November 4, 2009

Just talking to our Grad Elective teacher, Adam Michaels, about materials and open designs. I am particularly interested in forms that are left open for the viewer/reader to interact.
Adam mentioned a project his studio, Project Projects, did in New York using chalkboard paint on the walls. The project is called Into the Open: Positioning Practice. The primary typography was done by the studio. Secondary messages and type by the audience
“The exhibition focuses on socially-engaged architecture practices who are redefining American architecture.”
October 22, 2009




Trying to add influences to the blog.
Here is Pixnit, an artist working in Boston. Love the ornamentation.
This is the only grafitti I have ever loved.
October 20, 2009

Living in an area with so many creative neighbors is such a thrill. While my upstairs neighbor was headed to pick up his laundry, a funny thing happened. We started talking about one of my projects and he referenced a lovely neighborhood-y barter project from his old ‘hood in Chicago.
Check out the Logan Square Book Exchange by Ryan Duggan, a recent graphic design grad of the Columbia College.
ARTICLE ABOUT IT
HIS OTHER WORK
Do you know of any other systems like this one that are designed to encourage barter and trade among anonymous neighbors? Should we have a book exchange in Providence?
Can anyone point me to the creator of that wonderful bike trailer for zines that I’ve seen around? I think it’s in the Waste Not Want Not space right now. Will try to stop in and ask who made that sweet thing!
Filed under Circulation, Collection, Inspiration, Participation, Research
Tags: artist, barter, influence, neighborhood, network, newspaper box, Participation, street
September 30, 2009
Proposal
With one foot in the studio and the other in the daily life of Providence, I plan to explore ways to design for the greater good in partnership with local communities. Design can be a kind of activism, but it is also a way of being active in a community. I am interested in exploring and defining the role of designer as local citizen.
This statement was written in May of 2009. I still agree with this statement, so I’m marching forward with projects to put it into action.

My three key words are: collection, participation, circulation.
Book online here: http://issuu.com/lindsaykinkade/docs/lindsaykinkade_thesisproposalbook
If you have ideas or want to collaborate, let’s talk!
September 30, 2009

Now that the thesis process is formally underway, I am trying to read too many books at the same. If you have ideas of other books I should be reading, please do tell! Thanks in advance!
The stack right now:
Rules for Radicals by Saul D. Alinsky
Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered by E.F. Schumacher
Design Revolution: 100 Products that Empower People by Emily Pilloton
Let Us Now Praise Famous Men by James Agee and Walker Evans
Participation ed. by Claire Bishop
Relational Aesthetics by Nicolas Bourriaud
A Guide to Democracy in America by Yates McKee, Anne Pasternak, Gregory Sholette, and Liam Gillick
What is Graphic Design For? by Alice Twemlow
Droog Event 2: Urban Play by Droog
Citizen Designer by Steven Heller and Veronique Vienne
Looking Closer 5: Critical Writings on Graphic Design by Michael Beirut, William Drenttel, and Steven Heller
The Power of Place: Urban Landscapes as Public History by Dolores Hayden
Rural Studio: Samuel Mockbee and an Architecture of Decency by Andrea Oppenheimer Dean and Timothy Hursley
The Interventionists: Users’ Manual for the Creative Disruption of Everyday Life by Nato Thompson, Gregory Sholette, and Joseph Thompson
Plop: Recent Projects of the Public Art Fund by Susan K. Freedman, Tom Eccles, Dan Cameron, Katy Siegel, Jeffrey Kastner, and Anne Wehr
also, and perhaps, most importantly (though not pictured)
The Gift by Lewis Hyde
August 13, 2009

http://vimeo.com/6085220
Doug Scott has said to me more than once, “Lindsay, you have too many ideas!”
Thanks for the feedback, Doug! So, now I am trying to harness all of them in the hopes of sorting, focusing, and eliminating some of them. Doug suggested I write each thing down on a color-coded card so that I can sort, associate, and re-sort my ideas depending on how they relate to one another. I started out with all white notecards and sorted into types. Now each moving part belongs to a set (defined by color).

My working sets:
White… guiding principles, big ideas
Pink… My grad school projects so far (should I add ideas for future projects or hold off? hmm…)
Orange… Influences, including art movements, designers, books
Yellow… Graphic design tools/ideas
Green… advisors
All of these cards are constantly shifting as I realize new relationships among them. And some are falling away from the thesis and into a spot for future projects. I suspect the seeds of many things will come from this process.
So, here goes, I’m sorting the seeds…
May 21, 2009
A quick review of the work I did in newspaper design.

October 14, 2009
I don’t have anything to say. Yet. [still reading to form an opinion]
The list of primary texts for the reader has been narrowed down. I’m compiling and designing an open document (magazine?) with readings on what it means to do social good. I am particularly interested in the idea of commentary from Biblical and Talmudic traditions. In both of these longstanding traditions, a scholar prepares a section of text (can be a page in a book or on a poster, etc.). The text is set on the paper in such a way as to leave intentional areas for commentary by others.
Peter Hocking recently told me about a project like this that he collaborated on at Brown University. The director of Hillel there did a series of posters with texts chosen by him. He then had scholars write in certain areas of the poster to document the dialogue between them about the text at hand.
I am particularly interested in using this form to document differing points of views and departures that contributers may find interesting. I am hoping to design an ‘open’ way of setting the commentary in motion. I want each person who encounters the primary and secondary texts to be able to respond with her own perspective or criticism. I want to set the stage for commentary.
[NOTE: In my own process, I have always used the idea of commentary without thinking of it as such. I think of the notes in the margins of my books as a kind of quick index of my own responses, a shortcut back to my own ideas. I have never imagined anyone else then responding to my responses. I am interested in opening this process up for further reflection by more people. Prem Krishnamurthy referred us to a project in which a designer scanned pages with notes from a particular book at libraries all over a country in Europe. The resulting project is a compilation of many commentaries. Still looking up the details on that project.]
PRIMARY TEXTS for my commentary document
Rules for Radicals
First Things First Manifesto (both versions for comparison)
The Gift
Relational Aesthetics
Work for the Public Domain
Design for the Real World
NEW TO THE BOOKSHELF for general thesis reading
The Gift by Lewis Hyde
The Lure of the Local by Lucy Lippard
Design for the Real World by Victor Papanek
To Hell with Good Intentions by Ivan Illich
3 Comments
Filed under Process, Research, Thoughts
Tags: commentary, Process, thesis