Month: May 2023

For my make assignment, I decided to draw a sketch of a dream I had that contained a plethora of things. For instance throughout the dream, I was in Berlin witnessing the graffiti, in Italy roaming around and having olives, and in Dubai going to a concert in the Coca Cola Arena.

Each picture depicts a certain scene I had throughout my dream, so I decided to create a collage of all of the instances throughout to portray my subconscious.

On the right side of the page, you can see the Coca Cola Arena, a view of Berlin, some Easter eggs, as well as a cup of chocolate pudding. I then moved on to draw a depiction of some graffiti, olives, a hamburger, whiteboard, and an aerial view of Florence.

NYU is an interesting place. It is not only a university that is set across 15 borders, but is also a university with non-conventional campuses. NYU Abu Dhabi has such an integrated campus complex that every corner is used. NYU Shanghai was just an office tower located right in the central financial hub back then but now has a similar campus design like NYU Abu Dhabi. NYU New York and many other international sites have their academic and residential locations completely blended into the city, sort of using the whole town as its campus. Students take public transportation just to get to their classes. As a study away student living in the Palladium residence in Manhattan but have to get to Tandon in Brooklyn everyday, being on time was not an easy task, but something that requires extra effort, timing and planning. Hence, I made this small brochure about potential solutions to get to school on time using Canva.

The author argues that art creation often occurs in isolation, as artists connect with their materials and ideas, enabling them to express themselves authentically without external distractions. This solitude provides an environment conducive to exploring artistic visions and tapping into inner worlds. While there are exceptions, it is generally true that art rarely comes from committees. The personal nature of artistic creation can be hindered when too many voices and opinions are involved, diluting the artist’s vision and compromising the purity of their expression.

Artists commonly face the burden of real and imagined critics, which can paralyze their creativity and impede artistic growth. The fear of not being understood or accepted is common, as artists expose their vulnerability through their work. The personal nature of art makes it susceptible to criticism that can feel deeply personal to the artist.

Finding a balance between one’s artistic vision and the opinions of others is crucial. Artists should welcome feedback and constructive criticism to refine their work and broaden their perspective but resist catering solely to audience expectations. Striking this balance allows artists to maintain their artistic integrity while considering different perspectives. The struggle between risk-taking and seeking acceptance is a genuine dilemma for artists. Staying true to one’s artistic path and resisting pressures to conform to established norms is vital for growth and innovation.

I worked vertically on a short film that I had done previously. The purpose of the film was to investigate music would affect the tone of a film. I added visual effects to the video to make it more cinematic. I also added text in different parts of the film. I also edited the sound to include a fade-out at the end of the film.

This is the final film:https://youtu.be/glDUq5zUKgo

Yesterday for our group creation, my group and I made a an apple museum. I was inspired by this idea of collection to make a collection of a certain item into something deeper than the the individual items alone. I know my parents keep a lot receipts at home “incase they ever need it.” I asked my dad to send me a couple pictures to see if I could make a story out of this collection. Below is a collage of the receipts (these are receipts for one person only), and here are the things I was able to tell from this collection:

• Drinks a significant amount of coffee (almost everyday)
• Coffee from the same shop, usually same time (morning)
• He/she probably spends a lot of time in that area (work place? home?)
• Coffee addiction? Age? (based on coffee consumption)
• Country of residence (based on currency and information on receipt)
• Spending habits
• Income bracket he/she belongs to
• How often he/she eats out
• Physical health (Pharmacy receipts, Physiotherapy)
• Age (based on doctor’s visits)
• How developed the city he/she lives in is
• Whether he/she lives in this country or is just visiting

Majid Ibrahim

I found this reading very profound as I have experienced the state of flow many times when playing video games. For me, it is a state where I am suddenly performing at a very high level relative to my own standards. My focus increases to the point where I do not think of anything other than what is happening in the game. The game also becomes immensely enjoyable for that period of time. Every time I play it is a battle for me to enter this flow state. I never understood what caused the flow state to happen up until this point. 

The diagram the author drew of the challenges vs skills was very enlightening to me as it shed light on the general conditions of how flow is achieved. This made me realize that every time I entered flow when playing a game it was when I was just barely able to beat the level or opponent. I think that by understanding how flow works, we can plan our actions and pursuits to help us get into this state. This can help us do things better, get more done, and enjoy them more.

Majid Ibrahim

This chapter delves into topics that I have never thought about before as a person not pursuing art as a profession. The author shows how society doesn’t always make it easy for artists to make art. Artists must make work that is both new and easy to understand hence earning society’s approval. It’s a tricky balance, and feeling like you have to meet these standards can stop you from being creative while not conforming to them will get you weird looks.

This ties into the difference between acceptance and approval. I found it interesting the way he describes these 2. I understood acceptance as essentially a “green flag” from the already established artists while approval is whether or not the general public likes it. When the author explained the difference between them I was instantly reminded of the rotten tomatoes rating system for movies where there would be a rating from hardcore critics and a rating from the public. Artists will try to find their own unique balance between acceptance and approval, hoping to make work that speaks to both the artistic community and the general public.

Here is the p5js sketch: https://editor.p5js.org/mi1171/full/I–yjbMkJ

For my MAKE assignment today I came up with a “Creativity Meter”. It is an interactive art piece in which the shapes located at the cursor become increasingly erratic and random the longer the mouse is pressed. The bar at the top also fills up and starts shaking to match the increasing erratic movement of the shapes as well as the background darkening. When the mouse button is released, all of the effects previously listed gradually revert to their initial “calm and collected” state.

This was inspired by the concepts of lateral thinking that we heard about, in which we would let the chaos of our minds run wild by suspending judgment of our ideas. The higher the “Creativity Meter” rises, the more erratic the forms become, which symbolizes our ideas.

One of the things I really like doing is building websites.  That’s why I created a simple “game” using react. The website fetches a random meme template from a meme API and lets the user add their own caption to it. The game can be played in groups where whoever comes up with the funniest captions for the randomly generated meme wins. https://replit.com/@nathanaelmeteki/Making-Assingment-Meme-generator?v=1

Shahram Chaudhry

As I sat down to write an essay for my study away application for NYU Paris, I thought of including Paris Fashion Week in my essay. So, in the evening when I was brainstorming ideas for my making assignment, designing bizarre clothing items and outfits came to mind and I thought why not? Let’s go crazy.

So my fashion catalogue “ROGUE”(basically VOGUE gone ROGUE) captures a few of these wacky fashion designs. I’ve tried to create diversity in the types of clothing/accessories, some are very technical and machine-like while others are funkier and some are even closer to nature.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/13TRlGZ7nihZxUM8dbOLMsrSqzPGhaA8b/view?usp=sharing