More Kiosk Examples in the Plaza

This is another picture of Marriott Plaza.  Again, people have a table set up in about the same spot, and they have a sign that says "COME SAY something NICE..... anything NICE!"  They also have a table with a microphone that is hooked up to speakers.  When I passed by they were playing music for the whole plaza, but presumably I could have gone up and announced something to the whole plaza, but also I would have had to interrupt the music, which didn't strike me as something cool.  Again, it felt a little awkward to be prompted to announce yourself to a group of people who don't really know you, and some people who can't even see you.  It would be great for us to have something like this, but only if we could really push that casual "it's okay to express yourself, people want to hear it, it's not weird" vibe.  I might have been coerced into announcing something if my friends had been there, but I don't care about expressing myself to people who don't care about me unless it's in a much more anonymous setting.  I have no motive, even with a pushy "let's make the world a happier place one phrase at a time" prompt.  I don't want to expose myself, and that's pretty much what being in the middle of this plaza means.  Exposure.  Maybe the kiosk would make a good environment for people to gather and help them to not feel so exposed.  I think having a roof would definitely further this purpose, so I'm glad that's included in the design plans thus far.  

Kiosk Example in the Plaza

This is a picture of the Marriott Plaza.  People have set up a couch and taken some tables and chairs and are making their own "kiosk."  I think this is such a clear precedent for what we are trying to do, people have already set up their own temporary kiosks.  It shows that there is an actual want on campus for this sort of space.  I want our kiosk to be comfortable like that.

Progress Update

Mostly this past week I have tried to work on updating the website.  After class I played around with different sites/themes, and I finally decided on the one I wanted to put up.  I didn't receive many emails to add to the editing list, but maybe that will change once things get more detailed.  So far I have added a page for Ashley to work with, and a page for Kendra to work on, plus a separate kiosk page in case she wanted a page for her own project.
I also worked on my individual project, I created a graphic that I could possibly use, but I need to study some color theory to make it look good.  I also think that I should probably outline all of upper Canada (that's right, all the teeny tiny islands) with black.  But I don't really want to do that for obvious reasons, so if there is some solution I can come up with in my color scheme that solves that problem, I'll be home free.  The work I did on this this week was me finding a picture of North America that I liked (which was actually pretty challenging, let me tell you) and learning how to use the photo editor I am working with.  Once I found this one I actually had to reconfigure some of my numbers so that the areas would all be contained on here.  I am also planning on working on putting numbers on here in a readable format, but I'm still working on where to put them...  So yeah, that's this week!  =D

Progress Report and Response to "The Shore"

First of all, I am so sorry for not blogging last week! I thought that my progress wasn’t worth reporting, so I didn’t write a blog entry about it, but after the positive feedback I got from the class about some of my design ideas, I thought it might be a good idea to include a progress report as a preface to this week’s blog. I decided to focus on the idea of making the invisible visible for my project. Last week I came up with a slogan that encourages people to appreciate the current air quality and to subtly remind them of how awful inversions are: “Have you appreciated the air yet today?” It might be cool to put a few different stickers of this in different places around campus. I also came up with a "would you rather" question: “Would you rather: Have nosebleeds for a month out of every year, or not be able to use your car to drive to the U?” The sticker might even have a place to check one or the other.  I saw a neat type of sticker that changed as people stepped on it, so maybe it would be cool to use something like that. I like this one, but it didn’t get such a good reaction as I’d hoped because apparently the nosebleed thing is more uncommon than I thought. My last sticker idea was an infographic showing the world, and showing how much area all the people in the world take up versus all the cars in the world (If you were wondering, people take up an area approximately equal to the size of California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Utah, and Arizona. Cars take up an area equal to the size of the entire United States of America including Alaska, Mexico, and Central America.) I planned to show this on a picture of the globe showing North America, with a slogan at the top saying something like: “People don’t take up that much space... But cars do.” I think the slogan needs refining, but I haven’t had any epiphanies yet on how to make it sound better. I like the idea of the infographic, but I need my roommate's help to get it on the computer.

This week, the kiosk group project I have been working on has been moving along. We experienced more setbacks than I would have liked this week. The modeling process gave us a good idea of how the structure we plan to build will actually look, but I feel that it is moving too slowly, and we should be focusing on other avenues of this project as well like introducing the idea to university officials and coming up with purposes for the project, like advancing the clip idea. My individual project, sadly, did not get worked on hardly at all in the past week because I was overwhelmed by my workload. I did more brainstorming based on the positive responses of the class to my design ideas, and I came up with another possible infographic that translates the amount of space roads take up into something that people actually care about. I haven’t actually done these calculations, but the design might look something like: If we used half the space in the U.S. That is currently dedicated to roads as farmland instead, it could grow enough food to feed the states of California and Nevada. Or something like that. The numbers are probably less impressive than I am thinking they are, but I don’t know yet. Hopefully, since I will be less busy next week, I will actually have the time to make these into computer drawings. I have also decided to make a class website, and I have made some progress with that exploring different sites. Again, I will hopefully have more time this weekend to dedicate to making the website. Also, I loved the documentary we watched in class last week. 

"The Shore" was an interesting narrative of collaboration. People with a common interest were threatened with a prison in their neighborhood, and they responded to the threat by fighting. Then, they used the momentum they had to make positive and needed changes to their lives while still retaining their sense of identity and purpose. I don't know how to do that, because the projects we have started haven't been catalyzed by a large change or threat to how things are; our desire to change things was caused simply by the awakening of our own self-awareness and situation. Maybe that will be enough to ensure lasting change, and maybe it won't, but the motives of the Shore community and our PRAXIS lab are similar enough that watching the documentary made me feel more confident in our small projects that I otherwise would have been. It was such an inspiring story, I can't wait until I have time to work on my own designs with the same dedication.

Project Responses

For my project, I wanted to change the transportation culture at the U, so this week I looked up precedents to what I am hoping to do.  I found this great page that listed cool floor graphics that advertise different things.  I've posted some pictures of the coolest ones, and the rest can be found at this link : http://twistedsifter.com/2012/06/funny-creative-floor-sticker-ads/

I thought these were great, creative ways to raise awareness and advertise different things.  I don't want to make anyone uncomfortable, but I do like the landmine stickers for their ingenuity and for the physical takeaway in the sticker.  I think my biggest challenge with this project will be coming up with a unique idea for something to say.  I have a few informal ones, but they haven't solidified enough for me to put them to a proposal, so stay tuned.  

I am really excited about everyone else's projects, as well as my own.  I can't wait to explore the campus gardens, and I can't wait for the light pollution signs to come out so I can prove to my friends that it's a real issue.  One of my friends told me today that he wished there was a grocery store within walking distance of campus.  I hope I can change that someday too, because it really would be nice to not live in a food desert.  Oh well.  Sometime in the future.  Speaking of food, I wish there were more fruit trees on campus.  I feel like it would be worth it to put together a student group to clean up the fruit trees to be able to have fruit on campus.  But I don't really know, it's just a seed idea.  

Phenomenological Response to '60 Years of Urban Change'

Hey y'all.  It's nice to be back blogging again.  I've decided to commit to two projects this next semester.  The first one I will be doing on my own and the second I will be doing with Kendra, Gi, Corinne, and Maddie.  We will be creating a "kiosk" to help make more social and interactive spaces on lower campus.  We want the campus to be interesting and exciting and compelling, and we want people to meet each other there.  My personal interest in this project is the mission, because I truly feel that campus is sleeping, and if we wake it up so much more of the potential of the university could be reached.  My individual project related to the perception of transportation on campus.  I plan to create unobtrusive sidewalk graphics that casually point out different, more positive ways to view transportation while de-emphasizing the need for personal vehicles.  My main motivation for this project is the air quality and the inefficiency of the way transportation is done in the valley.  The commuters to the U are a large part of the Salt Lake City urbanscape, and if the attitude here changes, we might actually have a shot at improving things for the city.

One of the websites we looked at last week in class showed the aerial difference between the structure of cities in the early 1950's as opposed to their modern structures.  Here is the website: http://iqc.ou.edu/2014/12/12/60yrsmidwest/
There was an overwhelming trend of urban sprawl throughout all the pictures.  The streets got wider, the buildings got bigger.  Giant parking lots emerged.  For some reason, it looks like God swooped down and tried to put spacers in the cities.  I guess this sort of makes sense, because if there are more people you need more space.  My issue is that I don't think the space used was efficient.  Enlarging the buildings makes sense to me, because if they have a wider base they can be taller and possibly utilize more space.  But most of the expansion was done for cars, which is so not okay.  Cars are a means to an end.  Freeways are an even larger extension of the God-spacers.  They take up so much of the area surrounding the city, and unfortunately, the thing they have replaced is the residential areas that used to be near the city.  This forces the city to become a place of work, the area away from the city an area for homes, and all of this forces people to rely more and more on cars.  Ugh.  It's a vicious cycle.  I also noticed though, that there is more green space being incorporated into modern cities, which is apparently another form of God spacer.  I wish there was some way to make green space that is enjoyable to humans, but that isn't composed solely of grass.  The only reason we even have grass is because it grows well in Britain because IT RAINS THERE A LOT...  Which it doesn't do here.  So, even though it's better than parking lots, grass isn't really the best use of space either.  What it comes down to is that we don't need as much space as we give ourselves.  In class we referred to it as an epidemic, and I think that's a valid way to describe this trend.  The transformation is horrible, and awful, and shocking, and unpleasant, and bad, and appalling, and upsetting, and saddening, and frustrating.  There is so much that that space could be used for.  =(  Arg.  Alright, I'm out.  

Ramble 1 and Ramble 2: Into The Heart of the City

This past weekend, (which also happened to be Thanksgiving weekend), I ventured into downtown Salt Lake twice; once as a passerby and once with my friend who was going Black Friday shopping.  When I was alone, I went to the Library and picked up a book on my way to Daybreak.  I was only there for 20 minutes, but it was still a very unpleasant experience.  For some reason, out of all the TRAX stops I have been to, the one at the library feels the most unsafe, though that isn't for the lack of people.  When I have a friend, especially if he is a guy, I feel very at home there, but when I am alone I feel extremely uncomfortable.  I feel uncomfortable because the TRAX station, as well as Library square, always have people smoking there.  Visiting the library for 20 minutes caused me to be nauseous for the rest of the day.

I also feel uncomfortable because of the people I encounter on the TRAX platform and on the small part of Library square that leads up to the North-west entrance to the library.   The people that I encounter there usually come in four groups: middle aged men that smell bad and look slightly homeless, people who are mentally disabled and their caretakers, couples that verbally abuse each other and bring strangers into their confrontations, and people who are alone that keep to themselves, who are usually in their twenties or thirties.  There is also the occasional group of outgoing high-schoolers, but they are less regular.  This is not to say, of course that the Library only contains those groups of people, but they are the only people I have encountered walking from the TRAX station to the library and back.  Most of these confrontations happen while waiting for the light to change so the pedestrians can walk across the street, either to or from the TRAX station.  Weirdly, almost every time I've gone there has been someone who is not quite right in the head who stands by the button to cross and pushes it at least 5 times.  I am always annoyed by the loud chirping sound it makes as it registers the button press, but there is nothing I can do.   I feel slightly appalled at myself for being scared to go to the Library, but I just don't feel comfortable during that small walk from the train to the building.  But then, I also need my books, so I go.

Another reason I think I feel uncomfortable there is because of the small outdoor space just before the door to the Library.  It says no smoking, but people always smoke there and the smell doesn't go away because the Library shelters that part of Library square from much of the wind.  It smells disgusting.  There are also benches lining the north part of the space, and a fence with a cliff at the other side.  Bikes are always locked to the fence, and they are always either disassembled, or part of them has been stolen/is missing.  I try not to look at the benches because I am afraid I am being watched.  When you are walking through that space you feel like the Library has turned a cold shoulder to you, because while most of it is sloping and round, you are entering at the tallest, sharpest part of it.  If you were in the south plaza of the library where there is a fountain and a lot of open space, it might be different.  Over there you almost feel like you are being hugged by the Library, but at the north entrance you feel like it's telling you to go away.  Then there is the greenery that is southeast of the Library.  There are benches and a bit of a rambling garden up there, but I try not to spend too much time there because I don't feel comfortable.  There are often homeless men there, and though William Whyte says that homeless men often don't make a difference in the use of a space, I avoid the garden areas because of them.  I can't speak for all women when I say this, but in my personal experience, homeless men, particularly overly friendly ones or ones that smell bad, make me very uncomfortable.  I suppose it wouldn't bother me if there were people who were not homeless men or smokers that frequented the gardens; I would feel more at home.

William Whyte also pointed out that some men tended to group together and lean against a wall and watch girls.  Though he pointed out that most girl watchers never speak to girls, I can't help but notice that this aspect of being in public makes me uncomfortable too.  I don't like being looked over like cattle, and I feel that it both encourages men's right to openly judge and rate women that they see in public, and also validates their right to speak to any in a proprietorial way, if they should feel the need to change something about the situation.

While walking from the library TRAX station to the next street west of it late at night, I discovered a plaza/courtyard.  It was inside of a building with the letters City Center I on it.  It looked creepy at nighttime, but luckily I had a friend with me.  My guess is that most people don't use this plaza, and most people don't even know it's there.  It was hidden from the street, and open to the public in just one direction.  Not good plaza building, according to Whyte.  Tsk tsk.

When I got on the train to take me away from the Library, I picked a bad seat.  There were two boys there playing shitty music loudly from their shitty phone speakers.  I am tolerant when it comes to most music.  I'll even sit there and tap my feet to country for a few hours if you want.  But I can't stand lazy or violent rap that has no meaning.  It was extremely discourteous of them to play music aloud, and they knew that, and they would turn it off if they thought someone was around who would catch them.  But they didn't care that they were being discourteous to other people because they didn't think about why people aren't supposed to play music aloud.  It seems that people don't think about why rules are there anymore, they just think about not getting caught breaking them.  Personal escape has taken precedent over public comfort.  But I'm just as bad as the rest.  I could have moved to spare myself, or I could have asked them to stop, but I felt too scared that I would offend them to do either.  I'm not sure how to address that, when the only solution is my not being a coward.

My other trip into the city with my friend on Black Friday took me to City Creek Center.  On the way there from the Courthouse TRAX station, we observed the seemingly public space on Main Street at the foot of the Wells Fargo building.   I noticed that the ledges there were made of a fancy, shiny, black stone, but they had protrusions on them to keep people from sitting or loitering there.

These pictures show some of the area between the Courthouse TRAX Station and the City Center TRAX Station.  The last is a picture of a supposed seating place at the Gallivan Plaza TRAX Station.  The seating place does not meet Whyte's observational requirements, and it was rather awkward to sit on because it faced away from the other convenient seating on the planter box and was not wide enough when used in the conventional form.

There was not much to see or do in that part of the city, and Gallivan Plaza, which is just behind the building, has a crowded ice rink in the winter, but is otherwise deserted.  Perhaps this could be fixed if there was a good opportunity for eating in the plaza, but people don't seem to think of that.  There are not too many take-away restaurants downtown, and hardly any food carts, at least in the places I visit.  However, the section of Main Street between the Courthouse TRAX Station and the City Center TRAX Station is trying.  It is painted green, which gives it a different feeling than regular road, and there is only one lane on either side of TRAX, which makes it more pedestrian friendly.  But I have never hung out there, and I probably wouldn't want to.  It would be very noisy from TRAX and the occasional car, and if I were to sit there for more than 10 minutes, a smoker would walk by and I would have to gag on the already polluted air until a rare breeze blew the smell away.  So, it's not a place I would voluntarily choose to spend my time, I only tend to use it for getting from one place to another.  I have no ownership of the street, an neither do any of the businesses that operate there, other than the occasional one that features a small outdoor seating area.  But again, given the choice, unless the weather was particularly fine, I would choose to eat inside.

Looking back at my own recounting, I would say that how a place smells matters a great deal to me.  If downtown smelled like delicious pastries all the time, I would go there more often.  If the library didn't smell like dried pee and cigarette smoke on the outside, I would spend more of my time there.  I suppose I'm spoiled because, relatively, the U smells good.  It smells like clean mountain air, and food, and clean laundry, and grass.  And it also smells like cars and pollution and smoke occasionally, but mostly it doesn't smell dirty, which is why I like spending time here.  Smell is an avenue that we haven't fully explored yet, and I'd like to play with it the same way we've been playing with lighting.  I also notice noise a great deal.  I love TRAX, but I wish there was a way to make it less loud and less hard to enjoy myself next to.