2.20.13 | Transblog
5 Theatre Artists, 1 Fashion Designer, 2 Facilitators, 1 Documentarian
On a chilly day in December, we gathered in the TransDesign space to explore what sustainability meant to theatre artists and designers in the context of a residency program. Writing as a theatre artist myself, we were aware that this was certainly new territory and a bit of a daunting task to undertake. Beginning with our initial application to the New Challenge, we tried to envision a residency program that utilized strategic design thinking to generate a new philosophy and practice around ideas of sustainability and what that means to an artist. Would they even be interested in bringing such an ideological, social trend into the context of their work? If so, how would they go about doing it? We posed these questions and others to a willing group of artists who were concerned about the sustainability of performance in a wider social context.
12.29.12 | Transblog
The Design All Around Us
Perhaps it’s too soon, or too shocking. Some may even say that it’s in bad taste. So before I begin, let me say that there are no words that could adequately describe the horror, sorrow, and anger I felt when I heard about the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary. My intention in writing this post is not to offend, but rather to contribute to our discourse around such tragedies, the examination of the events that lead up to them, and how our political system can use such events as catalysts to improve our society.
12.19.12 | Transblog
Eco Not Ego: De-Centering the Human in Design
What would Water have to say were she at the design table?
When we make plans to lay more impermeable concrete for a new street, I wonder if Water would agree. I highly doubt it. Perhaps Water might say, “People, I realize you are well meaning but think of me. I will not be able to restore the aquifers that you rely on for drinking water and irrigating your crops. You will have to install heavy construction to bring my nutrients from further and further away. Please think twice and decide differently.”
When we shifted from the Earthen Closet to the Water Closet, I wonder how Water would have weighed in. “Why use me to wash away your shit when you can use it to fertilize the earth?” she might have asked. When we take a step back, flush water toilets are quite suicidal: we are taking the most precious resource in threat of scarcity and using it to rid ourselves of a material that naturally decomposes and fertilizes soil. Indeed, the depth of our human-centered advancement, continues to nourish our unknowing of how to sustainably and abundantly live with the earth.
12.16.12 | Transblog
Designing to Combat Sexual Violence
When we spoke about Julian Dibbell’s article “A Rape in Cyberspace: How an Evil Clown, a Haitian Trickster, Two Wizards, and a Cast of Dozens Turned a Database Into a Society,” we spoke about the formation of virtual communities and their significance; the good and bad aspects that come along with the freedom of anonymity on the web; and the phenomenon of impactful virtual experience. But we didn’t actually talk about rape. We explored important questions about what makes a group of people a community, and the promise and limitations of the Internet as a space to escape, remake, or assert identity. We didn’t, however, explore the perceptions, definitions, or experiences of sexual violence in Dibbell’s article, or the ideas of victimization vs. agency that influenced it.
This blog post stems from our Transdisciplinary Design Seminar’s conversation, and my belief that if we are to take seriously our role as designers in shaping and reshaping our communities, we must wrestle with the concepts and practices that inform them, including sexual violence. How can we combat sexual violence through design?
12.15.12 | Opportunities
How to Deal with Old Electronic Products?
I’m an electronic products fan. I immerse in pursuing the various electronic products, which provide me with a high quality, and come to pervade every aspect of my live. My room is full of computers, cellphones, flesh drivers, and tangle USBs. Those electronic products are upgrading at a speed which is unprecedented, new generations emerging constantly. I can’t resist the attraction of new electronic products, so I purchase new products to eliminate old. Then the old products accumulate in the corn pose a major headache for me ——How to deal with them in a proper way?
Imagination as Social Practice
“The imagination has become an organized field of social practices, a form of work (in the sense of both labor and culturally organized practice,) a form of work (in the sense of both labor and culturally organized practice,) and a form of negotiation between sites of agency (individuals) and globally defined field of possibility.” (Appadurai, Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy)
A few summers ago, I took a one-week art history course on the Pueblo Anasazi Indians. Around fifty students and I signed up to take the class and camp out in Mesa Verde, Colorado, a place where the Anasazi Indians once called their home. The Anasazi first settled in Mesa Verde in around A.D. 550, inhabiting the area for over 700 years. The tribe built a small foundation in Mesa Verde, which eventually blossomed into a full-fledged city. Then suddenly, they disappeared. Although we may never know for sure why the Anasazi migrated from their long-established home, what they left behind gives a glimpse into the possible role collective imagination may have played.
12.14.12 | Transblog
When to Say When
Images from the documentary “Jiro Dreams of Sushi”
“Hey isn’t this great, sushi in drug stores? Look at that selection. Gosh, Walgreens have really refined their taste, haven’t they?”
Every day in Ginza, Tokyo, Japan, a man gets up at 5 in the morning to refine his skills at his restaurant. To him, national holidays are a bore. Not because he doesn’t respect his country and love his family, but because it means he will be away from his work for too long. Despite making sushi for decades, he insists he has a long way to go. He knows every day holds a new opportunity to reach perfection, but is perfectly aware how impossible that achievement is.
12.14.12 | Transblog
Trans-Christmas
I have six nieces and nephews. Yes, I said six. The oldest is five and the youngest is just four months. Around Christmas time I start to panic. I struggle with what gifts to buy them. I become anxious about giving the right gift and buy nothing until, well this year like last year, it’s already the 14th of December, and I still haven’t purchased one present or even thought about what to buy them. It’s hard to find a gift that will make me look cool, not bankrupt me, and not be the same gift as anyone else gives them. Heaven help me it is so boring they toss it aside immediately making it a complete waste of time and money spent.
12.14.12 | Transblog
Resilience Vs. Efficiency
A network is simply a set of interconnecting nodes; exchanges are made through connections between the nodes and these two elements form a larger system. There are computer networks like the internet, supply networks like the food supply chain into New York, social networks like your groups of friends, and so on. Networks are often over simplified by only discussing their structure; for example, if you have a decentralised and interconnected network it is naturally resilient. The structure is; of course, an important factor; however, there are at least two other factors to be considered; resources and bandwidth.
12.14.12 | Transblog
It All Starts with Small Changes
There are many skills and talents that are required to become a good designer, especially paying detailed attention. For many years, my habitual process of assuring quality has kept my clients happy with projects I was assigned to. However, an issue came about when I began my study at Parsons, as I started cutting back on work to concentrate on my studies full time. A manager of one of my former clients informed my supervisor that they weren’t happy with the work being received. They have specifically asked for my involvement in their project again. Knowing that people currently assigned to the project are as capable if not more than I am, I began wondering about the causality of this problem.
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