On a threshold of a new journey

I accepted a mission from my teacher Nicholas Riddle to document bicycle culture while I am away on break. Luckily, I will be going on a vacation to Taiwan, where the transportation culture is far different from our own. I will probably come into contact with more mopeds than bicycles, but I imagine that any information on how people get stuff from A to B will be good information nonetheless.

Early December, Wednesday Morning: on the BART

Today while on the way to History of the Bay Area class, I stumbled upon a book in the seat that I was about to occupy when I entered the car; apparently somebody had forgot it. Before I could shout out something, the doors to the car closed and I was on my way to Oakland. Now that I am in possession of this book I think it would be an excellent chance to see if it would be possible to return this person’s book.

Upon returning home, I inspected it for any identifying marks; there are none. The book is recently published and brand new. There are however two things wedged inside the book: a bookmark from a corporate team-building seminar group, and a recent San Francisco to Salt Lake city morning plane ticket. These clues tell me that the owner of this book must be in the corporate world somehow; perhaps he was going to a meeting. The most important thing, however is that I have a name. I attempted to backtrack through the airline website using the ticket’s confirmation number, but unfortunately nothing turned up; most likely any information regarding the trip has been erased.

I am inclined to simply give the book to the station attendant, but I feel that by now the owner may not be looking for the book anymore. How might I go about returning this book? Since the person uses the BART, he surely lives within the San Francisco Bay area. The BART train was heading eastbound when the man got off at a major Market Street station: that tells me that the man probably lives on the peninsula, and goes to work in downtown San Francisco. I have heard other people use the internet to great effect in identifying owners of lost cameras.

Social networking is an absolutely fascinating phenomenon. It has made the world a much smaller place. The novelty of pen pals has given way to real time posts on forums, even live broadcasts. Finding information is far easier now than before. I will continue my search for this man as soon as school ends.

Early December

Richard Branson, architect of the Virgin empire, has released a new iPad-only magazine, called Project. It is a digital magazine aimed at industry, technology, and entrepreneurs. But I am writing about this magazine because it has traversed web 2.0 and begun the true integration of interactive content in electronic devices.

As an iPad-only publication, Project uses the device’s assets to great effect; advertisements are interactive, cover art is video, sound demonstrations and music are integrated into the narrative, and a big plus for interviews is raw footage. The trappings of a webpage are no longer evident.

How might we integrate our print media into the multifunctional mediums of tomorrow? How will the march of technology change the way our media works?

Canon’s “Wonder Camera” debuted at the Shanghai Expo this year in the Japanese pavilion. It claimed that in twenty years time, the ability of the consumer camera will be powerful enough to create super high quality video with an obscene amount of clarity; Canon is attempting technology that will enable the entire picture to be in focus, allowing photographs to be cut from a larger photograph. Their smart technology also had the ability to recognize smiles, and was able to take multiple photos of members of the audience all at once. If every frame of a movie is in focus, where will that put the camera? Will it be relegated to purely the arts--an expensive system with multiple parts and steep learning curve much like calligraphy once was?

Canon was displaying the resolution of their camera on gigantic touch screens as tall as a man. Are we closer to Fahrenheit 451’s television walls? How small will our consumer technology get?

With the ongoing research into OLED’s, it is quite possible that within a short amount of time, super thin, or even bendable screens will become the norm. Heck, why stop there? Maybe entire electronic objects can become flexible--keyboards, hard drives, cell phones. I predict that within 50 years, somebody, some company will come out with a super-gadget--one that will have the capability to become the size of a cell phone, have the computing power of a desktop, and can expand to the size of flat screen televisions. Seeing how fast technology moves, I won’t be surprised if this will happen sooner.

The next iPod will not be a revolution. It will be something more earth shattering.

Late November: Japantown, San Francisco

Today, as part of my research regarding Japanese culture for my ID1 project, I walked into the National Japanese American Historical Society. They are currently having an exhibit displaying various objects created by interred Japanese Americans in various camps during World War II.

They were only given poorly built tar paper barracks, and a couple of crates and a bed frame for furniture. There were no medical or educational facilities planned. But like all humans, the interred Japanese did what they could, and built an effective and functioning city  out of the camps. The relics of their stay--boxes, sea shell sculptures, and even carved and painted works of art are testament to the ingenuity of people.

Once again, necessity is the mother of invention.

Sometimes I think that a long period with a single focus produces better work than fitting several projects into a schedule at once. I am jealous of the meticulous detail of some of these people.

If only the best of us didn’t come from the worst of things. But I guess times of great stress inspire great things.

Sometime in the Middle of November

While browsing Core77.com, I stumbled upon an article written by Bruce and Stephanie M. Tharp. Together, they attempted to break down Industrial design into four categories as a way to make it easier to explain what “Industrial Design” is to those outside the design world. What they came up with was Commercial Design, Responsible Design, Experimental Design, and Discursive Design.

Commercial design involves design with the chief motive of producing profit. Responsible design concerns itself with creating a product for the purpose of fulfilling a humanitarian service. Experimental design plays with emerging technologies and ideas to create a novel object. Discursive design induces discussion through the object that is designed. Obviously industrial design isn’t so black and white, but this taxonomy does help people understand just what industrial design is.

Some of the comments were interesting to read. One asserted that designers are simply having trouble circumcising art and craft from their profession. That “Design solves problems”. That art should not be confused for such.

Are designers also artists? Can they do the same work? Are they in fact the same thing? Does design involve art, or does art involve design?

Sometime in the Middle of November

As part of my ongoing ID1 project, which involves redesigning street furniture, I discovered that San Francisco has a massive, redundant firefighting network called the Auxiliary Water Supply System, or AWSS. The 1906 Earthquake was most devastating due to the fire that resulted in the aftermath. Hundreds of breaks in the water mains forced firefighters to pump sewer water and cisterns to fight the fires. Eventually, many resorted to shovels and explosives in a vain attempt at creating fire breaks.

The AWSS consists of a network of high pressure fire hydrants, hooked up to reservoirs located at various elevations. The largest of these is the 10.5 million gallon Twin Peaks reservoir, which with all gates open can deliver several hundred psi of water pressure to the downtown area. This is insurance against the possible failure of the regular hydrants hooked up to water mains.

In the event the high pressure hydrants are not enough, two diesel-powered pumping stations located can deliver water from the bay directly into the city. The city’s two fireboats also have the ability to pump water into the city through various manifolds along the piers.

The Fire department also maintains a system of underground cisterns as a last resort measure against the failure of the various AWSS systems.

The recent passage of Proposition B in June, 2010 will allocate several hundred million dollars to the retrofit of this system.

An anachronistic relic easily seen on many street corners are San Francisco’s fire alarm boxes. Many may think that these are obsolete in the digital age but they are in fact an important part of the infrastructure of the city. When the next big earthquake strikes (60% probability within the next 30 years according to the USGS) phone lines and cell phone towers will most likely be destroyed. The paint-encrusted fire alarm boxes, however are all independently powered by underground wiring and have direct connection to the emergency switchboard of the city, whereas even with service, cell phones will most likely encounter the busy signal for several days.

As part of my project, I will be redesigning a fire hydrant, fire alarm box, and cistern cover. How might I make these lowly and rusty pieces of street furniture stand out and show how important they are in the context of our city’s emergency preparedness?

The Japanese decorate their manhole covers with designs from animals to castings of city symbols and emblems. An excellent way to make life a little more colorful.

Sometime in the Middle of November

On my way back from Industrial Design research in Japantown, the bus I was on was held up by a man in a wheelchair who was unwilling to exit the bus. He kept claiming he lost his cell phone, and would put his feet on the ground when people attempted to push his wheelchair. He finally found it...in his pants. A lot of time was wasted.

People entering through the back of the bus to bypass paying frustrates me. The city has made multiple attempts at fixing the issue, including a “no pay, no go” system where the bus driver will refuse to move unless all passengers have paid the fare. Needless to say, the bus schedule was utterly destroyed at one point. Now the city is posting police officers in buses that see large amount of human traffic to deter people from hopping on the back of the bus. Removing the fare system in its entirety was even considered, but the costs of actually going with this plan outweighed any benefit.

How might we go about getting everybody to pay their fare? Should we even be charging fares? How much money is the city losing, anyways?

SOMETIME IN EARLY NOVEMBER

Today, on TheAwesomer.com, a link was posted to a movie called Linotype: The Film. The film focuses on the Linotype, a revolutionary machine that automated the process of printing by casting lines of type, rather than selecting each letter individually by hand. Before the Linotype, no newspaper on Earth was longer than 8 pages. The leftovers of this now obsolete technology can be found in every computer word processor and in Graphic Design parlance. I am intrigued by this machine, and have found a new appreciation for Graphic Design as a result of it. It is also the reason why I have changed the font of this journal from Courier to Georgia; it is an easy to read font with large letters at similar point sizes compared to other fonts. The past can tell a lot about why we are at the present, and can in fact give clues to how we may step into the future.

I have always wanted to learn the abacus, not because of some sense of nostalgia, but because it is an effective tool at teaching arithmetic. The genius of the abacus stems from its ability to remove the need to do original computation by mechanizing the process. One does not need to know that a+b=c,  it is only required that a is established, b is inserted with the correct algorithm, and c  will always be the resultant. No more need to memorize tables. Japan has mandated soroban (the Japanese abacus) proficiency in children as a way to increase the speed of mental calculation. The ability to see the calculation as it is being performed helps the visual minds of children immensely. Japan even gives out certificates to adults to bypass the need for proficiency tests in regards to job application.

3 NOV OAKLAND MUSEUM OF CALIFORNIA

Today, as part of Design Communications 1, we are on a field trip to the Oakland Museum of California to see the Pixar: 25 years of Animation exhibit. What a treat it was to see how such a successful company works. Their approach to character development, to me is very applicable to that of design.

Pixar’s motto, “Story is King” rings true even with their simplest shorts. Their approach is to get into a character’s shoes and think about what their goals are. What they desire. What they need. If you were a parent of a Luxo lamp, you would probably tell your child to not play too rough or risk breaking a bulb. It is this kind of attention that makes Pixar’s product a consistent and believable whole, rather than riding on the gimmick of 3D effects.

If I were a product I was designing, what would my goals be? What would I want to do?

SOME WEEKEND IN LATE OCTOBER WOOD SHOP, CCA SAN FRANCISCO CAMPUS

After having been a shop monitor for two solid months, I must say that the way the shops work isn’t very efficient. The floor plan of the school forces anybody with large objects to use the elevator, which is on the other side of the building. Weekly dumpster rounds are forced to go by several classrooms both up and downstairs, disrupting lectures with an incessant booming noise.

I learned that large objects (like large machinery) are actually hoisted up through a removable panel on the front facade of the school located in the Graphic Design section of the second floor. I also learned that there is an architectural dead zone right in front of Timken hall; this is where a freight elevator used to be back when the school was a Greyhound bus shed. The managers of the studio lamented that putting the elevator back into service would have cost a large amount of money, so it sits where is lays, behind sheetrock and paint. Oh how I wish that we can get that elevator running.

How might we get our enormous dumpsters out without having to traverse the entire floor plan of the school? could it be possible to even make the act quieter?

The students are not properly trained to work in the shops here. I understand that orienting hundreds of students is hard, but the amount of dangerous activity I see is inexcusable.

How might we train the students better on proper shop etiquette? I see that most dangerous behavior comes from rushing work.

I remember one weekend where I stayed overnight. There were several architecture students in the wood shop. When I confronted them about how they had to clean up and leave before the boat building class arrived, I was a bit shocked and insulted to hear one of the students call me a hateful person for supervising their procrastination.

How might we teach students to have better control over their schedules? How can us monitors “teach” students that their behavior is dangerous and damaging tools without babysitting them?

6 OCT ON A BUS, OAKLAND, CA 1140AM

The bus has stopped to let on a woman in an autonomous vehicle. While it is good to see buses that have the ability to accommodate people in wheelchairs, the process is long and slow. Not only does the rider must mount an elevator, she must drive down the aisle, perform a 3 point turn, and “park” in the corner. In the process the entire front section of the bus is evacuated to allow this large range of movement. All in all, a good amount of time was lost. Who knows how far off bus schedules would be if they have to take on more than just one handicapped person every once in a while?

How might we make public transportation accommodate disabled persons in a more timely manner?

30 SEP YERBA BUENA CENTER FOR THE ARTS, 1930PM

Today, ID1 class went on a field trip to see the 100 Days, 100 Chairs exhibit at the Yerba Buena Gardens. An artist spent around three months taking garbage fare and transforming it into items of novelty, beauty, and intrigue. The concept of literally deconstructing the chair and making one anew intrigued me, especially now that I am in Furniture design.

What is a chair?

Modernists confront themselves with “essences” of things in an attempt to remove obfuscating aesthetics, focusing on what they believe is true. Our postmodern society likes to say it is retrospective one by looking at the past in a fair and sympathetic way, but at the same time indiscriminately noting the ups and downs of our ways, how we sometimes even with the best of intentions blind ourselves with assumptions.

I am reminded of my Introduction to Industrial Design class; we were tasked with the creation of a cardboard structure that will support a human body off the ground. Most classmates interpreted that as build a cardboard chair.



What is a chair?

Perhaps I will find out once I take the chair class in furniture.

There was another exhibit at the Yerba Buena Gardens: art made by inmates while incarcerated in prisons. Within simple display cases were the results of being stuck in the same room for most of the day. crude shivs and weapons gave way to soap dolls, false-bottomed cans, handmade mirrors, and even a picture frame made from weaved potato chip bags. It just goes to show that with limited resources and an infinite amount of time, creativity will result. Necessity is the mother of invention, as they say.

28 SEP BART TRAIN, PITTSBURGH BAY POINT BOUND

Since my first trip on the BART, I have had difficulty understanding the announcements from the speakers in the car. The poor sound quality mixed with the ambient noise of wheels over tracks makes it hard to hear. Coupled with poor signage both on trains and platforms, I found it next to impossible to identify stops. How are visitors supposed to be able to use the BART effectively if they have no ability to know where to get off?

I found an article in Slate Magazine titled The Secret Language of Signs. It is a five part essay on way finding, and how people are reliant on good signage and visual cues in order to navigate the world effectively. It documented a bus that drove off a ramp and killed its occupants because there was no signage that indicated the route the bus was on was a left lane exit into a stop light. Signage has come a long way since ad hoc wooden arrows at forks in the road. However, the increasing number of people needing to get to places in a timely manner has increased the importance of a well-designed sign.

The second section dealt with disparate signs in the same building used by multiple occupants--Penn Station in New York City. Having no unified signage system, travelers transferring from say, the subway to a regional train are met with signs that point in several directions, signs that are hard to read, or signs that are impossible to find in the underground labyrinth. I myself remember a trip to Europe that went through John F. Kennedy International Airport, also in New York city. It was undergoing renovations and had detour signs posted all over the place. My family was utterly lost due to multiple signs pointed in opposite directions.

Part three documented London’s attempt at making its literally medieval street layout navigable by citizens and tourists alike. Legible London, it is called: a series of monolithic slabs posted about the city that display key information: a map oriented in the direction the reader is facing, major landmarks highlighted, places within walking distance, and local amenities listed. I think San Francisco needs one of these systems,  at least for bus stops.

I won’t summarize the rest of the article here, but I believe if BART simply put electronic signs inside the car, perhaps above doorways and midway through the carriage, information can be better articulated to the passengers, removing any doubt of what the conductor is saying.