"The West is full of Tiggers--restless seekers of instant gratification, larger-than-life overachievers. The West idolizes them because they're Bouncy and Exciting. Maybe even a bit too exciting. And they're becoming more exciting all the time. It seems that it's no longer adequate to be a True Individual, or even a Hero; now one needs to be some sort of Superman, living an overinflated life punctuated (in true Tigger fashion) with exclamation marks. Faster than a speeding bullet! More powerful than a locomotive! Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound! This is the age of Supereverything--Superstar, Superathlete, Supercoach, Superpolitician, even Superbusinessman: Faster than a speeding ticket! More powerful than a profit motive! Able to lease tall buildings in a single day!"
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Post 12 - Addicted to Plastic
Documentary about the effects of a culture obsessed with convenience and instructed throw-away habits directed by Canadian filmmaker Ian Connacher.
"The film details plastic's path over the last 100 years and provides a wealth of expert interviews on practical and cutting edge solutions to recycling, toxicity and biodegradability. These solutions will provide viewers with a hopeful perspective about our future with plastic."
http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/passionateeyemonday/2009/addictedtoplastic/
trailer:
Post 11 - Changed Revisit
activates/reflects the culture of its time and place, BOTH from the perspective of the user
and the designer.
(required: text of approximately 2000 words including clear evidence of research as
necessary and your interpretation of it, citations for quoted material, images as required)
I've decided to change my revist as through the research I have done at this point I am seeing how my chosen artifact in fact reflects the culture and time of its place.
post 10 - "Bohemian Modern: Living in Silver Lake" by Barbara Bestor
A book about life in Silver Lake, Los Angeles California. A collage of wonderfully colorful area that booms with creative people from all walks of Art as Bohemian Modernists.
Post 9 - TED Talks: Human-Centered Design
In 2002, IDEO's David Kelley talks about how Prada, Dilbert and some London museums focus on people and their experience
By knowing who you are designing for, helps to make Design better.
Post 8 - LAUGHOLOGY
A documentary by Albert Nerenberg, trying to find laughter and joy in his life after experiencing some of the least happiest moments of a persons life. He shares his discoveries in this laughable documentary.
trailer:
clip 1:
clip 2:
Post 7 - Noam Comsky "Profit over People: Neoliberalism and Global Order”
A very interesting find concerning the history of capitalism putting profit over people which I think is necessary to understand when looking how our current culture is supporting itself on corrupt crutches.
Noam Chomsky raises interesting issues that I had never heard of previously and definitely helped in understanding just how important it is to change.
Post 6 - Slow Culture
The current Slow Food and subsequently inspired Slow Design movements focus on being more in tune with our environment to benefit it and to allow it to benefit us.
Up until now the world has functioned on a hierarchical system that put humans above nature, but in retrospect, nature is a force not to be reckoned with!
Much importance and reward has also been put on new technologies promoting speed and convenience based on the advancements of the undustrial revolution, but rather than creating more problems, a slow culture can offer solutions.
Post 5 - Fast Culture
Fast Food
Wal-Mart
Television
These words are synonymous with our culture's obsession with convenience and effectiveness.
Quantity over quality is Capitalism's rule. And we obey it.
I can buy 1,50$ pair of earphones but I don't have to think about where they were made and how did they get to the dollar store. All I know is that I'm willing to pay less for chaper quality because although the sound isn't great, it works.
Until about 2 years ago, I saw nothing wrong with purchasing a t-shirt for 7$ at wal-mart, more money in my pocket to by other things, which ended up being cheap as well. I thought I was doing something right in spending my money in small amounts.
My first step in recovery was when we were enlightened by P.J Langshaw in Dart 392 as she showed us a documentary on the current situation of cotton production in India and what the true price is paid in lives so that I may buy that 7$ t-shirt.
My second step was during my travels in Italy when I saw the true value of something that has been made with such care that I was willing to pay 65 euros for a leather sketchbook and pencil holder made by Mara and her daughter Mila in a town called Bolsena. It's an object I will cherish forever, whereas I had no problem with throwing away those 1,50$ earphones previously.
I saw the tremendeous importance of not buying many temporarilly useless things but to invest in a small collection of very good things and useful things that I can keep forever.
Post 4 - Why D.I.Y?
In 5th grade of elementary school, our teacher taught us to play the flute. That same year my father purchased a sewing machine. Soon thereafter he brought home scraps of pyjama parts from a textile warehouse he had done work for and I knewI was meant to make and sell flute holders for my class at 75 cents each. Which I did.
I still have the one I made for myself.
Making things and plunging into the realm of creation is an incredible experience that has never gotten old to me.
I've always been fascinated by the skill of the hand and so it was incredible to find out in 2006 that there was a blog dedicated to crafting, compiling ressources from the net of people who make their own bags, hats, soap, anything. Since Finding that first blog I've been immersed in a rhizome of ressources that seem to multiply incessantly everyday.
By the sheer quantity of blogs and communities focusing around Design and Crafting, it's obvious that people are interested.
Thread Banger
Whip Up
Craftzine
Etsy
Crafster
To name very few of the long list.
Post 3 - Revisit chosen
conclusions about what this says about you as a designer
(required: text of approximately 2000 words including clear evidence of research as
necessary and your interpretation of it, citations for quoted material, images as required)
The artifact I’ve chosen is that of a project called “Foodapy” created for a Special Topics class, DART 498F, focusing on the topic of food during the Fall 2009 term. The project is a selection of prototype wooden plates that appear as ordinary plates but in fact have reduced space within them due to their obtrusive but elegant shapes. The aim for the project was allow for passive portion control that would then have positive ripple effect s on the user’s mental and physical health.
In order to better understand how this project represents best my ethics, interests and goals in terms of my work production, I’ve decided to choose the contextualization revisit and to do so with two other projects I previously did.
The first is a project done for DART 391 in the fall 2008 term; it is an activist toolkit called “Plarn” which was later rather defined as a craftivist toolkit done in collaboration with Marian Shaghoury. The basis of the assignment was to create a toolkit that would allow the user to behave as an activist; the rest was up to us. A year earlier I had decided to re-animate an interest in knitting by joining a CSU 101 course and had since been working on the skill and searching the internet for information concerning the craft projects. I eventually found that many crafters were re-using materials to sew and knit. One of the materials was plastic bags due to their great abundance and negative effects on the environment. The coined term for plastic bag yarn is Plarn, and it was very easy to find a tutorial on how to make some with my own plastic bags. This was the basis for the toolkit and it was developed into a triangular box that contained three different types of reusable yarn that came out from 3 different holes allowing for 3 people to knit at once.
The idea was that the user would choose a location and create a knitting group where they went, as they knit with Plarn, handspun newspaper or an old nightgown. This act would incite interest from people passing by and that would begin their role as a craftivist where they would explain the current problems with plastic bags and garbage that could have a new life in the form of knitting or crocheting. Along with the box, a zine was created to hand out during the random knitting group sessions which had information on plastic bags, a tutorial and links to project ideas, etc..
The second is a project done for DART 392 in collaboration with Aria Campbell-Kelly and Derek Broad. We had been assigned to create an object that could be used in an apartment for the urban nomad that can been easily transported, packed and moved. We choose to create an organizational/storage piece that also accommodated our own needs. Initially we went through various ideas of having boxes that stacked in order to hold various materials.
Our requirements were that we could store Aria’s precious stones, Derek’s bike repair materials and my crafting materials all in one place. At that point I personally began to be interested in felting and fought very hard to convince my teammates to consider the medium as an effective way to store each of our materials. Through discussions with the teacher and research, we discovered that it would end up being a historical component of our project as for some of the first nomads, namely the Mongolians, felt is at the center of their lives, it is what clothes them and houses them, wool is essential to them. Eventually we decided on a collapsible box that was covered in a large felted piece that could be removed and thus became a working space. Within it were smaller felted bowls of different sizes that could hold each of our materials.
Post 2 - Which artifact shoul I revisit?
Previous to entering the Design Art program, I hadn’t really planned on pursuing a career in the Design field. I studied Fine Arts at Dawson after graduating from High School and then entered the Computation Arts program at Concordia while still taking a few courses in Drawing and Painting as it is a love that is difficult to shake.
Not really being able to decide what I wanted to do creatively in the future was reflected in the work that I did as the themes weren’t consistent which a definite weak point in my portfolio.
It wasn’t until my second year in this program that I began to understand the process of Design and what an incredible vehicle it was in more ways than being purely about aesthetics.
Which is why my top 3 selections are from last year as well as this year and most are collaborative, but I definitely feel that I played an important role in the finished products.
Post 1 - Definition and Synonyms
• e•thos
/eethoss/
n.
The disposition, character, or fundamental values peculiar to a specific
person, people, culture, or movement
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 6th Edition 2003.
— ORIGIN Greek ethos ‘nature, disposition’.
What is my ethos? That is a very big question.
Some synonyms
attitude, beliefs, code, culture, habits, ideology, mentality, mind, mindset, principles, psyche, psychology, spirit, traits, values