person/earth: connected communities

Monday, March 02, 2009

connected communities

The UK is looking to fund projects that are aimed at connecting communities, which means that is what our projects are centered around. Half of team 2108 is back to bring communities together.

Anyways, a few things I have read/seen over the past few weeks have given me some ideas on how to achieve this goal:

1. From reading The Omnivores Dilemma by Michael Pollan, I am a believer that establishing local farms like Joel Salatin's Polyface Farms around the world would do massive good. Here's a taste of what would happen: local people would be supporting their neighbors, everybody starts eating healthier, a decrease in fossil fuels being used, people start to understand where their food comes from, and more humane treatment of animals.

2. A gas tax. Just read Thomas Friedman's NYT article.

3. I don't have a link for this one, but Bill Maher, the host of Real Time with Bill Maher, had a great rant the other night. He basically used the Snuggie as an example of the crap that Americans are spending their money on. What if we stop buying things and start making and doing things? It's not a new concept, but it would help. Making things localizes markets. Doing things can't be outsourced. Sure it's vague, but, um, so what?

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semester 1 creations

Design Thinking Essay: an essay analyzing "Tangible Steps Toward Tomorrow", a research report published by IDEO and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Besides a critique of the report, I examine how design thinking has been used and how the results and processes differ from those of more traditional educational research reports.
Ethnographic Study on Information Channels: an in-depth look into how people interact with three different types of information (passive, tangible, and interactive). Our research included observation and interviewing. We also created a postcard-esque proposal and had some epic brainstorming and post-it note/big-paper sessions. Teamwork with Lindsey and Rosie.
iMagine: a virtual project of just about anything, from a small watch-like device. Your imagination can now be displayed and played with. Looking to start a band? Project a guitar and start playing. Teamwork with Ketan, Jega, and Dave.
MyBrand: An explanation of "brand me". There were drawings of me on a bicycle in Amsterdam, me at 7 and 17 years old, and a tap water tee-shirt idea from my idea archive. After multiple metaphors, I concluded with my brand: human being.
Ritual Visualizations: Phillip Joe worked us on the visualization process. We created step-by-step sketchs of each other's persoal rituals, and then found the common links between each. Illustrations included floating kitchenware and a life-sized man-tent. Teamwork with Jo, Ketan, and Dave.
Student Furniture Rental Service: So you are a student moving to a new city to attend school, and don't have a clue where to find furniture? No need to worry, with this fictional service that we created, your problems are solved. Now you can pre-order all of your furniture online, either by choosing sets (bed, desk, dresser) or for a bit more, customizing your selection. Delivery to your flat is guaranteed on the day you arrive. Even better, if you can persuade the person taking over your flat to keep the rental for another year, you get some kind of discount. Imagine the fun you can have by hosting parties and showing off your stress-free furniture! Teamwork with Kate, Lindsey, Rosie, Ketan and Emily.
Theatre of Crime: Prof. Mike Press discussed his current Design Against Crime project, and sent us off to investigate how we could design against crime right on campus. Our Theatre of Crime presentation, a two-scene play with sound and costumes, introduced the concept of low shelf height to allow for greater visibility and an increased amount of situational stakeholders. Oh yeah, and we took home the day's prize. Teamwork with: Arelene, Annabella, Ahmed, and Gio.
Traveler Personas: After sharing our personal travel habits, we created three travler personas for whom to design new services and products for. The more adventerous traveler can now use a "landmark card", which is a credit card-sized map of local landmarks (including her accommodation), so she can be safe while travelling off the beaten path. The moderately adventerous traveler can select, from a kiosk, a local resident's day in the life map (which is printed in bracelet form), that will take her to local hotspots. The less adventerous traveler can now locate a "travel partner", who is a city resident, online for morek knowledgeable travelling. Teamwork with Sun, Grace, and Rosie.
YoGuzi: Colin Bruns let us in on his design thinking process. Our task was to redesign yogurt. We created a toy uzi machine gun that is ready to fire delicous yogurt balls. Think paintball with yogurt. Teamwork with Dave and Jumi.