mica photos

This is a little late, but I wanted to post some photos from the AIGA Education conference that I attended. We had a large group from NC State that presented: Me (grad), Rebecca Tegtmeyer (grad), Alberto Rigau (grad), Silas Munro (designer in residence), Denise Gonzales Crisp (prof), and Deborah Littlejohn (phd). I think we all did an excellent job of contributing some interesting ideas to the conference. It's always nice to step outside of our own circle of discussion to see what other educators and students are up to around the country. I was pretty impressed with the presentations overall. Particularly, Scott Stowell from Open Design, the design director for Good Magazine.

As I have previously mentioned, Rebecca and I presented on the MFA panel. Our goal was to demonstrate how NC State focuses on designing the conditions for experiences vs isolated artifacts. It was also important for us to show how all of the research, mapping, reading and writing informs our form making process. This is not to imply that all research happens and then we make things, rather it is an ebb and flow relationship and a lot of thinking through making.
(ALL PHOTOS BY ALBERTO RIGAU)

mixed messages

i came across this logo today while doing research. is it just me or do those red lines look a bit scary? like they could be used on a horror movie poster?

maybe the sub title is "ahhhhh! no more testing!"

welcome back!

first week of many new experiences. i can honestly say, I AM EXCITED! i actually couldn't wait to get up to studio today and get to work.

i'll begin posting this semester's work and thesis very soon.

worthy of a blog post

my friend rebecca tegtmeyer has opened a little etsy shop. she is crafting pillows from vintage seed sacks and designer fabric. within just a week of opening her modest etsy shop, she has been mentioned on decor8 and featured in a full post on design*sponge!

i'm just so proud of her. :)

social studies conference

who is going to the aiga social studies|educating designers in a connected world conference at mica? (any of you graduates?)


i'm going.

here's to you

happy birthday, pork!

shopping

i found this website today and i've been debating about what i like the most. i really love the design and feel of these earrings in particular:



the entire collection is beautiful
The creator, Laura Su, is a RISD alumna.

save polaroid

i'm mainly posting this for alberto.

SAVE POLAROID

90 books

today i found out that a grad student is allowed to check out 90 books at one time. not that i have that many checked out, but i thought it was a good factoid going into thesis.

and... the design library is amazing right now. empty, quiet, and all of the books are in! i walked around campus a little today and it hit me — i am just really happy. i'm so glad that i took a chance on grad school. i think it's one of the best choices that i have ever made.

proud

shepard fairey designed a limited edition poster of obama that quickly sold out. i've been bummed for a while that i couldn't get my hands on one. well, this weekend, i was at urban counterfitters* and saw that he had made shirts! pork and i each got one that we will not wear on the same days, i swear!

so,
alannah, here's my shirt:



obey giant

slowness and reflection

i came across the best post i've seen in a long time on the design observer. it's the cranbrook commencement address from this may. in it the speaker, Julie Lasky, touches on craft, technology and reflection.

"As a writer, I can tell you that, although the hand is identified with craft, materiality can be thought as well as felt — you can hear the click of a well-constructed sentence being assembled in your head; you can feel the stretch of a good mental workout. You don’t need to get your hands dirty to be a craftsperson; you need to get your minds dirty. And where I will point an accusatory finger at technology is in providing shortcuts to the slow deliberative process of acquiring a skill, which is guaranteed by working the hand. If you’re not careful, technology, with its immediacy and high resolution, swaps the illusion of mastery or wisdom for the real, hard-won thing. As the sociologist Richard Sennett recently wrote, “The slowness of craft time serves as a source of satisfaction: practice beds in, making the skill one’s own. Slow craft time also enables the work of reflection and imagination — which the push for quick results cannot.”

For Sennett, the value of practicing a craft is not just improved technique but also an ability to make imaginative connections to other parts of culture. In a recent interview with I.D., he discussed a widely held belief that 10,000 hours of practice are required to build expertise in any discipline. For the first 5,000 or 6,000 hours, the student simply learns to ingrain the physical gestures associated with his or her craft, whether glass-blowing or cello playing. “But,” Sennett cautions, “if your habit is fixed, you never get better.” So, somewhere between the 6,000th and 7,000th hour, the student begins to apply lateral thinking to develop new habits that are influenced by other areas of culture and work to enrich his or her own. There are social and ethical, as well as aesthetic, dimensions, to this process, in Sennett’s view. And he makes a very convincing case for it.

So you see, I’m not disputing or opposing the reawakening of a hunger for craft — and certainly not picking that fight on this campus. I am disputing and opposing the easy polarities that pit craft against technology, materials against ideas, and the hand against the mind."

as some of you know, my research this past semester focused on exploring reflection in interaction design. i wrote a paper, "Opportunities for Reflection: Selective Slowness in Design". (i've been encouraged to not post my papers here, but if anyone wants to read it, just let me know) i'm really glad that i came across this post today. it's so easy to put your research aside once you complete a semester, but tonight i felt that fire in my chest again — that flutter of excitement. i don't think i'm done exploring the implications of reflection in design, learning, and making just yet.

garden progress

this is our garden in the backyard. i took this photo last week sometime. we have already extended it a bit more.

planted in and around the garden:
cayenne peppers
red beauty peppers
golden summer peppers
yellow straightneck squash

herbs: chives,sweet basil, sweet tia basil,golden lemon thyme, kentucky colonel spearmint, chocolate mint, curly mint, fresh market mint, cilantro, and rosemary.

tomatoes: german johnson, chery red, mister stripey heirloom, juliet hybrid, rutgers, brandywine amish heirloom, grape cluster, and lemon boy.

last year we discovered that we have really great soil b/c our neighborhood was the "gardening neighborhood" back in the day. i'm not sure what that means, but i can imagine lots of southern belles in big hats, beautiful flowers, and mint julips.

2 weeks and counting

i can't wait to sit in the same room with my arkansas friends, share some wine, and catch up. it's been way too long. i always love that moment when i step off the plane in arkansas and take a deep breath. things really do feel different at home.

i've decided to maintain my blog over the summer. we'll see what types of things i end up posting. i know there is at least one person out there reading it, so that makes it worth it. despite my scepticism about the quality of online relationships, blogs and email have allowed me to stay closely connected with at least a few friends.

it's funny that we have spent so much time talking about collaboration and co-creation in grad school and now I am looking to spend my summer collaborating with another designer. good thing i like him. see here we are exploring how to subvert technology. ha ha ha:

it's over

time for reflection, the beach, doggie play dates, gardening, walking, cooking, sitting, reading, sleeping, brunch, the list could go on and on.

final review

What a crazy crazy semester. I feel like I have developed some friendships that will last far beyond graduate school and that alone is something to be grateful for. I know that people say they don't come to graduate school to make friends, but why close a door on that potential? A good friend is a hard thing to find and the conversations that are the fruit of those friendships may lead you to entirely new directions. I've learned so much and pushed myself farther than I thought possible. It's been a very demanding semester, but I feel like I gave it my all and that is all I can do.

I'm disappointed that we were split up between first years and second years. I know that thesis required a special quiet zone, but I missed having all 12 of us in one space. I learned a lot from the second year students last semester and wish I would have had that relationship this semester as well. (Maybe some of them feel the same?)

Tomorrow it will be out of my hands. I have worked hard, practiced, and slept. I will do my best and that will have to be enough.

I hope tomorrow goes well for everyone.

one week to go

we can do it.

Boston

Here are some pictures from our trip to Boston for the AIGA conference. We went to the MIT campus looking for the legendary bookstore, robots, and Henry Jenkins. We found two of those and a great little bar, called the Miracle of Science. Since we are doing some work with the periodic table, it only seemed fitting to sit, have a beer and do some research. :)

IDEO

Last week we had the head of interaction at IDEO, Danny Stillion, in studio. He did a two day workshop with us and gave a great lecture on Thursday night. I really enjoyed his time with us — it was insightful and invigorating. I was having distancing issues between myself and "those users over there". His workshop allowed me to pull the two back together. It was great to go out into the field and do some research. It's really fascinating all of the different methods that work best for user research — exploring things besides interviews. It's amazing what you can learn about someone from having them take photos or "make" things in their environment.

I did a bit of this type of research for Design for Democracy, but had a major disconnect between that time and now. This workshop really brought all of that back into my mind. Am I really that old? What is happening to my memory?

The work they are doing at IDEO, as well as their process, gave me a lot to move forward with. It was perfect timing.

Some images from the workshop, can be seen at Kelly's Flickr page.

sunshine

ART BY ANNE HARWELL

parsnip

after getting several inquiries about the new puppy, i've decided it is time to officially introduce her.

introducing parsnip lane: