During the fall of 2010, members of a unique interdisciplinary course in the University of Central Arkansas Honors College will record in this blog their journey into the world of handmade and handmaking. Each week, three or four (or sometimes more) of the students in the class will post here about their experiences, ideas, successes, frustrations, works in progress, and finished objects. We invite readers to follow along with the class discussions and private musings of the students, instructor and teaching assistant as reflected in the individual posts and their comments. And we hope you will participate by leaving comments and spreading the word about this collaborative roadmap to self-discovery that we hope to construct here, week by week.
We began in class with this commercial. How do the things we make, make us? I suspect that over the course of the semester, a set of consensus answers will emerge as the students meditate on their making and on the ways in which they are being made thereby.
When I travel abroad, I'm often embarrassed to tell people I'm an American. This commercial would be one reason why. It is beyond arrogant.
ReplyDeleteBut its potential as a discussion starter is beyond wonderful! I wish I was there with you all in person to talk about it! :)
ReplyDeleteYay, the first blog post!
ReplyDeleteThis video reminded me the joy of making something. I often lost the motivation to knit for the past few months because I was not sure why I was knitting. It seemed like I was always trying to amaze somebody for what I make, which was often mentally tiring.
After I watched this video, I remembered my purpose of knitting was to feel proud and happy, not making something perfect-looking to amaze people. I was knitting to create more proud, more happy me. Now I feel a lot more motivated to knit, and I can pick difficult projects because I know that working on it would make myself proud.
Tamami, I've been thinking about this lately in terms of purpose - am I after an end result, the process of creating, or both? My attitude about what I'm making always seems to change based on who the object is for.
ReplyDeleteI think the purpose of knitting is the process since that's the whole point of making something that you can get at store. However I also think that the process can be fun only when you like what you are about to make and you want it to come out good. So I guess it's both. It does change depends on the purpose too same as you. When I'm making something for somebody as a gift, I care about the result more than the process, but when I am making something for myself then I value the process to be more fun (which is to me, to challenge on a new technique regardless of the project coming out not so good).
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