If I was to label this, it would kind of contradict my entry.

I’m really afraid of this Blog thing. For years I’ve sat on theories and ideas and been too afraid to repeat them to any living being. They aren’t ready yet. How could they be? I haven’t learnt enough. I am nobody to pass judgement on any thing, not even myself. Humans aren’t man made. You can't say that they serve but one purpose.

You can maybe label certain behaviours of a human, but even then its incredibly icky. You can say a man is happy. But there are a million different variances and levels of just how happy that man is or can be. And how exactly do you measure happy. We know nothing about ourselves really do we? I mean, we think happy is a wonderful feeling we get. But hasn’t research shown that it’s actually a chemical in our brains being released. So we have labelled this chemical before we even knew it existed. How many other things have we labelled before we really actually understood them.

What I’m trying to get at is that the English language is shit. Basically we have all these words that can mean any number of different things. And on top of that we are far too quick to name something, be it a feeling or object or person. It’s impossible to name someone. We do not, nor possibly ever will have the tools to actually measure all that is in a person.

You cannot be a nomad.
You can behave like a nomad. NO. Shit. I just fucked it all up. To say that you can behave like one is to acknowledge that “a nomad” actually exists. But it doesn’t. Nomadic behaviours exist. But you cannot put a ribbon around a nomad.

I hope this is making sense. It’s taking me an hour to write. How do you explain to somebody that something that has existed since the beginning of our time, something that we have evolved from, something that we are still very highly connected to, doesn’t actually exist.

We’ve just accepted this word. Somewhere along the great timeline of history, somebody fucked up. They made a MASSIVE mother fuckin generalisation, and people just accepted it.

This is getting hell philosophical. I’m beginning to worry I’m completely miss the point. Is this course going to be like some ancient proverb, where the answer in the end is that there is no answer? Or is this going to be a massively shit anti climax, whereby in week 10 we are given a handout that describes exactly what a nomad is, including a photo, measurements and materials used to construct.

There’s a fuck load to be learnt here people. Keep your minds open. When we make a mistake lets all learn from it. People are having troubles working in groups of 5. My advice is to just be patient, understand that not everybody thinks, ponders, realises, computes, configures, and clicks the same way. Guess what, welcome to design. This isn’t graphics101. This group thing isn’t just ment to happen. Nobody is used to it. We couldn’t possibly be.

Mistakes are awesome. The annoying part is not knowing how long they will take to be corrected. Rectified. The best part is that you learn something the instant they are made.

I've decided I might say something

Nomad

I’ve held off having an too much of an opinion. Or at-least, say something that isn’t so non-committal.
So a nomad…hmmm…doesn’t exist. It’s just an idea yeah? Like. A nomad from Mongolia is different to a nomad from the Australian outback. So you cant really say “this guy, he’s a nomad” and expect people to have a clear image in their heads of what this guy looks like. So this means there’s a series of categories under the title nomad. So you can say “this guy, he’s an aboriginal nomad” that way people have a clearer understanding of whom you are referring to.

But.

I don’t believe that’s what we are here to discuss. The fact that a Mongolian nomad and an aboriginal nomad can be spoken about in the same discussion means that there is such a thing as a pure straight nomad. But not a physical thing. Just an idea. A feeling. So maybe its important to look at what it is that makes somebody become a nomad. I mean the actual feeling inside of us. I’m not talking about the ones born into a nomadic tribe, and just grow up living that life so its in their daily routine since the moment they breath for themselves. No. I’m talking about the fact that anyone of us could decide today that they are going to live the rest of their lives as a nomad. Wether that be an Aboriginal, Mongolian, city homeless nomad is…irrelevant. There are too many differences, variances. Lets look at the psychology of it all. What would it take for you to just stop living this life and start moving around? CORRECTION! What makes you, everyday, get up and go to uni or work?
Because as we discussed in class recently, why couldn’t we call our day-to-day travels “nomadic”.

So. Survival is a massive one. Work, money, food, consumption of nutrients.
Another big contender is conformity. Everybody else is working. I should have a job. Fit into society. Why? Because society is what you were born into. Society doesn’t like people acting differently. A little bit different is sometimes ok. But basically if you don’t belong to a category, then you have nobody to accept you. Then society, on all levels, from the scum to the rich and famous will reject you. This is what is takes to survive in society.
But as if any of this needs to be said.

So there’s like city homeless nomads, hunter nomads, this is where the brainstorm thing comes in handy. And probably what Simon was trying to get us to see. But I’m pretty sure we did it wrong. Or possibly did it right, but missed a lot of what it had to offer. Like what it really had to offer. Sorry that’s probably a pretty big assumption to make. I did it wrong. Or possibly I missed a lot of what it had to offer.

SOOOOO back to the point I was trying to make before.
What’s that feeling you get just before you decide to move? What draws us? What provokes us?
Is it the state of mind that links all these people acting in a nomadic fashion?

I think what’s getting to me is that the: who, what, why, when and how of a ‘nomad’ don’t match up. Like I said earlier, there seems to be too many variances. Well maybe to say that "they just don’t match up" is again a pretty big statement. Lets say: they are difficult to match up. I’ve never thought of these questions let alone the answers before. It's all very much for my small brain.

How much do you have to study an object...a thing, before you are in an honest position to make an opinion? To label something. Don’t ‘they’ say that labelling someone can actually alter their behaviour so that they do in-fact act like the label. How much responsibility must we take for the things that we say. How much are people listening. How many people are reading this blog.

I’ve spoken too much. See this is what I mean by non-committal. All I’ve done is asked questions. All I’ve done is ask questions? Yes.

Oh heres a crazy thought.

Design creates itself.

We evolve. We need differently designed environments. Design evolves with us. Design evolves us. Design is an evolution, feeds of evolution and provokes evolution. Design creates itself.

My second Blog.
Class three.
Totally forgot my last Blog. And now I cant remember the class. It was probably good though. Because I turned up to the third class. Ha! So I hate chairs. I hate designing them. Correction – re-designing them. The chair is done. Leave it alone. Spend some of your brilliant design energy on something that really matters. Like…walking sticks. Now there’s an object that could use a little attention. Boy do I like walking sticks. I have dream that one day ill actually be able to carry a walking stick of my own design around town. Yeah. That’d be awesome.

The photo thing is hard. If I don’t feel bad enough taking photos and having random people look at me in disgust, it’s the fact that I’m forgetting to take them. I don’t think that sentence made sense. And on top of that, wasn’t there something on the news recently where they are making photo taking illegal in certain tourists spots or something ridiculous. Because of terrorists. I don’t know.

I’m really enjoying this class though. Like, I get it. I’m just a bit lazy at this current time.
It was interesting to hear that students from previous years neglected the other subjects in favour of studio. Very interesting. Because for me personally I have been treating most subjects of equal value. Now that’s either because I'm an idiot, or perhaps the course has changed. And the lecturer’s attitudes are different. Or, quite possibly, I’m a genius and can see that there’s something wonderful and useful to be learnt in every single class.
But most likely I’m just an idiot.

Day one.class one.

The first question thrown at us today was “What kind of a designer do you see yourself as?”
So you basically sit there thinking either “I’m going to design things that people will want to buy. I’m an awesome designer. A breath of fresh air” or “I’m going to be mature and cool about this and admit that I don’t actually see myself as a designer just yet” and then I guess there’s somewhere in the middle where you’re a repeating student from last year and have recently come back from a… soul searching kind of ‘holiday’, and you understand that your original ideas and views on the whole “what it really means to be a designer” were selfish. But you’re trying to change. Trying really hard in fact, to rectify the situation. Gain some humble modesty and learn the importance of humility.

So I’m in there somewhere. I still consider myself a selfish designer. I still really, really want to design things that I want to play with. But just how important are those designs. Would they not just be a waste of people’s time. Wouldn’t my skills be better spent on objects that are going to save your life, rather than making a mobile phone fit better in the palm of your hand.

I think at the moment I'm actually more of an overwhelmed designer. It hit me hard, during my time off, that a designer carries, should carry, a lot of responsibility. It’s in my opinion, thus far, that we are in the evolution business. We are shaping the future. The curious mammal known as the human is greatly influenced by his or her surroundings. If it is up to us to create this environment, it should be a helpful and educational/ at least thought provoking world. We have to play parent. I’m overwhelmed and scared of what I’m going to do to the world. And that sounds incredibly arrogant, but I’m positive that in some small way, I will leave my mark the world. What more could any mortal hope for.

I’d like to hope I’m heading somewhere with this. At the moment I have many theories running rampant in my head, many contradicting, but mostly just making me sound like an ass if I dare speak them. But it doesn’t bother me too much. One-day ill have something really important to say. And hopefully that will be my greatest design.
My mark on the world.