Assignment: Introduction to Design Processes and Practices

Objectives:

1. Heighten your analytical watching and listening skills with special emphasis on observing visual details;
2. Use the sensorial language of design to describe the strengths and weaknesses of a cinematic work;
3. Improve writing and editing skills by focusing on clarity, conciseness, and the proper use of grammar within a limited format.

Assignment Part 1:

Log onto drm.osu.edu with your OSU credentials and view one of the following films. When viewing, consider how the way the story is structured impacts your ability to understand it and how it shapes your level of interest in it. Also, pay attention to the ways that that visual and auditory qualities of the film work to shape the presentation of its message. The films are:

1. Manufactured Landscapes

Summary: Manufactured Landscapes is a feature length documentary on the world and work of renowned artist Edward Burtynsky. Burtynsky makes large-scale photographs of 'manufactured landscapes' - quarries, recycling yards, factories, mines, dams. He photographs civilization's materials and debris, but in a way people describe as "stunning" or "beautiful," and so raises all kinds of questions about ethics and aesthetics without trying to easily answer them (http://www.edwardburtynsky.com/site_contents/Films/Manufactured_Landscapes_Fil m.html).

2. Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision

Summary: The Vietnam War Memorial was one of the most controversial monuments of its time. Thrust in to the eye of the storm was architect-sculptor Maya Lin, whose design for the memorial was chosen when she was a 21-year-old college student. Withstanding bitter attacks, she held her ground with clarity and grace (http://www.pbs.org/pov/mayalin/).

3. Eames: The Architect and the Painter

Summary: The husband-and-wife team of Charles and Ray Eames are widely regarded as America's most important designers. Perhaps best remembered for their mid-century plywood and fiberglass furniture, the Eames Office also created a mind-bending variety of other products, from splints for wounded military during World War II, to photography, interiors, multi-media exhibits, graphics, games, films and toys. But their personal lives and influence on significant events in American life - from the development of modernism, to the rise of the computer age - has been less widely understood. Narrated by James Franco, Eames: The Architect and the Painter is the first film since their death dedicated to these creative geniuses and their work (http://firstrunfeatures.com/eames_synopsis.html).

4. Kitchen Stories

Summary: A Swedish researcher strikes up an unlikely friendship with a cranky Norwegian farmer in this "quirky, thoughtful and bittersweet" (Boxoffice) comedy that captured audiences hearts around the world. Both "warm" (Newsday) and witty, Kitchen Stories is "a deadpan, thoroughly delightful comedy that cooks up tasty laughs" (New York Post)! It's the 1950s, and a Swedish efficiency expert under strict orders not to interact with his subject is sent to improve a Norwegian farmer's culinary efforts. But the sly old farmer much prefers to amuse himself by impeding the timid researcher's work! Soon, in the struggle between neutral observation and the need for human interaction, the kitchen becomes a battleground (https://www.amazon.com/Kitchen- Stories-Tomas-Norström/dp/B00065GVIY)!

5. Objectified

Summary: Objectified is a feature-length documentary about our complex relationship with manufactured objects and, by extension, the people who design them. It's a look at the creativity at work behind everything from toothbrushes to tech gadgets. It's about the designers who re-examine, re-evaluate and re-invent our manufactured environment on a daily basis. It's about personal expression, identity, consumerism, and sustainability. Through vérité footage and in-depth conversations, the film documents the creative processes of some of the world's most influential product designers, and looks at how the things they make impact our lives. What can we learn about who we are, and who we want to be, from the objects with which we surround ourselves (http://www.hustwit.com/category/objectified/)?
This film is available to stream here: http://documentaryheaven.com/objectified/

Assignment, Part 2:

Write a 500-word double-spaced review of the film. In this review, highlight a minimum of four terms from the elements and principles of design in our course lecture. Use these terms to describe either the design work within the film or the narrative of the film itself. In using these terms, you will provide your reader with a way of understanding the design work/film beyond a surface emotional response. Make sure you proofread your essay several times before you submit it. Additionally, make sure any outside sources are properly sourced.