Sunday, June 28, 2015

Different Data on the radio!

Rachele Riley and I were interviewed on EuDesignRadio at the conference Cumulus Milan 2015: The Virtuous Circle in Milan on June 6. We talk about the project and some related things and then play the Fuzzy Box game!

Thursday, June 18, 2015

NOQUO Island (DesignInquiry): the project starts

The beginnings of a project with DesignInquiry as part of their project "NO QUO" June 14–20, 2015, in Vinalhaven, ME.

There will be more developed over the coming months. Stay tuned.

This project is the construction of a story about an island that is actually many islands all occupying the same place, space, and time that is many places, spaces, and times.  (The story is really about making stuff and how the place in the story and maps is really connected to other people and places and times and how we tend not to see that because we are really very committed to the way the world appears to us. A story is just another way of explaining something, a fiction that is really something about the real. Design is not comfortable with fictions, but there is a grand tradition of this from the likes of Superstudio, Archigram, Fluxus, John Hearfield, Dunne and Raby, Metahaven … This is a short list. It must be longer, deeper, richer, dumber, more beautiful, harder, tastier …)

The islands are Vinalhaven, Alameda (where I am currently), Thomas Moore’s Utopia, and Fluxcity (AKA Ginger Island) - an island nearly bought by George Maciunas in 1969.

I am providing a collection of stories about the island that is really many islands that in the end is really only one story. The story is told through words, images, and maps. The story will be updated over the course of the inquiry.

The first story is a hack Yuri Lotman's chapter “The Symbolism of Saint Petersburg” from his book “Universe of the Mind.” In this hack cities are now islands and major references are transposed to Vinalhaven Maine. This is one layer or fragment of the master story of the composite island. While this is specific to Vinalhaven, it can be shared with the other islands.

Base map for exploring the island

Marty

The Fortress

Monday, June 15, 2015

Different Data Detroit (+Stockholm) at Nordes

The latest iteration of Different Data - Different Data Detroit (+Stockholm) at NORDES 2015: Design Ecologies, Stockholm, Sweden (June 7–10, 2015.) With Rachele Riley and Dan McCafferty.

"For Nordes 2015, we will bring the outcomes of our work in Detroit (with DesignInquiry at MOCAD) to Stockholm and merge these two ecologies on the walls of the exhibition space over the course of the conference. We propose that the discursive relationship between these two cities is nascent and  probable, on various levels. There are connections that we can presuppose (structure, form, system, mythology) and those that can only be realized through discovery. These connections must surely run deep, even if they are forced by our subjective measurements and if only as action (which is enough). They are hypotheses that remain to be realized. In keeping with the methods of Different Data, the Detroit (+Stockholm) project will  be both methodical and poetic, creating a link and a layering of the two cities in both factual and speculative comparisons."

View the project description

Networking and checking in with the mothership.

Checking the data.

Monday, June 8, 2015

Different Data Detroit: Presentation at Cumulus 2015, Milan

Rachele Riley and I presented our paper “Different Data: Experimental Design Research for Mapping Cities” at Cumulus Milan 2015: The Virtuous Circle as part of a panel on Experimenting/Prototyping to discuss our approach to and consideration of ‘different data’ and critical design. The paper reviews the project Different Data in its first installation at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD) during a three month residency with DesignInquiry. The project was done in collaboration with Patricio Davila, and Dan McCafferty. Our paper will be included in the proceedings and published by McGraw-Hill Education.


Detail of Different Data Detroit installation at MOCAD, October 2014. 
View of installation in progress of Different Data Detroit at MOCAD, December 2014. 
Video still from Different Data Detroit, in collaboration with Rachele Riley.