My First Semester Classes: Surface and Structure

I wasn’t sure about calligraphy at first. I mainly popped in there because it was raining outside—and now it’s my favourite class. The other ones are great, too. Except for surface and structure. There are two surface and structure classes: one that’s fun and one I’m attending.

The one that’s fun is given by a professor nicknamed ‘Bastel-Bodo’ (which roughly translates to ‘Handicraft-Howard’). Apparently, in his course, you draw things on surfaces and cut out shapes and structures and by and large have a swell time. The one I’m attending, on the other hand, is given by not one, but two artists. They’ve helped me to strengthen my general dislike for the visual arts.

On the first day of surface and structure, each one of us was given a tool we had to paint in only black or white. The general idea was to get the proportions right. The class was called surface and structure, after all(?!). This went on for a good five hours, only broken up by a lunch break. What a great time that was. The lunch break, that is. Surely things couldn’t get worse.

The second time, things got worse. We were to draw a tool or tool-like object. I had some sort of round cylindric thing. I put everything I had in the drawing and did my very best. The result rightfully prompted the professor to say I think you have problems with the construction of cylindric shapes. Let me help you with that—and some other things—after lunch.

Motivated by this cunning pedagogic device, I tried again. After I was convinced I had outdone myself, I went for lunch. When I came back, the professor dropped by and exclaimed Wow! You’ve helped yourself! Great! and went away. The rest of the day I tried drawing a circle but failed. Surely things couldn’t get worse.

The third time, we were treated to some presentations on the colour grey. After that, things got worse. We were to paint a collection of things arranged in a space. And as if that wasn’t enough, we also had to use coloured variations of grey for this already daunting task. Being realistic about my manual skills, I tried to paint a single angle bracket in black, white, and a single shade of grey.

The result of said skills clearly overburdened the professor when she came to criticise my work. She just stood there for a few minutes, not knowing how to express what was going on in her head. I turned to her and calmingly told her I know.. She replied Good. Well, maybe… don’t pay any attention to the proportions, but at least try to get the light right? Like so?.

My second painting did have a lot less impact on the professor. But because the impact of my work in this course was mostly negative, I didn’t really mind. The professor remarked Wow! Great! You had huge problems getting your mind wrapped around this thing, this is a lot better!.

This cunning pedagogic device was the spark that set me on fire. I didn’t walk but ran to get more colour and a fresh canvas. Then, with broad, confident strokes I painted. I was cocksure. The first stroke was unreservedly hont. A real smasher. The second that of a painter prince. The third stroke was heroic. The fourth one a lot less so. Eventually, after about nine or ten strokes, I decided that painting and brushstrokes unequivocally suck,¹ tore the canvas down and threw it away. Surely things couldn’t get much worse.

This Thursday, on world usability day, we’re going to visit two art exhibitions. Here I am, a interface design student, not being able to attend usability talks and workshops because I have to look at paintings. A splinter group has already decided to get lost between the exhibitions and attend the talks and workshops. Obviously, this is not to imply I am part of any such group. Being an earnest student, of course I distance myself from these ideas. But I must say; if one got lost, it would be a great use of some sudden free time.

I will probably fail this class. But at least I’ve tried something new, and that’s exactly why I came to uni.

Not that I have anything against brushstrokes in general. They’re great, ask Tom Sawyer. It’s just that I’ve personally never made any I liked. ↩

Letter to the Editor

Do you have any opinions on the notions conveyed in this text? Send me an e-mail and I’ll publish it here. I might censor it though. Because I can. Because I’m German.