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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Luxury Education Foundation Behind the Scenes

More photos from preparation and the reception[singlepic id=207] [singlepic id=223] [singlepic id=224] [singlepic id=230] [singlepic id=219] [nggallery id=14]

Luxury Design Strategies LEF Final Presentations

LUXURY DESIGN + STRATEGYFor the past 16 years Parsons students have collaborated with MBA students from Columbia University to develop brand-strengthening design solutions for luxury companies.

This year, teams were chosen to research and design for Hermès, Bulgari, Maclaren, Loro Piana, Haviland. Each company had a unique case, requirements and goals. It is good to see more professionals and people from different backgrounds change their view of design from something of decoration to a force of actual function and meaning. Increasingly I notice more business schools getting involved in design. Like Carnegie Mellon, Harvard, Stanford and Columbia.

[singlepic id=202] SITE Students meet at Parsons, Columbia University, and the offices of the companies’ chief executives for discussion and working sessions. [singlepic id=200] BOARD OF DIRECTORS: Barbra Cirkva, Chair Ketty Maisonrouge, President
ADVISORY BOARD: Assouline: Prosper Assouline, President & Founder Bulgari: Veronica Trenk, Managing Director Cartier: Emmanuel Perrin, President & CEO Chanel: Barbra Cirkva, Division President, Fashion, Watches and Fine Jewelry Christian Dior: Pamela Baxter, President & CEO Graff: Henri Barguirdjian, President & CEO Gucci: Laura Lendrum, President & CEO Hermès: Rober Chavez, President & CEO Lalique, Haviland, Daum: Maz Zouhairi, President & CEO Loro Piana: Fabio Leoncini, Managing Director, Luxury Goods Louis Vuitton: Geoffroy van Raemdonk, Acting President Luxottica: Andrea Dorgio, EVP of Wholesale North America LVHM Perfumes and Cosmetics: Pamela Baxter, President and CEO Maclaren: Farzad Rastegar, President

Special Thanks to Heico Wesselius and Andrew Cornell Robinson of the Design+ Management department of Parsons The New School for Design

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links + sources:
http://www.newschool.edu/parsons/luxury-education-foundation/
http://www.luxuryeducationfoundation.org/ [singlepic id=194] [singlepic id=195]