Just a filler…

What if motivation was…

What if motivation was me translating between others to improve their communication?

Option Shift Control is almost here, and in one of this weekend’s sessions we will be exploring the idea of motivation, and the role it plays in design planning, projects and execution.

I am cool. I am a graphic designer.

Most of my friends think my profession is cool. They don’t really see me as cool, they just think what I do is cool, but guys (and gals alike), let me use this opportunity to share with you a little secret: Photoshop is just a small part of what I do.

Don’t look at me that way. It is a sad truth that you have to accept: Photoshop is just one tool among many others that I use. Since we are in the topic, I will confess one thing: I would not be a graphic designer if it were not for this image editing software.

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Type as message, type as texture 2

Jaime Suárez and Joel Ramos keep working on the sculptural aspect of the Vieques Main Plaza Fountain designed by Jorge Rigau FAIA.
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• alberto rigau ] photography [

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• alberto rigau ] sketchbooks [

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• alberto rigau ] videos [

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IRL, RL, DL

] In Real Life ][ Real Life ][ Digital Life [

I keep exploring the landscape of digital vs real self. This is me in Second Life right now.  HAHAHA  

Seminar Paper, Draft 1

“Birth is when we get our identity.¹

“The human experience of identity has two elements:
a sense of belonging and a sense of being separate.²”

Our shadows played together as we walked, yet I am not able to tell you about it.

In 1976, two paleoanthropologists in a group led by anthropologist Mary Leakey, found, not far from the village of Laetoli in Tanzania, two pairs of fossils which today question the nature of those that existed before us. The discovery, as any of this nature, fuelled much debate. Some argue that the fossils, in fact footprints, were made by early hominids who resemble contemporary humans in stride and standing posture, while others, rooting their argument on the historical and artifactual record, challenge the idea that Laetoli marks were made by early iterations of us since there is no evidence of human culture or intelligence during that time period.

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TED Talks: Magical improv from 14 year-old pianist

Jennifer Lin has an unusual talent for improvisation. Speaking at TED, she compared her creative process to drawing a comic, and admitted that the state of “flow” — when she is able produce beautiful music instantly — cannot be forced.

Her virtuoso performances, particularly the improvisations, are profoundly moving, and — even via podcast — have been known to reduce listeners to tears. As one blogger recorded, “I was listening to a presentation by a 14-year old girl named Jennifer Lin who plays the piano like whoa … I wasn’t expecting it, and when she was a minute or two into the piece, I was literally crying in the crowded subway car.”

What does your future look like?, the object

What will the future be like? Where will we be? Who will we meet? Most importantly… How will we identify ourselves and to others?

The exploration into what the future may look like continues.
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TED Talk: How creativity is being strangled by the law

No expert has brought as much fresh thinking to the field of contemporary copyright law as has Lawrence Lessig. A Stanford professor and founder of the school’s Center for Internet and Society, this fiery believer foresaw the response a threatened content industry would have to digital technology — and he came to the aid of the citizenry.

TED Talk: Our Cell Phones, ourselves

Jan Chipcase can guess what’s inside your bag and knows all about the secret contents of your refrigerator. It isn’t a second sight or a carnival trick; he knows about the ways we think and act because he’s spent years studying our behavioral patterns. He’s traveled from country to country to learn everything he can about what makes us tick, from our relationship to our phones (hint: it’s deep, and it’s real) to where we stow our keys each night.

TED Talk: Why are we happy? Why aren’t we happy

Dan Gilbert believes that, in our ardent, lifelong pursuit of happiness, most of us have the wrong map. In the same way that optical illusions fool our eyes — and fool everyone’s eyes in the same way — Gilbert argues that our brains systematically misjudge what will make us happy. And these quirks in our cognition make humans very poor predictors of our own bliss.

][ words ][ terms ][ ideas ][ 9 ][

New terms and ideas that I am being exposed to in the book Practices of Looking by Marita Sturken and Lisa Cartwright.

] Globalization [

A term used to describe a set of conditions escalating since the postwar period. These conditions included increased rates of migration, the rise of multinational corporations, the development of global communications and transportation systems, and the decline of the sovereign-nation state, and the “shrinking” of the world through commerce and communication. While some theorists take the conditions of globalization as a given, others see them as ideological, in the sense that their direction and force are not inevitable but are shaped by vying economic, cultural, and political interests. The term “globalization” also works to extend the concept of the local, in that globalization’s advancement depends on the formation of new sorts of local communities not geographically bound.

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In pixel vision style

As part of a studio project, I carried out an exploration in the spirit of the PixelVision. Honoring the tradition of pixelvisionaries, I underwent a personal study of my way to-and-from design studio. I recorded these different videos using a point and shoot canon s70 digital camera, which since it was not really intended for video recording, it provides an “amateurish” feel and look.

In my first exploration, I recorded my way into the studio during the day.

In my second exploration, I recorded my way from home into the studio during the night

In my third exploration, I recorded my way from studio to my home during the night.

After all explorations were done, I made an exercise in which I overlayed all of them together in one film. I went into this with no intentions or expectations, so a few realizations came in with incredible surprise. I was able to note some parts of my mile-long-trip that slow me down and others that I thought were linear in nature but actually caused more variations in path.

In conclusion, if the winds send the Burger King scent into my route, I slow down and the trip takes me an extra 1 minute. Hills are not particularly the slower aspects of my trip and no matter what, there is a 7 minute difference between the faster walks and the slower ones.

Even though this did not developed into a final project, it is a beginning phase as I explore the videographic medium.

What does your future look like?: the first critique

As we explore and venture into the future, we meet to collaborate together and see what the future may hold for us.

Click image for high resolution.

The future really caught our attention.
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Planning the student symposium

November is here. We are approaching the end of the line with symposium, which only means that we are now approaching the interesting times.

Brainstorming sessions have begun.
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The studio is finally showing its colors

As Will Temple himself realized, the studio is finally getting colorful.

Light polygamy: Option, Shift, Control

[All of these images where drawn with light on a 30 second exposure photograph.]

Every designer wants to be in a band

As contemporary designers, whether it be graphic, fashion, or food, we usually rock it out in private. Of course, like any another creative, we secretely long to be a rock and roll star. All of us want to be part of a band…

Last night the Friday Night Shift Band rocked it out at the KAM building for its first practice round…

Kelly Ruehlman sets the tone.

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What does your future look like?

How will you relate to your digital self? Will your digital self dictate who you are?Click for HighRes

Click for HighRes

In class we are exploring way into what the future may look like. Of course, we are supposed to be exploring this with some relation to graphic design, but as I see it, many of the explorations reflect the hopes, frustrations or anxieties of their own creators. (and this generation)
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Light polygamy, Leaving a mark

It’s that time of year. We are half way through the semester and I’ve decided to refocus all of my research.

What drives in human beings the need to be remembered? Why is it sometimes crucial to leave a mark behind? Why do people want to communicate that they were here or there? We can see this along history… from cave drawings, to the Pyramids of Giza, to royal paintings, to photographic portraits, to bathroom stalls, to contemporary social networks as facebook and myspace. Other people want me to know something about them, and they want to be sure that I remember it for a long time.
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