JR, 28 Millimeters, Women Are Heroes, Morro da Providencia, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 2008, courtesy JR.
A Tumblr is a easy to update blog, tailor made to act as a scrap book of images, movies, audio and quotes. It plays nice with long-format original text too. I have one (lis470.tumblr.com!) Kate has one! Frank has one (and loves it).
470 students are required to keep their own Tumblr blog (and follow all classmates) as a means to document visual discoveries while doing research, to serve as a repository for reading responses, and a place to hold your thoughts, observations and process about your projects.
Again, all students are required to follow everyone in the class (including me!). It will be our primary way of sharing progress and inspiration!
Tumblr also has made a handy "bookmarklet," a bookmark that can sit in your bookmarks bar. When you're surfing, if you find a relevant image, just click on the "Share on Tumblr" bookmarklet, select the image you want in the popup and click the Save button. If it's text, just highlight the text you'd like to quote and click the bookmarklet. Easy peasy. You'll be filling up your blogs in no time. Here are some instructions on how to install the bookmarklet.
Also check out Tumblr's blog directory for more recommendations.
I think this is a great example of how much spirit a Social Practice project can contain. Fifty people, one question: "What is your secret?"
Maybe we don't know everything. And maybe the things we don't know are the most important bits.
Think of some of the characteristics of this while considering the different forms your ideas can take.
Limitations: Everyone is answering the same question.
In your first readings, you'll be learning about frameworks, patterns, improvisation and creating platforms for audience contributions. Liz Danzico wrote one of the pieces, and a lot of the main points of her essay are encapsulated in this lecture by her at the Interaction '10 conference. It's brain tingly and entertaining, by pulling in architecture, music and theater into her hypothesis.
"…less a sandcastle and more a sandbox"
No Pants Subway Ride. No Pants 2010. Improv Everywhere.
Miranda July made "eleven outdoor sculptures… to pose with — pedestals to stand on, tablets with holes for body parts, and free-standing headdresses."
Art In Odd Places; Images from an article in Paper magazine.
There are three "parts" to the social practice project. The first part of your assignment is to create a proposal for a social practice event that will take place in downtown Portland; and to take part in one of the selected events as an active team member.
The second part is to create designed work inspired by the event. The designed work will evoke the spirit of the event you participate in.
The third part (presentation or brand book) beautifully documents both the event and the designed work you create.
The intended outcome of the second and third "parts" of the assignment is to parallel the experience of the event. If your event seeks to make people happy, your work should also.
In this post are examples of ways to accomplish expressive and well-crafted documentation (including photography, narratives/storytelling, video, print ephemera, mapping, locative technologies / media, web sites, and social networking).
First up are collaborators Melissa Small and Sarah Sandman's project "Gift Cycle".
Designed work documenting the route. Gift Cycle map.
Collaborators Melissa Small and Sarah Sandman, "What's On (Y)our Plate" (a test project for Bruce Mau Design). The assignment: "Visually articulate the top 10 issues in the contemporary collective consciousness. This is what we came up with. It's a campaign and accompanying website to encourage communication in the public spaces of NYC."
Collaborators Melissa Small and Sarah Sandman. "WHAT'S ON (Y)OUR PLATE".
TYPORCHESTRA /// A COLLECTIVE PERFORMANCE FOR SERIOUSLY(?)(!) "The Seriously(?)(!) campaign promoted fiscal and environmental responsibility at RISD." Melissa and Sarah "organized a typographic orchestra in which 16 RISD students, faculty and staff performed a choreographed, collective statement. "
Yellow Arrow. "HOW IT WORKS: Participants place uniquely-coded Yellow Arrow stickers to draw attention to different locations and objects — a favorite view of the city, an odd fire hydrant, the local bar. By sending an SMS from a mobile phone to the Yellow Arrow number beginning with the arrow's unique code, Yellow Arrow authors connect a story to the location where they place their sticker. Messages range from short poetic fragments to personal stories to game-like prompts to action. When another person encounters the Yellow Arrow, he or she sends its code to the Yellow Arrow number and immediately receives the message on their mobile phone. The website yellowarrow.net extends this location-based exchange, by allowing participants to annotate their arrows with photos and maps in the online gallery of Yellow Arrows placed throughout the world."
"Excerpt from The Yes Men Fix the World. Attendees at the 'Catastrophic Loss' conference at the Ritz-Carlton in Amelia Island, Florida, in May 2006 were bedazzled by Halliburton's latest personalized climate change mitigation system - a gated community for one - the Survivaball. For more Yes Men videos, visit the Yes Men Channel"
Excerpt from The Yes Men fix the World. On the 20th anniversary of the Bhopal gas tragedy, December 2004, Dow spokesperson 'Jude Finiseterra' makes an unexpected announcement on the BBC. In this alternative reality where major corporations do the right thing, Dow Chemical (the present owner of Union Carbide, the company behind the spill), claimed full responsibility for the tragedy and announced a multibillion dollar compensation package. Dow stock prices lost over $2 billion in value in 20 minutes, before the hoax was revealed. The Yes Men.
Karaoke Ice promoted 01SJ Biennial "A project by Nancy Nowacek, Katie Salen, and Marina Zurkow, with music produced and arranged by Lem Jay Ignacio. Commissioned for ZeroOne San Jose: A Global Festival of Art on the Edge, August 2006. Produced in collaboration with the CADRE Laboratory of New Media, SJSU."
"Imagine salons and theatrical events spawned by the passage of virtual and real objects through invisible and visible urban infrastructures. With the help of a nomadic squirrel cub and a vehicular mod, Karaoke Ice populates and parse life as a lived database, transcribed through song."
Basically there are two kinds of designers: helicopters and vending machines. The helicopters fly around the landscape zooming in to investigate, backing off to get a better panoramic view. On the other hand vending machines tend to be inert until someone shoves money in a slot. They then produce a lot of buzzing, whirring and clanking, until out pops a product. It is invariably the same as the previous one, and will be the same as the next. The only difference is the next is usually staler.
From Japan, Sony campaign "Singing In the Car" to promote a new vehicle navigation system. "The campaign is an online audition to pick the best performers singing in the car. Not only the videos get uploaded on Sony's website, but the best ones also will become part of the TV spot that will go on air." This is an example of interactive TV content created with consumers help. "People really loved the initiative and got crazy to get one minute of fame: you will see mums with kids, families with kids playing the sax, friends, singles, singles with dogs, couples with cats and much more. In December the best audition will be awared with the value of ten years of holidays based on government estimate (about $9,500)."