Step Three - Idea Generation

I now have the guidelines for the project. The theme is Experience Design and the project must make a difference and encourage exploration of life - in some way or another. For the next step I used Affinity Diagramming on the Post It's I already had on my wall. So I:

1) Took them all down

2) Reorganized the Post It's in associating groups

3) Added more ideas, thoughts and questions

Since Aalborg University encourage a problem solving approach to projects it is necessary for me to formulate a core problem that the project is either solving, trying to solve, questioning or in other ways commenting on. After having brainstormed the morning away on why people do not explore their surroundings I read an article from the Washington Post [click here to read it] about Joshua Bell (one of the world's best violinists) playing the violin in the Metro. Only a few people stopped to appreciate the world class music and only one actually recognized him. It might be that violin music is a genre less favoured by people today(?) but that does not change the fact that it is thought-provoking that a lot of people seemingly don't see or notice the little things that's going on around them. But how come?

Is it because... we are not used to look for "beauty" around us  - are we too hard to impress - scared - have grown up - don't think it is socially acceptable to question our experiences, thoughts and everyday lives - are we too goal oriented - inattentive - off guard - is it simply too silly to explore and question - is it out of our personal comfort zone - doesn't it feel safe - are we afraid of finding something we don't like - or that it's too expensive - don't we have time - or are we just thinking that it doesn't fit in "right now" - but will it then ever fit - are we too busy with something else - on the way from A to B - and are we so oblivious that we think we won't get anything out of it? [Samples from my brainstorm]

Later I stumbled upon something else - a note originally posted on Pinterest and then posted by a friend of a friend on Facebook:

This opened my eyes to the fact that we all have the choice to notice the small things around us - all we have to do is make the choice or become aware that we can make it. But how?

/Anne Sofie

P.S. My Mac just died and is taken to the doctor. So now my desk looks like this:

Step Two - Finalising the Brief

This post might get a little complicated as I'm attempting to explain a flow of ideas. Bare with me, stay open minded and keep in mind that this is just part of getting closer to the actual brief.

Now that I have settled that I want to make a difference with my project I have to find out what I want the project to concern. I have merged my four themes of interest: Life, Street Art, Collaborative Art and Biological Art to two directions:

'Making life awesome'

and

'Having fun in your surroundings'

I then brainstormed on the two directions and asked: "How can one make life awesome or extraordinary?" At the moment I'm only referring to my own thoughts on the subject and here follows some of the keywords:

Explore - Play - Fall in love - Be a child - Make a to do list - Dare to dream - Make your dreams reality - Live your dream - Go out of your comfort zone - Help others - Share - Show and tell - Do something in a way you normally wouldn't do - Make a difference - Experience - Ask questions - Try something new - Meet new people - Reach goals - Talk to people you normally wouldn't talk to - Question your thoughts/prejudice, ask "why do I think that" - Do something extraordinary - Make new friends - Be curious - Create

Then I asked: "How can you have fun in your surroundings?" This brainstorm was much more loose than the one described above and dragged a lot of questions into it.

I ended up with two "clouds" of little Post It's on my wall, containing both keywords and questions. I then drew a line from each cloud pointing towards a Post It with the words:

Take it to the streets 

Make it urban

Make it global

From that Post It an arrow pointed towards the word Project. And then... I waited. I needed to digest the inputs and give it all some thought. And after some time the arrow was no longer pointing towards Project but towards the word "Exploration". And by that I mean...

Exploration of life

Some other Post It's clarifying the theme quickly assembled in a cloud next to Exploration:

"About exploring your surroundings and gaining new experiences from life - leaving messages - leaving art behind - leaving something for others to find - give clues or not - sharing - getting away from the beaten track - connecting the dots - Geo Caching - mapping the city alternatively - "Explore the World and Open Your Mind - QR Code (generator) - use satellites/GPS - quote from a comedian: "I don't want to die curious" - Flow - Urban/City game - must there be rules? - open your mind up and find something new - prejudice - fear of the unknown - fear can stop you from doing things - open-mindedness - letting something else dictate something e.g. where to go or what to do - explore something specific or get a "random surprise".

This all assembles to: a project that under the theme Experience Design is ought to make a difference by encouraging exploration of life - in some way or another.

Now there is something to chew on! And I hope it didn't get too confusing.

/Anne Sofie

Step Two - Creating a Brief

Starting out from scratch with free hands on an assignment is nice but also challenging as you have no direction to start out from. All I have to keep in mind is that the frame is "Experience Design". But that is indeed very broad. To kick off the process I wrote down the themes I found interesting and would like to develop a project from:

- Street Art - Think: Banksy, Space Invader, Blek Le Rat, Guerilla Gardening, Reverse Graffiti, Cellograff, hidden USBs, etc.  

- Life - Think: To do lists, travel, experiences, seeing, hearing, smelling and trying new things, sensing with your body, documenting, etc. 

- Biological Art - Think: Tomas Saraceno, Stelarc, Wim Delvoye and other and art installations containing solar power, wind power, collection of rainwater 

- Social/Collaborative Art - Think: helping each other create something big, sharing, collaborating with people you don't know or would not normally talk to, meeting new people, meeting friends, being social. 

I then started brainstorming on the themes to open up for ideas and inspiration - but nothing really happened. I found myself circling what I already knew and did not come up with anything that really lit my fire. I quickly realized that I had to attempt another approach because the way I was addressing the project was way too broad and I would take too long to come up with a good concept.

Therefor I took a step back and asked my self. What would you like to do?

You have four months and free hands for a project that you decide everything about. What would you like to do? Really like to do?

After some thought I derived at the following answer to my question:

I want to make a difference.

And so this has become the goal for my project in experience design - to make a project that will make a difference - in present time or in the near future.

It might sound boosted but think about it! A difference can be big or small, concern many or few, be a product, an installation, an art piece, a performance or something else. It does not necessarily have to be a radical difference - it can be minor too - I just have to make a difference.

The whole "making a difference thing" derives mainly from a to-do-list I keep and partially from one of my favorite quotations by Ghandi - saying: "you must be the change you want to see in the world."
So now let's see where this takes the project.
The next step is to prepare the first presentation and come up with a theme.

/Anne Sofie

Step One - Organization

The first thing to get up on my wall was a 3 x A3 big homemade calendar containing all dates from the beginning to the end of the semester. On here all the deadlines, electives, subjects, appointments, intermediate aims, events, daily accomplishments, presentation dates and so on will be put up.
The next item to go on the wall was a list of home-spun project guidelines. On the other semesters stress have been a normal part of the semester project - and this project is not going to be less demanding so to maintain good health and a reasonable amount of sanity I made the following list:

- Do not postpone

- Don't stress

- Engage, indulge, enjoy

- Dig deeper

- Be confident

- Go to bed

- Stay open-minded and be inspired

- Keep it real - don't under- or overestimate yourself

- Have fun

- K.I.S.S - Keep it Simple Stupid! Which a good friend of mine rephrased to "Keep it Simple Sweetie" - and so I will.

Since the study is called Art & Technology it is evident to make an incredibly high-tech project containing a lot of sensors, motors and projectors and glaze the miracle in hours and hours of programming. But - I am only one person so I simply cannot use hours and hours on programming and since other studies like Medialogy are incredible at programming and make perfectly good programmed projects I do not wish to make my project a "medialogy-light". So I will keep the technology simple - if I conclude that it is essential for the project and is to be part of it. I refuse to use technology just to have it "in there". It have to make sense and be part of the narrative that I'm going to have in the project. 

For the project I will be using a design process which I was taught while studying at Product Design at AUT in Auckland, New Zealand. The process consists of six stages which I will take you through as the concept develops. I will be using different methods for concept development in the initial stages of the project to create a concept that is appropriate for the city in which the project is going to be exhibited - namely Aalborg. I do not wish to simply get and idea and then try to make it fit. I want to base the project on research findings and thereby work "from the bottom and up" and not "top down".

But first I will need to create a design brief.

/Anne Sofie

And So It Begins

We have just had our first Bachelor briefing and have been told that the framework for the final assignment is completely up to us - our hands are free. Completely free! The only given constraint is the theme - we must develop something that touches on the subject Experience Design. 

A minor group of students from the study have chosen to work alone for the final semester project - and as one of them I will be working full-on in developing and executing my project completely from scratch - a full blown concept development and idea generation which hopefully will lead to a well narrated and well executed final project. 

To document the work flow and keep the process in happy memory I will attempt to keep this blog throughout the Ba-days and share what might come with whom might find it interesting.

/Enjoy

Kind regards
Anne Sofie