A Touch of Happy: Degree Process Book 5/09 by Brianna Dallas

a touch of happy. TWO DESIGNERS • ONE DEGREE PROJECT • FINAL SEMESTER

PREFACE

Contrast is everything. Things are always betters in pairs. Peanut butter and jelly, red and blue, two peas in a pod, you know the rest. So what better way to go out of senior year than with a bang? In a pair. We didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t plan it this way. it just kind of happened. Thanks to an off-the-cuff comment from a professor. our interests aligned, and we saw room to grow together. Here are our stories told in-line from December 2014 to May 2015.

BRI

A documenter. Short word speaker. Picture taker. Lover of all things punny, positive energy and contagious laughter.

MONICA An investigator. An examiner of objects and articles. Lover of touching things and collecting physical objects.

MYERS-BRIGGS PERSONALITY TYPE The Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator is a self-inventory designed to identify a person’s personality type, strengths, and preferences. Based on the answers to the questions on the inventory, people are identified as having one of 16 personality types. The goal of the MBTI is to allow respondents to further explore and understand their own personalities including their likes, dislikes, strengths, weaknesses, possible career preferences, and compatibility with other people. No one personality type is “best” or “better” than any other one. It isn’t a tool designed to look for dysfunction or abnormality. Instead, its goal is simply to help you learn more about yourself. Today, the inventory is one of the most widely used psychological instruments in the world. The questionnaire itself is made up of four different scales, as described below.1

E // I

S // N

T // F

J // P

extraversion or introversion The extraversion – introversion dichotomy was first explored as a way to describe how people respond and interact with the world around them. While these terms are familiar to most people, the way in which they are used here differs somewhat from their popular usage. Extraverts are “outward-turning” and tend to be action-oriented, enjoy more frequent social interaction, and feel energized after spending time with other people. Introverts are “inward-turning” and tend to be thought-oriented, enjoy deep and meaningful social interactions, and feel recharged after spending time alone. We all exhibit both qualities, but most of us tend have a preference for one or the other.

sensing or intuition This scale involves looking at how people gather information from the world around them. Just like with extraversion and introversion, all people spend some time sensing and intuiting depending on the situation. According to the MBTI, people tend be dominant in one area or the other. People who prefer sensing tend to pay a great deal of attention to reality, particularly to what they can learn from their own senses. They tend to focus on facts and details and enjoy getting hands-on experience. Those who prefer intuition pay more attention to things like patterns and impressions. They enjoy thinking about possibilities, imagining the future and abstract theories.

thinking or feeling This scale focuses on how people make decisions based on the information that they gathered from their sensing or intuition functions. People who prefer thinking place a greater emphasis on facts and objective data. They tend to be consistent, logical and sometimes impersonal when weighing a decision. They naturally search for principles and logic when making decisions. Thinkers also enjoy being recognized for their results. Those who prefer feeling are more likely to consider people and emotions when arriving at a conclusion, because they strive to maintain harmony and try to avoid conflict at all costs. Feelers also enjoy being appreciated for their contributions.

judging or perceiving The final scale involves how people tend to deal with the outside world. Those who lean toward judging prefer structure and firm decisions. They often feel supported by structure, guidelines and standardised methods People who lean toward perceiving are more open, flexible and adaptable. They often appear to act on spontaneity, and without finite plans. They enjoy freedom and variety. These two tendencies interact with the other scales. The judging-perceiving scale helps describe whether an individual externalizes or internalizes sensing and intuiting when taking in new information or making decisions for thinking and feeling.

INF

EST

ESTPs are energetic thrill seekers who are at their best when putting out fires, whether literal or metaphorical. They bring a sense of dynamic energy to their interactions with others and the world around them. They assess situations quickly and move adeptly to respond to immediate problems with practical solutions.

Active and playful, ESTPs are often the life of the party and have a good sense of humor. They use their keen powers of observation to assess their audience and adapt quickly to keep interactions exciting. Although they typically appear very social, they are rarely sensitive; the ESTP prefers to keep things fast-paced and silly rather than emotional or serious.

INFPs are imaginative idealists, guided by their own core values and beliefs. To a Healer, possibilities are paramount; the realism of the moment is only of passing concern. They see potential for a better future, and pursue truth and meaning with their own individual flair. INFPs are sensitive, caring, and compassionate, and are deeply concerned with the personal growth of themselves and others. Individualistic and non-judgmental, INFPs believe that each person must find their own path. They enjoy spending time exploring their own ideas and values, and are gently encouraging to others to do the same. INFPs are creative and often artistic; they enjoy finding new outlets for self-expression.

You will find Geminis always bubbling with energy and vitality. It’s that ample energy which can also paint them as scatterbrained and unfocused. Flexibility is something that defines a Gemini very vividly. They adapt to

GEMINI

Geminis are dual, many faceted people. The sign of the twins, they rarely like to do anything alone. Gemini are never happier than when they are sharing ideas and concepts with someone else. They are curious and always eager to know about things happening around them. But they don’t like digging deep into a situation; they would rather prefer to stay naïve than facing a depressing truth. Gemini are great at parties because they can find almost anything to talk about with anyone. With any kind of luck, the Twins will find themselves in interesting company, because if they don’t, they are likely to get bored and start fidgeting and make their own fun. These people have an ability to see quickly the weak points in those they meet, and can reduce all to nothing by wit, sarcasm, or mimicry.

or accept any given situation. Geminis tend to think logically. They are the most rational people and fast thinkers. While some may perceive all this logical thought as cold and unemotional, they want to connect, they just do it their own way. They are generous with tendencies of being affectionate, and imaginative. They also inspire others easily—their charisma and accomplishments are infectious. Their energy is so contagious that others would be quick to note it. Luckily for Geminis, their lightness of spirit and youthful exuberance help them to appear forever young. They have a great sense of humor and are generally optimistic people. Geminis are creative by nature and are given to giant leaps of intuition. Gemini are adventurous and engage in traveling as often as they can as it affords them the opportunity to meet new people, experience new ideas, and to learn new concepts. They are gluttons for new experiences, sometimes out of the box and out of the way experiences and people.

TAURU

There is something very solid about Taurus, they are dependable and fiercely loyal. They have feelings, fears and desires that often run far deeper than anyone around them would guess. Many people do not know how sensitive Taurus really is, they hide it well by often avoiding talking about their emotions. A Taurus is an excellent friend, but tends to be guarded. With few close friends as opposed to many acquaintances, they hold these few people very dear to them. Taurus loves to be the host or hostess. Although not a total social butterfly, they can be shy around strangers, the people who Taurus let into their lives are lavishly catered to when Taurus decides to throw a party, they decorate and present everything lavishly. Taurus will always pamper themselves and their close group of friends.

their fixed and comfort-loving nature sometimes makes them appear lazy. This is only because they separate work and leisure so well. When they work, they work hard, and when they play, they don’t really “play” as such... they relax. A Taurus who has kicked his or her feet up is rooted there— you’d be hard-pressed to get them to move. On a mental level, you’ll likely have the same problem. Taureans stick with things and ideas, and therein lies one of the reasons why they are known for their stubbornness. Taurus is a fixed sign, they need order in their lives and when they do not they get very anxious.

Taureans are regarded as extremely sensual beings. An earth sign, they deal well with the personal, physical senses and consequently all the pleasures associated with what they can see, touch, smell and taste, add up to a special delight to them. Often When Taurus’ work, they work hard. nature and pet lovers, Taureans are They do it with a steadiness that is de- closely associated with things of the pendable, with a steady effort that has earth and nature. its payoffs. Although hard-working,

CHALLENGING OPPOSITES AS PARTNERS Our two different personalities present the most potential for personality clash and conflict, but also the best opportunities for growth. Because we have fundamentally different values and motivations, initially, it may seem impossible to relate. But because we are so different, our strengths balance out the otherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s weaknesses, and since we have been able to develop a relationship, we can learn a tremendous amount from each other. Both of us have an abundance of things to talk about and are contented to spend countless hours together, and often teach each other new things, both in design and ways of life. Bri tends to be fast paced in comparison to Monica, a steadier worker, hence the need for a considerable amount of physical touch to slow Bri down sometimes. Together we will defy the odds and be a perfect pair.

LET’S TAKE IT FROM THE TOP

DEGREE PROJECT PROPOSALS 12

THE WORST ENEMY OF CREATIVITY IS SELF-DOUBT. [Sylvia Plath] I seemed to have lost myself. I feel unable to define who I am and what it is that makes me happy. I mean what is happy?… Many others are going through this same overwhelming feeling; it could be called a quarter life crisis I suppose. I want to investigate this topic that has exploded in my generation.

DESIGN & THE SENSES I was always that kid that had to touch everything. I can still hear all the reminders “Monica, LOOK, don’t touch,” from when I was little. Sometimes the urge still strikes me when I’m out and about, or traipsing around a museum. This has lead me to the idea for my degree project, I want to explore how design can impact/interact with the human senses such as sight, sound, and touch (I’ll think I be excluding smell and taste, for obvious reasons.)

To reconnect with my inner being, I would like to propose that I use my degree project as a time of formal exploration and reflection upon myself as not just a I’ve found myself gravitating towards exploring tactility and interactivity and how they can impact the way people interact with art and design in general. I designer/artist but as a person. think we live in an ever increasing no-touching world, as people become more Each week I would be exploring a different medium—rather collaging or pa- attached to their digital devices the more disconnected it seems we get. Yet per crafting, photography, there is an infinity of options—to create a set of on the other hand, there is a growing world of interactive design popping up. images that are paired with two words. One pertaining to doubt, because it can’t be ignored, this may seem depressing but sometimes that is just how I’m not exactly sure what the end goal I would want users to get out my projwe feel and should be expressed. And one positive enforcer, because we are ect, possibly just getting them to enjoy their experience, and getting them to not always so bah-humbug, and we always, always need light at the end of the put their phones away for a few minutes. As for application, I’m imaging a tunnel to help us through. These can either be singular words or maybe even blend of digital and analog to make this all possible. I want to explore working phrases or quotes. As I create these constructed images each week I would with arduinos for the digital side. An arduino is an open-source electronics blog about my process and my point of view pertaining to the words used. platform based on easy-to-use hardware and software. Arduinos sense the enThis will give me purpose and a way to open up and understand myself better vironment by receiving inputs from many sensors, and affects its surroundand let others understand me better. It would be a stream of conscience or ings by controlling lights, motors, and other actuators. I see a lot of potential working with arduinos because of their different applications and uses that type of word vomit. relate to the human senses. There is a huge community online with tutori*If this seems to be too personal for me to handle coming up with the right als and ideas for applications that I would be able to reference for help. I’ve words, because you know feelings… it would also appeal to me if I collected actually purchased a Makey Makey, which is an arduino created for the maker responses from different individuals. That way there is a variety of input. It movement and is very easy to use. would be interesting to get different points of views of what happiness means For the analog side I’d like to see myself somehow incorporate knitting. Knitto each individual. ting has been a passion/love of mine for a long time, and I think exploring this In the end I will be left with a collection of images that could take the form of form through the lens of design would be fun for me. I think it could spark either/both a book or stop motion video. In book form, my blogged thoughts some pretty interesting conversations around the stigma knitting has (usually could come into play as supporting elements. The process of this project will being associated as a craft hobby, mostly for elderly women). I’d like to break be a way of building my self-confidence and learning more about what makes this stigma by making an artifact that people can interact with, that they would me tick. The final product however will be able to reach out to my peers who remember in the future, and possibly get them to think about knitting and are in need of some beautiful visual encouragement and to let them know touching things in the future. they are not alone. So to boil it all down, I want to make something that is enticing for people to interact with, be thought provoking, and memorable. I want my soul to be poured into a project; let’s make it this one.

Five years of college. Five internships. Here I am. I should be full and bursting The gathered content from individuals will influence my outcome, so it may with happy, but ya know it’s not always unicorns and lollipops. Through all be a book with handcraft imagery or you know, some environmental installathis I seemed to have lost myself. I’m unable to define who I am and what it is tion, time will only tell. that makes me happy. I mean what even is happy...

Defining happiness, it’s as elusive as achieving it. We can either say whether we are or aren’t but can it really be defined? Positive psychology is “the scientific study of the strengths and virtues that enable individuals and communities to thrive.”

KNOWING YOURSELF IS THE BEGINNING OF WISDOM. And so by studying positive emotions, resilience, and happiness, my hope is to better understand human strengths. By understanding others I hope to better understand myself and find my happy.

I’ve had the pleasure of having an internship at Dimensional Innovations, where I actively work on similar projects, but unfortunately they’re top secret, so I can’t show you what I’ve been working, but I can tell you I get to design and help concept for… large scale interactive walls … augmented reality experiences …. and interactive kiosks (a lot like the union station project).

So my question is: How can interactive design impact and/or interact with the human senses such as sight, sound, and touch? I think tinkering with some aurdinos, would be a good start. I’ve done some basic research, and I’m planning on diving deeper over break, but what I’ve found so far with all of their capabilities excites me. I’m especially attracted to the Makey Makey, an aurdino made in response to the maker movement, encouraging anyone to invent. Whether it’s from a piano staircase or a bunch of bananas

While I enjoy this type of work, I’d really like to formally explore interactive pieces this upcoming semester without them being attached to big business, and possibly bring it to more of a gallery setting. I’d like to also bring textiles into the mix. Knitting has been a mini passion of mine for a long time now, and after taking a knitting course this semester, and seeing the wide array of interactive textiles while researching arduino work, I’d really love to try my hand at it. And this is a clip of an interactive textile piece, for a quick example. Depending on the force exuded on the fabric the light and sound react accordingly. So I’m by no means an expert, but I’ve taken the plunge, I’ve purchased a knitting machine, and a Makey Makey and I’m ready to start experimenting!

RESEARCH RESEARCH LET’S INVESTIGATE AND GET INSPIRED Every project’s got to start somewhere, and a little background information never hurt anyone. So as this project started out we both dove into our different topics, and started digging. Some books and movies were involved, but primarily our favorite resource, the internet, came quite in handy. Of course, we can’t share everything we discovered with you, but here are the pieces that we thought were worth sharing. One of the largest portions of our research is an accumulation of answers from a survey Bri conducted about happiness. After reading the collection of answers we were able to better understand happiness from a more personable lens (less jargony than our initial research) that applied to our intended audience for the project.

15 IMPORTANT REMINDERS FOR EVERYONE GOING THROUGH A QUARTER-LIFE CRISIS You are not alone.

Lara Parker, Dec. 19, 2014, | 1:45 p.m. 1. It’s perfectly OK to have no idea what you’re doing with your life right now. You’re in your twenties. How are you supposed to know what you want to do for the next 70-plus years? That is INSANE. You can’t possibly know. And even if you know what you want to do right now, that could change drastically in a year. Don’t put so much pressure on yourself to know exactly what you want out of life, and just enjoy the journey.

2. In your twenties, there are plenty of other people who still don’t know what they want out of life. And if they tell you they do, they’re lying. It’s too easy to look at people around us and assume they have the perfect life plan that we all dream of. But realistically, they don’t. They’re just as scared as you are. And even if they aren’t currently having some sort of quarter-life crisis… chances are that they will. Don’t you sweat it. 3. Social media is a lie. It’s pretty terrible to get on Facebook and see all the people you went to high school and college with getting engaged and announcing new jobs. It can make you feel even worse about your situation. But remember, you don’t post a status announcing to the world that you have no idea what you want to do with your life… and neither do they. Social media can often be a platform for pretending we have fantastic lives. Close out of that app, boo. 4. No decision you make will be the wrong one. Being in your twenties means making a lot of decisions, and making decisions means we’re all damn terrified of making the wrong one. Here’s the thing though, there are no wrong decisions. Sure, you might choose a path and realize you hate it later on… but that’s part of life. That’s all part of figuring out what exactly it is that you DO want to be doing. Don’t make your decisions even harder by being terrified of making the wrong one. 5. You can always move back home. During a quarter-life crisis, we may feel the urge to run away. We feel the need to escape the normality of every day life and experience something new. Oftentimes this means moving away. Moving away is frightening for a lot of

reasons, but it’s important to remember that you can always go back home. There’s no rule that says you have to stay somewhere forever. 6. If you’re not fulfilled in your job, remember you’ve got time to make moves. There are many components to leading a fulfilling life. We have to be careful not to confuse having a job with a feeling of fulfillment. Don’t be too hard on yourself if you have a great job but still feel trapped. Ultimately, your career of choice should make you come alive. And if that’s not happening, it’s OK to yearn for more. 7. There’s always a way out. Don’t ever believe that you are stuck doing something for the rest of your life. You are not. There is always a way out. There is always a new opportunity to do whatever it is that you want to do. You just have to seize it. 8. High school and college weren’t as great as you are remembering them. It’s just like after a tough breakup, you reminisce by picturing your ex in all their glory. This is simply untrue. No one is perfect. The same can be said for high school and college. We hold these parts of our life in high esteem. But chances are, you weren’t 100% happy there, either. 9. Failure is a key component of success. I fail, you fail, he fails, they fail, WE ALL FAIL. And you know what? Failure is good. Failure means that we’re learning. Failure means that we can only do better next time. No one who has ever been worth anything has ever done something without failing. Fact. (Probably.) 10. Nothing is ever how we expect it to be, especially not your twenties. For some reason we generally put pictures and expectations in our heads of how things should be. But do things ever really turn out the way we expect them to? Nope. You may have envisioned your twenties being this great time where you work in a booming company and date all kinds of fabulous people. And when that didn’t pan out, you found yourself disappointed. But just because this isn’t what we expected doesn’t mean that it isn’t exactly how it’s supposed to be. Just enjoy it. Not knowing what’s gonna happen is what makes life fun. 11. Comparing yourself to other people your age is useless. There’s always going to be those people that seemingly have all their shit in order. They got the great job, the great relationship, the perfect Instagram filters. Hell, they even show up in your alumni newsletters every month. Stop comparing yourself to them. STOP. Everyone’s success is different. Believe it or not, these people probably wish they had parts of your life too.

12. Your life isn’t a race. When we’re young, we imagine where we will be at age 25. And then we’re filled with stories of where our parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles were when they were 25. Maybe they were married, maybe they already had kids, maybe they were partners at a firm. But your life isn’t a race. There is no set age when you are supposed to do the things you want to do. It is whenever it happens for you in YOUR life, and that’s how it should be. 13. Happiness does not lie in material things. Getting a new apartment, new car, or new purse probably won’t ultimately make you happy. Spending time with friends and family, nights spent laughing, and experiences that will stay with you for a lifetime are what make you happy. Remember that the next time you see someone else buying a new car. 14. It’s OK to be selfish. Repeat after me, It is OK to be selfish. It is OK. Sometimes you have to stop paying attention to what other people think about your life and only pay attention to what you think. The thing is, other people aren’t going to have to deal with the results of the decisions you make in life, YOU ARE. So sometimes you need to stop worrying about making other people happy and worry about making yourself happy. 15. And most important, you are not alone. We are all in this together. Don’t forget that. This is just a small bump in the road on the way to the rest of your life. Don’t let it derail you.

STOP CHASING AFTER HAPPINESS AND DO THIS INSTEAD

The constant pursuit of happiness can be demoralizing, and besides, there’s an upside to feeling bad. Here’s how to reframe your thinking. Jane Porter, December 23, 2014 | 5:04 a.m. Happiness! It’s the ultimate goal, isn’t it?

Of course we all deserve happiness, but it’s not always possible. Chasing after happiness like some ultimate goal and having it constantly elude you can be downright demoralizing. Not everyone is hardwired for happiness Each of our brains is wired in its own unique way, which means there’s a genetic and a neuropsychological base to elements of personality, says psychologist Brian Little whose latest book Me, Myself, and Us explores the science of personality.

Think of our individual happiness as a kind of treadmill we find ourselves If only you could be a little happier, life would be better. The notion is so deepon. While we each experience highs and lows, we tend to always return to ly engrained in our culture, it’s hard to imagine otherwise. The “pursuit of this relatively stable level of happiness, what psychologists call the “hedonic happiness” has hung over our heads since the Declaration of Independence. treadmill,” or “hedonic adaptation.” This means everyone has a set point or It’s spurred an entire industry of books and apps and life-improvement plans. constant level at which their happiness is maintained, regardless of what’s happening in life. For each person, that stable point might be a bit different. “We have this culture of cheerfulness in America,” says Todd Kashdan psychologist and author of The Upside of Your Dark Side. The happiness-chase Everyone has a set point or constant level at which their happiness is mainhas permeated the workplace too with companies hiring happiness consultained, regardless of what’s happening in life. tants, creating happiness initiatives and appointing chief happiness officers— Some people are hardwired for happiness while others are not, says Little. all with the objective of teaching people how to live a happier life. Those who identify as stable extroverts, for instance, tend to be the happiest people, whereas neurotic introverts tend to generally be less happy. That The problem? “What this literature, these consultants and this mega-billion doesn’t mean stable extroverts are living better lives, of course. “To say extrodollar industry ignore is that we don’t have a dial in our brains,” Kashdan verts are happier doesn’t tell you a hell of a lot,” says Little. “It cheapens our says. “We can’t simply focus on being happier and increase our happiness.” notion of the quality of lives to focus only on happiness.”

friends and family—something that might be more meaningful in your life. Negative feelings can be a good thing When we’re feeling positive and things are going well, we tend to be more “You can have meaningless projects that are hardly worth explication,” says passive. “Why shake things up?” we might think. But there’s a danger to this. Little. “Some of them can be just miserable.” “When we are happy … we are very superficial in our thinking,” says Kashdan. In studying people’s relationships to their personal projects, Little has found Research has shown that negative emotions can actually help motivate you. that it’s not simply what we identify as our projects that matters, but our perAustralian social psychologist Joe Forgas has studied the effects of sadness ception of them. Little asks people not just to list their projects, but to reflect versus happiness on our cognition and interactions with others and found on them. How meaningful are they to you? How connected to others do these that mild negative feelings—as opposed to a sense of happiness—improve projects make you feel? Do they give rise to positive or negative emotions? memory and judgment, increase motivation, and make us better communicators. “When you are happy, you don’t rock the boat,” says Kashdan. “When we Reframing the question of happiness to focus on one’s personal projects are slightly sad or somber, we are much more analytical in our thinking and is a way to better understand what contributes to your well-being and what more detailed and concrete in our communication… That little bit of unhappi- doesn’t. “It’s not just what you are doing, it’s what you think you are doing as well,” says Little. We can have many meaningful projects in our lives that we ness motivates you.” handle in a completely chaotic way or we can be really organized about a lot of projects that bring no meaning or human connection into our lives. If happiness isn’t the ultimate goal, what is? There’s a distinction, says Little, between the pursuit of happiness and what he calls “the happiness of pursuit.” Over decades of research, Little has devel- What you can do oped an analytical tool he calls Personal Project Analysis that centers on per- List your personal projects and think about how they can be better incorporatsonal goals and projects as an indicator of well-being. Rather than focusing ed into your life. That might mean communicating more openly with people on people’s emotional states, his research suggests that focusing on personal about what those projects are so that they respect your priorities and boundprojects is a better measure of one’s quality of life. “When people are asked to aries. It might mean trying to be more organized about the things that matreflect upon their lives, it’s one’s appraisals of personal projects that seem to ter most—setting aside scheduled time for projects rather than approaching them haphazardly. It might mean scrapping a project that doesn’t add anybe the best predictor of a life well-lived,” he says. thing positive to your life. Mild negative feelings improve memory and judgment, increase motivation, and “One of the dimensions we assess in projects is to what extent is this consismake us better communicators. Personal projects can vary drastically for each person. They can be anything tent with the core values in your life?” says Little. “These are the kinds of quesfrom spending time with your kids to writing your novel to losing ten pounds tions that adopting a projects approach allows us to ask.” to chasing after someone you want to date. They are the goals and pursuits you prioritize and fill your time with. Focusing on personal projects rather The happiness of pursuit than traits or emotions is useful in gauging our own well-being because we Try this: Answer the question, “How is it going?” Don’t just shrug off an anhave greater agency over our personal projects. “Mere happiness is strongly swer. Really think about it. linked to genetically linked traits like extrovertedness and neuroticism,” says Little. “You can’t do much about them, whereas you can push your projects.” What is the first thing that comes to mind? Do you think about your traits or emotions—I’m happy, I’m lazy, I’m tired, I’m sad. Or do you think about your personal projects and how they factor into your life? Understanding your personal projects Let’s say a personal project of yours is to lose 10 pounds. You’ve made this a goal many times over the years and never reached it. Failing time and again “Some people are so caught up in looking at their projects in just one way. starts to feel depressing and demoralizing. That’s why defining one’s well- It’s all: ‘Am I a success? Am I not a success?’ You get caught into a cul-de-sac being in terms of these personal projects is so useful. Perhaps a project like where you just go round and round,” says Little. “A life well lived involves projlosing weight can be reframed so that it’s more meaningful in your life. In- ects that are meaningful, manageable, and connected with others … The projstead of trying to lose ten pounds, maybe your goal is to be physically active ects that you pursue are more important than the state you want to reach.” everyday, to eat more fresh vegetables or to spend more time outdoors with

HAPPINESS SURVEY 123 PARTICIPANTS Before diving into psychology books, it’s always best to go straight to the source, our audience. From sharing on Facebook, we were able to collect responses from 123 people from a range of ages, but dominantly our peers who are 20–29 years old. Survey takers were asked to define what “happy” means to them & if they currently feel that way, to describe a memory of when they were genuinely bursting with happiness, and what typically gets them to turn their frown upside down. Reading through the collection of answers was insightful and very intriguing. Of course, similarities were spotted and a pattern emerged allowing for us to narrow in on what specifically makes our audience happy. We’ve pulled out a few valuable responses for you to enjoy on the follow pages.

LIVE YOUR LIFE AND FORGET YOUR AGE YEARS vs COUNT < 20 // 3 20-29 // 66 30-39 // 24 40-49 // 9 50-59 // 15 60 > // 6

HE SAID, SHE SAID 73 FEMALES 50 MALES

WHAT WILL TYPICALLY GET YOU TO TURN YOUR FROWN UPSIDE DOWN? Food, friends, family and great conversation. Yoga, dancing, friends, a couple glasses of a good red wine. Changing my environment. Having a friend who’s always there to help. Thinking of my niece and her smile. My husband. The beach, hot summer days, a great book, or a tall drink. My daughter acting silly. Stand-up comedy. Riding my bike. Watching a funny movie. Seeing a good friend or hanging out with my wife. Laughing with friends. Friends and a glass of wine! a good damn cry will do absolute wonders. A good hug. A good ol’ fashioned workout. A good book, a glass of wine, chocolate, a good movie, my friends. There are some people that it’s just literally impossible for me to stay unhappy around, Even if they are in fact what I’m unhappy about. Cancelled classes, drunk dancing, sushi, dogs, being around my mom or dad, cuddling with my boyfriend. Christmas morning, the last day of school, listening to a really good song, getting my paycheck, post-workouts. Bubble baths, ice cream, getting a tan, driving in the evening, the sound of ocean waves, new sunglasses. Being with someone I love, listening to music, singing. Laughing and hanging out. Puns. Dad jokes. Tacos. Donuts. Coffee. Friends. Music. Connection with something bigger than myself. Snuggle my daughter. Laughter, cuddling and a good glass of wine. My kids. Taking a risk and doing something out of my comfort zone, indulging in something I love to do, finding

time, finishing a project, birthdays, credit for hard work, being with the people most important to me, a good laugh. A smile from someone else. A hug. An act of kindness. Seeing joy on my children’s faces. A favorite food or even a phone call from a friend. My children, looking toward future plans. Humor, seeing something pure and beautiful like my son playing, smiling, or chattering. My boys acting silly. My children. friends, sleep. Exercise, food, sleep. A silly comment or hug from my kids. an act of kindness, a surprise or a moment of achievement. Acceptance of myself in all my failures and strengths. being silly with my daughter. laughter is the best medicine. My son, when he hugs me, or just watching him play and learn. My husband, when he smiles at me or does something thoughtful. Godiva caramel and buying new yarn will do the trick too. My child laughing or smiling. My wife and kids keep me up. Accomplishments. Connecting with others, friends, hanging out with my pets, watching a movie, baking cookies. Motivation. A good joke or a silly dance. Babies, puppies, kisses, Beyoncé songs, a cold brew on a hot summer day, back scratches. Experiencing something new. Life inspirations. Music. Movies. Conversations and human interaction. Achievements, progress, humor, good company. Happy Hour. Prayer, Cats, time to make art, new experiences and breaking routine.

DEFINE WHAT “HAPPY” MEANS TO YOU < 20 20-29 30-39 40-49 50-59 60 >

Happy is having a smile on your face that is exactly where it needs to be. There is nothing behind the smile that is fake. A giggle. A laugh. A bellow. A blush. That’s happiness showing on your face. Happiness is helping those around you in anyway you can, even just sharing a smile. Being happy is being happy.

Philosophically, I feel like happiness is truly a means to an end; it’s what humans live for, and once we’ve achieved it as individuals, we no longer have a purpose. In non-philosophical terms, I think someone is genuinely happy when they can’t necessarily detect where the feeling is coming from, and don’t have the means to reproduce it.

The word “happy” to me is much less a single emotion and much more of a lifestyle. Happy is the way you choose to live your life, not the way you’re feel- Feeling a sense of accomplishment and purpose. Feeling both loved & loving ing for a fleeting moment. With the exception of people suffering from depres- others. Being at peace with who you are as a person and where you are in life. sion or any number of chemical imbalances, I believe happiness is a choice. I’m finding “happy” to be a very conflicting thing in my life at the present. The My opinion is that “happy” or “happiness” is a certain state of mind. Some- things that make me happy in the moment tend to be the things that make times this state can coincide with the term “content”. There are variations of me unhappy in the long term, and vice versa. For example, I love indulging in happiness. However, my literary description might not be able to do justice food, but my waistline seems to affect my self-worth and brings me much untowards the concept of justice I want to portray. For now, I think the varia- happiness. Or my family drives me insane and brings me unhappy moments, tions of happiness can be split into three categories: relaxation, adrenaline, yet simultaneously is the thing that makes me most happy in my life. So I and romantic. Relaxation would correspond with when stress is released. A suppose “happy” is a relative term that really captures an immediate emowarm cup of coffee, freshly brewed, in hand; staring out the window, as it’s tion that has to be accepted at face value. It’s true what they say “ignorance raining. I know that brings a smile to my face. Or finishing up finals and feel- is bliss,” as happiness really has to be savored in the moment and repercusing the weight lift off. Adrenaline would be stress induced. Stress necessar- sions need to be dismissed to truly enjoy it. Happiness to me means being ily isn’t always bad. Let’s say you and your friends are dancing, everyone is excited and having fun. getting pumped up, and there begins a competitive dance battle. Assuming that most would say this would be fun, this event would make some “happy”. Feeling grateful and light, like I could fly. Being present and in the moment. Here the adrenaline/stress is a motivator, which I think is good. Lastly, romantic, sharing those moments and feelings of “happiness” with another (which Happy is a warm, fuzzy feeling somewhere below excitement and above can be anyone). Such watching a movie with a significant other, knowing that contentment. It is fleeting and different from joy, which is more lasting you both enjoy this moment together is pretty heart warming. Although, I be- and deep-seated. lieve that always being in a state of “happiness” is not good. How would one know what “happiness” is, if one doesn’t ever experience “sadness.” Striving Happy, is sharing in others good fortune, I love hearing good news about for “happiness” is good, but also know that “sadness” must exist. Knowing something that happened to someone else. Good news always bring smiles. I how to balance both and being content with both is healthy. think it inspires others to go find their “happy” too! Happy is also doing what you truly love in life. Then even a so-called bad day isn’t so bad, because it I think it can be pretty broad. Happy is satisfaction where you are at and/or becomes experience. in what you are doing, at the moment. But I think you can also be dissatisfied with your own personal situations, but have a sense of happiness because of Happy is a feeling of joy in your soul. A kind of warm feeling that one gets other people’s situations. Happy is easily accessible, but can be rather elusive. when everything is right in your world Happy is confusing as shit. The sun humming from heart, a liquid effervescent gold that radiates and also gravitates Love. A state in which death is peripheral. Feeling generally content and at peace with my life. I think that happiness dif- Being full of joy. Being comfortable and satisfied with one’s self and surfers greatly from the excitement and spontaneity that I used to associate with roundings. Having a positive outlook and displaying a positive attitude. being happy. I think it’s a quiet emotion that runs deeper than the day to day.

DESCRIBE A MEMORY OF WHEN THEY WERE GENUINELY BURSTING WITH HAPPINESS My fondest memory would be when I had tried so hard for a dancing role that I had wanted because it was a being I had held close to my heart for years and I was so anxious about the cast list that I almost didn’t look at it. But then I did and I got that role and was able to create that being into myself and through that happiness I was able to make others happy as well. Becoming something so close to my heart was like being given another soul that was innocent and new and just so dandy.

Finding out we were pregnant after a nearly 2 year long struggle. Best day ever. When I received his promise. Also, when I was able to testify in front of my church how it came true

The day when my sister was born was a day that was indescribable with happiness. Seeing a being that you have been waiting for for 9 months is life changing. Everything about that moment makes time stop, or what makes it feel like When someone came along and made me realize that I really was worth time has stopped. To see that beautiful little nose, head of hair, perfect eyes, I was so happy I cried. something to someone, as cheesy as that sounds.

I’d say some of the happiest moments of my life have been when I’m around When my littlest daughter was born. I held her in my arms and cried tears of a group of people who enjoy one another’s company. Even if I don’t know joy. She looked just like my Gran who had died the year before and I felt the them all that well, seeing people interact who genuinely care for each other is circle of life in a very real way. always something that fills me with happiness. New Years Eve this year just before the countdown, I was with 12 other close It was the three-day trip me and my best friend took during the summer away friends in our own private space. Everyone was laughing, drinking and eatfrom the city. We were all by ourselves as if we were living in a world of two. ing—we all looked great, felt great and genuinely happy to be with each other. We had no worries, no schedules, and the scenes on the road were beautiful. I happened to be seated at a spot in the room where I was could see everyone That spontaneous pace and ease of life is what makes living happy. and I was able to pause and completely acknowledge the moment of pure joy. Thursday, August 15th, 2013—my best friend asked me if I could get dinner with him at our favorite Chinese place, Wok-n-Roll. He actually asked me to get dinner on Tuesday, but I was busy so we had to put it off. We had ordered food and were eating it at one of the small tables, when he told me that he would be proposing to his girlfriend the following evening. In retrospect, I was glad he broke this news so far into our meal because my reaction was one of joy (naturally) and excitement (naturally) that caused me to lose any desire to keep eating food. I was speechless, yet had so many things I wanted to say, all at the same time. I rocked back and forth in my chair, trying to say something but really could only look at him with wide eyes and a gaping smile. For the next 24 hours I was ecstatic, to the point where it became difficult to function; I would remember that my friend was getting engaged and I would break out into a smile and get this excited feeling in my stomach and have to stop what I was doing and try to calm down. I find the idea of weddings and marriage (and lots of other things) to be a beautiful opportunity to share life with each other—the life between two people as well as celebrating with community, the people we call friends and family—and my best friend was embarking on this and choosing to include me in the news. Don’t even get me started on the actual wedding day. I was a wreck of emotional joy. #cryingeverywhere

When I graduated college and obtained a job in my chosen profession. This was with in a short period of each other. I felt invincible and like I had made the right choices. Previous to that I was a security worker. I had a dead end job with no possibility of increasing my wages in my position. My daughter was 6 and just starting school. No one in my family had graduated college. It was the first time I had a sense of stability and direction. Further, I knew I could look at my daughter and say if I can do it so can you. While attending college full time, I worked 60–80 hours a week on a swing shift. I saw my wife and daughter only 6–10 hours a week (the amount of time I was awake to spend with them). Since then I now work as a Level 3 Wintel Engineer at an international company. We had just came successfully through Lava Falls, and we spun the raft to watch my two best friends in the world run the worst section of the river in a dory. On their last attempt two years before, they capsized, so the tension was extremely high, as this section of the Colorado can kill you, but they came through, crashing high and straight through the waves. That moment, when we were all clear and through the worst the river had to offer, I was, as you say, bursting. It still makes me tear up. Woo! Hoo!

SUBLIMINAL: HOW YOUR UNCONSCIOUS MIND RULES YOUR BEHAVIOR 26

Pssst... Hey There. Yes: You, Sexy. Buy this book now. You know you want it. Leonard Mlodinow, February 2013, 272 pages Over the past two decades of neurological research, it has become increasingly clear that the way we experience the world—our perception, behavior, memory, and social judgment—is largely driven by the mind’s subliminal processes and not by the conscious ones, as we have long believed. As in the bestselling The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives, Leonard Mlodinow employs his signature concise, accessible explanations of the most obscure scientific subjects to unravel the complexities of the subliminal mind. In the process he shows the many ways it influences how we misperceive our relationships with family, friends, and business associates; how we misunderstand the reasons for our investment decisions; and how we misremember important events—along the way, changing our view of ourselves and the world around us.

“To gain a true understanding of human experience, we must understand both our conscious and our unconscious selves, and how they interact. Our subliminal brain is invisible to us, yet it influences our conscious experience of the world in the most fundamental of ways: how we view ourselves and others, the meanings we attach to the everyday events of our lives, our ability to make the quick judgment calls and decisions that can sometimes mean the difference between life and death, and the actions we engage in as a result of all these instinctual experiences.” [page 5]

a good impression at a cocktail party, even though you are miserable about being there. But our facial expressions are also governed subliminally, by muscles over which we have no conscious control. So our real expressions cannot be faked. Sure, anyone can create a posed smile by contracting the zygomatic major muscles, which pull the corners of the mouth up toward the cheekbones. But a genuine smile involves contraction of an additional pair of actors, the orbicularis oculi muscles, which pull the skin surrounding the eye toward the eyeball, causing an effect that looks like crow’s-feet but can be very subtle.” [page 116]

“It is by uncovering the working of the unconscious that we can best understand both how we are related to other species and what makes us uniquely “There is a man or woman behind the curtain of everybody’s persona. Through our social relationships we get to know a small number of beings with the human.” [page 8] level of intimacy that allows us to peel back the curtain—our friends, close “The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing. — Blaise Pascal” neighbors, family members, and perhaps the family dog (though certainly not the cat). But we don’t get to pull the curtain very far back on most of the peo[page 11] ple we meet, and it is usually drawn fully closed when we encounter someone “We all hold dear the idea that we’re the captain of our own soul, and we’re for the first time. As a result, certain superficial qualities, such as voice, face in charge, and it’s a very scary feeling when we’re not. In fact, that’s what and expression, posture, and the other nonverbal characteristics I’ve been psychosis is—the feeling of detachment from reality and that you’re not in talking about, mold many of the judgements we make about people—the nice or nasty people we work with, our neighbors, our doctors, our kids’ teachcontrol, and that’s a very frightening feeling for anyone.” [page 17] ers, the politicians we vote for or against or simply try to ignore. Every day “You might think a smile is a rather shoddy barometer of true feelings because, we meet people and form judgements like I trust the babysitter, This lawyer after all, anyone can fake one. It’s true that we can consciously decide to ex- knows what she is doing, or that guy seems like the type who would gently hibit a smile, or any other expression, by using the muscles in our faces in stroke my back while reciting Shakespeare sonnets by candlelight.” [page 143] ways we are practiced at doing. Think about what you do when trying to make

HAPPINESS: THE SCIENCE BEHIND YOUR SMILE Daniel Nettle, September 2006, 224 pages 28

Bringing together the latest insights from psychiatry, psychology, and philosophy, Daniel Nettle sheds light on happiness, the most basic of human desires. Nettle examines whether people are basically happy or unhappy, whether success can make us happy, what sort of remedies to unhappiness work, why some people are happier than others, and much more. The book is packed with fascinating observations. We discover the evolutionary reason why negative thoughts are more powerful than positive ones. We read that happiness varies from country to country, for example, the Swiss are much more happy than Bulgarians. And we learn that, in a poll among people aged 42 years old--peak mid-life crisis time--more than half rated their happiness an 8, 9, or 10 out of 10, and 90% rated it above 5. Nettle, a psychologist, is particularly insightful in discussing the brain systems underlying emotions and moods, ranging from serotonin, to mood enhancing drugs such as D-fenfluramine, which reduces negative thinking in less than an hour; to the part of the brain that, when electrically stimulated, provides feelings of benevolent calm and even euphoria. In the end, Nettle suggests that we would all probably be happier by trading income or material goods for time with people or hobbies, though most people do not do so. Happiness offers a remarkable portrait of the feeling that poets, politicians, and philosophers all agree truly makes the world go round.

“An autotelic person: Needs few material possessions and little entertainment, comfort, power or fame, because so much of what he or she does is already rewarding… they are less dependent on external rewards that keep others motivated to go on with a life composed of dull and meaningless routines. They are more autonomous and independent, because they cannot be as easily manipulated with threats or rewards from the outside. At the same time, they are more involved with everything around them because they are fully immersed in the current of life.” [page 26]

“Brickman and Campbell created the vivid metaphor of the hedonic treadmill to explain the implacability of levels of happiness. Each time we advance towards a desired state, we quickly get used to the new terrain, and thus have no more satisfaction there then we did in the previous location. As a result, we work hard at running but never get anywhere.” [page 76]

“Our implicit theory of happiness will always try to fool us into thinking that amassing more positional goods—keeping up with the Joneses—will make us happier in the long run, but, objectively, this will not happen. On the other “Why are people so happy? Is it simply that positive emotions are more hand, health, autonomy, social embededness, and the quality of the environfrequent in life than negative ones, and so the balance is in the black? This ment are real sources of happiness.” [page 87] may be true, but there are also other reasons people might report betterthan-middling happiness when asked. Chronic unhappiness might indicate “Even more importantly, our choices in life are driven not by our actual experiperceived failure to achieve life goals, or unfavorable comparisons with the ence of happiness, but by our implicit theory of happiness.” [page 89] achievement of others. As well as being things to avoid for their own sake, these are, to paraphrase evolutionary psychologist, Geoffrey Miller, things you “As we have seen, extroverts want rewarding things more strongly than intromight not want to admit to on a first date. That is, unhappiness is not just un- verts do. However, it doesn’t follow that they should be any happier. It could fortunate; it is unattractive in a potential mat, friend, or colleague. ” [page 52] even be the other way around. With so many things that they crave, they might be dissatisfied much of the time. Moreover, wanting things strongly is “The question ‘How happy are you in general?’ put baldly, lacks any appropri- not the same as liking them once you have them.” [page 102] ate frame of reference, so people seek one, probably by comparing themselves either to peers or to some ideal of what they want. If they have a rose-tinted “That is to say, extroverts have more positive emotion, but can have just as view of where they stand relative to their peers, and how easy it will be to much negative emotion as anyone else. If it is any consolation, the cheery attain what they want, then of course they will come up with the inference that socialite can have moments of existential dread and pain just like anyone else. they must be pretty happy is in part a reflection of the endearingly unrealistic I think the most likely explanation for the greater happiness of extroverts is that they are more likely to do things with a strong emotional reward. At any psychology with which we address the world…” [page 54]

given point in time, your extrovert is more likely to be married, more likely to have been to a party, more likely to have been playing sports, more likely to have talked to friends, and has had sex more recently, than your introvert. His personality leads him to draw a series of moments of reward from the environment. Thus when you ask him, he is differentially likely to be in a positive affective state. People who rate their happiness as unusually high are low-neuroticism extroverts who spend little time alone. Thus, at the moment of asking, they are more likely to have just come from some social interaction or other.” [page 102] “People make choices because they believe that one alternative will make them happier than the other. They must believe this, or they would be indifferent, resigned, and ultimately disaffected.” [page 112] ”

“As the personality findings show that happiness stems mainly not from the world itself, but from the way people address the world itself, but from the way people address the world. This is one of the few things in life you can work on directly. You have all the resources you need to do it available already, and it is probably easier to change yourself than it is to change the whole of your external circumstances (it is certainly a lot cheaper). And the life-events studies suggest that if you can change yourself, the external world may even begin to follow suit.” [page 113] “Human choices have a point not just because of their impact on feelings of pleasure and worry but also because of their effects on broader goods like interest, equity, beauty, justice, harmony, and community. Thus the lesson of the personality studies might be that, apart from the negative cognition so serious that it stops you functioning, you should not be completely preoccupies by the level of felt joy and worry. As Martin Seligman has argues, sweating over changing these things will have only limited effect. Instead, you have to learn to put them into context and lift your eyes beyond them to the broader horizon.” [page 114] “Although we implicitly feel that the things we want in life will make us happy, this may be a particularly cruel trick played by our evolved mind to keep us competing. The things we want in life are the things the evolved mind tells us to want, and it doesn’t give a fig about our happiness. All the evidence suggest that you would probably be happier not caring about your promotion and going and building boats or doing volunteer work instead. Moreover, the more important people believe financial success is, the more dissatisfied with both work and family life they are.” [page 152] “The hedonic paradox is the notion that by pursuing happiness itself, one makes it more distant, whereas by pursuing something else, one can inadver-

tently bring it closer. The paradox was clearly articulated by, amongst others, John Stuart Mill: Those only are happy… who have their minds fixed on some object other than their own happiness. Aiming thus at something else, they find happiness along the way. By contrast, by focusing in on one’s own happiness, one inevitable draws attention to its shortfall; ‘ask yourself whether you are happy, and you cease to be so.” [page 154] “To experience happiness requires us to be at least sometimes fully present in the here and now, and not distracted by desires or self-consciousness: It is a flaw. In happiness, to see beyond our bourn—It forces us in summer skies to mourn. It spoils the singing of the nightingale.” [page 160] “Evolution has given us a strong implicit theory of happiness. That is, we come to the world believing that there is such a thing as achievable happiness, that it is desirable and important, and that the things that we desire will bring it about. It is not self-evident that any of these are actually true. This does not matter, however. Evolution’s purposes are served if it can trick us in to working for things that are good for our fitness. It can do this by making us believe that those things bring happiness, and that happiness is what we want. It doesn’t actually have to deliver the happiness in the end. The idea of happiness has done its job if it has kept us trying. In other words, evolution hasn’t set us up for the attainment of happiness, merely its pursuit.” [page 168] “In his play Man and superman, George Bernard Shaw has one of his characters exclaim: ‘A lifetime of happiness. No man alive could bear it: it would be hell on earth.’ This points up one of the many fascinating paradoxes associated with happiness. Although we all seem to feel that happiness is desirable and its pursuit important, fictional world where everyone is happy are never Utopias. In fact, they are always dystopias against which people rebel.” [page 170] “The basis of many gratifications is precisely the challenge required to obtain them, and short-cutting this removes their appeal. Thus, paradoxically, in order to have the possibility of deep gratification, we need to admit the possibility of failure and frustration into our lives. It is necessary to have the possibility of unhappiness for happiness to have any meaning.” [page 172] “As Nathaniel Hawthorne put it: Happiness is a butterfly, which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.” [page 184]

THE SCIENCE OF WHY YOU SHOULD SPEND YOUR MONEY ON EXPERIENCES, NOT THINGS You don’t have infinite money. Spend it on stuff that research says makes you happy. Jay Cassano, March 30, 2015 | 6:00 a.m. Most people are in the pursuit of happiness. There are economists who think happiness is the best indicator of the health of a society. We know that money can make you happier, though after your basic needs are met, it doesn’t make you that much happier. But one of the biggest questions is how to allocate our money, which is (for most of us) a limited resource. There’s a very logical assumption that most people make when spending their money: that because a physical object will last longer, it will make us happier for a longer time than a one-off experience like a concert or vacation. According to recent research, it turns out that assumption is completely wrong. 32

“One of the enemies of happiness is adaptation,” says Dr. Thomas Gilovich, a psychology professor at Cornell University who has been studying the question of money and happiness for over two decades. “We buy things to make us happy, and we succeed. But only for a while. New things are exciting to us at first, but then we adapt to them.” So rather than buying the latest iPhone or a new BMW, Gilovich suggests you’ll get more happiness spending money on experiences like going to art exhibits, doing outdoor activities, learning a new skill, or traveling. Gilovich’s findings are the synthesis of psychological studies conducted by him and others into the Easterlin paradox, which found that money buys happiness, but only up to a point. How adaptation affects happiness, for instance, was measured in a study that asked people to self-report their happiness with major material and experiential purchases. Initially, their happiness with those purchases was ranked about the same. But over time, people’s satisfaction with the things they bought went down, whereas their satisfaction with experiences they spent money on went up. It’s counterintuitive that something like a physical object that you can keep for a long time doesn’t keep you as happy as long as a once-and-done experience does. Ironically, the fact that a material thing is ever present works against it, making it easier to adapt to. It fades into the background and becomes part of

the new normal. But while the happiness from material purchases diminishes over time, experiences become an ingrained part of our identity. “Our experiences are a bigger part of ourselves than our material goods,” says Gilovich. “You can really like your material stuff. You can even think that part of your identity is connected to those things, but nonetheless they remain separate from you. In contrast, your experiences really are part of you. We are the sum total of our experiences.” One study conducted by Gilovich even showed that if people have an experience they say negatively impacted their happiness, once they have the chance to talk about it, their assessment of that experience goes up. Gilovich attributes this to the fact that something that might have been stressful or scary in the past can become a funny story to tell at a party or be looked back on as an invaluable character-building experience. Another reason is that shared experiences connect us more to other people than shared consumption. You’re much more likely to feel connected to someone you took a vacation with in Bogotá than someone who also happens to have bought a 4K TV. “We consume experiences directly with other people,” says Gilovich. “And after they’re gone, they’re part of the stories that we tell to one another.” And even if someone wasn’t with you when you had a particular experience, you’re much more likely to bond over both having hiked the Appalachian Trail or seeing the same show than you are over both owning Fitbits. You’re also much less prone to negatively compare your own experiences to someone else’s than you would with material purchases. One study conducted by researchers Ryan Howell and Graham Hill found that it’s easier to feature-compare material goods (how many carats is your ring? how fast is your “By shifting the investments that societies make and the policies they purlaptop’s CPU?) than experiences. Since it’s easier to compare, people do so. sue, they can steer large populations to the kinds of experiential pursuits that promote greater happiness,” write Gilovich and his coauthor, Amit Kumar, in “The tendency of keeping up with the Joneses tends to be more pronounced their recent article in the academic journal Experimental Social Psychology. for material goods than for experiential purchases,” says Gilovich. “It certainly bothers us if we’re on a vacation and see people staying in a better hotel or fly- If society takes their research to heart, it should mean not only a shift in how ing first class. But it doesn’t produce as much envy as when we’re outgunned individuals spend their discretionary income, but also place an emphasis on on material goods.” employers giving paid vacation and governments taking better care of recreational spaces. Gilovich’s research has implications for individuals who want to maximize their happiness return on their financial investments, employers who want to “As a society, shouldn’t we be making experiences easier for people to have?” have a happier workforce, & policy-makers who want to have a happy citizenry. asks Gilovich.

LEARNING TO LET YOURSELF BE HAPPY IN YOUR 20S “Once you find the key to happiness, many doors will be unlocked” – My fortune cookie. Amanda Steelman, April 8, 2015 | 7:04 a.m. Has anyone found this key? Is it hidden under some three headed monster that no one knows how to find? Does this key even exist?

Sometimes, I think it’s really hard to be happy. I feel like everyone I know is in this weird transitional time, most call it their early twenties. We all call each other, talking about our problems, hoping the person has some sound advice to help get us out of this rut. It’s always the same though “Just keep working hard, keep going. One day things will get better and you’ll be happy”. Why can’t I be happy now though? I know this sounds a little immature; maybe even a little selfish. But it’s an honest question. That’s when I made the decision. I’m going to just stop looking for happiness; I’m just going to let myself be happy. I’m being 100 percent honest with you when I tell you this actually worked. I didn’t Google anything, or pin anything to a board titled “Ways 2 b Happy.” None of that. I just woke up and made the decision one day. Okay. I lied. I did Google one thing. I searched Vines of babies dancing or making cute noises. (Those things could make the Grinch heart grow three sizes in under six seconds.) I just started doing more of what made me happy. I found joy in the little things. I got excited about starting a new book or a different recipe on Pinterest I was going to try. I didn’t get a new job, didn’t get a boyfriend, I didn’t even cut my hair. I just stopped looking for things that would make me happy and started revisiting the ones that I knew did.

I think I can speak for everyone battling their early twenties when I say that life can sometimes be rough. You finally think you might have it all together, only to have everything come crashing down all at once. But normally, those crashes are followed by good things, or at least by learning. It takes hard work and dedication to get something you want. It takes waking up everyday doing what you gotta do and then doing it again until you reach your goal. Before, I thought that meant waiting in this weird transitional period until you got there, being stuck in the middle ground between the start and finish line. Now, I know that’s just not true. There’s this old cracked mug that we keep pencils in at my work. In faded teal letters it says “One bad day doesn’t make a bad life.” Who knew an impromptu pencil holder could be so wise? I’m not saying that you need to have a grin painted on your face all the time. Bad things do happen and feeling your emotions is just part of being human. It would be creepy if we all walked around smiling like Barbie all the time. But it’s how you handle the situation that makes the difference. I know that once I find my dream job, I probably won’t have as much free time as I do now. So I take a little longer at the gym, have lunch with my grandma, and really put that extra time into my resumé. Once I started looking at life in a more positive light, it was so much easier to be happy where I was no matter what. All those things that I want in the future? The right job, that Instagram-worthy apartment? I still want them. I’m just not going to put all my happiness into if I have them or not. I mean, I’m sure I can find tons of things to Instagram between now and then. A (kinda) recent college graduate, Amanda Steelman found comfort in writing while waiting for the phone to ring about her dream (any) job. You’ll most likely find her pinning cupcake recipes, playing 1989 on repeat and stalking Justin Timberlake’s Instagram. Amanda hopes one day to change the world, but right now she’s just living her life taco to taco. You can find her on Twitter @shmanda21 and Instagram @mandashmanda21

AN INGENIOUS PROJECTOR TRANSFORMS KITCHEN TABLES INTO TELEVISIONS Joseph Flaherty, Design, February 23, 2015 | 7:00 a.m. The 2013 film Her starred Joaquin Phoenix and Scarlett Johansson’s disembodied voice, but the movie’s omnipresent user interfaces stole the show. A new projector called Beam might not be able to conjure holographic video games, but it could help user interfaces permeate our environments in a similar fashion.

Small-scale projectors have been on the market for some time, but Beam is unique in that it is designed to screw into light sockets while pulling double duty as an ultrabright LED lightbulb. This is a simple change to the hardware, but fundamentally changes the way the product gets used. It’s not a matter or buying and installing a new gadget, but rather, upgrading an existing one. “Beam is a happy product that wants to help make your life special and more fun,” says Jeroen van Geel, Chief Creative Officer at Beam Labs. “It feels like a modern lamp, but when you look closer you notice there is more to this lamp than you thought.” By serving as a light bulb in addition to a projector, Beam becomes a simple upgrade rather than a new appliance. Beam is more than just a lamp or projector. It connects to iPhone or Android phones via Bluetooth and an onboard computer allows it to deliver content over Wi-Fi. Obvious applications, like streaming Netflix or looking at pictures were a given, but a companion app that allows for the programming of “if this then that” scenarios allows it to be used in new ways. “Everybody started sharing ideas on where they would place beam in their house, and almost all of them were in a different location,” says van Geel. “We were no longer limited by the traditional spots and could now freely dream up places where we would love to have a screen.” Instead of forcing us to look for content in new places, it brings useful interactions to the places we already inhabit and love. Beam can be programmed to display content at specific times—imagine welcoming an Airbnb guest once they’ve opened a smart lock on a door. Myriad Of Applications Each designer brought their own ideas to the table. Literally, in the case of one designer who suggested that Beam could project

a game of Settlers of Catan onto a kitchen table after dinner. In the kitchen, instead of precariously balancing your iPad over a bubbling cauldron of marinara sauce, a Beam mounted in a light fixture overhead could project a recipe onto a cook top. Van Geel came up with the idea of prerecording video messages for a spouse, or Airbnb guest, that could be triggered at specific times or based on predefined triggers. Our homes are becoming increasingly connected and the Apple watch promises to create new kinds of interactions. Beam makes it easy to create outputs for these technologies without forcing us to constantly check our phones. At $399 Beam is not cheap, but as prices fall, it’s not hard to imagine this type of projector proliferating and creating a movie-like environment. “Her is a superb movie that showed people that technology could be an integrated and almost natural part of our lives,” says van Geel. “We didn’t look at Her specifically, but in our design approach we look at products as if they would have a personality on their own—so that’s the approach we took here as well.” Beam is raising funds on Kickstarter until March 24th and is also inviting developers to come up with new applications for the device. “People come up with infinite ideas on how to use it and they love to share this with us—of course there also some more unusual uses people suggest to us,” says van Geel. “Let’s just say some dark rooms are better suited for Beam than we’d like to imagine.”

E-TRACES Lesia Trubat GonzĂĄlez, Final Degree Project, June 2014 38

Design and production of technologic pointĂŠ shoes allowing ballet dancers to recreate their movements in digital pictures using a mobile application included in the kit of the purchased product. The concept of Electronic Traces is based on capturing dance movements and transforming them into visual sensations through the use of new technologies. To do this we focused on the ballet shoes themselves, which through the contact with the ground, and thanks to Lilypad Arduino technology, record the pressure and movement of the dancerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s feet and send a signal to an electronic device.A special application will then allow us to show this data graphically and even customize it to suit each user, through the different functions of this app. The user can then view all the moves made in video format, extract images and even print them. Dancers can interpret their own movements and correct them or compare them with the movements of other dancers, as graphs created with motion may be the same or different depending on the type of movements executed and the correction of the steps and body position. This is a project that can be extrapolated to other dance disciplines and the applications are multiple, from self- learning or dance classes to the graphical representation of live performance.

MIT Media Lab’s Interactive Living Wall Julia Kaganskiy Tags, August 20, 2010 Have you ever felt like you just weren’t getting enough bang for your buck out of your walls? I mean, they’re good for keeping the roof up and as a place to hang things, but what do they really do? We feel ya, and apparently so do the inventive and crafty geeks up in Boston’s MIT Media Labs. Members of the Lab’s High-Low Tech group, which fuses high and low technological materials, processes, and cultures to create futuristic versions of everyday objects, have come up with a way to transform your walls into a functional room controller. The Living Wall is a culmination of several projects and developments along the line of sensor-embedded paper and textiles. It is an interactive wallpaper that can be programmed to monitor its environment and control lighting and sound. By running your hand across the wallpaper—which is constructed out of paper, paint and arduino sensors, then hooked up to a paper computing kit—you can turn on a lamp, play music, or send a message to a friend. It’s the greatest development since The Clapper! The Living Wall is currently on view at the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton, MA as part of the exhibition New Materiality: Digital Dialogues at the Boundaries of Contemporary Craft. But what we really want to know is, when is it going to be available at Target? We think it could really tie the room together.

THAT HUMAN TOUCH THAT MEANS SO MUCH: EXPLORING THE TACTILE DIMENSION OF SOCIAL LIFE Mandy Tjew A Sin & Sander Koole, February 2013, Magazine Issue 17 Edited by Hans IJzerman Interpersonal touch is a fundamental but undervalued aspect of human nature. In the present article, the authors review psychological research showing that even fleeting forms of touch may have a powerful impact on our emotional and social functioning. Given its significant beneficial effects, touch may be valuable as a therapeutic or health-promoting tool.

No one wants to live alone Who wants to smile, laugh, or cry alone Have we lost the touch that means so much Have we lost the human touch

From Human Touch, performed by Nina Simone Written by Charles Reuben

Ever had cold feet at night? People had a remarkable solution to this problem in the Middle Ages. Many nobles in medieval Europe had large beds that allowed a noble, his wife, their children, some servants, and his knights to sleep together in the dead of winter (Lacroix & Naunton, 2010). If this sleeping arrangement sounds a little too cozy, this is probably because modern people like you and I have come to regard the practice of sleeping together with oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s entire household as shameful and uncivilized. Indeed, over the centuries, various forms of interpersonal touch have become less and less common, squelched under an onslaught of changing cultural values and new technology. We increasingly view touch as unhygienic and even invasive, as in the case of sexual harassment, for example. And sequestering ourselves behind phones and laptop screens has only exacerbated the trend. Given that interpersonal touch is increasingly becoming a scarce commodity, it is important to ask how touch influences our lives. Why is touching and being touched by others so important to us? New research suggests that even fleeting forms of touch may have a powerful impact on our emotional and social functioning. For instance, people can communicate distinct emotions such as anger or sadness through touch. Moreover, people who are touched briefly on the arm or shoulder are more likely to comply with requests such as volunteering for charity activities. These findings could have far-ranging im-

plications for the role of touch in everyday life and point to important applications in therapy and virtual communication. The Emotional Power of Touch Whether we get a friendly slap on the back, a sensual caress, or a loving kiss --interpersonal touch has a powerful impact on our emotions. In fact, our skin contains receptors that directly elicit emotional responses, through stimulation of erogenous zones or nerve endings that respond to pain (Auvray, Myin, & Spence, 2010; Hertenstein & Campos, 2001). Furthermore, research by Matthew Hertenstein, director of the Touch and Emotion Lab at DePauw University, has shown that touch may communicate distinct emotions (Hertenstein, Keltner, App, Bulleit, & Jaskolka, 2006). Hertenstein and his associates asked pairs of participants to sit at a table with a curtain between them, so that they were unable to see one another. One of the participants, the encoder, was asked to communicate distinct emotions (e.g. anger, disgust, fear, sympathy) by touching the other person’s arm. The person being touched, the decoder, was asked to identify the communicated emotion from a number of response options. Although they could neither see nor talk to each other, the participants were able to encode and decode distinct emotions such as anger, fear and disgust at above-chance levels. The emotional impact of interpersonal touch is ingrained in our biology. Indeed, there is some direct evidence that, in mammalian species, touch triggers the release of oxytocin, a hormone that decreases stress-related responses. Researchers first tested this idea by stroking rats’ abdomens for 30-45 seconds. They found that this type of soft touch raised rats’ oxytocin levels (Ågren, Lundeberg, Uvnäs-Moberg, & Sato, 1995). Interpersonal touch can also induce oxytocin release among humans. For instance, in one experiment, couples who engaged in a warm touch exercise, during which they touched each other’s neck, shoulders, and hands, had more oxytocin in their saliva than couples who did not engage in this exercise (Holt-Lunstad, Birmingham, & Light, 2008). Likewise, women who report frequent partner hugs display higher levels of oxytocin in their blood than women who report few partner hugs (Light, Grewen, & Amico, 2005). The oxytocin-enhancing effects of touch may reduce the discomfort that people experience from everyday stressors, such as family turmoil or conflict at work (Di Simplicio, Massey-Chase, Cowen, & Harmer, 2009; Taylor, 2006). In the early 1950s, American psychologist Harry Harlow provided a dramatic demonstration of the importance of touch in coping. Harlow set out to study the effect that separation from their mothers has on children by conducting a range of controversial experiments with baby Rhesus monkeys. Harlow raised the baby monkeys in isolation in a cage that contained two surrogate “mothers” – one made of metal wire and the other wrapped in terrycloth. Although the wire mother contained a bottle from which the monkeys could nurse, the monkeys would cling to the terrycloth mother when they were frightened, even

when this led them to dehydrate and starve. Harlow’s monkeys were apparently hungry for something other than food: They were literally starving for a warm, comforting touch. With these studies, Harlow was the first to show that intimate body contact, and not feeding, was the most important factor in mother-child bonding. Harlow conducted his ground-breaking (and arguably cruel) experiments after reading a World Health Organization report on the detrimental effect of institutionalization. This report was written by the British psychiatrist John Bowlby, a pioneering researcher who developed attachment theory (Bowlby, 1973). Attachment theory suggests that touch from sensitive caregivers allows infants to feel safe and secure, and thus forms the basis of securely attached relationships later in life. Developmental research has supported these notions. For instance, mothers’ nurturing touch was found to foster more secure attachment in low birth weight infants nine months later (Weiss, Wilson, Hertenstein, & Campos, 2000). Furthermore, infants who were tenderly held by their mothers and for longer periods of time were more securely attached than infants who were held reluctantly or awkwardly (Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, & Wall, 1978). Thus, early nurturing touch from caregivers plays a key role in shaping children’s emotional security. The soothing effects of touch likely remain important in adulthood. There is growing evidence that touch from a romantic partner buffers us against stress. For instance, happily married women who are holding their husband’s hand have smaller threat-related neural responses than when they are holding the hand of a stranger or do not engage in handholding (Coan, Schaefer, & Davidson, 2006). People may also obtain the comforting effects of touch from non-romantic relationships, and even with non-human animals such as pets (McConnell, Brown, Stayton, & Martin, 2011). Even inanimate objects appear to have an effect. Some fascinating experiments have shown that people recover more quickly from social rejection when they are holding a teddy bear on their lap (Tai, Zheng, & Narayanan, 2011). Soft touch does not always have comforting effects. Jonathan Levav of Columbia University and Jennifer Argo of the University of Alberta (2010) found that a female’s light, comforting pat on the shoulder increased feelings of security. However, this calming effect did not occur when individuals were touched by a male and was weaker when the touch consisted of a handshake. This finding suggests that gentle touch by non-threatening individuals is most likely to have beneficial effects. Touch is also less likely to have beneficial effects when it violates cultural, social, or personal norms. For instance, uninvited touch from a stranger is often perceived as intrusive or threatening (Thayer, 1986). Likewise, touching the waist area is only appropriate in the context of a strong bond or close relationship (Lee & Guerrero, 2001).

The Social Power of TouchBeyond regulating our emotions, interpersonal touch may also regulate our social relationships. Cultural anthropologist Alan Page Fiske (1991, 2004) has elaborated on the social significance of touch. According to Fiske, touch is a key element of a communal sharing relationship, a relationship that occurs in all cultures between mothers and their children, and among members of a group with a shared identity. When people engage in communal sharing, they implicitly assume that their bodies share a common substance, which could be real, imagined, or implied. Interpersonal touch (but also other activities like joint eating or dancing) indicates the presence of a communal sharing relationship by referring to the sharing of a common substance.

If Fiske is correct, touch may render people more willing to share resources. April Crusco of the University of Mississippi and Christopher Wetzel of Rhodes College (1984) conducted a famous test of this idea, in which they examined the effects of touch on tipping behaviour. They conducted the research among diners of two restaurants in a small college town in the American south, where one of three waitresses served the diners. After a waitress collected a diner’s money, she went to get change (in the early 1980s, most people presumably paid in cash). At this point, the researchers instructed the waitresses to touch the diners briefly on the shoulder or the palm of the hand, or to not touch the diners at all. The results showed that diners who were touched by the waitress left between 18% and 36% more tips than diners who were not touched, a pronounced difference that was statistically reliable. These beneficial effects of a brief touch have since been observed for many other behaviors, such as signing a petition (Willis & Hamm, 1980), returning lost money (Kleinke, 1977), helping to pick up dropped items (Guéguen & Fischer-Lokou, 2003), volunteering for charity (Goldman, Kiyohara, & Pfannensteil, 1985), and looking after a dog (Guéguen & Fischer-Lokou, 2002).

Equally notable are findings that touch can motivate people to work harder on shared tasks (e.g., Steward & Lupfer, 1987; Guéguen, 2004). One recent study on this topic examined touches exchanged between members of basketball teams (Kraus, Huang, & Keltner, 2010). The researchers observed touch behaviors of 294 players from all 30 National Basketball Association (NBA) teams during one game that was played within the first two months of the 2008-2009 season. The focus was on touches among two or more players who were celebrating a positive play that helped their team, including behaviors such as high fives, head slaps, or team huddles. The researchers then related the frequency of these touches to basketball performance during the subsequent NBA season. The results showed that early season touch predicted season performance. This relation held even when the researchers statistically controlled for player salary, preseason expectations, and early season performance. Indeed, the only measure that could account for the relation between touch and performance was the amount of cooperation that was observed during the game. These findings suggest that touch among basketball players is a strong indicator of trusting and cooperative attitudes, which may facilitate team performance.

The prosocial tendencies induced by touch may sometimes have harmful effects. In cultures that encourage recklessness and irresponsibility, touch may amplify the destructive behavior. One study showed that customers in US public taverns who were briefly touched by a waitress ordered more drinks and consumed more alcohol than customers who were not touched (Kaufman & Mahoney, 1999). Another recent study showed that men playing an investment game made riskier decisions after a woman pat them lightly on the shoulder (Levav & Argo, 2010). Interpersonal touch may thus lead people to pursue riskier strategies, particularly when these strategies are socially sanctioned. Although touch may smooth social interactions and help people bond with Some particularly provocative studies have examined the effects of touch on others, people may feel unnerved when others get too familiar with them in courtship behavior. One study (Guéguen, 2007, Experiment 1) took place in a purely professional setting (Leander, Chartrand & Bargh, 2012). Thus, the a French nightclub. During slow romantic songs, an attractive 20-year-old social benefits of touch are likely to materialize only in appropriate situations. male went up to a young woman and said, “Hello. My name is Antoine. Do you want to dance?”. When he made his request, the man either touched the Conclusions and Outlook Although psychologists have learned a great deal woman lightly on her forearm or refrained from touching her. While 43% of about the significance of touch, the scientific inquiry of touch is still in its inthe women who were not touched accepted the invitation, 65% of the women fancy. One important complexity that has yet to be addressed is that touch who were touched agreed to dance. In a parallel study, an attractive male tried is inherently a multisensory experience. During interpersonal touch, we typito obtain phone numbers from young women on the street. Of the women cally experience tactile stimulation, but also changes in warmth, along with who were not touched, 10% provided their phone number, compared to 19% changes in what we see, hear, and smell. Nevertheless, inputs from other of the women who were touched (Guéguen, 2007, Experiment 2). These find- senses can have independent effects. For instance, merely being in a warm room or holding a warm drink can make people feel closer to others comings suggest that touch can be a powerful catalyst of romantic liaisons.

pared to when they are in a cold room or holding a cold drink (Williams & Bargh, 2008; see also IJzerman & Saddlemeyer, in press). More research is needed to establish whether and how warmth and other sensory experiences like smell, sounds, and vision contribute to the effects of touch (see Paladino, Mazzurega, Pavani, & Schubert, 2010, for a pioneering study on this topic). Other important questions relate to the role of culture. Culture regulates how easily we can access interpersonal touch, by determining who is allowed to be touched by whom, which parts of the body can be touched, what touch means, how touch is ritualized in greetings (e.g., whether we kiss or shake hands with our friends), and so on. However, it is unclear to what degree we can attribute the influence of touch to psychological factors. As we have seen, some of the effects of touch are physiological, such as the release of oxytocin, and they are part of our biological hardware. These physiological processes may be resistant to cultural constraints. For instance, one study showed that individuals who consider touch inappropriate may still show physiological benefits from touch (Wilhelm et al., 2001). However, evidence of this kind remains limited. More research is therefore needed before we can draw firm conclusions about the role of culture in determining the physiological effects of touch. Despite these limitations, insights from touch research could have many realworld applications. For instance, touch-based therapies may be useful in treating deficiencies in perspective taking (i.e. perceiving someone else’s thoughts and feelings), one of the core symptoms of autistic spectrum disorder (Baron-Cohen & Belmonte, 2005). Given that oxytocin (which is released upon touch) improves perspective-taking abilities among high-functioning autistics (Guastella et al., 2010; Hollander et al., 2007), touch-based interventions might be helpful to autistic individuals (see Escalona, Field, Singer-Strunck, Cullen, & Hartshorn, 2001). More broadly speaking, interpersonal touch may support health-promoting behaviors by enhancing compliance. Indeed, one study showed that when service staff at a home for the elderly touched the patients while verbally encouraging them to eat, these patients consumed more

calories and protein up to five days after the touch (Eaton, Mitchell-Bonair, & Friedmann, 1986; for related findings, see Guéguen & Vion, 2009). Incorporating interpersonal touch in educational and health systems may sometimes be difficult. Educators and health professionals may fear malpractice and abuse charges ( Field, 2001). Moreover, some individuals may prefer not to be touched, even when they might derive benefits from it (Wilhelm et al., 2001). Consequently, it seems useful to look for technological substitutes for interpersonal touch. The emerging fields of mediated social touch (Haans & IJsselsteijn, 2006) and affective haptics (Tsetserukou, Neviarouskaya, Prendinger, Kawakami, & Tachi, 2009) study and design haptic devices and systems that can elicit, enhance, or influence people’s emotions. These efforts have produced devices that can mimic aspects of interpersonal touch, such as the “Huggy Pajama”, a haptic jacket that gives wearers the tactile sensations of a hug whenever a sender hugs a doll-shaped device (Keng et al., 2008). Preliminary evidence suggests that at least some of the behavioral effects of mediated touch parallel the effects of interpersonal touch (Haans & IJsselsteijn, 2009). French novelist Michel Houellebecq (1998) envisioned a future in which all contact between people is mediated by technology. As such, one might wonder if haptic technology can ever replace interpersonal touch. Is being hugged by a haptic jacket as valuable as being hugged by a human being? Will the ultimate high-tech society be completely devoid of human touch? Though provocative, these questions may be largely beside the point. In the foreseeable future, the main use of haptic technology lies not in replacing human touch. Rather, haptic technology provides touch experiences for individuals who will otherwise remain touch-deprived. For instance, individuals with social anxiety, who find it awkward to be touched by people, may find it acceptable to wear a haptic jacket. Likewise, haptic technology may allow parents to hug their children while at work or traveling. New technological developments may thus enable greater numbers of individuals to reap the social and emotional benefits of interpersonal touch.

THIS PHOTO BOOTH CAN SNAP PICS WHEN YOU SMOOCH Grab the mistletoe & head into the thermobooth, where the camera only takes a picture when you get grabby. John Brownlee, December 23, 2013 | 3:30 p.m. For decades now, the photo booth has been a potent dating wunderkabinet: both the perfect place to steal a kiss, and the best way to capture it. The Thermobooth is a new spin on the photo booth concept that takes it to the next level, only firing off the camera when two people press their lips together or put their arms around one another. If they don’t touch, it never takes a photo. Created by Viennese designer Talia Radford, the Thermobooth was inspired by a desire to create a playful environment that explored more emotional ways of interacting with electronics. 44

“We love the immediacy of analogue photography, but we also feel that the action of capturing a moment on camera should be more immediate than just pushing a button,” Radford tells Co.Design. The Thermobooth transforms the actual moment of intimacy into a literal physical shutter button: as two people touch, they create a circuit, which tells the Thermobooth to take a picture. Not so surprisingly, kissing is the most popular thing to do in the Thermobooth. Group shots are also popular, where users form chains of up to five people and close the circuit by holding hands. To make the Thermobooth a reality, Radford collaborated with media artist Jonas Bohatsch, who has experimented with thermal printing technology. The duo created a beta version of the Thermobooth, then pitched it to light bulb maker OSRAM as a way to show off show off their new flashes. OSRAM loved the idea, and Radford and Bohatsch were soon constructing the finished model out of a camera, a thermal printer, an Arduino, some OLED lights and more, all housed in an old Ikea bureau. Interestingly, it’s not the Thermobooth’s camera that can detect touch. Instead, touch is determined by a Makey Makey carpet beneath them. “It’s really more of a smart carpet than anything else,” Radford says.

Because of how the Makey Makey operates, you need to take off your shoes for the Thermobooth to register the touch, leading to some amusing photos. “Once, we had a sweet elderly lady who didn’t want to take her shoes off, but still wanted to try the Thermobooth,” recalls Radford. “So she asked two handsome young men to take a photo with her with one shoe off each. It was very endearing.” However they choose to do it, once two people form a circuit, the Thermobooth triggers the OLED flash and snaps their photograph, which is then printed out using a thermal printer. “There were long debates if we would upgrade the printer, but thermal printing is quick and dirty in its look, yet still retains some of the nostalgia of instant analog photography,” says Radford. In the end, they went with their gut and decided to embrace the contrast between OSRAM’s high-tech OLED lights and the very low-tech prints. And with all the kissing that’s going on this time of year—think New Year’s Countdown—the Thermobooth is available for rent.

IN YOUR HANDS Wieden + Kennedy London, November 2014 Introducing a new interface powered by hand holding, to address the decline in human touch. We have created an interface to address the statistic that the United Kingdom is the most touch-deprived country in the world. Neuroscientists have proven that little incidental touches such as holding hands are the most effective way to release the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;happinessâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; neurochemical oxytocin into the human body. These interactions provide feelings of reward, build cooperative relationships and calm cardiovascular stress. To bring Britons closer together, we designed a giant controller that only works when the users hold hands with their playing partner and the pair complete the circuit, controlling the game with their free hand.

STAR CANVAS Bâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;Reel Creative, 2014 For our 5 year London office anniversary we created an interactive guestbook in the form of a giant star chart. Built to work with the Leap Motion device, users were invited to take control and explore our installation. Needing only hand gestures they could rotate the sky, point at a specific constellation to zoom in for a closer look and with a clap of the hands navigate to a random star cluster. Created in WebGL, we used real star data and classical illustrations for an authentic flavour. To finish it we constructed a 9ft half dome to really make an impact. We felt it was important to make the experience more personal, so we replaced some of the classic celestial interpretations with whimsical takes on our own projects. We also invited our guests to draw their very own constellation. Built in canvas, users could draw, name their creation and leave us a short message on a tablet before submitting it as a shooting star, where it would join the others. We also created an immersive sound engine for the installation using Pure Data. Each of the interactions triggered various musical notes, making the whole installation one giant synthesizer.

HEART BOT: EXPERIMENTAL DRAWING MACHINE 48

Alex Moore, November 23, 2014 | 8:54 p.m. To mark SMS Audio’s partnership with Intel and the launch of their new BioSport headphones, 50 Cent and Co. held a party in the New Museum’s Sky Room, exhibiting the latest work from interactive artist Aramique. Aramique, the interactive director at Tool put together a team consisting of Crouse, Matts Mets, Ranjit Bhatnagor, Adam Thabo and Nikolay Saveliev to create the Heart Bot installation – a drawing machine that would be controlled by the heart rate of each contributor. Heart Bot works as a collaborative piece of art that invited guests to spend thirty seconds with their finger on a heart rate sensor while a robotic machine draws their heartbeat in real time. Inspired by the hands of a clock, each person’s heartbeat starts at the centre of the circle and makes its way outwards. By the end of the night, 60 humans had each created a piece of art, demonstrating that every individual experiences a moment in a unique way. The Heart Bot was inspired by BioSport’s headphones that capture biometric exercise data through the headphones. The final work of art created by Heart Bot will be donated to Feeding America, the nation’s leading domestic hunger relief charity.

MONOLITT: INTERACTIVE INSTALLATION Alex Moore, September 11, 2014 | 12:33 p.m. As art becomes more interactive, the viewer-looks-at-art-and-feels-emotion dynamic is being turned on its head. MONOLITT is a new installation by Oslo School of Architecture and Design students Syver Lauritzsen and Eirik Haugen Murvold that takes crowd sourced sentiment analytics and turns them into physical paint data visualisations. The idea is for the installation to quite literally paint the mood of the city using social media feeds as an input. “The installation takes electronic signals and lets them manifest themselves in the physical world. Using sentiment analytics, the installation links tweets to corresponding coloured paints in real-time, feeding them out through the top of the sculpture, letting them flow into a procedurally generated three-dimensional painting”, says Lauritzsen on his website. Users tweet messages like “annoyed” or “feeling good” and these emotions correspond to different colours of paint which spills out of the pedestal. Heart Bot is another interaction reliant installation that invites viewers to spend thirty seconds with their finger on a heart rate sensor while a robotic machine draws their heartbeat in real time.

JOURNAL THE DAILY DOSE OF THE DESIGNER LIFE What a confusing and emotional start this whole deal was. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s crazy looking back on where not only the project, but my mind set, began and their transformation. This semester I went full speed ahead into my resolution of becoming more socially comfortable and letting myself have the freedom to have a little fun, and like I purposed, find my happy. The process of this project and collaboration taught me a lot about not only myself, but about the importance of human connections. I wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t exactly sure what I wanted to do with this project. Going into it I was focused on making something that merged both of my passions, knitting and interaction design, but really I ended up trying to absorb as much as I could. I aimed to read more articles and be more active on keeping up with emerging technology and design. So started following more companies on Facebook and when something caught my eye I decided to open it up and read it.. Overall, with this being the most important project in our last semester of design, it was time to make something that was fucking awesome, and we could be proud of when we graduate.

AND THIS IS WHEN IT ALL STARTED...

FRI

DEC 2014

10:00 a.m. Whoa. It doesn’t feel real, senior degree proposal presentation is over. Martin Venezky loved my work, thought it was fluid. OMG stop. And Chris called me fearless and told to me to jump right in. Just paper and space. Paper and space. It felt pretty surreal that all the feedback was so positive. And everyone was so supportive of my style and were truly interested in what I could do. I feel good that I was able to freely present with the language I would use if I were to “wing it,” I cussed like ten times, if I didn’t do that I don’t think people would really understand me and where my mind is at when I created the works shown. And I think it made me more comfortable to be up there talking in front of all them peeps. The presentation went quick on my part but you know, duh. I’ll work on that. Ohhh then Tessa Canon saying good bye! Kidwell, oh man. We will miss you Tessa! And then there were 8… 12:00 p.m. Lunch with B. Huff and Nick. Delicious. All of the tacos. And cheese, of course. There was some crazy country tunes going on… 2:14 p.m. FREEDOM! Now it’s time to pack like a maniac and fly home. 3:00 p.m. Nick and Savanna own a house! It’s so cute! Can’t wait til I have my own home… I got the tour and we discussed paint colors. And then off to Lowe’s! We got some gray

paint! And I bought Jackie and I a cute little Charlie Brown tree. 11:52 p.m. Back in good ol’ Colorado, guess I should start this project now. So the presentation this morning went over better than I was expecting. Maybe it was because everyone was still waking up, or their morning coffee hadn’t kicked in yet. But damn, I feel like I nailed it. I finally used a kid picture too, that was a first, but I knew it was time to get the story across about why I love tactility so much. And no missing slides this time (like my Bier Station final). I was super happy to hear that Martin Venezky was excited about my proposal, between the knitting/fiber work and interactivity. It was a personal victory for me since I felt like I was facing a lot of skepticism about my proposal from Kelly. I’m also not sure I agreed with most of the feedback, but you know how it is with crits, always take it with a grain of salt, whatever that really means. I think the biggest compliment I got during feedback was when Martin said he wants me come to his grad school after graduation rather than getting a job. Too bad that I’m totally over school… Maybe in 5 years. I know I’m not much of a journal-er so I’m foreseeing this project being a struggle, but I’ll do my best. I’ll probably be more of a summarizer.

DEC 2014

TUE

SAT

DEC 2014

6:03 p.m. Those days when you’re stuck looking at the same thing all day and can’t come up with anything good… EW.

10:00 a.m. Youtube. That Grace, Hannah, & Tyler. Why do I love these people on the Internet so much?… 12:00 p.m. Fooooddd. So full. With mom and Terry. He says I’m no longer cheese, I’m a thug due to my fearlessness. I just need a black beanie with thug life on it, I’ll pair with my colorful scarf skinny jeans and Toms, it’ll be so ironic that it’ll makes sense.

10:36 p.m. Breaking out making friends, went to trivia night with coworkers. We came in last place, but it was fun getting to meet new people and spending time with everyone.

8:01 p.m. Quit all my Adobe applications. It felt good. And the desktop is all clear! Ahhhh...

SUN

10:00 p.m. Started to read a bit of Lena Dunham but ended up falling to sleep listening to Grace’s Guide.

11:00 p.m. Late night talks with Jaclyn are always goofy. Discovered a new song called Wear Sunscreen and shared it with her.

WED

3:45 p.m. O Christmas tree O Christmas tree!!

DEC 2014

12:00 a.m. Having Neha in town is da absolute best. 8:00 p.m. Off to Michael’s to gather canvases for Christmas gifts. Let’s get to some puns man.

DEC 2014

9:46 a.m. It’s supposed to be 63!!! 4:28 p.m. Started a degree project pin board. All of the paper!

MON

2:58 p.m. Paper crafting a star topper for our Charlie Brown tree. Life lesson #1: don’t use card stock for origami. Your fold game will not be on point…

DEC 2014

7:53 p.m. No school means off to Populous full time. Let’s do this. It’s so weird though coming home with nothing to do... I’m sure I’ll get used to it real quick though.

6:03 p.m. So far I haven’t mustered much up for things. I need to get in a better habit of writing down my ideas when I think of them (but really, I haven’t had anything profound ideas yet anyway).

THU

DEC 2014

fret Jemma and Kelly have a plan to squeeze me in over on their side, put me right in the middle so they can play tug a war.

12:00 p.m. Oh man my brain hurts from all the puns...

8:00 p.m. OMG, baby! She got so big! Hadn’t seen her in two months!! It’s great seeing Amanda, Ben, and Bella!

FRI

6:18 p.m. This past Saturday I went to Estes Park with my family though. It’s our family tradition. Estes is about an hour drive from our house and it’s this wonderful little tourist town in the mountains, that has a bunch of Christmas stores. We go every year to hunt for Christmas ornaments for our tree. We do this because we only put really wood ornaments on our tree, and it’s a fun family challenge to see who can find the best ones, especially now that they are becoming super hard to find with all the plastic/resin ornaments these days.

DEC 2014

SAT

1:00 a.m. Caution. There may be puns inside.

10:00 a.m. #somethingpunny

There are also a bunch of fun art things up in Estes too, my favorite in particular is a glass blowing studio where you can watch the glass blower make things. The guy working is always super friendly, and talks about the process to anyone who asks. Also, I’ve been trying to work on my bier station book but I feel like it’s not going anywhere. Yay, makeup work over break!

3:00 p.m. It seems there are some new employees starting at the beginning of the year, and I’m getting the boot from my desk!! But don’t

DEC 2014

1:19 a.m. Alright, it’s about time I do something, so in the spirit of Christmas, lets have a banana piano with my Makey Makey! It’s kind of the clichè thing to do, but my family has no idea of what I’ve been raving about for my degree project idea so I wanted them to get them a taste, hands on style. So lets see if my family can play Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer on it together, I’ll conduct!

10:44 p.m. Just shittin’ around. BNDK back together again.

MON

DEC 2014

WED

5:34 p.m. So I made around 100 of our traditional Roesner Holy cookies to send out to all of our family friends for Christmas.

DEC 2014

4:05 p.m. Made a thing!! Mid century architecture all the way..

12:05 p.m. 3 crashes and it’s only noon. What the hell computer...

TUE

1:49 p.m. Nails did. I went to the wrong nail place in the mall…it was so embarrassing. My feet were already in the water, and I had to leave. Face palm. Then I had to wait a ridiculous amount of time at the place Amanda and Rachel were at. I didn’t even know there was another place in the mall... Damn it. So bad. Merry Christmas gift Amanda.

12:14 a.m. Found this super cool example of an interactive wearable called the Spider Dress. It inspired me.

SUN

DEC 2014

1:30 p.m. Golden Sunday. We’ll see how this goes… :)

The dress features animatronic mechanical limbs that respond to external stimuli to defend the personal space of the wearer. The dress provides an extension of the wearers intuition: It uses proximity sensors as well as a respiration sensor to both define and protect the personal space of the wearer. Approach the wearer too aggressively and the mechanical limbs move up to an attack position. Approach the system under calmer circumstance and the dress just might beckon you to come closer with smooth, suggestive gestures.

2:00 p.m. Finished. I really dig it. This was a pretty quick painting considering our troubles with the stencil not working out.

1:41 p.m. The powerhouse went out for taco Tuesday, all thanks to Mr. Dave Bower. #bowerhouse

9:23 p.m. GAME NIGHT! We got a new version of Catan. Took forever, we played for 4 hours, fun, but loooooooooooong.

THU

DEC 2014

1:55 p.m. I call this guy Hitler. But really his name is Shadow...

1:17 p.m. Moberly, we’re here! Off to see grandma at Meadow Ridge Estates. I made her smile! She thought I was too loud, and was going to get us kicked out…Nonsense.

2:17 p.m. OMG Christmas. Biggest holiday of the year, at least for the Roesners. One of the few times my family can muster up having a good time together without conflict, which has been very nice. I feel like we’ve bonded well.

2:21 p.m. Throwback! My high school graduation picture is still on my Grandpa’s fridge five years later.

3:51 p.m. In the middle of no where. All the dirt. I really gotta pee.

1:45 p.m. It looks like a beach front! But really it’s the middle of Missouri. Damn it. I love sunshine.

And gifts!!!! I mean my newly acquired knitting machine was my main gift, but my brother and parents got me a few more small things. The best spoil I got was a starting arduino kit from my brother! So now I have that and the Makey Makey!!!! Now I need to learn how to use the damn thing. My brother also got me a plushie Toothless, my favorite movie and fandom thing right now, and he is super cute and wonderful. I can’t wait to put him on my couch at home.

5:35 p.m. Made it back to Mom’s in Excelsior Springs. Ho, ho, hope you had the merriest of days!!

FRI

DEC 2014

1:45 p.m. Hair cut and bath! Now where’s my treat… Invested in some $200 grooming shears, hopefully these last longer.

11:11 p.m. I cleaned out my childhood room in Colorado today. The day after Christmas of all days. I threw away an entire trash can of stuff out including old sketch books, art projects, cassette tapes & knick-knacks. We’re taking a whole car load of stuff to Goodwill tomorrow too, mostly old toys, books and gently used clothes. And then there are a few things we’d like to sell, I think my dad will post them on eBay. It was hard to let some things go. Especially old art projects, like a wooden train bank I made with my

10:45 p.m. Went through Christmas in the Park with C.C. and also found the Lee’s Summit Magic Tree.

Dad when I was young, and my first paper mâché project (a horse). But I don’t have room for them and it’s about the memory, not the object. So I have consolidated the things I’m keeping to 2 boxes of books, a box of plushies, and 2 boxes of odds and ends. There is also a wood stool, framed pictures, clothes and a few large toys I’ve decided to keep that haven’t been boxed up. I really like having things, but dear Lord they stress me out. I really wish I could have one of those picture perfect homes where there’s hardly any stuff.

DEC 2014

SAT

7:58 p.m. Garden glow at the botanical garden. The aliens have landed... oh wait, that was just me.

MON

6:00 p.m. Played heads up with Neha. Pretty hilarious. I have truly really missed Neha a shit ton. I like how we can just watch YouTube videos all night and be content.

DEC 2014

10:19 a.m. The Verge posted an article about how a SciFi television series will synchronize with Hue home lighting, so home lights that are networked will change color as the TV show is broadcasted. I thought this was pretty cool. 7:58 p.m. Made it out to STL! Dinner with the whole Key/Najbar gang at the Hard Rock Cafe.

TUE

SUN

5:05 p.m. Too much holiday…

Microsoft hasn’t yet built Star Trek’s fabled Holodeck, but as project researcher Brett Jones quips, “we joke that until we discover matter to energy conversion, this might be the closest we can get.”

DEC 2014

12:46 p.m. THIS IS SO FUCKING COOL. Real life interactive Holodeck! Last year, Microsoft Research revealed Illumiroom—which uses projectors to stretch an image on your TV to take over a whole wall. Now comes the sequel. Called RoomAlive, this new system can turn every surface in a room—from the floor to the couch cushions to your own skin— into a glowing screen that reacts to your movement. It’s as if your whole analog world has been digitized. And that digital world can see where you’re looking, pointing, and touching, and adapt itself accordingly.

10:00 p.m. 360! Wow. Such a great space and view! The bathroom was awesome, should of taken a picture. Pizza was so tasty. Good time with friends for sure!

DEC 2014

3:20 p.m. Shopping with Sarah. Man have I forgotten how intense of a shopper she is. On a mission to say the least. It’s interesting to observe those around you and how they act.

THU

WED

JAN 2015

12:00 a.m. And it begins! 2015. Happy New Year from the balloon drop at the Ameristar in St. Charles! #fuckbitchesgetmoney

6:02 p.m. This recipe is so good! Morgan and I found a real winner.

11:45 p.m. It’s 2015. Or least it will be in 15 minutes mountain time. I give up, I’m going to sleep now. This should be a momentous occasion, but it’s feeling lack luster. Probably because I’m not doing anything fun, I tried to get together with my best friend Whitney, but it didn’t work out. That and my parents like going to bed early, so it’s just me and 4 shooters of fireball right now. Every one keeps asking what my goals are for 2015. I guess I’ll say that I want my degree project to be kick ass, finally graduate from this fiery hell of college, and land my dream job (hopefully in a super cool city). So good night, 2014. It was good while it lasted

[BRINGING] USEFUL

INTER

ACTIONS TO THE PLACES WE ALREADY INHABIT AND LOVE

JAN 2015

11:48 a.m. Learned how to crochet today. I’m thinking that I could use this method to make things for interactivity as well. It might actually be easier than knitting. So we’ll see where this goes. For now I’ve made a necklace…

brave the snow, arrive at UPS, stand in line forever, spend a while figuring out the details with the rep that was helping (nice guy btw) and finally pay an arm and a leg to ship out it to KC so it will arrive on Friday. We had to pay for them to build a custom box for her to be sent in, even though she was already in the original box, but they claim she’ll be safe. It’s sad to see you go baby, but we’ll be back together soon. 3:40 p.m. Lazy day #1. Gossip Girl, that’s all for now. 10:33 p.m. Welp, I’m drunk. I’m a big beer fan. This isn’t terribly eventful, or design-y but I like beer so I might as well journal about it. My brother wanted to hang with me tonight and picked me up and took me down to his place in Denver. We also picked up his GF and headed on over to a brand new brewery by their place.

2:16 p.m. Cleaned out the closet, filled up an Ikea bag… Plato’s Closet only bought 11 things. Welp, still $34 richer.

SAT

JAN 2015

3:00 p.m. We shipped my baby. I go back to KC tomorrow. My brother is driving down from Denver to pick me up so I can spend my last night in CO with him, so I have to ship my precious knitting machine to KC so I can use it for degree project. It’s also the middle of a mini blizzard outside but in ere of my impending departure with my brother I have to ship my baby today. We (my parents and I)

It’s called Comrades and names it’s beers after communist references. It was pretty delicious, I shared a small flight with my brother, and upon falling in love with the Red Dawn Ale I had two pints of it. (Dear lord I got drunk with the high 6% and altitude change from KC) but my brother was

paying so I drank up. I then stole a coaster. I plan to put it on my wall in KC with the other variety of coasters I’ve stolen. We stayed till closing. It was grand. The next time I see my brother will be when I graduate.

SUN

FRI

JAN 2015

4:36 p.m. Lazy day #2. Watched Friends all day with Jaclyn. They all care for each so much. I wish I had a super close knit group of friends like that. Some besties that I could enjoy and share my every life moments with, seems too idealistic though. 1:30 p.m. Colorado, it’s been good, always is. I’ll miss you, and your majestic mountains. But I’m ready to be back in KC and get back to Freckles, and Ben. Let’s go Southwest!

TUE

JAN 2015

8:56 p.m. Making bread sticks. Also, Grace officially has her own TV show. CANNOT wait.

JAN 2015

9:46 p.m. I started my class on death and dying today, so if I sound depressed for the next 3 weeks of entries, that’s why.

JAN 2015

3:13 p.m. So I’ve been reading Squeak and Gibber by John Crowley, and this quote really struck me. “The image archives (which become ever deeper and easier to search) are the great necropolis of our time: a republic of the dead where the great majority live their lives—for as long as photographic emulsions and digital media will last.” In our ever increasing digital age we are often bombarded with images of those around us and of ourselves. We

7:18 p.m. I helped Neha with her resume. Design in Google Docs, whoa. An exercise indeed. Then it was back to Gossip Girl...

THU

11:42 a.m Back to work we go…

7:00 p.m. Met with Yulie to discuss plans for her logo and business card. I love catching up with Yulie! Before she came I was browsing the Anthro windows hashtag, man does that make me “happy” all that beautiful hand crafted work, gorgeous. It makes my career decision even that much harder on me.

are encouraged to document every significant or insignificant moment of our lives, to share them, and to prove to ourselves and others that we lived that moment. Producing a mass of these images, proof of life, becomes a contest of which one is competing to display who has lived the best. But the thought of what happens to these images after they expire are less familiar. Will the deceased continue living in image after death? Will it allow them to live forever, or would they just become immortal?

5:24 p.m Love it when you leave work and the sky is like a painting.

WED

MON

11:31 p.m. The big moment of the day: How Design featured the book I’m published in! Nothing like this to bring my spirits up. With winter break I’ve been getting non-stop questions & comments about my last semester, graduation, where I’m going to work and move and yadadadada; so to say the least I’ve been having some doubts about my future…. So yeah, my spirts have been down lately I guess. But today is the day that I made it back to KC from Colorado! I start my sociology class on death & dying tomorrow, and I get to pick up my blurb book!

JAN 2015

5:21 p.m. Yummy dinner at LuLu’s with the madre. Thai iced tea is my favorite, gotta get it every single time. 7:42 p.m Started to watch Heaven. - “You’re going to die” - “It’s okay though that’s what I’ve been living for” 7:58 p.m. Uhhh all of the bull shit. Sorry, but I don’t believe in God or heaven. Quite funny opinions. Just the quantity of opinions just proves to me that the ideas are fictional. There’s no physical or scientific proof of any of it, nothing logical, all mythical...I just don’t get it. 9:42 p.m. Started a list of movies about happiness: Hector and the Search of Happiness Happiness

10:06 p.m. On to watching the movie Happy on Netflix.

sion that I got from watching the Happy movie as well.

FRI

The Pursuit of Happyness Finding Happiness Happy The Economics of Happiness Happiness Is Euphoria

JAN 2015

8:30 a.m. A meeting of the Macs with cake and coffee. Hopefully Dalton can solve our crashing server issues. Fingers crossed!

5:11 p.m. If only I could have a week dedicated solely to organizing files on my computer *sigh* #takesalongtime #toobusyforbreak

11:51 a.m It’s a slow day of work…

8:07 p.m. Went out to Blue Line for $1.50 tacos with work peeps. Good time, even though I feel my social anxiety coming into play.

11:56 a.m. Sometimes I start to day dream about the future... which is soon gonna be the present. Where do I wanna be? Stay here at Populous or go along with those California dreams. Decisions! I really like working here, but that sunshine, man...

11:10 p.m. I enjoyed this film. Going from culture to culture seeing what differences play a role in personal happiness. People speak of money bringing happiness, but in reality it’s the people and the love that surround you that bring you to life. Free things like play, new experiences, friends and family, doing meaningful things, and feeling appreciated. 11:56 p.m. Reading an article and it says “caring about others actively increases our own personal happiness,” this seems to be the conclu-

4:01 p.m. There were just two separate singing telegrams here in the office. One right after the other, must of came together.

10:04 MY BABY IS HERE! I even rearranged the apartment so it would have a spot in the living room so I have easy access for degree project.

10:23 p.m. Watched the movie Happiness. It’s quite an odd film. Sort of the anti-happy. All the characters seem to be focused on sexual interactions. It’s got a strange story line.

1:21 p.m. Got up, got clean. Jaclyn and I went about town. Did a little shopping. Picked up milk and shoes and deodorant, only the necessities. Got home and ordered a new rug.

JAN 2015

7:03 a.m. *drools* over Back to the Future posters created by artist Andy Fairhurst, so incredible. Called the 88MPH Trilogy, each shows a top-down view of the DeLorean the moment it travels between timelines, all starting with that fateful trip back to 1955.

Decided I will be taking a trip to Oklahoma to visit Amanda and the little growing baby before the hectic-ness of school starts. I will be leaving the 23rd! She’s so excited. 3:09 p.m Sunshine full of color!

3:48 p.m. Paper Sourcin’ it

7:04 p.m. Let’s Be Cops movie. Hilarious, for real. So funny. Funny movies are the best, they make me happy. Who doesn’t love a good hard laugh?

MON

JAN 2015

SUN

SAT

JAN 2015

1:02 p.m Just finished watching the Giver. Jackie just finished listening to the audio book, so of course it was on to the movie. I actually thought it was quite interesting, I haven’t read the book. And it seems to go along quite well with the topic of happiness. The creating of a world of no emotions, eliminating all love and family, and from what I’ve observed so far that’s exactly where happiness comes from. Being around people and those you care for is what makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside.

TUE

12:03 p.m. Taco Monday anyone? 9:10 p.m. Made and published my questionnaire. Simple questions. Power to the people!

JAN 201

Adorning the body is something we focus on so heavily in life, such as our clothing, jewelry, hair, and even body modification such as tattoos and piercings. Yet, adornment is used to also increase the beauty of the dead. Greeks adorned the body with a crown. Now for burial we bury the dead in their finest clothes, having objects of sentimental value placed with them, and a plethora of flowers.

12:29 p.m. Dropped off our $220 donation from Pup Art!

9:54 p.m. Dan Gilbert Ted Talk: Choices and synthetic happiness. “How can you get what you want and not be happy…” What a good question.

JAN 2015

7:25 p.m. I straightened my hair today, so that’s cool.

11:10 p.m. Niiiiiine, answers from the survey so far. Whenever I hear/say the number nine, I think of how Julianne Moore said it in the great movie Crazy Stupid Love. Niiiiiiiiine?!

6:18 p.m. Taco Tuesday! With Miss Morgan. Always down for some cheese dip! And found my drink: pomegranate mojito…

11:33 p.m. Now watching Euphoria. “Happy is the holy grail of emotions.”

8:19 p.m. Fell asleep yesterday at the beginning of Euphoria, so finishing that up! “Play as a way to survive emotionally.” ...I fell asleep again.

WED

THU

11:07 p.m. Malcolm Gladwell Ted Talk: Choice, Happiness and Spaghetti sauce. “By Embracing the diversity of human beings, you will find a sure way to true happiness.”

JAN 2015

8:33 a.m. Picked up Cards Against Humanity from the post office this morning, let the hilarity ensue. 3:02 p.m. Shared my survey with some peeps in the office. I’m noticing people don’t seem to know the saying turn your frown upside down… 9:36 p.m. Back to juggling ten million things at once. Here we go… 4:22 p.m. My thoughts on death for the day have to do with adornment.

9:53 a.m. Since I’ve been home all day everyday reading for class I’ve been able to spend a lot of time with my bird Freckles. I got a really great Hyperlapse video of him being a #cuddlebug. I could watch that video on loop all day, it just makes me happy. 9:42 p.m. Dying to get through this class right now, the film we are watching is weird, but I kind of like it. It’s called Uncle Booneme Who Can Recall His Past Lives.

FRI

JAN 2015

1:39 p.m. Great meeting with Great Plains SPCA! Looks like it’s a go. So exciting! Had some good, deep conversations with John in the car. And he even bought me lunch, so nice! 3:00 p.m. Activate meeting. Got to see what everyone else was working on, especially the futuristic stuff! Pretty sweet. Heard some moans when I said next week was my last full week and then I go back to school, and doing the Tuesday/Thursday thing. 6:00 p.m. Happy hour at Tank Room with what seems like everyone I know at the office. $3 Tank 7. I may have revealed that I want to go to California to Tim. Who then told Jemma. Jemma then chased me around Tim. Jemma of course told Kelly. Kelly, gave me the dirtiest of looks, it was kinda scary, real scary.

SAT

9:00 p.m. Soak up the beer with pizza! And cheese tots. My Grinders pizza had salmon, cream cheese and capers. Nina and Tim told how they met and ended up here in KC. Jemma shared her story. And I was like, I feel my life is boring compared to you guys. I’m a workaholic, and never had a relationship, so that’s awesome. One day I’ll have cool stories to tell.

JAN 2015

9:28 a.m. I try to get up early on the weekends so I can be productive, but it never seems to work. It’s like my brain/body knows I really don’t have to do anything this early.

11:11 p.m. Jordan recommended our class start watching the BBC show Black Mirror on Netflix. I binged watched two episodes with Ben. Season One Episode Two—whoa. Talk about a critique of our digital society —feeling concerned. I think this also especially hit home because I love interactive digital things so much when it comes to design. Hell, it’s what I’m going to do for degree project. So the thought that it could be society’s bigggest obstacle yet to freedom, equality and all those other things that the show puts out there, is down right terrifying. I think it’s time for a happy movie now.

1:36 p.m. Dad is researching Italy packages, getting REAL excited!!

SUN

3:46 p.m. Ya know just ironing the rug… New look with the new Urban Outfitter’s rug, no more red dye stain.

JAN 2015

11:43 a.m. Shared my survey again on Facebook. Need those dudes to participate. C’mon guys. Currently at 74 count, probably 75% women.

5:07 p.m. Ys are hard standing alone. I’m stumped by this.

2:07 p.m. Sent a PDF of initial sketches to Yulie. Hope something sparks interest. Now I’m just pinning away… 3:00 p.m. A break from the computer for Sunday painting class over at Jemma’s. We sprawled out in the drive way to take in this beautiful weather today. Amelia wanted to paint Star Wars stuff. First it was light saber’s, which Jemma said what we were all thinking, that they ended up looking like some adult entertainment... And then Amelia also painted the planet of Tatooine, this little girl knows so much about Star Wars. Jemma painted a pretty gradation of white and bronze. I used all the kids’ leftover paint to create a crazy abstract.

5:16 p.m. Commencement designing with Monica! Yaaay graduation is that much closer!

MON

12:50 p.m. Taking Ben to Ikea for the very first time! Let’s hope I don’t spend an entire paycheck.

JAN 2015

1:04 p.m. Lulu’s for lunch. Now I’ve got dinner for the week! 5:50 p.m. Alone in the office because I’m working late in order to finish up an interactive hospital map before I need to do my final for death and dying. It’s so quiet that I jumped when I got a text message. Time to get out of here before I have to lock the door!

2:05 p.m. Just got back from Cafe Sebastian at the Kemper Museum for KC restaurant week. So delicious. Quite the change from my oatmeal and Cheerios lunches. 4:16 p.m. Yay Pup Art!! They want to start as soon as February 1st! 9:18 p.m. Survey count: 24 males/60 females. Damn dudes really don’t know how to participate…

JAN 2015

THU

JAN 2015

WED

TUE

JAN 2015

11:42 a.m. Confusing stuff today at work. All this seating signage. Insane.

9:02 a.m Time to package KüblerRoss’ stages of grief for my final.

6:50 p.m. Freelance… grrrr.

10:08 a.m. Hip-hop classics playlist... feelin’ it so hard.

10:54 p.m. Had to move files over so I could continue working…such a pain. But got stuff moved to my external and left the shared Gen folders from Dropbox, that made a BIG difference!

3:41 p.m. CU called Jemma, a.k.a. me, a speedy magician. Whoop. 6:33 p.m. Stopped by the Made in the Middle party. I don’t know what to do with my self in these situations… Found Anna and Kim. We left and went and got pizza at Grinders.

FRI

JAN 2015

1:39 p.m. Today was my last day of death and dying, I’ve been in the class for three weeks and it’s totally been dominating my life. I’ve been reading all day every day for the most part, or writing my papers, or working on my final project. Because of this class, I did practically no work for degree project… 12:13 p.m. Kelly [Furlong] and I dressed like twins today.

1:56 p.m. Italy in June!!! I can’t contain my excitement for the KCAI graduation/23rd birthday/Father’s Day extravaganza! 5:49 p.m. Gorgeous magical colors in the sunset across Kansas as I make my way to see Amanda in Oklahoma.

8:58 p.m. “You’re here! Now give me your scarf!” Izzy is so big now!

1:32 p.m. So this is my first time in Restoration Hardware, so many pretty things, especially all the rainbows from the crystal chandeliers. Ben’s going to buy me blanket.

SAT

11:30 p.m. Crazy dance party with Amanda’s friends. Gettin’ a little wild.

JAN 2015

1:32 p.m. This weather, food trucks , and this sign. So stuffed. Tacos, bbq nachos, cheesecake stuffed pretzel, s’more. Whoa.

9:37 p.m. Bowling at Tinker Air Force base. I won the 2nd game! #sports

SUN

JAN 2015

1:46 p.m. Mall Shoppinggg. Everything I got is blue… Whoops.

10:00 a.m. Big Hero 6. Gooood, good movie. Not huge into animations but this was so cute. B-Max knows what a human needs to feel content and power through sadness; surround yourself with people that care for you.

6:06 p.m. OK byeeeeee OK. Some great sunsets this road trip.

11:49 a.m. Whiskey Cake. Great atmosphere and decor. Love it.

3:07 p.m. I had Kidwell sign my form to make Populous for credit, he said he wasn’t going to doing anymore of them but he could do one just for me :) I told him I was trying to cut back on things and take it a little easier. He said good, if he had a regret that it would have been not enjoying life and working too much during college. He also said though, that someone as talented and charismatic as me there’s going to be plenty of opportunity and it would be tough to say no.

MON

4:08 p.m. How bout this hair?! Lions mane? It’s getting so long!

JAN 2015

7:38 a.m. Last first day of college. What the hell I am going to do. I’m ready to be done, but I’m not ready for class, gah, I guess I’ll start with a cup of coffee from the Nerm.

12:08 p.m. Brunch! Pink! Fancy deviled eggs and berries and bubbles. And delicious eggs Benedict. And quite the delicious waiter. I was having some math problems with my check… I wrote I go to art school :) But really I do know math!

2:19 p.m. Let me just… Get in the middle! Last first day with these goons. #senioryear 6:38 p.m. FaceTime with Neha! She has a second interview for her big girl job! Yaaaay! She also told 13 of her guy friends to take my happy survey. 10:22 p.m. Thomas Jefferson and the Declaration of Independence— ”Happiness is only something we can pursue and never have it.” How did he know that?

TUE

JAN 2015

10:09 a.m. So like everyone besides me got a iPhone 6 over break, so I had to take the pic of them all together with my 5. #GD seniors #iphones

6:42 p.m. Refining my problem statement for degree project. “How can an interactive installation utilize textiles, technology and design to create an enhanced experience for viewers? Hope this helps me figure things out more better. 8:20 p.m. Gots a library card…. Now let’s read! – Subliminal: How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior Leonard Mlodinow, 2011 – Architecture of Happiness Alain de Botton, 2006

12:03 p.m. Kidwell told Nick and I to clear our schedules for Feb. 20. Looks like we have to present to the freshman… I don’t know what project to talk about… 1:07 p.m. Beeeeware these puns are gonna sting! Monica and I are gonna build a bee bridge. Kidwell was down with the bees. 3:51 p.m. First design team meeting. Caitlin, responded very well to our kalidescope concept. Graduation is that much closer! 4:18 p.m. “When an elder dies, a library burns down.” Jodi shared this quote that her art history teacher said. Quite profound indeed. 5:42 p.m. Stepped into Barnes and Noble, Tammy and Sara both got so excited when they saw me. I think it may have been just how fun it is to say my name… BRIIIIIIIIIIIII. The first thing Tammy said was “Are you coming back?!” I laughed.

THU

JAN 2015

9:10 a.m. Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyy?! What’s the point of this? People sometimes.

WED

11:12 p.m. So I knew this was coming today, but it was still hard to face in class. But my whole problem of how I’ve kind of ignored degree project over break surfaced in Kelly’s class today. This is real life, I need to get my shit together. It’s been so easy for me to read articles about design daily thanks to Facebook, but I’ve been stuck in this rut of not knowing how to tackle everything I want to do with combining textiles and technology.

JAN 2015

8:28 a.m. Sometimes I forget how nice it is to start the day off with a shower, a hearty breakfast and a cup of coffee. It’s going to be a great day , feeling ready to work. 11:40 a.m. Kelly [Ludwig] shared Jerome Jarre. One happy guy. Love for life. King of Vine. All about positivity and being fearless, and letting go. – “Spend your life doing strange things with weird people” [Twitter] – “The best way to multiply your happiness is to share it with others.” [Twitter] – “Everyone is looking for a purpose in life,” he said as we walked through New York. “The reason we all go to the cinema, or online, is because we haven’t found a purpose yet. We are always wondering why we’re here. But I’ve learned that we have to create that purpose for ourselves.” [New York Times]

7:56 p.m. It’s time to get my hands dirty. I’ve jut been spinning on ideas. Time to make some material samples and burn the midnight oil. 8:33 p.m. Freelance. Going to prom for this one. I never went to prom…

1:11 p.m. Good talk with Kelly [Ludwig]. She’s very interested in seeing where things go. She thinks there’s going to be something great hidden in here somewhere. I sure I can find it soon… 1:53 p.m. Kaylie made the sweetest comment. “Bri you just get cuter every semester, you just keep looking more and more like a designer.” Huh. Okay. Wow. I guess so.

SAT

3:30 p.m. Brian shared the news… I’m getting kicked out of my seat! I’ll be moving over into Aaron’s old spot in marketing. But still a strong part of the Bower-house! Kelly [Furlong] says her and Jemma are going to FaceTime me all the time now. Dave said I had to bring treats for my departure…

JAN 2015

12:22 p.m. Trying to crank out freelance! Sent out the prom edits. Now trying to figure out the Pup Art promotional images… Not sure what the correct text needs to be included on these… Oui, help. 2:36 p.m. Busy bee-ing. Monument in the making with Monica

8:24 p.m. Jodi shared this ketchup finding at Applebee’s. Happy?

FRI

10:34 p.m. Getting back into the swing of balancing everything is going to be difficult… Ugh. Got my degree project PDF process template set up. Now let’s read some more.

JAN 2015

2:22 a.m. So I used my baby for a while to knit some samples, mostly out of pony wool, and then I felted a couple. Then BOOM, I’m starting to have some ideas, like gloves for people to wear for the grounded wire with the Makey Makey. Not tired from ideas, but I should try and get some sleep for class. 10:14 a.m. Hey! Looky there! Found this out on the type collective in the crossroads with B. Huff. I didn’t do it.

5:07 p.m. Ben and I were messing around by asking Siri silly questions. Apparently she knows I should get back to doing homework too.

12:00 p.m. Patrick was the only one down for coming to play Cards Against Humanity out of the bunch that I messaged from work. It’s OK, at least I attempted to me more social. And plus it was very last minute, I’m not a planner. Jackie’s friend, Kinsey also came. It was really fun. Great laughs all around. I’m trying to initiate more social interactions.

SUN

FEB 2015

2:57 p.m. Story time with Jaclyn. Read her all the definitions and moments of happiness. I asked her how that all made her feel and she said confused. Lots of responses about birth of children, marriage, and hanging out with friends. Happy is either a choice, living in the moment, or when everything falls into place. Happiness comes and goes. All relevant.

8:50 a.m. Wake up. Youtube. Laughs. Okay, carry on. 10:14 a.m. If you go to the grocery store you can make real food, imagine that.

As for today, it hasn’t been crazy special, but more of a comfortable happy. We slept in till 11, got up, showered together, and went our separate ways for school and soon I’ll be picking him up to go watch the Super Bowl.

3:39 p.m. Starting Happiness: The Science Behind Your Smile. 6:45 p.m. Watching the Super Bowl at the Green Room while attempting to work on degree project on my laptop. It’s turning out to be an interesting Sunday afternoon. Yay, beer. 7:00 p.m. Super Bowl… Hanging out with some Populous folks. Sports, people, let’s do this. I’m getting better. Still not very good at keeping conversation going but I don’t feel as awkward. Yay, progress!

MON

1:43 p.m. Today is my two year anniversary with my boyfriend Ben. He is my first and only boyfriend, but we’ve had a good run so far. I’m feeling a little reminiscent of our first date. We went and saw the premier of Warm Bodies, but we wouldn’t end up holding hands and kissing till Valentine’s Day a few weeks later. That was my first kiss. I leaned over and quickly kissed him on the cheek, and then he came in a closer, grabbed my chin and brought me in for the real deal. I can still remember the butterflies exploding in my stomach.

FEB 2015

9:17 a.m. Making a degree project schedule… Came up with a happy gram app! Schedule a pick me up to turn your frown upside down for at least a moment. A component to go along with a spatial installation. Pretty excited about it. Seems Kelly is too. She says I’m on the right track. And noticed that the subject is becoming more comfortable to me since our emotional start with my initial proposal. I shared that I think that’s because I have the personal goal of being more social and less lonely girl working away on her computer forev-

er and ever. And I’m actually enjoying researching this topic. Everything is looking up. 2:00 p.m. Beeeeeees. Kidwell you’re too cool. I hope we keep in touch when this is all over… maybe one day we’ll work together. Thank you for taking my happy survey. Monica and I completely rethought out our project. No longer a bridge, but a Harmony Hive. A community gathering place, with an interactive center that needs/ relies on symbiosis to function. A ripple affect of ground covering leading up to the structure reiterates the symbiosis of bees being essential to our being and quality of life. 3:45 a.m. Been talking with Kelly, I’m missing an “it” for my project. What is my driving factor wanting to do this project? I don’t know, I just want to design cool things and graduate. Well, I guess I’ll attempt to make a schedule. At least I know it will take me a while to learn the arduino stuff, and I can schedule for proto-typing. Update: I’ve decided to schedule in phases, it makes the most sense for my brain. Research, learn arduino, prototype, refine idea, create final piece, document. 10:23 p.m. BAHA! Funfetti brownies. Can’t wait to share these with the Power House tomorrow.

TUE

11:10 p.m. Pup Art advertising images done! Hope everything is the way it needs to be…. Let’s get this going! :)

FEB 2015

9:05 a.m. Bower House Sportzzzzzz.

12:00 p.m. Derp. Everyone ate them all. Miss my little section. Marketing is really quiet…

WED

5:30 p.m. Taco Tuuuuuuuuuuesday, is really just cheeeeeese dip Tuesday. So damn full.

FEB 2015

12:22 p.m. Kidwell said something weird today… I was fidgeting around with our hexagon model, and he said “Stop that. Someone needs to sedate her, so she’ll calm down.” Vuuuuut….? I don’t think so buddy.

THU

3:59 p.m. Golf course anyone?

FEB 2015

1:00 p.m. Lunch with Jemma. Good talk about school and all those fun things. How I’m working on my social skills and anxiety and that stuff. Feels nerve racking and good at the same time, letting people in, it’s okay I guess. I suppose I’ve just liked being a tad mysterious and having my private troubles to my self, but talking is good too I guess.

10:22 p.m. I’m panicking about applying for jobs, so I’m re-designing my resume #howdoIfitallofthison1page? —feeling lost.

3:42 p.m. Kelly [Furlong] was telling what was needed for K-State, and just turns her head to me and says “We make a good team, Bri. Just thought I’d say that.” Haha, I’m not going anywhere… yet. But those California dreams man. 10:28 p.m. B. Hand suggested watching 30 Rock season 7 episode 12 cause it’s about the characters searching for what makes them happy. I didn’t really know much of what was going on since I haven’t watched the show ever but I did get this quote out of it: “If you have to ask if you’re happy, then you probably aren’t.”

FRI

5:55 p.m. I watched Hector and the Search for Happiness. Which was pretty good movie. It’s about a psychologist who goes on the hunt to find what makes people happy so he can better help his patients. But truly he is out to find what makes him happy. Throughout his world wide journey he makes these observations: 1. Making comparisons can spoil your happiness 2. A lot of people think happiness means being richer or more important 3. Many people see happiness only in their future 4. Happiness could be the freedom to love more than one woman at the same time 5. Sometimes happiness is not knowing the whole story 6. Avoiding unhappiness is not the road to happiness 7. Does the person you’re with bring you predominantly A) up B) down 8. Happiness is answering your calling 9. Happiness is being loved for who you are 10. Sweet potato stew 11. Fear is an impediment of happiness 12. Happiness is feeling completely alive 13. Happiness is knowing how to celebrate 14. Listening is loving 15. Nostalgia is not what it used to be

FEB 2015

12:36 p.m. The mottoooo...

12:48 p.m. Collaboration decided! 12:54 p.m. Yaaay partner project!! Excited to see how things go. 2:46 p.m. Bri and I are officially going to work together on our final installation piece!!! Plus I finally figured out my it, or my objective. It is to educate viewers on the benefits of interactive design + the importance of human connection through touch. This way when Bri and I collaborate she has the happiness aspect and I have the interaction aspect. And Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m thinking that the other part of my project will be making directions for the interaction, and a poster introducing the project and why interactive pieces like it are significant to learning and memory. So now I need to get crack-a-lacking on researching tactility with learning and also memory. P.S. I got my new arduino, the one specifically for textiles, the Lily Pad!

“

SOMETIMES

HAPP

INESS

DYNAMIC DUOS

WHEREâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S YOUR OTHER HALF? There are those pairs of people that you just canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t imagine one without the other. They are always together, for better or for worse (but mostly the better). They learn and work together, and make the most of every opportunity. Often these pairs can go above and beyond the norm, so we took some inspiration from them in our own partnership.

RAY & CHARLES EAMES Design is for living. That maxim shaped a widespread shift in design during the 1940s and 1950s. It was a revolution of form, an exciting visual language that signaled a new age and a fresh start—and two of its prime movers were Charles and Ray Eames. The Eameses were a husband and wife team whose unique synergy led to a whole new look in furniture. Lean and modern. Sleek, sophisticated and simple. Beautifully functional. Yet, Charles and Ray Eames created more than a “look” with their bent plywood chairs or molded fiberglass seating. They had ideas about making a better world, one in which things were designed to fulfill the practical needs of ordinary people and bring greater simplicity and pleasure to our lives.

ed plywood chair, “Yes, it was a flash of inspiration,” he said, “a kind of 30-year flash.” Combining imagination and thought, art and science, Charles and Ray Eames created some of the most influential expressions of 20th century design (spanning from modern architecture to graphic design)—that remains stylish, fresh and functional today. And they didn’t stop with furniture. The Eameses also created a highly innovative “case study” house in response to a magazine contest. They made films, including a seven-screen installation at the 1959 Moscow World’s Fair, presented in a dome designed by Buckminster Fuller. They designed showrooms, invented toys and generally made the world a more interesting place to be.

The Eameses adventurously pursued new ideas and forms with a sense of As the most important exponents of organic design, Charles and Ray Eames “serious fun.” Yet, it was rigorous discipline that allowed them to achieve per- demonstrated how good design can improve quality of life and human underfection of form and mastery over materials. As Charles noted about the mold- standing and knowledge.

SHREK & DONKEY Though surly and often cranky, Shrek is a peaceful creature that’s rough around the edges. He has no desire to hurt anyone, he just wants to live his life with a little peace and quite solitude. If this solitude is disrupted Shrek will prove to be a force that can be hard to recon with. If one does manage to complete the difficult task of befriending Shrek (such as Donkey) he is a loyal, caring friend. Some might say he’s like an onion, he’s got a lot of layers in his personality. Donkey is a hyperactive, talkative, funny, sensitive donkey with buck teeth. He enjoys singing, idle chatter and often speaks in slang, but proves rather annoying to those around him (like his friend Shrek). Being a donkey, he has a sweet tooth and enjoys foods such as parfaits, cake, and waffles (his favorite). Donkey is a sufferer of acrophobia, color-blindness, hypochondria, cowardice, impatience and short attention span. While he might be tactless sometimes, Donkey is an innocent being that always has good intentions.

STEFAN SAGMEISTER & JESSICA WALSH 89

Stefan Sagmeister is a designer who blends typography and imagery in striking, fresh, ambitious, and unsettling ways. He has influenced the culture of design over the past decade. He is perhaps best known for his album covers for Talking Heads, Lou Reed, OK Go, and The Rolling Stones. His motto is “Design that needed guts from the creator and still carries the ghost of these guts in the final execution.” Blending handcraft, photography and painting with digital design, Jessica Walsh works primarily on branding, typography, website design and art installations. Her signature style has been described as “bold, emotional and provocative” with the occasional surrealistic flourish, and her art has been said to look “hand-made and at times quite daring.” In 2010, Walsh met Sagmeister. He looked through her portfolio and offered her a job at his design studio, Sagmeister Inc. In June 2012, after two years at the firm, Walsh was made partner, at age 25. Five years later and the company is still going strong. They dedicate a good amount of their work to the art world, things like books and publications for galleries, the scientific community, and social causes. They believe in designing for audiences and themselves, which even led them to design an exhibit about the exploration of happiness.

IS NO KNOW 90

OT WING 91

THE WHOLE STORY

4:07 p.m. Watching Chef. Pretty good movie. About pursuing dreams and being genuinely happy with your life’s passion. What keeps you going and what you love. Heyyyy Amanda! Let’s start our own food truck!…

11:45 p.m. Daaaawe that classic Pepsi ad. This picture is from when we all went out to Pizza 51 after finishing all of our sophomore reviews. I don’t remember much about the lunch date, but by this photo, we must have been having a blast. I suppose that was a time where I was still in a state of bright eyes and anxious for summer.

6:03 p.m. Sign painters movie!

6:56 p.m. Casey Ligon does it again. That girl’s got talent. Damn.

SAT

FEB 2015

11:43 a.m. Mailed out Amanda pandas valentine box! 11:50 a.m. I love watching my YouTubers. Sharing joy they are.

9:30 p.m. Coasts. Bad Suns. Quaint little concert at the Record Bar. Can’t even remember my last concert. A good time with Anna and Kim.

11:57 a.m. Just watched the video for Maroon 5: Sugar. Bringing the happy. acts of kindness. Wow, such impact they made with their music.

12:24 p.m. Discovered Train Town KC in the Ward Parkway mall today, it’s so cute, but feels wildly out of place. I’m in love with these miniature windmills. We should have done a field trip here for Kidwell for our monument project.

1:30 p.m. Lunch with mom and Terry. Talked about my happy project and future things. 2:56 p.m. Mustered up the confidence to ask a co-worker to have a movie night. He already had plans for tonight so next weekend it is. It was hard. Real hard. Putting yourself out there. I’ve came to the realization that if it’s work related or career motivating I’m totally like, fuck yeah let’s do this. But then when it comes to personal relationships. Forget about it. I guess I just don’t like being vulnerable in a personal setting… Why is work always a priority and social/ building relationships not? 4:47 p.m. A little Saturday stroll with Jaclyn. Feels good to be moving. And the weather is perfect. 8:10 p.m. Finished Happiness: The Science Behind Your Smile.

SUN

10:56 p.m. Laundry time means puppy snuggle time.

FEB 2015

10:33 a.m. Denim shirt day!!!! 1:31 p.m. Blue skies and bike rides. Is it really February?

FEB 2015

TUE

7:59 a.m. Time for week 1 & 2 presentations. I think we’re in a good spot. Some thoughts taken from crit were: - camera to document installation #happygram - flush out all facets of the app with all the good stuff - Monica and I are having our own design firm 8:15 p.m. Working away on the bee monument...

FEB 2015

8:43 a.m. Kelly [Furlong] FaceTimed me to say that she didn’t clean her desk off for nothing, and to get over there. So I did. It was nice. 8:25 p.m. Went to studio to work on spatial. Ended up just having girl talk with Monica for a couple of hours. I’m opening up. Sharing things. Getting better at this.

WED

MON

5:06 p.m. Time to work on our bee monument. Burn shit. And make a giant chocolate cake!

FEB 2015

8:43 a.m. Kidwell saw my screen background on my phone. And went on a rant on how I’m quite the potty mouth… Whoops. Sorry not sorry...? 6:24 p.m. OMG, soooo cute! A 109 year old man knits sweaters for penguins. Can this somehow be research for degree project I wonder.... lol

THU

FEB 2015

11:44 a.m. Woke up with a sore throat. FML.

9:30 p.m. Finishing up the commencement invite. OH, so close to the end. 11:18 p.m. Started Human Happiness and Morality. Time to learn about ethics. “How is a right act right?” I don’t know, let’s find out...

8:00 p.m. Stayed at work to do freelance and do my homework. Good choice that was. Now off to bed.

FRI

9:08 p.m. Amanda got her Valentine’s box. She said Izzy tried to take the puppy but she took it away, that it was hers… I guess Izzy has all her others and she wants that one to be hers.

FEB 2015

10:27 a.m. Freshman presentation success. A lot more showed up than expected. Kelly [Ludwig] said I did a good job talking slower. High five. 1:20 p.m. Detailed schedule made for degree project.

SAT

4:29 p.m. Jodi shared her chocolate covered strawberries! To all the single ladies rocking.

FEB 2015

1:23 p.m. The sickness. Throat is all red. Lunch date at Brio with dad and his date Tanya. Wasn’t as awkward as I had expected it could be. Now time for throat drops and NyQuil. 2:48 p.m. Happy Valentine’s Day. Going back to bed now. Bye. 6:32 p.m. Grey’s Anatomy episode 10 season 11: Callie – “Have we used up all our happy? Ever afraid of that? That this all there is now, that I’ve got a certain amount of happy. And now I’ve used it all up. Do you think that’s true?” Owen – “God I hope not.” 10:34 p.m. Got two red roses for two years together from my best friend and boyfriend #sweet #Iloveyou

name wrong but I remember Bri just bursting out with laughter and it was meant to be. It was so good that we decided to put in our presentation for tomorrow with the printmaking class.

2:30 p.m. I’ve been trying to figure out a cool application for my MakeyMakey, and was looking online for interactive music things and ran across monomes. They’re pretty cool. They are a very sleek interface for making music, powered by light and pattern. They cost a fortune though, but thank God for the internet because someone figured out how to make a cheap version with a Makey-Makey, courtesy of Jenna deBoisblanc.

3:00 p.m. Feel horrible. Movie with Thomas. Kingsman. A little violent. Weird story. Tried to talk. Lost voice. Coughing. More coughing. Sleep time. Mmmm... good night. 10:00 p.m. Working with Monica. Hold up. Brionica. Yes we shipped ourselves. 7 hours of figuring out what the hell we are doing. And creating our presentation for the work in progress with the printmakers. FEELs good to have a direction. 6:41 p.m. #BRIONICA so Bri and I shipped ourselves. It’s pretty great. I couldn’t be happier. I said it, I forget why. It might have been that I was sick and fuzzy brained and said her

MON

2:25 p.m. Renewing my website hosting, whooo #mywalletiscrying—feeling pained.

TUE

FEB 2015

7:00 a.m. Degree project class cancelled for today. 7:27 a.m. The Verge is my jam! They just keep writing about awesome stuff, here is another one that greeted me as I walk to class. “A recently funded Kickstarter project wants to create technology that can beam virtual reality into an entire room. The project, called Immersis, plans to make virtual reality something that a group of people can experience all at the same time—without wearing anything on their faces. The company behind the project, Catopsys, calls Immeris an “innovative, disruptive technology” and says it can change the social aspects of virtual reality. The projector, which Wired points out looks like a sinister Pixar lamp, connects to your computer and beams any content in 180 degrees.”

FEB 2015

5:38 p.m. There’s nothing quite like unwinding with a hot shower when it’s cold out and listening to relaxing music—listening to Bon Iver. The shower speaker Travis and Stephanie got me has come quite in handy.

WED

SUN

1:03 p.m. Field trip to the WWII memorial. The sun is shining so bright.

1:19 p.m. Found this book in the library archives. Happy days!

2:16 p.m. Visited Amigoni Winery, the location for the senior show party. Can’t wait!

7:20 p.m. Happy hour at Fred P. Ott’s. I had no idea this place existed. 7:07 p.m. Guess who got bronchitis? You guessed right: me! So turns out, I’m not dying, I just have a nasty case of lung sickness. I felt it coming on Wednesday night, but holy shit, I got it bad. Bad enough that I had to ask my philosophy teacher if I could take the test on Monday, rather than today. And then I went to the Walgreen’s Take Care Clinic where I got diagnosed and brought home a small pharmacy of medicine for me to get better.

THU

SAT

10:25 p.m. Let’s move this thing to Westport. Scott, Caroline and I went into Harpo’s, had a beer and then moved on over to the Foundry cause the other half of our group decided to go there instead.

FEB 2015

FRI

9:00 p.m. Dinner at Extra Virgin with Emmy, Haas, Justin and our featured guest Sam Mak. Lots and lots of great conversation. We covered so many topics. Good to get to know the sophs as well. Now off to finish final type collective project due in the AM.

FEB 2015

2:27 a.m. Late night working on making the final flip book. So many pages to cut out. B. Huff and I got’er done.

11:40 a.m. Final crit for Type 4 this morning, left class early because I’m dying of sickness. I’m super proud of what Nick and I made. The final piece ended up being a 6 page digital magazine on Mag+. It’s so fun and I think it captured the East Bottoms and Pendleton Heights so well. It just sucks that I was sick for crit though, I wasn’t able to talk much. So I ended up leaving class early, after all the crits were done, and skipped Degree Project. It’s OK, Bri and I are going to figure out stuff for our presentation over the weekend.

FEB 2015

3:35 a.m. Just got home. We went to Scott’s after the Foundry. We played a little beer pong. My second time ever playing and we won. My goal of getting out there and having a good time is going quite successfully, I’d say. Smashing all the fun things you are supposed to do during college, that I never took part in these past 5 years, all into one last semester. Go hard or go home, I guess. 5:02 p.m. Slept all day. Worst day of sickness yet, so I curled up in my couch-blanket nest, turned Netflix on the TV and snoozed all day. Fuck homework, I need to get better.

FEB 2015

MON

3:00 p.m. Final tweaks to our presentation for tomorrow.

100

8:50 a.m. Work in progress presentations with the printmaking students. Some of the feedback: – Benefits of tactility in teaching, the method of teaching. – Lending itself to the creation of an art therapy program or teaching program for a specific audience, like special needs children. – Fundamental triggers, elementary education perhaps. – The emotion of being happy is more likely to have people interact with each other. – How will you direct them without having to verbally stand up and tell them what to do? Make a sound when they step on it, the positions is a crucial thing.

RESENTATIO

SUN

Bri and I are going to get together to finally figure out what the hell we are doing for degree project. It should be good, hopefully I’ll be better than I was today.

M: My passion and research led to learning that tactility has the most powerful impact on human emotion, our skin contains receptors that directly elicit emotional responses such as pain or love or… M: We both were interested in making environmental pieces and once we realized our objectives aligned, we decided to join forces to create an installation that utilizes both of our topics of interest. B: Just call us Brionica. M: So our question is…how can an interactive installation utilizing technology and design provoke happiness / positively affect a person’s immediate emotional state? B: Together we FEEL that FEEL encompasses both the idea of touch and a positive emotional response. M: FEEL would give participants a moment of happiness as payoff for interacting with the installation. B: ...happiness. From a survey that I conducted the main conclusion is that people find their moments of happiness from being surrounded by people. The relationships we build with others provide love through friendship and family while strengthening self appreciation.

B: We want to get people to live in that particular moment as they are educated on the benefits of interactive design and the importance of human connection through touch. M: 3 Parts—our interactive panel would include instructions and also educates the audience on the topic of touch and happiness. And as a take away, a branded item would record our audience’s sources of happiness. B: So for our branded system we want to graphically represent different sources of positive emotion through shapes, color and sound.

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M: The sound directly associated with happiness is laughter. To tie in the different sources of positive emotion, we would have audio clips of different types/sources of laughter play as a reaction from the installation.

M: An arduino would allow our installation to be interactive with conductive materials, paired with more tactilely inviting materials, such as soft textiles.

B: Hereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a video, to give you an idea of how the people can create a circuit for interaction resulting in sound.

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B: The installation would engage the audience, like these examples, while incorporating the visual system

B: What does that mean?â&#x20AC;Ś M: These were some of our initial ideas, but we decided that we needed a visual system that defined what we were trying to communicate more clearly. B: So we came to two more specific ideasâ&#x20AC;Ś one being an installation that is more concise and relies on touching the installation itself M: And second, the form of the installation is longer, more dominantly making users collaborate.

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FEB 2015

WED

6:33 p.m. I spent today with a heavy heart, after receiving the news one of my all-time favorite professors from KCAI passed away. I feel blessed to have known him. Rest in peace Carl.

3:07 a.m. Mother fucking rainbow. Killer presentation prepared for our senior show theme pitch.

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11:51 a.m. So it seems #brionica is catching on. Today, Emmy approved Bri and I to work on our diary book together too, because it makes the most sense with our degree project being combined. And now I think that’s what Emmy will be calling us from now on, she gets a good hoot out of it. I need to start writing more though, but I know me, II suck at daily journaling. I’ve never been good at it. blah…….. here we go, I resolve to be at least a little better at this, mostly for the sake that I want this book to be FUCKING BADASS, and because I owe it to Bri to be an equal partner for all the work that is going to go into this book and our degree project. 1:00 p.m. Well it didn’t go so well during the senior show presentation crit with the department. No one really discussed our idea. But lo and behold, Wander it is! Yay!

THU

FEB 2015

TUE

FEB 2015

1:12 a.m. WE DID IT! WE DID IT! The branding for the senior show that Bri and I designed got chosen! I’m so glad. I’d say I owe a lot of it to Bri for having the brain child idea of “Wander”. We started off as “Go” with my idea of paper airplane, but we were able to progress from that and make a great move forward. I know both of us were a little bummed our idea of gold got swept up from Nick and the Brittanys, but in some respects I think that we it made us come up with a better idea in the end any way.

1:18 p.m. A little Barkley reunion. Had lunch with Michele and Cara. Been so long...They’re now searching for their very own intern. 1:51 p.m. Ok, here is going to be big update on what’s been going on at work for me. So I’ve been working on the Cleveland Indian’s baseball team project since it started, right? I’ve touched everything from wire framing for the pitch to finalizing designed screens and interaction flow. Right now I’m working on editing some of the green screen footage we shot of the players for the locker room interactive. It’s been slow going with all the rendering, which has actually given me time to start actually write, hip-hip-hurray.

what I needed to do for the green screen video clips. And then I learned how to put another clipping mask on one too. All the things. 11:00 p.m. Tag team! Monica is working on our Type 4 book and I’m Working on the branding! We are digging it so far! All the feels.

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During lunch I skimmed an article on Fast CO. Design about the future of CEOs being designers. That gives me hope for being super successful in the future. This also made me think of Morgan, since she is perf. for managing people. Back to rendering, whhoooooo. I’ve had to trouble shoot a bit with my boss for things though, so it’s been nice to learn with him. And of course —a YouTube video saved the day. We had to watch one in order to learn

FEB 2015

9:30 a.m. Book making with Laura!

SAT

FRI

FEB 2015

9:12 p.m. B. Hand picked me up from Scott’s. Took a pit stop at the apartment to get presents, and off to Nick and Savanna’s house warming/wedding reception party.

10:32 a.m. I have a coffee table finally. Does that make me an adult now?

9:15 p.m. Apparently Bri’s been day drinking all day, and on her way here now with B. Hand, can’t wait to see how fun she’s going to be.

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2:24 p.m. SNOW DAY. Gross. But don’t fret! Went to Caroline’s to bake a birthday cake for Scott. I ran out of icing…but you just run right with it.

SUN

4:09 p.m. A playful trip to Ikea with Jodi. Picked up a giant ass yellow clock for Nick’s house warming gift. Also snagged myself a coffee table.

10:02 p.m. Drunk tweet, courtesy of Bri & I: “I didn’t have a screw driver, so I used scissors,” “How to make make a drink with scissors!?!?” Also, Chris, while drunk, said Nick’s cat is skinless (rather than hairless). So much laughing. Sooo much 100 Proof Southern Comfort.

MAR 2015

12:55 a.m. I love photo booths… By the pictures, it seems a real lot. Please turn the page to find out just how much.

11:59 p.m. Happy hour at Caddy Shack. Which then got transported to Westport. Bar hopping with Caroline like crazy to find everyone, no one was in the same place. Scott told us it was his birthday Sunday, so Caroline and I decided we were gonna make him a cake for his “Dosas & Mimosas” hang out tomorrow.

5:00 p.m. A little Mario Kart, Cards Against Humanity and the house card game with Scott, Matt and Caroline, as we ignore the outside and think about sunshine and drink margaritas on a beach. 8:48 p.m. At Nick’s housewarming party, waiting for other school buddies to show up. The roads were slippery! Glad we made it here safely.

1:00 a.m. Chubby’s for some grub with Monica and Ben. Ben called me an ass-hole for teasing him for not wanting cheese on his scrambled eggs. So rude. We had fun talking with our vibrant waitress. 1:51 a.m. They so kindly dropped me off at Blue Line in the Rivermarket so I could get my car from Scott’s place. The guys were playing bubble hockey. Scott said I walked in like a boss, whatever that means...I just really had to pee. I don’t know.

MON

MAR 2015

TUE

3:24 p.m. The count down. So little time. It’s a little scary. But I amazingly feel stress-free.

5:09 p.m. Testing how to make conductive paint. Graphite is quite messy if you didn’t already know.

3:13 a.m. Bri and I started getting our book together for T4, damn, this is going to be a beast of a book, but it’s going to be fan-fucking-tactic!

WED

12:45 p.m. GD family lunch sans Morgan. Between this and the graduation meeting, I had such a long lunch, but hamburgers!

MAR 2015

3:36 p.m. Beehive no more. Monica smash!

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THU

7:49 p.m. Testing! Testing! With success! We experimented with making our own conductive paint. We tried coloring the wood first with a graphite stick then covering with acrylic/ ink, and then we tried mixing graphite powder with acrylic/ink. We had Kaylie try it out, it was the cutest thing.

MAR 2015

1:36 a.m. Alright, well Bri and I have been going to town! I’m super excited seeing how far we’ve come. We’ve made conductive paint, narrowed down our sources of happiness down to 10, decided to make the installation a table top instead of wall based and got down an elevation. Now it’s time to start our midterm presentation! 10:46 a.m. The party animals for the Wander sign have arrived. All 600.

11:45 p.m. Elevations made! We decided to switch it up from initial sketches and make our installation an interactive table. The logo would be standing in the center as an

engagement tool. There would be a rail on one end to display our take away cards. We’ve also ordered a small Bluetooth speaker to stick in the table to blast our sounds.

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MAR 2015

2:33 p.m. Sleepy puppies. Note their matching collars, also coordinated with my exact brand colors.

2:15 p.m. We went to the wood shop to cut down our tester boards so we could have 9 mock up sounds for our midterm presentation.

9:30 a.m. Casey Ligon is here!

9:00 p.m. Did the AIGA portfolio day! Got a lot of compliments on my work, and my presentation skills. It was a good ego boost for now. Also, got to connect really well with Lance from Barkley, one of Bri’s mentors from her internship there! Small world, and damn, he was soooo nice!

10:32 p.m. FIRST FRIDAY! It’s been a while since I’ve gone, but it was great to see some of my friends’ work up. Bought stickers too! Also, got to get dinner with Morgan

SAT

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10:40 a.m. Calligraphy is tough but I really like it!

MAR 2015

3:47 a.m. Jenga at Gambal’s for 5 straight hours. Just ruled it, no big deal. When I was stacking the blocks and hitting the sides to get it straight, that there guy in the blue shirt said to me, “You have no idea how sexy that is.” HAAAA, all right dude. What? No.

SUN

FRI

MAR 2015

11:41 a.m. 70 animals for one letter… Hmmm. But I dig it!!

8:31 p.m. Getting touchy feely with the Makey Makey 8:42 p.m. Allll of the sounds!! We collected some from the web and also made our own in garage band. Playing around with our prototype is so much fun! 9:58 p.m. Wood for #degreeproject. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s bigger than Bri. #butts

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9:00 a.m. Midterm presentation with the guests was a bit confusing, I had a hard time understanding what they were getting at. Here’s the feedback notes from the crit: - Maybe make all of the sounds abstract in addition to the shapes of the objects? Provide abstraction and choices in doing so. - Balance between expected and unexpected - Maybe some unknown shapes, mystery blocks - Play more off the mystery and exploration elements. It will promote more interaction. - Chris is less interested in the happy part; more interested in the broader feeling that could happen. - More powerful to open up the ability to feel other feels (chris). - But then again, maybe only focusing on happiness is awesome and it still presents itself (Kelly). - Focus on the interactivity. - Maybe it doesn’t just have to be on a table - Maybe it’s on a column where people can’t see what is on the other side. - Question how this is living and where. - Branding is moving in a great direction. - Animate the logo! 9::00 a.m. What Bri said. 10:30 a.m. We thought about what Chris had talked about with seeing how people interact with something first and then designing to go around their path. So we thought about it and messed around with our layout and are now going for an oval shape.

TUE

MAR 2015

11:45 p.m. Gif, gif, gif, gif. Made a million of them for the Wander email and landing page for the website. Way too many layers, 162, but totally worth it.

WED

MON

MAR 2015

1:11 a.m. A test layout for animal count. Going to make it 2’ x 7.’ May need to order more animals… 119

INCIDENTAL 120

TOUCHES ARE THE MOST EFFECTIVE WAY TO

RELEASE THE

‘HAPPINESS’ NEUROCHEMICAL OXYTOCIN INTO iTHE BODY

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11:13 a.m. Grilled cheese sandwich.

Also, we launched Wander today, it’s great that we can creep on the launch eblast from Mail Chimp. I just keep refreshing the page.

4:31 p.m. Freckles is having fun making a mess #snacktime

THU

10:24 p.m. I feel good, nananananananaa I knew that I would now….

8:06 p.m. Came over to Bri’s to keep working away on this Type 4 book. It’s super nice out, so we are working on the balcony, and Morgan came over too! I feel like it’s going to be nights like this one that I’m going to miss about college.

in the middle of work day with some good people. Oh and I guess go KU? ( I went to MU.) 7:47 pm. Got my first desk ornament today! #eyebombing #petrock

MAR 2015

3:30 p.m. March madness! A long lunch break to go watch the KU game. Kelly [Furlong] volunteered me to go with Matt to get us a table at Caddy Shack. We decided the TV outside was no bueno. The glare and bird poop drips do not make for a good viewing experience. Johns Big deck here we come! They still had the cover over the deck so no direct sunshine. Coincidentally, I came dressed to support KU in my red jeans and blue shirt. I denied dressing for KU and said these are my brand colors! Can’t be playing corn hole and beer

11:00 p.m. Late night process book working. Sometimes we can only work one at a time and I find my self just staring at the ceiling…

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FRI

MAR 2015

9:50 a.m. Wood shop day!!!! CNC time. Safety first!

11:02 a.m. First go a fail. The bed wasn’t level or something and it didn’t cut all the way through on most of the shapes. Bummer. But they had a spare board to replace it and redo.

11:57 a.m. Used the table saw to cut our extra wood down to 3 inch strips for the inside supports and side panels. This little guy is your best friend so you don’t chop your fingers off.

10:10 a.m. Look at it go. Oooo, but the shapes. 124

12:09 p.m. Used the chisel and mallet to knock out the letter forms from the piece the CNC cut out.

10:49 a.m. Saw dust be gone!

1:12 p.m. Before sanding.

2:55 p.m. Monica had to go to class so I was left to bring the rest of the wood pieces back over to Irving. While doing so my oh so graceful self ran the wood cart right into the back of my leg. It burns.

After sanding. So smooth. 2:56 p.m. There it is. All the pieces to the puzzle. A full day in the wood shop was tiring. Oh man. 3:13 p.m. The speaker came! Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the perfect size for our table.

2:41 p.m. There is the lovely mishap in the dumpsterâ&#x20AC;Ś

10:01 p.m. A relaxing night in. Well technically out. On the balcony with Jackie and Jon. We listened to some tunes, played heads up, then set up our own little movie drive-in with my lap top on the table.

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SAT

MAR 2015

7:17 p.m. Just hanging out up on the hill. Dinner and view can’t get no better here in KC.

8:02 a.m. Weekend workshop round two! Hand lettering with Hallmark experts with Bri, Jodi & Morgan.

9:45 And now kicking spring break off with some fun. Saw Broods at the Midland, it was wonderful. They seem super chill. I feel like I’d love to hang out with them after they preformed at a coffee shop.

SUN

1:00 p.m. Just finished up the AIGA lettering workshop! Lots of fun!

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1:25 p.m. Spring is here. Let’s clean this place. Dust bunnies be gone! 4:51 p.m. Taking in some rays as I fail to paint my nails. #prostatus

8:12 p.m. Chipotle. Nom nom nom. And Zoolander… The weirdest movie.

MAR 2015

7:17 a.m. Soaking up the sunshine + wind. 13 mile bike ride. Feeling good. Except for my butt, it’s feeling a little seat sore. 1:15 p.m. Time for doggie baths. So fresh and so clean, clean. 2:23 p.m. Put in 20 pieces in dad’s puzzle. And he said I was off my game… Ha, please. 3:10 p.m. Since school has been dominating my life I haven’t been able to do laundry since January, so today is laundromat day! 6 industrial washers and $11 dollars later, and I’m ½ way through. #ihavetoomuchclothing

I feel so relaxed and energized from the energy from their performance. Which has had me thinking about Brittany’s degree project about synesthesia. So Broods to me is graphite grey, smells like a fire made with freshly chopped pine wood, and tastes like your tongue fell asleep from concentrating too hard.

TUE

MAR 2015

6:53 p.m. More animal sitting for spring break (Morgan’s birds)! Look at these two cuties #lovebirds

6:53 p.m. Baby sitting Yola, the Sphinx for Nick. She’s such a sweetie

8:12 p.m. St. Patrick’s Day! Jackie and I met up with Monica, Ben and some of their friends at the Green Room in Westport. Ben shared the awesomeness that is hard root beer. Jackie and I split a root beer float with said hard root beer. We all played Cards Against Humanity with the very worn down set at the bar. 12:53 p.m. Walked to Greenroom for Saint Patty’s, Bri and her roommate. met us there. Noria also showed up, she lives here now, what! Had a lot of Tank 7, so drunk right meow, new waitress gave me a pint instead of a tulip. Also, saw black ladies arguing with two gay guys about “bye Felicia” on our way out of Westport, that was entertaining. Wobbled home.

11:16 a.m. Pampered Thumper today, he got new tires, an oil change, and a car wash. Got bit by the social media bug today. I’m sitting outside enjoying this beautiful weather ‘gramming & pinning away.

WED

MON

MAR 2015

1:24 p.m. Brunch and to do list making at the International House of Pancakes. So much yum.

8:12 p.m. It’s spring break, so I’m switching up my populous schedule. It’s a Monday Tuesday thing this week. And then brionica marathon for the rest.

1:42 p.m. The list. On a napkin of course.

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2:40 p.m. But why? Can’t you buy new eyes at Wal-Mart?… Surprise... Over in sculpture to build our table since the wood shop is closed for spring break.

5:06 p.m. Painting the letter outlines while Monica figures out the transparency to fill the middle.

10:22 p.m. Ooooo transparency! Circles are hard to cut out! We watched a couple comedy stand out movies as we worked the night away. Nothing like some good laughter to keep you going through the late hours.

5:26 p.m. Nailing it! We sandwiched the transparency between the two outlines to bring our logo to life on our table.

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3:00 p.m. Laying out our letters. Actually quite a nice height. It’s about the same as a bar.

3:20 p.m. Marking where we want everything to be positioned. Do you see the winky face?

8:21 p.m. McDonald’s run. We got the exact same thing. Nuggets galore. 9:05 p.m. Before and after. White to black. #contrast

10:42 p.m. The studio is ourssssss. Sleep tight degree project.

THU

BALLS TO THE WALLS

MAR 2015

1:28 a.m. Checking out scale for our cards. The type is looking all right!

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9:19 a.m. It’s coming along! Got our shapes painted and transparencies cut out.

ceipt from yesterday and it ended up saying 5/8.” So we went back in. 5/8” looked huge, so we took them both back to the dowels. Monica looked at her receipt again… I noticed some things on there that we didn’t get yesterday, and was like is this even the right receipt… #haventhadourmorningcoffeeyet 12:26 p.m. Back over to sculpture we go! Umbrella-ella-ella-aaaa

10:14 a.m. A little bit of a later start than we had wanted cause we sat and had a nice chat with Emmy. 11:19 a.m. Home Depot. We bought a 3/8” drill bit for the dowels. Got back to the car and Monica checked her re-

1:30 p.m. Yeeeeeeesssss! I like nail guns. Watch out.

2:33 p.m. Making holes in the middle of the little blocks that will be holding up the shapes. This will allow the wires to be hidden from sight.

8:36 p.m. Painting all the shapes with our conductive paint. Things got real messy! But we donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t mind. Hard at work. #somuchmess

2:13 p.m. Band saw to cut the little dowels that will be holding up the FEEL letters.

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10:26 p.m. The shadows!

3:17 p.m. Sanding, getting those sides super smooth!

10:31 p.m. Looking good! Glad we decided to put the transparency colors underneath the shapes.

5:12 p.m. Q39 dinner date with the madre. Monica had never been. Sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s gonna take Ben on Saturday now. 7:13 p.m. Poly and paint time. While watching Hot Rod.

MAR 2015

12:07 a.m. Saw this video of an Asian guy screaming while painting yellow lines. I can’t stop imagining Bri doing this since she is so loud. lolololol 11:58 a.m. Gone fishin’ be back soon.

11:59 p.m. Got all the wires through the perspective holes and labeled with what shape they correspond to.

4:26 p.m. Back over in sculpture now. Monica soldered all the wires to the backs of the shapes. We put copper tape on the back of them all to insure maximum conductivity and as a point for the wire to be soldered to. I was Monica’s assistant as I cut teeny pieces of copper tape and slightly put them on the tip of the exact-o, for her to then meticulously place on top of her solder job.

4:36 p.m. We attached ency to the bottom of first so we had more their placement once them to the table top.

6:59 p.m. Bri hold this…

10:43 p.m. Today marks our 8th trip to Home Depot... We finished painting the shapes, nailed their stands on, and then soldered and nail gunned them to the table. We had major difficulties with the 2 inch nails. Pain in the ass. But we did it. Got some countless touch ups to do but we should be good. We took a pizza and beer break as we watched The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and cuddled with Yola.

the transparall the bases control over we attached

SAT

FRI

MAR 2015

11:45 Surprise trip to Q39. My treat for Ben. We had a tiff a little bit ago, and this was my way to make it up to him. So nice outside too!

1:56 p.m. For the dashes and dots we had to connect the 4 or 5 wires together to form one connect for the Makey-Makey. Monica soldered them together first, wrapped with a little copper tape, and then heated up some heat shrink tubing around the meeting point to make sure everything was secure and in place.

4:37 p.m. It’s a small space to work in, but Monica worked her magic.

1:30 p.m. Monica turned me onto The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. I’ve been watching it all morning. 5:00 p.m. Day drinking party in Loose Park with Populous peeps. My boccie ball game is much stronger than my Frisbee game. Good chill day to end spring break. 5:01 p.m. Went to the Rivermarket and then walked to the Nelson for some afternoon adventures. Saw the famous chef show, not as exciting as I had thought.

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7:17 p.m. Just had the best afternoon nap—feeling rested.

1:34 p.m. Off to spend the rest of the night working on Brionica things.

8:00 p.m. EVERYBODY UP! Ian called Blue Koi to make a reservation. Once he got off the phone it was like magic, everyone just shot up and cleaned up our area in like a split second, it was crazy. Ian, Sara and I split Saki. And I tried the basil ginger chicken with noodles. A tasty first visit, I’d say.

4:40 p.m. Visiting Yola while Nick’s on his honeymoon. How am I supposed to be productive like this?

7:58 p.m. Copied 5 sites definitions of a Gemini. Now trying to condense it down to the awesome stuff. 8:54 p.m. Got our vinyl all ready! Very teeny, tiny type!

MAR 2015

3:10p.m. Just got home. Patrick, Eddie and Ben were going to stick around after eating their Winstead’s to play Cards Against Humanity, but they were too full and tired. So it was off to bed for me. 12:31 p.m. Oh man, it was tough waking up at 9:30 this morning! Just got back from seeing The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel with Anna. It was a thoughtful movie. Puts my wonder-lust into motion. 12:32 p.m. Slept in till noon with Ben, first good cuddle session we’ve gotten in in-a-while. Brionica has put a curb on our couple time. Poor boy, every time he asks what I’m up to I tell him I’m with Bri. Oh-well, school will be over before we know it.

8:41 p.m. Late night food. Chipotle it is. That counts as tacos, right?

MAR 2015

11:23 a.m. Trying to write our instructions and feel explanation for the table. Boy is it tough to be super dedooper concise. 4:18 p.m. Put together the Wander board, ready for the party animals! Brand colors, IRL.

11:03 p.m. Got our vinyl designed in class today, had our 9th run to Home Depot, one last trip to Nick’s to feed monster and Yola, dinner run to Panera, then back to studio for our BOOKIN’ IT session. And Morgan joined us for a viewing of Pitch Perfect in studio.

TUE

10:45 p.m. Pitch Perfect. And process book. Imma quote this movie the whoooollleee time.

MON

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SUN

11:30 p.m. The party continued on to Westport where we settled in at a table at Harry’s. Soon the folks that went to the Sporting KC game caught up with us and joined in on the fun.

MAR 2015

1:47 a.m. All of our tools.

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10:46 a.m. Dear Lord, Bri has me living in all caps now on my computer. gotta love when all the sudden when I start SCREAMING RANDOMLY AT WORK. (In my head at least, when I’m typing emails.)

y’all and she’s been saying NO a fuck ton, but just for fun. #no #yes #maybe #idk

WED

9:11 a.m. Had a caffeine pill for breakfast because Bri and I were up late working on our book. Whoooooo, let’s go Hy-Vee . It’s back to timeline making now.

5:07 p.m. First of the vinyl cut out.

MAR 2015

2:00 a.m. Cutting all the paper. Making a massive mock up of our type book crit with Martin. 5:22 p.m. The aliens are coming... look at the counter act.

5:52 p.m. Nick got stranded in Philly, and I had to check on Yola one last time. The naked beauty.

2:04 a.m. That one thing that happend with the Cheetos... 136

5:39 p.m. Interesting scraps from pulling out the letter forms.

8:03 p.m. We teach each other something new everyday.

3:32 p.m. Break time with a beer over at Westside Local.

11:12 p.m. Ben magically made coffee appear for Brionica. We were amazed! 11:52 p.m. Trip to Populous to print Type 4 book because we broke as fuck & Martin’s coming tomorrow. Spent all our money on FEEL... Also Bri’s been talking in the third person a lot lately. It’s gettin’ weird

3:32 p.m. Yum, Pop Up IPA.

SAT

10:50 p.m. Sock Fund proposal complete! Added up all our expenses and turns out we have dropped bank on this project. $610. Hot damn.

6:19 p.m. Now time to apply, very, very carefully...steady...

MAR 2015

11:23 a.m. Our 600 cards have arrived! In a nice rainbow too. Time to sort them out.

THU

11:00 p.m. We are actually leaving studio before midnight. Past two nights been here since 3 am. Time to SLEEP.

MAR 2015

8:49 p.m. Sock Fund proposal dropped off! Hope we get some money back! Be real cool. 6:48 p.m. We learn something new everyday from each other. Even if it is about one direction. 7:19 p.m. Final coat of poly applied by Monica. 5 coats in all.

FRI

8:53 p.m. Finished our presentation for tomorrow and itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s only nine. Woooooww. Success.

MAR 2015

12:12 a.m. ITS FINALLY HAPPENING! (I apologize for screaming in all-caps, but I cannot contain my excitement here) Steven Spielberg will direct pop culture thriller Ready Player One. I super love that book and Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been waiting forever for them to make it a movie, and Steven Fucking Spielberg is going to direct it? Hell Yes!

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SUN

11:54 a.m. All the feels as Martin Venzky and John Foster try out our installation. Their feedback // - You don’t want to screen print right on the piece? If there were a manufacturer making it, what would you really have done, no limits? Do some drawings about where this can go next. - Black is a bit forbidding. - The colors are very nice, little details start to stand out. - The plastic feels unfinished, if you have time screen print those colors. - Identity—you have it intentionally offset, what a shame they couldn’t line up the colors. When it gets really small it looks like a bad printing job. It gets the same feeling across at that size. I don’t know that having it offset the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. - Push it further. Put color around the sides of the shapes. - This is a design project and less a science project. As a designer I want to see that more. - The cards are going to be messed up, make clear cases to organize them. - Never say “cranked it out” when selling an idea. Give a word that shows the genius behind it. - I love this, and I think it’s really smart. What kind of environment would this be in? Children’s museum? - Imagine this as the first project in your future career. - How might you refashion this to work with other age groups. - Make something for lonely people, enjoy solitude and still want to play. - You guys are really far along, you have a luxury of time to extrapolate this and move it further along. Consider not just competitions, but consider conferences and presentations. Don’t just consider this as a portfolio piece. - Branding, simplified, “push play”

MAR 2015

1:22 p.m. Home Depot trip number 10! WHOA. 3:51 p.m. Dog days. Missed these dum dums.

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4:33 p.m. The Verge shared an article about naked cats, had to share with Nick. I miss Yola cuddles.

MAR 2015

9:08 a.m. Last night got too real with new friends. Time to get a nice hearty hang over breakfast. 10:04 a.m. Got to finally sleep in, after three weeks of going hard. It’s always refreshing when you can sleep without an alarm set. Much needed. 8:22 p.m. Still exhausted, but at Bri’s Cards Against Humanity party with GD Seniors, no Nick or B. Hand though. Everyone is having fun dancing. Now it’s time to see how horrible of people we are!

5:25 p.m. Cool Kickstarter to make a documentary on the history of design. Makes me think of Spilled Ink. Also, this design is so Kidwell, I’ll share it with him right meow.

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APRIL CAN’T MAKE UP ITS MIND

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4:57 p.m. Monica and I made the party animal Wander board. We tried to do a time lapse but it seemed to have turned off about 3 minutes in… Super bummer man.

11:05 p.m. Road trip!!! Can’t wait for this adventure! Got the days planned out with miss Morgan! All the excitement! #califuckingfornia

APR 2015

11:05 p.m. Woke up early for no reason, I guess my body pulled an April Fool’s on me.

10:01 p.m. Made our awesome Wander animal sign! Our time lapse stopped though, so that was a bummer. Had a glorious afternoon nap, and now it’s time to burn the midnight oil and finish two more Hy-VEE interactives for DI.

TUE

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MAR 2015

12:11 p.m. Bri’s bright future pre-party. Lunch with Kelly, Nicole, and Jordan at El Patron. Taco Tuesday everybody! 1:30 p.m. Kelly got me a little present... She said my future is so bright that I needed some shades. They go perfect with my motto, see page 29. 8:33 p.m. o-HI-o shaped record from 21 Pilots. Can’t wait for their new album, it will be a gradaution/birthday gifts for Ben and I in May.

THU

MAR 2015

WED

MON

APR 2015

1:13 p.m. Had lunch with Rick Smith about career things for DI. It was good, I like him a lot. Had fish tacos, and had honest/personable conversation. Real life though, not quite ready. I want to see the Grand Canyon first. And Rick agreed, even if that means I need to eat ramen noodles for 3 months afterwards. (And Kidwell has coffee with him on Tuesday!)

4:3 p.m. Tour of the new office. It’s just all concrete at the moment but those windows though. Such a strong impact. And a prime view of Chipotle from the future grand stand. 8:01 p.m. Bri’s bright future happy hour at the Julep with Kelly, Jemma, and Brian. We discussed my place at Populous and where I saw my future. Kelly and Jemma had some real nice things to say. Made me blush. I never know what to do with compliments. We talked about how good a team we all are. Brian was glad to hear my decision, considering all my interests. He said we’ll have to get together with Kevin Fast to talk about logistics. Brian also gave a fun tip for my Italy trip: pick an album or playlist to listen to when I’m there so that whenever I hear it again I’ll always remember that trip and the memories.

FRI

1:15 p.m. More people to follow on Instagram from schMoragan, yes please!

APR 2015

10:43 a.m. Jodi shared Pharrel’s Happy Party web site. It’s a whole bunch of gifs of people dancing for a happy planet. Quite entertaining.

8:36 p.m. Had the pleasure of accompanying my wonderful boyfriend at his first off-campus show last night! Go get ‘em tiger—love you.

9:35 p.m. Went to an awesome dive in the West Bottoms called The Ship to have a beer with Jessica and Matt since it’s been like a million years since we’ve been able to hang out. Awesome place, will definitely have to come back.

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APR 2015

2:22 p.m. Flying a kite for Easter lets soar in the sky!

8:17 p.m. “We live, we die. And the wheels on the bus go round and round.“ - The Bucket List

9:22 a.m. We’ve got a lot of orphans going on in this book, we’re scheduling an adoption day. Get ready. It’s going to get emotional.

11:46 a.m. Wanderful day to play outside! Taking group photos for our poster. Good times.

9:49 p.m. SPORTING WON! It was down to the last few minutes, and I was out of hope, but it happened!

MON

APR 2015

5:13 p.m. Free tickets to the Sporting KC Game, and my first time tail gating! So many Row-Hard Root Beers.

APR 2015

10:20 a.m. Logo animation, DONE! 10:26 p.m. Nick, Bri & I talked about the Wander website. It needs an overhaul to feel more like the poster. But now it’s going to be bad-ass now!

TUE

SUN

11:21 a.m. Wander invites have arrived! Thanks Jemma for the update!

3:17 p.m. Filming for FEEL went pretty well. Got lots of laughs, and I was pleasantly surprised at how many people we were able to get involved. (Elizabeth & Wes even remembered to come.) It was also pretty great that Kelly came in on a Saturday for us too. Time to put it all together now.

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WED

3:51 p.m. Single ladies Easter. Jackie is house sitting out in Lee’s Summit so I came over to dye some eggs and enjoy a delicious dinner and relaxing with some movie watching.

10:00 p.m. First Friday. Nice to see you again, it’s been a real long time. Saw a nifty band performing in the Missouri Bank building, believe their name was Spirit is a Spirit or something like that. The lead singer was fun to watch dance around in his hippie patterned pants and flip flops. Also saw Ben and Monica down in the Leedy where Ben’s sculptures were on display. Then at 19 Below Lance Flores had a fun little exhibition of dinosaur illustrations, I loved his take on the Country Club Plaza logo where he replaced the middle tower with a one of those long necked dinos. So fun.

APR 2015

7:57 p.m. Who can say no to tacos… Taco Tuesday with Morgan.

11:05 p.m. Expanded on our Sock Fund Proposal for the Cary C. Goodman Graphic Design Project Award (a.k.a. the GD proposal to refund all

of the money we spent on FEEL). Made us think about how FEEL has impacted us as designers and what new perspectives we’ll take with us after graduation.

FRI

APR 2015

8:28 p.m. Beer man. Working on our book for a bit.

APR 2015

8:48 a.m. Got my picture taken for the DI website. Now to talk with Megan about the hiring process. Things are moving along... 6:11 p.m. Snuck a picture at the end of the day for FEEL.

SUN

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Working on another interactive project at DI, all by myself. It’s an athletics Hall of Fame. First project with Rick too! Having fun with it, and still surprised at how enjoyable sports projects can be. And Ben applied to DI today too! Who knows, maybe we’ll be carpooling to work over summer, fingers crossed.

9:34 p.m. Time for a night in with Ben. We got pizza and are watching X-Men First Class. Haven’t watched it since it was in theaters, at the drive-in with Whitney. I love getting to snuggle with this big tiger of mine.

SAT

THU

We also added to our budget so we can purchase the podiums from the department, pay for competition entries, and buy our freaking expensive production music for the film.

7:08 p.m. Tried working in studio, turned into a 6 hour shopping trip for outfits for our final presentation. It was nice to get out and shop.

10:48 p.m. Morgan brought brownies to studio tonight, so nice of her. Brionica is helping her brainstorm titles for her degree project in return.

APR 2015

1:32 p.m. Sometimes I cook real things. Cranked out some delicious fish tacos, of course.

APR 2015

12:00 p.m. Zoey hates getting her picture taken, but I love Zoey.

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APR 2015

1:45 p.m. Space planning. Things are looking up.

12:00 p.m. Found out the ISU Hall of Fame is ready to be developed already, damn that was fast! Makes me glad I can whip stuff out like that for a real job.

TUE

1:42 p.m. New wipers, wiper fluid, vacuumed and dad changing the oil. Getting prepared for #califuckingforniabound.

APR 2015

4:26 p.m. Talked about my summer contract for DI today, everything is looking good! Now I need to figure out if I want to apply other places while I do my hourly thing here in KC for a little bit. 6:52 p.m. Making the mock up for the Wander poster.

6:02 p.m. WE DID IT! WE’RE DONE! Wouldn’t you know it, the Wednesday before our practice presentation. The video and voice over came together faster than we were expecting. Now there’s finishing up the Process PDF and our Type 4 book.

10:07 p.m. Now recording. Let’s do this. Gotta stay calm and serious.

THU

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APR 2015

10:23 a.m. Took the day off to study for my philosophy exam that will be tomorrow. Caught up on readings, but didn’t get much time to memorize. Here’s to hoping I won’t fail.

1:04 p.m. Kelly [Furlong] and I went to Lu Lu’s for lunch. We discussed the important things: salary and dating.

APR 2015

1:39 p.m. Field trip to the space. Love this door knob.

FRI

WED

6:12 p.m. Found a better dress for the presentation at Costco, and Bri approves! So more dresses, yay!

APR 2015

9:30 a.m. Our background song is now legit. We actually paid for it. Yay! 1:30 p.m. Practice run thru of our final presentations. No really significant changes but there were some good

points. Crit notes // - Change group photo, overused. _Add something more to your question slide, it’s important. happy/color/transition/something - Look at placement of “GOAL” - Take away that shows….? - Clarify inspiration….or you know, you probably don’t need it. - Re-evaluate the slide with all your shapes. Animate it? - Don’t need to show the interactive examples. Show your stuff, not other people’s stuff. - What’s an ardimino? also…how do you spell that… - Bring in final cards too soon. They’re more of a final payoff. Timing out of sequence. - Test the sound, so you don’t blow everyone’s mind when you get to the sound slide. - The video seemed like the end… transition into the future possibilities needs some love.

4:49 p.m. Welcome to the Golf Club. Black light, jello-shots, disco ball, and Kanye. Plus also a dancing Bri.

11:55 p.m. Went to the opening of the B.F.A. show and got to see a bunch of my fellow seniors’ work. Got a tomato plant from Zophia’s piece. Then Ben and I went to Westport Flea Market for beers and burgers with Noria, Herb, Chloe, Wes & Elizabeth, and a few other alums. Snapped a people pic for FEEL. Went back to Ben’s for whiskey and board games. I somehow managed to win, even though I didn’t go anywhere for the first half of the game.

Then the In and Out Crawl Thru… that has a video feed onto the projector in the grand stand. 149

SAT

4:05 p.m. Beers in hand, we’re ready for the annual Putt-Putt Tourney! Jemma, Kelly, and I made two holes badass putting holes.

11:47 p.m. What a night. First the Putt-Putt Tourney, happy hour + tacos at Blue Line, over to P&L to the Shark Bar to watch the rest of the Royals game, and then back to the office to join up with those that never left. We ended up turning on the microphone and blasting music as we did karaoke and danced in the grandstand. Closed the night off with a card game. Good times with good people. I’m looking forward to continuing at Populous.

APR 2015

4:00 p.m. Ran errands with Ben in the morning, took a trip to Ikea, and then Home Depot. We got a few new ceramic pots to transplant some of my old plants and got a new one for my tomato plant from the B.F.A. show. Now we are off to adventure! 5:51 p.m. I just felt like running.

11:55 p.m. Out in Westport with Jackie and Jon. These two are out for the night… teehee. 150

7:45 p.m. We like to cook tiny things…

Then we went to the second night of the grand opening of UP–Down, KC’s new arcade bar. It was nice early in the night, but got SUPER packed by the time we decided to peace out.

10:30 p.m. Open House presentations on campus today, wish we could have stayed at home and slept more. Oh well, on the bright side we got a little more user testing experience for FEEL.

Now we are back at home with more whiskey and Daredevil on Netflix. It’s been a very good eventful day <3 4:05 a.m. This night. Whoa. I’m getting pretty confident with this whole dancing in public thing. Probably broke it down a little too much at the Foundry, but ya know just having some fun. It’s sort of freeing to just let go.#weresohood

MON

6:32 p.m. What a steal! Should I get it… Ha, no. Did pick up a nice oval mirror to revamp, 2 glass vases, and a J.Crew skirt that still had the tags on it. Thanks, Red Racks.

APR 2015

10:30 a.m. Final tweaks to the last who-rah presentation. Let’s do this! Just a few more days...

SUN

3:32 p.m. The site is all lined up.

APR 2015

1:00 a.m. So we adventured around by going to check in on Yola for Nick, look for houses for rent (which turns out to be un-eventful) went to Bier Station and got some New Belgium LaFolie & Weston Row Hard Root Beer on tap.

12:00 p.m. Ready for the open house presentations! The groups seemed to respond well to FEEL. Kelly’s keynote was very much Bri heavy, she said she trolled my blog.

4:52 p.m. We launched our site! On mobile and on the loose…

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APR 2015

8:07 p.m. Blue crew. #hidethebandaidonmyface

5:00 p.m. Hey! We got part of the Cary C. Goodman Design Project Award! And it’s just enough that we get fully refunded for all we spent on our installation and documentation.

APR 2015

WED

11:10 a.m. Free lunch for the KCAI Feild Day Picnic, but it’s gloomy out so we walked to the cafeteria to pick it up. At least Bri is here to liven things up with her chicken dance!

8:33 p.m. Spread dedicated to that pun life. Thanks Schmorgan.

3:30 p.m. Well, it’s official I just signed for a full time position at Populous. Went over the offer with Laura and Kevin and they clarified titles and salary and all that good stuff. First legit day is July 6th when I get back from traveling. 4:46 p.m. Atari party at work with beer. So much fun, and Terri from VML is here at DI now! Gave her an invite for Wander.

FRI

THU

3:57 p.m. We’re feeling pretty good about the nearing end of the semester so we’re getting some shuttlecock shade. #sunbathing

APR 2015

8:20 a.m. It’s final presentation day! And I got Beyoncé with me.

2:00 p.m. Woo it’s over. Such a relief off our shoulders, yet it still seems a bit surreal to be completed. The reactions seemed to go over really well. Every one locked hands in the auditorium and we had a 40 man circuit going. Here are crit notes // - Everybody is happy. - How can this go past installation? Kids with mental disability. More than an emotional state, and on to a more broad idea. - A big part of installation is being site specific. Where does it live? - It could be more interesting to incorporate more spontaneity than just having happiness. - Different sounds that evoke different emotions perhaps. - Activity for extroverts? It’s interesting to see hesitant people warm up so quickly with it. - Just a bunch of really positive conversation going on. - So great. So much happiness everywhere. Super awesome, guys.

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TYPOGRAPHIC MARK designed to visually represent the coming together and overlap of physical feeling and emotional feeling. The exterior black outlines represent sense of touch, and the colors in the interior represent inner emotions.

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love

accomplishments

optimism 160

puppies and kittens

faith

people

creativity

meaningful work

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stress free BRANDING SYSTEM developed out of abstract shapes paired with bright colors to graphically represent sources of happiness gathered from research and survey answers. We narrowed down sources of happiness down to ten, to keep the piece from being overly complicated. They are: faith, love, accomplishments, creativity, stress-free-ness, meaningful work, family and relationships, beer, optimism, and last (but not least) puppies and kittens. beer

We wanted to stay true to the psychological science of happiness but still be light hearted and playful with the inclusion of beer and puppies.

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TAKE AWAY CARDS extend the interactive experience beyond the installation itself. They serve to define our visual system in the space, and prompt people to think about their personal meanings of happiness. The cards were also used to measure user feedback. By counting how many cards were left over after the installation was presented and played with we can see what made our audience the happiest. We can also measure user feedback by hashtag use.

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INSTALLATION ELEVATION We realized it would be best to have a table installation to provoke collaboration more prominently. The logo stands vertically in the middle of the board serving as a visual invite. The sound shapes are dispersed around the logo encouraging people to connect with each other, and promote collaboration to reach the other side of the table. Both ends have instructional points. One with guidance

on how to start connecting, the other with take away cards, and an explanation about the meaning behind FEEL. The cards extend the interactive experience beyond the installation. They also serve to define our system, and prompt people to think about their personal meanings of happiness. And we can also use them to measure feedback of what makes our audience the happiest by how many are left over, and possible hashtag uses.

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A MAKEY-MAKEY WORKS BY TURNING EVERYDAY CONDUCTIVE OBJECTS (LIKE BANANAS) INTO INTERACTIVE TOUCHPADS. COMPUTERS SEE THE MAKEY MAKEY AS A KEYBOARD. THIS MAKES IT IS VERY EASY TO USE AND APPROACHABLE FOR BEGINNER ARDUINO USERS.

Makey-Makey Arduino In order to maximize FEEL’s interactive experience we decided to use an arduino to power the installation. Put simply, an arduino is a super tiny computer that can be programed to react to the environment it’s been placed in.

negative (–). The Makey Makey has one (–) point, and several positive (+) points. These (+) points can be alligator clipped to conductive materials.

When a human being touches both the (–) conductive point and one of the (+) conductive points at the We are using a Makey Makey, an ar- same time an electrical current travduino that can turn everyday objects els through their body and creates a into touchpads. It’s a simple inven- complete circuit. tion kit geared towards the Maker Movement, anyone from beginners Upon completing the circuit the to experts doing art, engineering, and Makey Makey sends a message to the everything in between can utilize this computer. Computers see the Makey Makey as an external keyboard, theretype of arduino. fore it works with all programs and How does it work? It kind of boils webpages on a computer. For FEEL down to electricity. Every electrical we used a program called Soundplant connection works by completing a that allowed us to assign specific circuit between a positive (+) and a sounds to keys on the keyboard.

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FINAL OUTCOME Construction took about a week, where we handled some power tools, a soldering iron and applied vinyl instructions. Once we finished constructing the installation it was ready for some TLI (tender loving interaction). We enlisted our fellow studio mates and peers to come give FEEL a try, and even managed to grab a few passer-byers in the hallway. There were plenty of smiles and laughs to go around. We were also pleasantly surprised to see that people were able to follow the interaction instructions, and build upon them. We saw new interactions we hadnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t thought of, such as high fives and kisses. Check out our video at this link! vimeo.com/monicaroesner/feel

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INSTAGRAM Perhaps the most impactful part of this project is seeing the diverse reaction from our users. It is really exciting to see as the feed populates with pictures. With each addition to the hashtag we can realate to our users based upon their subject matter and background of their images. We now have a better understanding about the people we design for.

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SUN

11:30 a.m. Off to the American Girl Doll store with mom so she can buy a birthday gift. It’s a pretty chill day, not much going on.

APR 2015

11:50 a.m. Morgan and I got the photo wall for Wander designed, spatial plan done, now lets paint!

TUE

4:49 p.m. Drinks at Buzzard Beach to celebrate. Oh yeah, and we color coordinated with our presentation…

APR 2015

10:30 p.m. Watching Epic Lip Sync Battles in studio with everyone. Going to miss fun nights like this.

WED

MON

10:37 p.m. I guess I should start this T4 project. #ripsapartpictureframe

1:33 p.m. We got a postcard from Tessa Canon!!! So sweet! Miss you buddy! Hope you’re enjoying Ireland.

APR 2015

1:00 p.m. Got free lunch at work and did some team building exercises. JC told everybody Bri and I had the best degree project (since he came to the presentations and all). He was very impressed we had a working prototype. #blushing

2:00 p.m. Morgan and I built our box for our Type 4 project. That craft is on point... Ha. Right.

APR 2015

1:32 p.m. Photo wall test. All the silliness going on.

SAT

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APR 2015

4:00 a.m. Happy hour at Tapcade. Things started to get a little deep with Matt and Jordan, so I skipped over and talked with Scott, we discussed tattoos. Off to Matt’s for living room dancing and jell-o shots. We walked from Matts on 43rd and Locust all the way to find Kelly at a bar across from Chubby’s. Then we ended up at Chubby’s for those late night cinnamon rolls. I hopped in the car with Thomas as he took Kelly home and then we met up with Eddie at the Foundry to dance a little bit. Another 4 A.M.-er. Wow.

5:07 p.m. Shedding that old skin. Out on a run down on the trail. I’m trying to work out more, get ready for the Cali trip, but also it feels good to be active again. I feel like I’ve grown exponentially as a person this semester. Confidence wise and socially speaking, I guess I’ve done pretty well on my resolution. I can’t wait to continue to grow as a person.

1:52 p.m. Putting Kidwell to work!

THU

2:18 p.m. Painting day… I don’t know.

APR 2015

9:44 a.m. It’s almost here…

9:30 a.m. Brought cookies for breakfast. Everyone loves them.

FRI

7:52 p.m. Condensing down our final presentation to five minutes for the Goodman family presentation tomorrow morning.

2:20 p.m. Nick and I delivered postcards to a ton of companies around the city. Hopefully a bunch of people show. I got to see J-Co at VML too, so nice to see her!

MAY 2015

8:31 a.m. Morgan and I’s project was a failure… All well, probably should have tested materials but uh... #senioritis #dsgetdegrees

12:41 p.m. We’ve kicked out the juniors, and now there’s so much room for activities!

10:16 p.m. A Wednesday night trip to Columbia to see Misterwives. Best decision. They were so fucking good. What a dance party! I didn’t want it to ever end. Loved it.

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8:31 a.m. User tested my connect the dots Type 4 piece, everyone seems to like it! There’s a random floaty 53 in it though, but it’s okay.

11:40 p.m. Top off with a trip to Hot Box cookies. What could be better!

Everyone looks so thrilled…

SUN

9:33 p.m. Afentra’s prom brought to you by the top bun on a tall girl. For a free show it was pretty great. The Kooks were awesome and Vance Joy was a good chill ending.

1:13 p.m. A family get together with tears and laughter, oh and meows.

MAY 2015

12:30 p.m. Brookside Art Fair with my mother and Jackie. Also grabbed some lunch at Taco Republic. 3:00 p.m. Had a lazy morning, had a nice long shower. 5:02 p.m. Got the picture for our cover done! It was hard not to laugh.

10:40 p.m. Took my first Uber to First Fridays. Good Lord it was nuts. Made it to a few shows, saw an awesome one of quilts. And now Ben and I are on our way to the Ship for drinks. I’m ready for a few with how crazy it’s been tonight.

Celebrating our favorite buddy! Thank you so much Kidwell for your wise teachings and sound effects. Much love to you.

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MAY 2015

12:17 p.m. Went and saw Hennessy in the hospital. She had to get emergency surgery to get her gallbladder out. Seems like she’ll be better before we know it. She was so excited for the balloons & coloring book we got her. 2:00 p.m. Now to P.F. Changs for a fancy lunch date with Ben. 1:30 p.m. RUNNINGGGG. I’m getting faster! #score

Yikes. We love our design dad.

3:30 p.m. Time for a design marathon for this here book! Let’s go!

MAY 4 MAY 5 MAY 6 MAY 7

TOO BE CONTINUED TO GRADUATION...

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ALL OF THAT OTHER FUN STUFF...

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APPENDIX PERSONALITY RESOURCES Meyers Briggs www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/jtypes2.asp PAGE 6 www.truity.com/view/types www.16personalities.com/personality-types Zodiac Signs www.cafeastrology.com/zodiactaurus.html PAGE 8 zodiac-signs-astrology.com/zodiac-signs/taurus.htm www.123newyear.com/zodiac-signs/gemini.html www.gotohoroscope.com/gemini-meanings.html www.astrology.com/article/zodiac-signs-gemini-sun- sign.html www.horoscopedates.com/zodiac-signs/gemini/ www.whats-your-sign.com/zodiac-signs-and-meanings. htmZodiacSignsAndMeaningsForGemini

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES City Walks www.contempaesthetics.org/newvolume/pages/ article.php?articleID=607 Creative Anarchy creativeanarchy.is/awesome/ www.mydesignshop.com/creative anarchy-group?lid=prtw Pinterest www.pinterest.com/bridallas/brionica/ Psychology www.in-mind.org/article/that-human-touch-that-meansof Touch so-much-exploring-the-tactile-dimension-of-social-life PAGE 40

TECHNOLOGY RESOURCES

MOVIE RESOURCES Happy

Beam www.wired.com/2015/02/ingenious-projector-trans forms-kitchen-tables-tvs/

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Hector and the Search for Happiness Etraces cargocollective.com/lesiatrubat/E-TRACES- PAGE 38 memories-of-dance Immersis www.wired.com/2015/02/pixar-inspired-projector- PAGE 80 beams-vr-entire-room/ Lily Pad http://sewelectric.org/diy-projects/sparkling-bracelet/ PAGE 83 design-your-bracelet/ http://lilypadarduino.org/?page_id=209 Makey-Makey http://makeymakey.com/ PAGE 166

Monome Tutorial jdeboi.com/2014/07/makey-makey-monome/

Her The Pursuit of Happyness

INTERACTIVE RESOURCES Disney Labs www.disneyresearch.com/project/surround-haptics- immersive-tactile-experiences/ Heart Bot www.prote.in/en/feed/2014/09/heart-bot PAGE 48

In Your Hands vimeo.com/109730650 PAGE 46

Soundplant http://soundplant.org/about.htm

HAPPY RESOURCES Dan Gilbert www.youtube.com/watch?v=4q1dgn_C0AU Do This Instead m.fastcompany.com/3040189/stop-chasing-after-happi ness-and-do-this-instead?utm_ PAGE 32 source=facebook Happiness? www.pbs.org/thisemotionallife/topic/happiness/what happiness

Living Wall www.trendhunter.com/trends/living-wall PAGE 39 thecreatorsproject.vice.com/blog/mit-media-labs- interactive-living-wall Monolitt www.prote.in/en/feed/2014/09/monolitt PAGE 49

Patatap www.patatap.com www.theverge.com/2014/3/25/5546994/patatap-portableanimation-and-sound-website-controlled-with-keyboard Star Canvas www.b-reel.com/projects/digital/case/492/star-canvas/

Happy 20s hellogiggles.com/learning-be-happy-20s/ PAGE 34

Malcolm Gladwell www.ted.com/playlists/4/what_makes_you_happy Quarter Life Crisis www.buzzfeed.com/laraparker/things-to-remind-your self-during-your-quarter-life-crisis#.qam PAGE 18 D7ZQ6Z

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Thermobooth http://www.fastcodesign.com/3019616/this-photo-booth- PAGE 44 only-snaps-pics-when-you-smooch User Experience www.rosenfeldmedia.com/books/storytelling-for user-experience/

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BYE. 185

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THIS SEMESTER WAS BROUGHT TO YOU BY

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BRI DALLAS & MONICA ROESNER 188

As you might know, everything is better in a pair. Peanut butter & jelly, black & white, two peas in a pod, you know the rest. The two of us hadnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t originally planned on working together for our degree project, but once we realized we had similar interests in spacial and interactive design it seemed natural that we should join forces. Doing this allowed us to build a more rounded experience and create a better outcome for our degree project and final semester in college. OPEN UP AND READ ON.