University is a lot like school...
"What've you done for the project then, Misc?"
"Project?"
"Yeah - the one about opposites. We've got to present it today."
"Christ!"

And so, with about five minutes before the tutor was due to arrive, I went hunting for some objects that I could present to illustrate the words "precarious" and "safe". You'd think a Product Design degree course would come up with more interesting projects than that, wouldn't you? So did I. Anyway, I rifled through the off-cuts bin in the workshop and made my way back to the presentation room. The first unlucky victim was already presenting his pieces - some horrendously complex metal sculptures, based around mathematical formulae that he'd spent all week meticulously bending into shape. I can't remember which opposites this was supposed to relate to. The tutor was critical to say the least. This worried me.

And so, came the time of my presentation. I stood up, balanced a cuboid of wood on the edge of the desk, looked the tutor in the eye and said "Precarious!". I picked it up again and set it in the middle of the desk... "Safe."

The tutor looked dismayed. What was I trying to pull here exactly? And so, I unleashed the biggest pile of last minute bullshit I'd ever thought up:

"The purpose of this piece is to demonstrate that the same object can illustrate both opposites. This simple block of wood for example can be either precarious or safe, depending on its context."

A wry grin appeared on the tutor's face.

"I have to admire your gall..." he uttered, before eventually awarding me the win for "thinking laterally".
(MiscellaneousFiles, Thu 13 Aug 2009, 14:30, Reply)