Development of a thesis abstract

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!

Now reading…have a suggestion?

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