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April 17th, 2009

10:14 pm - ..:: WHAT is DESIGN? ::.. ..:: Designers' Talk Discussions on LinkedIn ::.. Fred Showker, Editor and Publisher of DTG, recently posted the following question in the Designers' Talk Discussions section of LinkedIn: My question: WHAT is DESIGN? So many readers often write to ask about becoming a design professional. Many ask "What is Design" or "What is Graphic Design?" Among the established definitions you'll find that just about anyone you ask -- you'll get a different answer. So, in the May issue of DTG we'll be asking ... WHAT IS DESIGN? My studies at The Dynamic Media Institute at MassArt bring up many questions about design, media, communication and creativity. The question What is design? seemed to perfectly resonate with recent thoughts and discourse with the fantastic community engaged in these discussions at DMI. Here is my response: WHAT is DESIGN? What an excellent question. And what an important question to ask ourselves on a daily basis. Here is my quick interpretation of design ... First of all, I think of the word design as more of a verb than a noun. An active process. A process that can contain elements of expression, research, planning, thinking, doing, conversing ... but design is best when there is a lot of active exploration, research and process behind the end result. As a second notion to consider ... here is a layman's linguistic deconstruction of the word as interpreted by someone personally and professionally involved with design for a decade or more. So here is my breakdown by syllable ... The 'de' part of DESIGN ... 'de' reminds me of the word 'di' in Italian, both in phonetic | aural similarity and in direct translation of meaning ... 'de' = 'of' in English. The 'sign' part of DESIGN ... 'sign' is the root of the word 'significance'. Literally translated DESIGN means 'of significance'. More importantly, the interpretation I come away with is something more like the infinitive 'to bring significance'. I think of it as a process where the designer brings meaning ... actually brings something significant to the world. Or at the very least to a certain targeted audience. So ... in the end, we not only need to ask from day to day the all-important question 'WHAT is DESIGN?', but we also need to continually update and define 'WHAT is the role of a DESIGNER?' ... the answers to both of these questions are shifting and changing more and more often in these times, due in part to the speedy development of new technologies and also immensely influenced by a confluence of so many eclectic fields coming together to define and design new significance, new meaning, new thought, and new methods of communication. View the original LinkedIn Answers question and responses here: http://www.linkedin.com/groupAnswers?viewQuestionAndAnswers=&gid=92232&discussionID=2742196&commentID=3023128&goback=.hom.anh_92232#commentID_3023128 Current Location: home Current Mood: accomplished Current Music: crimeshow television audio backdrop Tags: communication, design, dmiboston, dynamic media, dynamic media institute, interpretation, linkedin, mass art, translation

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April 8th, 2009

11:06 pm - comment posted to the Dubberly Design Office ::.. recent comment posted as a follow-up + thank you to Hugh Dubberly for bringing the topic 'Design in The Age of Biology: Shifting from mechanical to organic, from object to system' as part of The Dynamic Media Institute's Annual Lecture Series ... Fantastic lecture tonight at The Pozen Center for Interrelated Media as part of The Dynamic Media Institute's Annual Lecture Series. Hugh, thank you for bringing this conversation to MassArt and for meeting up at DMI Headquarters to deepen the discussion and engage us all in the extended conversation. I especially appreciate the references you gave pertaining to 'total design'. My own thesis topic for graduate studies at The Dynamic Media Institute pertains to 'media translation' ... which for me includes discussion of translation versus interpretation, the occasional poetic impossibility to fully bring exact meaning from one mediaform to another, as well as Wagner's concept of the Gesamtkunstwerk ... and how the role of the designer becomes less and less about a particular medium or format and more that of a strategic visionmaker of environment, experience, culture, systems ... basically a re-inventor of new language. Is there a new media equivalent to Esperanto? Or will we need to weed through babble to distill meaning from a multi-lingual onslaught of expression in this dawn of participatory dialectics? more details about the lecture here: http://www.dubberly.com/articles/design-in-the-age-of-biology.html/comment-page-1#comment-6972 Current Location: home Current Mood: curious Current Music: television audio wallpaper Tags: biology, design, dmiboston, dubberly, dynamic media, dynamic media institute, lecture, mass art

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February 5th, 2009

11:10 pm - research for Design Seminar 2 | DMI @ MassArt ::.. 2 concepts that repeat through some of my initial mindmaps [ photo imagery to follow soon ] include 'material' + 'delivery' ... i just wanted to capture the basic dictionary definition of each of these terms as found on m-w.com ::.. .. ..:: ::.. Main Entry: ma·te·ri·al Pronunciation: \mə-ˈtir-ē-əl\ Function: adjective Etymology: Middle English materiel, from Middle French & Late Latin; Middle French, from Late Latin materialis, from Latin materia matter — more at matter Date: 14th century 1 a (1): relating to, derived from, or consisting of matter ; especially : physical (2): bodily b (1): of or relating to matter rather than form (2): of or relating to the subject matter of reasoning ; especially : empirical 2: having real importance or great consequences 3 a: being of a physical or worldly nature b: relating to or concerned with physical rather than spiritual or intellectual things — ma·te·ri·al·ly \-ē-ə-lē\ adverb — ma·te·ri·al·ness noun ..:: ::.. Main Entry: de·liv·er Pronunciation: \di-ˈli-vər, dē-\ Function: verb Inflected Form(s): de·liv·ered; de·liv·er·ing \-v(ə-)riŋ\ Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French deliverer, delivrer, from Late Latin deliberare, from Latin de- + liberare to liberate Date: 13th century transitive verb 1: to set free < and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil — Matthew 6:13(Authorized Version) > 2 a: to take and hand over to or leave for another : convey < deliver a package > b: hand over , surrender < delivered the prisoners to the sheriff > < delivered themselves over to God > 3 a (1): to assist in giving birth (2): to aid in the birth of b: to give birth to c: to cause (oneself) to produce as if by giving birth < has delivered himself of half an autobiography — H. C. Schonberg > 4: speak , sing , utter < delivered their lines with style > < deliver a song > < deliver a speech > 5: to send (something aimed or guided) to an intended target or destination < ability to deliver nuclear warheads > < delivered a fastball > 6 a: to bring (as votes) to the support of a candidate or cause b: to come through with : produce < can deliver the best results> intransitive verb: to produce the promised, desired, or expected results : come through < can't deliver on all these promises > synonyms see rescue — de·liv·er·abil·i·ty \-ˌli-v(ə-)rə-ˈbi-lə-tē\ noun — de·liv·er·able \-ˈli-v(ə-)rə-bəl\ adjective — de·liv·er·er \-ˈli-vər-ər\ noun — deliver the goods : to give results that are promised, expected, or desired ..:: ::.. Current Location: home Current Mood: curious Current Music: background television audio clutter Tags: definitions, dmiboston, dynamic media, mass art, research, thesis

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12:49 am - DMI @ MassArt | next steps for DMI Design Studio 2 this week quick explanation on these automatic writings ... as part of Design Studio 2 we are currently working on mindmapping to explore the preliminary areas of research for thesis development ... 3 initial mindmaps centered around fine art, humor + laughter { artifacturings from last semester } + poetry ... i'm finding it easier right now to jump out of the visual approach of mindmapping + using the surrealist methods of automatic writing to dive deeper w/ the pencil as scalpel to really search under the surface for some of the inner workings of my initial areas of interest { of course, easy is not always best, right? ;] || } as suggested by Jan ... the central aspects of each mindmap are not in actuality my muse for thesis discovery, research + project work ... the lists, the items, the streams of expressive components as they relate to each of the arts seems to keep bubbling up to the surface | i don't think it is a simple surface 'this correlates to that' comparison from one artistic discipline to the other ... this is definitely not what i expected with the timing ... with the flow from semester one to semester two ... our next assignment is to read 'Memory is the Medium' by Florian Brody + map our refined, more focused second iteration of mindmap exercise to the concept of memory ... + what is a little strange ... not funny 'ha ha' at all but funny in a poetic sense ... i recall an esssay i wanted to write perhaps over decade ago about the relationship between music, poetry, painting, movement ... about how the expression in one medium oftentimes inspires a unique expression in another medium ... i vaguely remember the title being 'an eSsay on uncreativity & the nature of artistehood' { i think i will throw away this ridiculous title, but move forward with the core, throw away the applemeat, the skin, the stem + keep the core, the essence, the seeds from the previous idea + plant them once again in the once fertile soil of my sullen mind ... i can't wait to see what comes up + grows from the latest automatic writings, from the mindmappings, from the 6 virtues of Bonsiepe, and now from the writings of Florian Brody Current Location: an undisclosed location Current Mood: awake Current Music: background television audio clutter Tags: bonsiepe, dmiboston, dynamic media, florian brody, lightness, mass art, otherness, thesis

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12:46 am - DMI @ MassArt | automatic writing #3 fantastic DMI studio 2 discussion tonight — all of us reading aloud our reactions, interpretations, continuations of Giu Bonsiepe’s ‘Some Virtues of Design’ — coffee + interest in theory, of course, generated the most interesting + deep discourse, spinning around the room w/ a frenetic pow, pow, pow of interjections, additions + enhancements to each conversational offering — i have been thinking, thinking, thinking about what my particular point of focus is regarding the preliminary thesis statement for the DMI ( not always active thinking, but something simmering in the back of my mind, riding the subconscia, swimming around in a liquid state continuously solidifying, gelling, melting — & then cycling through again ) — tonight the talk turned to the material, the language of each medium of creativity — but then i came to the realization that perhaps my actual big picture zen question might center around the relationship between the arts — the translation ( as mentioned above ) between — to + from — this way + that — between each art — the manner in which each artist — each performer | participant | creator — the way in which each creative picks + chooses the elements of each creative form of expression to create something larger than a painting, scultpure, poem, peformance, etcetera — the intersection ( this bubbled up to the surface of my mind over + over again throughout the final meanderings of our ‘interest in theory’ discourse ) — the relationship — the cross-pollination — the Otherness, in fact, that we pinch + borrow, grab + twist + pull together to create the most modern of modernday expressions — sure, sure, its not a perfect process, right? we don’t always get it right — but which ingredients of each artform expression makes sense for each piece? does a particular piece lend itself best to a singular form of delivery ( delivery is a big concept too that keeps brimming at the hatful )? the poster, for instance — or the painting — & then, when does it make sense to add another ingredient, another medium? is the most powerful combination — the best intersection of mediaforms comprised of 3 or 4 varieties of expressive components? how much is too much? how many are too many media for a particular piece? at what point does the core meaning of the piece break at the lighter end of intermedia weavings? at what point does the meaning break at the heavier, denser end of the media spectrum? what can be eliminated? how many pieces can be pulled out + put to the side for perhaps better, later use in a future piece? what are the minimal, key elements that make for the perfect form of meaningful delivery of the message in question? — appropriateness — economy of sound, space, skin + metal — follow this with that — see if it makes any sense at all to you + extrapolate to see just how much sense + meaning you are delivering to your audience | participant | viewer where does it all pile up to simply create a technogeographical psychobabble cacophony? just as i previously had theories regarding the continual battle between knowledge + wisdom, so too do these virtues of design — the Otherness — the Lightness — there is a battle between destruction + building — a back + forth — an up + down — a restless struggle to find just the right balance — the key components — the list of essential elements needed to get the point across in the most powerful + evocative way click here Current Location: an undisclosed location ( on the livingroom floor ) Current Mood: pensive Current Music: background television audio clutter Tags: automatic writing, design, dmiboston, dynamic media, mass art, thesis

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12:43 am - DMI @ MassArt | automatic writing #2 15 or more minutes of fun — an exercise to loosen up, explore the inner sanctum — so when last we met we discussed the ideas of delivery, materiality, the materials of fine art, of each art, of each medium — painting, drawing, poetry, dance, literature, sculpture, design, performance — onward +into infinity ( i jest ) ... but seriously folks, a warm-down attempt at the moment — an attempt to unwind + move away from the hum hum buzz of online media — click, click, click, tap, tappity, tap of each key — as much as i prefer ( or used to prefer ) the physical grip on the pencil, the friction of the pencil tip on paper, on the grain of the paper, on the shadow of each nook in the grain of the paper, finger smudging graphite, eraser scrubbing away any sharp contrast i might want to create with the shapes, the drawings — flat carvings in some way — carving in a reductive manner into the 2-dimensional aspectations of the paper surface material | immaterial ... materiality | immateriality part of me was thinking of facebook as the mirror — magic mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all? i thought of this because i saw our youngest daughter Brittany on facebook looking at a digital photo of herself in her photo gallery — momentary glimpse — the picture was very happy, open + full of expression — an expression of joy, i hate to admit, that i very rarely see live from Brittany — only in the self-made stage we create through photography — now extended through the material we call social media tweet this motherfncker Current Location: an undisclosed location Current Mood: curious Current Music: background television audio clutter Tags: automatic writing, brainstorming, design, dmiboston, dynamic media, mass art, thesis

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12:40 am - DMI @ MassArt | automatic writing #1 friday nite at jan’s in porter square + we are all there to meet + fortune tell a bit through mindmapping + discussion of giu bonsiepe + the virtues of design ... virtues that we must think + choose + write about — defend, reflect, react, augment, pull + push — jan + kat ( a little late ) + kent + eun kyoung + audrey + dennis + me all collected in jan’s front library — a million + one books, not one a grisham, each one in its place + alphabetical — a million + one things i feel i need to catch up on — a collection of cameras up on high above the books + the penderecki, the milosz — cameras, still cameras + movie cameras all purchased for no more than $20 each — each mindmap, each diagramatic attempt to explore matters of thesis + theory seemingly formulating the ‘big, zen’ question that each amazing dmi student might begin to pursue — education or rather ‘what is learning’ — ‘water’ or ‘space’ becomes the muse that audrey begins to longingly follow — ‘no logo’ the book ‘no logo’ comes up + sounds utterly fascinating, something to sink the mind into like a comfy foldupsleepingsofa ... ‘what is experience?’ — ‘what is poetry?’ | poetry + motion the beginning spot for dennis to start at ( + off into the night he goes ) — ‘what is story?’ — ‘what is identity?’ — i feel that i am a bit more vague — audrey + i seem to have entered the mindmap arena with no particular destination in mind — a collection of vague notions to explore with pencil, pen, marker, crayon, piss + spit + blood — of course my humble mappings explore fine art, laughter | humor + poetry — but none seem to meet the mark + come up with a clear + pretty question — i get no immediate zen time to dig deeper + deeper + deeper | more maps to create more lines + more words | more into + unto + onto the next | in the end jan suggests that my potential thesis may have to do with the material | long lists of material | long lists on each of my mindmaps | different forms of fine art | painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture | materials : paint, canvas, pencil, pen, paper, charcoal, egg, blood, oil, etcetera — all the pieces, the ingredients of what goes into a work of art, what goes into fine art as opposed to dynamic media, new media, multimedia — the flat cold screen | is physical interface part of the equation? | where do fine art + dynamic media — fine art + design — painting + the interface meet? | how do these things translate? | poem on the page | paint on the canvas | spokenword on the air — from the throat to the tongue to the tooth from the lips to the air in the room to the ear vibrating — to the mind + the heart of the listeners so what is it? what will it be? | part of me thinks that the topic will not be necessarily ‘material’ — that question is seemingly easily answered in these lists, right? | the real ‘zen’ question, the big million miles in the sky question i could ask is more about ‘translation’ ... how do we translate the various arts? performance | fine art | poetry | dance | sculpture | poetry | new media — where do these vastly different arts meet? how do they interact + feed each other? where do they mix + bleed together? | how do they play nice? how do they sometimes not play together nicely? what are the feelings? hot or cold? some of it was about delivery — right? on the mindmap page regarding ‘humor’ or ‘laughter’ + even on the mindmap regarding ‘poetry’ ... my concern was that the endplay products of each of these inquiries would not at all be ‘interactive’ enough to meet up with the divine purpose of the dynamic media institute — jan, of course, encourages we discard the term ‘interactive’ ( at least for now, right? ) — the inclusion of ‘interactive’ might, in fact, disqualify our mindmapping, our automatic writings ( well beyond 15 minutes now, the time has been welling up inside, the need to write perhaps even building up over time from the first semester last fall ) — & so, i may need to take a dive into what the term ‘delivery’ means, what it means specifically to each of the arts — the fine arts, performance art, poetry, dynamic media, net art, artcetera — amen Current Location: an undisclosed location Current Mood: cheerful Current Music: background television audio clutter Tags: automatic writing, brainstorming, dmiboston, dynamic media, mass art

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October 24th, 2008

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October 2nd, 2008

12:01 am - humor | laughter | in the workplace? ::.. might sound crazy, not sure ... but here's the latest question i posted to LinkedIn ... How do you use humor in your daily career? Humor can make the day go by ... promote a fun and energetic working environment ... emotionally inspire co-workers ... help with productivity and motivation, create a bond within a team ... In what ways do you use humor in the workplace? How much is too much? How many times a day do you laugh at work? How does laughter effect your own personal spirits | motivation | mood at work? ... so, feel free to hit the little link up there + let me know about humor + laughter in your workplace ::.. Current Location: home Current Mood: amused Current Music: television audio wallpaper Tags: dmi, dmiboston, dynamic media, humor, laugh, laughter, linkedin, massart, massartdmi, workplace

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October 1st, 2008

08:48 pm - mapping laughter | part 1 ::.. last nite @ MassArt i delayed + delayed + delayed, finally presenting last among the Dynamic Media Institute students + colleagues ... every week i come to the table, come to the MassArt studios feeling a bit lost in thought, swallowed by my own ideas, not knowing if i am bringing anything worth discussing, worthy of the material + program ::.. so many fantastic ideas + directions to go in ... DMI Seminar 1 directly feeding into the thoughts + concepts that seem to swim around while discussing our project work in DMI Studio 1 ... for me its Tuesdays + Thursdays, twice a week ... + i am always scrambling to keep up, trying to speed up my thought + notions to make the pace ::.. ..:: mapping laughter | part 1 ::.. .. ..:: the above splash reveals the subject matter of my second studio project for the DMI ... laughter ... specifically, mapping laughter ... i only came up w/ the idea last week ... + at that, i only came up w/ the idea as we discussed each others project concepts round-robin style, around the table ... laptops, project + stereo-speakers at the ready ... whiteboard, voice, drawings, gestures, conversations all at our disposal ... our tools to brainstorm, discuss + refine our concepts as they might relate to dynamic media ::.. .. .. .. ..:: i still have feedback + concepts to try + communicate to Dennis ... i could shoot him an email, but i think face-to-face would work best, would really help communicate + potentially lead to more discourse + idea-generation that would help expand the possibilities for his first project { i need to return to my first project + make it work better, both from an actionscripting perspective + the overall media | info | conceptual perspective ... i might spiral back + discuss my previous | first project at a later point, the mediastreams or infostreams ... 'an undisclosed location' ... hiding in the data, behind the information, columns of neverending telemprompter documentation climbing upwards, each piece at its own unique pace, each document slightly layered over the other ... in order to avoid the choppy animation i'll need to actionscript it + bring it beyond the completely hacked tweenjob i put together for our first official critique } ... sometimes synchronous, live interaction can be more dynamic indeed ... coffee might need to be involved though ... we'll see, we'll see ::.. .. .. .. .. .. ..:: mapping laughter ... based on the book 'Laughter: A Scientific Investigation' by Robert Provine i came up w/ a few potential directions to pursue ... you can see the list up above in the graphic, including : triggering laughter in space laugh sample station automated sitcom laugh chamber disconnection let me know if you have any questions about the above concepts, but here's a quick run down lightly touching on the minor details : triggering laughter in space a stage-like space, complete w/ archetypal tools of the comedian ... a tall, wooden stool ... a tall glass of cold water ... red, velvet curtains surrounding the space ... spotlight, shining down + slightly off to the side of the wooden stool ... as the participant, viewer stands + moves around the space various laugh audio tracks are triggered ... slight giggles, titters, light 'tee hees' ... standing in one spot might cause subtle laughter, a cough, slight conversational tidbits ... a few prance-like steps through the space might conjure louder laughter, groups of male + female laughter rising together + then falling ... my notion is that making the participant | viewer the target of disembodied laughter would create a strangely uncomedic, eerie effect ... it could be humorous if only for the sheer natural contagious effect of laughter ... but depending upon the time spent in the space + the frame of mind upon entry, each participant would get a completely different experience as 'comedian' ... 'the comic trigger' perhaps { as opposed to 'The Cosmic Trigger' } ... this was the first idea that came to mind, based upon my own failures in a live comedy venue ::.. laugh sample station this might be the most logical idea to explore for this project ... folks in the class seemed to enjoy this one the best + it just might be the most visual concept of the bunch + could even relate to the idea of 'connection' vs 'disconnection' { its very easy for me to juxtapose, to create breaks + disconnects, seems to come natural to me ... so it would be exciting for me to pursue a project w/ more positive, happy overtones } ... let's take a quick timetrip back to explain this one ... ... so, before Carol + i had Maceo, there was a bit of time where we were trying { if you know what i mean ;] } ... + it was taking a lot of trying { which was fine by me ;] } ... so, after about a year of trying + trying + trying, we decided i should go in + 'get checked' by the doctor ... believe it or not, my doctor turned out to be Dr. Dong, of Dong, Wong + Gomez ... you couldn't make this stuff up ... but anyhow ... as part of the process the facility need to test my sperm ... i needed to give a sample + although the scene was a lot less 'inspiring' than what you typically see on television, there was a room, a container + a peculiar stainless steel door to deposit my 'sample' ... ... the laugh sample station would be a bio-audio repository for various forms of laughter ... designated by male, female, other ... loud or soft or inbetween ... solo or group ... number per group ... relative pitch marked by high, medium or low { piccolo, tenor, baritone or bass } ... length of laugh ... pre- or post-laugh trails ... etcetera ... the viewer | participant could go up, pick a laugh sample to listen to from a sample jar ... headphones or not, still to be determined ... there would also be various laugh-inspiring materials in the general vicinity ... comics, videos, joke books, comedy albums, recordings of laughter ... the viewer | participant can then record their own laugh using the materials or even the previous laugh samples + place them in an enclosure for submission to the laugh sample station ... you could even combine laugh samples to create 'canned laughter' ... which leads us to ... automated sitcom pretty self-explanatory ... an installation that plays audio simulating a sitcom ... sometimes the sounds are triggered by movement in the space, sometimes not ... a bit random ... kind of a fizzler of an idea really, but i still enjoy it as it pertains to previous 'Stand Up | no comedy' performance pieces from the past ... laugh chamber sort of the same concept as 'triggering laughter in space' ... it would just be a tighter space, a padded space, an isolation chamber that triggers laughter ... something similar to 'claustrophillick enclosure #1' i guess ... perhaps this would be '#2'? who knows? ... maybe 2 people could go in for 2 minutes, but that goes against the nature of this isolation chamber concept { but still plays on the idea of the relationship aspectations behind laughter ... giver + receiver ... the 'laugh episode' as described by Provine } ... it could say more about laughter in the end as being a 2-part process ... disconnection the concept of taking laughter as an object, as what is typically a reactive, purely oral + human utterance + giving a machine or many machines the ability to project only laughter ... this assignment of laughter to triggers ... creates an appealing disconnect for me ... laughter, at times, seems extremely mechanical, governed by anticipation, societal acceptance, there is a certain mob effect affiliated w/ laughter as well whereby the size of the crowd can determine potential audience response to comedic projections ... who knows? ... this is related to the above concepts ... to be continued ... Current Location: home Current Mood: cheerful Current Music: television audio wallpaper | groove is in the heart Tags: academia, disconnection, dmi, dynamic media, laugh sample station, laughing, mapping, mass art, presentation, project, triggering

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