2nd Meeting – 1st Posting

 

1st Political Posting made and distributed across RISD and Brown. Small text reads: ‘No matter the color of your skin, your religion or creed, your sexual identity or preference, ‘where you are from’ or ‘who you are’… You are American. And you are home. This is our land.’

This week we met in pairs with Tom–May and I presented our first week’s work and discussed the progression of our ideas. Tom had some really insightful feedback describing the ‘Buddhic field’/’higher mind.’ It was a lot to process, but very interesting. I can see direct parallels between that and even what we discussed at Homegroup Connect last night with Sanctuary. The idea of stepping outside of one’s own mind and into the realm of the spiritual – trusting God, and being immersed in the process and God’s plan and not our own way of thinking (me extrapolating with a Christian perspective).

I presented my mind-map and new concept for my degree project, and I feel a lot more confident about project now. The idea of home and identity being in flux, and engaging in socially responsible design through the community in Providence. It satisfies my desire to be engaged with the community, and to really maximize my remaining time in this community. Tom also brought up the idea of designing for a greater community than just the client–which made me think about one of my early ideas of design as a civil service, or graphic designer as civil servant. After speaking with Albert from NEA and Grace, I really feel more confident in this direction. When else will I have the opportunity in my profession to so full-heartedly pursue design for social good, and activist/socially engaged design?

I am in email communication with Brandon from DIIRI, and sent a general email to Amos House. I am hoping to be connected with these new communities, while maintaining my work with NUA. Hoping to iron out that schedule as well. I hope I am not biting off more than I can chew.

1st Political Posting – at Brown University

I made my first political posting today, based off of the song This Land is Your Land, and inspired by the current political climate and the hate-crime that happened at RISD recently. Hoping to spread a word of encouragement and hope. Of course it is hard to truly gauge the “success” of such a project, but I think this quick making exercise will be fruitful for my process and help keep me making and thinking about my topic. I printed 50 posters, and they were posted across RISD and Brown’s campuses. May had the suggestion of having them available as a digital file too, so people can print and make them themselves. I think that is a great idea, and I’d love to have an archive of files I can share as a part of the ‘end product’ for my Degree Project.

I am excited for the direction I am taking, and God be willing, we will where see where this goes. The three directions I am taking my DP can be summarized as:

1. political postings
2. religious encouragement
3. nonprofit activism

Of course they are not mutually exclusive, and they will all inform each other. I hope I can balance this with my other studio and ISP.

The posting had little tear-offs, which read: ‘You are loved.’, ‘You are accepted.’, and ‘You belong here.’

‘And when his time of service was ended, he went to his home.’ Luke 1:23, ESV

Good-bye ‘Memory’, Moving Forward w/ Memo

Wednesday (03/16) we met in smaller groups to discuss our ideas and progress thus far on Unit XVI. Winding down to the last week before spring break (the former deadline was 03/23), the final project will be presented the Monday we get back, April 4. It was really great to see the progress people have made on our projects thus far, and how everyone drew something different from their museum experience. Paul heavily encouraged making and a ‘rough draft’ for Monday, many people are going away for break.

I proposed my two ideas: ‘Memory’ the postcard book and ‘Memo’ the platform/app. A quick one-two sentence summary of the two proposals:

• ‘Memory’: A postcard book that represents the passage of time through historic illustrations of Providence juxtaposed next to my own, hand-drawn illustrations of Providence today. The book combines text from D.H. Lawrence and his depictions of memory and space in his writing, next to the postcards which can be written on and mailed.
• ‘Memo’: A social networking/wayfinding app that connects personal memories associated with physical spaces through the posting of a ‘memo’ which can be shared within one’s network or globally. However, in order to read the post, another user must go to the location of the posting and sync their gps to unlock the experience; encouraging exploration, discovery, documentation and memory-sharing.

semiotic workshop

Monday (03/14) we were lead through a workshop by Tom O. on semiotics. We then used that workshop to help generate ideas for our project and re-articulate our concepts in a new way vis-a-vis the semiotics triangle: meaning, context, and form.