Bus Ride IARC style!

So I have to admit, I thought the new studio assignment was a little crazy and out of the ordinary. I was thinking, “Take a city bus and record and draw about how we’re feeling?” how does this have anything to do with design or architecture? My adventure led me to understand why the professors assigned us this task.

To start off I didn’t know that understanding the bus schedule would be so complicated! My younger brother takes the city bus to and from school every day in Jacksonville, Florida and has no problem doing it. I actually called him yesterday and told him that he’s pretty smart to be able to understand what bus takes you where, and at what times and so on. Once I found a bus route that was near campus and that I was familiar with we set out on our adventure! So me, Robert, Kevin and Lauren decided that route 9 would pick us up at Aycock and Walker, take us to the depot downtown and we could catch another bus back to our starting point. Honestly, we had no idea what we were doing and we stood at the corner of Aycock and Walker for about 30 minutes in the blistering sun. After we realized that the bus we wanted to take didn’t come thankfully a girl told us which bus we could take and we waited some more. Finally, we saw the bus! We all approached the bus not knowing what to expect. At first I felt like an idiot because I got on the bus and asked the driver if students ride free and he said yes and to swipe my card. Easier said than done! It took me a minute to realize where to swipe and I could literally feel everyone staring at me thinking, why the hell is this girl holding us up? Then it was time to sit down, and to my surprise the bus was full of people, thankfully Jayson just happened to be on the same bus and gave me his seat, which was so sweet of him! It took me a minute to take it all in, the height at which we were off the ground, the rumbling of the bus, all the different people and sights to look at. For some reason in America we have this misinterpretation that only poor people or homeless ride the city buses, and I’m here to say, they are wrong. There’s was all kind of people on the bus. Nurses, students, men with suits on who looked like they meant business, and of course you do have some people that looked a little less fortunate than others, but they were still friendly. I was surprised at how people talked to us and how I didn’t feel as uncomfortable as I did when I first boarded. I felt weird at first about taking pictures and what all of them would think of me, and then I realized, who cares! They can think I’m weird if they want to. I took a few photographs along the way that helped me to record where we had started from and where we were headed. I have to admit, it was nice to be able to ride and look at everything, I’m normally the one to do the driving. We finally arrived out our destination, the depot downtown Greensboro. We thought for a few minutes on which bus we were supposed to take and then decided, what the hell, we can just take the same bus back to where we started. I was being to understand that the buses go in a big circle around the city, I thought to myself, “I wonder if the bus drivers get sick of seeing the same old things everyday”. Upon our arrival back to Aycock and Walker we talked about how the bus ride wasn’t too bad, and I’m actually considering taking the bus to and from school on Tuesdays and Thursdays now, why not-it’s free, from what I saw safe and it will save on money, and help the environment.

So I realize looking back that we set out on a quest to learn more about our surroundings, people and more about Greensboro as a whole. Not only that but it was a completely different experience to be able to ride and take pictures rather than try to drive by myself and take them! Overall I liked the assignment and was glad to take part in the department of transportation.

I'd Rather be Traveling....

This summer was great for me because I was able to travel a lot. I went to Florida to visit family, South Carolina and best of all New York. It was a blast to take a road trip with my brother and sister all the way to the Big Apple, and to see family I haven't seen in years. With that being said it was hard for me to want to come back the first week of class, I just wanted to be traveling! However, I feel like the first week went pretty good for me and I actually enjoyed the wayfinding assignment. Working with all the students on Friday was crazy and I think will be a huge challenge this semester, but I'm looking forward to this year and learning new things!

Follow the paved black road to Replacements...

Somewhere out there..Elsewhere!

So in our drawing class we traveled to a place here in Greensboro called Elsewhere. At first we were all a little freaked out by the amount of junk, dust and old dolls found within Elsewhere. We soon learned that Elsewhere is a museum and that all of the junk, and misc. items once belonged to perhaps the biggest pack rat of all time. An older woman loved to collect "things" off all sorts..from dolls to fabrics, from records to car speakers, you'll find it all. Her grandson, with the help of others turned grandma's messy space in to what is now a place for travelers to visit, an artist spot, and an interactive museum that welcomes people to play and move things around. Our assignment was to first choose different areas, or items that we would like to draw. Then as a class we taped off the 1st floor and were each designated an area to draw. After visiting Elsewhere a few times it became less creepy and more a cool place to go and draw. There's one thing for sure, you won't ever run out of items to draw!!

Vignettes

These were fun drawings! I like exploring with color and using marker to create texture.

Splash of Color

I enjoyed this assignment because I played with colors and different pieces of furniture.

Coffee, Pencils & Paper

Not Your Usual Sleeping

We had to find different ways of how people sleep at night, these are just a few that I thought were unique.

The Frvegtables!?!

So you're thinking what the heck is a frvegetable? Why a fruit and vegetable in one of course.

Drafting Assignments on Vellum

These are the drafting assignments we've done so far this semester. Some of them were very tedious and I didn't like them and others weren't so bad, overall I feel like I'm getting a little better with understanding scale.