[] i want to concentrate on interactive and web based design. i haven't had the space (accountability?) to really stretch myself there yet.

[] i want to read more ---> become more cognizant of contemporary art[ifacts].

[] i want to become more and more comfortable talking about design in crit + class

[] to be really specific, i want to play with mm director/lingo

[] i hope that we can truly help CAM indentify and define their role in raleigh//nc//contemporary art, and set off something EXCITING.

[] i hope that we have a great time .. i am very excited to work with everyone in this studio :)

Goals for the semester? Well where do I start. Like many people it seems, when it comes to design I like everything, I am interested in everything, and I don't know where to go with all that. That is one of the things I would like to narrow and define this semester in studio. Through this liking all etc, I do know I'm interested in communication, language, linguistics, culture, education and Graphic Design's role with those. Another important thing for me to take care of this semester are all of those wonderful porfolio/website etc things.

I am very excited about studio this semester, the topic, the people, the space. It will be a great experience to work together in a educational/firm like atmosphere. yay team

Interaction is where it's at - via the web, but also between future CAM visitors and various exhibits. The fact that we are dealing with an undecided entity, a grassless field where we have to be gardeners, provides a really enticing semester plan.
I am ready to kneel on my little gardening pad, think about what to plant, how to plant it, where, how to fertilize, and WATCH IT GROW

It's my last semester - and thus one more chance of filing and buffing the portfolio, practicing productive collaboration and feeding off this grand group of studio peops.

Web-based interaction design continues to interest me, but even more the idea of creating a synergy between it and print/collateral/event planning. The whole pie.

Sorry I won't be with you guys this semester. I wish you guys the best and can't wait to see what you make. I do, however, have a goal for everyone:

BE WELL-VERSED ON CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS.

I know that sounds like a gimme, but trust me, it's been over-looked. It will help you talk about your work in context and get a sense of your peers and predecessors. You will learn where you fit in and where you'd like to be. Scour the internet or go to New York. You'll find your knowledge is a bit outdated if the only makers you can name came out of the College of Design or some text book. You could start by looking at work by Pierre Huyghe or Nan Goldin. Remember that Joshua Davis and Shepard Fairey aren't the only ones producing viable work.

And please, don't forget to take risks.

xox,
Jon Knox

yep, I'm graduating too...scary.

I am very excited about this studio's interactive sides...interactive as in the web...interactive as working within a team...interactive with a real client...interactions between disciplines...interactions of various graphic design forms.

My goals include developing my understanding of branding, my skills in flash, tie up loose ends before graduating and speaking up in class (eh hem).

Good to see education at the forefront of our thoughts and actions.
My goals for the semester and hopes for the class also hinge on this aspect.

While the idea of being an educator has always presented itself to me in some form or another, I had never dwelled on the idea of this as a career until recently. In a sense however, we are all, and all should strive to be educators. Our job is to take others by the hand and lead them to and through information. We are explorers who return from the path and become the tour guides. So I must take stock of my skills as well as my downfalls in order to best guide others.

> I sometimes have a problem with clarity within my work as well as in my speech. My goal is to be direct, earnest and sincere as possible in all aspects this semester. I have a tendency to be mysterious and elusive in the images I use and the words that I write. I have to learn to be honest and more direct.

> I believe I am a good observer, but this can always be improved upon. It's going to have to be in order to succeed in the upcoming projects. The people that we surround ourselves with present the perfect opportunity for us to test our work and ideas. The children I work with in afterschool at the YMCA are a golden opportunity for observation. The way in which they are learning how to shade with the pencil and blend with pastels is a wonderful area for my beginning education on how people, specifically children, interact with the arts. This also includes visiting more museums and more exhibitions. We are not going to understand what is best for CAM until we begin observing.

> This is the last semester I have to improve my leadership skills. This involves me being more interactive with those around me and stepping in when something needs to be stepped in. Our education is very dependent on others' education, so the more I can help out others, the more I will directly be helped. This needs to occur in critiques as well as those late Thursday nights.

> Business skills is an area I know I am lacking in. I would love to leave this semester with the ability to talk to anyone about my work as well as their's, and with the know-how to avoid being rude, condescening, or worse, under-confident.

> Software skills. Software skills. Software skills. More time learning the techniques. Action-scripting. Easing-in. Details. Tight. No loose ends. Working parts. Good lord DreamWeaver.

Good luck to all and know that I will more than likely always be in the back corner if you need me. I'll help if I'm able.

GOALS...how nice it is to have them.

My main one is a bit general, but very important. I want/need to make the best out of my last semester and reach the top of the degree mountain with energy and breath to spare and share. I also want to pull together the many pieces of my life and connect them through the CAM studio. My labors/studies in universal design, ergonomics, social behavior, arts education, freelance, working systems, print production, ID & GD are all finally valid. Doing this will help me further understanding my passion/career as well as my weaknesses.

Another goal is to play out scenarios and take CAM well into the 21st century as a successful space...shoot, predicting what an 'contemporary art center' will mean in 2008 is even a rush. Also, I'm ready to recognize the power of communication and community and stop designing for myself.

i'm ready team!

I'm finding that I am becoming more and more interested in the idea of designing experiences regardless of the medium. While I am interested in interaction via the internet (or interactions based solely within the computer), I am becoming mostly interested in exploring the design of experiences in "real" space. An example in our case, "interpretive tools" and thinking about how someone can interact with the museum (or MAYBE, how the museum can interact with US...) as opposed to aimleslly meandering through the museum, hands in pockets.

I'm also looking to gain some serious interactive/web experience on the technical side. I'm very interested (from an outsiders perspective at least) in learning whatever kind of programming I can. I'm fascinated with the idea of a set of defined variables creating something unique based on user input. (Lauren, maybe we can be Director/Lingo buddies?)

Also, this studio space is UNBELIEVABLE!!! And I'm really looking forward to working with everyone in a setting that is collaborative and with a "specific" focus.

I love you all 110%

we are so damn lucky. what a time, what a place to be in.

I'm interested in combining our best skills, all that good that comes with collaboration, sort of like Captain Planet (that's Tony I think) and his Planeteers ( that's us)....though I wish we had cool rings like they had. IN any case, We get to build something up from scratch. We get to remake and define boundaries, perhaps even bypassing old ones by creating an entirely new definition for a center of contemporary art. Can you fathom this?

man you guys rock. just reading the blog makes my heart pound. i just wanted to add that the scope of this project is growing by the minute. while my knowledge of the contemporary art world has not yet sprouted -
i don't know whether anyone would be up for it, but maybe we could get a saturday gallery/museum club together and soak it up as a bundle. you guys might already get this exposure via first friday.
in any case. another thing i look forward to this semester is the push one can get from a focused group of people that are on it.
and in it. all over it.

MAN! I love reading all of this! It's great to read everyone's goals and optimistic outlook on this upcoming semester! The air is full of positivity and 'I like it, I like it a lot!'

First off, you guys couldn't have said it better, our goals are similar yet we all have a different spin and that is just what we need in a team to succeed!

Ryan, I totally agree with you... X
P E R I E N C E
is key.
We have complete control over the experience we create. We will make things happen,
influence the community by the experience we put them in and through.
We are educating ourselves and educating the community,
and we have the power to get the community excited and motivated

I really love the way pk wrote this thought and I couln't have said it better: it relates to the experience we will create and goal that will be kept in the forefront of my mind throughout the semester.

"design is now an interface through which your client's perception filters. your identity is the button that is clicked, not to mention how your user reaches that button to begin with. you are no longer creating yahoo's logo, you're creating the purple gloss through which yahoo declares itself on any surface -- and you're finding different ways for different things to be yahoo-like without slapping a logo on them.",

JOn,
NIce suggestions about really understanding contemporary art. There really is so much out there, and I only know what I know from Art History class. Brit is in a Contemporary Art history class so that is really cool that she is taking that class in tangent and hopefully I can sit in on a few classes.

Alex,
good thoughts about leadership, speaking, and the aspects of learning business. These are very important to me as well. Just like Tony said, the thoughts in our brain are always hard to pull together and make sense of when we speak, but I want to push myself to speak when it may feel uncomfortable but also know what and how to say it so everything makes sense.

GOAL: Defining and assuming multiple perspectives through design applying /information/experience/interaction/image/motion/sound/type/language/fundamentals/exhibition/space/promotion/reasearch/etc/etc/simplicity/effectiveness/approachable/functional/meaning/purpose/history/attention/context/concept/detail/craft/exploration/to name a few..........

Well this is it, my last semester. Well as Tony said, it’s everyone’s last semester. I see that everyone’s goals for this semester are in the same general area. And I can relate to you all. But me as an individual, I would like to focus on learning more, exploring more, and experiencing more. I’m going to be a sponge that soaks very last drop of the interaction on the web, with our client, our design team and our potential audience/pupils. But I don’t just want to do these things for my portfolio, and myself but I want to do it for others as well. Here recently Ive been thinking about how powerful designers, in respect to how we influence the way a person perceives things around them. I thought about that “grandma” character that Ms. Peters brought up in Mondays discussion. Grandma, like many others, dismisses new and fresh ideas, thoughts and creations because there is a bit of miscommunication and lack of exposure. And as designers we should take charge and make a change in the way people perceive, experience, interact and appreciate art and design. And I think the CAM project is perfect for this design revolution I’ve alluded to. I’m excited! Lets do this!

good vibes everyone, good to sense the great moods.

carolin, a saturday museum day should definitely be in the bookings. art, natural science, history, all. we need to be good observers of the way people interact with what is already out there. if we understand how they interact with the present we will be better able to sense how they will interact with something new. i'm also learning how connected art and science are, something we may observe on this future trip. (this may involve taking some notes and drawing some pictures ... homework on saturday has begun)

and folks, use the design library. the breadth of that place is unbelievable. research past as well as present artists. understand where different art forms came from and why, and why it is changing again. to know the new fundamentals we have to understand the old. they could possibly be the same.

don't forget unc + duke will send you any book you want too .. we are incredibly lucky to have the depth of resource that we have!

i know i mentioned this place already last class, but the nasher at duke is a neat little brand new capsule of contemporary art. it's definitely more museum than center, but student rates + koons, picasso, warhol, joeph beuys, lorna simpson ... it's a nice group of work!

So the last few semesters were a bit of a shock, was that just me? Here you go, come up with your own concepts, do all your own writing, start talking before you have no idea what is going through your head...what happened to "yes, that readpath is clear" or "that image is a little blurry."

Oh man, but don't we love it. Even the analyzing things until they're just general statements all over again and don't mean anything. Then getting angry. And wondering where readpath comes back in when you don't want to ruin your absolutely awesome perfect concept.

Soooooo the goal for this semsester is to love the last two semesters and move on. Learn how to write and speak comfortably. Learn how to deal with concept, let it go for awhile and focus on craft, then come back to it. Have fun. Take it seriously, but don't give things more importance than they really need.

Learn from what everyone else is learning too!

I want to find a direction for the next ten years of my life. I want to figure out how to foster that direction. That's it.