Category: 2024

I can say that Marco is a very brilliant and self-confident individual because starting in a field as distinct as music and then pursuing research in Biology requires extensive knowledge and a significant investment of time to study the field.  He has successfully managed to combine art and science in a remarkable way. His research areas are extremely important, demonstrating his ability to excel in both domains.

Password: ILOVECREATING

Thoughts on Marco Borotti

I really like how Marco Borotti gets his inspiration from nature and animals. It’s cool how he captures the essence of wildlife and natural elements in his art. This connection to the natural world makes his work stand out and feel really special.

 Before this class, I wouldn’t have considered myself a creator or an artist. I saw myself solely as a consumer and admirer of art.  However, I’ve realized that even before this class, I’ve been creating quite a lot. I’ve baked, made jewelry, embroidered, painted, sketched, created pottery, made films, taken photos, written short stories, and more. I am not just a consumer of the arts; I participate in creating them as well. We all do.

Reflecting:

When I found out we would be doing meditations in class, I got excited. I’ve done it before and enjoy it, but I have to be forced to do it; otherwise, I don’t have the patience. During most of our meditations, we had the windows open, so we heard a lot of noise. On the first day, the professor mentioned trying not to get annoyed by the sounds but accepting them and allowing them to exist. In the next meditation, that’s what I tried to do. It kept getting easier to allow the sounds we can’t control to just be.

I didn’t think anything related to meditation would impact me this much, but it did. I’m someone who likes control, planning, and predictability. Since coming on this J-Term, I haven’t been able to do much of that. I promised myself to make the most out of this experience, and when things outside of this course didn’t go as planned or stressed me out, I forced myself to accept them because I didn’t want them to negatively affect this experience. If I can’t change what is happening, I can change how I view and respond to it. And that’s what I’ve been learning to do—accepting and allowing things to be, which I never thought I could do.

Reflecting on Kermit’s idea that “we create our world with every thought,” I’ve come to see how my perceptions and thoughts shape my reality and creative output. This class has shown me that creativity isn’t just for traditional artists; it’s in everything we do. Lateral thinking encourages us to look at problems from new angles, while vertical thinking follows established patterns. Both styles shape our reality, influencing how we process and interpret information. This aligns with Kermit’s idea, reinforcing that our thoughts, specifically our fears and concerns about judgment, shape our creative expression and the reality we perceive, and make our own. Which is what meditating helped me do.  

Creating: 

For the making tasks, I challenged myself with collages and soundscapes, art forms I usually avoid. Normally, I might sketch random things, mostly facial features, but the lateral thinking techniques pushed me to explore new forms.

My favorite techniques are the “why” technique, Random Stimulation, and generating alternatives. The “why” technique challenges an idea by continually asking why to each response, making it easy to use for anything. Random Stimulation helps connect things you wouldn’t normally link together. Generating alternatives is a great way to challenge an idea or look at it from a different perspective. Since everyone interprets art differently, this technique helps us see our own art in a new way. It’s refreshing to interpret your art differently sometimes.

Visits:

Having the artist visits was great since I’m not part of that community, nor do I know what artsy majors do once they graduate. So it was inspiring to see people passionate about their work and doing what they love for a living. 

It was inspiring to learn that Merche, who hasn’t studied music or how to play an instrument, create her own. Similarly, Marco hasn’t studied biology but works with and is inspired by animals and plants. Their stories show me that you don’t need formal education or expertise to pursue and enjoy your passions. That I could pursue the arts without having a degree in it or be an expert at it.

Honestly, even after this class, I still wouldn’t label myself as an artist or creator, but I now recognize that I do engage in artistic activities and enjoy them. Creating art is not part of my identity, nor do I want it to be, but it is something I genuinely enjoy doing alongside consuming it. And it was wonderful to see art from a perspective I’m sure I wouldn’t have experienced any where other than Berlin. From the people, to the weather, the history, the art, the friends I’ve made, and the memories we’ve shared, all will now have a place in my heart. It feels like I’ve been here for a whole semester, but also like I just arrived yesterday. I promised to make the most out of everything; I did, and thankfully had an amazing experience, and learned a lot about the arts and myself in the process.

I’m going to be completely honest, I didn’t want to be here. I’ve been to Berlin before and I didn’t really like it much. I wanted to go to either London or Florence, both top on my travel bucket list, but I had to put 6 options, and couldn’t just put London and Florence, so I put Berlin because it was the “cheapest” option. I explicitly remember telling my mom “Oh there’s no way I’m getting Berlin, it’s my fifth choice”. I was devastated when I found out I had gotten the Berlin class. I remember calling my mom on the verge of tears, trying to make sense of the situation.

I regretted putting Berlin as an option altogether. For months, I tried to hype it up for myself, but I was never really excited about it. Then I found out that a friend was coming here too so I felt like “okay It might not be too bad afterall”. It was finally one step forward. However, 2 days before my flight to Berlin, I found out that my friend didn’t get her visa. Aaaand there it was, ten steps back. I was so miserable, I literally cried myself to sleep the first night. I remember telling myself that it’s only 19 days. My friends kept telling me to make the best out of it, but it seemed impossible. I absolutely and utterly hated it.

Then class started and I guess it wasn’t as bad as I expected. I got to know the girls I shared an apartment with a bit, they seemed nice but we weren’t close. Day by day the class started being more fun and we started warming up to each other. In class we were meeting all those great musicians that were living my dream of creating music professionally. And after class I was exploring the city, one restaurant at a time, but I spent most of my time that first week watching Bridgerton in bed.

It was the making projects that made me like the class a little bit better. I love creating stuff, but I’m never inspired enough nor have the time to create something, so this was perfect. From making sound collages to writing a poem, I slowly started opening up and channeling my inner artist. It may not seem like it, but through these makings I began warming up to Berlin and to the people here. 

The change was subtle but overnight I found myself having so much fun here. The girls and I started working together in the common area of our apartment every night, killing scary bugs and doing movie nights, watching movies whose names I do not even remember. Little by little these random moments turned into inside jokes and developed a bond between us. 

Then out of nowhere, Aaron sent out a link asking us to make paper clips. Make paper clips? How? Why? My curiosity got the better of me and I opened the link. And within a few minutes, I was running a multi billion business. I got so engrossed in my paper clip business that it started being a distraction.

Before I knew it, it was the last week of class and I found myself dreading leaving. I am still confused how and when the transition from counting down the days to not wanting to leave happened, but it left me feeling confused. How is it possible that I did a complete 180 in the span of a few days? Was it the artists? Or the meditation? The in-class activities perhaps? Finally knowing my way around the u-bahns? can’t forget about the junkies too, or possibly the pizzas? Nah, I don’t think so… Maybe it was Dark Matter? Is it the people we met? the flea markets? But also the ice-creams, perhaps all of the above?

We’re almost at the finish line, but I kinda don’t want this class to end. I don’t want to leave Berlin so soon. I miss home, but there’s so much I haven’t seen yet. so many people I haven’t met yet. So many places I haven’t tried yet. This class made me understand myself a bit better. It made me realize how happy I get when I am making, or even talking, about the things I love. It was a needed wake up call that doing the things you love is an active choice and every day spent not doing it is a wasted opportunity. It showed me that I can pursue whatever I love even if I don’t have the resources, education or support as long as I believe in myself, as cliché as it sounds. This class has changed the way I think and my outlook on life. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to say that this class was magical and completely fixed my life but I feel like I had some ~minor~ personal improvements since the beginning.

“Interactive Media is about what you put into it.” -some guy

I can’t remember which exact “some guy” told me this, but I couldn’t agree more. I think it’s incredibly easy for me to match the criteria for most interactive media assignments, but what if I was told to focus on the creative process instead?

Now I wasn’t completely sure what I might learn from Professor Aaron when I sat down on my first day of class. “Creating? Yeah pretty sure I know how to do that” is what I would’ve said if I was narrow-minded, but I kept open-minded and read all the given material (very rare for me to do) and took everything thrown at me seriously.

When Professor Aaron first told the class to focus on the creative process without worrying about making the final product high quality, it was like an input error that caused my system to malfunction. Making high quality stuff and showing it was the most entertaining part to me. However, I realized through our various readings and many making projects that what I actually care about is sharing the creative process that entertained me. 

I’ve come to discover that as long as I’m entertained by what I’m doing, things just turn out magically well anyway! I’m not going to say “oh my jeebies this class reminded me of how much I love making things” because making things is literally my career choice, but this class did facilitate me to have dedicated assignments where the result doesn’t matter. The classroom gave me a space to just design various funky things like mazes or browser game UIs. As I strived to have fun during the process and reflected on our readings, I felt my creative potential increase. The upgrade wasn’t a significant margin because a lot of the readings, especially Art & Fear and Flow, introduced many things I was already consciously aware about from other sources (that likely got it from these books), but I’ve greatly embraced the seemingly counterintuitive value of setting restrictions of creativity to actually ideate better. That’s one of my favorite takeaways from the class.

But beyond the classroom was another thing I frequently asked myself: whether being in Berlin made a difference in this J-Term class. Afterall, Professor Aaron is an IM professor at NYUAD and I wasn’t exposed to many non-NYUAD students outside of the orientation. So, why was this J-Term chapter of my Summer set in Berlin? 

Was it the guests that visited us? I think obviously these guests were specifically chosen because we’re in Berlin but that felt like too straightforward and unsatisfying of an answer for me.

So then I asked whether there was something in general that I could only acquire here in Berlin? To answer that question, I used a little bit of lateral thinking we learned in class and asked myself the same question for Abu Dhabi. Sure, there are courses or opportunities I could only find in NYU Abu Dhabi or even NYU New York, but was that really it? Was the answer still something so shallow and unromantic?

Well, the conclusion I’d like to believe was that Berlin as a whole is significant. Berlin isn’t just the roasted pork knuckle I get at Maximillian’s, it isn’t just the guests that have visited our classroom, and it certainly isn’t just the change of ceiling I look at when I wake up in the morning. I’ve listened to a vulgar German bartender tell me how he feels about minorities in his country before letting me pay for my beer. I’ve taken photographs of all the beautiful streets but also all the plain ones. I’ve bought skateboard parts from all over the city to get a glimpse of the skater culture.

Everything here was a learning experience, from the weird to the funky. 

This is especially important to me as an artist, designer, and storywriter because my passion is to depict things. If I can’t experience these things first hand then I’d never be able to depict things meaningfully and tastefully. 

Berlin will have an impact on my work, just as any other place I’ve lived. Even though my Google Calendar tells me class is from 1:30pm to 4:30pm, that’s just the time I sit in Professor Aaron’s classroom. Every (waking) moment here in the city of Berlin is class for me.

I think so far this may have been my favorite visit. I loved how passionate he was while explaining the meaning and science of his project and I also find these topics interesting. I didn’t fully understand how data effected the movements or how that was supposed to send a message to the audience, but I still liked that the process was scientific and that he interpreted dull looking numbers and scientific concepts into something more attention grabbing. 

Today’s visit was very interesting. I’m very impressed how Marco, first studied music and now working as an artist, becomes knowledgeable in sciences. His creations of the swan and monkeys look so interesting! The only unsatisfactory part about the studio is that it doesn’t have enough chairs… I felt so tired at the end because I was a little bit sick in the first place.

New, Old, and Circle.

Art & Fear is my favorite reading out of the three. It talks about the relationship between you, others (other artists, critics, audiences, public), and you works. At the end of the day, it’s actually just between you and your work. Your work is not you, but it still matters. Keep exploring, be authentic, whatever you have is whatever you need, and learn from the process. On the other hand, I think I’ll keep practicing the lateral thinking techniques: alternatives, reversal, why, analogies, random stimulation, and cliches, whenever I’m stuck.

Sound, Passion, and Confidence 

Being able to ask questions as a student is such a privilege. Students often receive kindness and patience, even when you haven’t yet contributed much to the world. I always have a bunch of questions I want to ask, but I’m never able to finish them all due to time constraints.

I admire how these artists can turn sound, one of the most abstract art forms, into pieces with commercial value. Their passion is inspiring; they can talk about their work endlessly and understand it deeply, as if they are truly living it. Being authentic, smiling, and admitting weaknesses creates a warm and approachable demeanor for networking. 

I feel a bit sad knowing that I would learn so much more if I were a tech-heavy sound artist. For areas outside my expertise, I can only grasp general insights about how they perceive their work.

Artist	Date	Labels	Notes
Otis Sandsjö	5.23	Experimental saxophone player from Finland (?)	Have limits may lead to more creativity. Aesthetics matter in his work Life experiences don’t really translate to his works embracing the healthy fear of losing inspiration
Mariana Carvalho	5.24	Experimental sound artist from Brazil. Did her master at UDK	Pain? No she didn’t consider that Being experimental is not just about exploring things people haven’t done, but to go deeper into the same concept When you get too close to sth, you get oversaturated by it.
Merche Blasco	5.28	Makes he own instruments. Performance artist.	Performance art in public spaces should be site-specific Tech + material (shell) can also create very organic, beautiful sound, not just technical.
Ming Poon	5.29	Asian queer performance artist. Community building & Chinese culture.	When dying is not personal anymore, everything is taken care of by the authority, choosing death is a way to gain back the right Applied choreography Asian queer, yeah!
Harshini J. Karunaratne	5.30	Alum. Founder of Manifest.IO	Unintentionally include their own culture in the process. Be NICE and show ppl that you are nice. Cheap to have their master in Berlin? Not being confident is just a stage in your life
Field.io	5.31	Design studio.	Emotional feedback > survey data.  Vibe check > work alignment (I doubt that) Your work is not you, but still be proud
Robert Seidel	6.4	Experimental film artist, very abstract.	Apply your style to the technology, do not let the technology master your style. Changing the speed in PR, then create another layer of the 2nd section, but with a lil layback
Marco Borotti	6.5	SOund artist. Environment & tech invasion.	Funding: be introvert/extrovert based on the timing Your work is not you. Being rejected might just mean that the timing isn’t right

Map, Body, and Woman

My creations centered around these three aspects, which are something that I’m always interested in. The music and the female utensils are out of my comfort zone in the way that I have no idea how music works and I struggled with coming up with ideas for that utensil prompt. However, they are also the projects where the techniques we learned really came into play.

Name	Date	Picture	Topic
Recreate Google Map with 30 circles	5.23		Yasmine and I put up our lil cicles all around the metros to show our presence in the city
Tech Invading Life-Video	5.23		Technology occupies our mental space even when we are enjoying the present moment
Dicetination-Travel toy	5.27		Solo-travellers not knowing what to do? Try this out
Music track-industrial tech	5.29		Industrial tech music using sounds from construction site
Female organ utensil	5.30		When the body is the tool, and the tool is the things being consumed, what do you, the one consuming, become?
Music score-depressed mom	6.3		Music scores that are acted out by participants.
30min human connection workshop	6.6		Three non-verbal communication to connect two strangers together

Don’t mind the gaze

Berlin is a dream city. I spend most of my time here alone, walking and thinking. I met few people I haven’t met in a while and met new people I have never met. I have new ideas about myself. Sometimes I feel like I’m just a hot key to whatever groups I represent, sometimes I feel like I’m more than that, or less than that. But maybe it doesn’t matter.