week 5 blog assignment
The Citruss Press
Visibility of system status:
The citrus press has only one compartment that is the size of a lemon, has holes at the bottom of the compartment for some type of a liquid to run thru, and has handles that grip together. I think that by the look of it, it is easy to acknowledge its function.
Match between system and the real world
The citrus press only opens and closes, it only opens to less than 360 degrees so it can only close one way, where it would press the lemon
User control and freedom
The user can stop the process at any time once is close it can be reopen with no difficulty at all. Except when the lemon has already been press, then there is nothing the user can do to un-press the lemon.
Consistency and standards
The citrus press is very user friendly because it has two handlers that are use to grip and press the lemon, there is no confusion on where the lemon goes. It is very obvious for the most part; the compartment for the lemon is round and about the size of the lemon.
Error prevention
The citrus press will not open more than 360 degrees; this will not allow the user to make the mistake to use it backwards where the lemon it is not suppose to be.
Recognition rather than recall
The shape of the citrus press is very easy to understand; it has a compartment that is the same shape of the lemon and two handlers that are easy to grip.
Flexibility and efficiency of use
Although the citrus press is only made for lemons and limes it could be used for other task such as crushing garlic, walnuts, and other small food products.
Aesthetic and minimalist design
The citrus press is made in different colors, its design is very minimalist because it only has what is needed to function, and it has a smooth feel to it.
Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors
The citrus press will not let the user recognize if the lemon was install correctly in the lemon compartment causing an error such as the lemon not being cut in half prior to pressing and no juice will come out as a result or the lemon was put in the compartment upside down and it splashed its user all over the face. Once the lemon has been press wrong cannot recover from error.
Help and documentation
The citrus press does not come with any help documentation.
INTERNET AND WIRELESS MEDIA SCAVENGER HUNT
MAYRA SALAS: Brief history of social networking sites.
Individual computers became linked to each other creating a phenomenon that triggered social interaction, and later social networking which formed web based communities of people who communicate via email, instant messaging or blogging to converse about various topics.
http://www.digitaltrends.com/features/the-history-of-social-networking/
New Media and Your Background
One of the topics that intrigue me the most was the relationship of the new media and audience/user, well I think that the message that the new media gives to its audience, although it can be vice it is also a door to hear about complete different sides that we did not have access to before because we could only depend of what the gate keepers wanted us to know thru Television or radio stations. Now that anybody can blog their point of view from anywhere in the world we have a wider selection to the same story from different perspectives giving us the opportunity to independently seek truth.
Photography and cinema are a huge part of Architecture because thru these mass communication examples, viewers are able to see the change of design throughout history.
New media helps designers to stay up to date with what is going on in other countries; their improvements, styles, and aesthetics. Also to stay informed on the latest technology for new drafting products and just word of mouth of what it is best for the industry at the moment.
2012
The first mass media communication example in the movie 2012 is the movie 2012 itself. The movie is a Columbia Pictures production, produced by Harald Kloser, Mark Gordon, and Larry Franco. The movie will be played throughout the world reaching the masses of Europe, The Middle East, Africa, Asia, Latin America and North America. The news is another example of mass media communication. The trailer on the movie’s official website shows the event 2012 in the news in different parts of the world. Public speeches from the government and religious establishments were another mass communication example; the Pope, the president of the United States, and a Mayan leader were preaching to the masses about the event of the year 2012. I also saw a monk heating a huge bell with a trunk to advised people about the catastrophe they were about to encounter, and that would also be consider a mass communication example. I would consider the Mayan Calendar as a mass communication example too, because it was an instrument that was used by the Mayan civilization and later adopted by the Toltec and Aztecs that foretold a message about: the seasons of the year, constellations, and even the prophecy of the year 2012.
I am skeptical about the event foretold in the movie 2012 because of the previous experience with the year 2000. I am the type of person that will not believe anything unless is supported by a scientific explanation. During the time before the year 2000 I remember people were talking about the end of the world or the Y2K problem with computers which was the one that made sense to me and caused me to pull out of bank all my money from my savings account thinking I was going to lose it. According to the History Channel website, the year 2012 is supposed to be a time where two great things will happen: The earth has a precession at its north axis and the Sun and Earth are symmetrical and are at the center of the Milky Way. These incidents happen only once every 25,000 years. The last time this incident happened, the phenomenon melted the ice age. I think that anything is possible, the documentary I saw in the history channel indicated that the phenomenon of the year 2012 has been a prophecy from different sources in the world including the Mayan Calendar and Nostradamus but nothing has been proven yet, and at this point it could all be superstition therefore I don’t believe it.
The movie 2012 is just a movie about an event that has no reliable sources. It is a compilation of different prophecies which are not proven yet to be true.
Links:
http://www.whowillsurvive2012.com/
http://www.webexhibits.org/calendars/calendar-mayan.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMdVYmjJyn4
History Channel -2012 Extinction
- Title: Radial Pyramids and Radial-Associated Assemblages of the Central Maya Area
- Author(s): Marvin Cohodas
- Source: The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Vol. 39, No. 3 (Oct., 1980), pp. 208-223
- Publisher(s): Society of Architectural Historians
- Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/989567
week 2 blog assignment
Musi-Tecture: Seeking Useful Correlations between Music and Architecture
For my article reading assignment I found a very interesting Journal in which the authors use a concept call Musi-Tecture. In this journal the authors indicated the strength and direction of the relationship between Music and Architecture. The authors created a Musi-Techture educational package for students based on the assumption that it would make better designers by the use of familiar analogs. After testing the package on music students and architecture students they found that they were both more inspired and enthusiastic about their assignments, and they finished their projects at a faster speed. To me this was very inspirational because I understand the correlation between the two concepts. I have always been interested in design but music plays a big role in my life too. I draw, paint, and dance, when I listen to music I find myself more motivated while drawing or painting. I can see myself becoming a better designer using this method. When the authors showed the two category taxonomy for Musi-Tecture (page 40), every word described the influence and the process that a musician or designer goes thru. Rhythm, shape, structure, aggression, excitement, elegance, boredom and confidence are all part of a design. I am a graduate from the architectural graphics department who wants to pursue architecture as a career, I think that the method of Musi-Tecture should be incremented as part of every design program to help students become more creative and enthusiastic about their projects.
- Title: Musi-Tecture: Seeking Useful Correlations between Music and Architecture
- Author(s): Gregory Young, Jerry Bancroft, Mark Sanderson
- Source: Leonardo Music Journal, Vol. 3, (1993), pp. 39-43
- Publisher(s): The MIT Press
- Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1513268
Mass Communication/Media Creative Writing Assignment
Once upon a time there was a group of youth who came from different parts of the world that felt the same way about the issues of the world today. They did not speak the same language yet they all agreed that there was a message that needed to be communicated to the world. The group consisted of ten young dancers who knew that one way of communicating their message to the world without having language being an issue, would be to use dance and theater as a main tool. So they started to create dances that told a story about racism, poverty, equality between man and woman, violence, drug abuse, and AIDS. At first they performed in schools and the response was amazing, the audience was completely taken by the intensity of the performance. People related to the stories behind the dances and wanted to make a change in their life. Soon they became very popular and were asked to perform in jails and youth prisons. They found the same response in the prisons, not only the prisoners were touched by the message but even the guards were too. In one of those prisons there was a police man who said that he had not been able to cry for 20 years and after seen the performance he was so touched that he cried. After that they started to travel around the country, Germany and Puerto Rico to spread their message. The group was becoming extremely popular and soon they started to appear in the news paper. The papers would publish stories about this group and their message. One day they got a proposal from a TV station to appear in one of their channels and become extremely famous, this was something that could be great for the purpose of the group which was to spread their message to the masses. But they had to think about how this was going to affect the whole idea. The first thought that came to their mind was that they did not want to be famous because their purpose was not to be celebrities and feel as if they were above everybody else. The second thought was that the media was a powerful channel to conduct a message and it could either build it up or it could completely destroy it. They realized that their way of communicating their message was powerful enough because the spectators were more involve by been present then just flipping channels through TV. So they decided to stay as group of young dancers from all over the world that travel from place to place to spread their message to the world.
This story was based on an actual event…. I was part of that group.
Jacek Utko video
The Jacek Utko video was very interesting to me because it shows the importance that the design roll plays in any industry. Knowing that design has the power to change the way people respond to a product makes me feel very responsible for my future career as a designer. Jacek Utko proved that a product that is not longer an interest to consumers can be reinvented by improving the product completely using design. Using his artistic statements and his own interpretation of reality, he plastered his ideas and reinvented the newspaper in such a way that he won several awards. Not only did he win Best Designed Newspaper but he also was able to make the circulation of the paper grow. I am a very visual person I get easily bored reading plain text in a paper. I can see how he could gain somebody like me as a customer just by looking at such a bright refreshing idea of a newspaper. When he talked about Design being treated as one composition like music, it really made sense to me because that is how I feel when I create a new painting or drawing, it has to flow smoothly and it has to have rhythm. I was very inspired when he said that to be good is not enough it made me want to improve myself in every way in my life.
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