Category: Coursework (Page 1 of 3)

Final Presentation

I’ve used Trello briefly for an assignment in my UX/UI Design so I thought I’d revisit it and learn about the app for this assignment. It took me a little time to understand it again this time around. I decided to create separate sections for each class along with my internship and list the work I needed to do under it. In Trello, there are many ways to organize and customize your board which makes it more enjoyable to use in my opinion. You can also invite others to your board as well which I can see being useful in the future.

My personal Trello board.

I started off writing everything I needed to do, then customized it, and finally added dates for perspective. I was getting a little stressed looking over everything I had to do but as I went on to customize it wasn’t so bad. Changed the background of my board to a happy little character from a movie I enjoy. I also added some fun gifs from other shows and people I enjoy from giphy which was simple to drag into my board. You can find these stickers and gifs under “Show Menu” on the upper right.

gifs in the “show menu” section.

I think these little characters around the board will brighten my board whenever I come back to it.

A conversation with my co workers on Microsoft Teams.

At my internship I’m required to work at the museum once a week, which is Monday in my case. On days when I’m not at work we use Microsoft teams to communicate, although we use it sometimes when I am at work too. Although I have not used the program before, I do see how it is super helpful – I can see why MCNY uses it throughout their programs. There’s a section to call, text, check files, and more. This way we are able to keep everything in one place and whenever there’s updates for the marketing and communications department I’ll be notified through the app.

I remember my interview was held on Microsoft teams as well. I can see understanding this program could be helpful to me in the future so I’m glad I’m using it more.

The National Holiday site.

I was assigned another two assignments I had just complete. One of them involved updating a press release sheet for November which would be “sent to the press”.  I had to update it with the events taking place in the month of November and create some titles for pieces the press could use. I was a little confused about it although it was pretty straight forward thankfully my supervisor helped me. I appreciate when I come in person she will talk to me directly about some work.

The other assignment was to prepare their social sheet for the month of November. I would look up holidays or other important days on websites like National Holiday or through the museum’s archive of important new york dates which they label “On This Day”. After I had found an event I wrote a short description to accompany the post. I would also find an image in the MCNY archive collection to post which would have to relate to the event in some way.

I had fun looking through the images in the museum’s archive. I found a lot of interesting stuff!

I’m the type of person that has trouble waking up early. I stay up extremely late to do work and have some alone time. However, these days I need to wake up early for my internship, which I have been doing thankfully, but it is pretty hard. I don’t usually drink coffee, I dislike it, but I’ve had to start recently to properly focus on my work!

I’m getting used to coffee and it’s working but I’m still staying up very late. I hope by the end of my internship I learn how to sleep properly, it’s not good for my health to wake up so early and sleep so late. I’ll have to be strict about it!

The exhibit Blue, held by the Nassau County Museum, documents and organizes the color blue in paintings throughout history along with their context. One piece I found very interesting was that of Han Qin, labeled “Ethereal Evolution 1” 82inch by 47inch. In this print, two dancers create a dynamic composition using chemicals and paper to create a cyanotype print. The print is meant to represent the artist’s experience as an immigrant feeling lost and unsure with clear indications of some human form but ultimately lost in the center of the print.

In another painting by Maxfield Parrish a variant form of cobalt was used so beautifully it became known as Parrish Blue. The painting labeled Ecstasy is an oil on panel created in the year 1929, which contains a young woman covered in warm sunlight. This light orange contrasts well with the deep blue in the sky and delicate blues in the clouds. The piece was likely meant to express calm feelings to the artist and viewer.

In Henri Matisse’s painting Blue Nude II created in 1952, a deep and vibrant blue is used to “paint” the subject. As Matisse’s health was not in great condition the artists would ask assistants to aid him in his work.  The assistants would pre-paint pieces of paper with blue gouache which he then cut to create compositions.

A young boy Flavio and his siblings.

In Gordon Park’s photo, or rather series of photos,  “Flavio, 1961”, the audience can see a young boy and his environment. These photos are pretty graphic and personal, showing intimate moments between the boy and his family. One photo, which initially caught my attention was of the boy, Flavio, noticeably malnourished. He’s very sick himself yet he cares for most of his family.

Although some may see this as unethical as Park is taking a photo of this sick boy to be placed in a magazine, I believe Park’s made sure to take these photos to show the terrible situations some live in and hopefully save this boy’s family and others. Park had also helped the boy receive medical attention as well as raise a good amount of money for him. In this instance, I feel the “ethical” moments in the process outweigh the “unethical”

Some of Michael Fuguso’s work.

This was a How To event in  Adobe MAX with instructor Micheal Fuguso.  I barely use illustrator and I’ve never used Aero so I thought it would be beneficial for me to attend the session. I’m really glad I got to watch it cause I learned a lot and got inspired! Fuguso was a great instructor as well very charming I almost felt as if I was talking to a friend.

In the session, Fuguso explained what would be reviewed and showed us some of his work. His work looks similar to a pop-up book achieved with layers and the program Aero. He used Illustrator to create the whole design, added extra effects in photoshop, and finally used Aero to create the ai paperbook effect. Surprisingly the ai section was very short and straightforward simply moving some things around.

Michael Fuguso’s work popping out on his Instagram.

In the end, whenever the Aero app sees an image of your illustration it will “pop-out”. I’m excited to try it out when I have time and see if it could be useful for future projects.

I happened to just finish my history class and looked through my agenda to figure out what I needed to do when I saw I had written “Climate change with doris sung 5:00pm to 6:00pm”. I had written it down weeks before as a possible networking event and completely forgot about it! Luckily, I made it in time and I was very happy cause it was an event I was very interested in.

Screenshot from the event showing the Smithsonian Learning Lab website homepage.

The event began with Tess, Alexa, and Tiffany introducing  “Smithsonian Learning Lab“, which is a resource educators may use to teach about climate change, sustainability, or any other subject they choose. They also brought up you can find case studies on certain topics which are located on the Cooper Hewitt learning lab profile page which I thought was great. What I was really happy to hear about is they have activities students can do such as creating a “green roof” which I was actually researching for a past project!

After this, Doris Sung was introduced and she showed us a short video of what she does and how her exciting new technology works. She then spoke in more detail explaining what type of materials she used such as “Thermobimetal” and why. “Thermobimetal” is basically two metals with different alloys that are laminated together. From what I understand, what makes the material change or curl is one of the metals is more susceptible to heat than the other.

To explain it in a more hands-on way Doris showed us simple replicas we could experiment with ourselves using paper, patterns, and other easy-to-find materials. All these instructions would be available on Cooper Hewitt’s Learning Lab profile page at a later date.

My question being answered during the event.

Towards the end of the event, we were able to ask Doris or the other speakers at the event questions and I was lucky enough to be picked! She answered my question and more with a detailed response I was very grateful.

As I was writing this post I looked up everyone that was a part of the event on LinkedIn and I was only able to message one of them but I followed the rest. I was happy to be able to message Tess and let her know I was thankful she picked my question to ask Doris Sung. I was also very impressed with her presentation skills, she spoke very confidently! Overall I was extremely happy to have attended and learned so much from Doris Sung and her associate Esther Ho. I’m thankful to the Cooper Hewitt team as well.

Urban Archive landing page.

I have only been working in the Museum for a few weeks but so far I have been tasked with researching and preparing stories to be uploaded to Urban Archive which is  “…a platform for Cities, Museums, Libraries, and Urban Explorers. [Which creates] technology that enhances collection engagement and digital storytelling.” It was pretty interesting to go through.

Just recently I was also tasked to demo a filter MCNY created for one of their exhibitions. I was a little uncomfortable at the thought of my face being on some kind of promotional video but I thought it’d be good to challenge myself and get out of my comfort zone. It seemed they really needed the help too.

Overall it’s been pretty tough working the internship, doing school work, and preparing for graduation. I hope I learn a lot more and gain opportunities for my future!