I'm not speaking for the other two advisers, but I for one am disappointed in the amount and quality of the work so far...or at least lack thereof. The following is the unabashed update of what I'm thinking, and keep thinking about as I re-read your old blog posts...wondering what we're going to talk about this Monday evening.
Introduction:
I've been eagerly awaiting info from you guys this week, because your 'busy' I haven't seen updates till later in the week.
Ok. I get it. Alright, but now jury is well over, and I'm finally getting dribbles of information here.
I don't know about you but man I am excited to be doing this, I've got all these resources I want to give out, I've got all these photos that I took for you guys while I was away. I think there are so many interesting things that we could start having conversations about.
So I left our meeting last week pumped, pumped that we were going to get these things going, off the ground make some progress.
But h'm not seeing a whole heck of alot of progress on the blogs, I haven't gotten any emails from anyone, I haven't had a request for information, no questions....and it's leaving me wondering.
What's going on?
Are they checking stuff out?
Are they not checking stuff out?
I'm looking back at last week's meeting in my memory, thinking about everything we talked about...and I'm realizing - "we" was mostly John, Lisa, and I.
And the "talking" was between the advisers. Now I'm reading over Kate Wingert's papers here, and I'm reminded that the whole reason we are doing this version of the process is to have discussion amoungst you guys.
I left our little discussion a bit horse, out of words...and not feeling like we made tons of progress.
Frankly, students, it a little upsetting as I start going over my notes and typing and I'm realizing that I have more input, resources, and am posting more information about your thesis than you are.
That is really concerning for me.
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Context:
Ok so that's we're h'm coming from. Now Cut to last night's email from John, when the light turned on in my head...
Check this out:
next week will be week 11 of the semester
Whoa! Did you just say whoa? you should have.
11 weeks in and that was the kind of discussion we were having...I was saying things like "you should really check out so-and-so".....this is week 11! There is some serious effort that needs to be put forth here.
Now cut back to me looking through the blogs...coming up with either condensed notes from our last meeting (almost 2 weeks ago) or pictures and links copied and pasted from the web.
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Research & Development:
What about your own pictures? Your own thoughts? Any serious explorations of some definitions? Some pictures of work? Some bibliographical info? Some distilled thoughts? some meaningful quotations?
There's some .
But then I think to myself...week 11 and this is it!?!?
This is your thesis, your architectural baby, this is your thing and from what I've got that I can see there ain't much going on with it.
I mean, when you've got John concerned, I'd take that as a signal that you need to get moving.
What are you doing this weekend?
The answer should be "I'm doing a heck of alot of work on my thesis" and when I say that I mean real tangible work that you can bring along and show to everyone so we can discuss it not just have the advisers talk about 'potentials'
You guys have some high quality potential...but that isn't going to get you much traction unless you start turning it into something.
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Issues:
Here are my concerns:
1.) Lack of discussion, mutual involvement, and communication with each other's work
2.) Lack of a schedule, for setting deadlines, laying out discussions, etc.
3.) Lack of updates, especially ones with student-generated content. - without these I'm like a horse with blinders on, how can I be a good advisor when I don't know what your up to?
My concerns stem from a lack of a basic setup for what you know you need to do to go forward, make progress, and keep us advisers updated so we can be useful.
Personally, I'm less interested in talking about your topic at the moment unti you show me that you have an idea about how your going about getting this done. Week 11 guys! You can't afford to have a meeting like the one we had last week.
Ask yourself
What are my big issues?
What discussions/information/feedback do I need to move ahead on these issues?
What should i bring to the meeting that will fascilitate the needed discussion?
When would I like to have a decision made about issue x, y, and z?
Grab some paper, make a calendar write a list, post it on your blog!
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Conclusion:
Perhaps, you may think this email has not shed proper light on your current situation with your thesis. Well, currently it shows my understanding of where your project is right now and I challenge you to proove me wrong on Monday.
PLEASE proove me wrong on monday.
Come with things you want to talk about.
Come with content.
Update us ahead of time.
Because I certainly don't want to be prooven correct.
I signed up for this because the best part about teaching is working with students on the stuff they find the most interesting, and thesis is best place to do do that.
-Andrew
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Reference:
Dear Thesis Cluster-
Lisa, Andrew and I have talked, and we all do agree that-
with a huge unwieldy team of 9 people- we need to find ways
to optimize the exchange of information and ideas.
Certainly meeting on Mondays from 6-10pm is a difficult and
exhausting experience for all- not to be repeated.
We agree that the blog format offers a valuable venue for
the exchange of materials (both visual and textual)- and if
done early enough, we can all prepare for discussion well in
advance of meeting. Its a great waste of everyone's time to
devote evening to the presentation of new background
material that needs to be digested on the spot. We need to
do this prior, so we can thoughtfully xero in on issues.
In addition, we all sense that there has not been a lot
of exchange of information and ideas among the students, and-
for sure- the point of having team meetings is that everyone
is aware and supportive of each other's efforts- a resource
that everyone can draw from especially in the spring.
Otherwise we should just make individual appointments- not
the point of the new format. And so, everyone should know
what is on each other's blogs.
Finally, there is the serious need to get rolling- next
week will be week 11 of the semester, and now that juries
are done, the preparation needs to be substantive and
focused.
Monday's meeting is defined, in the syllabus as "Pinup
#2: initial design investigations. With a 4691 studio focus
on expanded attention to site/ program/ theory". ...and so,
speaking for the three advisers, we are looking for you to
post whatever you can by, say, 3pm Sunday- no later!- so the
maximum number of people can access it, review it, formulate
responses.
Thanks very much. JP
--
Andrew
Andrew
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