for thursday march 27

check out these two sites on "the new urbanism" movement, and we'll discuss in class on thursday before critique.

principles of new urbanism
you need only read this one page on the site.

cohousing
read the brief intro and the "what is cohousing" section.

two links

i found the site i was telling morgan about, where the authors set up art projects, people do them, and then send in the results: learning to love you more

also, check this studio out: localprojects.net
any of these things look familiar? they're looking for summer interns -- unpaid :(

for thursday march 13

1) keep making things
2) keep talking to people
3) browse through "guerrilla advertising" and "the guerilla art kit" on my library reserve shelf.
4) check out these links below. listen to some stories and look at journal pages. learn about how the projects work.
1000 journals
story corps

oh snap! i just listened to one story on storycorps and it's amazing. i love it.

for tuesday feb 26

google “narrative maps” [images and text], to get a basic idea of how other people are making maps to tell stories. yours need not look at all like these. it's just to spur ideas.

plus bring in additional resources on stories, visual stories, narratives, community art/design, etc, to share. any new sources you can scrape up that can expand our ideas of what we could do with our work.

AND make a story / map thing that documents your experiences so far. cassie and morgan have made contact with people! yay! it can take whatever form you want, but it should communicate your experiences, triumphs, failures, attempts, conversations, whatever has happened so far. you need to start making and responding to this experience.

finally, we'll watch the movie "fast, cheap, and out of control" in class. it weaves together some great stories. lots to do tuesday. i look forward to it.

tyler

for thursday feb 14

make sure you've read the following:
empathic design
what kind of research model is empathic design?
"america starts here" on my reserve shelf in the library. skim through and read about a few projects.
when i say to make sure you've read things, that usually means there is some accountability to be had on your end, so beware.

also be ready to make a visual presentation on the community you intend to engage. there is a small possibility of a surprise guest, so make sure you're well prepared for this as well.

defining community

let's collect some thoughts on what constitutes a community. to get us started, i'll throw out a few definitions, as i'm prone to do. first from the ol' dashboard dictionary:

1. a group of people living together in one place, esp. one practicing common ownership. the people of a district or country considered collectively, esp. in the context of social values and responsibilities; society.
2. a group of people having a religion, race, profession, or other particular characteristic in common.
3. a feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals.
4. (ecology) a group of interdependent organisms of different species growing or living together in a specified habitat.

so, what can you add to that? what are the characteristics of a community as you see them? does your dept at kcai fit any of the definitions above? how is our notion of community different from that of our parents? when does a group cease to be called a community and is just acquaintences? let's hear it.

story corps speaker jan 31

short notice, but dave isay from story corps will be at unity temple on the plaza thursday jan 31, at 6:30 pm as part of a book tour for "listening is an act of love". the book compiles a range of stories collected across the country. check out the story corps website for more info. should be great!

tyler

welcome...

back to kcai for the spring term. this website will have all the relevant course materials posted as you need them -- syllabus, project sheet, handouts, etc. we can also use it as a discussion space about projects, readings, and class discussions. i'm totally excited about this class and look forward to a great semester with you all.