"CR02:" Powerful Stuff

The Fabulous Thuderbirds were the band who preformed todays title. Technically in the rock genre, it has a very strong southern country feel to it. Think of Lynard Skynard; while they don't necessarily sound the same, the genre is closer to that. Strong guitar part, decent vocals. I recommend checking it out. Moving on to the actual post, this is the second course reflection based off of the past four lectures.

Day 5) This lecture was dedicated the the designing process. It was focused on the different ways or methods used when deciding the process of design. Often, this process isn't simple. It requires plenty of research through analyzing the product in question, discussing the potential problems, creating multiple solutions to the various aspects, etc. And these solutions need to be combined, deciding which aspects to keep and/or combine. And then there needs to be a prototype created and tested. It was informative to break down and analyze this process, especially with the demonstration video where the team built a 'better' shopping cart. I hadn't given the process of design alot of thought before, but I imagined it was only linear. So it was suprising to me to learn the repetitive nature of the design process, how it branches out and captures various aspects which were not initially considered.

Day 6) On day six, I actually missed class. Most days I have to be up by six in order to be on compus by eight. Anyways, I forgot to turn on my alarm and I slept till about eleven thirty, thus didn't make it. The point is, the only insight gained was from reading the lecture notes online. This lecture seemed to really focus on the importance of creating designs which are universally accessible products and buildings. Specifcally, it looked at creating product designs which were able to be used by people who are imparied or disabled in some way. There are many forms these disabilities can take, but what I see as being incredably important to this area of design are the baby boomers. See, this term represents a very large amount of people in our society. And these people are rapidly approaching retiree states, which means they are becomming the commonly thought of elderly. At this point in their life, mundane activities become difficult, and special aid or assisstance is needed. But designs are made for younger, healthy individuals. And since the baby boomers are a very large percentage of the population, this should become a very profitable investament oppurtunity for future designers.

Day 7) This post will be a bit shorter, since it didn't have alot of critical thinking/learning involved. This day was spent on a scavenger hunt around the university. We visited the Wexner Center, the math and science library, Knowlton Hall's library, and finally, Thompson Library. It was a lighter, more fun day as far as classes go. I got to spend some time with my fellow group members and act goofy in a couple of photos. It was also nice to revisit the chairs disscussed in the first week; I don't get to see or sit in chairs like those very often.

Day 8) Ah, this lecture was focused heavily upon the green movement and how design can impact our enviornment positvely. This lecture was, as a side note, possibly my favorite so far as well. Mainly because the green movement, in a traditional sense, irrates me. See, the green movement leads people to believe that we, as a society, are horrible and doing nothing but harm to our planet. And they use the argument that they are only interested in saving the planet, and thus, our future generations. So anyone who opposes them are "bad" and absolutley does not care about the well being of our enviornment. Basically, the movement tries to place guilt on people who do not follow their beliefs and acts as if they only serve the greater good of humanity. But does it really? I don't think so. See, to 'go green', it requires a number of negatives. For example, if you go green and boycott industries and their products due to the pollution it generates, what happens? People lose jobs, prices on products go up, thus the poor can no longer afford to buy them which creates a further dividing line between classes and ultimately, unrest among citizens, and industry goes out of business. Does it help the enviornment? Yes. But does it do so at the expense of the people, whose future is the ultimate concern of the green movement? Yes. The problem is, so often, their goals and speech is a concealed lie. The trick is to find balance, because extremes in both directions ultimately hurt our race. Yet 'eco friendly' is simply the green movement, which ultimately places the enviornements concern ahead of people. Simply put, I feel it will be our technology and knowledge that secures a place for furture generations, not plants and animals. I don't condone needless destruction of the enviornment, but progress should not be obstructed because of it either.