Projects

Project Description

Over the course of several weeks, students met individually with the instructors, and in small groups outside of class to develop and refine their projects. Students then presented their projects in a two-week, end-of-term exhibition of their work. The final project served several important functions. First, it gave students a focus for their in-class work; students did the in-class exercises with the awareness that materials generated from those exercises might become elements of their final projects. This helped to give an over-arching shape to the class, and tied each class assignment to a greater goal. Second, for final projects, students were asked to choose a particular aspect of their lives that they wished to express to others. Students were required to be self-expressive in a way that clearly presented their ideas to others. In preparing work for the exhibition, students considered how their work would be perceived by an audience and how to be articulate in presenting their ideas. The projects shown below are merely a representative sampling of some of the approaches students took to their final projects.

Here is Thuy-Tien Le’s description of how she created her final project (PDF). (Courtesy of Thuy-Tien Le.  Used with permission.)

Dressdown by Mirat Shah (Courtesy of Mirat Shah. Used with permission.)

“I hoped to reveal everything I carry with me on the inside using my outside appearance.”

Photograph of Marat Shah’s final project.

Wa*lt*er by Youn-Jae Walter Song (Courtesy of Youn-Jae Walter Song. Used with permission.)

“…a physical representation of the inner struggle of my thought process and the methodology for the decisions that I make.”

Photograph of Youn-Jae Walter Song’s final project.

Final Project

Dressdown by Mirat Shah

Photograph of Marat Shah’s final project.

Materials

Hanging mobile constructed from photographs, index cards, ballpoint pen, silver 24 gauge jewelry wire, plastic, glass, and wood multicolored beads, along with a wire coat hanger.

Student’s Description of her Work

“I do not “buy” clothing in the conventional sense. Rather, I collect it. The articles in my closet are much more than means of cover-up and instead represent a stage in my development, an significant event, a place that has meaning to me, or a person that is close to me. Collectively and without any additional input, my clothing’s stories could give an accurate description of my values, my relationships with others, where I’ve been, and where I might be going.

The aim of this work was to analyze the relationship I have with my clothes by decomposing my wardrobe into individual elements and using with these to construct an image of myself. When selecting articles of clothing to be photographed, I tried hard to select only clothing I would wear on an average day to walk outside of my room. Therefore, something like a team uniform, dance shoes, or a traditional Indian outfit is not included. I didn’t want the project to show me through different roles I play. Instead, I hoped reveal everything I carry with me on the inside using my outside appearance.

When you look at this exhibit, be sure to observe both sides of the project and their relationship. Some things to think about:

  • My clothing seems to tell more stories about females than males. Is this always true of clothing, or is my project unique in this respect?
  • Are some articles of clothing (i.e. jeans vs. a necklace) innately more capable of conveying a story than others?
  • What stories do your clothes tell about you and your world?”

Final Project

Wa*lt*er by Youn-Jae Walter Song

Photograph of Youn-Jae Walter Song’s final project.

Materials

Posterboard, photographs, tracing paper

Student’s Description of his Work

“My whole project consists of this struggle of various media trying to take over each position on the Sudoku board. This struggle is a physical representation of the inner struggle of my thought process and the methodology for the decisions that I make. This struggle is represented by the conflicting media in terms of color versus grayscale, photos versus drawings, and opposing handwriting styles. Each style represents a particular aspect of my decision making protocol (i.e. grayscale=family, drawings=alter-ego, etc). The Sudoku board represents the map in which my decisions dictate where I go, since there are many different situations to take into account, but the fact that there is usually only one solution per board implies that regardless of which factors went into making the solution of a particular box (whether it be dominated more by one medium than another), that box is filled by a particular answer.

This project gave me an opportunity to actually physically represent this inner struggle that I’ve never really put much thought into. I’ve always been “just me,” but never really considered how or why I make these decisions about my life. To really be able to artistically represent this allows me to delve deeper into my mentality to get a full understanding of my inner workings. It lets me explore the abstraction more in depth, and perhaps also helps explain this mentality to others who do not understand.

I have learned that I take a lot of decision making processes for granted. Sometimes I make decisions without really thinking about why I’m making that decision, other than it’s what I feel is right. To get to take a look at the nuts and bolts of my decision process gave me great insight into myself and how I function.”

Course Info

As Taught In
Spring 2006
Learning Resource Types
Projects with Examples
Activity Assignments with Examples