Archive for October, 2010

GLIDE10: Ron Eglash Bridges The Gap Between Vernacular and Indigenous Cultures


Ron Eglash computations

by Michele Y. Washington
Click to hear Ron Eglash’s presentation.
Our final keynote speaker brilliantly closed out GLIDE10 on his continuous investigation on Culture and Science in the sphere of indigenous and vernacular cultures existing within the United States ethnic communities such as Asian, Latin American and African American. Ron gives an in-depth explanation of global indigenous cultures to dispel numerous myths that exist of such groups as being backwards, primitive and illiterate.  This raises several fundamental issues of cultural sensitivity, and he provides specific examples from one project featured on his website on the process of mapping out Native American asymmetrical and symmetrical beading systems. For another project you can sample an example of African Architectural typology replicated through the application of African Fractals, an organic branching structure referencing nature.

This African Fractals project offers clear cut examples of his teaching methods applied in the cultural significance of the ancestral origins of cornrows for Black American students in high schools. His goal was to challenge the students to investigate the issues that surrounded the Black Transatlantic Slave Trade to the Americas and Caribbean, students were able to identify hygiene, resistance, retaining ones culture identity linking their own cornrow hairstyles to its origins. Other examples of paring the musicality of Hip-hop provide a broader sensibility of the connection as to why they wear this hairstyle. He’s developed a computation where he feeds in various iterations of how many plaits are in one braid. According to Ron, such concepts can be applied to other ethnic groups to gain a better understanding of the ancestral heritage. The Cultural expression opens the door to engage students to consider the various modalities of the design patterns replicated by cornrow hairstyles, which blurs the line between indigenous and vernacular design. He also looks at graffiti as a form of vernacular stereotyping. Ends his talk on Puerto Rican youth rooted to challenge the students through mathematical computation of Spanish music through rhythms and beats of the music. Summary of what limits racial intelligence, he states, while no one wants to talk about it, the thoughts loom in the back of many educators and peoples mind.

What part of collective memory fuels some of this iconic bead work, rug design, totems that are also evident in other global cultures such as Africans, Aboriginal, India, Middle Eastern, and Asian countries?

Defeating myths of cultural determinism
Using mathematics to bridge cultural gaps
Making cultural capital more available to its owners (individuals) Educational capital
Looking at new forms of hybridity for learning Peace and social justice efforts
Environmental sustainability

Making contributions to mathematics, and inspirations Challenges:

Not all modeling of culture involves translation of indigenous or vernacular knowledge. Ethnomath: provide more evidences of application of knowledge Interesting concept over cultural ownership of whose holds on to authentic cultural heritage for example, Shawnee Native Americans. Alternative methods for kids to go from consumers to producers, makers by apply the discovery as a learning method.

Take a look at Ron presentation at TED.COM

GLIDE10: Fabiola Berdiel + Cynthia Lawson Development through Empowerment, Entrepreneurship, and Design.

GLIDE10: Fabiola Berdiel + Cynthia Lawson Development through Empowerment, Entrepreneurship, and Design presenters brings us up-to-date on Parsons School of Design ongoing mission of incorporating social responsibility in to learning processes as applied to several design disciplines such as product, architecture and more.

One great aspect of Parsons School of Design  program is there hybridity of bringing students together from various disciplines to share information to build stronger coherent knowledge bases. The challenge is instructors function as facilitators, this mode of teaching forces the students to take a more interactive role to immerse themselves fully in there projects, and learn new platforms of studying beyond formal and informal methods of learning.  Students also have the opportunity to acquire primary research through traveling to developing/emerging  countries and explore various modes of practices while interacting with local people,  investigating new materials and methods to enhance new ways of design thinking. This provides the student with practical and hands-on experiences to build a diverse dialog rooted  in social and cultural constructs not available by just sitting in a classroom or surfing the internet.

 

Questions:
I’m curious how the outcomes are measured by the students each semester? When the students interact with other cultures through travels, how does this figure into the collaborative process? How do these other ethnic cultures respond to the presences of your students?

I love the concept of students taking on the role of facilitators as a shared experience with this projects. How does this method evolve from semester to semester? Do the students view themselves as real agents of change? If so what are some of the outcomes?

What are the draws backs of the participatory process in this model of learning?

For more information click on: deed.parsons.edu

GLIDE10: Susana Barreto/Towards a Global Design Taxonomy

Susana Barreto presents her paper on the recent phenomenon of global design targeted at international markets, and the criticism of these scenarios which can create problems as they take a strong hold in the ethical models of international environments. She is vehement about how graphic designers need to move forward in this area and why designers need to develop new models and methodologies for global design markets, and not replicate methods being used by other design disciplines.

Does the keyword global design  bring up issues of buzz words, while ignoring the specificity of cultures they are proposing to develop by lumping people together.

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER:
What does Global Design mean to you?
Do designers need to apply the same techniques practiced by cultural anthropologists or ethnographer’s?

Susana discussion brings forth numerous questions, why are designers quickly latching onto clients seeking to globally expand into new markets?

Is global design another form of corporate colonization?

Susana discusses, the issues surrounding the existence of Darling toothpaste was once called Darkie toothpaste featuring negative stereotype of blackface minstrels.
Why are such ethnic stereotypes still used to sell products?

Let’s not forget Nikes sneaker design featuring the word “ALLAH,” inscribed on the back of the shoes. While Nike assumed they were being hip by there stylishly rendering of the word “Nike” in reality it was “Allah.”

Can you speak about the early 1990s controversial Benetton campaign created by photographer Oliveri Toscani, such as two young girls portrayal of angel and devil, and how these imaged fashioned to sell clothes tended to addressed negative assumptions of races, gender and sexism. Yet, the big questions arose at the time over commerce and fashion?

listens to Susan Barreto’s lecture



GlIDE10: Justine Hsueh/integration of green design and visual typography

Justine presents signboard communication in Asia. Objective is to improve technology design in the future, through better design and visual typography by integrating green design concepts.

What is phenomenology and phenomenography?

How will Justine apply theories of postmodernism to her research? Last year while visiting Macao, and Hong Kong, Beijing I was able to experience the density of signboards on many streets.

How are signboards in Asian countries different than the busy exterior signage in NYCs Time Square?

Below images from my travels last January to Beijing, Hong Kong and Macao the streets are brilliantly lite-up with signboards. One thing to consider is the amount of energy generated to keep these signs glowing day and night. Brilliant concept Justine’s offers alternative materials such as legos parts, old computer boards, and small car toys to develop more efficient signboards.

She offers interesting keyword: bricolage as main methodology.

Macau

Hong Kong

.

GLIDE10: Maria Rogal/Indigenous Design in Maya

Send your questions to GLIDE10 proceeding page

In the US we take a lot for-granted when in comes to access to technology that’s not universally available. For example my friends that teach at University of Federal in  Bahia use PCs over Macs due to cost of hardware.

Discusses her project of working the Mayan indigenous culture to expand there communities to be self-sustaining. This was a collaborative project Maria shares her experiences. Check out  www.design4development.org &www.mariarogal.com.

Technology: (referring to people in rural areas): Mobile phones usage is cheaply available; Families with teenagers own computers, however Internet access is rare due to cost some in rural area use satellite. Text messages are much cheaper; Age distinction with use of computers viewed as a tool for younger people.

Online banking transactions: Online bill paying is not totally embraced by all the people; Trust is a big factor in dealing with banks, ATMS etc.

Open Source resources: People have computers but no money for software; Identify access to free shareware such as google sketch-up.

Design Activist: deeply socially oreientated, involoving a variety of actors in the chain of events.

Working together Maria feels it’s important to use the term partners.

AK Kuxtal Workshop: Access to information is key to expanding knowledge in making products.

Ability to get students to work using unfamiliar technology and new ways of thinking about how to develop their products.

27

10 2010

FIT Exhibition Design Project: Food Opera

In my classroom I challenge my students to think beyond there own cultural beliefs and to expand the dialog of what globalization and culture means as applied to their ideation and design thinking. Here are a few examples of mindmapping/billboarding techniques used to jump start there projects. Below are several examples of students finished projects, billboarding presentations and team interactions.

Isabeal Maryland Crab presentation

Roni, Sarah and Sparky deep in thought

Dominka Polish Food expo, she incorporated poetic verses.

GLIDE10: Keynote presenter Audra Buck-Coleman from China

Stick + Stones project

Audra Buck-Coleman, is our first keynote speaker of the day, Coleman’s topic Identifying Potential Pitfalls + Windfalls in Collaborative Projects will definitely set the tone for what follows. She will address some major issues surrounding collaboration, and it consistent use as a  buzz word in higher education. Finally she proposes design educators develop more projects that foster critical thinking skills to make students better prepared for today’s creative working environments. Audra explores some of the pitfalls that exist with her projects, and investigates the advantages and disadvantages of working collectively across boarders with other cultures where English is not there first language.

How can design educators adept some of Audra’s rich skills and knowledge for collaborative projects?

What happens when language is a barrier to enhance collaborative critical learning outcomes?

Audra’s presents one project between Blacks students in  southern community and Mormons who came to realized they shared  more similarities then differences.

She proposes the following question to consider: When working on collaborative projects do your students know how to navigate through stereotyping issues with other ethnic, religious, gender based groups?

Audra proposes the following suggestions based on her collaborative experience of working with Students in China:

Chinese students prefer organized structured learning over US students flexible learning.

What is your Classroom Culture?

Are you well versed in the nuances of the culture?

How prepared are you for flexibility and improvisation in the classroom?

What are the benefits of the professors experience from collaboration?

Check out: Stick + Stones

GLIDE10: Make sure to read all these Abstracts

Make sure to read all the abstracts to share all of your comments, click this link it directs you to conference presenters for GLIDE10. It’s free to post your questions and experiences to further today’s dialog with each presenters.

8:45 AM Choices: Identifying potential pitfalls and windfalls in collaborative projects (keynote presentation) by Audra Buck-Coleman (Presenting from China).

Abstract: Colleges and universities today increasingly emphasize globalization and collaboration, and with good reason: Collaborative learning can improve students’ confidence and enthusiasm, it can offer a broader body of knowledge than is possible in a single classroom, and its (usually) increased diversity can generate heightened awareness for others as well as more complex thinking skills, especially when addressing multifaceted issues. However, collaborations with more partners do not always offer more rewards nor does diversity necessarily increase with the distance between students’ homes. Audra Buck-Coleman is a principal investigator and original co-author of Sticks + Stones, a multi-university collaboration of graphic design students. Through Sticks + Stones Audra has facilitated in-country (USA) and international pedagogical projects with more than 100 students. Based on research and personal experience, this presentation will address potential achievements and shortcomings of cross-university collaborations.

9:30 AM Design for Development: Participatory Design and Contextual Research with Indigenous Maya Communities by Maria Rogal (Presenting from USA).

Abstract: design for development (d4d) is an initiative where, I, along with my graphic design students, work together with people from marginalized indigenous communities— in the southern Mexican states of Quintana Roo and Yucatán—and other disciplinary experts to develop solutions to problems we mutually identify and research in context. A major part of this research process is to learn about the lives of our project partners, all marginalized Maya who are highly skilled but have historically lacked access to capital required to bring their projects to market. Learning about disciplines also involves learning about cultures and contexts, which we begin at the partner site in Mexico as part of a participatory and responsible research practice. Of significant focus is the fieldwork component that empowers all participants to connect, exchange, collaborate, innovate, and create. It is a learning opportunity for all project participants working to create a more equitable world. Read the rest of this entry →

27

10 2010

THIS WEEK’S BUZZ: GLIDE10 + Global Bloggers

Sorry I took a little time-out, however I’m back with this week’s buzz. Eric Benson from the University of Illinois, in Urbana and I will be the quest blogger for GLIDE10, a virtual symposium taking place on 27 October, 2010, starting early at 8:30AM. Eric maintains renourish blog that focuses on sustainable design. We’ll be posting questions on our blogs, and twitting simultaneously during each presenters talk from all over the globe. This years theme focuses on indigenous design with line-up featuring a host of design intellectuals from around the world, such as Audra Buck-Coleman from China, Adream Blair-Early from USA, Dr. Li-Hsun Peng and Chia-Hsin, from Taiwan are among some of the distinguished presenters this year. Great you don’t need to travel anywhere far. It’s easy to register then throw back while you relax  at home in front of your computer, TV in your jammies, or office or classroom space and just listen.

Keep in mind none of my commentary postings directly reflect the opinions of the conference planning committee Audrey Bennett, Adream Blair-Early and Gloria Gomez. As a designer and educator I was asked to share my opinions and that’s exactly what I have done.

I AM CRIMPS FASHION WEEK

FASHION ACTIVISM from Shine Promos on Vimeo.

Black fashionista have taken there protest beyond the blogsphere to the street to voice the vehement dismay over the recent controversial hiring of a white fashion director, Ellianna Placas at Essence Magazine this past summer. The announcement stirred some old wounds and created a tidal wave backlash for Essence is known as a fertile training ground for many young black women seeking entry into the world of magazine fashion. Marc Baptiste well-known for his exciting fashion photography took his beliefs a step further when he captured the cultureversy on film of the fashionista protesting at this year’s Mercedes Benz during Spring/Summer 2011 Fashion Week. About 20 bodacious black women dressed in black with dark shades, slowly marched through the streets in silence from Time, Inc. the offices of Essence magazine to the new site of Fashion week at Lincoln Center. In the same spirit as Martin Luther King, who marched in the 1960s in Memphis with a group of Black garbage workers with picket signs reading (I Am a Man), these young women demonstrated using a similar signifer “I AM Fashion,”  each individual sign identified former fashion editors of Essence such as Susan Taylor, Iona Dunn Lee, Harriette Coles and Micheala Angela Davis, this is just a short list of the fashion directors who have served over the years. At issue  in this postracial society is while black women grace the covers of ELLE, VOGUE or BAZAAR magazines, few get have access to top positions as Fashion Directors in magazines or blogs. The likelihood is the storm will not cease and these sistas will be marching again when the Fall 2011 Mercedes Benz Fashion Week rolls around. To view Marc Baptiste film click on the Fashion Activism link above.

05

10 2010