pinboard bookmarks
Pinboard is a useful, inexpensive, no-bells-and-whistles and reliable service for bookmarking things found on the web. Mine are at pinboard.in/u:asfaltics/. Most of these are private, but those for (this semester of) Design Seminar are public. For Design Seminar generally, they are tagged #405F22
I have also tagged these for individual seminarians, as follows :
Thea Cannon : pinboard.in/u:asfaltics/t:405F22.TC/
Stacey Clavijo : pinboard.in/u:asfaltics/t:405F22.SC/
Katie Dasilva : pinboard.in/u:asfaltics/t:405F22.KD/
Madison Gerace : pinboard.in/u:asfaltics/t:405F22.MG/
Patrick Mardy : pinboard.in/u:asfaltics/t:405F22.JR/
Joshua Marsi : pinboard.in/u:asfaltics/t:405F22.JM/
Sarah Mason : pinboard.in/u:asfaltics/t:405F22.SM/
John Russo : pinboard.in/u:asfaltics/t:405F22.JR/
note 1 : not everyone has been tagged yet, in bookmarks of relevance.
note 2 : here as elsewhere, will (try to remember to) list alphabetical order (by surname)
Thea has many volumes of her great-grandfather's daily observations; one way of beginning to process this information might be to choose one date — e.g., April 21 — and transcribe and consider just those. What is constant? What is not? What vanishes? What comes into view? How to diagram or index this information.
The aim being, to respectfully engage with the material at a slant, to borrow an expression from Emily Dickinson. So that it is given new life, and gives Thea an opportunity to make something new of it.
And then there are the carbon-copy newsletters, not yet seen.
later —
There may be ways of diagramming, mapping, the different sorts of things that get noticed, across the years, or seasons?
color-coded diagrams...
I'm reminded of Andrew Chipman's Annotated Transcription of a conversation, a design thesis project from 2006, described at http://studio.montserrat.edu/gd/405/2006.htm#chipman
his process book is worth a look.
see also Kathryn Scanlan, her Aug 9-Fog (2019), a poetic mysterious thing, based on a diary she'd found... described and excerpts at www.mcdbooks.com/books/aug-9-fog
there may be a copy in the Seminar Room above the glass-doored bookcase (unless I have it at home; will bring on Tuesday if so).
Is there poetry hidden in the great-grandfather's seemingly mundane daily observations?
In discussion of Stacey's project (Spreading Kindness through Design), we talked about particularities: where is kindness found? how does it manifest itself, in specific situations? in design. architecture. lifeguarding at pools. what does it look like? how does it relate to fairness, justice, empathy/sympathy? is it a form of etiquette, in something like the way design is?
How does it — "kindness — relate to UX (user experience) design, universal design, accessibility design?
aside — a search for "kindness" plus any such term will yield academic papers, institutes, etc etc.
Stacey has been thinking about these readings —
- Adam Phillips and Barbara Taylor. On Kindness (2010)
- Sara Hendren. What Can a Body Do?: How We Meet the Built World (2020)
and printout to - Amanda Cachia. What Can A Body Do?
What_Can_a_Body_Do.pdf
which is the catalogue to the exhibition described at https://amandacachia.com/curating/what-can-a-body-do/
what next ?
look for specific instances, either of "kind" design, or unkind design?
Katie is working with the Munsell Student Color Set (hue, value, chroma). For any one of the squares, something else (even from a magazine?) might be substituted.
We talked about color vs "white" (which brings issues of assumed normality, race, etc. into the picture). Whiteboards, blackboards.
Jessica Wynne's book Do Not Erase : Mathematicians and their Chalkboards (2021, QA16 .W96 2021) is currently on the seminar room table; it is described at this article in The Guardian (October 12, 2019).
aside —
clippings from magazines, etc., might be used in various ways with the Munsell chips and system?
Madison mentioned her photographs of bird houses; John recalled a beautiful photograph of a beautiful piece of wood. Some of the discussion was about just making things, multiple things. putting them out in the world. documenting.
I bookmarked (with tag #405F22.MG) an instragram devoted to elfland.somerville/. We talked about making boxes, chairs, beehives... etc... that might also be deployed/deposited in different kinds of locations, to create their own communities. The creations need not be the same style etc...
more —
Kylie Leuthol
project: junk chairs, self-initiated
year: summer 2019
brief: spend 30 minutes each day creating a model chair from found materials (junk), stored in junk bucket, as an exploration of form and material. each model is accompanied by a drawing and documentation of materials used.
website : kylieleuthold.com/junk-chairs (not only chairs!)
instagram : @kylieleu/
Patrick... type and image...
Proposal needs to narrow the theme... questioned whether it is "type" or "text" (which means, words — words clothed/expressed in lettering or type. Ed Ruscha came up, for example, The (Mountain, 1998) at edruscha.com/works/the-mountain/ and one of his many works with the title "Eye", at edruscha.com/works/eye/
The project would benefit by narrowing of terms, at least for now, so that experiments can proceed. Ten variations, say, of one word with one "picture."
Joshua's sounds sounded like a film score, to what? It actually doesn't matter, yet, what. Set against any visuals, the sound and visuals will interact in ways that can't entirely be anticipated.
Take a look at Hollis Frampton (1936-1984) his Zorn's Lemma, at ubuweb : ubu.com/film/frampton_zorns.html
try some fast (one second, half a second? tenth of a second? quick cuts from various online sources (television?), randomly selected (but not necessarily randomly deployed). See what happens. Too early to think about controlling emotions, etc.
for Sarah's project (After Life) I mentioned the presocratic philosopher Heraclitus, who had things to say about "change." (Will bring his text in next week.) For example, Panta Rhei (everything flows). see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heraclitus#Panta_rhei
Also mentioned Spinoza, whose concept conatus or "striving" has to do with the "innate inclination of a thing to continue to exist and enhance itself" (see entry at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conatus
see Part III, Proposition 6 in Spinoza's The Ethics (open, on seminar room table).
We talked about other things that change, transform. Does an ice cube "die"? the sun? a building? a book?
I also mentioned the book by Gustav Fechner, On Life after Death (), available in two translations : 1904 1906 and 1905, respectively.
These and some other things are bookmarked at pinboard, as mentioned above.
In discussing his project, John mentioned the idea of transforming a shoe into other things, e.g., a building.
I recalled Caroline Lares's seminar work (2014), described briefly at studio.montserrat.edu/gd/405/2014.htm#laresIt began with an obsession with stilettos, but evolved though dismantlings (hard work!) of shoes, photography of the parts, videography of the process, posters, abstractions. Her personal website no long shows that work, but her two process books from that year are on the seminar room table.
We talked about all of the information that a Sherlock Holmes might find in a shoe; and its surface as a kind of map, with valleys and canyons, protrusions, all manner of physical insults.
We talked about making shoes, from paper or other materials, or mixing and matching parts from several shoes.
See also Henny Burtnett's Last Map (2011-12), shown here
Sarah Trahan talk (probably Tuesday 13 September, 10:00am)
With/in a landscape
We are in the outdoors.
I am plugged into my computer and it is sensing me, itself, and the surrounding landscape, blending us all together in a series of recorded ones and zeros. My breath goes out into the wind, the wind whirs into the computer fan and drifts back to me again. We are a cyborg, an extended, expanded body. We are networks within a network within networks, constantly interpreted and interpreting. As I reflect on this experience outdoors I wonder how this entanglement in a remote landscape can be contained and carried for sharing with others. How can multiple, simultaneous, and invisible states of being be expressed? This project is an attempt to make material the intangible interconnections our bodies have with technology and the living world. The vessels in this collection are sculpted from an intermingling of electrical impulses, where the human body, its extensions (technology) and the landscape are embodied and contained with/in the same vessel.
The forms here are generated from data captured during experiences on solo hikes in the Arctic Circle during a two-week span in the summer of 2021. The data consisted of small electric impulses captured from my body, the computer, and the surrounding landscape. The data was recorded using a portable EEG helmet and converted into 3-dimensional objects using an algorithmic 3D modeling program. The resulting 3D models were then made into material objects through a 3D printing and hand-finishing process. Each individual vessel is reflective of a unique moment of time in the remote landscape of the Arctic; for example, hearing wind whistling through the EEG sensors, feeling rocks slip under my feet, watching a tadpole swim. While scientific sensing equipment was used in the creation of this project, the resulting forms are not simply data visualizations; rather, they are interpretations of the blending of human and non-human existences, sculpted with artistic intent.
Sarah's instagram is @sjt_tbd/
Here she is, on Day 5 : field work : www.instagram.com/p/CSRYTwUoKOp/
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