.Fly Love.

Gershenfeld is the director of MIT's center for bits and atoms. He also teaches a class at MIT called "How to make (almost) anything". The title just seems interesting. In Fab, Gershenfeld talked about technology and how he worked with fabrication. I like how he makes things seem so possible when it comes to dealing with the physical form and the logical function. He also talked about space and time and how that can be used to create physical forms in a microsecond. I thought the fab labs were interesting because it allowed other users who don't go to MIT to experience the fabrication themselves. What disappointed me was that they didn't seem to find funding for it. He emphasized on so many "things" and computers that has a lot to do with the world around us.

Khan's writings went in a different direction then Gershenfeld. Khan was almost poetic and dramatic in his writings.I have to say I got lost a few times. However, I did pick up that he talked about light and silence. He also talked about nature and man. "What nature makes it makes without man, and what man makes nature cannot make without him". I thought that quote was interesting...I read that line about five times. Im still trying to figure it out. He talked about the meaning of light and how one can observe light for it may only strike for a rare moment in time. One that really interested me was this: "shadow is not the absence of light but the result of its interplay with material". Now I think he said the silence is a absence of noise. However, how can you say that shadow or darkness is not the absence of light and say that silence is the absence of noise? I think silence is also rare. Nowadays you can't go anywhere without hearing some kind of noise. So when you do hear or dont hear that silence, it "may only strike for a rare moment in time".

I think they both had really great views. It seemed the Gershefeld's reading was more on his experience and Khan was a little experience and little of his thoughts and perspective. Khan seems to be more interested in the philosophical sense and Gershenfeld is more into the physical and technological form of things.

::Scribbled by Carol Lee at 7:28 AM:: | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

According to Neil Postman, Technopoly is society’s belief that the goal of human thought and labor is efficiency.

Technology may be a phenomenon and a “friend�, yet it can also be an “enemy� that intrudes and changes everything in a culture.

Postman divided cultural society into three categories:
1) Tool users
2) Technocracies
3) Technopolies

Tool users are us, the humans. Technocracies is society's goal in development of technology and the tools play an essential role. Technopolies is what the world depends itself on. Society likes to make things easier for themselves using technology.

Technological change is neither additive or subtractive. It is Ecological. Every culture in today’s world deals with technology either through communication, transportation, education, medicine, production, and much more. He also describes that the manage of information such as opinion polls, SAT, and IQ tests are managed through technology and that “we believe our IQ score is our intelligence and the result of the opinion poll is our beliefs. Its as if our beliefs can be summarize in sentences such as ‘I approve’ and ‘I disapprove’�.

As Postman said, "we look for technical solutions to human problems. But, it is a Faustian bargain we cannot afford to make".

Lavines thoughts were that, as our technology and tools become more difficult, so does our craft. He also discussed of how buildings resist gravity to give the world structure and that when observing a building, its like observing the human evolution. When admiring a building, imagine it turned inside out. The process of that is like the process of how humans evolved. Another thing he talked about that really interested me was how different people with different perspective on things, observe things. For example, if a interior designer were to look at a building they would admire the detail of the furniture, the walls, the use of space, and the design of lighting. However, If a engineer were to look at the same building, it would look for how the building is being held up, how the ceiling is made and what types of material is being used to keep it together. That was interesting because now that I observe buildings and what not, i pay attention to how I my self observe it.

Throughout the course of history, technology seems to be evolving and changing our society's culture. However, does it change what we think we mean by "knowing" and "truth"? Because as technolgy changes, wouldn't the "knowing" before it change as well? I believe that it can, and when it does, that would mean changing our culture to better fit more advanced technology.

::Scribbled by Carol Lee at 12:29 PM:: | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

When talking about design and math I think about the concept of pattern making in fashion design. When creating a certain pattern, you have to think about the measurements as well as the fit. That takes some math skills to figure out. On every pattern that you buy, they all have 2-5 lines on the outside for you to cut out. Those are for your measurements. The measurements on these patterns are not the same numbers that you measured yourself with. Instead you would have to take that number and put your math skills to use to figure out what your size is.

This also applies to when you want to alter your clothes or your patterns. When you buy a top or bottom at a mall, it will never fit you perfectly. No garment will ever fit a person perfectly if you bought it at a store. It will always needs some kind of altering, however people don't bother because its usually unnoticeable. To alter your clothes, that would require measurements <- math. Designing in all areas require some type of math to finish the piece perfectly. Just as math is required for clothing design to make sure it fit’s a person the way its supposed to.

::Scribbled by Carol Lee at 4:00 AM:: | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I am pretty sure what I am going to write about is an opposition. So if I'm wrong, please correct me..=]. Well my roommate and I decided not to clean our dorm room for a couple of days because we've been just really busy. Now that its completely messy...we believe it is the time, where we got our butts up and do something about it...just a little bit. This opposition seems a little easy, however, we ARE girls, and we have WAY too much stuff and WAY too little space to put everything. Now that I know my problem, I can try to eliminate the opposition so I can have a stimulus response.

One way to eliminate my opposition is by cleaning up the room. How will I go about that? Well I can have my roommate help me by taking out the trash and organizing our stuff a little more. For step two, I believe I have to let the opposition sculpt the form. So once the problem has been eliminated, we would have to make sure that we put things back to where they belong, and keep trash in the trash can and not on the floor. Step three, we would have to have an adequate response. Therefore, we would have to make sure we keep up with a routine of being clean and organized for a good response to our problem solving. On step four, we would have to check almost every week and make sure that we haven’t failed to keep our room clean. Step five is to embrace it. We could even add more stuff to our room so our room could look more inviting, or we could have people over so they can observe our room and decide whether or not they feel comfortable or not. Step six is probabilistic responses. By having people over we can hear their responses to our clean room. Last and final step number seven: redundancies as the response. It would have to be fail safe, or we have to have a backup. I say that as long as we have furniture and a door with a lock, we’re good.

::Scribbled by Carol Lee at 11:55 PM:: | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

When I think of Phenomena, I think about great things happening that can be understood by our senses. One thing that comes to mind when I think of phenomena is Night and Day. It really is phenomenon. The thing of Night and Day is the change from night to day. How the sun comes out and it makes it day, then when the sun goes down, it reflects off the moon making it night.

The Frameworks is everything surrounding it. Such as the planets, the stars, the earth, the people on the earth, the things people do during the day and during the night. The clockwork is obviously the time frame from night to day. You can also relate our lives to night and day. We get up during the morning and sleep at night. Plants get planted in the morning and grow as time passes with each day and night. It repeats every time and the repetition of time of day and night never really changes.

::Scribbled by Carol Lee at 12:28 AM:: | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

One of many places i find meaningful is Centennial Lake Park. Its a beautiful place with trees, a lake and river, benches, lights and even a waterfall. During the day the park has a mini golf course, paddle boats, and a . Sometimes they even have classical music playing around the park. I find this place meaningful because anytime I just need to get away or be somewhere peaceful, this is where I want to be. I try to go there at least once a month.

Here, the landscaping is fabulous. It has many different types of plants, trees, and flowers. The park even has rocking benches so you can just sit there and rock. My favorite part about this park is the lake. Its incredibly big and the lighting reflecting off of it makes even more worth-while. The park is seriously huge because just a couple months ago, I found out there was another part of the park that I’ve never seen before. =P Centennial Lake Park is where you want to be. If anyone would like to check it out, its in Edina by France Ave.

::Scribbled by Carol Lee at 8:29 AM:: | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

In this world today, there are many different social design issues. What stood out the most for me was the increasing number of work forces in a low-income area. According to statistics, major businesses and companies are mainly around downtown areas and suburban areas. All the high paying jobs are where the high-income families live. They place major businesses and companies there because that’s where they know, they will make the most profit. I do not believe they should specifically place major work forces in certain areas.

One way to solve this problem is by adding more major businesses in low-income neighborhoods for people who come from a low-income family, to have a chance to work in that type of environment. Since some low-income families cannot provide transportation for themselves, having a workforce close to home would be very helpful. Not only do they get to travel a short distance to work, but it would also allow them to save money on transportation.

Another way to go about this is to add more affordable housing near major companies. If low-income families can afford to live in a nice neighborhood, they could also find a nice job close to home. That would allow them to pay for their mortgage or rent and still be in a respectful environment.

::Scribbled by Carol Lee at 11:56 AM:: | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The Midtown Market on Lake St. was full of energy. Energy was coming from the people, cars, lights, and the landscaping. Around this area, energy seems to be created by people interacting with one another. Socializing, walking, running, and even driving seems to create and exchange some type of energy in the environment.

There were people of different diversities all around the market. The exchange of energy appeared to be all over the environment, especially inside where people were interacting with their surroundings. The use of the energy is really remarkable. Lights, cars, and machinery were being used all around. The Midtown Market had recently built uniquely designed blue and yellow bars to attract more people and more energy around the place.

The one thing I thought was out of place were part of the buildings and the new design. It seemed it was trying a little too hard. The market place looked pretty old and when a more, modern type of design with bright bold colors add into the mix it seemed out of place to me. However, that did not keep people from shopping here because there were people everywhere we turned. I believe that this environment is very unique and has its own personal design.

::Scribbled by Carol Lee at 7:48 PM:: | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)