Think Lab Activity 1: Perception

There are things known and there are things unknown, and in between are the doors of perception. - Aldous Huxley

We cannot control how others perceive something, but what we can do is open our own horizons to varying perception; our first think lab activity was a door that we unlocked which opened the varying world of perception. Our activity was divided into 2 segments: Warm Up Activity and Main Activity.

WARM UP ACTIVITY

For the first part of our warm up activity we were shown an image of a pentagon and to discern it in a non-traditional way. My fellow peers and I came up with diverse answers:

1. House

2. Front Side Of A Ship

3. Crown

4. Road Milestone

5. Envelope/ Letter Box

6. Happy Meal Box ( McD)

7. Pencil Tip, etc.

This led the way to the second part of the activity where we were divided into groups of 4 people. My group consisted of 3 students; Prachi Pahuja, Ritika Agarwal and myself. Each group was given a complex shape and we had to draw the shape the way we perceive it.

We were assigned the oval shape and were asked to quickly list everything that came to our mind with respect to that.

1. Eye

2. Petal

3. Leaf

4. Tear Drop

5. 2 Semi Circles

6. Henna Pattern

7. Lake Side View

8. Rugby Ball

9. Fish

10. Saturn Rings

11. Necklace

12. UFO

13. Braid

14. Cocoon

15. Cat

16. Almond

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MAIN ACTIVITY

After we were done with the warm up activity, we proceeded with the main activity. In the main activity, each group was assigned an alphabet, and each member of a group had to contribute together to make 20 object-associated drawing. The alphabet that we were assigned was the letter 'Z'.

Just like before, we discussed and listed everything we could associate with this letter.

1. Snake

2. Dress

3. Duck

4. Earring

5. Shelf

6. Hanger

7. Treadmill

8. Podium

9. Zara Logo

10. Escalator

11. Geometric Figures

12. Towel Hanger

13. Desk

14. Steps For Making A Cube

15. Lamp

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OUTCOME

Group Struggles:

1. We lost track of time and couldn't finish the task accordingly.

2. One of our peers wasn't able to attend the activity hence we had to do extra work in order to share his responsibility as well.

3. Communication was excessive but not effective.

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Group Achievement:

1. Regardless of the time constraints, we finished the task.

2. We got a sense of working under pressure.

3. We understood the essence of managing time.

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LEARNING MANTRA

Don't go too overboard with the flow of ideas, sometimes it's good to pause.

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Reflection:

At the beginning of the activity, it seemed too easy to be true. We hadn't worked in a group till this activity and we didn't know how to deal with different people and their ideas. During this activity, my group struggled with ideas, since all of us had different views and opinions and everybody wanted to know what was on the other person's mind, but were unable to understand those ideas because only we knew how to execute our own.This led to us losing out on time to work and finish the actual task. We were stuck in a dilemma since we wanted to know what the other person had to bring to the table yet we wanted to get started with the work immediately. In all the rush and hurry to finish drawing our ideas, we lost out on the essence of the activity, to which our faculty also agreed. In another one of our projects; Mundane to Magnificent, we all faced a similar issue where time management was crucial but the only difference was that there was no clash of ideas since it was an individual project. By the end of the day, my group had to add in some more artwork; we sat and shared our opinions about the activity as well as each other's work and pondered over the feedback given by our faculty which was followed by us realizing where we went wrong.

We made a mistake and we definitely learnt from it. I consciously make an effort to stick to the time frame and not get carried away with the flow of ideas and lose out on valuable working time. I clearly remember that in our first interaction with the faculty of Think Lab, they said that they are very particular about time and now I understand what they meant by it. I've realized that 'the greatest mistake is to be afraid of making one, after all it's a proof that we are trying '.

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