Symphysis
Kinnari Thakker's Personal BlogArchive for Participatory Design
Annotated Bible
When Dan spoke about the design of books in the olden days with large margins, so that the owner/owners can comment on the text as well as on each others comments – I was so interested in this idea! Its a linear book design with the most fascinating integration of non linear information with a different time-line, different theme, different character… A quick search yielded the following result – more findings ensue in following posts…
Image Source: http://homepage.mac.com/rmansfield/thislamp/files/20060808_a_survey_of_wide_margin_bibles_by_version.html blog by Rick Mansfield
Ubiquity of Graphic Design
There is increasing realization that graphic design is not as ephemeral as the paper it is printed on. Advertisements, posters, packages, logos, magazines endure the tag of impermanence – but this is not all that graphic design is. The lateral growth of the practice seeks to include areas such as education, art, research… How can graphic design be integrated with other disciplines to make communication and understanding more efficient and enduring?
Project Vision, the research collective I am a part of, is trying to understand the role of graphic design in the area of education – how can learning be made visible? There are some existing approaches worth considering, such as the reggio emilia and the learning made visible at Project Zero, Harvard.
Designerly ways of Knowing is an interesting book, which seeks to involve the concepts of design into the very fundamental systems of our education.
{Science + Humanities} + Design
Cross, argues that design strengthens and unites the entire non-verbal education of the child, and improves the range of acuity of his thinking. Questions graphic designers (such as I) are asking is – what are the different roles of graphic design in education? How can the use of graphic visual language be answers to understanding and visualizing complex problems that are posed as inquiry in education today? How can they assist in the development of cognitive capacities that are far more complex and exhaustive when compared to conventional approaches?
To me, graphic design (out of many things) is about making connections within the understanding of contexts – and about recognizing and making visible complexities, and interconnections between elements. ” The manner in which one is educated is just as important as the matter which is transmitted”, Cross highlights in his book — which points out that the design – is just as important if not more than the matter itself. (connects back to Narayana Murthy saying, Education is about learning to learn)
Lots of avenues open for graphic designers – Carpe Diem!
Social Networking, just a phase?
Social networking began in India with the popularity of Orkut, and teachers complained as teenagers hooked onto these sites to “flirt with their classmates and to talk about meaningless things like movies and actors”. There were several news articles where a member would reveal personal details about themselves and then be harassed, stalked, teased, etc. Social Networking sites were perceived as a place where hackers could easily win peoples trust and take advantage of them. It was viewed as something which was meaningless, just for fun, a passing phase that teens will grow out of…
What if this passing phase was to extend till school, through into college, and further into a career? Today the uses of social networks extend into diverse fields. In Srishti it is sometimes a course requirement to keep a blog, or build a network, or be a part of a network built around a subject. Recently students from Srishti (with others) organized a city-wide movement and demonstration as a response to the attack on women at a pub in Mangalore by the notorious Shri Ram Sene. The movement was initiated and coordinated through the groups application on Facebook and through blogs.
From being a “time-pass” obsession for teenagers addicted to the internet (like how many of us continue to be…) its use and possibilities have expanded laterally as the concept is explored in new, creative, and artistic ways. So then, maybe its just a really long phase!
My diploma project tried to explore some newer concepts and use of social networks and communities. Children using a network (created using NING) were empowered to publish not just their best work, but the many drafts it takes to get there. These received feedback from other members not necessarily involved in the group/activity directly. It also explored the concept of the network as an archive and possibly a bank of material and resources. The children created banks of images/sounds/videos which could be played directly, or downloaded to reuse. The children also explored the idea of creating, managing and distributing roles in groups. Material relevant to that group was then tagged accordingly. Its funny how some children are encouraged to get onto social networks and groups in school, while others, are frowned upon when they spend too much time browsing through them.
Could these networks have a boundary? Is there a point till where they could be pushed, used, reused and would eventually fall off the interest radars of people?
