A couple weeks in, the life of an accreditator

Its not so bad. I can tell myself that right? So what if I don't have time to see my wife or even read a book. It really isn't so bad. Today we were assigned a project for Representation, I think it'll run into the double digits easily for the time it takes to get it done. But still that's doable. Its only when you start adding in all of the other classwork that it starts to wear my mind down a little. But honestly, its not too bad, just a lot of work.

I was assigned to a group preparing for the arrival of the national accreditation review board. I guess RISD is up next or something. So we get to create a gallery, do mockups and books, and apparently I'm on the hospitality side of it. I'm not sure what exactly that means, but maybe I'm supposed to be a personal servant for a week or so while they're here? That can't be too bad of a life, not the chia pet part, but the life of a reviewer. All you do is travel around the country, have a bunch of people cater to you for a few days (they probably put you up in the best hotel the department can afford) while you perform your little audit of their program. And then you move on to the next red carpet. Of course then again, maybe its like being part of the IRS, where everyone's smile is hidden behind a veneer of acrid sweat as they attempt to read you for exactly what you could possibly be thinking and wanting and needing.

I guess speculation be nothing but that, speculation, until I get my mind reading up and going and tad bit more refined. I tried predicting what color card would come next, and the damn thing told me it'd be "dog," well not even dog, but "Beagle." Not sure where it pulled that from

First day of class (RISD)

I wouldn't say I had an easy time with class today, but I feel like I understood the principles being considered. Naturally my drawing will have to improve, and who knows, with all the attention we're supposed to be paying to the effort of drawing, they might just!

I don't know how I'm going to deal with their expectations of every spare moment in the studio at school. I can understand the difficulty of pushing yourself while at home, but I have to develop that ability if I want to succeed. Which means working at it every day.

Review of the day:

Rope knot understanding

Drawing of the rope knots

Informal critique of the drawings and diagrams

Progression to the paper representations

Paper representations

• Models need to become progressively more detailed with the goal of acheiving an understanding of the effects different manipulations (principly folding) will have on the shape of the model. The final goal is to have models that are precise with a well-understood process as to how to create them
• Drawings of the models also work from more abstract to very precise and should be done 1:1 or larger. They should illustrate the principles learned about the folds and may help inform the creation of further models
• Models should be a progression towards an understanding of the general mechanisms, and then experimentations on the effects of changing variables (folding conditions)

Arriving at the train station soon, so thats about it for today.

Onwards!