Meaning, Randy Pausch & Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

As promised in class, I've embedded the Randy Pausch lecture from Carnegie Mellon here on the course website.  Enjoy with a box of tissues, and consider what has meaning to you, and which dreams you're going to pursue.

~mrc

Week of 3/30- 4/1

For Tuesday, please come to class having read The Adventures of Johnny Bunko.  We will discuss the book, our agenda for the Improv Everywhere activity, plus have a media demo in the Earp Lab.

For Thursday, April Fool's Day, we will be performing our Improv Everywhere activity.  Stay tuned for details!

~mrc

Class Cancelled Tuesday, 3/23

Students,

I am dealing with an unexpected veterinary situation at present and will be unable to attend class this evening.  Please check back at this space later today for more information on the week's assignments.

Be sure to come to class Thursday having read the final chapter of A Whole New Mind, MEANING, plus the 3 page Afterword.

Also, please post a comment below this to check in for an attendance mark.

Best
~mrc

Class The Week of 3/9 & 3/11

Next week we're reading Chapters 7 & 8 in A Whole New Mind, "EMPATHY" and "PLAY."

Please take the empathic ability tests linked to below.  We'll do some of these in class Tuesday, but be sure to make a note of your scores for discussion and homework assignments:

1. SQ Test (Systematizing Quotient aka "male brain")
2. EQ Test (Empathizing Quotient) aka "female brain")

For Thursday's class, know your team (decided during Tuesday's class), and be ready to play!

~mrc

Class This Week 3/2 & 3/4

Students,

Trying to reproducing the work of a master is an art practice for students that's been around almost forever.  Much more recently is the idea to reproduce a Picasso drawing, and more recent still is the task before you now:

1. In your Pink sketchbook, reproduce (by drawing, not any other means) the image below.  It's a line drawing by artist Pablo Picasso of composer Igor Stravinsky.  The reason you're being asked to draw this upside down is explained well by Pink:

"[This is] so you know nothing about what you're drawing. The goal is to trick the left hemisphere and clear the way for the right. When the left doesn't know what the right is doing, the mind is free to see relationships and to integrate those relationships into a whole."

As you know from your reading, the aptitude of Symphony is all about seeing relationships and integrating them into a whole.  A great path to that end is Drawing, and it's especially appropriate that we use a portrait by a master artist of a master composer to get a better understanding of our own aptitude for Symphonic capacity.

We'll work on this in class on Tuesday, and you can take more time out of class if you need it.  For Thursday's class, we'll be working on self-portraits!

~mrc

Homework for Tuesday, 2/23

Students,

For Tuesday, please come to class having read AWNM Chapters 5 & 6, Story & Symphony.

Also, you may notice there are two "Design Assignments" posted at left under Course Documents Online.  Those are part of the "Pink Portfolio"you're putting together to hand in at semester's end, so you may wish to get started on those.

And keep at your Notebooks.  I've posted some more guides to help you.  There are few things more intimidating than the blank page, so break the seal and get start adding content!

~mrc

Homework for Tuesday, 2/16

Students,

Please read the handout from class, Design Thinking, from the Harvard Business Review by Tim Brown.  You can find an online version of it here.

Write up a one-page summary and your reaction to the big ideas contained in the article.  Be sure to adhere to the standard format for submitting written assignments for this class, located here.

Also, bring funds to purchase your sketchbooks, which have arrived and will be distributed Tuesday.

~mrc