Day 9 10/26/09

We were told to bring games to class with the exception of video games. I brought the game Uno, which is a card game. Jimmy asked who wants to play what and I ended up with playing The Game of Life. During the game many interesting things happened, some players had bad luck and some had a few comebacks. We were asked to think about how the creators of the game planned out the concept and rules of their game. The Game of Life basically makes each player go through series of events relating to some generic things that happen in people's lives. Things such as getting a career, a house, getting married, even getting into a skiing accident are included in the events. My group played Uno after, followed by Snakes and Ladders, and lastly Scramble. The game that was the most compelling was The Game of Life due to the fact you tried to land on the best spaces, but as life goes on, many unexpected things happen.

Horrific
Passive
Skilled

Day 8 10/21/09

We watched an interesting short film called The Power of Ten. It was a very powerful movie to me because every time the camera zoomed in or out, it made me realized how insignificant we are. The universe is so vast and what makes up our body structure is also huge in it's own way. I liked the second short film in the part it animated how man created technology as time passed. The humor and information fit well together, keeping my attention to see what would happen next. When we went over the homework, other people's ideas were either straightforward or just confusing. However, I thought it was a good assignment, much easier than the previous two but still challenging.

insightful
understanding
astonishing

Day 7 10/19/09

Jimmy divided us into two groups to present the ten pictures and single word or phrase to our respective group. My group had a lot of different examples; some of them were working but the majority of the examples did not make sense or catch the group's attention. After sharing our homework, we were put in groups again and had to make a story from scratch using objects from our backpacks and pockets. It was very difficult to make a story up because some of the objects were things like cell phones and keys. After 15 minutes of preparation time each group presented their stories. As with our group, many groups had difficulty with creating their story using what objects they were allowed. However, I think it was a great exercise to stimulate the brain. By reviewing the concept of a story, it made me realize that during the exercise, I did not apply most, if not all of the concepts relating to a good story. I learned I have to always be aware to expand my thoughts even when it seems impossible.

Colossal
Outrageous
Wasteful

Day 6 10/14/09

We brought our picture and compared words. Some people had some good phrases and words and some others did not have any powerful ones.

We watched a video with Sir Ken Robinson doing a presentation at UCLA. He commented how watches are regarded useless to the younger generation. He mentioned how people take it for granted, cell phones and laptops can tell the time and do more additional things. He also said how college degrees would get more common as the years pass by and it won't be much of a "wow" factor as it was years before. He made remarks on how kids compete for kindergarten.
I thought his speech was interesting and his views were different. He gave a good perspective on things that you don't really think too hard about.

Astounding
Boldly
Erratic

Day 5 10/12/09

In class we were supposed to bring 10 photos to class but I forgot to buy magazines so I had no pictures. At first I thought we were going to do a collage but Jimmy told us to pair up into groups and select one picture. Then we had to come up with words or phrases to bring a different meaning to the picture. I believe most people thought of opposite descriptions because of the example he gave us. However, after presenting the first time, most people understood what he was looking for. In the second attempt for the groups, many people came up with some good words and phrases regarding the picture their group chose. I thought the whole exercise was very informational and educational. By going through this exercise, we vastly improved our ways of thinking, to catch other peoples' attention with the usage of words and phrases. Our assignment for home was to do the same exercise but alone without the ideas of a group.

vast
numerous
hilarious

Day 4 10/7/09

In class we watched the movie Dreams by Akira Kurosawa. It showed many short clips of different ''Dreams'' and each had it's own unique theme to it. The names of each clip are as follows: The Sunshine Wedding, The Peach Orchard, The Blizzard, The Tunnel, Crows, Mount Fuji in Red, Weeping Demon, and Village in Watermills. The meaning behind the first dream was cloudy for me. I think it was trying to say that certain customs must be followed and if you break the custom, you have to take responsibility for it. The Peach Orchard's message, in the way I interpreted it, says how people destroy things without regarding the importance of them, affecting the people around them. The Blizzard showed four men traversing through a snowstorm heading to their camp. As it seemed hopeless to reach their intended location, one by one they gave up and awaited their death. The last man tried encouraging them to keep going, to no avail. As he also gave into hopelessness, a snow lady tried to push him to give up even more. However his strong spirit brought him back to his senses. The message I saw was no matter how hopeless something seems, if you keep pushing on and not giving in, the goal may just be right in front of you.

The Tunnel gave a message how war, no matter what reason it's used for, hurts everyone. Not just the soldiers that die on the battlefront, but includes the commander, families, even fellow soldiers. Crows showed an artist traversing through Van Gogh's paintings. Although I didn't understand the message it portrayed, I liked how the fact when the artist was walking through the painting settings that some objects were in front of him as he passed by. That detail makes the illusion that he really is in the painting and not just infront of it. Mount Fuji in Red showed explosions around Mount Fuji and chaos was among the people nearby. It looked like an extremely powerful eruption but later we find out it was caused by nuclear plants around it. It depicted how man created artifical power and went too far. The loss of control had a castastrophic effect causing the residents of the area to have a prolonged, slow death of radiation poisoning.

The Weeping Demon showed how nuclear radiation caused mutations of the environment, some examples being the gigantic flowers and mutated humans. The humans were "demons" that fed on each other. It was a message to take care of our world, to start preventing environmental polution because it will destroy life. Village of the Watermills showed how people decided to help the environment by using nature to ''power'' their lives. It also showed how by following the ways of nature, it prolonged lifespans. Death was treated as a good end rather than a bad end.
Overall I thought this film had a lot of messages to spread to its viewers, even though some of the messages were a bit murky for my understanding.

catastrophic
extremely
incessant -continuing without interruption; ceaseless; unending: an incessant noise.

Day 3 10/05/09

We were asked to stand up and sit in order of birthday month from right to left. It was an interesting exercise as almost everyone sat in the correct places according to the people around them. Jimmy talked about mind-mapping and idea-mapping, which basically means the same thing. He described the way of brainstorming as putting ideas out and to not evaluate them. He also mentioned how it is a beginning process, not to do any research beforehand. "The easiest path for a fresh idea is through an open mind." He talked about risk taking and experimenting. I agree with that because if one does not risk take and just stay in their bubble of safety, they will never experience new things. Jimmy showed us different types of mind maps, some illustrated to a detailed extent and some less detailed. The exercise he gave us to brainstorm an idea was a bit difficult but interesting as well. It made me think about all the things I could put in regards to my idea, coming from different approaches and what was I missing. It was also good that we had a chance to see everyone's approach to the exercise, to see the different ideas they used to complete this challenge.

Vast
Persistent
Creative

Art 220 Day 2 9/30/09

On the second day of class Jimmy talked about networking, going out to meet people for opportunities for the future. I think networking plays a strong part in one's success, the more people you know, the more job opportunities you can get. Also as more people get to know you, as Jimmy said, there would be a chance they would contact you if they know you have the ability to help them. The concept of time was also talked about in class, about how it is made up and made real to something that does not have a defined or regular occurrence. Time helps keep people organized by having an approximate period in which they can relate to each other. For example, someone in New York could give a specific point in time such as 5:00 PM EST to someone in California to call them. The person in California would know that he or she must call at 2:00 PM PST because of the concept of time zones.

Jimmy also mentioned about networking computers relating to networking people. He talked about how color influences emotions and hunger. He gave a few examples on the colors red and yellow being used for places to eat. I thought about it and it is pretty true. The talk on painting walls made me realize that the designers for the buildings took that in mind for what kind of purpose the building was for.

He showed the class some pictures and proved that some images mixed with particular ones could make a huge impact on viewers that understood the meanings of the images used to create the one they were seeing. An example of this was the Obama and Joker combination. The image has the most impact on the generation of people ranging from teens to probably low 30's. Most of this age group has seen the latest Batman movie and know how Obama is operating. It makes it easy to understand the general concept of the combined images.

-EAuyeung

Adjectives:
Befitting
Unique
Tasteful
Decisive
Vigorous
Immense