The Kusudama Experiment

Check out the details about my TDS: Beautiful Networks project based on the Kusudama, a traditional modular Japanese origami design. I wanted a way to visualize a complex system using origami to explorepaper with old map graphics printed on the blank side.

What Do You Notice? What Do You Care to Notice?

Yesterday, I presented my Communication Design 2 experiential space. The assignment was to translate one medium into another – I was asked to translate an interactive website (tenbyten.org) into an exhibit/experiential space. The twist was that I also had to convey my point of view as how this pertains to me as a Media Designer.

Getting to the presentation seemed like quite a journey. Sketches, exhibit space investigations, more sketches, mini mock-ups, writing and rewriting my process and ambitions, scanning, reading, searching, editing, designing, printing, cutting, wrapping…And through this all I rehearsed in my mind what this whole process meant to me, and I had to take note of the changes emerging in my understanding of the entire experience.

About the Exhibit
The exhibit was titled “What Do You Notice? What Do You Care to Notice?” I wanted people to see how the affordances of a 3-D space could allow people to feel more engaged about the news. I attempted to translate the flat space of the news (particularly in newsprint and web-based news) into an actual space. I also attempted to convey how the physical engagement with the news articles could assist in developing a closer, more personal experience with context that often seems so distant from many of our own lives. The exhibit was meant to also redefine the intentions of traditional headlines. If a headine’s purpose is to catch a reader’s attention, how can scale, context and tactility do the same, or better? The experiential space opened up opportunities to think about other ways to push this idea further. What if these cubes were digital? What if every side changed out every hour? What if you could sit on these cubes? E-paper? OLED screens perhaps? And where would a space such as this exist successfully? And can we, as designers, compel people to interact with them? How would such a space change conversations around current events, or change social interactions with one another and with objects in space? The questions are endless, but that only means there are more possibilities to push this further so it might one day (cross my fingers) exist in the real world.

How might one enable the viewer to continue to explore the message beyond the experiential space?…by giving away takeaway cards!

These were printed on newsprint and mounted on cardstock. The flipside said: “We are captured by the provocative. Our ambitions and interests allow us to delve deeper, beyond our curious first impressions. We seek to know how the world is evolving around us. But how do we seek for answers?”

This side of the box focused on significant words pulled from the headlines.

People were free to move the cubes around in order to configure and display their own point of view

Day 2: Y13 Seeds of Change Conference

Solar voltaic parking lots anyone? Check out LifePort for more information. Not only do they generate energy, but they also provide shade for your cars, and power for those of you who own electric vehicles.

Today was a well-rounded day of talks ranging from tips on how to make design businesses more sustainable to thinking about how we can adopt good design practices through observing and adopting techniques of the natural ecosystems around us (biomimicry).

Speakers included smashLAB’s Eric Karjaluoto, Janet Kubler, PhD Biologist representing the Biomimicry Institute, Robert Noble of Envision Solar and NOBLE/GROUP, Free Range Studios, and our very own Nik Hafermas.

For me, this conference has made me feel like a kid in a thesis candy store. Good ideas, great aphorisms, enlightening tips, great resources, internship possibilities and critical questions about where we’re going with this all. I’m exhausted because my brain just about soaked up all it could for one day’s worth of green goodies.

Again, the big emphasis was about how we need to think about moving away from “green” as a marketing pitch and moving towards making it a way of living. This is why I really liked smashLAB’s presentation because they don’t pitch their company as being sustainable – they just do it. What as great about them was their new campaign called Design Can Change. It’s a resource site that encourages sustainable practices for our design communities. Check it out.

We’re building a movement people! And it’s nice to see how the design community is part of a forefront that also includes communities in the fields of science, academia and city planning.

If you’re interested in checking out more about the people and resources gathered from the conference, check out the links on this page or go to my growing list of links.

One more day to go. See ya.

Day 1: Y13 Seeds of Change Conference

Rooftop Farms. I come from a farming family. I want one!

Today was the first day at the AIGA Y13: Seeds of Change conference down in sunny San Diego. At registration, I received a tote bag made of recycled materials. The lanyard I placed around my neck dangled all our information on recycled paper. I really appreciated how the conference organizers took the time to think about the delivery of their goods. Before the conference began, I took a little time to check out the New Leaf Paper table. I was chatting away about their recycled paper products and you know that they said?: “The medium is the message.” Marshall McLuhan is everywhere! The literal medium is the message…nice.

The conference opened with a great, well-executed motion piece, introducing the speakers and the schedule. It was great to see how the thoughtfulness and craftsmanship of design was permeating in every aspect of the day. Susan Szenasy, Metropolis Magazine’s Editor-in-Chief was our keynote speaker for the evening. Originally, Paul Hawken was supposed to speak, but he had the flu. I was bummed out for a few minutes, but the modest and honest Susan Szenasy was both enlightening and down to earth (no pun intended). I really enjoyed her energy but I especially enjoyed her honesty, particularly when she said that designers and business people (which is pretty much everyone in some way) need to incorporate issues of sustainability into their work, not just as an additional thought or extra frill, but as an embedded non-separate aspect of the business.

Sustainability isn’t just an extra thing you can do to make the world a better place. It’s time for it to be a part of our social culture. This is exactly what I’ve been thinking about for the last few months! It was nice to hear other people felt the same way.

Susan touched on a ton of ideas that are currently out there regarding sustainability. There were so many ideas where I was saying to myself, “Hey! I was just thinking about that!” Some things Susan touched on were: green rooftops/ rooftop farms, sustainable schools, sustainable sidewalks, lunar sensitive street lamps, edible lawns, water harvesting walls and the list goes on.

She also touched upon issues such as: holistic systems thinking, natural vs. technological affordances, open sourcing, locally made products, repurposing things, and social consciousness in relation to living sustainably. These are all complex issues that each need to be expanded upon, but they are all issues I’ve been considering as I formulate next year’s thesis.

Anyways, I could go on and on. It was a good start to the conference and I’m excited to get to the meat of things tomorrow.

The Process has been a B&#%$!

photo: a mock-up idea for my exhibition space. Be on the lookout for the real thing in a few weeks!

What’s your point of view? What message do you want your audience to leave with? How does light play into this? What size would be effective? Are you incorporating interactive technologies? How are you going to get your audience to understand the initial idea? Where are you putting it? Why are you putting it there? What materials are you going to use? What’s the form? Why that form? Why not this form? What research have you done? How does that matter? Is there sound? Color? Smell? Tactility? Why? Why not? What’s the spirit? What will happen? What do you hope will happen? Why? How do you know people will react that way? Who? What? Where? When? Why? How?

How am I going to get people to understand?

ARGH!

Communication Design 2 (an MDP Required Course) is mentally grueling for me right now. I have been asked to reinterpret an interactive web site (www.tenbyten.org) into an exhibition space. The twist is that this exhibit space is not a literal interpretation but rather one that clearly includes my point of view and my objectives – an interpretation that reflects my thought process and my firmness in my experience.

For the past few weeks, I’ve had to struggle with answering all the questions above…and then some! I think the most important one that I’ve been thinking about so far is: When it comes time for me to pursue my thesis, how will I deliver a solid argument – one that differs from the rest? And how is this project helping me understand how to prepare myself?

I know this question can be answered in hundreds of ways. Each one of us in the course has struggled to interpret and translate our initial media into a new media form. I know I’ve struggled to find a balanced interpretation that is a reflection of my beliefs, but foremost a catalyst for conversation and self-reflection.

The process for this project has been somewhat grueling because I couldn’t control when exactly I was going to reach a miniature epiphany or just a huge wall. There were even moments that I thought I was on the right track, only to find out later that I needed to go back to an earlier sketch or veer off down another path of ideas. I think most of us are programmed to think everything must go forward and onward in order to reach a goal, but moving through a process that is non-linear from start to finish, that has twists and turns and reverse actions, can also help you reach your goals as well. That’s what the design process is all about. Oh, the process!…it’s been a struggle…it’s been a blast.

An Abstraction of LA

business cards of restaurants around L.A. Hmm, where to eat, where to eat…

Today our Beautiful Networks class worked outdoors on an abstraction of Los Angeles. Last week, each of us scoured a part of Los Angeles on foot that we considered unfamiliar. People visited places such as MacArthur Park, Altadena, West Los Angeles, and Eagle Rock. We documented and collected artifacts of our areas and presented visualizations in the form of film, photography, sound and even rubbings.

We took our experiences and decided to push our visualizations into something more cohesive for the class. Each of us contributed materials – some of brought found artifacts from our walks, some brought basic supplies, some brought found objects from around campus, while others brought their own models, illustrations and photographs. We worked from about 8am until noon and utilized an outdoor space behind the school to construct our interpretation of L.A.

There were several interesting phenomenas that occurred amidst the building and making. We all started off working on separate parts of the construct. As time passed, we started to naturally merge all the various aspects of the project to form a more networked and relative form. It was interesting to see how the cohesiveness of the project emerged in a natural and almost unspoken way. Some things were formed with intention while other things emerged from mistakes, ah-ha moments and serendipitous discussions.

When we came together to discuss the results of our work, we realized that as abstract as our materials and formations seemed, we were interacting in a subconscious and metaphoric way to represent our experiences of L.A. It wasn’t just the end results that revealed our understanding of this place, but also the act of having to build together that helped us realize the complicated and self-emergent networks of this metropolis.

We will be attempting to further our interpretations of this project and have already begun to brainstorm how we can push this project further over the course of the next few weeks. Keep checking out our blog for our latest updates. If you are interested in seeing more photos of today’s work, visit my Flickr site.

the set up has begun! a network made of pipe cleaners.

smog being represented by found garbage bags

plastic bags representing LA smog juxtaposing the nature around us

The City of Angels…big city of dreams. “Everyday in LA ain’t always what it seems.”

Processing the Processing

Something really great about the MDP students is their willingness to share their knowledge with one another. Sometimes we barter our skills – “You teach me Actionscript, I’ll teach you CSS.” Or, “You help me build something in the tool shop and I’ll pay for your tofu soup in Koreatown.”

This term two MDP students, M4 Justin Gier and alumni Charles Lu, set-up a weekly Processing workshop for interested folks. Processing is an open source programming language for image, animation and interaction.

This workshop is really a show of one of the ways students take initiative to expand their knowledge to benefit their research and projects. This is one of the reasons I really enjoy the MDP. Learning is more than just going to class. It’s about sharing and exchanging knowledge with your peers.

Great Moments in Super Studio

The gang kickin’ back and checking out a ceiling projection idea where family members could text messages to the ceiling that would be visualized in a way that could convey mood as well as provide a new space for conversation and storytelling.

Here is our lovely visiting professor, Ms. Shona Kitchen getting cozy on one of our steaming media ideas! The Pink Sausage will never die!

Ping is testing out an idea that included a webcam attached to a person, along with an earpiece and microphone. Where did we get that mannequin and old antique wheelchair? We have a prop room with things galore.

Adam, Julie and Yu-Seung conversing about the dining table project.

A model made by Julie to help get a better feel of how the different scenarios could work out in a home.

The Super Studio Blog is Up!

We formed a blog to help document our Super Studio experience this term. Super Studio is a year long design research course here in the MDP. This blog is focused on our work for this term (our 2nd term as Super Studians). Check it out.

To learn more about this year’s Super Studio go here.

I’m Going to San Diego!

So I applied for an MDP grant to attend the AIGA Y13: Seeds of Change Conference and was happily informed that my grant application was accepted!The conference will take place from March 27-29th, 2008 at the University of San Diego (USD). This year’s conference will be geared towards ideas around sustainability (the big S word). Attendees will be able to explore new and developing paradigms around sustainable culture by attending lectures and through participating in “Thinkshops,” which are sort of a hybrid between dialogue and making workshops.As part of my grant requirement, I will have to give a presentation in our Colloquium upon my return. I’m really interested in attending this conference because my interests right now are leaning towards issues around sustainable urban communities and emerging behaviors around this topic. Perhaps I smell a thesis idea in the air?