what will be learnt approximately when set out in a timetable)
all wear black - designers
must not repeat content of previous semesters (assuming this would run for a few semesters)
mentors within the class (mafia style set up – inclusion of everyone in the group, and the success of everyone in the group is everyone and the groups responsibility)
previous semesters players as consultants
different departments
moving around between departments
keep lectures from Soumitri, and also publish them
guest speakers on education etc
continual documentation of the learning process, not crappy writing, or something which has been thrown together at the last minute
LCP, input and peer assessment will determine individual grades
there should be a glossy publication at the end
The main idea is to do what we did this semester, but include documentation so that we can have a reference, and something to show for it in the end.

We started off writing about the faults of the course, and how it could be improved, but the task was to redesign the course. We found that the content of the course was very good, but that the method of getting it across could be improved – and the main fault was that there was no documentation apart from the blogs, which are quite informal.
In the end, Sarah suggested that we use this magazine idea for this semester, and the result is what you are reading now.

sorry the bullet points didnt work.

'outside the square'

2005-10-06T14:40:00.000+10:00

these are not the best quality i know but i thought id give you the option of using them. They were taken during our game 'outside the square'

some quick logo ideas

2005-10-05T14:48:00.000+10:00

hi again folks.

it might be cool to have a sort of logo for the corpotion game, to populate the magazine, feature on front cover, etc.

not sure what we are calling the magazine . . . i noticed tan called it "first issue" in the introduction, which is a kinda cool name i guess. "the corporation game" would probably work just as well, as would anything else anyone comes up with.

anyway, just to get the ball rolling a bit, here's some (very very quick) logo ideas. (click for pointlessly larger versions)

argh! it's the soumitri monster from the lift! come to life to chase us all around mercilessly! but somewhat less seriously, and with the aid of a decent illustrator, this little guy could be used throughout the book as a little logo aid/thought provoking monster representative of soumitri's proddings and jabbings towards awareness.

this one is done in the style of the corporation film, as i heard some ideas in that direction on monday.

and the two for first issue are just trendwhoring to some basic magazine logo styles.

these are more to spark people into their own ideas, so post stuff up, ja?

- a

The List

2005-10-05T14:27:00.000+10:00

here's the list of everything from the post below. yum. doubly doublerton. however, this one i'll keep updated as stuff comes in, so it will serve as a dynamic assessment of the current status. groovy.

introduction - tan

games -
game one - nick
game two - kelly
game three - sarah

still waiting for . . .
game four - nirmal and andrew

game outcomes -
tanto sushi board - ben
smartlights - alan
crack-pack - nick
bean bag yacht thing - alan
sea art 1 - nirmal
sea art turtle thing - nirmal
sea art projector - nick
sea art musical - haley
3p-abs - brandon
chair - sofia and kelly
zappy - sarah

still waiting for . . .
wok - julian and andrew
glove - braden
apron - braden
scuba's video - steve
scott-s fly trap - raph and julian

cultural capital - complete
motorola review - sarah
fashion parade - laura
bill henson - sarah
open design -
- monday - julian (please email)
- tuesday - nick
- wednesday - sarah
- thursday - braden (please email)

film reviews -
city of god - ben
city of god - haley
the corporation - haley
the yes men - sarah
ivan's childhood - brandon
nothing - laura
old boy - raph
metropolis - raph
waking life - braden (please email)
altered states - braden (please email)

still waiting for . . .
malcolm - nick
amores perros - ben's not doing this anymore, if anyone wants to do it feel free, otherwise we won't bother. we have plenty
the madonna - julian
the praise of love - julian
mon sout holots holiday - julian
surrealist film - whole class (eh?)

lamps -
fringe review - haley
fringe review - raph
fringe review - ben
personal lantern - haley
personal lantern - ben

still waiting for . . .
some more personal lamp reviews would be good, the fringe thing and the overview we have plenty of.

exhibition - sarah

power point -
nothing yet

summary/re-designing the course -
ben

photos etc -
put up and send anything you've got - class photos, personal photos, whatever. we'll chuck it all in (and yes, we can use camera phone pics, even though they're shocking quality)

- a

photobucket.

2005-10-05T13:33:00.000+10:00

i just set up a photobucket -not sure if its s good iea, but its there if we need it.
user name is firstissue
password is the name of our lecturer

IDEA!

2005-10-05T13:07:00.000+10:00

this is actually pretty trivial...
can we invite everyone who we want to comment on this blog, including soumitri etc, and make it so that only blog members can publish? that way we can turn off that damn word verification...

sarah its

2005-10-05T12:47:00.000+10:00

here

revised and neatened layouts

2005-10-05T01:53:00.000+10:00

well. here's the two main layouts nicely neatened up and whatnot, ready to go.

don't worry about trying to read the text - it's randomly generated placeholder text (god bless indesign) just there to show how it will look.

i have created one page of mainly text and one with text/images, so we have an idea of how the pages will look, and have created a black and white and colour image for both layouts. whatever soft-copy version we end up having will of course be in colour, as will section headers and whatever we end up doing, so it's definitely worthwhile having both there for viewing.

ATTENTION BEN

2005-10-04T23:47:00.000+10:00

Hey ben,

can u pls take our game rules off you blog and post them?

cheers : )

Paper

2005-10-04T16:24:00.000+10:00

Yesterday arvo i made a quick trip to PaperPoint in South Melbourne to find out about paper for the front cover of the mag - While i was there i got 8 samples of some papers that looked funky and i thought we might be able to use. I will bring them monday so that everyone can have a look. The average price per sheet was $2 and the average GSM was 250, this was A3 size, it all varies depending on what we want.
they have a reasonable range of colours and there were plenty of other funky looking ones that they have - unfourtunately they don't actually have catalouge of all the paper they have and would only let me have a few samples. oh all the paper i looked at can be run through a printer.

P.S Could someone let me know Julians email?

yesterdays chattin'

2005-10-04T15:43:00.000+10:00

did anybody write down all that stuff i put up on the whiteboard yesterday? i realise now that i didn't, and that i forgot which layout goes with which sections . . .

- a

a rework of all that stuff

2005-10-04T12:30:00.000+10:00

here i am again. i'd better not lose the post this time.

so . . .

first order of business is the pricing information i have. within that, the first thing to talk about is the binding. printing costs aside for the moment, getting the binding done for us is going to be prohibitively expensive. for the 30 copies, the cheapest i've found is $80. this is for a wire ring binding. the other options being plastic ring, thermal bound, and perfect bound (like a good magazine). plastic ring is nasty, thermal bound is cruddy, and falls apart, and perfect bound is far too expensive for such a short run ($15/20 a book at least). so that leaves us with wire ring binding. which is actually a very nice effect. it's not school-projecty in any way, but is very nice when done properly. the only issue with it is the cost. rmit has the facilities to do this kind of binding, and there's no really good reason why we can't just do it ourselves and save a bunch of money. but i'm sure there's other solutions we can come up with. after all, if we're not doing it by machine, there's no reason why we have to make it look like we did. there are other ways of holding books together that could be better. so ideas please, folks.

as to the printing costs, the best place i found is a company called worldwide online. they will do a very nice digital print job for us on nice paper with a nice, semi-glossy magaziney finish. hmmm. just said "nice" three times in once sentence . . . moving on . . . the cost to print the whole book in black and white is approximately $144 on 80gsm paper, or $240 on 100gsm, or $288 on 120gsm. colour printing is around $0.95/page, meaning that if we were to go for the 80gsm b/w printing, we could afford around 180 colour pages (at $171), for a grand total of $315 - this gives us 6 colour pages per book, which would be just perfect for section headers or photo pages or something. that does use up pretty much all of our budget, however. but that depends on the final solution we choose for the cover. as well, there is a small bulk discount if we are printing extras for the exhibition - remembering that soumitri has kindly offered to absorb the cost of this, so it's a no-risk extra with bulk pricing benefits for us. at 6 colour pages a book printing 80 copies, that brings the cost of our 30 down to $282.75 (total price for 80 being $754). so not a huge difference, but something, nonetheless, opening up more options for the covers and whatnot. whilst i'm talking about budgetting, just to throw something out there, if we were prepared to spot $15 each instead of $10, that essentially gives us another $100 to play with. given that the unit cost is around $10-12 this is probably fair enough. but hey, we can talk about that. unit cost with no colour pages is $7 + cover costs (probably a dollar or two per book)

as to the cover - the options presented so far are:

- a printed cover: would mean we can do nice pretty pictures and such, but it would be just pictures on white paper. adds about $30 to printing costs.

- stenciled: on card or textured paper or something, stenciled or screen-printed or something by hand. depending on the paper we use (raph was looking into this) would probably cost about the same

- other hand made kinda thing: whatever ideas you have. put them out there.

cover design should be finalised by the 17th - we can put them together during that week, get the printing back (turnaround from dropoff should be about 3 days) and put the books together for the 21st.

next . . .

next issue to discuss is the layout work. thankyou to everyone who has offered to help with this - life will go easier for everyone (especially me) with this arrangement. julian suggested we all get together in the labs at some point and hammer the thing out, and this sounds like an excellent plan. i suggest a couple of afternoons/mornings when most of us don't have classes. as a totally out there completely rough estimate, i would say this will take about 60-70 hours to complete. so if we have 6-7 people, that's two afternoons work, ja? so to organize this - could everyone who wants to help (keeping in mind that you don't need to have ever used the program before - i can supply and train you in what you need to know. most of the grunt work will be pretty basic stuff, so don't worry about it) put up there hand and we'll organize from there.

i'll be working on the layout templates this afternoon and tomorrow - and should have them finalized by tomorrow evening, so we can start working any time after that. again, as we discussed in class, any ideas or pictures or anything you have for the layouts please put them up so we can talk about them.

next . . .

now comes the boring part -

firstly, what we have done already, in no particular order -

introduction - tan

games -
game one - nick
game two - kelly (please email)

game outcomes -
tanto sushi board - ben (please email)
smartlights - alan
crack-pack - nick (please email)
bean bag yacht thing - alan
sea art 1 - nirmal
sea art turtle thing - nirmal
sea art projector - nick (please email)
sea art musical - haley
3p-abs - brandon

cultural capital -
motorola review - sarah (please email)
fashion parade - sarah
bill henson - sarah (please email)
open design -
- monday - julian (please email)
- tuesday - nick (please email)
- wednesday - sarah (please email)
- thursday - braden (please email)

film reviews -
city of god - ben (please email)
city of god - haley
the corporation - haley
the yes men - sarah (please email)
ivan's childhood - brandon
nothing - laura (please email)
old boy - raph
metropolis - raph
waking life - braden (please email)
altered states - braden (please email)

lamps -
fringe review - haley
fringe review - raph
fringe review - ben (please email)
personal lantern - haley
personal lantern - ben (please email)

exhibition - sarah (please email)

and now what we still need -

lecture summary

games -
game three - sarah
game four - nirmal and andrew

game outcomes -
wok - julian and andrew
glove - braden
apron - braden
chair - sofia and kelly
zappy - sarah
scuba's video - steve
scott-s fly trap - raph and julian

cultural capital -
all done!

film reviews -
malcolm - nick
amores perros - ben
the madonna - julian
the praise of love - julian
mon sout holots holiday - julian
surrealist film - whole class (eh?)

lamps -
some more personal lamp reviews would be good, the fringe thing and the overview we have plenty of.

power point -
don't have anything yet for this

summary/re-designing the course - not sure who's slated for this one

photos etc -
put up and send anything you've got - class photos, personal photos, whatever. we'll chuck it all in (and yes, we can use camera phone pics, even though they're shocking quality)

so . . .

realistically, it's nearly there, content wise. which is good. those who haven't emailed stuff through, please do so. other than that, keep up the good work folks.

i'm off to work on these layouts.

peace out.

- a

Introduction

2005-10-04T12:28:00.000+10:00

Welcome to First Issue. You might be asking yourself, what is the Corporation Game? Don’t stress, it took most of us several weeks before we figured out what it was. Is it a game? Of course. Is it about corporations? Well, yes and no. Rather, it’s about thinking. To cast us into a particular frame of mind, we underwent a series of tasks to maximise our creative energy while also maintaining a sense of ‘fun’. And that is what the corporation game is all about.

When the semester began, a group of eager young minds sat down attentively to the first of Soumitri’s lectures. By the end, many of us left, glassy eyed, wondering what on earth we had just gotten ourselves into. A course with no outcome, no submission, no objective, only learning; it felt as if we had dived into unknown waters before learning how to swim. As a result, we all (including Soumitri) felt extremely agitated and distressed. Questions were thrown everywhere: How do we show what we’ve learnt with no submissions? Why is there no course outline? What are you on about? What are we doing here?! In response to these questions, he simply gave us a smile and said, ‘Don’t ask questions, just do it.’ You can only imagine, and I mean that literally, not figuratively, the anger, the frustration and the absolute perplexity we felt at that stage.

Perhaps the overwhelming feeling of anxiety which struck us all was curiosity. Soumitri had instilled an insatiable thirst for an understanding of what we were doing, and we desired to fill it but Soumitri would have none of that. It simply took time, and lots of it, before we understood. You see, we had all been indoctrinated with over 18 years’ worth of a particular way of thinking and were unable to grasp this new, completely radical disposition. If you read a cookbook, you will learn to cook, but if you learn a book about swimming and you try to swim, you will drown. And that is perhaps the best analogy to parallel with what we experienced. We will tell you about it, but you will never understand. We can show you what we have made and achieved, but you will still not understand. No, you will only understand when you have walked the journey for yourself.

In this magazine, we have compiled a collection of what we believe to be the most representative of our learning. While I’m sure much of it will seem random and irrelevant, I can assure you that it is anything but that. In our second semester, we focused on the process of creating something, rather than the outcome. We used the corporation games to set our minds to play and created such amazing products such as the tanto sushi board, the electronic glove, amongst others featured in this issue. The paper lamps were an exercise which we did not understand until more than a month into the project. Some of us were bold enough to enter them into the Fringe Festival, but more on that later.

So here it is, our First Issue. This will give you a glimpse into what we achieved this semester. I urge you to keep in mind that these works were merely a vessel for the transformation of each and every one of us, and to many of us, this course will completely change the way we live our lives. In the words of Soumitri, ‘Simply awesome.’

lectures

2005-10-04T12:18:00.000+10:00

so i know i'm supposed to do the lectures and i know this is late, my apologies. this is all that i could find on soumitris blog and dare i even tell u the truth that i cannot remember any of his other lectures, or if i do i can't remember the final outcome/reason as to why he used some of his examples. so if u remember anything pls let me know via my blog or something. sorry bout this ppl.

1. The Questioning Technique

In the first lecture, Soumitri introduced his students to the 'questioning technique', a problem solving or creativity technique. The questioning technique was an attempt to pen the eyes of students who had a 'boxed in' way of thinking. It involved questions such as:

'What is it?'
'What could it be?''
'What does it do?'
'What could it do?'

Through these series of questions the answers given could be found to have conventional or unconventional ways. The purpose of doing this was to expand the thinking of students; to break down boundaries that were limiting possible great ideas.

2. The Spider Diagram

The second lecture taught students how to use a spider diagram. The spider diagram can be used for anything. It is a technique that allows a person to divide a problem or thing into categories, then from there divide those categories into sub groups, if there is a need. By doing this, students were shown that a problem, that once seemed so large and near to impossible to solve, now seemed smaller and easier to deal with. Soumitri also showed that the spider diagram can be used for more then just solving problems, it can be used for a variety of things such as dividing a subject into different categories and then a person deciding what they would want to achieve from those categories.

3. What is Design?

This lecture was divided into two weeks. The first week included:

Design is what designers do!
How do they design.
There are many technological discoveries in design
Spider diagram

Within htese titles there were sub headings.

The two week lecture was to allow the eyes of students to be opened, to tear them from their conformed and limited views of what design is and what designers do. The lecture was to reintroduce students to the concept of design.

4. What is Design (2)

The categories of this continuation from the third lecture included:

There are many ways to categorise design
The propositions designers make are like everything else.
Design communities agree on certain shared key concepts.
Designers often talk about good design. But what is really challenging is to talk about bad design or anti-design.

This is what i've got so far for lectures. please help me out if u have the time and please let me know what u think about the summaries. pick out spelling mistakes or whatever, if i need to expand on them...feel free to do so if u wish...gotta rush, gotta go to work!

ack!

2005-10-04T02:25:00.000+10:00

well i just spend about half an hour writing a post detailing all sorts of stuff, where we're at, what's left to do, all this stuff, only to lose it because damn blogger was down for maintenance. screw that. i'll redo it tomorrow.

*mutters imprecations*

ack.

g'night.

- a

Our Game 'Outside the Square'-Kel

2005-10-03T20:56:00.000+10:00

In the beginning of 'Outside the Square" there existed badges. Not any old badges but badges that dictated your position within the corporation and the content of your contribution so it was vital that each player chose their badge wisely. The gambit however was that they were unable to view the front of the badge hence instilling an element of chance. Positions included the following:

• The Director:
• Sales and Finance, responsible for the marketing and sale of the product, whilst upholding complete awareness of cost of materials.
• Research and development
• Production

Before any reason was imbued towards the result of the game, each group (dictated by position held), was given two random images. These served as a source of inspiration. Each group was to describe in as much detail what they saw in each picture, what they felt, emotions expressed via colour or use of light etc.

Once positions were delegated and each member was inspired, a competition was elected. This would be the basis for the design process and intention. The intended outcome was first discussed before the entire corporation and then further embellished within the smaller groups.

It was the director's job to communicate problems and ideas between each group hence ensuring that each idea did not stray too far from that which was intended by the others. To emphasize this point also, numerous boardroom style meetings were held to re-evaluate progress and product development.

The purpose of the game, to experience Design in a changing way through images, stimulus and role playing; to understand design practices, group systems and experience idea generation. Divulgence in the anxiety of risk and chance.

(Comments very welcome. What else do you think I need?)

Open Conference Final Night

2005-10-03T09:33:00.000+10:00

Open Conference Final Night. Hugo Davidson vs. Mark Armstrong

The final night of the Open Design Conference was held at BMW Edge in Federation Square. I turned up at about 6 o’clock which was when it was supposed to start, but I must have been ‘unfashionably early’ as most people didn’t start trickling in for a good 15 or 20 minutes. The set up was quite nice with a wine bar and mingling room up top and the lecture theatre below.

The two speakers for the night were Hugo Davidson and Mark Armstrong with Hugo speaking first. Hugo talked about he work with Catalyst Design and some of the joys and troubles of working for a Chinese market during his time working in Asia.

More interesting than his work with Catalyst I found, was his company ‘Knog’. Knog is a company Hugo set up with Malcolm McKechnie as a was of running their own design projects. This meant that they were free to design whatever they wanted without having to deal with a client and also make money from the sale of their own products. This started an interesting discussion on intellectual property.

After a short drinks brake it was Marks turn. Mark talked to us about his work with his company Bluesky Creative and in particular his work on the Sydney Olympic’s relay torch. I was interesting to hear about how much research was put into the product before it was designed and also to see some of the crazy sketches some of his designers came up with during brainstorming sessions.

We were told towards the end of the night that the speakers from each night were supposed to be pared up with another speaker with contrasting philosophies. So the idea was that Hugo would talk about his work on his own projects compared to Marks work which was all for a client who would then own his intellectual property. However, this all fell apart when Mark came straight out and told us that he would much rather be doing what Hugo does and that we should all try and do that too.

I found the night to be probably the more interesting of the 3 I went too and also it was quite nice to go out and have a drink with my studio class mates afterwards as it was probably the first time we’d all gone and done that together. Whatever happened to university culture?

Zappy, Game outcome

2005-10-03T09:20:00.000+10:00

This poster is the outcome from Steve and Nicks game. In my group was myself and Raph and Alan. We were given the cards that read Performance so the poster is obviouslyt the from the performane took on after. Zappy, Blue corporation, "eat your greens" and a poem about insulting rich people. So basically we came up with vegatable chews to feed to rich, snobby, spoilt children.

Mid semester Exhibition:Sarah's Review

2005-10-03T09:19:00.000+10:00

Mid semester Exhibition: (Photos will follow)

Well about a month ago we were all in blind panic as Soumitri picked out who would do what. We had mid term exhibition to get ready for so the rest of the 1st years could come and see us strut our stuff with what we had achieved. I have to say I had a sick feeling in my stomach that it was going to be a huge disaster because it felt like nothing had been put to paper it was all talk. How on earth were we going to transform it into an exhibition. Well we did it and I was so pleased with it. Our games were played (not with total enthusiasm as we had hoped) but never the less they were played and seen by outsiders eyes. All our games and game outcomes had taken on shape into posters or prototypes. Braden, Hayley, Kelly, Steve, Nick, and Raph did a great job turning the games into well….games that could be seen and played with. Braden created an awesome prototype of our technical glove. The lanterns of course were all lit and looked fantastic. I was just so enthused to see it all fall into place. I have only mentioned a few names here but everyone settled in for a big week before and knuckled down and created a great exhibition. Got to say I think ours was the best but then again I am biased.

Sarah's movie review- The yes men

2005-10-03T09:07:00.000+10:00

The yes men- Movie Review

After on going whinging and nagging and organising I convinced some friends from class to come along and see this documentary I had seen a review for on the movie show. It was called the yes men I wasn’t still entirely sure what the exact plot was but I was sure it was about a group of men who were imperosntaing the WTO (world trade organisation) and fooling the world. Well to sum it up I was right. To get this review correct I went their website http://www.theyesmen.org/ and found this:

Small-time criminals impersonate honest people in order to steal their money. Targets are ordinary folks whose ID numbers fell into the wrong hands.

Honest people impersonate big-time criminals in order to publicly humiliate them. Targets are leaders and big corporations who put profits ahead of everything else.

The Yes Men have impersonated some of the world's most powerful criminals at conferences, on the web, and on television, in order to correct their identities. They currently have hundreds of thousands of job openings. Sign up today!

The movie follows the behind scenes blunders, preparation and anxiety before the actual “identity correction”. They were so good at fooling America they even went to a broadcaster they had fooled to help them out with their next project. He didn’t click who they were until 20 minutes or so in to the conversation with the actual TV screening the report in the background. Ahh so many people so eager to believe everyone is honest. I thought this movie was great and really relevant to studio. We talk about corporations they fool and impersonate coroporations. Even school kids. Speaking of school kids what was the scariest thing in the movie was the only people that questioned the “bull” they were being told were the school kids aged about 18-25. Not even people who are high up and hold power questioned these speakers. Not even the Australians. It is a great documentary that I suggest all go and see. These guys are amazing with what they achieved.If you go to the site above you can read about all the bull lectures they gave.

Old Boy Film Review - Raph

2005-10-03T08:55:00.000+10:00

The winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival 2004, Chanwook Park’s film Old Boy is one of the most amazing pieces of cinema of the 21st Century.

The plot follows Oh Deu Su a businessman who after a heavy night drinking is kidnapped and imprisoned for 15 years, for no apparent reason and the main plot revolves around extracting brutal revenge. As the years pass Oh Deu Su’s anger grows and one day he is set free. Oh Deu Su is released, given money, a mobile phone and 5 days to find the man who caged like an animal him for 15 years of his life.

Oh Deu Su’s anger is what fuels him through out the movie and there are several amazing scenes where is anger explodes from within and it is within these scenes that we see the truly amazing style of Chanwook Park. One such example of this is the Hallway fight scene. Throughout the film the focus in on Oh Deu Su’s quest for an answer but in the words of Woo Jin Lee “Your gravest mistake wasn't failing to find the answer. You can't find the right answer if you ask the wrong questions.”

Personally I felt that the film was quite an amazing piece of cinema, although I have heard that Old Boy is not quite on par with some of Chanwook Park’s earlier films. Like studio this film was a process of letting go and diving into the pool and I feel now that this was part of an icebreaker that Soumitri was attempting to construct for us, so that we would find it easier to let go in studio. In terms of story line I felt that this was the most powerful thing in the movie as it shows one way of looking Oh Deu Su’s through out the majority of the film and yet the whole time there is another way of looking at Oh Deu Su’s situation that it is not shown until the end. Before watching this film I was not one who actively went out and found international films to watch but I have found that this film changed my experience of cinema and ultimately my experience of studio.

Bill Henson- Sarah's Review

2005-10-03T08:53:00.000+10:00

Bill Henson: (will scan and insert photos soon)

I went and saw the Bill Henson Exhibition when it was viewing at Federation Square. I felt I didn’t do this kind of thing enough and when I heard my friend talk about this I decided to go. I was so glad I did, I enjoyed every single bit of it. My only complaint would be the way some of the photos were hung. They were hung in such a way that you had to stand at the other end of the room at a 45 degree angle and hope you’re the right height to get rid of all the reflection. I argued with Amy after the exhibition as to what I felt he was portraying through his photos. I felt as most of the photos consisted of young children crying or in a vulnerable state and barely an adult influence that Bill Henson was capturing that unique naïve, vulnerable, emotional state that can only be found in the young. Amy disagreed. I have to admit if the exhibition doesn’t captivate me straight away then I tend to rush around. But as my parents can vouch if I love it I will stay and stay and stare and stare. This is what Bill Henson’s photography did to me. I loved it. I loved the fact none of them had names so it was up to the viewer to decide. The photo’s spanned his entire career some being dated before I was born to some done just under a year ago. His photos are edgy and raw and entirely mesmerising. The exhibition consisted of a few rooms simply named room 1, room 2, room3, room 4, room 5, room6, room 7, and room 8. Each different. Basically they were set in the timeframe of his career and as you went from one room to other you could see the change and progress in his work. To sum it up I loved it.

Open Design Conference-Sarah's Review (WEDNESDAY)

2005-10-03T08:41:00.000+10:00

Open Design Conference-Wednesday (will post some images soon)

On a nice Wednesday afternoon about 8ish of my university friends and I bought tickets to the open design Conference. I went to two nights one being Wednesday at the INCK bar on Swanston Street. There were two talkers that night George Katsaras from Reactive Media and Sally Anderson from Future brand. Before this night I had not heard of either of these companies or graphic designers. But as each speech unfolded was amazed how much of the work I had previously seen especially with Future brand. Now to put my personal views in with out being nasty as after all this is a review, I found the night a lot harder to follow then the previous night. The two designers always seemed to talk in “we” and “our” but I wanted to hear the “I” where was the passion I spoke about in the Motorola review. The designs these two designers showed us were really good and interesting. I became very squeamish though when people started to attack Sally with questions and pointed fingers about why did Future Brand stick to the kangaroo for the Australian Tourism logo. She handled it well. As soon as I got home I couldn’t wait to go play with the websites George had shown us. At the end I was glad I went, I learnt from the experience and took something home including a schnazzy show bag. Oh and thanks for the nachos Julian.

Motorola-Sarah's review

2005-10-03T08:29:00.000+10:00

Motorola: (http://www.mobile-review.com/review/motorola-v6-en.shtml website with photos)

About a month ago a few of us ventured out to BMW edge to see Motorola designer (sorry can someone please place his name here)!!! It was a slow start but eventually got filled out. I felt good being there doing something outside of school for school. He started of with a basic history of himself and his previous work. Then eventually came the bulk of the speech which was all about how Motorola was trying to change the way we view and use phones. I learnt many things about Motorola and some groundbreaking technology such as they were the first to use glass in their phones. I also took a lot home about passion of design. Yes sometimes it seemed like he was trying to sell us a Motorola which I almost did but then I realised it was great what he was doing. Here was a designer who was passionate about things! He moved to follow his then girlfriend now wife across the globe, but he was passionate about everything he had done and achieved. Some people love Motorola some hate, I personally have bad experiences but hey I was so enthused by the end of the talk I wanted to get a Motorola.

My reflection on the Lanterns - Raph

2005-10-03T08:20:00.000+10:00

For me the Lanterns were a journey that I took in life, a way to get off the beaten track and explore unknown territory. My Lantern journey began one Monday in studio. It was a journey of confusion, enjoyment, pride, pain, embarrassment and anger.
In the beginning there was confusion – after the studio where Soumitri asked us to do lanterns and we did them, I was confused! Why? I didn’t understand what he was asking us to do and the reason for this was that I had not yet taken a leap into the pool. A leap of faith so to speak. Not only having faith in Soumitri but in myself and my ability to swim in that pool.
After the Lantern session in the workshops the confusion had well and truly subsided and I was now beginning to understand most of what Soumitri was trying to get at when he spoke. In the weeks that followed I enjoyed myself immensely and I began to experiment with paper and lantern making. Eventually the time came when I want to produce something to put in the fringe festival furniture. And this is when the feeling of anger and pain arose. As I tried to build my lantern I experienced several lots of physical pain and this made me angry as I toiled away I got angrier and angrier until I gave up for a while. Eventually though I went back to the lantern and finished what I had started. Finally I had to take the Lantern to the Melbourne Museum so that it could be displayed – this was a journey in itself and caused a bit of embarrassment for me, but in the end I made it there.
I thought that this would be the end of the journey, but I was of course wrong – there is never an end to any journey you undertake – you take that journey in your memories, with you throughout your life. Then the anger returned. It was opening night at Fringe Furniture and our lanterns were not lit – they looked shabby. I was not happy and I can’t imagine that anyone else was happy either. Finally when I returned to fringe furniture one weekend I saw the lanterns in their full glory and I felt Pride. I felt Proud that I had something on display at the Melbourne Museum and I felt proud that I had undertaken a journey that changed my ways of thinking and doing.

2 Film reviews...

2005-10-03T01:12:00.000+10:00

Waking life

Directed by Richard Linklater

This an animated film/documentary about existential philosophy and lucid dreaming. The whole film looks as if it were animated using macromedia flash and switches between a range of animating techniques. The imagery changes from stylised hand drawing to rotascoping to traced bitmaps to crudely pixelated video from moment to moment. This gives the film a surreal, dream like quality, however, the transitions often don’t quite gel. A lot of scenes gives the impression that it was made by someone fairly inexperienced with the software as spatial relationship between objects tend to distort as the camera pans or zooms. This may have been done purposely to add to the dream like feel of the film but personally I felt it just looked shoddy.

The plot basically consisted of a young lad travelling around a pumping into various people who would subsequently rant at him about different philosophies such as determinism, existentialism, and lucid dreaming. The philosophical discussion was quite interesting however there was never any kind of conflict or argument, everyone seemed to agree with whatever was being put forward at the time. It felt like a Danos direct commercial where an actor pretends to be a consumer answering question about a product. I found this quite patronising. Also, what little plot there was felt contrived and rather unengaging.
I did enjoy a lot of points put forward by this film and the quality of the animation; however, as a film I found it to be pretty mediocre.

Altered States

Directed by Ken Russell

This film began as quite a plausible story about man exploring his mind in an isolation tank with the aid of hallucinogenic drugs, until he some how ‘externalises his experience’ and turns into a rampaging gorilla…

This film bares mainly resemblances to some parts of 2001 space odyssey and shares similar themes. If you can look past the cheesy Hollywood gorilla costume, it’s quite an interesting film looking into such issues as mans search for an ultimate truth, the sub-conscious mind and what it means to live a fulfilling life.

The cinematography in this film is often quite interesting and a lot of the psychedelic special effects, although quite crude by today’s standard, were good fun to watch. After seeing this film I realised that many modern films and artworks reference the imagery in this film, so it seems to have made an impression.

Cultural Calital - Laura!

2005-10-02T23:17:00.000+10:00

Fashion!

Fashion Parade for the Melbourne fashion week! Very exciting! It was mainly showing Spring Carnival Horse races fashions. Lots of big sunglasses, big bags, soft silky materials, metalic shoes, gathered material, long curly hair and bright mixed patterns for the girls. For the guys there was light coloured suits, flat fronted pants, very fitting shirts and some very cool shoes. It was the first fashion show I have been to. It was a really great experience! I loved it and cant wait to go to more!

Nothing

2005-10-02T22:42:00.000+10:00

Movie Review - Laura Lippold - Nothing!

Nothing- Directed by Vincenzo Natali

This movie is hilarious. It's about two loveable losers, Andrew who is afraid of the world and David who just never seems to get thing right, that find themselves in the middle of the worst day of their life. Through no fault of their own they are suddenly being besieged by the IRS and the police and a girl guide with her mother and various others and in their confusion of all these people closing in on their house they wish everything away. And it goes! They open their eyes to find themselves in their house but there is nothing outside it. It’s just a big expanse of white nothing.

At first the guys don't understand what’s happened but they soon find out they have the ability to wish things away. They can not create things though. Without anything else but their home and their belongings they start to wish things away, like their hunger.

With nothing left the movie follows how the relationship of these two very stupidly funny characters evolves. It also explores nothing and what is nothing. The movie really is about nothing and director Natalie makes it into a very interesting, entertaining and thoughtful film.

I really enjoyed this film. It’s not as intense as some of the 'art house' movies and it’s definitely not 'Hollywood'. It’s a different kind of movie.

Fritz Lang's Metropolis Review

2005-10-02T22:34:00.000+10:00

Released in 1912, Fritz Lang’s Metropolis was one of the most influential, prestigious and expensive films of it’s time. It the crowning jewel in German silent film and the presage to many Science Fiction films such as Blade Runner and 2001: A Space Odyssey.

The plot of the film revolves around an industrial society that is distinctly split into two classes - the upper and lower town. The rich and powerful industrialists dominate the upper town and there is friction between the upper and lower town. The hero, Freder, is played by Gustav Frohlich and he is the son of the most powerful industrialist.
The heroine of Metropolis is Maria performed by Brigitte Helm. Maria is attempting to convince the workers of the lower town to give up resistance against the system and is attempting to bring about the “unification of heart and brain”. Freder falls for Maria and joins her in her quest to convince the workers that they should get along with their rulers. Of course Freders father, Joh Fredersen, has very different plans and in order to stop this threat to the system he plans to produce an imitation of Maria to provoke the workmen into violence against the upper town, which would allow him to crush the revolution.

Joh then instructs genius but mad inventor Rotwang to build this imitation of Maria, however there is a twist, Rotwang hold a grudge against Joh - as Joh was the man who stole away his one true love. However both Joh and Rotwang’s plans go wrong.

The Robot Maria develops its own views on the situation and incites the people of the lower town to destroy the machines that keep the city running, because of this the flood gate that keep the waters back from the lower town are opened and a flood engulfs the lower town. From this point onwards the rebellion becomes a bloody revolution. Rotwang then sees a way to gain revenge against Joh and Freder. Rotwang kidnaps the real Maria; Freder discovers this and pursues Rotwang. Once Freder has rescued Maria, they manage to stop the revolution.

Set in 2026, Metropolis presents Fritz Lang’s view of what the future could be like. To achieve his future Fritz Lang pushed the boundaries of cinema. Fritz Lang produced several of his sets, including the massive heart machine, in life size. An amazing feat considering most sets in other movies of the time were below 2 metres high. For the production Fritz Lang requested 6000 extras, although only ended up with 1000 as the production managers felt that 1000 would easily give the impression of 6000. These 1000 extras were probably the most oppressed in the history of cinema – having to spend 6 weeks shooting the floodgate scene in which they had to tremble in freezing cold water each day, much like the actual situation depicted in the movie.

In my eyes Metropolis’ is one of the most powerful movies of the 20th century and is one that will endure as a jewel in cinema. On reflection I found that I felt slightly let down by the movie when I first started to watch it, as I had heard quite a bit about it and people had built it up to be this amazing movie, which turned out to be just this black and white silent movie. But as I continued watching I realised how amazing this movie really is. It is amazing because of how powerfulthe imagery is. We live in a world where spoken word is taken as the best way to communicate and that imagery seem to take a bit of a back seat. But in Metropolis everything is conveyed via the expressions of the actors and the music. There is not one single word spoken and yet the whole story is easily and clearly conveyed. The fantastic thing about the silent cinema is that it allows everyone to clearly understand and relate to what is happening as it breaks down the barriers of language. Plus the actors actually had to be excellent actors in Metropolis, as they had to convey everything via their body language, unlike today where the actors seem to just have nice voices. On the whole I would say that Metropolis is a film that has set and should continue to set the bar for fantastic cinema.

Lanterns and Fringe Furniture Saga - Raph

2005-10-02T21:06:00.000+10:00

In attendance: Raph, Braden, Haley and Carl.
The venue: Melbourne Museum, Carlton Gardens, Melway Reference 2B J10.
The event: Melbourne Fringe Festival Furniture 2005.

It was approaching 6pm on the 22nd of September. We had just arrived after a brisk walk from building 87(not taking the scenic route) with several of the second years. As we came down the escalators the room was full of many strangers and the three of us felt slightly out of place here. But there was excitement in the air. After all those hours toiling over the lanterns our work was to go on show to the world.

But where did it all begin?
Soumitri said to us “do you want to make paper lanterns/lamps?” Our answer was of course “yes” after these confusing weeks here was something we thought we knew how to do! But of course we were wrong, again our ideas on how things are in the world of design and how to go about design were challenge.
Several people took the lantern project onboard and began the journey that would take them and their work to the 2005 Melbourne Fringe Furniture at Melbourne Museum.
After our first failed attempt at lanterns Soumitri asked us if we wanted to do a workshop on a weekend. On the 14th of August 2005 several first years and a bunch of second years turned up to the session in the workshops – most were slightly nervous about it as we had no idea what to expect our what the expectations of us were. Soumitri had said that we would be meditating with paper! But like most of what we heard from Soumitri at that stage we were not really sure what was actually going to happen. But as the day proceeded we began to grow at ease with what was going on and with each other and although Soumitri told us I would be a serious day we all had great fun with the paper. After this we were offered the chance to join the group entry that second years were making into Fringe Furniture and for this we have Liv to thank, as she was the one that organised it and submitted the photos of our small lanterns from The 14th of August.
From first year there were four of us (Ben, Braden, Haley and Raph) who were part of the final group that was to be called Suzie McGregor. The second years in the final Suzie McGregor group were Olivia, Stacey and Carl.
After several meetings and getting together to get Carls sparkie mate to tag our lanterns we were ready to exhibit. Now all that we thought was left was the journey to take our lanterns to fringe. Liv had organised cars to transport the lanterns and their plinths to Melbourne Museum(at this point Stacey decided not to exhibit her lantern), however 3 of the lanterns didn’t make it in the cars and had to be carried to the Museum – after some expert navigation from a person who will remain nameless and a rather lengthy/pointless trip around Melbourne the lanterns arrived safely at Melbourne Museum, despite the attempts of the overhead signage of Melbourne.
After meeting Stacey, some mucking around trying to draw diagrams that the idiots at the Museum could understand we left thinking that it was finally all over and out of our hands. We were however…wrong!

We began wandering around the exhibition viewing some of the extraordinary work and congratulating Carl on his chair, all the time wondering where our lanterns were. Before finding them we were involved in some meeting and greeting of various 2nd year students and several lecturers. Finally we found our lanterns. There they were huddling under an escalator! Without a single light on!
And so the discussion began that night and continued on within the sphere of our blog community – what to do. We had three options – but only one logical one was to have our lanterns turned on or remove them from the exhibition and have the entry fee refunded. Eventually after an email from Carl and one from Soumitri to the director of Fringe, the lights were connected and everything was peachy! Or was it? No it was not peachy although they had turned on the lanterns, Braden’s was still not turned on. So the fight continues.

In the end it was an amazing chance for us to change our experience of design process and yet also have an outcome.

blog snippets

2005-10-02T20:41:00.000+10:00

can people suggest blog snippets to be included in the magazine, at irregular intervals - in a page of their ow. is that what we decided?
tan - have you decided an opening quote from a blog? that will probably set the whole scene for the mag, i.e get people interested or not.

lamps - bens

2005-10-02T20:35:00.000+10:00

as i said previously, if i can write a lamp overview, and then people can submit a short blurb about their own, and their experience making it, complete with pictures. i have written the whole lamp thingo, as you can see below, and here is my lamp spiel (for pictures see my blog)

In the beginning of my lamp journey, I was keen and interested, though I wasn’t too open to new ideas. I’d seen a lamp before – I knew what one looked like – how hard could it be to design another one? And that was my problem. Before the questioning technique I was just going to design ‘another one’ I was going to be a student of furniture design RMITafe and do new things, but still in the vein of redesign.
After the questioning technique a few things came to me, anara suggested that paper could be a canvas, and soumitri said ‘it can even be worn’. I liked the idea of being enclosed by the lamp, but I still wasn’t happy to depart from my traditional household lamp idea. What I came up with was a 6 foot diameter lamp on which printing paper was hung. The user could be enclosed inside and use utensils like spray cans etc to mark their own design on the inside of the lamp. The lamp can also be viewed from the outside, where there is a pleasant glow, and the people enclose by the paper throw shadows of varied sizes.
I spent about a day riding around on my iron bike, betty and making the lamp. First I collected the material I needed; aluminium strips, bolts and nuts, bulldog clips, string and paper. I assembled it in a large space. I had to disassemble it to get it to uni.
In protest to the lack of time set to monitoring the lamp’s process, I set it up before one lecture, in the middle of the room.
There still was no response from Soumitri.
Then I went to the Sunday paper workshop. NOW! I could understand where Soumitri was coming from, and I could really appreciate his idea of craft. I had rushed through to the ‘final’. I had made something which was the product, and something which I felt was not to be improved on or changed, one, because it was as I wanted it to be; and two, because it already was changeable, the paper could be drawn on, and then repainted!
It was time to start again.
I played with my other idea I developed during the Sunday – to use the paper as a fabric and sew it. I played around with cone like shapes supported from the base, but the fragility of the paper, and my unprepared ness with the wire I had bought made it impossible. I decided to find a heavy base and mount it like a sock on a pole, and light it from the same base. This I did with a recycled chain sawed tree trunk, an aluminium pole and pvc tubing for the light. I was a bit stressed at this time, because I had to submit the lamp to fringe by a certain deadline.
I got it completed in time, and achieved the desired effect. As a bonus to the product, I also had it displayed in a furniture exhibition – fringe, my first, but not my last!
The second lamp I made showed me that craft is important to make something beautiful. Craft involves time to spare, dedication, and attention, and I believe by practising craft on the second lamp I was able to produce a more worthwhile product.

Fringe

2005-10-02T20:22:00.000+10:00

After along process of tagging our lanterns and final touch ups there where six lanterns entered as a group under the name Susie McGregor. Two from second year Carl’s and Olivia’s, we should probably thank Olivia as she was the one responsible for organising all of us and Carl for his sparkie friend. So that leaves four corporation game players, Raph, Ben, Braden and Haley. After hauling them all the way to the museum on Monday, we waited excitedly for Thursday night to come; the big night when our lanterns where going to be revealed and displayed.

The night was attended by four of the lantern creators Carl, Raph, Braden and Haley, but at first glimpse something was wrong alas our lanterns where not turned on and ‘were all clustered together. Likes waifs huddled together in the cold.’ Not to mentinon a large rip in one. We were all a little frustrated, and where pleased to see that Soumitri was behind us, and posted his outrage on the group blog.

So then we came to a problem our lanterns are not at their full potential, their purpose of being a lantern is not being fulfilled without the light they are nothing but paper objects. With a few emails including some threats of removal and compensation our lanterns were all managed to be turned on except for Braden’s who claims the museum people are fascist and concluding it must be because the electrical tag isn’t visible from the out side.

So after our long journey to submit something into Fringe, and then another journey to get light, the Fringe was a great chance to show of our lanterns together. I found that attending Fringe was a motivating event getting to see other people’s ideas, and different materials used. It was good to see some many RMIT students submitting things also, it was an enjoyable night. (Except for the lanterns not being turned on but apart from that problem every thing was good.)

open conference tuesday

2005-10-02T20:03:00.000+10:00

2# Tuesday open design conference

On Tuesday 00/00/00 the second intimacy night as part on the open design conference was held at Brunetti on Swanson Street. The guest speakers were Simon, Chris Connell, and Barry Hudson. Simon talked about his experience working with design teams in Melbourne, Milan, and London and his methods of working. He outlined the work he has done and the differences in process that must be adopted when working on projects for clients of different types. Chris Connell talked about the way he designs and the clients he has. The differences were quite amazing, as Chris Connell has placed himself in a position where he can control the design process and shuns many design conventions. Simon seemed much more focused on the clients needs, while Chris was quite open about his willingness to manipulate a client toward an outcome that he proffered. His reasoning for this was that when someone asks him to design something they want a Chris Connell design, and he doesn’t want his name associated with something he doesn’t like or that he feels would taint his reputation. As Simon pointed out the anonymity that you have when working for a design company or in a team, allows you to take clients wishes and directions literally, even if you don’t agree with them because you are not personally held responsible. Chris Connell can be perceived as arrogant but personally I find it refreshing that he is honest. But for all the bashing he did of rock star designers, he probably is one.
Barry Hudson is someone who I have spoken to before and is quite an interesting man. He talked about the work he had done as the head of R&D departments at a variety of companies as well as his mechanical engineering projects including the Barry Hudson rotary engine, which has become his PHD project after 15 years of development. The dialog that opened up between Chris and Barry relating to timeless design was interesting. While Barry was showing pictures of his berko kettle Chris had found more material for his onslaught on trends and the vastly superior collateral of timeless design. Lucky for Chris Barry would only further prove his point and he showed slides of several other products Barry had designed that are still in production like the Lockwood dead lock. After listening to Chris and Barry agree for a while and Chris’s comical attack on as he said, “karim rashidy” I felt as many did that his pint had been made fairly successfully. 1 problem though is that Chris Connell primarily designs furniture and interiors, both products of trend and fashion, so I guess he is opposed to himself. But again he’s honest about how he feels, how he works, and what he thinks, even if some might consider it a somewhat hypocritical view.
Overall it was a really good night that everyone enjoyed, especially the free merretti’s. I look forward to next years Open design conference.

The Musical Sea Art

2005-10-02T19:12:00.000+10:00

The outcome from Nirmal and Andrew game followed a few rules, our sea art had to be held in your palm and be entertaining. We decided that as this sculpture is going to be placed in the ocean that it couldn’t be to small, so we came up with a giant musical instrument that looks like a garden and uses a sea theme. It would be interactive like a giant playground letting people of all ages participate and be enjoyed by all.

Giant pipes would produce sound made by the wind going over an opening at the top. The pitch of the sound could be altered and stopped, by a systems of strings which controlled the opening so it can be shut, stopping the sound. Steps leading up to a platform allowed people to carry up sand form the beach and fill the pipes, as this was done the pitch is altered. At the end of the pipe was a release so all the sand could escape and the pipes cold be refilled.

Along with our musical pipes there would be xylophone walls and chimes which could be hit using hand held mullets, that where attached to the wall to prevent theft. The sculpture would be altered depending on the tide so there would be other entreating activities to participate in. When the tide is in there is more water, bulbous sea like plant shaped structures would fill with water. There are attached hoses that would let a spray of water when a release button is stepped on located in the ground. They are shaped like sea animals like starfish, seahorses and jelly fish.

The whole arrangement of this entertaining musical instrument would be laid out upon the beach so half would come into contact with the water, and half would stay dry. It would have a garden type structure separating things into different areas and different features.

The materials that we considered had to tolerate salt water, sand and sun. We thought of letting some materials like copper and some metals to rust and oxidisation. Some metals would be coated to prevent rust. Wood would be used for the parts that will remain mostly underwater with the tides. Some sun tolerate plastics would be used within decorative purposes and rope or fine coiled wire would be used to hang chimes off.

lamps, over view

2005-10-02T16:49:00.000+10:00

Lamps: general
The lamps were introduced to us in the second week. They would be an ongoing project throughout the semester, culminating in an entry into fringe by some students, along with second year players of Problem Kya Hai.
In the first session, we were asked to think about what a paper lantern could be, and we asked to have 20 minutes to play with what we had brought. After unsuccessfully pooling our efforts in small groups, we broke into other groups, and used the questioning technique to unravel the possibilities with paper. Initially we found this difficult, as the questioning technique poses 4 simple questions which bring colourful results if not taken too literally. The first attempt at thinking about what paper lanterns are brought little forth. Some mentors from the second year joined us in the second round, and some felt they helped and some felt they re-hashed the ideas already brought forward. They had only used the questioning technique once before.
The results of our questioning led us to a wide range of possibilities relating to lamps, but mostly to paper. Our most fruitful examples of our thinking was that paper could be a fabric, a covering, a palette, a canvas and a divider. We thought about it terms of the constructor, the user and the viewer, and how it could be used in different situations.
The results of our first session led us to think differently about paper, and furthermore, able to think more freely about other materials.
Over the next few weeks we experimented with different types of paper, making them into different shapes, forming interesting concepts and ideas – all incorporating new ideas for paper lanterns, and resisting the urge to re-design.
About two thirds through the semester, Soumitri invited us to a Sunday session in the workshop as part of open day. About 8 corporation game players attended, as well as another 8 from Kya Hai. We first used our Japanese rice paper which we had purchased and the bleached roll of printing paper provided, and felt the differences between the texture, smell, taste and feel. This task allowed us to get empathy for the paper, which helped us with our next step, using different methods with the paper. We tried wetting it and drying it in different ways, throwing it against the wall, casting it, and tying it. We only used paper and sometimes a little glue, but no dyes or other colorants. We also experimented with ways to join the paper, including gluing, folding, stitching and slotting.
At the end of the day, after more direction from Soumitri, we emerged with small lanterns lit by tea light candles. This was probably one of the highest points in the ongoing process.
From these small concepts, we developed more ideas with paper and with our thoughts. We worked on these individually, working solely with the rice paper.
The opportunity was given to submit as a group to Fringe Furniture, and we entered about 6 lamps in total.
The step to ‘finish’ the lamps for fringe was the biggest leap, because we had some sort of finality. However, the way we have been taught to think privileges the process, so I imagine that the process will be ongoing for the majority of the participants in making the lamp.

would someone be able to write more on the sunday arvo of lamp making, i sort of made it up...
i will email later, andrew...

The corporation documentary review

2005-10-02T14:00:00.000+10:00

Director: Jennifer Abbott and Mark Achbar

Based on Joel Balkan’s book: ‘The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit Of Profit And Power’

Genre: Documentary / History

Quote from the narrator: “150 years ago, the business corporation was a relatively insignificant institution. Today, it is all-pervasive. Like the Church, the Monarchy and the Communist Party in other times and places, the corporation is today's dominant institution.”

This Canadian documentary shows just how powerful corporations have become and their evolving status in America and worldwide. It shows case studies and confessions about the power of corporations, and the consequences on the community of being so profit driven. Among the 40 interview subjects are CEOs and top-level executives from a range of industries: oil, pharmaceutical, computer, tire, manufacturing, public relations, branding, advertising and undercover marketing; in addition, a Nobel-prize winning economist, the first management guru, a corporate spy, and a range of academics, critics, historians and thinkers.

A legal person: In the mid-1800s the corporation emerged as a legal "person" installed with a "personality" of pure self-interest, the next 100 years saw the corporation's rise to dominance. The corporation created unprecedented wealth. But at what cost? There are countless cases of illness, death, poverty, pollution, exploitation and lies.

Along with the interviews there are a few animations, archival footage and montages. A strong example of the power of corporations is shown with the privatization of water in Bolivia by a Californian company, which even banned the collection of rain water. The people were poor and couldn’t afford to pay such high rates for something which is seen as a human right-clean drinking water for everybody-so they became angry and started rioting, winning back the water rights for the people.

The documentary is pretty powerful exposing many activities that happen to be hidden from public view such as sweatshops, environmental pollution, and marketing to young children. Particularly noteworthy is a retelling of how Fox News pressured two investigative journalists into killing a story about BST, a Monsanto drug that is used to increase milk production in cows, and proven to cause cancer.

A short reflection on the movie: This documentary was a bit boring at the start because it took a while to get into but then suddenly as some of the truths started coming out I felt really upset and angry. It’s quite an emotional film that leaves you resenting corporations and all they stand for. It is also a highly motivating film because you feel upset, lied to and cheated by these destructive forces. But to see people doing something about it and fighting back shows that there is still compassion left and that we are not all driven by hunger for profit and power.

shit

2005-10-02T10:51:00.000+10:00

Only two weeks left to get this baby together! Here's my first submission,

Event: Intimacy 1, Open design conference
Time and Space coordinates: Loop bar, 12th September 2005
Speakers:
Michael Trudgeon – principle designer and founder of Crowd Productions
David Poulton- of David Poulton Architecture
Trang Du – sole furniture designer of Hartman Pacific

The opening night of the Open conference was for me the highlight. Three speakers came together to deliver their views of what ‘design’ was for them.
Trang Du was first up, a recent graduate of the RMIT industrial design programme now working as the sole furniture designer for Hartman Pacific. Trang went through her design process in detail, the way she begins with her pages of concept sketches – through to her dealings with management. She obviously has a passion for ‘good design’ (whatever that may be) and explained her struggles with getting her preferred designs to market. Trang’s frankness about the way the furniture industry works at a mass market level was something of a revelation for all the students present. She was prodded by David and Michael to explain why her favorite designs didn’t make it to market, explaining carefully the practical realities. All the while being asked be David and Michael why it was not possible to be idealistic in the real world. This particular conversation yielded many interesting outcomes.
Moving into the main room at Loop, David Poulton explained abit about his architectural practice, including some of his past and more recent work. His focus was on the Hoyt’s theatre redevelopment which he is working on in conjunction with Michael. He quickly moved to discuss what he was passionate about. Making and materials, revealing his fascination started out early in childhood and continued throughout his career. His is clearly enthralled with the process of creating, manually. His love of woodwork is clearly a manifestation of this, being expanded to his interactions with manufactures on a more personal basis. To ensure the end result is what he intended. David seems to enjoy his ‘pizza and beer’ moments where design details are thrashed out with Michael or whoever it may be over a pizza and a beer or six. His view on what design is ‘Just asking the right questions’ which I liked. David is also a Capricorn and enjoys long walks on the beach.
After a short break to sample the Hoegarten and tasty treats provided by the Open Crew (Cheers to the loop bar staff, there always awesome) the intimacy resumed with Michael taking up the hot seat. Following on neatly from David he touched briefly on his design history and went through some of the projects that Crowd productions has been involved with over the years. From early concepts like a futuristic kitchen designed at the beginning of the naughties, to it’s reinception sometime around 1998 into a much more mature and focused design that still retained and exhibited the ideas behind the original (and looked something like Colombo’s attempt 30 years earlier!). You could really see the evolution that has happened over the years at Crown productions. After abit of talk about politics and the world (why are designers so keen to talk about this stuff?) Michael ended up talking with David about their experiences working together on the Hoyts redevelopment project.
Being able to talk one on one with the designers and quiz them over topics raised during the event was fantastic. I certainly got a lot from this event and hope other did as well. Thanks must go out to the Open crew for organizing this event and of course the speakers for doing the difficult job of actually talking about design and the world at large.

PS: Anara can you please email me the photos you took!

Whats the submission email address

2005-09-30T18:27:00.000+10:00

deadlines and such

2005-09-29T17:02:00.000+10:00

hi folks.

two things.

one, (and this is open to discussion), i think if we make the deadline for submission to me monday then that gives us time to have a discussion in class on monday to see where everything is heading, and also to finalize the layout and number of pages and everything - once we have that i can start putting it together.

two, (and, well, this is less open i guess), i would appreciate it if the article submissions could be sent to me as word documents - this means two things - one that i can comment and send back more easily for necessary edits, and two, it's easier and faster to put into the final document. copy-pasting from blog windows is messy. if you can be bothered (this just makes my life a little easier) this naming convention would be nice -

[Type of submission] - [Author] - [Title].doc

so, for example, a film review on the corporation by haley would be called -

Film Review - Haley Smolenski - The Corporation.doc

this helps me keep everything organized nicely and helps me find stuff.

also, please do spelling and grammar checks. i will read through everything and do a basic edit, but this just helps smooth things out.

also, as a later edit to this post, remember to post a low res version of whatever you send me up here so everyone can have a look, so's the editing process can include everyone, not just me.

other than that, this is cool because stuff is happening.

it's a group project, and stuff is happening.

how cool is that?

- a

Outcomes

2005-09-29T12:00:00.000+10:00

Heres some outcomes, i'm working on pictures, i've modelled a projector, basicly an ipod with an lense on the end. Crack pack is in the works. If they have to be longer let me know.

3# crack pack.

When we trialed Our game with Scott and his group, my group, Steve, Clinton, Sare, and I were given Our five cards and came up with the “Crack Pack” concept. The Crack Pack is a washable hardwearing fabric vest that allows homeless people to store personal items, sellable items, “the big issue’ ect, and a donation tin at the back for anonymous philanthropy. It has six pockets in the front that store magazines set out with three each side of the chest, The back has a donation tin that sits just under the belt line. This allows for the comical experience putting money in the slot”.

4# digital water projector
THe digital water projector is a concept for the busan sea art festival, it consists of a stand and a projector that instead of being a physical piece of sculpture it projects images onto the surface of the water. The idea was to re-contectualize sculpture.

Steves Game. no pics because i don't know where the game is

2005-09-29T11:57:00.000+10:00

Feedback would be appreciated, writing is not one of my strong points.

1# article about the game steve, the rest of the group and i thought up.

When designing our corporation game Steve, tan, Jeremy, and I considered what we wanted our outcomes to be and decided to create something that revolved around unrestricted creative freedom and interesting outcomes. We came up with a concept that revolved around a series of cards that define what your outcome would be. Here are the rules and outline of the game that we developed.
THE corporation GAME

Teams can be made up of any number of players as long as teams are even, but under 10 is recommended.

There is a minimum of two teams needed to play the corporation game and a maximum of four

All teams will select a corporation card from the corporation deck and must play the game to for fill that corporation’s purpose. Each corporation has only one purpose.

-Green corporation: to produce environmentally friendly or supportive outcomes.
-Blue corporation: to produce expensive outcomes for the wealthy.
-Grey corporation: to produce cheap or free outcomes for the poor and needy.
-Red corporation: to produce outcomes for mass manufacture and maximum profit.

There are four categories of cards apart from the corporation cards.
These are
-media
-adage
-poem
-dynamic/ words

One of each category must be chosen.

You must adhere to the cards that you pick up in their literal meaning e.g. if a card says jump then you cannot make a jumper unless it is otherwise supported. This rule does not include representative or inspirational cards such as those with prose, sayings or images on them.

Every round goes for 3hrs a timekeeper will be nominated at the beginning of the round at random and will observe the competitors arrival back at the game origin. All work must be submitted by the deadline any corporations that submit after the deadline automatically receive an unsatisfactory result.

If you task is deemed successful you are presented with a blank card that can be used in the next round of play. In can be substituted for any card category but must be assigned as something and placed into a category before other cards are seen, and all other card must still be used. Cards from the left over categories must be chosen

I your task is deemed to be adequate you have no consequence for the next round of play.

If your task is deemed unsuccessful you will receive a fifth card after one and a half hours that must then be used.

If you fail to complete your task with a fifth card ‘YOU ARE OUT OF THEGAME’.

Corporations deemed successful can amalgamate teams removed from the game into their team. In the event that two teams wish to gain extra players the time keeper will disperse the extra players in a 1,2,1,2 or green, blue, green, blue system moving clockwise with no bias or deliberate choice.

If your corporation completes the task in a round when all other teams are working with five cards and they fail ‘YOU WIN THE CORPOPRATION GAME’.

The game had interesting outcomes that reflected our intentions and provided us with projects to pursue for the rest of the semester. I made up some cards for the game and Steve constructed a wonderful wooden box that housed the game. The completed product is a compact, simple, and dynamic game that initiates constructive outcomes.

Whats the deadline

2005-09-29T11:33:00.000+10:00

I am assuming all articles are to be finished by monday, is that correct

quick question..

2005-09-27T15:28:00.000+10:00

Very quick question...I have been asked to write about our group's corporation game 'Out of the Box'. Do I write about the game as a product and state it's intended objective; or do I speak about our experience of playing the game? Trials, tribulations, triumphs etc?

same layouts, different colour

2005-09-25T17:56:00.000+10:00

here's those same in black and white

city of god - ben

2005-09-25T11:15:00.000+10:00

City of god is a fantastic, realistic view of a ghetto (or favela) in Brasil, ranging from the 1960’s to the 80’s. The direction, editing and cinematography are interesting and unique.
I found that the storyline was similar to that of other modern South American films, with an intertwining narrative following many characters, but also centering in on one. It is similar to the structure of Amorres Perros, which has 3 separate and only slightly related plot lines. A film that may be more recognizable is Love Actually which follows eight couples, and how they interact. Lantana, an Australian film, and the play it was based on, Speaking in Tongues also use an intertwined pattern. This interweaving pattern of narration is an increasing feature in modern film-making.
The cinematography is raw and real. The use of handheld cameras, without the aid of dollys and tracks makes the viewer more aware of the surroundings. The movement of the camera makes the film seem less like a window into the story or a documentary, but more like a part of the setting. However, the characters never address the camera, and it is by no means a reflection on the part of Rocket – the main character. The framing and lighting is also affective, showing a dingy and shadowy favella at night, and a sunny dusty shanty during the day. These features chosen by the cinematographer help absorb the viewer into the film, and the setting, which is a major factor in the appreciation of the film.
I think the best part of the film is the editing. With the interweaving pattern and strong changes in pace, the editing has the main responsibility for drawing the attention of the viewer. The action flips from fast chase scenes, to slow intimate close ups, and then to panning shots, encompassing the stop-go nature of the favella. However, it is done masterfully, taking the audience to climaxes with a reflective finale.
City of God’s technical and post-production features make it a fascinating film to experience.

perhaps we could get some screenshots and front image somewhere in there....
see here

tanto sushi board

2005-09-25T10:47:00.000+10:00

The tanto sushi board is a result of the Mesquite game – run by Steve and Nick. The stimulus given to our group was “Don’t bite off more than you can chew”, “sharp”, “Love me Japanese woman, Japanese woman of old, who doesn’t know about western nations.”, blue design and it had to be a 2d presentation. We took the poetic quote quite literally, and developed a board designed for the premier Toorak home, on which expensive sushi could be cut for middle aged tea parties. It is the kind of kitchen utensil designed to incite interest and even jealousy – fuelling the desire to ‘keep up with the joneses’, and even surpass the joneses buying capacity.
It really is a ridiculous idea – a board made out of impossible materials, using methods which are nearly impossible. The idea to produce a product with these qualities takes time and money, something which blue buyers want. The TSB is a product which is expensive, the buyers are throwing away a few grand just to impress neighbors and friends.
The ideal materials are as follows:
• Old growth Tasmanian Oak, hand felled by three generations of the Thompson family.
• Porcelain insert hand-painted in Lapis Lazuli by blind Japanese widows.
• Porcelain handle of the knife handcrafted in Milan
• Traditional Paul Chen handcrafted Tanto blade (Machine Washable)
In the 2d presentation, we outlined the process. ‘Prue’ a Toorak socialite would use the board to impress. First, she would buy her sushi from a reputed supermarket or sushi chain – fresh – perhaps flown in that day from the tuna markets in a remote fishing village in Japan. Secondly, when her guests arrived, she would ceremoniously take the TSB down from its central place on the mantelpiece (where it is an object of modern art as well as a functional tool for dividing sushi), place the premium sushi in the slot, and unsheathe the blade with a SCHWING!!! Then, after the sushi has been cut (with incredible ease since the blade is designed for slicing flesh), the porcelain insert is removed from the board, and used as a plate to serve the deluxe Asian delicacy. All this occurs as Prue extols the virtues of the TSB, how her life has changed since its purchase, and how her sushi hacking days are over. She discreetly discloses its price, telling her ‘friends’ why they should have one too –secretly knowing they are released in small batches because of the intensive production costs.
After the realization of the board, it was modeled up in Rhino, and a mock up was made from blue foam. It is the intention of the group to produce the board in the end. However, due to the incredible costs, labour and material involved, it is unlikely that this largely fictional idea will succumb to reality. That said, recycled wood has been sourced, which is from Western Australian railway sleepers, the Jarrah felled during the mining rush – and we can probably fictionalize the actual fellers, their heritage and prestige.
Realistically, the TSB is an idea which plays upon many fictional constraints, and can never be totally realized. We know that it is also a play on the stereotypical ditsy-rich Toorak lady, and that our understandings of their wealth and intelligence may be misguided.
pictures to come

anti-spam

2005-09-24T22:11:00.000+10:00

julian, could you please set the blog to "no anonymous comments" and "word verification on"

this blog is a week old and is already getting spam hits :(

- aml

a layout proposal

2005-09-24T21:08:00.000+10:00

hi folks.

here's one idea

(it's fun playing with ideas that aren't for boring conservative companies)

and here's another (actually adapted from the design of my resume <- useless trivia)

Cidade de Deus (The City of God)

2005-09-24T16:15:00.000+10:00

A movie review.

Based on a true story:

Directed by
Fernando Meirelles
Quote by Fernando Meirelles "This is the part that I like most, in the process, is to edit and try to find the story. Sometimes you think you have a film, and then you change something and it becomes different. It's a wonderful job. Because it surprises you."
Genre: Crime / Drama / Thriller

Plot: Cidade de Deus (City of God) is located in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is a notorious slum. It is a dangerous place, full of violence and crime. As the story unfolds we are pushed back into the memories of Rocket a black man who has grown up here and seen the characters form. We see scenes from his childhood 1960s and later as a teenager in the 1970s and end the film in later in the 80s.
Li'l Ze along with is friend since childhood Benny, are the leaders of crime, with the power and money, they are unstoppable. Rocket has watched these two gain power for years, and he wants no part of it. Li'l Ze maintains violence and fear as he wipes out rival gangs without mercy. The police are corrupted and young rebel children control the neighborhood.
After the death of Benny, Li’l Ze looses sanity and the town becomes more violent and unsafe. Knockout Ned wants revenge after his brother, and uncle where killed. Then town is dived and the two gangs are in an all out war. But Rocket still finds a chance to follow through with his passion, taking photographs.
A quote from Rocket ‘What should have been swift revenge turned into an all out war. The City of God was divided. You couldn't go from one section the other, not even to visit a relative. The cops considered anyone living in the slum a hoodlum. People got used to living in Vietnam, and more and more volunteers signed up to die.’

A short reflection of the movie: A variety of camera angles helps set out the mood, we can see the chicken at the start of the film, from a ground shot. The shocking violence that is all around is most noticeably painful to watch when a young boy is to choose between which two children to kill. A young boy is crying with pain after being shot in the foot, watching his discomfort his pain and fear, really moves you, there is a great feeling of helplessness when young children are subject to such violence. Watching little boy as killing machines is sickening, and looking at the satisfaction after a kill frightening, that humans are at times capable of such selfishness, violence and rage. We truly get to feel the experience of living in such a hell where everybody fears for their lives. There is little money so those which come across some automatically have power; there is a strong feeling of greed.

magazine design

2005-09-22T22:30:00.000+10:00

hi folks. am myself starting to have some thoughts as to the layout design of this here magazine. i'm starting to play with some stuff, which i shall post when available. in the meantime, if anyone has any ideas about look, colour, layout, whatever, put them up here and we can discuss them.

also, just as a reminder, we don't have much time for this. not much time at all. so get that stuff coming in!

- a

great start

2005-09-21T16:01:00.000+10:00

I just had to put a post on bout how happy I have been with the response from people for this magazine. Everyone seems to very excited...I sure am. Tan has put his hand up for the intro to the mag, mei and austin have both offered to help with movie reviews and lecture notes......YAY.

the wall

2005-09-20T18:44:00.000+10:00

ok guys, i havent even begun to write my articles, but we should also discuss on the blog - how are we goign to put the information we gather for this wonderful magazine into a wall display? discuss....

Housekeeping

2005-09-20T09:03:00.000+10:00

Okay Guys,

You all have been invited to this blog, so check your email...

Please post all magazine articles here on this blog. Comment away on other peoples work, this is the online edit for the mag. Even if you just proofread and point out mistakes.

Attached images should be sent to Andrew - thecorporationmagazine@iinet.net.au and a low res version put on the blog to accompany your articles.

Clearly title each post with the title of the article followed by the section it lives under eg. "the corporation - cultural capital".

That would be great,