live theory : manifesto : draft manifesto

So here is my draft manifesto. I'm still not sure if I want to extend on my manifesto concepts. While I feel that they need to be explained a bit better, I do want the reader to be able to interpret them however they like - to "design" them themselves. I think this has made my assignment a wee bit harder as I am constantly trying to allow for as much adaptability and personal interpretation as I can. It's a bit tricky designing something that the user actually designs!

I still haven't got much of an idea about what my manifestation should be.. (eeeeeek) which is a problem since it's due next week. In order for the physical object to embody my manifesto ideas, it needs to be something that allows for user adaptability and customization, allowing for individual identity to be communicated through new users. My initial idea was some sort of building blocks where people could do what they liked with them, but I still don't think this idea embodies my manifesto too well. So I am still a bit stuck.

I have also played with the idea of producing more of a "guidebook" for the everyday designer in stead of an actual object. This guidebook would too need to express the concepts outlined in my manifesto too. I thought of maybe making it so it can be read in whatever way the reader wants to. But i'm really not that sure.. 

So, I have a lot of work to do! I need to just start doing and stop thinking!

Currently, I know that my design needs to be:

- adaptability, it needs to be pliable in order for the user to manipulate it and use it as to how they see fit

- customisable, in order to reflect the users individual identity, and to grow with it

I also currently know that I need to answer these questions in order to produce a successful design and manifesto:

- why is adaptability and customisation important? What will it achieve?

- does this or how does this make design better?

- how can this be achieved/commuincated through design? Eg. materials, technologies used

live theory : RAP 9

I found Margret's lecture about manifesto's really interesting and really useful. I was actually quite inspired by her lecture - it got me excited about doing my own manifesto! The main points of the lecture for me were the ones about how to write a manifesto, what it should accomplish, how it should make people feel and that it should call people to take action. Our manifestos are about what WE care about as designers, and really let us do whatever we want, something  that we are not always allowed to do at university as we are always trying to meet a certain brief. We can finally do something that we are truly passionate about, and communicate this to others and this makes me excited.. but a bit scared too.

live theory : assignment 4 : manifesto proposal

The Everyday Designer Manifesto

Everyone is a designer. Everyone does it everyday. The common definition of a designer is "a person who plans the looks and workings of something prior it to being made"(Stevenson, 2010). However, this definition does not accommodate the act to redesign, modifying a design subsequent to it's creation.  The way in which people naturally interact with their surrounding environments and objects, manipulating and employing them in ways which best suit their individual existence, makes them a creator, a maker, and an architect of their own everyday. 

The role of a traditional designer needs to transformed to that of a facilitator. The everyday designer needs to be encouraged to exercise their creativity and not be restricted by the boundaries that design presents.

How to design for the everyday designer:

facilitate

inspire

forget everything you know

How to be an everyday designer:

know who you are

if you don't, that's okay

be who you are and who you want to be

embrace difference

embrace change

think

don't think

create

build

act like a designer

because you already are one

Initial design proposal ides:

live theory : RAP 8

Last week's lecture about craft, technology and design outlined the importance of craft and "making". The most interesting aspect of the lecture to me was how design materials influence craft and vice versa. This has occurred throughout history, even starting in the stone age where rock was chiseled with tools. Examples of craft influencing culture were given, outlining how craft was influenced by the first, second and third industrial revolutions due to the culture of that time. The question was brought up about our current culture and how it has inspired design and craft.

design+ : assignment 3 precedents

 Using infographics in order to inform the target market about the benefits of a healthy diet and active lifestyle. This could work well for the target market as it is engaging and easy to understand.

Push-Play is a New Zealand campaign that promotes physical activity. The activator wheel reveals fun ways to "push play" by spinning the wheel.

Jump Rope for Heart is also a campaign that specifically targets physical activity in children. Participants jump rope in time to music making it fun and engage.

live theory : RAP7

Last weeks lecture about design and the body explored how people interact with design. For me, the lecture highlighted the importance of understanding how this can occur. While sight is the most dominant sense used to experience design, I think the other senses are just as important and are even more exciting. Understanding how to stimulate other senses through design can change how we create and how other experience our designs and the world around them. This could perhaps aid in reconnecting the body with design, rather than just the mind through the eye which was mentioned.

live theory : critical writing : final essay

live theory : critical writing : peer assessment forms

Here are my peer assessment forms for project three, kindly completed by Karly and Sean

live theory : RAP 6

This weeks lecture explored the relationship between design and nature. The most interesting point I pulled from the lecture was how designers try so hard to reflect nature and organic matter in design. However, I think that most of the time this is a bit of a contradiction because the whole design process, to me, seems the opposite: planned and controlled. Another interesting point from the lecture was when Tonya questioned if we feel a sense of responsibility as designers to design things naturally and sustainably. And I think we do. More than ever, sustainability is a huge topic that is stressed in not only design but all aspects of society. I definitely think that we have a much larger understanding and awareness about sustainable design and the implications of what and how we design. I think this is a good thing and that we should design with these things in mind.

live theory : critical writing : stage one

Initial Thesis Statement:

This essay will explore the relationship between design and culture and how a city can mirror the surrounding culture. The essay identifies how design can restrict culture within a city, the need for an active exchange between design and culture in order for a city and it's culture to thrive, and how design can facilitate this exchange through adaption of the "user" role to a "designer".

Initial Supporting Sources:

Urban Future Manifestos

The reading provided from Urban Future Manifestos looks the relationship between people and spaces. Doung Anwar Jahangeer expresses how people create "places" and that currently the city restricts this; the designed elements of the city like the walk path, signs and fences, detaching people from the spaces that they live in. Jahangeer then explored spaces that are "in-between" where nature has rebelled against design and the constraints of it have failed. Jahangeer also identifies that "creativity exists everywhere, and that the ability of space/place making exists in everybody" and that architects (and designers) need to facilitate this. Jahangeer's views are helpful for my critical perspective as he identifies how design can limit the active exchange between design and culture, and he also highlights the need for user creativity to be encouraged in order for culture to be expressed.

Noever, P. & Meyer, K. (2010). Urban Future Manifestos. Ostfildern, Germany: Hatje Cantz

Aspects of everyday design: resourcefulness, adaption, and emergence

Wakkary and Maestri explore how designed objects can be manipulated by the user in order to fit into the individual's everyday. From this, the idea of the everyday designer is introduced, where all individuals interacting with design have the potential to adapt and customise design themselves for their own specific wants and needs. Wakkary and Maestri challenge designers to design in a way that prompts users to interact with design in ways that were not originally intended. This source supports my critical perspective as it encourages the reversal of the role of the designer and the user. As the people are the "true essence" of a city, by allowing them to dictate how things that are designed within a city are used, the true culture of the city is better reflected. 

Wakkary, R. & Maestri, L. (2008). Aspects of everyday design: resourcefulness, adaption, and emergence. International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, 24(5), 478-491. doi:10.1080/10447310802142276

The Culture of Design

This source looks at how design constantly evolves with societies. Julier investigates how design can effectively reflect current cultural values by materialising them into designed objects. This source is supports my critical perspective as it explains how design can act as a platform to display culture as opposed to restricting it which has been argued in other sources. This means that my argument can be further developed and more rounded.

Julier, G. (2000). The Culture of Design. Los Angeles: SAGE

live theory : RAP 5

The most interesting aspect of this weeks lecture for me was the connection between critical design and design activism. Design activism encourages change in social, cultural and political environments much like critical design, where design prompts viewers to reflect on and critique certain issues or aspects in society. While I do not think it is completely necessary for all design to encourage reflection and change in society, I do think it is an important element of design and our communities and can be really valuable to a viewer in order to encourage new and interesting ways of thinking about and understanding the world. Design can effectively do this by visually communicating somewhat radical scenarios and grounding them in design ideas that the viewers can ground in reality enabling them to have a greater understanding of the critique being made. 

live theory : critical selfie : stage three

In-between the designed are the forgotten spaces - it is here where the essence of the city can thrive.

My critical perspective explores the relationship between designed spaces and those which are not. Inspired by Jahangeer's piece in Urban Future Manifestos (2011), Made in Between showcases the relationship between the intentionally and unintentionally designed worlds and how they inform each other. The designed world effectively shapes the non-designed, where the spaces in-between design are as much of a product of design as those that were created intentionally.  However, it is in these negative spaces are where the essence of a culture can flourish. Jahangeer states that "creativity exists everywhere, and that the ability of space/place-making exists in everybody" - design can somewhat restrict this creativity. In this, the negative spaces that are created through design are the perfect facilitators for creativity.

Support for this idea was found in Tonya Sweet's lecture Material culture, People Culture and Globalised Culture, where the active exchange between design, people and culture was discussed: that people are product of their culture yet they are also the ones who are shaping culture. Design embodies the designers values and beliefs and projects these onto others. A city should then reflect those values and beliefs of it's occupants as a whole, not just those of the designers. This is why the undesigned space of a city is where the essence of the society is - it is in these spaces that have not been bound by predetermined views where the true culture of the city can be displayed.

Made in Between captures these in-between spaces and emphasises that it is within these places where the cultural creators of the city, the people, thrive.

live theory : critical selfie : stage two

After my second exploration of the city, I found that I kept bing drawn to the spaces around what has been designed. This idea had grown from my initial shoot, where I was looking at spaces where people had rebelled against design, and were adapting design for their individual everyday. This first perspective had been influenced by Jahangeer's writing in Urban Future Manifesto's and his view about how people create spaces. 

The perspective that I now taken has been adapted from this viewpoint, where the "inbetweeness" has been explored. These are the spaces that were not intentionally designed, but are created from what designers, architects and people have made surrounding them. I also was quite drawn to where nature has rebelled against design, but I don't think I will pursue that perspective further.

The spaces in-between design, are as much a product of design as those that were created intentionally.

Shoot 2 Contact Sheet

The series of photographs I produced based on this perspective looks at the "forgotten spaces" that are formed by the surrounding design. I have layered the shapes of these unintentionally designed spaces overtop of the images to emphasise the form of them and to give an abstract blue-print aesthetic. While I am relatively happy with the images produced, I do think that the idea can be developed a lot further in order to communicate my design perspective in a stronger and more interesting way.

Spaces are designed,

but the spaces that are not

are created too.

live theory : RAP 4

I found the concepts in today’s lectures really interesting - in particular how design is both a facilitator and an outcome of culture. I have a strong view that design needs to accommodate for the users own input and individuality and if this is not recognised in the design process user identity can be lost. I also found the discussion on globalisation interesting and although I can see the benefits of it, I do think there needs to be a greater emphasis on celebrating specific cultures as to not lose diverse ethnic identities. While I enjoyed the topics discussed today, I did find it quite hard to completely understand all that was being said without much written notes on the slides.

live theory : RAP 3

After already doing photography with Leon, much of the stuff he talked about was stuff I had already been over. However in saying that, it was still quite good to review it and I do really enjoy it so it was alright. One thing that really stood out to me was the strength that s series of still images has compared to that of a moving video. The concept of “closure” and how still images allow for viewers to put their own input and understanding into an image was really interesting. I think the lecture was a good refresher and has definitely helped me have a stronger awareness about the images I’m taking and what they communicate versus what I want them to.

live theory : critical selfie : stage one

After going over the readings for this course, I was still quite unsure about what my design perspective was. Because of this, I decided to set off on to the streets with my camera and just capture whatever caught my eye. Here's my initial shoot:

Surprisingly, I gravitated largely towards buildings and the spaces and shapes of them rather than people which I thought was my main area of interest. These are my eight favourite images that I captured from this shoot.

 I like this image in the way that the upper level of the building seems so detached from the lower half.

I find this space interesting as there is this random natural growth in the middle of a predominantly man-made environment.

 I find the odd spaces in between different buildings such as this quite interesting. I would like to further explore spaces like this.

The negative space in this image is what I find the most interesting about it - how the buildings create different shapes.

I'm not extremely happy with my initial shoot as I didn't have a really clear idea about where I was going with this project. However, now that I have done some exploring and research, I feel as though I have a lot stronger idea about what I want to do and how I can communicate these ideas through a photo essay.

The perspective I am taking on for this project is how although designers create the spaces and objects surrounding individuals everyday, it is actually the user who decides how these things will exist in their lives. While designers do create with the user in mind, the role of the user needs to adapt in order to facilitate them as designers themselves, allowing for adaptable and personalized design.

This perspective was influenced from the Urban Future Manifestos reading and the Significance of Theory, where the ideas that how environments are utilized are different for individuals.

Haiku Attempts:

We design spaces

for people to exist in.

Really, they make them.

This haiku is questioning the role of designers and users, and how design can actually facilitate a role switch where users become designers, questioning the need for adaptability and personalization in design.

Design shapes the world.
So who is the designer?
Is it them or you?

This again questions the role of the designer and user and the relationship they have.

live theory : RAP 2

This week I found the lecture quite interesting and feel as though it related quite well to my own perspective on life and on design. While I have always been very aware of my surroundings, studying design has really prompted me to examine my environment in lots of detail and encourages me to find the unusual in the known and the known in the unusual. To me, this is what the Flaneur. While the concept of a Flaneur is quite radical, I think if people were to take on this role even in the smaller way, they would be able to see the world in a new and more interesting way. This is something that I hope that my own design ideas will achieve.

live theory : RAP 1

I always question if I actually am a designer - I don't physically design much and I concentrate on more of the critical and creative thinking of it. This first lecture has shown me that this sort of thinking is design and that I do design by applying these thoughts to other aspects of my life; that design isn't just about making but a lot to do about thinking too.