Week 10: In Charge?

Much of the week was spent helping people digital print, and doing things around the studio. On Friday, though, my boss was sick, so it was just me and a prof in the studio, running things.

Friday is my longest shift, I’m in for more than 5 hours. For most of it, the prof was in, but for some of it I was on my own. Much of the shift was spent with me fluttering through the studio, making sure everyone was doing alright. I hadn’t done much traditional-studio assistance, so I was surprised just how many people needed help. A lot of the help needed was just students wanting a second opinion or second hand.

I enjoyed helping students with all the various questions that I surprised myself with knowing the answer to. People asked where things were, what tools to use etc. I pried open a few ink canisters that were almost cemented shut with dry ink, and I provided some colour theory insight for a student trying to make a specific colour. I also helped some people print in the digital lab — I was truly exercising my knowledge.

As the day continued on, the prof had to leave, so I was on my own. A group of students tried to engage the press, and did it completly wrong. They left the blankets laying off the side of the press, almost touching the floor. These blankets probably reach up to $1000s. I had to stop them and hastily engage the press properly. Eventually, the press got disengaged (the blankets were taken off the press).

It was nearing the end of my shift. A group of students were using the one engaged press. They were speaking in a different language, and one of my friends also wanted to use the press. This friend is very shy and passive, and the other students seemed very stand-offish. I felt like I was doing conflict-management between kids, but I guess college isn’t far off from day-care. I told all of them that the ink that’s applied dries out if not put through the press soon enough, and my friend had put the ink on a bit more than 10 minutes ago. The other students had said that they had also inked around 10 minutes ago.

To add context, it was told to me that a few days ago, a student had left the press engaged. That means that overnight, the blankets were getting pressure in one area of the blanket. This causes it to provide uneven pressure, which can mess up a person’s print. Because of this, I decided that I would try to leave only one press engaged when I left, so there would be less of a possibility for the “engagement blunder” to happen again.

So, frustrated the students weren’t all communicating, I engaged the press for my friend. The other students had blocked her out, and her plate was drying up, so I let her use it, but vowed to disengage it the second she was done.

That was very frustrating. I think that more communication needs to happen between students; these sorts of situation shouldn’t be happening. Also, if students were communicating the notorious night of the blankets being left in the press, they probably would have been reminded to disengage the press. That being said, facilitating communication is not an easy thing to do, and honestly is probably outside of my position. Also, I imagine that as the term progresses, they’ll become closer naturally. One can only hope!