Conferences + Events

A list of conferences + events to keep an eye on: Idea Festival http://www.ideafestival.com/ - Louisville, KY TEDxManhattan http://tedxmanhattan.org/ SDN - SDNC11 - SCAD Interaction 11 - in Boulder

If you want to host a TEDxManhattan viewing party for those that won't make it to the actual location let me know.  Maybe TEDxManhattan-but-in-Brooklyn. I'm sure there will be a lot of options cropping up, probably some at Parsons, but backups never hurt. See Details for hosting a TEDxManhattan viewing party. And their page on MeetUp

The Critical Gift of Design

Elaine Scarry of Parsons Event Description:

NEW YORK, December 14, 2010—A new theory of design has recently emerged that moves design toward more interdisciplinary, humanitarian ends. In the spirit of the holiday season, Parsons The New School for Design and the Köln International School of Design (KISD) will explore what design is capable of giving to the world with The Critical Gift of Design, a conference and exhibition featuring leading international designers and scholars, taking place at The New School December 16-17. “We understand that design is not a neutral act,” said Joel Towers, executive dean of Parsons. “With the Critical Gift, we are taking a step back to assess how we have used this power throughout history—for better and worse—and how we might apply it in the future to benefit an increasingly complex and global society.” Bringing together design and the social sciences, participants will discuss what makes design attractive or repulsive, humane or inhumane, social or antisocial. The conference will feature a keynote address, “Beauty and the Design of Aliveness,” by Elaine Scarry, the Walter M. Cabot Professor of Aesthetics and the General Theory of Value at Harvard University. The conference will also be driven by breakout discussion sessions led by participants, includingPaola Antonelli, senior curator in the Department of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art; Ruedi Baur, graphic designer and cofounder of the interdisciplinary network Intégral Concept; Marco Piva, founder of the architecture, interior, and industrial design firm Studiodada Associates; Uta Brandes, professor of gender and design and of design research at KISD; and Jamer Hunt, director of the MFA program in Transdisciplinary Design at Parsons. "Design has gained an importance and a self-consciousness that requires it to be much more critical—against its own stupidities and against inhumane social and political activities," said Michael Erlhoff, founding professor of KISD, who co-organized the conference with Clive Dilnot, professor of Design Studies at Parsons, and Cameron Tonkinwise, associate dean of Sustainability at Parsons. Extending the ideas of the conference is the corresponding exhibition The Present, featuring work by Parsons and KISD students, which will be on display in the Sheila C. Johnson Design Center at Parsons December 16-19. Through critical product design, subversive videos, satirical stories and controversial projects, The Present will challenge visitors to consider whether design is a gift or a curse. The exhibition will highlight work produced by the first class of students in the MFA Transdisciplinary Design program at Parsons, a collaborative, studio-based program that applies design solutions to complex global problems.

[singlepic id=388] Notes from the Opening Conference Presentation given by Elaine Scarry: "We have a lot of beautiful objects in the world.  Do we need more? Yes.  The answer is obviously yes" as more and more continue to pour into this world.

Three Sights of Beauty, one of which is symmetry. -Symmetry in objects is beautiful well known. -Symmetric in justice. -reaction of the perceive to the object of the beauty.

Justice: Justice is alway artefactual, never natural. (or artificial?) beauty contributes to justice with the desire to create more and more in the world. If you bring an object into the room, its beauty effects those in the room. Justice is more expansive (like Apia's concept of cosmopolitan) - it effects people in different locations.

Asymmetry Discrepancy of poor: - widening asymmetries of wealth and increased stratification. She also brought up the increased power of weaponry. I'd like to extend that to other concepts that I have heard about the asymmetry of power. It's not just asymmetry between nation-state and nation-state where one nation-state can destroy many others or the world. That asymmetry also exists on the scope of the individual  - one individual can unleash massive damage to a city.

Concepts - -concepts we speak on "fairness" -speaking in the realm of "justice" -infinity, distribution - all terms for plentitude. -radical un-selfing. -Timelag

Crowd questions: "Aren't machine guns and bombs beautiful?  As they are symmetrical." How real is symmetry as "our eyes cannot see parallels" so what happens is that "we construct symmetry." (see Crafting Hybrid Design with note on how lines are only abstractions)

Designers + Theorists mentioned: -Charles Rennie Mackintosh -Plato's Phaedrus

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Parsons The New School for Design is one of the most prestigious and comprehensive schools of art and design in the world. It is an integral part of The New School, a research university with a strong legacy in the social sciences. Based in New York, but active around the world, Parsons is committed to creatively and critically addressing the complexities of life in the 21st century. For more information, visit www.newschool.edu/parsons. (Parsons Press Release)

The Köln International School of Design (as part of the University of Applied Sciences Cologne) was founded in 1991 as the first completely transdisciplinary design university. Through projects and seminars, students study all of the teaching and research areas offered by KISD, such as Service Design, Design and Economy, Gender Design, Interface Design, Design and Identity, Design for Manufacturing, and Design Theory. KISD offers a 4-year BA Integrated, a 5-year BA/MA in European Design, and a 2-year research-based MA Integrated. As about 35% of KISD students do not speak German, almost all of the projects, seminars, lectures, and courses are held in English. For more information, visit www.KISD.de. (Parsons Press Release)

Parsons Press Release - http://www.newschool.edu/pressroom/pressreleases/2010/criticalgift.htm Info in German - http://www.koeln-nachrichten.de/bildung/hochschule/koeln_kisd_new_york_ausstellung_design_2010_dezember.html

Atlantis - Urbanism of Inclusion

URBAN@PARSONS PRESENTS:

URBANISMS OF INCLUSION: ATLANTIS TRANSATLANTIC EDUCATION PROGRAM

Pecha-kucha presentations followed by a panel discussion with:

Teddy Cruz, Bruno De Meulder, Kelly Shannon, Glenn Smith, Brian McGrath, Miodrag Mitrasinovic

[singlepic id=601] CITIES, NATURE & URBAN DESIGN: CASES IN BELGIUM AND VIETNAM Lecture by Bruno De Meulder & Kelly Shannon, KU Leuven University, Belgium Kellen Auditorium 66 5th Avenue, Sheila Johnson Design Center Friday December 17, 12:00 – 3:00 PM, 2010 Find more information about the Atlantis Program here. [singlepic id=602]

[singlepic id=599] My Chunked Notes: Image of stakeholders diagram showing relationships and influence mobilepic 1 patchworks mobilepic 2 social ecological structure

Miodrag Mitrasinovic "These schools got together because we share two things in common. One of which is social inclusion the other of which is design."

3 lenses of design 1. Human centered approach-  not top down, not formal But from middle out 2. Process orieted approclav not driven by form or driven by interaction. But driven by socio enivonrmental and political action 3. Nexus of teaching, researh, knowledge and action

"How we can uneaeth new bodies of knowledge and codefiy them across the differnt types of action in the spectrum?"

Threads that went through all of the presentations: -Social inclusion -Designs' capacity to bring about change -Promiscuous areas

[singlepic id=600] Teddy Cruz "The right circle concept of cities is a sociological concept organizing data.  Cities are based on permiscuois systems. Like la la didn't have a grand plan." "Designers are schizo by nature." "We can create new social relationships." "Without alterting the very rigid economic policies and political framework." "Design can become a service to rethink the economic policies and political frameworks"

"The science of the city and interieing in the city. The designer can be the one to intervene with the problems in the city. Design can come to a resolution of the conflict that words could no longer don. The power of negotiation through design can create a spatial solution" (But I think that it also provides solutions that are not just spatial). "Design can "do more than talk but [actually] create agency."

Not just "spatial relations and visual representations. But also the ability to is not led by buildings or systems but by the reorganized social systems. Corporations and co-managers of resources. My own cirticq of my own process...we lack the tools. Drawings are limited. What other devices allow us to translate those new roles of entrepreneurship."

Kelly Shannon Relationships of people to their own environment. Space and interactions with space. Translate it so those actions can redefine the tip down legislation. [singlepic id=601] [singlepic id=598]

_________________________________________________________________ addy thoughts: I really appreciate the way architects organize their work.

Feedback Map

Enhanced Elements for Sensory DesignPeople have a "rapid way in which they move through daily life routines, electronic media provide resources for self-imaging." (Appadurai)

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additonal: As a map it is now both an input and output source.

Sources: Modernity at Large, Cultural Dimensions of Globalization, Arjun Appadurai, Chapter 1 - Global Flows, page 3-4

Fightonomics - Documenting Play

Goal: Research and document the most important aspects of play from its inception to its completion. I aimed to understand the core mechanics well enough to apply it to another domain.I actually documented a game within a game. That would be the gambling (the second game layer) on top of the sports match (the first game layer).

[singlepic id=337] [singlepic id=338] [singlepic id=339] [singlepic id=340] [nggallery id=24] Sources: Photos - of the television screen while watching pay-per-view Fall, 2009

Theoretical Viral Framework

[singlepic id=378][singlepic id=380] This was a breeze after AKQA. My kerning, spacing and everything were still poor, and still need brushing up. But Parsons is great in that it offers me the ability to learn about marketing theories, cultural dimensions and how things should ideally run. In addition to all of the wonderful theoretical models and frameworks, some professor were actual Mad Men and drill you to come up with really unique concepts. They really know how and why offices are structured in particular models and the fine grain detail about the human to human interaction that would go on. They certainly do have stories to tell. [nggallery id=31] The "see - learn - do -share" process is from Marieke de Mooij's Global Marketing and Advertising. One of the key differences in a viral model is that it offers the ability to share at multiple points throughout the experience, not only once the purchase and experience has been completed. Source: Marieke de Mooij Ph.D.

Feng Mengbo

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Crafting Hybrid Design

Definitions.We shouldn't let definitions limit our discipline.  Our actions, tools and methods should define our discipline, not vise versa.

Siloing Definitions Apparently in Silicone Valley, introducing yourself as an "interaction designers" denotes that you know how to code. But that on the east coast, it means you are a visual designer possibly without the ability to code.

Someone else told me that "User Experience" is online, but "Experience Design" isn't exclusively online.  But isn't the design of a service also supposed to be user centered? It makes sense that the pathways must be well designed for the provider as well, which is why some companies like Kaiser Permanente prefer the term "People Centered," since they also design for the nurses that take care of patients.  There is the theory that experience cannot be designed, only the parameters for the experience. But that doesn't mean outcomes are totally out of our control. We need to influence specific prompts of the experience at the right times.

There's the threat of being overly specific.  I've also heard that if something becomes a discipline it is no longer integrative, making the institution of learning a "tradeschool," or the firm "industrialized and mechanized."

Defining by Differentiating Oreilly gives four definitions of what IA may be and then states what is not IA. "*Graphic design is NOT information architecture." "*Software development is NOT information architecture." "*Usability engineering is NOT information architecture." Some architects say that information architecture isn't actually architecture, because most IA practitioners don't have BArch or MArch degrees, nor are they certified by an association like RIBA, The Royal Institute of British Architects. You can now find the term Interaction Architects popping up.

There are designers fighting for new ground, and designers fighting to defend their current titles and current methods. Maybe we currently we exist in the "gray areas between disciplines" fighting for future methods.  (Oreily).

Design Future Another way to put this is that we're "hybrid designers [that] re-design, re-think," and are "better suited to a complex physical/non-physical world" (FastCo). While we may get caught up in defining new disciplines and titles, we should focus on defining new methods and media.  Not new media as in tv, web, mobile but new media as in Robert Fabricant's concept that "behavior is our medium."  Fast Co emphasizes "Being a thought-leader (or a design-thinker) is nice, yet also being a craftsman," who can create functional outputs is important.  I find the concept of being a "Hybrid Designer" very fitting.   There can be different types of hybrid designers, but they will all rely on specific craft.

[singlepic id=267]Robert Fabricant leads a team of Hybrid Designers at frog design

Well, what is craft?  Richard Sennett believes craftwork to be "highly refined, complicated activity [that] emerges from simple mental acts like specifying facts and then questioning them."

As humans we place concepts into hierarchies and then apply labels terms to them.  This allows us to understand ideas and share them.  But these are all abstractions.  When the lines begin to blur, we begin to freak out.  Lines themselves are abstractions that do not exist.  We just use lines as means to define an actual space.  In imagery like painting or illustration a line is just used to define an edge, but if you zoom in it's not a line, just more space...gray space.  Even vectors are something we cannot directly engage with.  Let's create the fine grain detail, develop new craft and then zoom out to decide what specific type of designer we are.  For now, maybe a Hybrid Designer is a nice, loose umbrella term.

Even if you are an architect there is the chance someone will define you as someone who "builds buildings."  It's not just buildings or construction sites, or website.  It's communities and empires.  The communities and empires of the future are those of the mind.

sources
Orielly Information Architecture for the World Wide Web http://www.oreilly.de/catalog/9780596527341/toc.html

Fast Co on Beyond Design Thinking: Why Hybrid Design Is the Next New Thing http://www.fastcompany.com/1656288/beyond-design-thinking-why-hybrid-design-is-the-next-new-thing

Robert Fabircant - Behavior is Our Medium at IxDA http://www.ixda.org/resources/robert-fabricant-behavior-our-medium

NYC UX Community Holiday Party

Yesterday was the UX Community's annual holiday party, attended by IxDA, UPA to name a few. I attended with my friend Jake from Parsons' Design+Management program.  It was mostly relaxing and socializing. But I learn about new things every time I meet with members of these groups. We met a number people there who majored in English, liberal arts, or journalism. That is because just a few years ago degrees were not available for the disciplines they now practice. Which is interesting for Jake and myself because he is getting a BBA in Design+ Management and I am getting a BFA in Integrated Design. Those are not common job titles. It isn't necessarily our goal to make them more common titles. We're looking define new roles, new methods and from that may come new titles. [singlepic id=255] [singlepic id=257]

Topics we brought up: Service Design for transportation - specifically airlines Redesigned airline tickets - passfail.squarespace.com brought to my attention by Jess Eddy who has great work.

Information Architecture - Do you have any examples of good IA for a site including search functions that aggregate info from other organizations? Specifically for services like OpenTable or Kayak - where there is info from many restaurants and hotels.

960 Grid System - Fluid 960 Grid System - featuring code download 960 Grid System - featuring Illustrator, InDesign, Flash template downloads etc

Architecture - Bjarke Ingels 3 warp-speed architecture tales on TED Bjarke Ingels Group website

Joshua Prince-Ramus uses Hyperreality Designing the Seattle Central Library TED on youtube

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LeftLoft, Italian Design Studio Opens in New York

Leftloft, an Italian design studio opens it doors in New York this year.  They had a reception for their studio launch earlier this week on Fifth Ave, right around the corner from Parsons.  They describe themselves as an "independnt graphic design company based out of Milan, Italy." They do graphic design and creative direction/strategy.  They've aslo done some really nice information design and design for environments.Some of their clients include: Moleskine, Pirelli, Politecnico di Milano, Car Sharing Italia [singlepic id=232] [singlepic id=246] CMGN [singlepic id=238] Paul from Pentagram New York [singlepic id=233] 倍耐力Perelli 是一家CSR公司 [singlepic id=239] Touchpoint Genius!  It's like the Ridel logo that has been etched inversely on the bottom of their crystal, so when you finish a glass you are looking right at their logo. [singlepic id=249]

Check them out at http://leftloft.com/

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