Iterative + Films

Today's class felt like everyone was off.  It could have something to do with it being Monday, or maybe the weather.  Jimmy had to point out our lack of participation.  I don't blame him since he was the only answering his questions.  Too bad I'm not a coffee drinker otherwise I'd be up and about like him.

Class was interesting nonetheless.  Jimmy started off by allowing us to vote whether we wanted to talk first or watch the videos.  In Jimmyesque fashion, the vote didn't matter and he still went on and talked about "iterative."  I wasn't familiar with the term, but I knew it had something to do with repeating because I knew what "iterate" means.  We stayed on the topic for about an hour until Jimmy switched and put on a TED Talk on John Maeda (MIT student turn Graphic Designer).  His presentation was very interesting.  He focused on the topic of 'simplicity' and made a lot of funny references to his personal experiences.  He mentioned how humans love complexity (relationships) and enjoy the simple things in life.

We watched another short clip on Scott McCloud.  He's a comic enthusiast and cartoonist.  I like how he started off by talking about his personal life and connected a lot of different images to his presentation.  'Vision" was the word that seemed to be the theme.  His dad became blind after starring at a solar eclipse.  He had always wondered if it was because of the eclipse that made him blind or just old age.  He also talked about three different types of vision.  I can only remember two: vision that cannot be seen and vision that can be.  What it means depends on the person.  The slides and images used in his presentation were what made his speech so powerful.  I will probably watch it again because it was too much to take all at once.

Here's John Maeda's 'Simplicity' Presentation:



Here's Scott McCloud's: