Monthly Archives: February 2013

American Cheese: the musical

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the official exhibition catalog for American Cheese: an introspection is now up and available on both Blurb and ISSUU to view or purchase

although i had no original intention to put American Cheese into its own official exhibition catalog, i feel pretty good about how it came together — all the writing came from a piece i wrote for DMI’s The Experience of Dynamic Media

the magical seaShell orb

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a spherical system of tiny seaShells

originally hovering in the center of the Pooka Lounge like some sort of oceanic surveillance device at forensicEvidence at MassArt’s Bakalar Gallery for the 2011 MFA Thesis Show III

then later hovering in the center of our living room for months and months on end

now, the crown upon the First Annual cyberSurrealism Award for Human Advocacy

introducing uxcSi

The comic is concerned with the ugly in one of its manifestations: ‘If it [ what is ugly ] is concealed, it must be uncovered in the light in the comic way of looking at things; if it is noticed only a little or scarcely at all, it must be brought forward and made obvious, so that it lies clear and open to the light of day … In this way caricature comes about.’

Sigmund Freud quoting Kuno Fischer from Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious

Kuno Fischer once said that ‘A joke is a playful judgment’. But, as we all know by now, not all jokes are truly funny.

As a means to reflect on some of the interesting decisions made as part of the supposed user-centered design process — I will examine the qualitative evidence, the trail of certain key stories in user experience design, as filtered through the medium of humor, parody and caricature, as a means to tell interesting stories from my perspective. Although I plan to implement a lot of playful judgment along the way, I have a slight variation on how to define the word joke.

In the case where the term joke refers to actually telling a joke — I see it more like this:

A joke is a philosophical attempt to share a certain ugly or horrific truth. Delivery of a joke normally happens in a one-to-many manner — either through publication in a humorous book of jokes or in a typical stand-up comedy venue whereby a professional comedian delivers this philosophical ugly truism to a live, present audience. We tell jokes almost everyday in a more casual way, sometimes on a one-to-one method of delivery. Successful jokes do not always necessarily result in laughter from the listener or receiver of the message, although it is oftentimes the intent of the joke teller to inspire mirth, smiles or genuine laughter from their given audience. Jokes result in laughter when the truth being exposed hits a universal tone with the audience, even if the vibe of the joke is truly more horrific than light. The term Black Humor as coined by the Surrealist André Breton exposes the subconscious underpinnings to this extremely dark side of our human nature.

So, all that said, in the spirit of playful judgment and seasoned self-reflection — I am establishing a semi-fictional organization called uxcSI as a means to explore case studies in user-centered design processes everywhere to unveil some of the truths behind some of the less successful UX initiatives and see why things really went wrong.

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The model, of course, follows that established by the ubiquitous telepresence of shows like CSI: Miami, House, NCIS, Law and Order, Grey’s Anatomy and other extremely formulaic trauma dramas that now make us all into experts of forensic science and criminal investigation. I mix in the more medically oriented soap operas of the evening here to emphasize the lack of imagination and reliance of templatized and mass produced television jism for mass moneyshot distribution into the open eyes of America. We the people sit and watch these shows like some new religion. Call it obsession. We want to know the truth. There are mysteries to solve, cases to open and re-open and hopefully eventually close. We are all seeking justice or closure of some sort. Hollywood seems to know this. They tap on our desires like little apps in the night. And all we seem to need is a three-letter acronym and some predictable, comforting pattern of how to crack the case within the course of an hour.

But, if you hadn’t noticed yet, as each case is closed another always opens. Its a neverending investigation. And such is the life of a person like me that sees his profession in user experience design through the eyes of Horatio Cane. Yes, part of my job as a Senior UX Innovation Architect and Investigative Research Consultant is very much about bad acting, sunglasses and cheesy parlays of hypothetical answer chasing fun. I am very much like David Caruso, bad actor extraordinaire. Just add 150 pounds and some serious Italian inflection, thinking hairline and a New England accent that wont quit it and there ya go.

So, the domain is purchased, the logo is set { at least in its first iteration }, a website is on the way. Everything happens for a reason. We all have a special purpose. And we all have stories that involve playful judgment, do we not? I think its time to share these stories. After all, sharing is caring, right?

some of the things i’ll miss about Stoneridge

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our son Maceo attends Stoneridge Childrens Montessori School in Beverly, Massachusetts — he’s studied there since kindergarten and my wife Carol and i truly love the school, the faculty, the other parents and students, and the warm sense of community that makes Stoneridge all that its been to us

but now its time for us to all say our goodbyes as Stoneridge goes away in the Spring of 2013

these are just some of the things i’ll miss about Stoneridge
{ and already do }

  • walking up the sidewalk to bring Maceo in and politely saying ‘good morning’ with a smile and direct eye contact with every child and parent you meet along the way — at first, i hate to admit it, the utterly positive vibe kind of freaked me out — it seemed like i had stepped into a 50s vision of a wholesome America that i’ve never encountered anywhere else except for New Hampshire — but after a while, after a few weeks of the cheery hellos and smiles, you come to expect this sense of happiness and sharing, you open up a little more and realize there’s a friend or 2 living life along with you
  • the official Stoneridge website { although i didn’t design it, i did help maintain and update the site with Val and others on staff at Stoneridge — and the original design as created by Mad*Pow nicely expressed the warmth, community and sense of spirit the school had }
  • interesting afterhour talks put on by Stoneridge faculty to help parents better understand Maria Montessori and the learning methodologies and materials as they pertain to each house or classroom of the school — Charles Terranova and Diane Sullivan definitely made amazing first impressions and lasting impressions with their passion and discourse about Montessori
  • Valentine’s Breakfast for the parents — a very special way to start off the day, oh, and the Mother’s Day Tea that I never attended but seemed to hold the same warmness for family and the entire social community around the school
  • Musical Mondays — although I missed so many Musical Mondays early on at Stoneridge, these and so many other celebrations of music and performance led, coordinated, orchestrated and sound engineered by Hannah really shine as amazing little talent showcases for students, parents, faculty and other musicians associated with Stoneridge
  • the yearly fieldtrip to that pond out behind Gordon College — that and so many other fieldtrips to see Maple Syrup Barns and Peabody Essex Museum and so many wonders of nature by the ocean, in our backyards, in forests living all around us — this focus on the discovery of nature and research and understanding the self by exploring and observing the world around us still continues to delight and inspire our family and always will
  • the many friends and acquaintances we’ve made over the years — i know we’ve all been through many ups and downs, and here i will only mention the ups { i’ve learned a LOT over the years, right? }, but its been exquisite fun getting to know each other, getting to know each others’ children and the lives we all live — i know we’ll keep in touch with many people from Stoneridge, probably more than in previous lifetimes of academia for our children, etcetera — i really hope to keep in touch with as much of the community and extended Stoneridge family as humanly possible
  • the fundraisers and celebrations and ceremonies and fun — The Dance of the Cosmos comes to mind, of course — such a wonderful performance all of our children got to participate in, so amazingly cute and memorable in every way — and even when the ridiculous and inevitable politics of any organization might’ve put a damper on getting things done and just having collaborative fun together, well, that just became another funny bump in the story we created along the way

i could go on and on, i’m sure — but these are some of the high-level items that come to mind, the big picture items i’ll miss about the school

its been a fantastic place for us to work with the faculty at setting up Maceo for a life filled with the wonder and joy of learning — i wouldn’t change a thing now that i look back and reflect a bit — and i hope that, as much as i will miss these wonderful experiences i memorialize here, that i also get the chance to continue on in the spirit of Stoneridge and hold dear these first years of our child’s education and bring forward the lessons Maceo, Carol and i have all learned along the way

congratulations to all the students, parents, teachers, staff, administration and faculty for making these first years of Maceo’s education so beautiful and warm and nurturing — and for doing the same for so many families up here on the North Shore of Massachusetts — you have truly touched us all and i am forever grateful for everything you’ve given us over the years

thank you

storyFirst

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as with most of the concepts i come up with — i am flooded with ideas, raw direction, so much intent, and then i typically register a domain name, attempt designing the first iteration of a logo and put together a landing page to claim my new turf

i equate it to the modernday animal domination of mental property on the subconscious market

sometimes the investment is well worth it and the page i create blossoms into a blog or smallish web site — the initial concept evolves and moves, it comes alive either through further visual thinking or through writing down my near-daily thoughts on that particular and typically invented subject

at other times i realize my property purchase is a fixer upper or maybe a subtle spin-off of someone else’s idea, and i either work on it or i don’t, it becomes a dead end of the interwebz or a tiny root-like germinated seed of an idea in slow motion, not fully developed but just waiting to grow { but in dire need of food, water, soil and sun }

the term or phraseology storyFirst originates from Dynamic Media Institute at Massachusetts College of Art and Design

i really don’t know yet where i am taking this idea, but here’s the gist and the backStory for storyFirst

Jan Kubasiewicz { sometimes known as Jan Kuba } developed an assignment as an improvisational evolution of work from previous weeks in the DMI Course Design for Motion, Time and Sound — in this week’s workshop session, our teams were to take the work done to-date and start up again from scratch, focusing on putting the story first this time

what’s your story? was also a question i recall Jan asking me several times at reviews each semester — he wasn’t really looking to string my projects together in a more cohesive manner so much as he was trying to figure out why anyone should give a shit about my project work, my research and ultimately my design

and this became a very important way of looking at the entire body of my work, at examining my process, the materials i choose to work with and the very reason why i research using both critical reading and visual design methodologies to actively understand my terrain

i think i registered the domain name for storyFirst around the time that Joe Liberty, Andrew Ellis and i collaboratively designed and fabricated the embeddedStory System for MassArt Made — i think i understood back then on some sort of subconscious level how important story was to my work and to my research in cyberSurrealism

but it wasn’t until i read Luke Wrobelewski’s recent book Mobile First that i felt the full-on inspiration to write a book about using story to drive design in a new way — i want to use story as a means to drive my professional design work and also a means to design and redesign my life { and the lives of others }

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now, i’ll be the first to admit { since we’re in a safe place here and i know you won’t just give away my little secret to just anyone, right? }, i tend to have issues with figures of authority — its almost a built-in mechanism, something i’ve only discovered through deep psychotherapy and self-reflection — i know that my satiric and humorous demeanor, my uncanny ability to ‘make fun’ out of just about anything, literally comes with severely scrutinizing the philosophies and actions of others and then trying to articulate what i honestly think and feel about well-established and revered pillars of practice and thinking

but i want this project, as much as it is inspired by my gut negative reaction to the Mobile First mantra and movement, i want storyFirst to become something of its own — i value some but not all of the thought that was put into Mobile First, i don’t necessarily believe its as practical and realistic a methodology as its advertised to be { i mean, how many clients can you convince to restart everything with a mobile experience as the filter to every single design decision you’re going to make across every extension and experience related to the brand of an organization? are corporations even that unified and organized to begin with to get THAT much buy-in and work in some harmonious, collaborative way to actually go Mobile First everytime? } — i don’t even think my most recent thinking about storyFirst benefits clients, prospects and corporations as much as i hope to benefit real people, and specifically designers

i believe that people — as natural human organisms — always strive to make meaning in the world — in fact, i believe that meaning itself doesn’t actually exist on its own in any way and that people, families, villages, societies and ultimately the symbiotic entirety of our macro-organic civilization create fictions and fact and rules around what these meanings are all about

we own a personal story,everyone of us — we can tell stories from memories, from episodes of our past and bring those stories back to life in conversation, in photographs, in dynamic media, in dance — and then we can imagine stories for ourselves and others, we can project what we think our lives can be or we can also dream up what we actually want our lives to be and then we can tell that story to ourselves and others — and then through user-centered design processes, confounded and delightfully weaved into the fabric of storytelling and retelling and actively pursuing these stories we create, we can design our lives — as individuals, as families, as villages, and as a global society

a little utopian, i know — but unless we strive for the impossible we will never achieve the dream

we may fail, and i believe right now we live in a time that manifests far more of a distopian twist on the original promises made by dreamers of progress and technology from the 1940s, 50s and 60s — but we need to follow the story, we need to follow the story a LOT more carefully and adhere to the benefits originally enmeshed with the original stories

i hope i can do this idea justice — i hope i can adequately tell the story i envision behind putting storyFirst in design and in life