Week 1: Introduction to the module

This is the first week of this semester, we discussed what we will do and utilise the workshop. We kind of discussed the materials, process or techniques of what we want to do for our project. I was so excited because I want to do so many things this semester. Also, we were talking about the assessment which is kind of chilly because it is just the first week of the semester. I still remembered the joke from yesterday in Art103 that 100% weighting on the grade, I said 100% pressure. It was a joke but I did really mean it. I hope this semester will go well because it is also the last semester of BCUIC. I cannot believe it, time went so fast in just a blink of an eye. 

Plus, the weather in summer is destroying me,the UK does not have AC which makes a person like me going to die. I really hate hot weather. It makes me so sick and cranky. I hope I can work effectively and not throw any temper on anybody. I have a really bad temper on hot days. 

Week 2:

We did a small presentation (presentation without slides, just mindmap) about our project of what we want to do in this semester. I do not know why, just a small presentation, I got a shaken voice already. This makes me worried about further presentations this semester. My tutor asked me so many questions which made me think about my theme more and he also gave us time to brainstorm and think. I really enjoy this activity with an overthinking person like me, this is not a challenge. We also did a design challenge in the morning which we needed to design and plan according to the brief we were given. I kind of enjoy this because I did so many things like this in highschool which is not a problem to me. We also met another student, she was doing it as a teacher today, I really like her because she explained and engaged with the audience really well. Just a small thing I did not like, she talked too loud when we were doing teamwork, she was helping other teams and repeating the information for us but with a person who has ADHD (I guess) like me, it was so hard to do the teamwork. However, I still really like her, she has really good positive energy.

Week 3:

This week is also a little same with last week, my tutor gave me more time to brainstorm after doing a small presentation. He helped me a lot when I generated my ideas and why I want to do this theme. I really like sessions like this because we freely discuss. I also helped my classmates generate their ideas which also helped me broaden my perspective in other topics/problems. We also started doing our action plan and statement of intent for this semester. This semester, I really want to do something related to my country and my culture which is a part of me. I think the theme I choose is a little hard for me, but I still want to do it because I do not choose things because it is easy. 

The weather was still really bad. It is really hot which makes it hard to sleep. I want to go back to my country which has AC everywhere so muchhhhhh. This week, there was a Vietnamese student who came to our class as a tutor assistant. She was nice but I do not think she is good at teaching. I do not know why I think like that, maybe because my intuition told me some things I could not explain. 

Also, I was allowed to leave the classroom to do observation tasks for site analysis which was really good, it helped understanding about how people interact with the environment and the infrastructure of the site. This is a really helpful session. 

Week 4&5:

These weeks, I did not have much reflection because my health was getting worse due to the weather. I did attend the afternoon session for week 5 but I was late. My tutor helped me to figure out what experiment I should do to generate my ideas before I started my project which is paper models.

Week 6&7:

My health and my period were getting so bad these weeks that made me not attend class well, but I was surprised that my tutor was not mad at me about that, he was mad because I did not tell or communicate with him about my statement. I was really worried that I thought he would be so mad at me. I was late in the morning session which made my tutor really mad. We have a small presentation in the morning session which was explained by the Vietnamese student from week 3. This time, I think I do not like her because she is not good at explaining things so well, the information was not clear and mixed up with each other. However, at the end of my presentation, she gave me some good advice.  

I did some paper models to generate my ideas, paper models are really easy to make but it is not an ideal material for the final outcome. I also do some more sketches for more ideas as well. 

Week 8:

This week, we were still carrying on with our project. My tutor gave me a list of what should be on my WordPress because he was really mad at me for not updating my wordpress. I did some more sketches and models of paper and cardboard  which were based on my digital works. I think these modules support each other pretty well for me this semester. I combine types of digital and physical models to generate ideas and experiment. 

I learnt about Truss structure which is a structure that people use to build houses and pavilions. I really like the lesson , which brings me more ideas about making my pavilion. I have never thought about this. 

Week 9:

We were introduced to design sheets which were really familiar to us for 3 semesters now but it is still helpful to remember them. I want to do my design sheets in A0 to have experience before coming to BA course because most architecture design sheets are in A0, so I think it is necessary for me to experiment with it. I was introduced to tessellation which is also a structure of a pavilion but I do not think that I can use it this semester. I spent the rest of the session doing this structure, I found it was fun and interesting. 

Also, I helped one of my classmates who study Media about going to the city center to take photos because his project is introducing Birmingham to International students. My tutor asked me to do it because I know many places in Birmingham to go while my classmate does not know anything or going much to the city center.

Week 10:

Because of changing designs at the last period of the semester I could not use tessellation for my project which I really wanted to. I spent the morning doing digital work because I had booked an appointment but things did not work so well so I have to redo my digital work. The tutor from the print workshop said I need to separate parts of my model so I will be able to print. In the afternoon, I was doing cardboard models which I do not have much time left to do. It was so rush. After all, I did not have much experiment with physical models this semester. 

I burst into tears in the morning because my mental health was so bad. I want to do things but I also want to do anything at the same time. My thoughts were fighting with each other. I was not bad like this in the last 2 semesters, I do not know what to encourage myself to keep doing. I was scared, tired and burnt out. I just want to run away from the present or disappear for a moment.