At RISD there is no lack of diversity but there is a distinct lack of connectivity. Through our investigations it has become clear that the RISD community is fragmented into departmental components. As stated in a previous post the strongest sense of community I have felt here at RISD has been in the shops/studios. Reflecting upon this I can see why it is so. Given that there is so much emphasis put on production it makes sense that we spend so much time in the places where this production happens. We work in the studios and shops of our respective departments leaving only to get sustenance, fresh air, for a class or sleep (quite a few of us sleep on a couch or under a desk as the semester progresses). There is a twisted pride surrounding how much we work.
The communal workspaces, within each department, posses elements that foster a sense of community. They are places where community grows organically through casual interaction. People ask for advice and help, offer advice, help and support, share tools, materials and food. Bonds are formed through hardship, super ordinate goals, generosity, co-operation and emotion. I think these interactions make for better final products as well as a more enjoyable process. Though these places bring together a diverse population, the populace is gathered from within the department.
These shops are technically accessible to all the RISD community they cannot be USED by all the community for reasons of safety.
Where is the line between institutionalizing and recognizing and/or replicating and/or encouraging? I think that a 24hr RISD workshop that sold coffee, snacks nuts & bolts would be infinitely more successful than a typical student union/center ever could be. The logistics of such a place are preventative, but were it possible I believe the potential level of consideration and innovation in our work would be exponentially increased. Imagine the inspiration and solutions grown in such a cross pollinated environment. People from different disciplines sharing thoughts, advice, critiques, and knowledge, bringing all their diversity with them to the table in this creative environment would be incredible.
My proposed intervention will hopefully capitalize on the thoughts stated above. The location I have chosen is the partially covered courtyard at the top of the stairs between the RISD museum and the Metcalf building, a spot that also happens to be close to many of the important other common spaces on campus (RISD store, Metcalf store, mailroom and museum). I believe this space to be an ideal location to set up and outdoor communal workspace. Setting up 4-6 worktables, designed to serve the needs of a variety of disciplines, and access to power under the overhang will provide a pleasant, sheltered outdoor common area for students to gather and work. As the weather gets nicer peoples desire to be outside grows. This intervention would give them somewhere to go and still be able to work. Also providing opportunity for casual interactions, influences and cross-pollinations between disciplines. With some encouragement, I believe the students will develop a sense of ownership over this space and prevent it from becoming a disaster zone that would require its removal. It would have the added benefit of allowing the greater Providence community a glimpse into our world.
My other concept is inspired by a combination of last weeks guest, the family van and my own feelings about the food culture at RISD and in America in general. Too often we are grabbing something fast and eating on the run. Rarely do we sit down for a relaxing, conversation filled meal with friends/family. I have always found a meal to be the perfect setting in which to share and create ideas with others, reflect on things, release tensions, laugh and recharge physically and emotionally through the pleasures of food and conversation. A good meal is an amazing icebreaker. The intervention would be a bi-monthly, roving potluck dinner party. It will require a small mobile cart containing a microwave, toaster oven, hot plate and cooler/fridge fro storage and reheating. It will be structured to encourage attendees to buddy up with a friend from another department, which would offset the cost of contribution and help expand the circle. The kick off location will be the ID gallery at 161 S main St followed by events in other departments’ community areas. Creating a space that moves throughout the various departments will allow people to interact with new space, places and people while simultaneously being a familiar environment. Food is a commodity at RISD and can be utilized as tool to enhance community. The smells of food and the sounds of revelry will attract passers like moths to a flame. Slowly this circle will expand and people will perceive the value in taking an hour or two every so often to interact with other creative people over a meal.
Showing posts with label DH. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DH. Show all posts
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Monday, March 9, 2009
The Family Van
The Family Van Mission:
"The Family Van is a culturally sensitive, comprehensive health outreach program, designed to address health disparities in our communities.
We fulfill this mission by providing a comprehensive approach to health. Each client is provided with a health risk assessment focusing on high risk and lifestyle behaviors. This information is then used to offer suggestions for a healthier life and to assist the client in accessing care within their community. As the van regularly visits a variety of neighborhoods, our clients are encouraged to check in with the staff throughout the year providing health care continuity to our most vulnerable neighbors."
The Family Van is a mobile health promotion center that moves from place to place along a scheduled route, providing health screening and education. I find the concept of a community space that moves very interesting. Its mobility allows it to reach out to a larger number of people than a stationary clinic. Taking the space to the members vs. requiring the members to come to the place, while forcing the space to be smaller in scale it can encompass more people.
More to follow once I have interviewed with those involved. Scheduling a time that works has been difficult but will be happening this week.
-Diau
"The Family Van is a culturally sensitive, comprehensive health outreach program, designed to address health disparities in our communities.
We fulfill this mission by providing a comprehensive approach to health. Each client is provided with a health risk assessment focusing on high risk and lifestyle behaviors. This information is then used to offer suggestions for a healthier life and to assist the client in accessing care within their community. As the van regularly visits a variety of neighborhoods, our clients are encouraged to check in with the staff throughout the year providing health care continuity to our most vulnerable neighbors."
The Family Van is a mobile health promotion center that moves from place to place along a scheduled route, providing health screening and education. I find the concept of a community space that moves very interesting. Its mobility allows it to reach out to a larger number of people than a stationary clinic. Taking the space to the members vs. requiring the members to come to the place, while forcing the space to be smaller in scale it can encompass more people.
More to follow once I have interviewed with those involved. Scheduling a time that works has been difficult but will be happening this week.
-Diau
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Today I Stopped............
For those of you that are not aware there is a tent city in Providence. It is tucked in next to an unused off ramp and under an overpass of 195E. I pass by this small community everyday. Friday I decided to stop just passing by.
-Diau
-Diau
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Fantastic Four
Tasked with interviewing four students around campus I asked each of them the following questions:
1. Department
2. How do you define community?
3. Do you feel it exists at RISD?
4. What do you feel are the most important spaces on campus?
5. Why do you feel these are the most important?
6. Do you think these spaces encourage/strengthen community?
7. Was this the intention of these spaces?
8. How do you feel about the spaces around campus designed to encourage community?
I.D. Junior:
I.D. Building
161 South Main St
1. Industrial Design
2. A group of people that in some way provide support for their members. I think of archetypes like small church communities or old small villages.
3. Yes, sort of. I don’t feel like there is an institution of community but we do all have some sense of community with our department and with the friends we have made outside it. For example I feel like peter reiffler was part of my community here.
4. The shops in the ID building. I meet with my friends there and it provides my only sense of community.
5. Without them I would feel lost and have no home. They are the most important because that is where I spend the most time.
6. Yes
7. No. It is natural, people need help, people provide help, community starts to get knitted automatically.
8. I think that the portfolio does this okay, probably because they identified a place were lots of people would meet and then designed it to allow this activity. As far as a place that encourages community, the library has those small meeting rooms that are really nice. I think that a lot of people meet there who would not because of those spaces.
Furniture Grad:
Metcalf building
South Main St
1. Furniture
2. Groups of people brought together by common interest(s) and desires that mutuallybenefit one another.
3. Sort of. More through faculty/staff and less through students. I think it happens more through a shared passion for creating. It functions more like a family than a community, some are close some are estranged but we support each other cause that’s what families do.
4. The shops and places of production related to current studios and their needs.
5. Specific disciplines require relationships to be created between hands, tools and people. Hands working create a vehicle for emotional connections.
6. They can. Machines require trust and interaction between users.
7. No
8. The Tap Room means more due to its student driven, organic nature. Provided spaces are less successful. The lower the student involvement the less successful a space is. Frequent change is good. A sense of ownership is key to the sustained success of a space. Ownership develops a sense of pride in a space and means it will be taken care of by its occupants without this ownership the space cannot survive or thrive.
Apparel Senior:
Apparel Studios
Market Square (above Auditorium)
1. Apparel
2. It exists in physical space and also the intangible space created between people interacting. It forms through people relationships with both as well as the commonalities that bring them together.
3. Departmental community is easier. Institutional community is not as personal.
4. Studios & workshops, Interactive spaces outside of studio. Also Liberal Arts, which allow casual interactions outside of work.
5. They are open places where you can be yourself or interact with others or escape or come up for air or all or some of these.
6. In studio it happens out of necessity, it is sort of forced to happen. It also happens in places like the Tap Room it happens voluntarily. Neither is bad just different.
7. Yes but in a broad sense
8. We need more. There is not enough space to fulfill the needs and desires of the RISD community. Club Groups’ spaces are arbitrarily decided week-to-week. Consistency of space allows awareness of its purpose to grow. The Tap Room has been successful at this for one-time events.
Painting Junior:
What Cheer Studios
160 Benefit St
1. Painting
2. It is intangible. Don’t know how to define it but you recognize it when you experience it. I guess the textbook definition would be a group of people wit similar interests, goals and values helping each other accomplish them.
3. Not last year. I have a new philosophy this year: you get what you give. It is naïve to think it simply exists and you can have it for nothing.
4. Wherever you need them to be. Places you can eat pizza or places outside to get some air.
5. Don’t sh*# where you eat
6. Any space can be a catalyst for the growth or strengthening of a community, It can happen anywhere and in unexpected ways. I’m leary of assigning potential to specific spaces.
7. N/A
8. They are underutilized. They’re like the teen rec centers that towns create to stop the teens from hanging out in front of the 7/111, yet they still hang out in front of the 7/11. The more contrived a thing the less desirable it becomes. “YOU CAN’T FAKE THE FUNK!”
The general sentiment around campus regarding space and community seems to flow along the same path. The responses are all variations of the same answer. It seems community exists in pockets around RISD but not campus-wide. Mostly the designed community spaces are lacking or ineffective. It would be great to be involved in a larger RISD community! We are so busy there really isn’t time etc, etc, etc. I find it at once disheartening and motivating. Many a feel distinct lack of RISD-wide community, and wish there was. What seems to be lacking is a catalyst, a space, a personality or both. To the way you fabricate a man-made diamond is t place a tiny spec of real diamond at its core.
Once again considering questions of spaces and community around campus while reading Relational Aesthetics by Nicolas Bourriaud this statement, regarding installations, rings in clear reflection of concepts put forth by Jane Jacobs “They create free spaces and periods of time whose rhythms are not the same as those that organize everyday life, and they encourage an inter-human intercourse which is different from the ‘zones of communication’ that are forced upon us”. The challenge of those attempting to encourage community is; how does one design that which must grow organically, how to create environments that allow, what Jacobs refers to as, casual, public contact? Jacobs believes this cannot be institutionalized, that it must evolve naturally with the help of public characters. Much of what Jacobs said rings true, at least in my view, and yet I believe there must be a way. Perhaps it cannot be institutionalized, but it can be encouraged and certainly nurtured. How could we foster that sense of ownership? I personally do not believe that a large, expensive “student union” would work at RISD as it does at other universities. The climate at RISD, though not unique, is very different from a “normal” university. We do not really have a lot of non-academic reasons to gather or that encourage a school-wide sense of belonging, like interschool sports competition (at least not seriously) for example. What do we have? WORK. We take, perhaps an unhealthy, pride in how much we work. What is our work? Creative expression. For this reason the concept, put forth in Relational Aesthetics, of an installation creating a temporary space conducive to casual social interaction seems an appropriate avenue of exploration. Creative works are a plentiful resource here at RISD. Apparel senior “It exists in physical space and also the intangible space created between people interacting” Perhaps it is the permanent space combined with an ephemeral experience that makes a social space successful. Can an ephemeral space with a permanent experience be just as effective? Perhaps this is part of the appeal of the workshops around campus the space and characters are constant but the work is constantly changing. A new experience to be had with each encounter with said space. It is in the novelty of experience, be it people or objects, contained within the familiar that we find appeal because it is comfortable and different at the same time.
-Diau
1. Department
2. How do you define community?
3. Do you feel it exists at RISD?
4. What do you feel are the most important spaces on campus?
5. Why do you feel these are the most important?
6. Do you think these spaces encourage/strengthen community?
7. Was this the intention of these spaces?
8. How do you feel about the spaces around campus designed to encourage community?
I.D. Junior:
I.D. Building
161 South Main St
1. Industrial Design
2. A group of people that in some way provide support for their members. I think of archetypes like small church communities or old small villages.
3. Yes, sort of. I don’t feel like there is an institution of community but we do all have some sense of community with our department and with the friends we have made outside it. For example I feel like peter reiffler was part of my community here.
4. The shops in the ID building. I meet with my friends there and it provides my only sense of community.
5. Without them I would feel lost and have no home. They are the most important because that is where I spend the most time.
6. Yes
7. No. It is natural, people need help, people provide help, community starts to get knitted automatically.
8. I think that the portfolio does this okay, probably because they identified a place were lots of people would meet and then designed it to allow this activity. As far as a place that encourages community, the library has those small meeting rooms that are really nice. I think that a lot of people meet there who would not because of those spaces.
Furniture Grad:
Metcalf building
South Main St
1. Furniture
2. Groups of people brought together by common interest(s) and desires that mutuallybenefit one another.
3. Sort of. More through faculty/staff and less through students. I think it happens more through a shared passion for creating. It functions more like a family than a community, some are close some are estranged but we support each other cause that’s what families do.
4. The shops and places of production related to current studios and their needs.
5. Specific disciplines require relationships to be created between hands, tools and people. Hands working create a vehicle for emotional connections.
6. They can. Machines require trust and interaction between users.
7. No
8. The Tap Room means more due to its student driven, organic nature. Provided spaces are less successful. The lower the student involvement the less successful a space is. Frequent change is good. A sense of ownership is key to the sustained success of a space. Ownership develops a sense of pride in a space and means it will be taken care of by its occupants without this ownership the space cannot survive or thrive.
Apparel Senior:
Apparel Studios
Market Square (above Auditorium)
1. Apparel
2. It exists in physical space and also the intangible space created between people interacting. It forms through people relationships with both as well as the commonalities that bring them together.
3. Departmental community is easier. Institutional community is not as personal.
4. Studios & workshops, Interactive spaces outside of studio. Also Liberal Arts, which allow casual interactions outside of work.
5. They are open places where you can be yourself or interact with others or escape or come up for air or all or some of these.
6. In studio it happens out of necessity, it is sort of forced to happen. It also happens in places like the Tap Room it happens voluntarily. Neither is bad just different.
7. Yes but in a broad sense
8. We need more. There is not enough space to fulfill the needs and desires of the RISD community. Club Groups’ spaces are arbitrarily decided week-to-week. Consistency of space allows awareness of its purpose to grow. The Tap Room has been successful at this for one-time events.
Painting Junior:
What Cheer Studios
160 Benefit St
1. Painting
2. It is intangible. Don’t know how to define it but you recognize it when you experience it. I guess the textbook definition would be a group of people wit similar interests, goals and values helping each other accomplish them.
3. Not last year. I have a new philosophy this year: you get what you give. It is naïve to think it simply exists and you can have it for nothing.
4. Wherever you need them to be. Places you can eat pizza or places outside to get some air.
5. Don’t sh*# where you eat
6. Any space can be a catalyst for the growth or strengthening of a community, It can happen anywhere and in unexpected ways. I’m leary of assigning potential to specific spaces.
7. N/A
8. They are underutilized. They’re like the teen rec centers that towns create to stop the teens from hanging out in front of the 7/111, yet they still hang out in front of the 7/11. The more contrived a thing the less desirable it becomes. “YOU CAN’T FAKE THE FUNK!”
The general sentiment around campus regarding space and community seems to flow along the same path. The responses are all variations of the same answer. It seems community exists in pockets around RISD but not campus-wide. Mostly the designed community spaces are lacking or ineffective. It would be great to be involved in a larger RISD community! We are so busy there really isn’t time etc, etc, etc. I find it at once disheartening and motivating. Many a feel distinct lack of RISD-wide community, and wish there was. What seems to be lacking is a catalyst, a space, a personality or both. To the way you fabricate a man-made diamond is t place a tiny spec of real diamond at its core.
Once again considering questions of spaces and community around campus while reading Relational Aesthetics by Nicolas Bourriaud this statement, regarding installations, rings in clear reflection of concepts put forth by Jane Jacobs “They create free spaces and periods of time whose rhythms are not the same as those that organize everyday life, and they encourage an inter-human intercourse which is different from the ‘zones of communication’ that are forced upon us”. The challenge of those attempting to encourage community is; how does one design that which must grow organically, how to create environments that allow, what Jacobs refers to as, casual, public contact? Jacobs believes this cannot be institutionalized, that it must evolve naturally with the help of public characters. Much of what Jacobs said rings true, at least in my view, and yet I believe there must be a way. Perhaps it cannot be institutionalized, but it can be encouraged and certainly nurtured. How could we foster that sense of ownership? I personally do not believe that a large, expensive “student union” would work at RISD as it does at other universities. The climate at RISD, though not unique, is very different from a “normal” university. We do not really have a lot of non-academic reasons to gather or that encourage a school-wide sense of belonging, like interschool sports competition (at least not seriously) for example. What do we have? WORK. We take, perhaps an unhealthy, pride in how much we work. What is our work? Creative expression. For this reason the concept, put forth in Relational Aesthetics, of an installation creating a temporary space conducive to casual social interaction seems an appropriate avenue of exploration. Creative works are a plentiful resource here at RISD. Apparel senior “It exists in physical space and also the intangible space created between people interacting” Perhaps it is the permanent space combined with an ephemeral experience that makes a social space successful. Can an ephemeral space with a permanent experience be just as effective? Perhaps this is part of the appeal of the workshops around campus the space and characters are constant but the work is constantly changing. A new experience to be had with each encounter with said space. It is in the novelty of experience, be it people or objects, contained within the familiar that we find appeal because it is comfortable and different at the same time.
-Diau
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Unique on Campus
Strong communities do not thrive because an environment was specifically designed to that end. Designed environments can encourage social interaction but can they create a sense of community? Strong communities exist around individuals; these individuals and their personalities anchor the community. These individuals reside in public spaces, they do not force social interactions rather they facilitate it. Their spaces are not necessarily specifically designed to with the intent to encourage social interaction, but become one as a result of the individual installed in said space. Jane Jacob’s The Death and Life of Great American Cities eloquently depicts this concept of community structure. In “The Uses of Sidewalks: Contacts” chapter Jacobs is speaking specifically to sidewalk life but it is relevant to community infrastructure beyond the sidewalk.With the question of how Jacobs’ concepts apply to my experience at RISD to date in mind while I read Jacobs’ The Death and Life of Great American Cities this quote struck a cord: “The social structure of sidewalk life hangs partly on what can be called self-appointed public characters. A public character is anyone who is in frequent contact with a wide circle of people and is sufficiently interested to make himself a public character. A public character need have no special talents or wisdom to fulfill his function-although he often does. He just needs to be present, and there need to be enough of his counterparts. His main qualification is that he is public, that he talks to lots of different people. In this way news travels that is of sidewalk interest. Most public sidewalk characters are steadily stationed in public places.” At RISD the most successful “sidewalk life” is found in the form of our shops. Our shops, like Jacobs’ sidewalks, are the places people pass thru out of necessity, as so much of our life here is based on production. Our techs are our “public characters”. The monitors and gear heads the “roving characters”. The shops posses many of the elements Jacobs sees as vital to a lively neighborhood. Our techs facilitate social interaction and the spreading of news. The shops, especially as the semester progresses, are bustling with activity. This activity attracts even those not needing to be there because there is palpable excitement, lively discussion, music, food, gossip, knowledge, and advice to be found. Looking at RISD as a city these are our successful neighborhoods. They are places where we feel solidarity, security and where we turn in times of need. Reading “Use of Sidewalk: Contacts” drove home the import of these places. Though the shops may not have been set up with this level of social interaction in mind, it is the place where I personally feel the most sense of community. By sad contrast, and in testament to “its cultivation can not be institutionalized”, my experience with the areas “designed” for casual interaction is that they are not so lively or interesting. They lack the permanent fixture of public characters and also our need to pass through them. One is must intentionally go to the space to have social interaction, it requires a plan. The spontaneity and/or serendipity of a chance social interaction are taken out of the equation.
The I.D. Wood shop located at 161 South Main St is possibly the most unique “neighborhood” in our RISD city. It is on river at street level, walled on to sides with floor to ceiling windows. These windows not only provide beautiful light and a nice view for those in it, they provide an opportunity for residents of the city (Providence) in which our “city” resides to glimpse in and be enticed by our bustling little neighborhood. It is the only place on campus (that I know off) where “outsiders” have the opportunity to see the creative process of our world in action not just its product. During the warmer months when I find myself having a cigarette on the stoop outside the shop, I frequently find myself answering questions posed to me by passers by on their way to or from a night out on the town “What do you do in their?” ”Looks like fun”, “Can we come in” etc, etc. I found myself as the object of entertainment to a gathering crowd while doing a woodturning one warm, spring night (see photo of lathe). At night the light from within affords those on the outside a clear view in and draws the attention from passers-by, RISD or otherwise, like moths to a flame.
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