Introductory Memo

To: Steven Hammer and Others

From: Megan Ward

Date: Friday, February 17th, 2012

Subject: Introductions and Reflections

This space was created to explore the use of technology in an advancing society.   I began by posting some of my academic works and projects as well as some personal experiments.  My hope is that this space is a further discovery as a designer utilizing as many tools possible.

Through this exploration, I’m already discovering some difficulties.  I’ve run into problem trying to set up a use-friendly space and being able to link it to various websites.  I don’t envy people who do this everyday!

The Artist Statement was a great way to start.  It reveals much about who I am as a designer and person without showing a large amount of works.  It allowed me to reflect on what kind of designer I would like to be and what kind of work I hope to be doing.  It made me think about the words I was using and how to be concise and clear.

The Listening to Spaces post was interesting for me to write. I found that I had to take a few steps backward to really understand what it meant to frame sound in spaces.  It’s important that we’re always questioning and learning from what we are doing as well as from what others are doing.

The Video Mashup was not a post that I was particularly fond of.  It was a good starting point to further that exploration in the future but I don’t know that I was completely happy with it.  It clip was from a video I took while traveling to Buenos Aires, Argentina of a street artist near the hostel.  We walked past him and had to turn around to see what he was doing.  His painting was made from these full body gestures using the geometry and proportions of his own body to create a face.  He had no images to reference, no model standing near.  He took his cues from the music he chose.  His work was completely an exploration through doing which is something I mention in my artist statement.  This clip was fused with Pink Floyd’s, Great Gig in The Sky.  I chose this particular song because of the exploration of music and instruments.  It features vocal by Clare Tony, 22-year-old songwriter and session vocalist.  The vocals in the song were improvised through the thought that she should allow her voice to sound like an instrument.  She performed two takes, which they assembled and used for the final album track.  When I heard the story of the song’s creation, I was amazed.  It shows qualities of impulse, intuition, deep emotion and one person’s representation.  It was the process of this song that makes it so beautiful.  It was difficult to portray all of these values in my designs in a short video because the message is open for interpretation, which is very similar to architecture.  So I had to do what Clare Tony did, be impulsive and intuitive.

Thanks to those who took the time to read this.

-Megan

February 18, 2012 | Categories: Posts, Unit One Portfolio | Tags: Artist Statement, Artist Statement Remix, Introductory Memo, Listening to Spaces, Megan Ward, Memo, NDSU, ndsu architecture, Pink Floyd, Reflection, Steven Hammer, Street Art, Study Abroad, Travel, Youtube | Leave a comment