graduate blog : 2007-2009

THESIS COMPLETE : MGD GRANTED

2009-06-11T13:28:00.007-04:00

On May 4, 2009 my thesis research, Spatial Mapping and Navigation: physical and online environments, was presented to faculty, classmates, and guests. The final outcomes of the design investigations can be viewed on my portfolio website. For a complete PDF of the published document please contact me for the link.

This blog will remain as a permanent documentation of my graduate school experience, an experience that reshaped my thinking, modified my methods, and connected me to some of the most wonderful people that I am grateful to have met at this time in my life.

"We use the experience of the past,
in the present, to solve the future."
-Robert Downs, Maps in Minds

THESIS : Research Diagrams

2009-03-17T13:17:00.012-04:00

The following diagram outlines general ideas in my thesis research. The second outlines the framework for each interactive investigation.

THESIS : Research Panel

2009-03-17T12:55:00.005-04:00

My thesis research was presented in a panel display here at NC State College of Design.

THESIS : Midpoint Review

2009-03-11T20:36:00.040-04:00

Thesis oral presentations were this week (midpoint review). The expectation was to be 80% complete with thesis progress in regards to the research and making, the writing process precedes the review...if we pass. I passed! The following three posts show what was presented: the presentation format and three interactive studies.

I am incorporating a few studies from cognitive psychology and information sciences. My presentation, writing the final thesis document, and revisiting the investigations are the next steps in preparation for final review on May 4th. The map posted below outlines the presentation. The presentation design follows an overarching concept that is incorporated in all the investigations; "where I have been", "where I am", and "where I am going".

Spatial Intelligence, Cognitive Mapping, Personality Dimensions, Navigation, Mental Processing Structures, and Activity Theory are the areas of research I have used to inform my process. The investigations are interactive online experiences, exploring tasks that take place in an online environment informing one's decision in a physical environment. The content of investigation is walkable communities.

As mentioned before, I have worked with an overarching theme of "where I have been", "where I am at", and "where I am going", inspired by spatial intelligence and cognitive mapping. Each study involves a goal, motivation, behavior, specific information needed, and a mental processing structure for organizing information. The behavior and motivations are informed by a study done on personality dimensions and information searching behaviors. Each scenario portrays a specific user that would benefit from a walkable community. Together the interactive investigations align to form a perspective that moves from macro to micro.

Presentation Map

THESIS : Investigation One

2009-03-11T20:36:00.038-04:00

GOAL: safety
single mother wants to move to a walkable community that has a safe walking route for their child to school and other activities

MOTIVATION: seek acknowledged information from other parents to confirm previous knowledge / extrinsic

BEHAVIOR: nervous and anxious about crime in area, lack of time, difficulties with relevance judgement, insecurity in database
searching

INFORMATION NEEDED: needs to connect to other parents to get first hand knowledge of: people/safety/school programming/location

PROCESSING STRUCTURE: categorical structure

THESIS : Investigation Two

2009-03-11T20:36:00.030-04:00

GOAL: comfort & health
senior citizen wants to find a community that has various walking routes close to accommodations

MOTIVATION: seeks new information which leads to personal comprehension

BEHAVIOR: curious and inventive about new options and a range of options, open for discovery

INFORMATION NEEDED: needs to connect to diagram with statistical data of information, seek options: paths/places/time/health

PROCESSING STRUCTURE: matrix structure

THESIS : Investigation Three

2009-03-11T20:35:00.013-04:00

GOAL: lifestyle benefit of walkable community
young family of four wants to move to a diverse walkable community and eliminate the need for two vehicles, prefers yard and other children in the area

MOTIVATION: seeks broad and structured information / intrinsic

BEHAVIOR: efficient and organized, values plans and lots of information, willing to devote time and effort

INFORMATION NEEDED: needs to connect to a narrative tour for information on: people/places/land area/history/location

PROCESSING STRUCTURE: story structure

Walkable Beach

2009-03-03T11:10:00.006-05:00

EveryTrail is a site that allows people to post images of their trips via GPS devices. This is one walk I wish I was taking right now.

Secret Beach at EveryTrail

Map created by EveryTrail:GPS Geotagging

Graduate School...in three minutes?

2009-02-18T13:02:00.009-05:00

After being inspired by several stop motion photographic documentations (like this one) I urged some of my peers to think about pulling together all the shots which have accumulated throughout our graduate school journey. Leave it to Alberto Rigau to accept the challenge and produce the first rough of what will soon become a treasured artifact I will keep forever.

Graduate School in 3 Minutes from Rebecca on Vimeo.

Rough bits of our graduate years at NC State 2007-2009. Compiled by Alberto Rigau. This is a work in progress, final to be updated soon (after May reviews).

THESIS : Spatial Relationship Sketching

2009-02-16T19:29:00.008-05:00

Before moving into Flash making (and applying content), I explored some forms of 3D sketching...with paper, tape and some string. Setting up the visuals this way helped me recreate the intended spatial relationships in Illustrator. I am still focusing on structures that one could interact with to retrieve information, using the metaphors of "Past, Present, Future" and "Where I have been, Where I am at, Where I am going". Next step is to plan for content placement and how one would interact within these spaces.

Spatial Relations :: Tubes

Spatial Relations :: Stacks

Spatial Relations :: Spins

Spatial Relations :: Planes

Spatial Relations :: Blocks

THESIS : Collage Sketching

2009-02-04T12:51:00.006-05:00

Working out of the computer to sketch was going well so I decided to get out the magazines, glue, and exacto and begin making collage compositions. Could these be future interface designs? Maybe. Moving into Flash sketching next.

THESIS : Content Building

2009-02-04T12:45:00.004-05:00

I continue to rework the concept maps that initially addressed my various thesis topics. I figured out that it works best if I put everything in one HUGE illustrator file and work from there. This is a peek at the thesis content building file (as I now call it)...soon to be printed.

THESIS : Spatial Sketching

2009-02-04T12:38:00.008-05:00

Working with the idea of "Past, Present, and Future" or "Where I have been, Where I am at, or Where I am going..." I did some sketching on what this would look like in a spatial environment. I used various elements for inspiration; fruit, cities, books, etc.

History of the Internet

2009-02-03T19:12:00.001-05:00

History of the Internet from PICOL on Vimeo.

Portfolio site is a go!

2009-02-02T12:32:00.006-05:00

May is quickly approaching and soon I will be faced with the next chapter of my life...life after graduate school. My list of what I wish to do continues to lengthen daily, but the ultimate goal is to continue exploring interaction, collaborate with others, and educate in some form...plus sew and maintain SOWN Designs. My first step to reaching any of these goals was to once and for all get my professional portfolio online. It was a tedious endeavor and I am happy to know I will never have to do it again (except for updates). It was close to what I would imagine seeing my life fly before me as it has been a little more than over ten years since I have been designing professionally. I did come across one project that did not make it into my portfolio but it is appropriate to share here. It is my first internationally produced and distributed project...the millennium Twinkies packaging. I worked on it as an intern at Willoughby Design, Kansas City in 1999.

THESIS : Update

2009-02-02T12:26:00.002-05:00

Now that I am weeks into the final semester of graduate school and only weeks away from presenting my thesis at orals (week of March 8th), I thought it would be appropriate to share an update on the progress. I have been reading several resources recommended to me by my committee, but I have found with each new source I read I get my wheels spinning a bit more. I suppose this is good to an extent, but it is time to start MAKING. I have been reading about various topics such as experience, emotion, spatial intelligence, and cognitive mapping...all of which tie nicely into my interests and thesis research. This weekend I edited notes and the concept maps I have done up to this point. Next step is to pull content and continue sketching spatial relationships for interaction.

Water Project

2009-02-02T11:41:00.009-05:00

The last project of our Fall 08 semester was for the AIGA Aspen Design Challenge. We were split into two groups of 8 for the conceptual and research process, then into pairs of two for the execution of the project. Each group produced four design solutions in response to the challenge which was addressing the global water crisis. My group chose to focus on local behaviors and how to shift those behaviors through design. LOCAL ACTION, GLOBAL IMPACT was our tagline enforcing the overarching idea of "Everything is local". The issues my group addressed included:
private water, public right
product inventory, industrial water usage
private disposal, public pollution
residential water use, awareness of options

After mapping and diagramming the physical, cultural, social, technological and economic systems as a group, we worked as pairs. I worked with Sidney Fritts on an E-rating system that would hold retailers, manufacturers, and consumers accountable for the electronic products purchased, used, and disposed. Using Robert Ennis's taxonomy of critical thinking behaviors and David Rose's description of audience readiness, we identified four possible design solutions: Retailer Trade Ad, Online Comparison Tool, Instore signage and all communicating a labeling system.

THESIS : Fall Review

2008-12-11T21:20:00.015-05:00

Yesterday was our final review. It was an 8 hour crit with all the faculty. We had to present the "Making Raleigh Legible" project (project 2) and the Water project. I will post about the water project later as it is being entered in a national competition for AIGA. We presented our projects in groups, then the second-years presented thesis thinking. This is the thesis thinking I presented.

THESIS : Activity Case Study IN PROGRESS

2008-11-29T19:25:00.007-05:00

This maps an experience of finding an apartment in a walkable community via Craigslist. Craigslist is not my form for research, but this map is helping to define the affordances and design opportunities of the experience. Next step is to add personality influences on the search behavior.

THESIS : Audience Map

2008-11-29T19:16:00.008-05:00

For a paper on applying Lynch's theory of navigation to physical and online environments, I made this map to define the audiences.

THESIS : Content Map

2008-11-29T19:05:00.013-05:00

This map outlines my areas of interest. Next step is to make this 2D map interactive and presentable. The greater theories of interest are: activity theory, schema theory, cognitive differences, emotional design and interaction, and finally, spatial navigation. As well as the tasks users perform online to inform their activities in a physical environment.

THESIS : Proposal Questions 1

2008-11-29T19:02:00.009-05:00

These are the questions I presented at proposal/mid-semester.
These will be updated this coming week:

Researchable Question:

In what ways can the visual and organizational characteristics of an
online environment facilitate information seeking?

Sub-Questions:
What role does diagramming and mapping play in
constructing imageability in information structures?

How can emotional attributes inform visual and organizational
decisions in the design of online environments?

What are the visual and organization contributions to the
individual motivations in the online environment?

Definitions:
visual and organizational: design
online environment: internet
diagramming and mapping: a design process to organize navigation, content and behavior in an environment
imageability: Lynch’s theory of imagability,
making the environment legible
emotional attributes: from the five factors of personality
motivations: reasons one has for acting or behaving,
aligned with the five factors of personality

THESIS : Personality Types

2008-11-29T18:54:00.005-05:00

A paper titled "Five personality dimensions and their influence on information behaviour" enlightened my interest in the cognitive differences of users. The paper provides a study for me to work from. The personality dimensions will only be used to help build possible motivations against the various behaviors. I do not want to use this to create labels for individuals, but rather generate some visual and interactive ideas.

THESIS : Users

2008-11-29T18:10:00.008-05:00

In an attempt to categorize what users do online, I made this diagram to help further narrow my interest in the searching behaviors of users, specifically for information.

THESIS : Lists

2008-11-29T18:03:00.008-05:00

The practice of working on 3 x 5s has followed me from my Hallmark days. Why change a good work process? These are the lists that I did over the summer. I often go back and look at these for interest confirmation.

THESIS : Long overdue update

2008-11-29T17:55:00.003-05:00

My thesis research has progressed this semester. I have been able to somewhat articulate my interests in the form of diagrams and mapping, along with reading and writing. At mid-semester the proposal was due and my committee was selected. Meredith Davis is my chair and Kermit Bailey is an official committee member. Next week an official presentation to the entire faculty is required for final review purposes. It is there that I will outline my "making" and investigations for the holiday break and next semester.
The following posts will highlight my current work to date.

A designer and his button maker...

2008-11-05T22:34:00.008-05:00

My classmate and friend, Alberto Rigau, recently purchased a button maker. Needless to say, he has inflicted the studio with button madness. It has been fun to see what he comes up with next. This week he received some PR on the "Crit Face" collection.

Alberto's Blog
A post about the buttons and a nice mention of SOWN

MICA : AIGA Social Studies Conference

2008-11-05T22:06:00.009-05:00

A few of us traveled up to Baltimore to attend the AIGA Social Studies Conference at Maryland Institute College of Art. We (NCSU) was very well represented as several of us participated as presenters. Marty and I were part of the MFA Panel. We presented our graduate program and a few details of our projects from last semester. The format for the presentation was "Pecha Kucha" (20 slides with 20 seconds each). The conference and the weekend turned out to be fun and informative.
Alberto went into more details on his blog here.

They had a photo booth at the conference, this is one of several outtakes...

Marty and I presenting, my concept map is HUGE in the background.

(most) Photos by Alberto Rigau

On the road to MICA

2008-10-10T20:44:00.003-04:00

This coming weekend is the AIGA Social Studies Conference in Baltimore. Several of us are making the trip up north. Marty and I are presenting together on a MFA panel. The abstract is posted here on the conference site.

Schemas : Group Process : In the Studio

2008-10-10T20:26:00.006-04:00

The process that is in another post is plastered on the walls of our studio space at the moment...here is a photo.

Schemas : Group Final : Presentation and Prototype

2008-10-10T13:09:00.021-04:00

This first video presents how Lynch's theory of spatial navigation was applied as an organizational principle. The second video is a simulation of the interactions in the online experience.

Schemas : Group Project : Description

2008-10-10T13:07:00.042-04:00

Our second project of the semester is a group project. My group was instantly named "Team Fried Pickle" for various reasons. Cady, Lauren, and Sam are my teammates. It has been an excellent process so far.

The project goals are to create and document a process for developing an interactive experience and to show a prototype of how one may move through it. The objectives are to use Kevin Lynch's theory of navigation (from Image of the City) to make Raleigh legible in an interactive environment. Our topic of Raleigh had to consider schemas, the mental constructs created within an individual's thought process. These are place schema, role/persona schema, or event schema. Before beginning this project we went to DC to the Holocaust Museum and the American Indian Museum. Each museum is organized by a different schema. The Holocaust Museum uses event schema where the experience is arranged in chronological order. The American Indian Museum is organized by persona schema, is it arranged by tribe.

Other posts will outline our process and the final prototype.

Schemas : Group Process : Documented

2008-10-10T13:07:00.041-04:00

This shows the process for our interactive experience. My group worked together at every step. Post-its were the form for our negotiations.

1 TOPIC BRAINSTORM : as a group we shared general ideas of interests, then came back together and used note cards to note ideas, forming three topics

2 TOPIC PROPOSAL : presented three topic ideas to the class

3 TOPIC DEFINING : after choosing a general topic we needed to narrow the story we wanted to tell; this is when we chose Mrs. Henderson as our persona for our narrative

4 TOPIC PITCH : introduce big idea, audience, scenario and schematic map to the class; the schematic map began to define elements of navigation in terms of Lynch's Image of the City

5 USER MAP : as a group we mapped our potential users and their motivation for visiting the site; this allowed for us to further define the purpose of the site

6 CONTENT DIAGRAM : we outlined all of the possible content needed and categorized them into time, place, and gardener

7 BEHAVIOR MAPS : using the content elements from the previous exercise, we began to form ways a user may move through the content; we identified a system moving through macro - mecro - micro; we saw that the paths through the content were very linear, we then rearranged the content to create a cyclical movement by the user and situated them at the merco level

8 WIRE FRAMING and USER INTERACTION : we developed “scene” cards to visual the narrative we wanted the user to move through; we further defined the user path with the structure formed from the cards; from these cards we developed our wire frame that highlights user interaction, content, site intent, and transitions

9 DESIGN STYLE : we wanted to continue our group process in the “design” phase of the project, we built a mood board together which will become our structure for designing the site

T.F.P. © 2008 N.C. State University / College of Design / Meredith Davis Studio

Design Fundamentals : Masks

2008-10-10T12:42:00.005-04:00

I am a TA for the Fundamentals Studio this semester. The curriculum for this "first year" experience in the college is completely new as of this semester. For the first project students had to create a mask with white paper only for one of their classmates. We then photographed all 120+ masks with the students. Here is a shot of Alberto and I setting up for the shoot, I am the mask model sporting my Kansas shirt.
The students' masks will be posted later.

Design Thinking : Exhibition

2008-10-10T12:28:00.010-04:00

This semester began with the class researching and designing an exhibit on "Design Thinking". Each of us had one term (16 terms total) that related to either a cognitive thought process or a design process. The panels where put on display here at the college of design and next they will be put into a pdf format for the Cooper-Hewitt.
My panel was on "Concept Maps".

An excellent source to read in relation to the topic of Design Thinking is A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink.

A local article about the exhibit: Design Thinking, Graphic Design Masters Exhibit

Photos by Alberto Rigau.

THESIS: Personality

2008-09-27T13:09:00.004-04:00

Since I am researching personality for thesis, I found it appropriate to take this test...here are my results
Big Five Personality Test

Concept Map : Design Thinking

2008-09-21T10:13:00.004-04:00

Concept Map : Users

2008-09-21T10:10:00.002-04:00

Concept Map : Culture & Technology

2008-08-27T17:55:00.013-04:00

THESIS : Finding a Researchable Question

2008-08-27T17:49:00.009-04:00

Round #1: Today we had to present 7-8 "researchable" questions to Meredith. We had to generate these questions with the connections we made from our lists that we developed over the summer; content interests, ways of working, and future goals. I won't share all of my questions or my lists, but here is a general list of my interests:

inclusive approach to the design of communication, affective computing, how intelligence is measured, different minds, emotions, sensory information, individual negotiations of meaning, cognition, expert/novice, relationships, receiving information, storytelling, forming new behaviors, interaction, empowerment, navigation through physical space, navigation through cyberspace, maps, people, understanding, knowledge, trust, influence, concept.

My first pass at a researchable question was too vague, my next step is to get specific. Here is the question/direction I am heading:

How can theories of way finding inform the design
of online information structures?

SOWN

2008-07-30T22:41:00.010-04:00

SOWN is open for business.
Photos by Alberto Rigau.

I finally found time to make these....

2008-07-04T11:42:00.009-04:00

My friend Jeff bought a box of old seed sacks off Ebay years ago. When I was in KC we had made (well I made, he art directed) some curtains and pillows for a photo shoot. The left over seed sacks just happened to move with me. I used those and remnants I purchased online from a store in LA...this is something I have been wanting to get to making for quite some time.

Trip Highlight : Catherine's Photos of Scotland

2008-07-03T08:27:00.002-04:00

Trip Highlight : Catherine's Photos of London

2008-07-03T08:22:00.004-04:00

My friend Catherine is a professional photographer so naturally I like her photos from the trip better than mine. This a selection that I particularly like. Her blog is listed to the side if you are interested to see the others.

Design Camp : Projection Images

2008-06-30T18:28:00.003-04:00

Design Camp : 2008

2008-06-30T18:13:00.008-04:00

This past week Marty (my classmate) and I taught at a week long design camp (sponsored by the College of Design and CAM). There were 80 high school students (upcoming juniors and seniors) split into 5 different groups. Each day they participated in a different workshop such as; architecture, landscape design, industrial design, animation and finally us...graphic design. So, that means we taught the same day long project for 5 days in a row, but to different students each day.

All the design projects were structured around the future contemporary art museum in Raleigh to be opened in 2009 (CAM). We took phrases from their mission statement and each student randomly selected that phrase to be used for their graphic design project. Each student completed three compositions representing, relating, or opposing the phrase they had. These were:

1-digital typographic composition using Adobe Illustrator
2-hand done/lettering composition
3-cut/paste/analog visual composition using icons, patterns, color

We scanned each student's work in..all by 3 pm. The rest of the day two students, at a time, paired up to project their work in a "photo/projection studio" Marty and I constructed (with Robert's help). For example, one student would project their type piece and layer it over another student's image composition. In the projects they adjusted scale and cropping to achieve yet another composition, we then photographed each one.

There were several students that had never have any design, computer, or art experience and it was great to see them interact in the production of this project. We enjoyed it as well and the final outcomes turned out amazing...it I do say so myself.

Design Camp Brief

Trip Highlight : This space...

2008-06-30T17:58:00.003-04:00

This space was near the London Eye. It was a large-scale environment made out of astro turf. I think every public space should have one.

Trip Highlight : The Highlands

2008-06-29T21:55:00.007-04:00

On the last day of our trip we took a bus tour up into the Highlands of Scotland. It was an all day tour with a few stops in some villages. I can now say I have been in the center of Scotland as one of the villages, Aberdeen, resides in the center of the country. We did stop to say hi to "Hamish" the famous Scottish cow which happens to be the oldest breed of cow in the world (dating back to the 12th century). Our trip wrapped up with a whiskey distillery tour, the Grouse Distillery, Scotland's oldest distillery. Unfortunately, I am not a whiskey drinker, so I couldn't tell you if it was good or not. This last day was one of the best. When we did stop at creek in the mountains, I secretly wanted to go hide under a bridge and stay up there. I could have made a decent living weaving wool sweaters. My friend Catherine made me get back on the bus.
photo by Catherine Siegel
More about Highland Cows
The Grouse Distillery

Trip Highlight : The Designs

2008-06-29T21:44:00.004-04:00

Trip Highlight : Stratford-upon-Avon

2008-06-29T21:28:00.005-04:00

We took a train to Stratford-upon-Avon which is about 3 hours from London. Stratford is the birthplace and burial place of Shakespeare. We saw The Merchant of Venice at the Royal Shakespeare company. It was a great production. The set design and costumes were minimal (the men just wore suits) so the acting really stood out. The theatre we saw it in is temporary as they are building a new one. Although I wouldn't have known unless told as the design of it was really impressive.
We then went to The Holy Trinity Church where Shakespeare is buried. I peeked inside and then walked through the beautiful cemetery that is outside the church. It happened to be raining and sunny at the same time, so the green grass and the church looked even more illustrated.
Shakespeare Bio site
The RSC site

Trip Highlight : The British Library

2008-06-29T20:41:00.006-04:00

I think the British Library would have to be the first place I visit again if I ever return to London. We spent an hour there so I only got a glimpse of it. They have an amazing collection of manuscripts and assorted ephemera.
The British Library site

Trip Highlight : The Literary Pub Tour in Edinburgh

2008-06-29T20:27:00.007-04:00

Yes, we did find ourselves in some London pubs, but the best experience was when we went on a "Literary Pub Tour" in Edinburgh. Two tour guides took us to four pubs off the Royal Mile, at each stop they recited some pieces all in the traditional Scottish dialect. I appreciated it for the literary history and the pub stops, but I was most impressed with the business plan of the small tour company. I guess there are 12 actors that are a part of this group and they each take turns running the tour daily, at 8 pounds a person (and that was just the student price).
photo by Catherine Siegel
Literary Pub Tour site

Trip Highlight : Castles

2008-06-29T18:57:00.005-04:00

This was my first experience of looking across a landscape and seeing a castle in the distance, views I have only seen in those cheesy calendars I used to buy when I was younger. For some reason, castles have always fascinated me. I used to paint them quite often (when I was in high school). We went to Edinburgh Castle in Scotland and on the way to the highlands we stopped at Doune castle (pictured). They apparently filmed parts of "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" here.

Trip Highlight : Psycho Buildings Exhibit

2008-06-29T18:29:00.006-04:00

This exhibit has to be one of the best I have seen, well it is up there with Julie Taymor's exhibit I saw years ago. Ten artists create architecture-like structures that the viewers can interact with in some way. There was even one that incorporated the sense of smell, unfortunately, it was the one I wanted to touch the most but that was not allowed. The book for the exhibit came out the day after we went there, so now I am on the search for how to get one sent to me (at minimal charge of course).
Check out more images at the links below.
Psycho Buildings site
Photographs: David Levene (to see more click here)

Trip Highlight : Globe Theatre

2008-06-29T17:33:00.006-04:00

We went to two productions at the Globe, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Merry Wives of Windsor. We stood as "groundlings" at both. The space was amazing in that it felt true to it's original structure and the way it opened up to the sky added a certain ambiance. We saw both productions in the the evening, so the sky turning from daylight to night time enhanced the experience. Going to two plays at The Globe allowed for us to see how the different set designs, costumes, and acting styles can change the feeling of the theatre.
Globe Site

Trip : Update...finally

2008-06-29T13:16:00.011-04:00

A few weeks ago I traveled to the UK with 13 others. Four of us were chaperones for ten teenagers. It was a great experience and I would do it again in a second. The group was from a high school Kansas City, they were the Shakespeare Club. It was a club set up by two of the high school's English teachers. The students participated in this club by reading the plays and meeting for discussion throughout the year, I believe they have read over 20 plays. Half of the group came on the trip. We spent 6 days in London and 3 days in Edinburgh, Scotland. I will post a few highlights that I found the most interesting. We saw most of the typical tourist stops so I will spare you those details. Here is the group:

Here are the places we went but I don't highlight:
The National Portrait Gallery
The Tower of London
Westminster Abbey
Buckingham Palace
Beatles Tour
The British Museum
Tate Modern
The London Eye
Covent Garden

Projection Art

2008-06-21T11:36:00.005-04:00

in_out 1.0 Nancy 15/12/06
by metavideo

Learning Community : Advocate Feeback

2008-05-28T13:34:00.004-04:00

At midpoint of the semester, I made a connection with a parent advocate at the Autism Society of North Carolina. She is also has a 23 year old autistic son. I met with her for over two hours. During that visit, she provided useful information and shared stories about her son. Meeting with her informed decisions I made in the "exchange" portion of the parent experience.

After final review, I met with the same parent advocate and one other parent to share the final outcome of the project. I was very nervous to show them the results as they were the true experts in the community. They had very positive feedback and wanted to know when and how they could use the system. I felt like I had teased them with something they could really use. We did brainstorm other ideas that would be helpful for their autistic children as well as themselves. Their response to my project made it feel worthwhile and inspired me to continue further exploration.

Learning Community : Faculty Feedback

2008-05-28T13:31:00.003-04:00

(meredith) important for next round, to choose a subject matter where you can control the imagery yourself.

(denise) reminds her of early nineties experiments with technology and interface design. she wants to know what can you bring from the physical world into the online world but adapt it to make sense to the constraints of the new platform, keeping in mind that the early experiments failed, how can your design thinking reinterpret new approaches now.

(santiago) can the advocate interact with the parent during the review process as well?

(angela) appreciates how you crossed between navigation and information into what she calls an application. by pushing data in, you were creating meta data,,, which made the information experience work and much richer.

great the you broke down different ways of reading the information. its not about just navigating through information but about collecting info as one moves through the system... the system becomes intelligent as you move through it

video presentation became limiting. wished it was a little bit more informative. takes up 75% of the screen, so it would be best to figure out how to get more of visual information as one moves through the information

good job of accommodating many styles of information all of them together.

think of ways in which the data drives the design experience.

how to build one context after another....

(scott) imagery is very sentimentalized, and to him, shows no kind of autistic behaviors. photography might not be the way to go?

(santiago) not either or, but look at the function that these visuals will need to serve.

(angela) play with the interface and fill it in with many kinds of images (cartoons, illustrations) that will allow you to see how they behave.

Learning Community : Parents of Autism

2008-05-28T10:54:00.001-04:00

Parents of Autism : a learning progression

The possibility that your child might be autistic is just the beginning of the learning process if you are the parents of that child. When the final diagnosis is reached, parents are faced with a wide range of emotions along with a series of questions that need answers. Situations vary as each child has a unique position that falls somewhere along the autism spectrum. One common factor with every diagnosis is the immediate need for knowledge by the parents. Regardless of the age that the child is diagnosed, or their placement on the spectrum, each family grows with and through autism. Parents require precise knowledge surrounding topics that affect their child at specific times in their life. The information and increased responsibility can quickly feel overwhelming for the parents.

Autism is a complex disorder that parents are unexpectedly forced to confront when their child is diagnosed. Due to this complexity, finding thorough information and those who provide it becomes an unneeded burden to collect and locate. It is important that the parents recognize themselves as part of a learning community so that they know they are not alone in this quest for information. Decisions relating to education, medical care, and even common daily routines need to be addressed, and through the connections within their community they can make well-informed choices. The communication with other parents, experts, and family members becomes crucial as they work towards their goal of providing the best life for their child as well as fulfilling a need to understand how they experience the world.

Learning Community : Final Interactive Experience

2008-05-28T10:41:00.013-04:00

The information I pulled for my concept map informed the projects for the rest of the semester. We had three specific interactive projects that involved our community at various levels. I chose to combine all three into one cohesive interactive experience for a member of my learning community. This is what was presented at my final review to my peers, faculty, and guest critic, Angela Shen-Hsieh (President & CEO of Visual i|o).

The following describes the goals of each phase/project (as outlined by Dori Tunstall's presentation, Micro-analysis of a community—five experiential elements):

project one : community identification

life goals: What matters most to parents of an autistic individual is to understand how the child experiences the world so that they can provide the best possible life.

historical consciousness: Parents recognize their child’s current phase.relationships: Parents find information by connecting to other people in their community; these people include support groups of medical experts, family, and peers.

agency: Parents choose what information they need at a particular time.

organizational structure: Experienced parents become advocates for new parents in the community.

project two : exchange

life goals: Experienced parents want to provide support for other parents in their community, thus becoming advocates.

historical consciousness: Parents develop a sense that many people have learned to deal with the challenges of autism.

relationships: Parents view the advocate stories, developing a foundation for trust.

agency: Parents chose to schedule face-to-face chats with the advocate, to further discuss the topic and related issues or experiences.

organizational structure: The parent and the advocate review files and information together so that the parent can begin planning a sensory diet for their child with a occupational therapist.

project three : collaborative task

life goals: Parents of autistic children want to help their child establish self-regulation capabilities through daily sensory activities.

relationships: Parents and the occupational therapist work together to plan and implement the sensory diet.

agency: Parents have a great deal of responsibility in choosing, conducting, recording, and analyzing the daily activities over a span of several weeks.

organizational structure: The occupational therapist reviews the parent’s documentation of activities then provides comments and an assessment.

historical consciousness: Parents view the progress in achieving specific goals set by the occupational therapist.

Screen shots of the interactive experience:

NOTE: The videos in this are purchased from istock.com and do not accurately represent autistic children. I was at the mercy of stock footage. Also special thanks to Marty for being my parent advocate actress.

Learning Community : Interactive Concept Map

2008-02-06T11:52:00.005-05:00

While working on the 2D printed version of the concept map, we had to work through an interactive presentation format. It helped to organize the information and think about how it would be presented. This is intended to be operated by me in a presentation. There are rollovers and buttons that get the viewer into more information.
NOTE: this was officially my first experience using the program Flash.
The Interactive Map

Learning Community : Concept Map

2008-02-06T11:09:00.009-05:00

I chose the learning community of "parents of autism". What attracted me to this community was their immediate need for information and understanding. It is also a community that involves emotional relationships, ideology, and communications. Autism is a highly charged topic and the need for understanding is necessary for parents of a child with autism.

This is a concept map that outlines the members of the community, the needs, and a brief glimpse into the information that is gained from the connections made in the community. This is a tool for academic purposes only, primarily my personal academic purposes. The concept map helped me to learn and define the community. In order for me to understand, I set the map up in phases of the parents, from the point of being "expecting parents" to becoming "parents of an autistic young adult".

Contact me for a higher resolution file.

Bibliography:

“Autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDD)”. University of Michigan Health System. 25 January 2008. .

Autism For Parents blog. 20 January 2008. .

Autism Society of America. 20 January 2008. .

Autism Speaks. 25 January 2008. .

Connor, Michael. “Children on the autistic spectrum: Guidelines for mainstream practice.” Mike Connor. 1999. 23 January 2008. .

Gray, David E. Autism and the Family. Springfield, Illinois. Charles C. Thomas. 1998.

Leong, Sylina, B.S.W., R.S.W., Jenie Mathew, B.S.W., R.S.W., and Sandra White, B.A. “Helping Siblings Understand Autism
and Encouraging Positive Relationships”. Society for Treatment for Treatment of Autism, 2002. 24 January 2008. .

Ozbayrak, R. Kaan, MD. “Meeting the Challenges of Adolescence.” ASPERGER'S DISORDER HOMEPAGE. Ozbayrak, R. Kaan, MD. 24 January 2008. .

National Institute of Mental Health. 25 January 2008. .

“Newborn Characteristics. North Scottsdale Pediatric Associates, P.C. 24 January 2008. .

Parker, Jonathan, and Peter Randall. Supporting the Families of Children with Autism. West Sussex, England. John Wiley & Sons Ltd. 1999.

“Process of Identifying and Diagnosing Autism Spectrum Disorders.” MentelHelp.net. CenterSite, LLC. February 14, 2006. January 23, 2008. .

The Autism Education Network. 25 January 2008. .

The Jordan Ralls Foundation. 26 January 2008. .

The National Autistic Society. 2008. 20 January 2008. .

Workshop #1 : Dori Tunstall

2008-01-13T19:16:00.002-05:00

The spring semester has started off well, although, I'm a little anxious about revisiting my conflicting thoughts on the Internet. What has brought these conflictions to mind once again was our first workshop of the semester.

First, I must explain the workshops. Meredith has arranged for a few guest lecturers for the semester (bios here), they do a lecture at the College of Design and then a workshop with the GD grads. Our first guest was Dori Tunstall, design anthropologist and strategic planner. She challenged us to think about communities and even more specifically "digital communities".

Before her arrival we had to do some readings:
The Anthropology of Online Communities
by Samuel M. Wilson & Leighton C. Peterson
The Center out There: Pilgrim's Goal
from History of Religions by Victor Turner
The last one I need to get the name of.

All the readings proved to be helpful for our 2 day workshop with Dori. She introduced us to a model that is used to analyze and understand community; she had previously used this model in the corporate environment of Sapient to help define their team communities (I had Hallmark flashbacks when seeing this). The model uses five experiential elements: Agency, Organizational Structure, Relationships, Life Goals, and Historical Consciousness.

Our assignment was to chose a "digital community" and analyze it against the model. This is where the conflictions began. Personally, I do not actively participate in any online communities. I am a "lurker" but not a participant. Facebook and LinkedIn are technically the only ones I have a profile on now and I am still trying to figure out my positions in those spaces. So when faced with analyzing a community I found that I was struggling with what that is. I went to tripadvisor.com and lastfm.com and found that I would have to invest too much time working my way through the ins and outs of those communities. I ended up choosing one that is very simple and special to a select few. See my pdf for the details and analysis.

** Side note, as I write this the 60 minutes special is featuring the
23 yr old that started Facebook.

China vs America Online

2008-01-07T19:09:00.000-05:00

America's emobyte deficit from Economist.com

Reveiw : Fall 2007 Semester

2007-12-12T11:00:00.001-05:00

It's done, the first semester. We had reviews with the faculty on Monday. We each had 10 min. to present, then they commented for another 10 min. I chose to present a summary of what I learned from the semester.
Old Habits
When reflecting on my experience this semester I uncovered a few very specific instances that I want to share. These may seem simple, but they are pivotal in demonstrating how I have to break old habits and reconsider what being a designer means to me.

Instance #1: The first group discussion and hearing my peers talk. This experience was intimidating. I realized then that I had been out of touch and disconnected to the changing landscape of design. It was at this point that I confirmed that my decision to go to grad school was the right choice.

Instance #2: “Cliché” was used to describe something I had made in an investigation for Project 1…“literal” was used in the same sentence. My ego was offended when these two words were used to describe my work. These words have stuck with me and I have taken a conscious effort to avoid being either “cliché” or “literal” in my design thinking.

Instance #3: I used “lorem ipsum” in an investigation for Project 1. This is a common practice I was used to doing in professional practice, using “dummy text” to represent words. I was being a layout designer, designing the surface. What I was not doing was considering the content and what the words and images meant. I began to understand that in getting at this meaning it would inform my design decisions.

Instance #4: Creating a “web presence” and posting on my own blog for the first time. I used to think that blogging was a time waster, one of several preconceived notions I had about the Internet. Needless to say, I had not really embraced the space of the Internet. Now that I have read about it’s implications on culture it has opened my eyes to the role design plays in shaping it’s future.

Instance #5: Writing a narrative and then reading it aloud to the class. This was an experience that was out of my comfort zone, I could not recall writing anything personal since high school. Through the practice of writing a narrative I came to the realization that as a designer we create visual narratives.

Going forward.
Throughout this semester I have had to overcome several habits I had built up over the years as well as break prejudices and assumptions I had about design. I am still working through this; the main thing has been discovering this about myself and admitting it.

My experience in grad school, up to this point, has challenged me to think in the future, versus always thinking in the present, something I had grown accustomed too. So, looking towards next semester, I have outlined some interests and insights I would like to think through further.

Interests & insights
-Narratives, specifically what is a design narrative
and a design subtext
-The viewing, consumption, interpretation of images, the future of this
-Motivation as it relates to design and participatory culture
-Meaning of text and images
-Spaces and how advances in technology influence our interaction within them
what is a designers role in the creation virtual experiences
-Cultural practice of documenting our lives and viewing images of ourselves. The constant need to share our lives and view it.Is this documentary or memory keeping…or narcissism?

Bigger Questions
-What is the future of design education and the profession, how will I be teaching future designers? Teaching students nearly a decade younger than me last year
-What are the implications of not knowing the tools or programs? For instance when working through the future project I realized that to accurately show my idea and how a user would interact with it, it would require 3D and motion design. Am I prepared to shift my thinking and processes in this direction?
-Participatory culture and interaction will continue to increase, how do I work within this culture? We’ve only touched the surface of this topic; I think I spent most of it trying to understand what it means now I want to investigate it further.

Further development
-I need to learn how to “multi-research”. I felt through my process I could only handle researching one subject at a time.
-Need to look at Design...more.
-Think through meaning.
-Start making sooner and give myself more time to consider different options and perspectives.

Symposium : Photos

2007-12-08T20:29:00.000-05:00

Kelly MK has most of the photos posted here from symposium...thanks Kelly.

Symposium : Futurecast : Lifeline Timeline

2007-12-02T22:12:00.003-05:00

I presented this at the symposium. Here is the introduction...
Imagine yourself in a future where your image is captured at every step you take throughout your day. There will be cameras in the dashboard of your vehicle, throughout your home, and strategically positioned on the streets. These cameras are in addition to the currently existing ones in our grocery stores, banks, and gas stations. The images captured by surveillance cameras, personal cameras, and medical cameras will be the main contributor to plotting your life, generating a lifeline timeline. Each of us will have a timeline that is maintained automatically and accessed in cyberspace. This timeline serves as a means of documenting your actions, similar to the recordings captured in a black box of an airplane.
Poster Lifeline Timeline Presentation (without my notes)

Project 1 : Round 2 : JPG

2007-12-02T21:37:00.000-05:00

Yet another investigation...I used it for the symposium session.

This approach still shows the back story of the photos that include details of the community (comments, favorites, bios, etc.) however, this time I show a few images from a person's favorite's page. By doing this it shows the community as curators as well as photographers, allowing the idea of being published to extend past just photography, publishing their participation.

Symposium : Motivation Session

2007-12-02T21:09:00.002-05:00

Exploring Motivation in Participatory Culture
This session addresses how designers can respond to motivation within four different participatory cultures centered around: an online Lomographic community, collective publishing, virtual and physical town commons, and substandard living conditions. These projects will serve as a springboard to generate dialogue about motivation within other collaborative environments.
--Marty Lane, Matt Muñoz, Alberto Rigau & Rebecca Tegtmeyer

MAIN QUESTIONS ASKED:

Need to get these from Marty

TALKING POINTS:
Introduction to JPG Community:
• JPG is for photographers who share their work online
and would like to see it in print.
• The community participates online and votes on photos to be
published in the next magazine issue that is published by JPG
• Participants are professional and amateur, various levels of experience
• Participants contribute content and critique online, creating content
for the magazine which is printed 6 times a year

My Perspective:
• The magazine felt like it did not represent the community online
• It focuses on photos as if it were a stock book, not interesting

My Approach to What if motivation was wanting to be published?:
• My approach shows the back story of the photos that include details
of the community (comments, favorites, bios, etc.)
• By showing the collections of photos from a person’s favorites page, I am allowing the idea of being published to extend past just photography, publishing their participation.
• Showing community as photographers and curators

These are my questions relating to JPG and motivation:
• Does the difference in design and content of the magazine influence
more people to participate (comparing mine with the original)?  
• What motivates the community of JPG to vote on other individuals photos?  
• Would inclusion of the photos "back stories" increase the
motivation to participate?  
• What causes individuals to not participate in this culture?
(like myself?) (what would others say?)

QUESTIONS:
• What motivates interaction within a particular object, community, event? 
• Are there levels of motivation (as it relates to an individual, community)? 
• What obstacles inhibit motivation? (time, tools, knowledge?) 
• What charges motivation? 
• Does motivation lead to participation in various activities,
if your participating in one, are you more likely to participate in several?
• How much time do we participate in something online? In a given day? How much time do we participate in something in RL? What correlations can we draw on motivation from this discussion?

Poster for Presentation

Symposium : OPTION SHIFT CONTROL

2007-12-02T20:53:00.003-05:00

This weekend was our graduate symposium (Nov. 30 and Dec 1). We had been planning it all semester and working hard at the preparations. I am happy to say that it was a great success as our attendance was full of participating people from various backgrounds and places. There were design grad students from CalArts, MICA, Art Center, Eastern Michigan, and Cranbrook present at OUR symposium. Total attendance hit around 60 (I need to do final tallies). My peers worked so hard at what they had to present, they gave it their all, I was proud to be a part of the group.

My responsibilities included doing the communications (I always get that job for some reason...KC A+C) and registration. I presented my future cast project, Lifeline Timeline, and did a working session on motivation with Marty, Matt, and Alberto. See other post

Here is the link to our symposium site and blog...
OPTION SHIFT CONTROL

Project 4 : Round 2

2007-11-19T11:48:00.000-05:00

For the symposium some of us are presenting our Future-casting projects (Project 4). I am going to revisit mine with the future of surveillance images in mind. Here are a few (scary) articles speculating the future of surveillance.
Little Brother's Watching You
Spy planes, clothes scanners and secret cameras: Britain's surveillance future
Big Brother is watching us all
Looking out for data surveillance predictions for 2020

Project 4 : Feedback

2007-11-19T11:45:00.000-05:00

Notes from final crit on 11/8:
gr: on top, is comparison used to show? could you compare people … two streams at once?
kc: could you look at other methods other than comparison?
sh: could the images be from your perspective and not the image of you taken from outside? could you position a viewpoint in proximity to subjects in the photos
kmmk: search parameters change the size of the "rings"?
dg: what can the rings show as a visual other than volume? what other information can a ring do/say/mean?
mwkf: date only method of search? or purpose of demonstration?
ah: the visualization is about specific times, dates, etc. the verbal presentation was through
dg: right now w/the subject being all you, does it inspire narcissism? navel gazing?
dg: iphoto remembers/organizes by dates, which doesn't work for her b/c its all numerical. what are other ways of looking?
gr: data must be organized by something concrete
kc: consider removing date as MOST important data, shift priority
ml: the two DO intersect
rr: what about surveilance photos, like at atm? pics taken of you that are not from personal perspective
dg: as time goes on there will be different kinds of photos in future … paper, digital still, video to where?... love the idea of introducing images that are from "surveillance", not taken

Project 4 : The Final

2007-11-07T20:52:00.001-05:00

Let me welcome you to my future (as it relates to participatory culture). It's circa 2020, we are all networked via the scannable chips that are inserted under our skin. This chip allows us to be continuously connected to others, to cyberspace, and to ourselves. At this same time in the future, photography has taken a new spin. Any image that is taken of you or around you becomes a part of you, creating a timeline in cyberspace of your life that will exist forever, long after you have passed. How do we see and interact with our timelines, with other's timelines? What is past the typical contact sheet and preview of photos? The participatory culture will have grown into one that expects instant gratification with minimal steps, however, their desire for interactive experiences will increase. Cyberspace, as we now know it, will have taken on new meaning by this point in the future. The space will be vast and the way we will move through it will take on new behaviors. Welcome to my visualization of the future....

Type with Flickr

2007-11-03T13:40:00.000-04:00

Type with Flickr

Light Writing

2007-11-03T13:29:00.000-04:00

Last night a group of us played with light writing. It was an energetic and creative experience. I got a bit of a work out and play in at the same time. I did the "S", "O" and "C"...over and over. Kerry even played!

Photos courtesy Alberto Rigau and Bryan Rinnert.

Project 4 : The Visualization

2007-11-02T18:58:00.000-04:00

After much thought and reading, I chose a somewhat unclear path to begin visualizing...the future space of social networks on the internet.
I began to think about the future internet as a space that is not contained by a screen and window, but a space we move through. This starts to visualize how one would find their contacts and friends, in the future everyone will be linked, profiled, and identified in cyberspace. I started to sketch the visuals before finding the images of galaxies. I have found that it isn't a new approach to think of the future internet as representing a galaxy...I must have seen or read about it at some point and visually went there.

CRITIQUE:
-Point of view is singular and "god-like"
-people are represented by dots, look at other ways
-look at other networks and what is currently happening
-the future of the internet may already move this direction
-like the organic quality
-narrow the focus

Project 4 : The Future of Participatory Culture

2007-11-02T18:48:00.000-04:00

ASSIGNMENT:
Speculate (wildly) the future of participatory culture,
as it relates to DESIGN.
What will be made?
What cultural factors will influence the evolution of design?
What kind of aesthetic values will emerge?
The final work IS TO BE THE THING: a designed artifact which would exist in the future you have imagined, not an explanation of that future.

SUGGESTED READINGS:
Social networks: after privacy, beyond friendship
Convergence Culture by Henry Jenkins
Shaping Things by Bruce Sterling

Project 3 : Learning through Investigating

2007-10-26T14:26:00.002-04:00

For this project we had one week to investigate two terms from the book Convergence Culture by Henry Jenkins.

The two terms I had were:
AFFINITIY SPACES-According to James Gee, a space where informal learning takes place, characterized by, among other things, the sharing of knowledge and expertise based on voluntary affiliations. I found this term interesting because it is a space you can move in and out of freely (no defined entry point), it's a space to engage participation, and it pushes participants closer to the works that inspire them. COLLABORATIVE AUTHORSHIP-Term coined in this book to refer to situations in which the central author of a franchise opens it to participation from other artists to shape it in ways consistent with its overall coherence but allowing new themes to emerge or new elements to be introduced. This term brought up questions of authorship and copyrights in my research (reading).

I chose to explore these terms through investigating how literary history can influence storytelling. The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland was the text (franchise) I used. The stories of Alice were of interest to me in this project because I found that after the Bible and Shakespeare it has been rewritten the most. This brings me to question collaborative authorship that is "un-authorized" bringing into question the legality of intellectual properties within media, and aspects of control. Alice also has a huge fan following that creates several affinity spaces online.

Investigation Details (see PDF):
-This first image study captures the original inspiration for Alice and the original illustrations. The next images show how Disney has appropriated Alice into one of their characters, then the next set of images show other representations of Alice.
-In my experience of researching the stories of Alice, I found that the original text has several expanded meanings offering studies in subtext around characters, themes, meaning. This interface is a solution (not what we were to create at this point). It invites the user to participate in writing while have access to all the context related to the story they are inspired by.
-This chart gets back to the investigating, it takes a look at mapping the major characters throughout the story.
-These last two investigations create a space to be built on as an affinity space.View these pages at %150 to get a feeling for the effect I was trying to create. When one approaches this site online, they are entering at no particular point. They are encouraged to move about the space, finding something new at every corner. These investigations layout the story in a linear and scanable format, a different approach to hypertext.
Project 3 : An Investigation

Project 2 : 3D Model #2 : Observe

2007-10-16T20:28:00.000-04:00

After the critique of our first 3D models, we had to create a second in 1 hour. This one was much easier as the idea came to me the moment we were asked to do a second. However, my first visuals of it (in my head) were red straws, more interactive, and more "crazy". Given the parameter of time and the lack of red straws at the grocery store, my model visual turned a slight corner.

MATERIALS USED: Straws, clear "monofliament" thread, Scotch tape, foam core board
TIME: 1 hour and 10 minutes (this includes the the time it took me to untangle my cats from the thread and clean up the water that spilled in the process of untangling them, a video of me making this would have been more interesting)

Photos courtesy Gretchen Rinnert, Valentina Miosuro, and Michele Wong Kung Fong.

Project 2 : 3D Model #1 : Observe

2007-10-16T20:10:00.000-04:00

BACKGROUND: As a class, we had an interactive brainstorm via iChat, it proved to be an interesting and fun experience. We each selected a word, mine was observe (hence the written narrative on "Observe"). During the brainstorm, we did a "What if..." scenario for each word, creating quite obscure lists. We then had to chose one of our "What if's" and build a 3D model of it in 2 hours.

My chosen "What if" was: "What if OBSERVATION was seven dimensions of experience."

These cubes represent this phrase. I found that there are scientific and mathematical theories supporting the notion that we actually live in 7 dimensions rather than 3. Those dimension are (if your curious) the 3 spacial dimensions of length, height, width, the concept of time and then 3 non-physical dimensions which can be defined several ways depending on what you are reading, but I found mass-energy, knowledge, and spirituality to be the most convincing. The seven cubes represent the different dimensions, the various sizes of cubes represent the dimensions dependent on the given experience.

MATERIALS USED: Glue, String, Wax Paper, Clear packing tape
TIME: The collective time of drying, thinking and building accumulates to more than 2 hours. Building took at least 3...I guess I broke the rules.

Photos courtesy Alberto Rigau.

Project 2 : Narrative 2 : Observe

2007-10-09T11:42:00.000-04:00

They only came out at night that summer. Once the sun had set and the neighborhood kids went inside, the sound of the garage door opening indicated their departure from the depths of the house next door. What they did inside all day was an unsolved mystery to my friend Tira and I, but at night we had an opportunity to fulfill our curiosities and watch the neighbor boy and his friends partake in a nightly ritual of basketball.

These boys were the highlight of our day, watching them seemed to enlighten some unknown insights of an unruly tribe. Of course we went to school with boys, but they were the ones we watched grow into gross beings that ate glue and made fart noises with their arm pits. The boys playing basketball in the driveway next door were nearly a year or two older and they went to the public school, these characteristics alone made us want to know more about this particular breed of boy.

We had a few almost perfect spots in my house for sneaking peeks at our subjects of interest as our house merely sat feet away from their driveway. If we arranged ourselves in a certain way, we could get a decent view out of my sister’s bedroom. After negotiating with her to go do something better, we would shut out the lights and go to the far end of the windows and peer through the mini-blinds. Being the taller of the two, I would awkwardly stand and Tira would take the lower tier, kneeling just above the edge of the windowsill. We would carefully pry open the blinds just enough to catch the boys’ shadows, if we moved further to the right we had a full view of the scene before us. Occasionally one of them would come even closer to retrieve the ball that went into the yard, we would then quietly snort and giggle at the near risk of losing our cover.

In this position we were able to accurately study the boys in their activity of play. We recognized right away that they were not the best of basketball players; they even lowered the basketball goal to get a better success rate at their slam dunk shots. This didn’t matter to us as we found this to be a humbling factor. Every once in awhile they would bring out the round single trampoline and prop it up slightly to create a perfect angle allowing them to get a better jump in on their dunks. They would call each other “Jordan” and high-five after a good 5 minutes of consistent rotations of dunks. They had this play down to a science.

After several summer nights of risking our cover to satisfy our obsessive inquiry, Tira and I began to cut back on the number of nights we viewed the boys from behind the blinds. Ironically, their nightly practice of basketball tricks came to a halt. We wondered then if this was just a clever production put on for our amusement.

Project 2 : Narrative 1 : Rules

2007-10-09T11:41:00.000-04:00

Dots should work just fine. This thought occurred to me as I prepared the new bottle of Elmer’s glue for my first Kindergarten project. Sitting in front of me was a poem about flowers that had just been cut into a circle with my butter-knife sharp scissors. The poem was to be glued to the center of a bright red piece of construction paper that had been cut into the shape of a flower.

My classmates and I all sat patiently with our newly cut circles and glue bottles in hand, awaiting the rules for the gluing step. My past experiences with gluing projects proved to make me an expert and I required no such rules. I decided to proceed with this next task in the project. Very carefully I flipped over the piece of paper with the poem and began to put little subtle dots of glue over the surface. I didn’t want to create too much of a mess because some of my other projects ended with a gooey disaster.

“What do you think you are doing?” snapped Ms Boxterman looming high above me. She startled me so much that it caused me to squeeze a little too hard on the bottle and suddenly my paper circle had a pool of glue covering it. My classmates oooed with excitement over someone getting in trouble.

“Becky, I did not tell you to begin, you were supposed to wait for the rules. Dots are not how you use glue. You were to create lines on the red flower and then smooth them out. Now you have created a mess.” I was then told to clean up my mess and go wait in the corner while the others finished their floral masterpieces. Sitting alone in the bright red chair facing the wall, tears ran down my face having learned my first rule of design. Lines, not dots, is how glue is to be used.

Project 2 : Writing Assignment

2007-10-09T11:37:00.000-04:00

Write a narrative, a story, about one of the terms, buzz words, etc. we've identified, i.e. Design-It-Yourself, peer production, co-creation, etc. (you've got plenty to choose from).

What will be compelling for someone to read.
What would you like to read?

Definitions of story from google:define:
• narrative: a message that tells the particulars of an act or occurrence or course of events; presented in writing or drama or cinema or as a radio ...
• a piece of fiction that narrates a chain of related events; "he writes stories for the magazines"
• history: a record or narrative description of past events; "a history of France"; "he gave an inaccurate account of the plot to kill the president"; "the story of exposure to lead"
• report: a short account of the news; "the report of his speech"; "the story was on the 11 o'clock news"; "the account of his
• speech that was given on the evening news made the governor furious"
• fib: a trivial lie; "he told a fib about eating his spinach"; "how can I stop my child from telling stories?

Project 1 : FINAL

2007-10-06T12:25:00.002-04:00

It's done! Well at least for my presentation and final critique with my peers and faculty. For my final I chose to focus on one collection of 14 images I titled it "Observing Relationships". These images capture different relationships and emotions, intending to give the viewers different ways of looking at their own images and stories. I took all the content from online, the titles, descriptions, comments, who made it a favorite, etc. I then brought a system back into it, when viewing it horizontal you get the story copy (title, description, comments) then when you rotate it this type drops away to make the photo be the focus along with the additional information copy. I wanted to create a piece that involves the viewer and giving them something to look more than once.

Critiqued with Denise, class and faculty
FEEDBACK/COMMENTS that I took from the critique:
• This is a response to the online community that already exists, encourages people to participate online (Gretchen)
• Bring interpretative process to the foreground for example, in this, you selected print format with a sequence. look at pacing of book to see what the reading of image is ex: shelley evanson & and "deskilling" project could apply. this could be something that TEACHES people how to read images (Meredith)
• Blogosphere is a surface relationship—that is one of the issues that is tough to address; meaning and reading images deeper (Denise)
• Look into new typographic studies, last 20 year history, help inform your visual—now your intervention is very designerly; how does this figure into your journey from hands off to hands on throughout the process of this project (Denise)
• what is the relationship between new artifact and magazine? (Amber)
(bring recognition to photographers)
• Nice work. came along way from where you were (Kelly MK)
• Have to be able to position your piece within the system. It started there, with the conventions of magazine (Santiago)
• Interesting relationship between magazines and their web site (Amber)

SIDE NOTE: I am happy with my process in this first project, I feel I learned about my design values, where I have been the last 8 years and where I want to go. It's great to look back at my investigations here in this format and already have the thoughts of "what was I thinking" and know I wasn't thinking, I was a "producing machine" as I have conditioned myself to be.

NEXT STEPS (if there is a chance): How can it grow to have more diverse collections, add more transitions and sequence, work with type expressions.

Download this PDf to see all 14 spreads:
Project 1 : Final Presentation

Project 1 : Investigation 5

2007-10-02T19:20:00.001-04:00

In these investigation I begin to work with expressing the stories further. First I looked at using type only to tell the stories of the individual photos (all content pulled from online). Then I layered in the photo and looked at how that changed the story and composition. Working with the orientation of the photos I found it added interest to the meaning. The vertical photos are intended to involve the viewer in rotating the piece, making the type drop away and give them a “new way of looking” at the photo and the story.

Critiqued with Denise, Matt & Robert
FEEDBACK/COMMENTS that I took from the critique:
• Interesting way to involve the viewer (rotating the piece)
• Now that I have gone this far, look at bringing
a practical system back into it.
• What is the motivation behind my design decisions?
• The design is taking away from the photos
• Why am I choosing the typefaces I am? Make it intentional.

Investigation 5

Project 1 : Investigation 4

2007-09-28T14:02:00.002-04:00

After my last few round of critques, I came to the realization that I was tackling the whole community, the whole magazine, and not really focusing on the photos as separate from this community. I chose to step away from the format and community for awhile and investigate individual images. These investigations explore how to tell the stories behind the photographs and the photographers that took them.

Critiqued with Denise
FEEDBACK/COMMENTS that I took from the critique:
• What is the relationship between showing the image twice?
(I was hanging onto the idea that if I crop it, I still should show it as the photographer intended for it to be shown)
• Why is the copy treated like copy, not data?
• Very brochure/magazine-like.
• Everything is "just right", still creating consistency, working with white space, balance, clean lines, etc. Explore messing it up.
• How to bring forward the backstories even more.
• How do you make something not read as a headline?
• Think about what "designerly" means.
• The design is disallowing the behind the scenes to surface.

Investigation 4

Project 1 : Investigation 3

2007-09-28T14:01:00.002-04:00

This photo investigation explores the idea that images of similar subjects can be an alternative way to viewing photos. The differences stand out in the similarities...this gives the community a different way of looking at images. This idea was then executed in a design investigation for the magazine. The new format suggests a different way a magazine can be interactive. The accordian folded cover shows the photographers on one side and their photos on the other, this would serve as the table of contents. The spreads would be organized with two sets of comparing photos (4 total) then the viewer could open up the spread to reveal the additional information behind the photos i.e. title, photographer, description, dates, etc.

Critiqued with class
FEEDBACK/COMMENTS that I took from the critique:
• Looks too much like a stock photo book.
• Hard to get the idea of comparing the images.
• Comparing images is interesting.
• Format may be too cumbersome,
but like the idea of adding interaction.
• Added surprise is interesting, what are other ways to add surprise.
• Working with greek text, why? Implies that I am not working
with the content or even thinking about it.
• Make it more interesting to look at.
• Why am I not working with and cropping the photos?
(I was trying to keep them true to how the photographers shot them)
• What are my design values?
• I am the designer, why not work with the photos more?

Investigation 3

Project 1 : Investigation 2

2007-09-28T13:58:00.001-04:00

This investigation looks into changing the design, structure and content of the magazine. I restructured the content to involve more of the community and all levels of photographers. I also looked at adding more of the photographers personality and bio to the magazine, something that is not in the current publication. In this redesign, I also encourage critique and added an element to create conversation around the photos with the intent that they would go online to post comments.

Critiqued with Denise
FEEDBACK/COMMENTS that I took from the critique:
• Magazine format is too literal, it has everything that is expected to be seen in a magazine; cover, table of contents, size.
• Design is also too literal and cliche; i.e. showing multiple photos, using handlettering for the bio page
• Rethink the purpose of a magazine and how people interact with it, how do I tell the backstories of the photos in an interesting way?

Investigation 2

Project 1 : Investigation 1

2007-09-13T17:48:00.002-04:00

These investigations evaluate the rules of composition. My intent was to create a tool for amateur photographers that helped them compose better photos. This would be an education on the simple rules of design compositions.

Critiqued in Class
FEEDBACK/COMMENTS that I took from the critique:
• This would be an interesting technical tool for online
or on the camera interface.
• Why do we need to educate people? Maybe they don't want to learn.
• How do I continue this?
• Question of rules, do you have to learn them before breaking them?
• Who says you have to follow the rules?
• Like the aspect of learning and facilitating critique in the JPG community, how can this work into a redesign of the magazine?

Investigation 1

Project 1 : Identify and Respond

2007-09-13T17:25:00.001-04:00

1. Select a designer, studio, or specific project that/who is already incorporating in some measure, even if small, design "co-creation" principles into their practice/message.

2. Analyze the work and answer the following questions:
° How successful do you think the approach is at involving "the other" in design knowledge, production, output (outcome)? What are your terms for success?

° Where does the work sit on the expert/novice creation scale? Why?
° Is the work transferable to other content?
° Has the work pioneered new territory or is it building on cultivated ideas? What are those ideas?
° Is the work driven by rules of assertion (designer driving the bus) or emergence (social, democratic forces)?
° If the work favors the "novice" end of our spectrum, how does the design function to promote and/or inspire participation?
° To what extent does profit figure in the work's success?
° What aspects of cultural production is the work exploiting? Opting not to include? Overlooking?
° How is "the other" represented (ala Stuart Hall, etc.)?
° What else do you observe?

3. Design an artifact (heretofore named a touchpoint) that adds to, furthers, and/or improves the work. In this project you are demonstrating your values relative to the work...You might agree with or take issue with the work.

SELECTED PROJECT : JPG Magazine
JPG Magazine Research
Artifact Proposals