Week One : Insanity

Warning: This post contains an overwhelming amount of scheduling details.

view from the Holiday Inn's Bar near Merchandise Mart

I don’t think I was prepared for the craziness that is Week One. My boyfriend Michael and I left for Chicago early on Thursday morning, spent the night with his family in Michigan, and arrived on campus around lunch time on Friday to pick up my student ID before heading to my new apartment. I unpacked on Friday and did a little bit of exploring my neighborhood that evening. Saturday, we headed down to the Blues Fest in Millennium Park, did some sight-seeing,

figured out the transportation system, and spent a little more time in my neighborhood. It was all good, and I was glad to be there a few days ahead of time so I could get my bearings.

empty studio

Sunday was our studio move-in and orientation. We had a scary-ish safety lecture, general studio guidelines talk, some brief introductions and then a wait for our studio assignments. This took about 2 hours; then we could start moving in to our studios. I had Michael pull the car up to their loading dock in the ally and used the service elevator to get my supplies up in one shot. I headed back to my place to say a very sad goodbye to Michael (as he left for New York) before heading back downtown for my meeting with writing fellows and some unpacking in the studio. It was a busy day, but I managed fine.

breakfast on the beach

Monday was program orientation. I was up early to eat breakfast on the beach as the sun was coming up. I thought it would be a good way to start of my first real day. We had to be downtown by 9 for a couple hours of introductions and opening remarks before splitting up for school wide tours. This got to be a bit grueling. Have I mentioned how enormous the school is? Wear comfortable shoes because this is a lot of walking. I almost considered cutting out early because I already did a basic tour when I was visiting the school, but I hung in to see a few areas that I had missed the first time. We finished around 4:30, just in time for an opening reception they had for us. I stayed for a bit, then headed over to hear an artist lecture happening in the museum that evening. Afterward, I came back to the reception to talk with faculty, fellow students, and sign up for studio visits and artists we would be presenting on. After my half hour train ride home, I was back by 8 and totally exhausted.

We had authorizations scheduled for the next few days. Authorizations are mandatory classes you must take for any shop or specialty equipment you are considering working with. I wanted to leave my options open so I signed up for wood shop, fibers, die cut, 3D scanning, specialty cameras, premiere pro, lighting, and recording device orientations. I wanted to cover all my bases. There were many more options, but my schedule was already filling up in an uncomfortable way. The authorizations were sprinkled throughout the week and made the week extra hectic.

Wood shop was the first and longest on Tuesday. I left the house at 7 to have a little more time to set up my studio before the wood shop orientation at 10. It lasted about an hour and half and went over the basic equipment. We had to make cuts on the band saw, chop saw, and table saw before being “authorized.”

As a writing fellow, I had to meet with my philosophy class to introduce myself and explain my role working one-on-one with them throughout the short semester. I would review 7 writing samples per week and the students would sign-up for time slots to meet with me. I worked with two three week classes of undergrads—Intro to Philosophy and a class on Existentialism. It was a good opportunity to learn more about these areas. As writing fellows, we are “common readers” which means that even though we are not experts in the subjects, the papers that students are writing are still accessible to us, and we can provide writing feedback about forming arguments, supporting their claims and organizing their thoughts.

Next up was our first class in Professional Practice from 1-4:30. This was packed with more introductory information about the services available on campus. By now, I was on complete information overload. I’m not sure how much I actually retained.

We had a break to hit the studio or grab dinner before meeting for a reading and discussion by Nathanael from 6-7:30.  Another packed day but I was home by 8:30, exhausted again.

Wednesday had me nervous because we had a screening scheduled for 10 pm, and I was still unsure about taking trains so late. I packed a small overnight bag in case I needed to crash in the studio. I left the house by 9am to get to my first 10am art history course Attention. Class went til 12:30. Fiber authorization at 1. Doctor’s appointment at 2:30 for school immunizations. Trip to the health office. Realized I lost my phone. Tracked it down at the doctor’s office. Met with my adviser and my critique group from 5-7:30 to check out everyone’s work. The screening was bumped up to 9pm for the evening and we were out by 11:30. You guessed it. I was exhausted. I knew I had to be back on campus for my 10am class in less than 12 hours. By this time, I was so frustrated at the non-stop schedule. I knew I had to present my work to my crit group on Friday, and I had barely had time to do any work. I was upset, frustrated, and tired. So I decided to crash at the studio. This is not technically allowed or encouraged, but we do have 24 hr access to the studio so I figured one night couldn’t hurt. I grabbed the couch cushions from the common area and laid a camping mat over top and passed out.

I was up at 6 on Thursday to eat and get a little work time in before my art history class at 10. Class went til 12:30 with a short break before Professional Practices from 1-3:30. I picked up my first round of papers from philosophy students, and decided I needed to get home, eat an actual meal, chill out, and refocus. I was home by 6 for the first time all week. I ate, read through some philosophy papers, started reading for next week’s art history homework and was in bed by 10. Hurray! I needed that.

3D Scanning

Friday morning at 9 was my favorite authorization. It was for 3D scanning which was super cool. Afterwards I had a little bit of time to set up for my group crit later in the day. I had a plotter cutter authorization at 2, a quick meeting with my philosophy teacher, group crits from 4-5:45, Josiah McElheny’s artist lecture from 6-7:30. Grabbed food with a couple girls, then headed home.

Saturday is colloquium from 10-4. So no sleeping in. It went quicker than I expected and was pretty interesting. More on that in another post. More work in the studio. Then home to read for class.

Sunday I slept in and made myself a big breakfast. I did laundry and cleaned, which felt great and normal. I stopped by the farmers market for a gluten-free cookie before heading downtown around noon. I wanted to spend a good chunk of time in the studio prepping for my one-on-one visit with Josiah on Monday. (More on how that went later.)

I was intimidated. As I arrived at the studio, I ran into two classmates who had just had their meetings with Josiah. They were visibly frazzled and on their way to get a drink. I overheard him with another student. There were tears. This did not calm my nerves. I wanted my meeting to go well so I focused on getting as much work done as possible. I worked til 8:30. It was the first time in a long time that I had spent 8 uninterrupted hours working in the studio. It felt amazing. Finally. And exciting.

That 8 hours would have to hold me over for the next week as well. Things were just as busy the next week. There were many moments when I asked, “When do I get to make art?” That part was very frustrating, especially since it’s only a six week program. One thing to remember though is that grad school, especially for low-res students is about more than being in your studio. It’s about the connections you are making, feedback, and all sorts of growing and stretching. Hang in there. They keep you so busy, but you do actually get studio time. Things settle down a little after the first two weeks of authorization nightmares.

Some advice about authorizations. Try to be very selective with what you choose the first week. You are only here for 6 weeks. You will not have time to play with all the cool equipment that SAIC offers. AND there will be other opportunities for you to get authorized if you really need to be. There is already so much to do the first week and sooooo much new information. I’d pick your top 2-3 areas for authorizations.