DISCLAIMER: This article was originally posted on Odyssey.
In one of my classes, we have to rearrange the desks into a semi-circle, which is characteristic of many other classes with a small size. Often, the students do it in a rushed, makeshift way, making a decent-enough semi-circle. For this one day, I decided to do it myself. I managed to get in the classroom and started rearranging the standard rows-and-columns on the far end of the room into the arrangement similar to the one in the headline photo.
As soon as the first students walked in, they were amazed and called the semi-circle \”symmetrical\” and \”beautiful.\” Even the professor noted how good the semi-circle looked.
I had always known that my art skills would influence my life outside of drawing, but what shocked me was that other students noticed as well. One of my peers asked if I draw, and I simply answered that I used to draw a lot. What is interesting about that question was that the need to look at one part of an entire design was exactly what I had to do as part of the Digital Animation & 3D Design major that I was pursuing when I was first entering my college education.
Perhaps another way this type of \”beautiful\” arrangement can be attributed to art is the need to create order out of asymmetry. Although the desks themselves are not actual art, what makes these objects artful is the use of space. What really matters when it comes to the rest of the classroom and the desks is the relationship between them. Since the desks are materials specifically put into this space, it would make sense that the desks\’ positions would influence the classroom. In my case, I decided to make the room itself feel more organized while also saving the time needed by the rest of the class to arrange the desks in their positions. Since the object-positions are a semi-circle formation at the far end of the classroom near the windows, it would have been best to push back as many desks as needed in order to form this fully realized semi-circle.
Since that day, I continued to arrive as early as possible in order to rearrange the desks into this semicircle.
What I want readers to take away is that if they used to be art majors (or any other major related to that field), they should not take their techniques for granted, since the time spent in that major is not wasted.