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Retrospective: DesignInquiry '04 a movie by Katie Jaynes
Cable/DSLModem

More Diaries by Katie Jaynes
Cable/DSLModem

 

PDF Book
Download this 64-page after-inquiry catalog that captures Truth & Message essays, notes, images and quotes. It's split into a section of writing and another section of images and quotes.

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Notes:
work & words from the week

In the final session, we answered:
what will we each take with us from this gathering?


The social aspect/the people that stand out, ultimately how similar we are?

This was a great experience of impossible collaborations, it was not an easy but a good process, and now i have a better idea of how i spend my time as a teacher.

I came with the question: does graphic design matter... I found that people DO care, And I’m willing to go forward that it might matter.

I’ll leave with the richness of the activity. What began big' changed into a tunnel, then I was lost in the work.

City, workshop, people.

The imagery & organization of imagery is new to me, the significance of text is also new.

The Truth is... not about truth, but inspired in different ways in every conversation, and I’m still going away with a piece I did here.

I’m inspired by the format, genius.

I’ll leave with new insights into asking questions in terms of education.

The discussions, the topic, the possibilities of working, writing, other things combined to underscore how important it is what we do and the role we play.

We divide and conquer. As teaching goes, this nourishing, respectful, no mutiny, collaborative was of working, in the best ways. First there was fear, then making and making and we pulled it off.

I’ll take with me the reaffirmation that graphic design education is one of a number of vehicles in creative thinking and creating our own ways of thinking.

Students must employ what we're teaching. Here we analyzed and then synthesized: these are the truths I’ll retain.

What ever you believe to be your truth; be connected to it.

How easy it is for meaning to shift. It became apparent in the making. I couldn't shut up-- that's abnormal for me!

The week was like speed rowing in a dark time.
I was lost in the meetings, they didn't stay to the topic, meetings pointed in other directions.

Also,  graphic designers are eager to talk about what they are doing. We didn't say it all yet.

The power of dialog, the faith of dialog.

These are necessary workshops, I’m invigorated to keep working, & explore commonality.

Thinking makes you tired.

The #1 truth: it's individual.

While I thought we would solve questions, we raised questions.

I was able to approach everything as an experiment.

We come together for deeper meaning, to try to define & see colleagues & peers do it as well.

I’m reminded not to loose my passion, it's a lifestyle.

I realized I would always be a student. I was nervous; I want another week & this space to work.

I’m inspired, shocked, I worked hard, the work was driven pragmatically.

It was inspiring to see how MUCH got made.

I will take away the value of listening.

At first, I was nervous by the theme, looking at the big world of design, I became more nervous of the format, so I found a conventional way to react by finding a text. Then we got here. The old model, just talking, is a passive reception. I was inspired by the common ground of making, mixing elements. Let's call it 'The Magic Space'

The actor's phrase struck me: 'you just put it out into the air and the audience knows if it's truth' -this was my relationship to this week.

The value of what we do is affirmed.

This reaffirms my path.


And, from some of the emails later:


I am now figuring out, this week, whether I'm off to architecture school, or not. It starts in a month! Part of me wants to go because DesignInquiry made me realize how amazing school could be, and part of me doesn't because DesignInquiry made me realize how much I love graphic design!

We all know when design is just form or strategy it just sits there begging to be taken seriously and embraced. But, when it embodies a real human presence, one cannot ignore it and must interact some how. The notion of making in response to the lectures is NEW and needs underscored. It is the best format ever. It gives an equalizing status to everyone.

For anything of real value to come out of such a format, equalized status rules.

One of the more valuable things I learned at this workshop was the importance of recognizing what we believe to be our own truth. Throughout the week I noticed a general insecurity among the attendees, both in the presentation of their own work and the voicing of their opinions in the discussions. I thought this was really interesting, especially considering that the majority of the group was established professionals. I suffer from the same problem. While working in Elliott's group, the main point he kept reiterating was the importance of having conviction about our own truths. Much of what Elliott's work is about is "courage". This is something we all could use a little more of.

The DesignInquiry program is a gigantic leap in the right direction for "design conferences." I do Not even want to use the term "design conference", because I do not feel the DesignInquiry quite Falls into that category, however I feel it is the closest. What you put in is what you get out of it. As a participant, you have to take responsibility for your work, input, and just your whole experience.Fast paced.
 
DesignInquiry was a chance interaction and a chance to interact. I got to know people I would never have met otherwise. Going out to dinner, staying up late in the computer lab, and making small talk with folks was fun. I liked that people were from different parts of the country and that there was a diverse age range. Having just recently graduated from college, I don't really interact on such a casual level (aka 'hang out') with people who are more than five years older than me, so it was fun to do this. I also like that everybody attempted to make something. Rick's strategy of responding to each day by making something was an interesting way to pull his thoughts together. Portland was a fun city to visit for a week. It was just the right scale to not be intimidating.

to me what came across strongest at DI: not ideas, though there were many good ones; not skill thought much was in evidence; but passion. what if that were the focus?

It made me think freshly about my work, because of the quality of participants and the fact they each brought insights, sometimes from related professions such as psychology, philosophy, theatre, music and architecture. I've also taken the titles of several new books to read. I would come back again because I always want more inspiration and connection with the creative spirit.

DesignInquiry was like all the best parts of graduate school, incredibly compressed into a week.

It was a great opportunity to talk,  work and play with a dynamic group of designers, young & old (er). I think I called it a "transitory designer's utopia." Much more interaction than a typical design conference, probably because the relatively small number of participants made it easy to get to know each other. when I was waiting for my plane home on Saturday I took the roster of attendees and was able to remember something specific about nearly every person because i'd talked with them over the course of the week. there was a feeling of "we're all in this together" that to some degree even included the speakers, which is something i've never experienced at a conference before, and i've been to quite a few. also, the orientation to creating something as part of the event was transformational. we were not simply information consumers, we were part of a process.




 

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Work

video diaries director/producer/videographer Catherine Ishino
Cable/DSLModem

melle, margo, peter movie director/producer/videographer Catherine Ishino
Cable/DSLModem

group project: truth and message video
Cable/DSLModem

group project: literature and freedom
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Links

http://designinquiry04.com
http://www.misleader.org
http://www.echelonlabs.com/photo/designinquiry/
http://www.gardenvisit.com/t/w9.htm
http://www.zefrank.com/redalert/index_better.html
http://www.portlandphoenix.com/art/top/documents/03917120.asp http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/index.cfm
http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/resources/educational/teachable_moment
s/photo_truth.cfm

http://mypage.siu.edu/cgorman/designforum.htm
http://designstudiesforum.org 
SpeakUp
DesignObserver
Typophile
The Guardian
NYTimes
MoveOn.org

 


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Reading List

 

Douglass Scott

 

Peter Hall

Lupton, Ellen "The Producers" in Inside Design Now: National Design Triennial (Princeton Architectural Press, 2003)

Rock, Michael "The Designer as Author" in Looking Closer Four (Allworth Press, 2002) also in Eye no. 20 (Spring 1996)

Poynor, Rick "The Designer as Reporter" in Obey the Giant (Birkhauser/August, 2001)

Sontag, Susan "The World as India" in Times Literary Supplement, June 13, 2003



Camille Tranbanco

 

 

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Contact Us

Margo Halverson, Director of DesignInquiry