Todays class was alright for the most part, and I thought the critique was ok. Sure things got a little out of hand towards the end, but thats new media, chair is chair, and max msp is the future of everything? Also I was disappointed in the lack of narwal and unicorn in todays pieces.
Critiques always make me twitchy. I guess the best thing to remember is that you're your own worst critic in most cases. Theres always a necessary push to be better, because if you think you're awesome, then you never improve on anything. I can see the frustration in taking a hit on a critique, but thats why we do it, and someone who tells you everything you do is great is a fucking liar, lets be honest here. You dont want to be making these kinds of errors in the real world unless your moms basement has a really comfy couch.
today's class went well, even if there was a crazy verbal fight at the end. I think it got everyone's minds going and made us actually realize how much we need this criticism to keep going to be successful. i really liked everyone's pieces, they were all unique in their own way and styles. I am hoping to re export mine before its shown on thursday because I had some troubles doing so.
response to matt:
i agree with everything you said. no one is awesome at all. if you were then you shouldn't be at Umaine. I think you just need to take criticism with a grain of salt and show your professor and peers that you can and will do better then before.
I agree with everyone else, criticism is helpful, but atleast for me, input from members of the class help. I knew my piece wasn't as strong as it could be today but thats life, Im just going to do better on the final. However its hard to not get pissed off when your told twenty different things from class to class. I have never had a teacher say "did I ask you to ask a question?" give me a break I was asking a question that could have benefited everyone and could have clarified things for the final. Maybe make the projects not suck so much. Contrary to what some may think I enjoyed a lot of other peoples as well and think they did great. I also think being a prick can be a useful teaching technique. However there is a very fine line between it being used to get people to work harder and just being a prick and making people work to please the teacher rather than expiriment and use their imagintion. I do it too, everyone in the class works to please raph and what they think he wants. It doesnt work when raph wants something different every week. If we all focused on making a good project instead of doing what we think raph wants we will have much better , unique and meaningful projects. That is why im excited about the final in that we can do what we want. I just wished we could have a teacher that cause more disruptions than I ever could. I didnt know raising your hand was a disruption...but apparently calling that person out and making them feel stupid for raising their hand is perfectly prefessional and expected from professors. Wow I cant wait to be done school.
Whoa crazy fight today. There's definitely some differences in opinion on how the class should run. I felt that Raph's critiques were really helpful. Especially when he talked about my crappy piece that really needs some work. The plate shots advice was helpful and a logical process for sure.
Response to Jade and Matt: I like it when Raph rips my stuff apart because he grounds me so I don't get lazy. Like Matt said, unless you work at your stuff you will live in your mom's basement because you won't go anywhere. Raph keeps me in check.
Class today was rough, but in a good way. I think everyone had good projects, some were rough around the edges but Raph didn't seem to mind. I think what was important for this project was the conceptualization behind them is more than the technical prowess. Seeing as how this project is the "practice" project before the final, the process is most important. I think the critique would have gone smoother had people (myself included) not mess-up on dumb things and get Raph discouraged. When you think of it, seeing students mess-up on such trivial things even before the projects are shown makes you wonder if their projects missed the mark as well. Today was a wake-up call for a few people and in the end, everyone benefits...so really, I think that the occasional rough class keeps us in line. :)
d d d drama. entertaining though. frustration is apart of life and creating art, as well as school. If everyone was happy then we wouldnt know why happy was good.
SO today was pretty intense.. after the drama I think that we really got to the meat of some problems with the class, too. It's frustrating to take the criticism sometimes, but at the same time we need to know when we've made bad work, and we need responses as to how to make our work better. I think, personally, the problems start when we generalize "New Media Students" as being stupid and incapable. It's not necessary, and it doesn't accomplish anything at all. Sometimes we aren't sure of the certain word Raph is fishing for, and most of the time it isn't logical anyway, so there isn't any point in getting pissed off and calling us stupid. Whatever, it doesn't matter I suppose, but it is irritating.
um... i think that aside from the appearance of the drama llama in class today, i think it went ok. I understand how both raph and jon feel about the situation, or at least i can pretend i do. Honestly most of what they were doing i felt was some sort of witty banter between them, not a bubbling problem that needed to be sorted out. I definately think getting cooled down and maybe sorting out what went wrong is key, because granted we're on the final stretch, i'd hate to see another explosion like that before the end of the year.
Woah ... totally forgot about this after class. So if it doesn't count I understand.
I thought the class was very interesting. There really are a lot of different ways to run a critique and i have been in classes with other professors where they will just sit and wait for the students to say something for the majority of the class and then throw in their thoughts at the last minute. I know that i like it when my work get critiqued by the professor, i feel like it makes my work stronger. As far as those of you talking about the final, i am nervous about all the open endedness of it. I have been thinking a lot about what i want to do and am really hoping that the ah-ha moment comes soon, or else I'm in big trouble.
This wont count, but I think its better to get things out there anyways.
In general, Raphael is hard on us, and he is very particular about what he wants as far as work, as well as what he wants in terms of classroom behavior. I feel bad that Raph and John got into their argument today, but to be honest I feel it was needed. John deserves credit for standing up for himself, and the rest of us, whether or not he should have.
What I think was WRONG was John saying that we, as a class, were afraid of Raph. YES, we do have our nights cursing his name, but if anything it motivates us to work harder. It is easy to confuse fear for genuine respect, and I know I speak for several people in the class when I say that Raphael is one of, if not the most, respected professors in the department. His methods work. He doesn't give easy compliments, he doesn't tell you good job if you don't REALLY deserve it, and why is that a problem? If i did shitty work, I don't want to be told it was good.
Im curious how things will go today, it should be interesting. The best thing to do is try to get along, and not make things any more tense. We don't need the "daddy just hit mommy at the dinner table" vibe any more.
dude that was a good class
ReplyDeletetalk about a hostel learning environment
by the way why does all of our work suck
even the good ones and mine is not one of them are terrible
I mean if you were to pay someone to do the work that we bring in you would be stupid
I hope the final kicks ass cause we get to do whatever we want to
i know i will try to pull out all the stops and if anyone wants to work with me they are welcome too
Todays class was alright for the most part, and I thought the critique was ok. Sure things got a little out of hand towards the end, but thats new media, chair is chair, and max msp is the future of everything?
ReplyDeleteAlso I was disappointed in the lack of narwal and unicorn in todays pieces.
Critiques always make me twitchy. I guess the best thing to remember is that you're your own worst critic in most cases. Theres always a necessary push to be better, because if you think you're awesome, then you never improve on anything. I can see the frustration in taking a hit on a critique, but thats why we do it, and someone who tells you everything you do is great is a fucking liar, lets be honest here. You dont want to be making these kinds of errors in the real world unless your moms basement has a really comfy couch.
ReplyDeletetoday's class went well, even if there was a crazy verbal fight at the end. I think it got everyone's minds going and made us actually realize how much we need this criticism to keep going to be successful. i really liked everyone's pieces, they were all unique in their own way and styles. I am hoping to re export mine before its shown on thursday because I had some troubles doing so.
ReplyDeleteresponse to matt:
i agree with everything you said. no one is awesome at all. if you were then you shouldn't be at Umaine. I think you just need to take criticism with a grain of salt and show your professor and peers that you can and will do better then before.
I agree with everyone else, criticism is helpful, but atleast for me, input from members of the class help. I knew my piece wasn't as strong as it could be today but thats life, Im just going to do better on the final. However its hard to not get pissed off when your told twenty different things from class to class. I have never had a teacher say "did I ask you to ask a question?" give me a break I was asking a question that could have benefited everyone and could have clarified things for the final. Maybe make the projects not suck so much. Contrary to what some may think I enjoyed a lot of other peoples as well and think they did great. I also think being a prick can be a useful teaching technique. However there is a very fine line between it being used to get people to work harder and just being a prick and making people work to please the teacher rather than expiriment and use their imagintion. I do it too, everyone in the class works to please raph and what they think he wants. It doesnt work when raph wants something different every week. If we all focused on making a good project instead of doing what we think raph wants we will have much better , unique and meaningful projects. That is why im excited about the final in that we can do what we want. I just wished we could have a teacher that cause more disruptions than I ever could. I didnt know raising your hand was a disruption...but apparently calling that person out and making them feel stupid for raising their hand is perfectly prefessional and expected from professors. Wow I cant wait to be done school.
ReplyDeleteWhoa crazy fight today. There's definitely some differences in opinion on how the class should run. I felt that Raph's critiques were really helpful. Especially when he talked about my crappy piece that really needs some work. The plate shots advice was helpful and a logical process for sure.
ReplyDeleteResponse to Jade and Matt:
I like it when Raph rips my stuff apart because he grounds me so I don't get lazy. Like Matt said, unless you work at your stuff you will live in your mom's basement because you won't go anywhere. Raph keeps me in check.
Class today was rough, but in a good way. I think everyone had good projects, some were rough around the edges but Raph didn't seem to mind. I think what was important for this project was the conceptualization behind them is more than the technical prowess. Seeing as how this project is the "practice" project before the final, the process is most important. I think the critique would have gone smoother had people (myself included) not mess-up on dumb things and get Raph discouraged. When you think of it, seeing students mess-up on such trivial things even before the projects are shown makes you wonder if their projects missed the mark as well. Today was a wake-up call for a few people and in the end, everyone benefits...so really, I think that the occasional rough class keeps us in line. :)
ReplyDeleted d d drama. entertaining though. frustration is apart of life and creating art, as well as school. If everyone was happy then we wouldnt know why happy was good.
ReplyDeleteSO today was pretty intense.. after the drama I think that we really got to the meat of some problems with the class, too. It's frustrating to take the criticism sometimes, but at the same time we need to know when we've made bad work, and we need responses as to how to make our work better. I think, personally, the problems start when we generalize "New Media Students" as being stupid and incapable. It's not necessary, and it doesn't accomplish anything at all. Sometimes we aren't sure of the certain word Raph is fishing for, and most of the time it isn't logical anyway, so there isn't any point in getting pissed off and calling us stupid. Whatever, it doesn't matter I suppose, but it is irritating.
ReplyDeleteum... i think that aside from the appearance of the drama llama in class today, i think it went ok. I understand how both raph and jon feel about the situation, or at least i can pretend i do. Honestly most of what they were doing i felt was some sort of witty banter between them, not a bubbling problem that needed to be sorted out. I definately think getting cooled down and maybe sorting out what went wrong is key, because granted we're on the final stretch, i'd hate to see another explosion like that before the end of the year.
ReplyDeleteWoah ... totally forgot about this after class.
ReplyDeleteSo if it doesn't count I understand.
I thought the class was very interesting. There really are a lot of different ways to run a critique and i have been in classes with other professors where they will just sit and wait for the students to say something for the majority of the class and then throw in their thoughts at the last minute. I know that i like it when my work get critiqued by the professor, i feel like it makes my work stronger. As far as those of you talking about the final, i am nervous about all the open endedness of it. I have been thinking a lot about what i want to do and am really hoping that the ah-ha moment comes soon, or else I'm in big trouble.
This wont count, but I think its better to get things out there anyways.
ReplyDeleteIn general, Raphael is hard on us, and he is very particular about what he wants as far as work, as well as what he wants in terms of classroom behavior. I feel bad that Raph and John got into their argument today, but to be honest I feel it was needed. John deserves credit for standing up for himself, and the rest of us, whether or not he should have.
What I think was WRONG was John saying that we, as a class, were afraid of Raph. YES, we do have our nights cursing his name, but if anything it motivates us to work harder. It is easy to confuse fear for genuine respect, and I know I speak for several people in the class when I say that Raphael is one of, if not the most, respected professors in the department. His methods work. He doesn't give easy compliments, he doesn't tell you good job if you don't REALLY deserve it, and why is that a problem? If i did shitty work, I don't want to be told it was good.
Im curious how things will go today, it should be interesting. The best thing to do is try to get along, and not make things any more tense. We don't need the "daddy just hit mommy at the dinner table" vibe any more.