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Soft Critique (Crit)

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During the crit the students listened to the teacher carefully and took notes What is a soft crit?  A soft crit is a discussion during which the creator shares their project, and then others ask about the purpose of the project. The audience inquire about the process of creation, which helps the creators re-organize their design concepts, and promotes the further development as a result. What’s the difference between the crit and the traditional presentation?   The crit, to a great degree, is distinguished from the a traditional presentation by showing all your personal thinking (even it is unfinished). The audience is expected to offer relevant suggestions depending on their own experiences or feedback through a friendly and open conversation. Thus, you can get abundant and diverse ideas instead of being taught by your tutor directly. It is definitively unlimited! Before the crit  The repetition and iteration will go on with refining ideas by “ primary ” and “ seco

Prototyping Workshop

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A student is making the prototype based on Erin’s Heat Pressed Textile What is Prototyping?  I think it means a way to test our ideas, and the first version of an art or design object. But Kaitlyn said, ‘there are several different types of prototyping, and what we are going to learn is the first level ‘MVP’, which means the ‘minimum viable prototype’. It is the simplest we can do to test an idea. Prototyping game Firstly, the tutors gave us an example. It is an interesting game, similar to ‘Draw Something and Guess’. They worked in a group of three, and a sticky note with some words describing a special idea or product was stuck on Anna’s forehead. Then John and Kaitlyn tried to illustrate this idea by some materials, like masking tape and their cell-phone. They wanted Anna to guess the words “leg smart phone holder” which were written on the post-it notes, then test whether their prototype was achievable. The responses from them and Anna were the results of test.     

The Guide to GSA Life and Campus

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The view of the Reid building and a Guide to Glasgow, a gift from Martha On Monday,  24 June, we had a visit from Martha and Maja, two Student Ambassadors, who are currently studying at GSA. They got invited to share their own experience of Glasgow and to introduce us to the daily life of Glasgow and the campus of GSA. Martha presents her guide booklet Life in the Glasgow  Martha made a booklet of the Glasgow life and gave a presentation about this; she told us about the galleries, cafes, restaurants, music venues, cinemas, parks, shops and transportation to help us enjoy the city. After her presentation, we asked her several questions. For example, one student asked her about the music hall in Glasgow. Martha also talked about the food in Glasgow. She told us she liked to go to the School Canteen where they serve cheap but delicious food. The student asks Martha a question which she answers with real passion The campus of GSA  The next step was a short tour of

The Exploration in/of the GSA Archives

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On the right: Cat is showing what an archive is; on the left: an embroidered pattern, an example object from  the GSA Archives What does an archive mean?  As Cat Doyle , who works at the GSA Archives , told us it can be the documents or the objects which can be recorded from everyday activities. They can come in a variety of formats, including text, audio and video. The objects are protected by copyright and can be stored by category. Usually, archives are kept long term if they are useful. On the way to the GSA Archives The journey to the GSA Archives On 20 June 2019, we took a short walk to arrive at the GSA Archives - it took us almost 20 minutes by foot from Blythswood house. The weather was too cold at first and Chaeeun didn't bring her jacket, so she felt quite cold at that moment, but few minutes later, the sun came out and the weather became warmer than before, and she said that it was the true Glasgow. Maybe some students felt it was quite far away to go

Bananarama

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The “BANANARAMA” session was a brilliant teaching experience about the investigation from the primary and the secondary research, to help students who study in the Glasgow School of Art better understand the connection between human, things, and thinking. The primary research about banana by John Nicol In the first week of the pre-sessional course, we attended a quite interactive workshop: “BANANARAMA”. With the introduction and demonstration teaching of research by John Nicol and Kaitlyn DeBiasse, the studio tutors, we obtained two important steps of the study object: the primary and secondary research. The former requires us to focus on the things or item itself, colors or materials and we can use smell, touch, etc. to do so, and the latter is about investigating the information around it, related products, developments or brands etc. The strong connection between students and teachers is the thinking with and through things and asking questions. The secondary rese

Lecture on Material Culture

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Today we attended a lecture on material culture delivered by Dr Frances Robertson from the GSA. The talk was very interactive and at some point the lecturer asked us to play a dress detective. This entailed swapping jackets with people around the room in order to examine them - for example the fabric, style, how it fits the body shape, etc - and then think about the history, potential influences and inspirations. The students examine their jackets, talking about the fit, design, fabric and discussing what the different features can say about the people who wear them The students being jacket detectives - some fabrics make rustling noises We got down to work and soon the room was full of buzz, people feeling the jackets, turning them inside out to, and even smelling them. We discovered that some made sounds, crunchy or rustling; some were very soft to touch, some very loose while others were quite tight-fitting. Once we were done with the analysis, Frances examined some of