Old Arizona Publication

BIKE+COMMUNITY

bikepluscommunity.com

NFB for Minnesota, Experience and Book

This book shows our experience and process with the NFB project. Its not a process book but a book of our journey of learning a great deal of things while being involved with students and staff at the NFB.

The book contains documents in braille that enable you to write your own life manifesto, as well as how to critique artwork and prepare for being an artist in society.

The DVD in the back contains audio recordings of Emily, Alex and I talking about our experiences of the semester long project and relationship building. The other sounds are running audio of the tactile work exhibition and tour of MCAD. The screen prints are gloss acrylic on black paper that not necessarily about what is seen but how it feels different on the page. It is seen in a way that reveals pictures of things along the path of our walks to the National Federation of the Blind, but in a different visual context than showing a picture with colors. The screen prints act as dividers in between the braille documents giving different textures in between braille documents.

This was an amazing project for us. It was a lot of time and effort put into building relationships and re-thinking what graphic design can be in the light of the need or no need of objects and tangible things. It shaped our existing perceptions and gave us new ones we never knew existed.

NFB Coffee Cupping

These are the first images taken for the NFB project.



We approached A.J. Warnick to do a coffee cupping for a few students and staff members of the NFB. Coffee can be a great part of social culture when appreciated so highly. Its something that people gather around to hang out and discuss life and what not to each other, and we wanted to have that experience with some members from the NFB.

US+THEM-->From Me To You

In the last Us+Them meeting we had, I think everyone felt like we were hitting many dead ends and had come to a point where no one wanted to be a part of Us+Them. I think what we were interested in was the ideas behind it without all of the logistics. There were great things brought up though, about individuals and groups being able to interpret things on their own.

Well as a member just like everyone else involved in Us+Them, I thought I would act upon an idea keeping in mind that it can be my interpretation of what Us+Them means, based off of some things we discussed.

I decided to do From Me To You, a way of doing an art/design project by mail. It is form making, ideation, and dialogue. I send two screen prints. 1. is something that I think is related to community. 2. this is where the recipient puts an interpretation of what they think might be community related: This one they send back to me. The instructions are brief and are made sure to be clear that it is fun and very much open to what they want to do with it.

Project Open

projectOPEN was conceived in 2005 to assist homeless populations in various communities throughout the US by providing a guide to meet four objectives:
The guide includes a list and map of organizations who specialize in services for the homeless.
The guide helps to locate services available to all citizens within a city that homeless people can utilize for free.
The guide includes a section on both personal rights and laws to encourage social education and to encourage people to follow the law.
The guide is portable and can be displayed as a poster to raise awareness about homelessness.

Austin Center for Design Website

A wicked problem is a form of social or cultural problem that is difficult to solve because of incomplete, contradictory, and changing requirements. These problems are typically offloaded to policy makers, or are written off as being too cumbursome to bother with. Yet these are the problems that plague our world and our cities - poverty, sustainability, equality and health and wellness are issues that touch each and every one of us.

These problems can be mitigated through the process of design - through an intellectual approach to design that emphasizes empathy, abductive reasoning, and rapid prototyping. These are the problems that are addressed at the Austin Center for Design.

Learn more about wicked problems 

http://www.austincenterfordesign.com/faculty.php