Chaeyoung ᕦ(ò óˇ)ᕤ

ATM super raw | WIP | ENG

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I really enjoyed the day when Michael and Manetta introduced API(combined with the Flask App-I think it was around week 10..?). I had so much fun and was super excited to see how user inputs(gathered via form tag) can be automatically synced with my webpage(!). My brain was super stimulated⚡️🧠⚡️ haha. Super cool and fun stuff. Like so, I really enjoyed prototyping class, after class I learned new things. However, using those skills and making those into something more complicated was very challenging.

A lot of my frustrations came from my lack of ability to write the computer language. I had some ideas and thoughts but I did not know how and where to start, which keywords I should look for, etc.

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I appreciate Manetta and Michael's hard works and patience.🖤 (´°̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥ω°̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥｀)
At some point, I felt bad for keeping them too late, after their working hours. For the next Special Issue, I will try to be more autonomous. To do so, I will a) do more research on my own b) go through readings(NLTK, Explanatory blabla) multiple times and make notes. Hmm. Or maybe as Kamo suggested, we need more prototyping class sessions... Once in a week is not enough. I had so many questions and I only had one day(Monday) to solve all my burning questions, which ended up keeping Michael and Manetta overworked.
Idea: Maybe we(xpub1) can organize our own prototyping session, to cover the things we learned and let ourselves experiment. Like Kamo/Grgr's small experiments(b-day card gen. soup recipe gen.)

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Every time I had an individual session with Cristina, I really enjoyed it. Cristina brought many different points of view and recommended great readings.
However, I think it would be really nice to have more reading-discussion sessions related to the overall topic of Special Issue. I had this feeling that I used certain terms(vernacular, situated knowledge, etc) without thoroughly understanding the definition, concept or context. Maybe more casual reading- discussion session would be nice.
Idea: Having a reading group/or book club would be super nice. Not only with Xpubs but also outside of XPUBIES. Why not open up with other PZI students?

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There were a lot of miscommunications. Here are some of the observations:
a) each one started working on something without updating each other or reaching an agreement.
There was a lot of loss of time because a lot of times, we ended up not using the things that we had been working on.

b) I did not fully understand the role of the Visual Identity group. I think the VI group was overworked but yet their works have not been fully incorporated in Special Issue. I think, personally, this was because there was no clear concept of what the VI group should do, not enough communication on why they chose certain visual language and the latest VI package. For instance, I could not find the final version of the sticker packages. To be honest this goes to other subgroups as well, like the backend group, launch group, etc. We should have a clear distribution of roles and a clear concept of what each group should be responsible for.

c)

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We need more practical communication skills in making a group decision. For instance, the methods that Cristina and Steve introduced(5min short description on each subgroup project, the overall project, and use those short sentences as a building block for the final content, split into a small group and gradually merge those small groups into a bigger group, yes | yes with reservations | stand aside | block method ) Idea: The workshop with Elenor was super helpful but we need more of those, or more practical way to make decisions and do group discussion.

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There was a disagreement(hybrid vs. online only) but in the end, ppl agreed on the hybrid. I felt a lot of responsibility to make it(physical event) work. I did not want to disappoint not only myself but also my mates who voted for online-only. So, I think I was too desperate to make it work so got stressed too much. Maybe next time I should trust my classmates more and share some burdens rather than trying to carry those internally.
Also, I realized I need to work on an editorial perspective. Seeing the forest rather than one tree sometimes. +Need to work on moderating skills.

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Was the content well delivered and organized? Felt like I did not have enough time to go through not only the overall content but even my sub-group content. There was physically not enough time. Period. The most problematic part was that every deadline was the 17th. (sub-group project, installation and physical production, overall special issue webpage) which was total hell and problematic. For the next Special Issue, the deadline for content should be 1.5 weeks before the launch day.

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Idea: It would be nice to have an intro to publication station skills at the beginning of the next semester. This is because, by the time we need to print out something and do production, the stations were super crowded, super busy, very difficult to ask questions freely. I want to know what is possible in terms of production beforehand. It was very hard to experiment in a limited time set. I would love to organize several group workshop things(riso printing, matte printing, gloss printing, laser cutting, Illustration and InDesign skill, embroidery machine, Arduino etc.)

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Idea: Maybe we need to make a protocol on how to organize things in Soupboat..? Because by the end, everything was super messy so I could not able to find the up-to-date content, documentation, etc. Yeah, I know it is almost impossible to keep tidy and neat but at least we can try,? Grgr and Kamo said something about using git to share the latest code.

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I really enjoyed working in a smaller group. Because it was much easier to reach an agreement, and really listen and talk through what is going on in each one's head. Also enjoyed small couch talks about various stuff(but mostly related to Special Issue) the problem was those in group discussion was not distributed to a bigger group by the end of the semester.

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XPUB in-group non-public launch should be a regular thing. It was super nice and fun. (to be continued...)