The Process Project : NCSU

http://www.vrhull.co.uk Go here for virtual tour of Hull England
Also good info at Hull University website.

ha.ha. mapquest is slightly confused, no?
http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?formtype=address&searchtype=address&country=US&addtohistory=&address=201+s.+blount+st&city=raleigh&state=nc&zipcode=27601

just wanted to note, at first i thought raleigh vastly paled in compare to her european counterparts. but kolomna, russia, thats just a random city that sounds cool by virtue of being in russia. maybe someone there would be as excited about raliegh cause it's in america. ::shrug::

in any case, im thinking about fairly universal things that could differentiate these cities, like the oak among trees......

ciao.

So, I've been thinking about visual statements and why all of a sudden are we designing one. Is it because this project is to be more "designed"? If so, I think that this could be a good tool for a specific direction. At the same time, I think that a visual statement is very limiting as a first step or direction. It causes you to determine a formal direction by research rather than by experience. Is there a place in a "visual" statement for written or verbal direction or experiential documentation?

For me it is feeling forced and in contrast with our process building from prior projects.

are there other ways to think about going about this? Just some thoughts.

I agree with Kerr and her thoughts. I have been struggling with where to go with this and am slow to make any decisions on anything because of possibly tying myself down too soon. I mean I really love collecting things and putting them together and using those things/ideas to move on in the work, but i don't feel like i have a strong enough grasp on what I am doing to be able to make good decisions on this yet.

Not sure if that makes any sense.. .

after a lot of questions about visual statements, I made one. I focused on a lot of the international language and the baggage that comes with a foreign city having a sister city in the US (as well as their knowledge of NC.) I was interested in this notion of a family that the diction of "sisters" introduces. Also, what ties us together logistically? stamps, the mailing system?

Other topics presented in my work includes the colors, typography, international isotopes, pacing of experience, framing and spread of message.

visual
statement

http://cflcam.ce.ncsu.edu:8080/index.html

I have been thinking about this project and am having trouble relating my ideas back to Moore Square. I am using the square as a place of departure and have been veering too far off the track. I have been thinking about the cultural differences between the sister cities. I thought it would be interesting to capitalize on these cultural differences allowing each area to grow as a whole. It is interesting to notice things we have in common but deal with differently. I was thinking it may be nice to create a program to combine these differences in some way maybe through art, writing, communication, community awareness programs, etc. It would be interesting to create a space, web-space, installation, submission form, or something else to broadcast these different pieces coming out of the sister cities. I have been contemplating whether or not it is necessary to focus primarily on Raleigh (stated in the project brief) or focus on all five areas with equal importance. I have a lot of different ideas about going on with this project but don't want to get too far away from the project brief.

So, I reviewed my visual statement and began to really consider the goals of the project brief: to promote citizenry among the countries.

I feel that I don't really know Raleigh— both an advantage and disadvantage. So, I drove around for hours yesterday and took pictures of all the seemingly mundane things. Both new and old and the unique mix of the two. Naturally a lot of my work focused on all the construction in the area and communicating Raleigh to an outsider. (I already have pictures of Moore Square, so this round focused on Raleigh in General.)

There are nearly 400 photos. So brace yourself.

raleigh photos

I've been thinking really broadly about this project. I first had the idea that it would be really cool to somehow physically connect these cites. I know it sounds pretty impossible, but how cool would it be to touch something that actually extends all the way around the world to where someone else is touching it?

I also thought that having some sort of website with a webcam would be interesting. Perhaps a little kiosk in the square where you could see in real time what is happening in the other squares. I mean, how cool was it watching that engineering experiment on Monday? For me, at least, the only reason it was so cool was that I was experiencing something in realtime and could see something far away happening at that very moment.

Last night I made a bunch of collages, drawings, etc. with this idea of connections in mind. I feel like it didn't really lead anywhere, though. I'm still thinking about the same things that I was on Monday during studio.

I've also thought about what I want to know or what would interest me about the other cities. I think people would probably be interested in the same things about Raleigh.

Ok people, get typing.

My thinking has been very travel oriented concerning the Sister Cities Program. I did "drawing" studies the other day in a similar mindset of our charcoal pictures, and created these interconnected lines. This reminded me of networking, and looked similar to flight route maps. Hence...travel. The most exciting thing to be, as a Raleigh-ite, about having sister cities, was the opportunity to travel there. The interest for travel could be there if there was promotional items, so as if a travel agency had a "sister cities" travel package or something that I could design materials for, and the system could be used in agencies in our sister cities.

So then, who would want to travel? Why would this matter? What would I be trying to say? Visiting these cities is not as feasible for many members of our community...so I thought of bringing the sister cities to them. But I am trying to expose Raleigh via Moore Square, so I thought of designing "historical signs," like those metal ones you see everywhere. But these could be next to a site in Hull or Kolomna and would say "If you were in our sister city in Raleigh, you might see.....(insert cool landmark or fact here)." The same people who would be at historic places of interest in Kolomna, Hull, Rostock, or Compiegne might be the same people interested in the history of one of their sister cities. Knowledge is power!

I was looking more at that website (scene-from-my-life) and am amazed at how strangely exciting it is to look at these photos. The most interesting photographs to me are the ones that are just plain old snap-shots of people's ordinary days. Its so interesting to me to think about billions and billions of people all around the world just going about their daily routine. Calling attention to a momentary, once-in-a-lifetime encounter with another personmuch less someone on the other side of the globecan be pretty powerful, I think. But still, I keep asking the question why does this matter? I started by thinking about what is wrong with the world as a whole today. I think that one of the biggest, most fundamental problems is that we act as if were the center of our own universe. I know thats my problem. I think Im the center of my universe. If my lifes a play, I'm the lead actor because Im in every scene. In a word, everyone is egocentric; on a global level, all the way down to an interpersonal level were all inherently self-centered. I think this would be something really interesting to address in my project.

As far as format goes, my initial ideas were to have some sort of webcam that connected these cities in realtime via technology. I'm now thinking about a telephone. How cool would it be to pick up a phone in Moore Square, push a button, and talk to someone in Russia (who speaks a completely different language, mind you)? Just some thoughts :-).

my project has begun to focus more on connections and forming them individuals with places and people. I think that the most appropriate format for this mode of comm. is a book/magazine. So that is the direction that I'm going in. I really want to make the whole thing... so I've been full in production gear. (with huge hangbacks in printing, i'm sure we can all relate.)

Looking forward to seeing all the varied directions again tomorrow!

Man, have I been having trouble with this project. I started out very conceptual and process based which still responded to my previous projects about representation. I also think that my original thoughts on this project responded more to what I was exploring in the visual statement.

Where my frustration comes is when these 'process' projects turn towards the logistics and the reality of the Sister City program. When did we make this switch? When did we turn the process project into a reality show? The logistics can be a never ending spiral of questions about context, meaning, purpose, form, material, audience, etc., but somehow I've forgotten how I bring that back to what I can complete in less than a week. These short one week projects make me aware of the affects of time on design. There's a certain thoughtfulness that comes with design that i think a lot of us possess when we go slowly and a certain thoughtless intuition from these quicker projects that is beautiful also. Both ways create equally interesting artifacts and studies but I think the way we design and talk about these projects should acknowledge the quickness and the spontaneity. The sister cities project, while frustrating, is making me work and think quicker and hopefully smarter because of the time constraint on such a lofty project brief.
see you on Valentine's Day everyone

I agree with you Amanda. I've felt a lot of frustration with this project. Has there not been time for process in this project? I feel like we have to make the time to have the process that leads to a better project. So, if we had the time, what went wrong? I think that the main difference for me between this project and the last has been all of these checkpoints demanding that each of us be at similar phases in our process. (showing similar levels in class and feeling behind, visual statement, precrit) I think that it should be understandable that we would all be at different points— with ultimately the same deadline.

Nice header! Valentines!

http://www4.ncsu.edu/~acborde2/

New project - any feedback would be appreciated! Also, questions!

Not sure where to post this, but where are the plays for project five that we're supposed to choose from? I'm not going to be in studio all weekend and I thought Molly Renda said she was going to post them.