For now, I have been writing a bit more on my K2 Blog. Meantime, here's a great video
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Exploration on the brain
My recent travels to South Africa, Southeast Asia and my upcoming trek to K2, which sits on the border of Pakistan, India and China, has got me thinking about explorers. In all truth my life has been hitched to the explorer wagon for a long time. One look at my bookshelf will tell you as much. Marco Polo, Ferdinand Magellan, Steve Sillett and Marie Antoine, Ernest Shackleton, Rory Stewart, Isobel and Ben Shaw, Peter Hessler, Peter Matthiessen.. and the list could go on. I've poured over maps, routes, plans, gear lists, and flights to faraway places and adventure and outdoor magazines for almost as long as I can remember.
Several weeks ago I picked up National Geographic Adventure and read this amazing article about NG Explorer Albert Yu-Mu Lin and his team's efforts to find the tomb of Ghengis Khan - (another fascination of mine.) I was immediately inspired by the growing influence of technology on these types of expeditions and the possibilities for the future.
Read about Lin's expedition into Mongolia's "Forbidden Zone" and the virtual environment used to explore the Forbidden Zone from California here
Monday, April 12, 2010
Reflecting, Recharging, Reevaluating and Making Shit Happen
Recently I went through some of my project archives and journals to see if I could unearth some piece of long lost genius that would somehow catapult me into a better head-space. I came across a journal entry I wrote three years ago when I was in a similar state of stuck-ness. It reminded me that while my situation and circumstances and geography have changed, my ideas about my work haven't changed that much. It motivated me to keep going.
Saturday, August 4, 2007
"... (my new work) exists because I got tired of people telling me it couldn’t. I got tired of hearing that design and culture cannot coexist in the ways I wanted it to. I was bored of convention and categorization and tired of listening to people say that multidisciplinary pursuits aren’t a realistic way to approach the world. What a shocking insight into the minds of mediocrity. My experience of the world is created through networks of cross-disciplinary experiences. Everything in that world constantly moves and flows between things that defy categorization.
The business of culture is fascinating. It’s a culture of combination that is impossible to ignore. It’s a culture of creating connections – making networks and exploring the in-betweens. It is a strange, yet somehow oddly familiar set of experiences and interactions. Maybe its how our minds have worked all along… And so, (this work) exists to explore the culture that makes up our set of multi-faceted experiences..."
Saturday, August 4, 2007
"... (my new work) exists because I got tired of people telling me it couldn’t. I got tired of hearing that design and culture cannot coexist in the ways I wanted it to. I was bored of convention and categorization and tired of listening to people say that multidisciplinary pursuits aren’t a realistic way to approach the world. What a shocking insight into the minds of mediocrity. My experience of the world is created through networks of cross-disciplinary experiences. Everything in that world constantly moves and flows between things that defy categorization.
The business of culture is fascinating. It’s a culture of combination that is impossible to ignore. It’s a culture of creating connections – making networks and exploring the in-betweens. It is a strange, yet somehow oddly familiar set of experiences and interactions. Maybe its how our minds have worked all along… And so, (this work) exists to explore the culture that makes up our set of multi-faceted experiences..."
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
my great grandfather's letters
Did i tell you that my grandfather has also saved all of my great grandfather's letters to my great grandmother from WWI? About a month ago I got him to start reading some. Stay Tuned.
If you do nothing else... you must
1. email dalyn in thailand
2. call doug re: new years
3. write about south africa
4. follow up with jac.
2. call doug re: new years
3. write about south africa
4. follow up with jac.
Cross Cultural Design
A lot of times when we approach cross cultural design we think of it as design for another place that is not our own. We are American’s designing for Asians or Asians designing for Europeans. The process we go through is, undoubtedly, cross cultural because it requires us as designers to cross the boundaries of our “knowns” and design for a place that is slightly less known ... to us.
My problem with classifying this as “cross-cultural design” is that while the process required us to stay up late or take an early morning phone call, while it may have required a lot of additional cultural research and understanding, the resulting design is does not always require cross cultural use. Oftentimes our resulting product or communication still only resonates with people of one culture or another. So the question becomes: can we design products, create services, craft communication that in itself, through it’s function effectively crosses cultural boundaries and communicates to different groups simultaneously?
In an interview with the authors of Data Flow, LUST Design suggests that data visualization is an effective tool for cross cultural communication. It doesn’t have to rely on language. It is not dependent on a specific alphabet, it doesn't appeal to specific cultural knowledge, or rely on metaphores, histories or traditions. Because data can communicate through a language of visual symbols rather than an intricate play of cultural relationships, it can be an effective way to reach across geographical boundaries.
What else?
This blog post was expanded and published by the AIGA here...
My problem with classifying this as “cross-cultural design” is that while the process required us to stay up late or take an early morning phone call, while it may have required a lot of additional cultural research and understanding, the resulting design is does not always require cross cultural use. Oftentimes our resulting product or communication still only resonates with people of one culture or another. So the question becomes: can we design products, create services, craft communication that in itself, through it’s function effectively crosses cultural boundaries and communicates to different groups simultaneously?
In an interview with the authors of Data Flow, LUST Design suggests that data visualization is an effective tool for cross cultural communication. It doesn’t have to rely on language. It is not dependent on a specific alphabet, it doesn't appeal to specific cultural knowledge, or rely on metaphores, histories or traditions. Because data can communicate through a language of visual symbols rather than an intricate play of cultural relationships, it can be an effective way to reach across geographical boundaries.
What else?
This blog post was expanded and published by the AIGA here...
Friday, October 23, 2009
My great grandfather's journal from WW1
I have launched into a family history project and I spent the morning at my grandpa's house in Webster Groves, MO going through stacks of old things. I always knew grandpa saved everything - but it has been only recently that I have realized that all of the old things stacked up on his desk and in the corners of his old tudor house at 315 South Rock Hill Road have stories...
Earlier this week I discovered that the house where my grandpa grew up (540 S. Rock Hill Road - barely 2 blocks from where he lives now) was designed by his mother (Pearl) and built by his grandfather in 1930. They moved in when gramp was 10 years old. He still has the original plans tucked away somewhere in his attic and thinks that the current owners should probably have them... to keep with the house. It is gorgeous - he says 5 bedrooms.. I'll have to ask again how much it cost to build in 1930... I think he says they sold it after his parent's death for $115K - four times the cost of original construction - shortly thereafter it was valued at $450K. that was probably mid-1980's
The house was sold before I can remember, but I do remember driving past it as a kid on the way to grandpa and grandma's house and my mother telling me that that was the house where she would go visit her grandparents when she was my age. I will go by and take a picture of it and post it later on.
This week I started reading a few pages from my great-grandfather's journal from WW1. He had beautiful handwriting. It is one of those things you can only read in small doses. Maybe I will post an excerpt...
Earlier this week I discovered that the house where my grandpa grew up (540 S. Rock Hill Road - barely 2 blocks from where he lives now) was designed by his mother (Pearl) and built by his grandfather in 1930. They moved in when gramp was 10 years old. He still has the original plans tucked away somewhere in his attic and thinks that the current owners should probably have them... to keep with the house. It is gorgeous - he says 5 bedrooms.. I'll have to ask again how much it cost to build in 1930... I think he says they sold it after his parent's death for $115K - four times the cost of original construction - shortly thereafter it was valued at $450K. that was probably mid-1980's
The house was sold before I can remember, but I do remember driving past it as a kid on the way to grandpa and grandma's house and my mother telling me that that was the house where she would go visit her grandparents when she was my age. I will go by and take a picture of it and post it later on.
This week I started reading a few pages from my great-grandfather's journal from WW1. He had beautiful handwriting. It is one of those things you can only read in small doses. Maybe I will post an excerpt...
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Friday, May 29, 2009
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