One Answer vs. A Multitude of Answers

I've been thinking about this post for a long time (since I came back to school actually) but am just getting around to writing it now... I really started thinking about it the first Tuesday of classes because that was the day that I had my first 3D Design class and my first Accounting I class.

The two seem like they shouldn't be in the same semester, but to my way of thinking, they compliment each other perfectly. And this is why: each class requires such a different way of thinking from the other.

In my first 3D class, my professor talked about visual problem solving: the problems that I face in that class cannot by taught with words. To learn in that class, I must learn a different way of seeing and make visual decisions based on what I see; can I make this space more interesting, can I improve the overall shape of my piece, can I make the space inside the piece twist more? These are problems that I can solve only with my eyes and with my hands, by doing and not by thinking analytically.

However, I am faced with very different challenges in Accounting I. My professor in that class confessed the first day that in accounting he always feels as though he is teaching a language course, a new vocabulary by which the students can understand the language of numbers and accounts. This way of learning is not new to me at all.

Words have been my life for such a long time: books, poems, papers. But this brings me to my point: words are specific and have their own agendas. One of the first things they teach you in grade school English is the difference between denotation (the dictionary definition of a word) and connotation (the feeling that a word implies). To be right, you must find the right word. And this is the main difference between accounting and design for me: an accounting problem has one answer (one word, one sum, one balance) but a design problem can have an infinite number of solutions and finding the right solution (or at least solution that satisfies) is a matter of trial and error, no way around that fact.

And this is why I like having both problem sets in my semester: words are my life, but I am a visual/spacial thinker. This truth is one of the reasons I think I can't write a short story to save my life but I'm a decent poet; when I sit down to write, I see scenes in my head, I don't feel words, they come later, but I see images and feel feelings. The challenge of poetry for me is finding the right words to accompany the images in my head. This challenge is why I'm so excited about being an artist and why I think I probably would have failed as a writer (though I would still love to be published one day). Creating as an artist takes on less step, one less move for corruption: what I see in my head, I can try to create without having to describe it. From my head to reality, all I need now is time and experience.