September 2009
1 post
Lecture One: Common Vocabulary →
May 2009
12 posts
September 2008
13 posts
March 2008
9 posts
WatchThis movie shows the stability and prevalence of sets of three. It was created to serve as a web-teaser for my future thesis website. The web resolution is low, and my keywords have changed since the movie was created. Nonetheless, the idea is still very relevant to my work.
WatchI framed this project in response to our “14” assignment, in which we were asked to create a project that viewed our thesis topic through a two week time span. I decided to create a manifesto every day for fourteen days. Each booklet was printed black and white on various found paper in my studio space. I bound them in craft paper covers to add to the sense of immediacy and...
Still working on those slippery definitions...
INFORM: to imply the need for action by stating opinion or fact
February 2008
7 posts
Just had a thought...
I’m writing five questions that I hope people ask about my thesis. It’s for Anne West’s first seminar of the semester. One of my questions is “Why is this thesis necessary with the glut of activist design work currently circulating?” and I think my answer is that designers are apt to do work for the greater good with the same tired toolkit. It’s only by...
January 2008
1 post
Look for Thoreau’s essay “The Duty of Civil Disobedience”
December 2007
10 posts
“If I add my voice to the voices that are out there it will somehow increase the...”
– Nicholas Blechman at the AIGA’s Cause/Effect Event on December 15, 2007
CAUSE / EFFECT
I went to the AIGA New York’s event on December 15. The event was called “Cause / Effect: Design as Change Agent.” There was a lot of work presented that wasn’t particularly inspiring, or didn’t break out of the mold in any way that astounded me. I found this mildly encouraging. It means that there is a place for different approaches to design as activism —...
Redefining Activism
I wonder if the “empower” section of my triad is the hardest to fit into the typical definition of activism. It seems more like a systematic approach not related to lobbying. For example, a postering campaign against transfats is clearly activist (inform), as it a web-based petition to ban transfats from fast food (incite), but a nutrition label that lists the amount of transfats...
“Women must be empowered to make informed choices and not considered dumb...”
– Nutrition Foundation of India
“Advertising is the richest and most powerful form of communication in the world....”
– Olivero Toscani (the art director of the controversial Benetton ads of the early 90s)
Reflection from Anne West's Workshop
Perhaps the best designs—or at least the ones I am most interested in exploring for my thesis—are tools. Tools that help people express themselves, tools that help people bridge language gaps, tools that help people survive childbirth. Maybe even tools that help people not look like tools using tools. I think this fits into the three-level diagram: a bumpersitcker is a tool: it builds community,...
Info About the Transtheoretical Model for how... →