The slacking has set in. Not really, but opening 5 shows in a month and working 2 other part time jobs has put things on the back burner. I'm glad Yu and Collin are in charge of the drafting and model making portion of this gig, cause I sure don't have the patience for it with everything else going on, though sometimes I'd like to get updates...

Less than a year away! Feels like it's never going to get done, but I'm also sure it will.

Conference means dinner at 10PM

So, being at USITT in Kansas City with so many responsibilities means delaying meals until late evening, which wouldn't be so bad if I didn't feel so much like crap.

I lost my voice today and all I wanted to be doing was telling people about our exhibit. I am keeping quiet for the rest of the night so that I have a chance of being able to talk at our open session tomorrow afternoon.

We finished curation today, which is one less thing to worry about. I love saying that. Something is FINISHED. I have to compile the file of final choices to send out sooner than later. It is striped like a candy cane, green for yes and red for no. Creative, aren't we?

Setting up the exhibit was an adventure. We didn't know what we were walking into, so we were flailing for a little bit when we started working. It finally got nailed out and looks a little better than bare white walls. The decision was to go with out alternative materials idea.

Trying to get the physical exhibit design nailed down is more difficult. It is trying to be made into more than what it is. Trying to layer "statements" on top of each other is not a good idea and it is sometimes difficult to tell really gung-ho people this. The fact of it is that our statement is going to develop over the course of the 10 days and attempting to force something earlier is only going to cause confusion and clutter. I think that I finally got that point across.

I feel like I've been the voice of reason and practicality throughout this project. Must be a downer to some, but I really feel I have to do it. The practical side of me won't let the insanity take off too far before putting it back into a tidy pile.

Almost a year in...feels like more.

FINALLY feels like we're getting somewhere!

Primary curation process complete. We have our choices set apart for KC and we know what we have to do with them. Now to get on to the formatting of those images.

The design of the exhibit has evolved (no pun intended?) into something that we all seem to agree on. We're going to work towards each having some sort of design complete by KC. I have a few ideas on how to accomplish this without having to build a model, which I am in no way, shape or form set up to do right now! It is downright scary to think about at the moment.

It's all feeling good, other than deadlines and directions. They're not followed. I know that I am not always picture perfect on my deadlines, but I try to get as close to possible.

Frustration lies beyond our little group; getting questions and monetary issues dealt with has been a royal pain. It is good to have one person taking care of these things, but when that person is a busy bee the situation is made more difficult. I feel like major tasks need to be spread out among the four members of the team better. Tom is taking on the majority of the larger tasks that deal with management, a place where I feel like I could serve the team better.

And I think I'm going to get on that, right now!

Everything's coming up roses

I'm really too tired to write, but I should.

I'm sick of not meeting deadlines. I'm more upset that other people don't meet deadlines.


The long distance co-designing thing is a bitch of a job. I can't seem to pull myself together enough to get anything out to show everyone and I can't pull my words together enough to comment on anything else. I'm putting my energy in where I can without having to think too much right now, which is on the organizing end of things.

My brain needs to have a printer port installed.

Revisions - later than expected

It's the week for revisions...and curating. I am utterly AMAZED at the number of submissions we received. I have spent hours going through everything and have only gotten to the G's!

I'm a little disheartened at how we all seem to lose sight of our goal for a little while, but when we start talking again it's beautiful. There's a flurry of actvity and we all want to accomplish things. There are new lists and we have another phone conference set up for Sunday. My goal is to convince everyone to have a phone call every other week until we get to KC to keep everyone focused.

We realize that our low budget is really limiting what we can do. Collin, Yu and I started the design as something grand and have recently come to the realization that we need to pare down and move forward. We're all excited at the challenge to create the environment for our participants and a clean slate to display work.

NOTE: wrote this in January. Figure I should put it up, even if unfinished.

I'm a designer and you want a what? Seriously?

My mind has been wandering towards the PQ exhibit design lately. I only say wander because of the three other shows that I'm in the midst of with people who think my devotion should be only to them. No, that's not always the case, but I do throw myself into things a little too wholely some of the time.

Tom e-mailed us for headshots this past Thursday. We needed them in two days. This sent Collin and I into a little fit of discussion and then off to create something. What would you expect to get as a headshot from a designer? Let your mind wander. Though we followed the rules, we didn't want to at the start.

I always find that step before putting pencil to paper to be the most difficult and that is where I am at the moment. My favorite part, the research is over, the mulling has happened. Now the next place to go is to put my work out there for my co-designers to look at and respond to.

I have images in my mind. Most of which are probably beyond our means, but if I never get them out, how will I know?

I went to the Guggenheim and spiraled my way upwards through Frank Lloyd Wright's life of design. The night before I gaped at Richard Avedon's eons of fashion photography. Now its time to create a space to display our work, our colleagues work. When you put it that way, there's a bit on our shoulders now, isn't there?

Clambake of LAST month (that would be May)

I should really have posted this sooner but, as things tend to, it got put off.

The invite to Clambake came up last minute, but it was a good thing. And since it was nothing but a simple train ride into the city for me, it wasn't an upset. Collin got to come into town as well, giving each of us a sounding board.

I believe that we stirred up some interest over the course of the two hours that we meandered, spoke to students and dropped cards on tables. We collected cards from people who we didn't get to speak to and I put them into a mailing list for future use.

There was one person who was "yea, I'm going! I'm excited!" The opposite end of the spectrum was the question of money: how do I, as a young professional, get to Prague? That is a difficult question. Once out of school, there are less options for grants and you kinda have to work it out on your own.

The point in recruiting this early is to give people the chance to raise that money. It's still two years out, being June 2009 at the moment, giving time to put pennies and dollars away. But in a day and age where we're all putting pennies away to feed ourselves, who's thinking about an international trip two years from now?