Mind maps.

Week 2, Day2

Professor Moss started class by showing us a YouTube video about AIGA, called "Get Inspired."  After the video, a GAUGE member talked to us about, well, GAUGE.  I already knew what GAUGE was all about, since I've seen many of their in-class presentations and posters around the Fine Arts building.

We were then introduced us to mind maps.  A mind map is a diagram used to represent words, ideas, tasks, or other items linked to and arranged around a central key word or idea.  Mind maps are used to generate, visualize, structure, and classify ideas.  Professor Moss showed us some examples of mind maps done by former students.  I found a couple of them really funny, such as the ones on "What if there was an alien in my bed?" and the one about killer carrots.  We were all given 30 minutes to create our own mind maps that focused on a "What if?" question.  At first, I tried to create a mind map on "What if we could go back in time?"  After writing down four thoughts, I couldn't think of anything else to put down.  I felt that this topic was a bit serious and I wanted to create a mind map that was silly (like the ones for the bed-intruding alien and the killer carrots), so I decided to change my question to "What if SpongeBob SquarePants came to life?"  From there, I was able to come up with lots and lots of fun and silly ideas.

We ended class by watching a TED video about Scott McCloud, which I'll discuss in a later blog.