iChef Journal [10.21.2001 Sunday] I was able to talk to Jenny Kang last night. Man, it was good to catch up with her. I haven't talked to her since graduation, and that was almost 4 months ago. It was good to catch up and talk about how things were going after graduation. I think she's one person I can relate to pretty well because we were the same major at UCSD and we took a bunch of classes together: all of those late nights in the lab and all the stressing we went through with all the projects. It's crazy though, She's going on another path: career wise. She's decided to get into nursing and scrap the plans to be an art director for a magazine. Crazy stuff. Well, not too crazy because we'd always talk about what we were gonna do after we graduated and I think she had a particularly tough time figuring it out. You see, ICAM (Interdisciplinary Computing and the Arts) is the closest major you can get to graphic design, animation, or computer art at UCSD. I think a lot of students are hopeful when they decide to do it, and they get really dissapointed because they want more technical instruction: How to draw, how to design, how to make sweet web pages. UCSD doesn't really offer that. UCSD's a school for Science, Research, and Engineering, not the arts. I guess that comment is a little rash, but it's really true. The investment of support for the arts (liberal and visual) are both financially and admisitratively non-existant. But enough complaining, because I decided pretty early on not to complain. I think my education at school was legit. I learned a lot about being an artist. Not just doing, but being. What it meant to think, express, and analyze. A lot of the stuff was heady, and I was often left with a lot of thoughts like: "What the heck?" "That was lame!" or "What a waste of time!" A lot of such reactions were due to the immaturity of my mind. It's not to say that I don't believe there is bad art. I think there is bad art, but one has to be educated enough to know why it is bad to them. Something may suck, but there is a lot to why it sucks, or why it makes you remember, laugh, cry, or think. So we were led in the direction of art: as a concept, of thoughts and analysis. When we had discussions on Information Aesthetics and the complexities of Net Art intead of Photoshop and Illustrator tutorials, a lot of us were dissapointed. I say "us" because I was part of such a group, and sometimes I think I still am. The thing is, you don't buy a donut and hope that it tastes like chicken noodle soup. When you buy a donut, it'll taste like a donut. Okay, that was pretty random, but I think you get the point. Design is Art, but Art is not always Design. ICAM could be pretty frustrating if you had certain expectations. Jenny would always say that she didn't want to be an "artist", and she'd comment on how she could totally see me as one. I didn't know what to say, but I knew that I was less homegrown than others. I think it would be cool to own your own studio and do your thing all day, living at a cheap place with a cheap car, and cook for yourself. I don't have dreams of a big house, mini-vans, kids, a dog and a picket white fence. I do have dreams of being a sweet graphic designer, making fresh stuff that really makes people react: think, laugh, smile. I'm totally happy that she's decided to become a nurse. It's cool because she's happy and she sees purpose in it: being able to serve other people in her work. Nothing's worse than being stuck with a career that really isn't enjoyable to you. We also talked about being graduated (or a fifth year still at school), and how we faced knew challenges: having to grow up, missing what was, working and finding a group to meet our needs as recent graduates. It was nice to talk to someone that undertood what I was going through. It makes life easier. ___________________________________________ | previous | journal (i need a good name) | next |