02 September 2012
20 October 2011
Heroes and Heroines of Vanishing Local Hangouts
The local American landscape is becoming increasingly homogenous. Mom and pop businesses are harder to find amongst the development of shopping centers and familiar corporate franchises. With the replacement of small businesses with big businesses a city cultivates a particular kind of relationship between customer and staff. It can also create a particular street scape and service model local people begin to expect. As our local landscapes become increasingly branded by the familiar corporate chains, smaller franchises begin to create brands which attempt to recreate the authenticity of the mom-and-pop experience. Rudy’s barbershop in Seattle Washington is a good example of this experience. But where are the mom-and-pop stores in your neighborhood? And what are we loosing when these quirky and at times dysfunctional businesses are unable to hold their own in the face of corporate development?
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15 February 2011
Confetti Intestines
This post is in response to my thoughts on a schoolmate's post from a seminar I am in called New Information Environments. You can read Molly H's post and see my responses to it here: Ambient Findability and Redefining Genre.
The new wicked problem of information definition, retrieval, and interaction:
the possibilities of format are endless in new media environments.
Perhaps this statement demonstrates the novelty or benefit of imposing physical qualities information in order to fix certain types of information within a limited expression?
I think there is a place/need to bring some types of information back into the physical somehow, even if it the connection between the digital and physical is imposed and unnatural.
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In reference to the discussion above...
I am thinking about an idea I had about quantifying people's paper usage into a kinetic sculpture which physically reflected people's paper usage through a flurry of paper within a closed plexiglass box. The sculpture would respond through live action in accordance to the amount of papers being printed within the college of design. The box would be situated in an open public place, such as the rotunda or the building crosswalk, so as to be an accessible and imposing performance for students. The more printing- the more activity the flurry of papers within the box had. The less printing the more calmness. I think the narrative of a flurry of papers is weak. I think it could be stronger and more telling or challenging. However it could be visually interesting enough to elicit attention. Ultimately the idea is trying to connect people to exactly how much paper is being used in order to encourage a smaller amount of paper usage.
Little to my knowledge this has been done probably once and a million times before... I liked Amber's post of an example here of the fountain which reflects real-time currency rates on the internet.
I am still interested in creating this sort of temporary sculpture at NCSU but wouldn't really know how. To add to this idea, I was also enjoying the idea of students using the system to create a performace based soley on their print quota history. In this scenario the student would imput their user id and password into the system and watch the sculpture as it responds, quantifying their paper usage over any specified length of time.
Could it encourage decreased usage of paper or more informed printing?
Process...
My purpose for explaining this process is to understand how my brain follows trails of thought, in order aid my development as a thinker/designer. I am also interested in the way I process information in order to think about the way a computer could process information and be lead to certain conclusions... But that is another post.
I thought of the paper kinetic sculpture after I had accidentally put confetti and a piece of paper in a holey jar.
The new wicked problem of information definition, retrieval, and interaction:
the possibilities of format are endless in new media environments.
Perhaps this statement demonstrates the novelty or benefit of imposing physical qualities information in order to fix certain types of information within a limited expression?
I think there is a place/need to bring some types of information back into the physical somehow, even if it the connection between the digital and physical is imposed and unnatural.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
In reference to the discussion above...
I am thinking about an idea I had about quantifying people's paper usage into a kinetic sculpture which physically reflected people's paper usage through a flurry of paper within a closed plexiglass box. The sculpture would respond through live action in accordance to the amount of papers being printed within the college of design. The box would be situated in an open public place, such as the rotunda or the building crosswalk, so as to be an accessible and imposing performance for students. The more printing- the more activity the flurry of papers within the box had. The less printing the more calmness. I think the narrative of a flurry of papers is weak. I think it could be stronger and more telling or challenging. However it could be visually interesting enough to elicit attention. Ultimately the idea is trying to connect people to exactly how much paper is being used in order to encourage a smaller amount of paper usage.
Little to my knowledge this has been done probably once and a million times before... I liked Amber's post of an example here of the fountain which reflects real-time currency rates on the internet.
I am still interested in creating this sort of temporary sculpture at NCSU but wouldn't really know how. To add to this idea, I was also enjoying the idea of students using the system to create a performace based soley on their print quota history. In this scenario the student would imput their user id and password into the system and watch the sculpture as it responds, quantifying their paper usage over any specified length of time.
Could it encourage decreased usage of paper or more informed printing?
Process...
My purpose for explaining this process is to understand how my brain follows trails of thought, in order aid my development as a thinker/designer. I am also interested in the way I process information in order to think about the way a computer could process information and be lead to certain conclusions... But that is another post.
I thought of the paper kinetic sculpture after I had accidentally put confetti and a piece of paper in a holey jar.
One day I was throwing away and old cd insert with an illustration of intenstines on it. I thought it was nice artwork but had had it hanging around long enough. As I was throwing it away I noticed the colors in the illustration matched the confetti and put it in the jar.
It was from this happy discovery and many others- like walking past the shredded paper underneath the Brooks side staircase, and thinking about trying to bring things into a physical, public, and performative space, that I recognized this context.
It was when I did this that I realized I could blow into the hole and make the confetti scatter against the backdrop of the intestines. I like the way somehow these two things situate the action.
It was from this happy discovery and many others- like walking past the shredded paper underneath the Brooks side staircase, and thinking about trying to bring things into a physical, public, and performative space, that I recognized this context.
13 January 2011
theatre too is a school of seeing
Entering the spring semester with a focus on experience design and Museums it is refreshingly appropriate that my tangental readings have lead me to making connections to theatre. During a design conference last year, it dawned on me that I really hadn't drawn from a rich background I had been immersed induring undergrad. It must have been I was looking at the work of David Small that I had the epiphany. Now, somehow, it feels like theatre is rising from somewhere out of me-- poking it's head into interests I had discovered without it's help.
Searching for texts which would enrich my thoughts for our semester of thinking about Museum and experience design I found the book Global Museum Hans Dieter Schaal. The title was compelling enough, it wasn't until I really sat down to read the thoughts and look further into Schaal's work that I reconnected with theatre. Though it had been on my mind this semester, it was the first connection that chance threw my way to help me make sense of things.
Schaal is a German architect. See some of his work here. The work represented in Global Museum includes designed gardens, exhibition design, and set design. The quotes below are excerpts from his introduction into his set designs...
Like museums and exhibitions theatre too is a school of seeing.
Theatre is not about depicting and filming reality. This is a place that remains open to the possibilities of the imagination, of poetic reality.
Other notes/reflections from his writing: theatre triggers memory and association, allows for bridging new understanding, is a social and shared experience, is atmospheric, lures the audience into a state of concentration.
These characteristics have many parallels to what a meaningful museum experience has meant to me.
As a side note...
The book concludes with Schaal's idea of a Global Museum which interested me more from a standpoint of how he represented his concepts through a series of very crude but effective models and collages. Seeing this encourages me to take up this practice as I have somehow been reminded time and time again: to create some visualization of little ideas I have here and there.
Seeing Schaal's set design conjures up many wonderful connections: the opera Dr. Atomic which I was blown away by about a year ago, and a more recent splurge: the box set of Einstein on the Beach by Philip Glass and Robert Wilson.
04 December 2010
ready and hot, here i come!
Below is an excerpt of short writing I completed for the seminar: Design as Cognitive Artifact, taught by Meredith Davis.
...Now that I have identified the chemical and cultural conditions attached to the act of ordering and eating McDonald’s fast food I will lay out a narrative of subversions and exaggerations based on these schemas in order to suggest alternate service models.
To increase a buyers' expectation of instant gratification during the ordering process, neither company nor client should bother laboriously wrapping and unwrapping food. In this new model drivers would pull up to outstretched tubes. Rolling down the window, grasping the tube, and closing your lips on the funnel is all you would need for instant... fast... food. These tubes, sanitized after each order, would deliver meals from the kitchen strait to the clients mouth. One would still get the great tasting food McDonald’s clients know and count on but it would be faster than ever with half the hassle. Roll up and open up!
Another less cynical idea involves a sensor on the side of your car door. This sensor communicates both with an online system which records and tracks your McDonald’s favorites as well as commutating with the drive through system at point of purchase. As a bonus feature users can customize their McDonald’s experience by defining their own personal McMeal combination. Day to day use of the system would look something like the following: As the user drives to their nearest McDonald’s they communicate to the system via voice commands in the car. The users car system then sends the order to the closest McDonald’s destination, determined through GPS. If the driver was unaware of that location she or he would be directed by the GPS. Having received the driver's order the employees in the kitchen have been able to sync up the time of preparation with the driver's arrival. The attendants stand ready with a specialized BigMac meal. As the SUV drives up it is detected by a sensor embedded in the speak box. The hungry driver moves past this menu and drives strait to the pick-up window. The food transfers hands. The money has already been deducted from the users credit account saving time and also insuring compensation for no shows. Everyone will be happier with this new sensor in their car. Ready and hot, here I come!
To read the full paper click here.
...
...Now that I have identified the chemical and cultural conditions attached to the act of ordering and eating McDonald’s fast food I will lay out a narrative of subversions and exaggerations based on these schemas in order to suggest alternate service models.
To increase a buyers' expectation of instant gratification during the ordering process, neither company nor client should bother laboriously wrapping and unwrapping food. In this new model drivers would pull up to outstretched tubes. Rolling down the window, grasping the tube, and closing your lips on the funnel is all you would need for instant... fast... food. These tubes, sanitized after each order, would deliver meals from the kitchen strait to the clients mouth. One would still get the great tasting food McDonald’s clients know and count on but it would be faster than ever with half the hassle. Roll up and open up!
Another less cynical idea involves a sensor on the side of your car door. This sensor communicates both with an online system which records and tracks your McDonald’s favorites as well as commutating with the drive through system at point of purchase. As a bonus feature users can customize their McDonald’s experience by defining their own personal McMeal combination. Day to day use of the system would look something like the following: As the user drives to their nearest McDonald’s they communicate to the system via voice commands in the car. The users car system then sends the order to the closest McDonald’s destination, determined through GPS. If the driver was unaware of that location she or he would be directed by the GPS. Having received the driver's order the employees in the kitchen have been able to sync up the time of preparation with the driver's arrival. The attendants stand ready with a specialized BigMac meal. As the SUV drives up it is detected by a sensor embedded in the speak box. The hungry driver moves past this menu and drives strait to the pick-up window. The food transfers hands. The money has already been deducted from the users credit account saving time and also insuring compensation for no shows. Everyone will be happier with this new sensor in their car. Ready and hot, here I come!
18 November 2010
curly hair duo
Below are photos of some explorations with video projection completed with Rebecca Knowe. The main point of this exercise was to get my hands on some projectors and begin thinking through the possibilities. Here we did some experiments with double projections of video and attempting to manipulate the physical space through projection.
I will be editing some more of these photos for a future post which will include some interesting possibilities the exercises revealed.
leaving the museum
"Poincaré used to say that when truth is reached, what remains to be done is to sit back and contemplate it. Truth, when perceived in detached, static terms, becomes a precious object which can only be admired from a distance. The world turns into a museum. Look but don't touch.
Poincaré, however, had other more complex and contradictory views. The man who would sit back to contemplate, also thought it was impossible to find truth in things in themselves. Truth hovered only in relations among things."
These are excerpts from the paper Reflections about Interactivity by Luis O. Arata, posted on the MIT Communications Forum.
I might have an opportunity to construct an independent study for my spring semester. An independent study focusing on my emerging interests in design would in some ways be an escape from what I now feel like to be the museum which Poincaré talks about in the excerpt above. My feeling is that my graduate education would be stronger by creating a study which balances both the concrete (experimental making) and contemplative (theoretical musing). I am attracted to Poincaré's reasoning that sometimes truth is only revealed only through relationships.It is my opinion that by conducting a series of explorations I will have a chance to digest some of my interests and thus begin to make connections for future thesis work.
Today, I talked with Julie Beeler, co-founder of Second Story. She mentioned a self promotion piece which launched her into her interests in interactive media experiences. She explained her transition from her static graphic design background into interactive media by being something which she propelled herself into through her own diligence and passion. If I am unable to craft a robust independent study plan I will attempt to continue to feed this interest.
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Here are some formative quotes I also grabbed from this past semester's sketchbook, which touch on my areas of interest with an independent study:
Thoughts from AIGA's 2010 Design Educators Conference New Context/New Practices From Ann Burdick's moderated discussion of Shifting Paradigms:
+ The idea of dropping the "graphic" of graphic design. Is it relevant to say "graphic" design? Are we communication designers? Media designers?
+ The general idea of digital-physical environments and re-evaluating our treatment of physical environments is what piqued my interest when I heard this statement in our authoring session: "What will design workspaces and classrooms look like in a mixed digital-physical future?"
+ "Study the flux, an instability of platforms, technology precedes function" From David Thorburn's thoughts on Shifting Paradigms
Other thoughts touching on my interests:
"People are increasingly comfortable with substituting representations of reality for the real" Sherry Turkle
"If you are numb to the way it looks then maybe you are numb to what it means" This is something I wrote in class while Meredith Davis was talking about Futurist poets' desire to explore new typographic possibilities
"Grit: perseverance and passion for long term goals" I found this article while searching through Psychology Journals for my K-12 Education Research.
"Variety becomes a regulator for innovation" Hugh Dubberly's explanation of the Model for Innovation map
"Avoid decontextualizing learning" An idea from my K-12 Education Research found in Best Practices for Teaching Social Studies by Randi Stone.
"Although embodiment is in constant flux, it remains the invariable nexus from where new technologies are engaged... Virtual Realism- living critically with new technology... Western philosophy is interspersed with trends, thought structures, ideologies and expressions that denigrate the body" These are quotes from my reading of Amada du Preez: Gendered Bodies and New Technologies. (I owe this to Shelley Evenson's mention of Cyberfeminism in her lecture about Design Research)
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