Monday, January 16, 2012
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
i'm such a fan of the bruce mau people.
DX Salon: BMD’s Paddy Harrington meets
Jeremy Vandermeij of the Gladstone
Monday, October 17, 2011
“The New Scotland Yard” Rules
PLAYERS
Unlimited number of detectives
1or more player X
REQUIREMENTS
Hardware: Blackberry phones with-
blackberry messenger activated.
camera
Software :
Google maps with google latitude activated
blackberry messenger group made for this game.
OR
Hardware: Basic mobile phone with
camera
Google maps with google latitude
internet access to facebook.
Software :
Google latitude activated
Facebook page
OBJECTIVE
Mr X is on a treasure hunt. X has to take photographs of five separate pre-decided artifacts
Detectives have to "catch" mr X , by photographing him and tagging him on facebook or uploading him to bbm group. Mr X must be recognizable.
HOW TO BEGIN
All players have to be assigned on google latitude.
They must be conversant with the options of switching their visibility on and off.
Players assign roles.
Artifacts are decided.
Boundaries can be decided.
BBerry group is formed for the duration of the game.
Game can begin at any time and anyplace. Ie players may not be in close proximity when the game is beginning.
ARTIFACTS
Artifacts must be one or all of the following.
1: mobile
2: photograph able.
3: photography should be possible from far away and any angle.
4: each artifact should not be less than 100 meters from each other.
5: not place specific. For eg: it can be any spire of a building, but not the spire of san marco tower.
6: the total number of artifacts must be in the ratio of not less than 5 artifacts per player X.
Examples:
gargoyles atop buildings.
Covers of selected music cassettes.
Ice crea m flavours from different vendors.
wada pav stalls on the street.
RULES FOR MR. X
Mr X has to be visible for 5 minutes every half an hour.
Every five minutes he transmits a photo of the street in front of him that will give a hint of his location.
Photos of deadwalls not allowed
He must stay on the road! If he stops for refreshments he has to locate himself.
Every time he alights or gets into a taxi or bus or train, he must inform on bbm
Everytime X clicks an artifact, he uploads them on the bbm group.
RULES FOR DETECTIVES
Detectives must stay on google latitude
Detectives can stay off for the 5 minutes in the half hour when X is visible.
Every time a detective alights or gets into a taxi or bus or train, he must inform on bbm so that the information and account is lodged with Mr or Ms X.
THE MONEY SYSTEM
Each detective has an expense account of INR300
Each taxi will be INR30
Each bus will be INR10
Each time a detective uses a facility his money is credited to Mr. X's account.
X cannot exceed the spent amount of all detectives combined.
First to complete objective wins.
My List of Things To Do in America and New York
an avid anti americana that i am, i have never really given this any thought. but i am quite pleasantly happy to note that not all my wishes are design oriented. so here is....
IN NEW YORK
REST OF THE STATES
Drive through San Francisco undulating roadways
Check out millennium park, Chicago
Thursday, September 15, 2011
the new and improved chain mail !!! (with two extra exclamation marks and added oomph)
Friday, July 22, 2011
An Open Letter to the 3rd UA Students 2011 Explaining the Value of Documentation
-July ‘11
Dear students,
Today, while discussing an exercise documentation and compilation with a couple of students, I was asked why we need to document this entire exercise. This is probably the first vocal statement I have heard, from a class that seems to be unanimously struggling with this aspect.
I also notice that most of the softcopy compilations is quite half-heatedly done and just look like stuff thrown together digitally for record.
For one thing, this is going to need a real change in attitude in how students approach the tasks handed to them. On the other hand, one of the causes of such an attitude is that the students do not understand the value of the exercises carried out by them. I hope to address that here.
Since this is a fairly novel requirement, your discomfort at this aspect of the exercise is understandable. However, as part of the ongoing exercise, it is important for students to appreciate the point of documentation of academic work. This understanding will come in handy throughout your academic duration.
Documentation of class work material is a method of summarizing and articulating the growth that takes place as a result of an exercise.
Take for example a student who has been given a problem. He arrives for class with a particular approach to solution. The guide responds with suggestions and the student makes the requisite revisions or addendums. this process continues for some time and the students now has a bunch of sketches express a “comprehensive thought process”, made up of all the multiple layers of discussions that have taken place.
This sketch we are referring to is a process sketch. These are drawings made by the student for his or her understanding. Now, very often, what happens is that after delving deep into the mental exercise of the process sketch, it is difficult for the student to take a step back and reflect upon the value and understanding gained from this exercise.
So, we see that, when this sketch is transferred to the compilation, students very often forget that when viewed after some time, it is impossible to make head or tail of the sketch. The sense of context is forgotten. There is no explanation on the drawings. Third person viewers have a hard time following the train of thought. There is just this cryptic series of sketches that independently make no sense.
Documentation allows the student to review the project from top to bottom. It allows him/her to read and reread the entire journey of the exercise and question whether the thinking process of the exercise is well articulated.
Very often, a presentation requires a concise and brief explanation of the project. For e.g. time given for an urban design presentation is barely five minutes OR (the most commonly occurring) the limitation in number of pages for each presentation).
Conforming to such stipulations requires a thorough understanding of the logistics of all the processes carried out.
what exercises have been carried out?
Why has it been carried out?
What are the inferences?,
Are the inferences significant?,
How is that so? and
Is it important enough to be explained or to be left in the appendix?
These are all necessary undercurrents that have to be appreciated by the presenter. But the presentation becomes almost impossible for the student to handle simply because that level of mental organization has not taken place. The process of documentation is meant to create a situation where such a reflection is possible.
As in many other cases, the process of documentation also develops additional skill sets. Learning how to document, learning how to use softwares and techniques involved; learning how to manage time and how to use it effectively; are all part of the learning process. It is not (and should not be part of the syllabus) but it is a requirement all the same, and must be mastered by every student.
There are of course other aspects to documentation that lie outside the narrow walls of the classroom.
Documentation is an extremely important tool to review the work done at a later future date.
More to the point, the role of an educational institute is to create capable professionals and advance the school of thought. We can only do that, not by distributing graduation certificates, but by getting students to execute the right kind of practice exercises.
It only seems logical, then, to state that documentation of student's exercises is the only mode of measurement of their intellectual growth in an academic institution. This mode of measurement may not seem worthwhile now, but it is an exercise carried out for posterity.
Lastly - this year being an experimental year in undergraduate landscape pedagogy, review and critique of the programme, by other faculty members and the students themselves, will be fundamental to the continuation of this programme.
This can only be done by reviewing the work done by students during exhibitions etc.
Students may not be present at this exhibition- so the documentation must be done in a way to explain itself to a third person also.
REMEMBER
1) Documentation is an articulation exercise where students learn to be clearer about their thought process.
2) Documentation of students work is the most important tool in measuring intellectual growth in an academic institute.
3) Documentation is made for posterity: its life is longer than you think and might be circulated around long after this class has passed out
4) It will be read by many others outside your class: they will read it for reference, they will discuss it with their peers and they will draw wisdom and learn from it.
5) Documentation will play an important role in shaping a better landscape programme in the future. Your contribution will make that difference.
I hope this somewhat clears up why we have introduced documentation as part of the exercises, and also give to students a sense of gravitas about this aspect of the project.
If you have any doubts please feel free to write back with questions and comments. I look forward to an interaction with you on the matter.
Regards
arjun sharma