Simple Solution

This is a picture of a taxi driver's solution to an uncomfortably tight seat belt. It allows him just enough slack and it is a nice alternative to what other drivers (Ba!) opt to do -- not wear the belt at all.

Enough is Enough

[In response to a blog posting by Nathan Cooke regarding the hypocrisy of our "leading design educational institution."]

This is a great dialog and one that is long overdue. First of all, I care a great deal about Art Center because I'm grateful for the role that it has played in my life. Without it, I would not be the designer that I am today and I know that.

That being said, and as a recent alumna, it is frustrating to watch members of the administration continually fail to prioritize the students and education above other "academic" initiatives. In ignoring what should be its prize possession (the students), Art Center has created class after class of alumni who will never give back to their school and it has created a destructive cycle: 1) Art Center ignores students and diminishes the educational experience through bureaucracy and personal agenda, 2) Students graduate after having accrued a massive amount of loans, 3) They neither can afford nor care to give monetary donations to Art Center, 4) Art Center's endowment continues to shrink under the current administration and lack of support from its alumni body, 5) Current student tuition is raised increasing the amount of loans that the current students will have to endure and scholarships continue to shrink.

It is time for action. Time to bring the voice of the students back. Can Art Center truly continue its legacy of creating "leaders in design" if at the first sound of dissent it (Erika, Iris, Richard) attempts to silence it?

Students: You are paying for a service. If that service does not meet your expectations, you have the right to raise your voice.

Alumni: We have invested a lot in our diplomas. For some, over $100,000 in student loans have been accrued (the same as an average Harvard med student). The value of your association with the school is only as good as its current reputation. Do not let your investment depreciate under to poor guidance.

All: What are our next steps? Should we start a petition? Rather than have letters and emails trickle in one at a time to the trustees, we should make it a collective effort so that our individual bark becomes a collective roar. I am posting this comment and a link to this discussion on my blog, will others do the same?

PS: I really like the idea of t-shirts with "Education First" printed on them :)

The Small Things

I've made it back to LA and after 4 months in Singapore and already I am starting to miss the small things.

The character found in the store fronts and use of color.

The beautiful heritage trees that line the streets with their lyrical branches (there are tons more photos where these came from but I'll save them for a separate post).

Strong black kopi (coffee) with condensed milk. It costs 75 cents a cup at any hawker stand and its flavor puts Starbucks to shame (as does the fact that it doesn't burn a hole in your stomach).

Tian Tian Chicken Rice! Once it hits your lips...

Green tea soft serve with mochi and red bean. Why can't there be more desserts like this?

Looking up and seeing the rainbow of clothes drying in the breeze.

Robitussin, Strepsils, and National Geographic?

So, being sick stinks and I've been sick for the past 4 days. The one good thing about it though is getting to watch as many reruns on TV as I please without getting any grief about it. One of the reruns I caught the other day on the National Geographic Channel was on a project called Scrap House. It's an old project from 2005's Earth Day but I thought it worth mentioning because it brings up a lot of important issues which still loom over our heads today -- reusing our existing resources (like TrunkSale!). Every bit of the house was made from scrap found at the dump or donated by builders. Some of the more interesting bits include a traffic lens chandelier, door floor, and phone books used for insulation and acoustics. Here's a great video on the project.

Aside from the project itself, the National Geographic documentary also brought to light some interesting social dynamics. There were the designers and the contractors and everyone in between. Everything was strained from the get go. There was a lack of communication but most of all, respect between the designers and the contractors. As a designer, I wonder if we will ever be able to break the stereotypes and biases create chasms between different working classes.

Old street signs and scrap sheeting make up the exterior panels of the house.

The traffic light chandelier from above with a leather scrap floor below.

The door floor filled with concrete and the phone book wall.

Glass and metal sheeting donated by Building REsource.

Geo-Bio & Memory Bank

View Larger Map

After my entry on We Tell Stories, I wanted to see how I could use Google Maps in a new way. (I don't know if this is actually new or not but it's new for me ;) So, I talked to my friend Nathan (who gets cred for the name 'Geo-Biography') and decided to make a map of my life. As I placed the markers on the map, I realized that some of the most important markers were not placed to mark chronological milestones but ones revolving around fond memories. Since I have the memory of a small bat, I decided to recruit some friends to help turn my map into a memory bank. (If you have any memories to add, just message me and I'll add you as a collaborator.)

My hope is that not only can Google Maps be used to tell stories, it may also become the next social networking tool. If you start your Geo-Bios and layer them we may find that at one point in our lives we were in the same city or lived across the street from one another. Mine is still evolving but I wanted to post it up there just to inspire some other thoughts.

La La Land Art Land

Looking for inspiration in La La Land? For Your Art is a neato site dedicated to the LA art scene. It includes a downloadable pdf map of all of the art venues (galleries, museums, schools, etc) broken down by neighborhood.

Redefining a Medium

Ever look at the variety of internet tools we have -- Google, Picasa, Facebook, Blogger, etc, etc -- and wonder how else we could apply them? Well, there's a great project being initiated by Penguin Books called We Tell Stories. They have asked 6 authors to write 6 short digital fictions. Each of the authors uses the internet to redefine classic stories and more importantly the medium of 'The Book.' For example, the first is called The 21 Steps by Charles Cumming and is a story based on the classic The 39 Steps by John Buchan. It's told entirely using Google Maps! The bubbles and landmark function are used to show the text of the work in direct association with a specific location (here's an interview with Cumming on Cool Hunting).

It really makes you think about all of the uses that can be applied to the various internet tools at our very fingertips. In fact, I'm going to engage in some medium redefinition right now!

Sharing the Knowledge

I just stumbled across Slideshare and it's incredible. It's like flickr for presentations and covers a huge range of topics from design to drunken philosophy. You can view slide shows and even download the files. Knowledge sharing at its best! Just check it out and love it.

Feast for the Eyes

[continuing themes from our India trip 2008, here are some photos that don't fit into any other category or theme other than 'beautiful.' enjoy.]

Great colors and textures of this beautifully tattered and worn building facade.

The misty woods of Kumily.

Colors everywhere. Why don't we wear more colors?

The juxtaposition of the ancient architecture and the fluorescent lights above is intriguing.

From the houseboat we rented in Allepey, it's hard to tell the sky from the river water and the trees from the floating plants.

Just one of the many Ganesh's we saw during our trip.

The view from the river boat at Periyar wildlife sanctuary. So vivid and crisp.

I had to add this one! From virtual feast to actual feast...

Entrepreneurship + Push Carts = Youthepreneurship?

Ok, the name needs a little help, but this is a pretty great collaboration between the National Library of Singapore and Republic Polytechnic here in Singapore. I happened upon it as I stumbled out of the library with Craig the other night and noticed a bunch of pushcarts in the middle of the library plaza. I checked out the URL when I got home and found out that it's a program that teaches students the fundamentals of entrepreneurship and outfits them with some basic business management skills. Before you know it, they have the chance to rent a pushcart for only 20$ a day. (Actually, that's kind of pricey if all you happen to be selling are 50 cent hair pins or something...hmm.) Anyhoo, the aspect of the pushcarts is fun. I wish that Paseo would do something useful with theirs for a change. Perhaps there needs to be a little collab between Art Center and Paseo? nudge nudge (not sure who I'm nudging here, but I'm nudging all the same).

Eeny Meeny Miny...Obama!

That's right! I thought I was for Hillary, but it turns out Obama's my man...or so says Glassbooth.org, a great site that helps to demystify the elections just a bit. Answer a few questions on major issues facing the country and see which candidate best fit your views. The results are also supplemented with quotes and video clips so that you can hear what they have to say straight from the horse's (or donkey's, or elephant's) mouth.

Some other resources of note:
2decide.com
wikipedia
select2008 blog

Scraptacular Bots!

Resource reclamation broken down as simply as possible.... 1 box o' junk = 1 rad robot.

These creations from Guy Robot are great. Made from industrial parts reclaimed from a variety of depots like aerospace and automotive salvage yards, these bots are a creative re-envisioning of what would have otherwise been waste. The type of dedication needed to create these characters radiates throughout the website -- from the small bios accompanying each bot to small blurbs like the one below. I'd love them to come out with a kit for these bots so you can build your own.

"Please note: Guy Robots are not toys: they do not walk or talk or give legal advice. They are not dangerous and will not bite, kick, pinch, or emit ozone. Guy Robots will not -- unless repeatedly provoked -- harass your dog or cat. They are unique pieces of handcrafted art, meant to be enjoyed visually and displayed prominently. While requiring only minimal care and feeding, your Guy Robot is guaranteed to provoke discussion, spark new ideas, and generally contribute good vibrations to your life."

Originally spotted: Notcot.org

Coca-Cola can protect your home!

Is this great or ironic? You be the judge. This picture, taken in Mamallapurum (outside of Chennai) shows Coca-Cola bottles broken up and reused to add a bit of extra protection to the top of a concrete wall surrounding a house. Oh, how fine the line is between quintessential Americana and home intruder deterrent. In a sense, they (to borrow Coke's tag line) are really 'making every drop count.'

Chai Chai Coffee Coffee....

In India, tea is huge! But the actual cup size isn't. They serve small shots of tea that are sipped and savored in many different venues -- on the side of the road, delivered to your door, in a local eatery. And so that you don't burn your little piggies, part of the brewing process includes a high pour to allow the air to cool the thin stream of liquid before it even touches the cup (they call it 'pulling' the coffee or tea...check out this image of someone pouring coffee in Sing).

It's a ritual which we embraced in India and continue to enjoy in Singapore ;)

This was the average size of a cup of tea in India...about the size of a shot glass.

In Kumily, where the weather is cooler, there's no better start to the day then a 25 cent cup of coffee made fresh right before your eyes. I have a sweet tooth, so the tendency of the coffee and tea to lean towards the sweeter side was A-OK with me. See the high pour?

And while sitting in a local veg restaurant, Craig and I were confronted with this coffee presentation. Curious outer cup. Was it to keep our hands from getting burned on the metal cup? Was it to catch extra drips? Well, actually, what we soon found out (after looking around the room) was that it does it all. Some people lift both cups together to keep from getting burned until the coffee is cool enough to hold only the main cup. We also saw some people pour the coffee back and forth between the two cups to cool off the coffee themselves.

Tea on demand? Many entrepreneurs bike or walk around with a vat of tea doling it out to paying customers wherever they may be.

Entrepreneurial Spirit

Ok, to follow up on the theme based entries on our trip to India...

Here are some examples of unique services that we saw during our trip as well as a couple of things I'm throwing in just because I want to. (Insert "It's my blog, I'll do what I want to" here.)

Seriously though, it is a great reminder as to what true entrepreneurial spirit is all about!

Originally I was going to entitle this blog entry "things you think you need but don't" and the lead photo was going to be this one with the caption reading "electricity." This picture from Kumily is for a roadside ironing service. If you can't tell from the picture, you fill the body of this metal iron up with hot coals and presto!

Or what about anything you need sewn? Well, this tailor only needs a sewing table and has set up shop at the local market. It's old school, it gets the job done and it's great for a quick hem.

Charging ports with multiple connectors are available at various locations ranging from the airport (where this one was) to a local eatery. So many people rely only on mobile phones there that this is such a necessary service.

And if you don't happen to own a mobile, don't worry! There are plenty of telephone stands such as this one for all of your international and local calling needs.

This makes me appreciate the phrase "find one thing you love and do it well," and reminds me how caught up we can get in trying to do everything under the sun and end up not doing anything very well. (Also, this is a nod to my Ba who loves garlic. LOVES!)

I had to throw this in because it's too cute. Do you see that little seat on the bar of the bike? Too cute.

This ice cream man (who's taking a break in the back of his ric) shows us that you don't need a hefty diesel powered truck to dole out the goodness...in fact, you don't even need that 4th wheel.

Lunch service at a Shiva temple in Kanchipuram.