Meeting and dialogue in three spaces

MEETING AND DIALOGUE IN THREE SPACES – The Virtual Platform

Meeting and DIALOGUE in Three Spaces – The Virtual Platform

Meeting and Dialogue in Three Spaces – The Virtual Platform Š 2010 Kolding School of Design www.designskolenkolding.dk Aagade 10 DK 6000 Kolding Denmark Editors: Thomas Leerberg, Inger Merete Skotting, Lene Wul Book design: Inger Merete Skotting, Stine Sandahl Photos: Thomas Leerberg, Inger Merete Skotting, Elle-Mie Ejdrup Hansen, Per Henriksen, students from Industrial Design, Institute of Product Design and Graphic Design and Illustration, Institute of Communication Design Typefaces: Charter ICT and GT Paper: Arctic Volume Highwhite 130 gr.

Printing: AKA-PRINT a/s All rights reserved. No part of the book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher.

ISBN 978-87-90755-21-6

Contents Introduction 7 Framing Dialogue in Virtual Domains 12 A Virtual Setting for Design Dialogue 20 Images of the Middle East 30 The Workshops in Sharjah and Beirut 36 The Dialogue Workshop in Saint Petersburg 2006 51 Russia – Learning Workshop 88 The Workshop Virtual Platform – Methods of Management 100 A Horse Does not Eat Cucumber Salad 107 Reflections on the Space Workshop 110 A Journey to the Unknown 114 Participants in the Workshops 117

Students at American University of Sharjah involved in design dialogue with students from Beirut, Russia and Denmark.

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Introduction Thomas Leerberg Inger Merete Skotting Lene Wul

This book is a collection of research results, experiences and reflections from the research project Virtual Platform and the educational project ‘Dialogue Workshops’, which took place in the spring of 2006.

It is a statement of shared efforts to create new ways of working in open networks through a combination of the very old tool of dialogue and the very new tool of digital networked technology.

At the same time it is a demonstration of the unique opportunities of combining research and education in a practice-based network of international design students, design educators and design researchers.

For a designer it is essential to work in an international context. The challenge of meeting other cultures, and working in interdisciplinary settings with fellow students from totally different backgrounds and design experiences has long been an essential part of the curriculum at Kolding School of Design.

For a decade Kolding School of Design has had a vivid international exchange of students and teachers.

Over a period of six years we developed a series of workshops called Dialogues, in both virtual and real space; several workshops were held both in Kolding and in China. The research project Virtual Platform draws on this experience in design dialogue with a specific focus on providing tools for the project. This integration of research and education on a shared theme has proved extremely valuable.

The Workshops The workshops had different themes and sub-themes such as food, daily rituals, space, human relationship, play etc. The groups were always interdisciplinary and often included students at different stages in their education and involved design-related studies. In China and Russia we discovered that our pedagogical approach – 7

having an overall theme and then asking questions about the design issues, which the students discuss, define and solve in interdisciplinary group-work – was quite unique.

The teacher’s role was more of an advisor who asked relevant questions, less dominating than traditional teaching. It was important to let the students themselves sense and define the problem, do research, conceptualize and shape the solution which could be material or immaterial.

It was important to open the students’ minds to reflect upon, discuss, sense and comprehend the problem to make them feel free to apply new ways of thinking. This way of teaching sometimes led to unexpected final solutions. The group had to discuss all possible ideas and agree in which direction they wanted to go.

The intention was to develop ideas where the students’ creative, social and cross-cultural competencies became the raw material of the design process as well as the core of the results.

It was also important for the process and the argumentation of the result that the design process was well documented. The final presentation was normally in front of an audience, and here the students had to document the process they had gone through in order to reach their solution.

In the Dialogue Workshops the students were not only working in interdisciplinary settings with fellow 8

students from their home institution. All participants were also required to overcome personal cultural, technical and language barriers. Both in China and Russia a group of guest students from other countries participated as well. The students were challenged to communicate clearly, and when words were lacking, drawings and gestures came to the rescue.

It was a unique chance for our students to meet the Russian and Chinese families in their homes and to explore parts of Saint Petersburg and Beijing one would never see as a regular tourist. As a Russian student said, “Through this process I also began to look at my city with new eyes.”

Many students later reported that this kind of international group work was an experience that became invaluable in their professional design career. It gives the strength and stamina to deal with complex work situations in foreign countries, where one has to complete a project within a limited time, working with colleagues from different backgrounds and cultures.

Activities The research project was carried out from September 2005 to June 2006 with a grant from the Danish Centre for Design Research.

The workshop from March to April 2006 created the framework for a design dialogue between Danish students and students from the American University of

Results from the first workshop in 2002 at Tsinghua University. . The overall theme was ‘rituals of the meal’ in China and Denmark. It was interesting to see the Chinese reaction on the famous feast scene in Barbette’s Feast. All the students were introduced by each other to cultural differences and similarities of the meal.

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At the opening of the big exhibition also year 2002 at Tsinghua University of the work by the Danish Design students all the visitors

Beirut (AUB), Lebanon and the American University of Sharjah (AUS), UAE. The workshop in Saint Petersburg in April 2006 was part of the Dialogue Workshop and dealt with the theme ‘space’.

got a red flower decoration to wear from the Chinese, and a small pink box with the exhibition programme designed by the Danish students.

Acknowledgements The projects were supported and funded by the Danish Centre for Design Research, the Danish Centre for Culture and Development (Images of Middle East) and the Kolding School of Design.

Organisers and project managers were Thomas Leerberg, Inger Merete Skotting, Elle-Mie Ejdrup Hansen, Damion Bailey, Lars Lyngstadaas, Jens Paldam, Andrew Nagel, Jørgen Skogmo, Lena Merhej, Haifa Malhas Tarek Al-Ghoussein, George Katadrytis, Olga Shustrova, Anke Coumans, Antoin Buissink, Per Henriksen, Peter Bloch, Farhad Moshiri, Shirin Alibadi, Nikolai Borisov, Pavel Sherbakov, Sergei Schwemberger together with more than 100 students in four countries (see documentation).

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In the very last moment all the containers with the exhibition came through the customers.

The students worked night and day to put up the exhibition.

As something unusual in China two students Klaus Matthiesen and Gudjon Oddsson were among the group of officials who opened the exhibition.

The other persons were Carsten Boyer Thøgersen from the Danish Embassy in Beijing, leaders of the university, and the rector at the time of Kolding School of Design, Birte Sandorff.

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Framing DIALOGUE IN VIRTUAL DOMAiNS Thomas Leerberg

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As the plane prepares for landing in Dubai International Airport the sandy dunes of the desert transform to urban sprawl at the blink of an eye. Within seconds the city unfolds before your very eyes like an endless Arabian carpet with an intricate pattern of roads and lawns in black and green – a form of instant urbanism, where the main ingredients are ingenuity and water.

Such new geographies are created all the time; vacant space is turned into domains, human trajectories intersect and continue towards the endless horizon, while new potential grows from previously barren ground – creating new communities and connecting people.

The fast changes in the real domains during the past 20 years have been accompanied by even faster changes in the virtual domains. Real people have met in virtual space and created communities and new ways of working as an extra dimension to their everyday lives. To some, these virtual domains have become more real than reality, as the domains act as a new grand public space of social engineering in the era of Web 2.0.

This change has been significant in the field of design, both in regard to which problems we try to solve and the way we try to solve them. Not only has the information technology introduced new tools for solving problems, it has also introduced a new sense of ‘being’ and of co-creation regardless of time and space – a new

ontology with new ways for real influence on virtual objects.

Teletopologies When constructing digital means to bring real and virtual domains together, we are confronted with at least two dilemmas: one of human actions in a teletopology and one of virtual geographies.

In a real domain we are used to close interaction with the objects we see in the world around us. We can touch objects within our reach, draw on the paper in front of us and talk to the person next to us. Through centuries of experience we have developed skills to influence the real objects around us for instance through the practice of design.

However, with the use of virtual tools for co-creation we experience a phenomological split between objects we can visually identify and objects we can physically influence. Through virtual tools for co-creation we not only enter a space, where the design process can be contained, we also enter a space where the degree of influence on the objects that we can visually identify is controlled, rule-based and limited.

The French philosopher and urbanist Paul Virilio argues that this phenomological split is a kind of teletopology where our sight is separated from our body and transported to another space, through mechanical or digital means, leaving the physical reality of the body 13

… with the use of virtual tools for co-creation we expeRiEnce a phenomological split between objects we can viSually identify and objects we can physically influence.

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behind. Such a teletopology is often established through remote media like television, photography, cinema and streaming content on the Internet.

To frame the concept of teletopology, Virilio quotes Maurice Merleau-Ponty who argues that “Everything I see is in principle within my reach, at least within reach of my sight, and is marked upon the map of the ‘I can’.

Each of the two maps is complete. The visible world and the world of my motor projects are both total parts of the same Being.” 1 To Merleau-Ponty there is an overlap between what ‘I can see’ and what ‘I can act upon’. With our sight we can map the world around us and plan our interactions with it. Objects that are out of sight become by default out of reach.

Virilio responds to Merleau-Ponty’s argument as follows: “The bulk of what I see is, in fact and in principle, no longer within my reach. And even if it lies within reach of my sight, it is no longer necessarily inscribed on the map of the ‘I can’.” 2 According to Virilio the overlap that Merleau-Ponty identifies between the visual and the motor physical map has broken down and become two separate domains, no longer providing a complete coverage of the same Being. In a teletopology there are objects you may see but not interact with, and objects you may interact with, without seeing them. We can therefore use the concept of teletopology to describe digital tools for cocreation and define strategies for their design.

1 Merleau-Ponty, Maurice: Eye and Mind, 1964, in The Merleau-Ponty Aesthet-

2 Virilio, Paul: The Vision Machine, British Film Institute & Indiana Univercity

ics Reader, Johnson, Galen A.(ed), Northwestern University Press, 1993, p. 124.

Press, 1994, p. 7.

The city of Dubai expands from skyline to desert as an endless Arabic carpet with an intricate pattern of roads and lawns in black and green.

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American University of Sharjah.

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Virtual Geography The second dilemma we face when constructing digital means to bring real and virtual domains together is the one of virtual geographies. All spaces, domains and landscapes have geographies, whether they are real or virtual. Spaces, domains and landscapes are named, divided, categorized, mapped, planned, controlled and, not least, designed. In the words of the Palestinian American cultural critic Edward Said: “Just as none of us is outside or beyond geography, none of us is completely free from the struggle over geography. That struggle is complex and interesting because it is not only about soldiers and cannons but also about ideas, about forms, about images and imaginings.” 3 The ever-present struggle over geography that Said describes is both fought in real and virtual spaces – there are still borders that you cannot cross, things that are obscured, paths you cannot follow and people you will never meet. It is not only a struggle over firewalls and access codes, but also about ideas, forms, images and imaginings, as Said points out. One of the techniques for constructing geographies and a favorite of the struggle that follows, is a split between what the individual can see and what he can act upon, which is, 3 Said, Edward W: Culture and Imperialism, Chatto & Windus, London, 1993, p. 7.

very close to the phenomological split that Virilio identifies in teletoplogy. While teletopologies describe the relationship between two positions in digital media, virtual geographies describe the landscape between these positions and the techniques used to keep them apart.

Similar to Virilio’s observation on the split between what I can see and what I can act upon in media, there is an immanent split in the constructions of power we call geographies. No matter how many times a space, domain or landscape is named, conquered, folded or erased it is still part of a geography, defined, as Said argues, by ideas, forms, images and imaginings.

Virtual Platform – The Project As for the project Virtual Platform, we worked with three spaces of dialogue: a real space, a digital space and a synthetic space in between the two, which will be described in the following pages.

The background for the project is Kolding School of Design’s long tradition of international cooperation, beginning with dialogue projects with design schools in China back in 2000, where students from Kolding were the first to hold workshops with Chinese students in China. With the introduction of research at Kolding School of Design we had the chance to develop our projects even further and integrate research and education.

The aim of the research project Virtual Platform was to create a link between the real and the virtual work17

We wanted to develop new virtual design tool that would make it possible for designers to work together across borders, time zones, cultures, languages and economies.

Screen shot from the interface development of the Virtual Platform.

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space of the designer and to connect individual designers through virtual means. We wanted to bring designers together, across time zones, borders and languages with co-creation as the common ground.

We wanted not only to construct new geographies for designers, which could be accessed regardless of their physical and temporal location, but also to construct geographies with a deliberate built-in dislocation in its use – the irrelevance of location – in the sense that no matter whether the design process was carried out with someone down the hall or half a planet away, there was a way for the individual user to control who could see and interact with the materials online. This ‘constructive dislocation’ creates a singular design space, which is open to de- and reconstruction by the individual user.

In respect to Virilio’s concept of teletopology we could say that Virtual Platform tried to reestablish a direct relationship between ‘what I see’ and ‘what I can interact with’ by establishing a synthetic, simultaneous topology composed of both the near and the far away, the real and the virtual. Therefore, when developing sustainable tools for co-creation, we have to accept Virilio’s split in the media we use, but at the same time seek to return to Merleau-Ponty’s direct correlation between what the designer can see on the computer screen and what he can act upon. It is, in a way, a return to the traditional ontology, but at a different relational level; new digital means were applied in the Virtual Platform project through a substituted and a supplemented project path which provided two different ways of bridging the paradox of being far away in person and yet nearby in action.

Poster from the Dialogue Workshop in China 2003.

The theme was ‘buying and selling’.

The students were doing research at local markets looking at cultural similarities and differences.

The idea of the poster was to combine the Chinese signs of ‘mai’ – buying and ‘mai’ – selling with the symbol of the Danish flag.

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A Virtual SETTING FOR DESIGN DIALOGUE Thomas LeerBerg

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In 2005, Kolding School of Design created a virtual platform for design dialogue and virtual teams, a form of a three-phased research and development project which integrated education and practice into design.

The aim of the project was to facilitate cooperation and cultural exchange between designers, first by provideing a virtual infrastructure connecting students worldwide and later to include an exchange with professional practice.

The project was realized by research and education resources provided by Kolding School of Design with funding from The Danish Centre for Design Research (DCDR). It was carried out in cooperation with Lena Merhej at American University of Beirut, Lebanon (AUB), Tarek Al-Ghoussein at American University of Sharjah, UAE (AUS), and Olga Shustrova at Saint Petersburg State University, Russia. The platform was constructed by Thomas Leerberg, Damion Bailey, Jens Paldam and Lars Lyngstadaas at Kolding School of Design.

Aims and Concerns Dialogue, travelling workshops and cultural exchange has for long been an integral part of Kolding School of Design’s activities and teachings with projects in China, England, Holland, India, USA and the other Nordic countries. Thus design dialogue is integrated throughout the school from BA and MA to Ph.D. It has become

one of the most important qualifications students bring with them to their professional life and has redefined the role of the designer as a networked practitioner.

In the beginning, the dialogue was carried out via fax-machines, mail and telephones. Later, it moved on to use e-mails, videos and instant messaging. It was always a kind of ‘exquisite corps’, where the students would add to or transform what other students had already done. It only became a real dialogue when it was set up as a travelling workshop that physically brought the students to another location.

With the project Virtual Platform, we aimed at changing all this by constructing a virtual platform for cooperation and exchange between students of design without them ever having to meet in the real world.

We wanted to develop new virtual design tool that would make it possible for designers to work together across borders, time zones, cultures, languages and economies. Such a broad tool should consist of a design method, a shared terminology, a range of solid design tools and a distributed network-based environment.

We recognized that designers at present use a wide range of media and technologies, few of which are designed for, or by designers. Most of them lack a shared concept; the challenge therefore was to provide the look and feel of an informal design method, where the designer could feel the materials, have favourite tools and acquire spontaneous inspiration.

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Screen shot from one of the first versions of Virtual Platform which gave the user the ability to upload, share and arrange pictures together with video chatting.

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The project was concerned with three problems that face virtual teams today: a) T he creative process is carried out through a diverse range of digital media and technologies which are not or only poorly integrated. b) T he digital tools used by virtual teams are not designed for the specific purpose they serve, but are often used in a very pragmatic way with limited creative efficiency as a result. c) Virtual teams need a shared terminology to communicate and reach a sufficient level of team setting.

Thus the two primary focal points of the project were the integration of technologies (mobile phones, laptops, PDAs, workstations etc.) and the construction of a shared design space. Other important issues were notification to users of events in their shared design space, recording of project history and the possibility of displaying a public design process – a ‘reality process’.

Construction Virtual Platform is a complex construction with a wide range of modules, domains and design spaces, which in their entirety assist the flow of the process path needed by virtual teams. The platform is constructed around four main modules: • A dynamic php database containing usernames, passwords, profile data, user-specific uploads and administrative settings, which allows users to create profiles, leave small notes to other users for initial contact before setting up a project, and to configure their own design space.

• A dynamic ftp-database containing uploaded files and other data that are created in specific projects and which allow multiple users to share references and products, and keep track of the projects’ progression.

• A n html interface containing the first information the user will meet as he arrives at the platform, user-guides and FAQ about the platform, a public gallery where users may post the finished work, pre-recorded lectures and other shared information of broad interest. This module offers an open end to the platform for all levels of users and technologies.

• A Flash interface containing the work environment with all the tools, live streaming lectures, prere corded lectures, profile management and project management. This feature offers a high quality interactive design space with easy access to the design tools.

The html and Flash interfaces act as a bridge between the users and the projects and were chosen to ensure the highest level of cross-platform usability on the client side. The live interaction and communication between users – the spatial arrangement of objects in the design space, the exchange of text messages, the use of web-cams, the simultaneously shared drawings and the audio conversations – are carried through a Flash Media Server as shared objects and streams, which enables the creative process between the clients. This choice turned out to be optimal in terms of fast programming, pre-defined modules, server plug-ins, flexibility of use and usability in an environment of mixed operating systems. As the Flash Media Server was 23

hosted remotely, it could be scaled to fit specific events and workshops.

During the development, the platform was tested on mobile phones and PDAs using Flash Player 7 and on laptops and workstations using Flash Player 8.

Domains The use of Virtual Platform is further divided into private, shared and public domains. The domains are the distribution of rights between users and are further a quality of a design space. In the private domain, the user has full control of his process path through specific user settings and a private sketchpad. Files, information and users can then move from the private to the shared domain as the user wishes, for instance if a private sketch is moved to the shared domain as part of a discussion. In the shared domain, members of that particular design space can manipulate the shared information e.g. by arranging images in a specific order as a storyboard or sketching on top of uploaded images.

In the public domain non-registered users and visitors can observe the design process, for instance in the galleries containing the process history and the final products.

The public domain of the Virtual Platform is thus open to all and not restricted in any way. The members of a virtual team ‘sign off’ at the end of a project by posting material in the public galleries.

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Since there is a constant flow of files, information and users between the three domains, it is crucial to inform the user where he is and who has the right to be in that specific location. A private sketch should remain private until the author of that sketch chooses to share it with his virtual team or with the greater public. Similarly, a shared design space should remain a domain of that particular virtual team unless they chose to invite other users. The consistent use of domains will also ensure a sufficient level of security on the platform and of distribution rights; in addition, abuse can be avoided and the user afforded a high level of control over his particular design space.

Design Spaces As the user arrives at the Virtual Platform for the first time he is asked to create a profile, which will let him move on to the design space, to be contacted by other users and to set up teams and projects. Without a profile, the user only has access to the public domain.

The user enters ‘setting space’, where he can create and manage his profile and complete the team setting as described above. He will have to provide a valid e-mail address and will then receive a password with a link to the login page. In the setting space, he is able to:

Screen shot from one of the first versions of Virtual Platform which gave the user the ability to sketch on top of uploaded pictures.

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a) Receive a password by mail and login to the platform. b) Create a personal profile with data, images of own works and opinions on future projects. c) Browse other users’ profiles. d) Comment on other users’ profiles. e) E stablish contact with other users. f) Set up a team, agree on the task, establish leader ship and proceed to a shared session. g) Post thoughts and ideas that would facilitate the formation of thematic teams. h) Be appointed to/create a session in the solving space. i) Invite other users to join that session. j) Finalize a session and sign off.

A single user or a group of users can enter solving space, where each project will be appointed a specific session.

This session holds all the data and tools that are shared within the virtual team connected to that particular project. In the solving space, users are able to: a) Establish a design dialogue with other users. b) Sketch ideas and share them with others. c) Communicate through different means depending on bandwidth/technology. d) Share digital work created outside the platform. e) Invite input from other users or keep the session private.

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f) Create an overview of the design process in time. g) S how non-verbal emotions to other users’ work.

When a project is finished, the user will sign off in the setting space and post material in the public space. The uploaded material is labelled by the author’s username to facilitate future contacts. In the public space, users are able to: a) B rowse the products that the users choose to publish. b) Upload documentation of the final product. c) Comment on the process.

Scenarios As the process path moves across the three domains, through the three design spaces and makes use of the four database/interface modules as described above, we can suggest scenarios that illustrate the potential of the platform.

A scenario for a substituted process path could be that two designers are separated by physical location and time. They have both created profiles with description, thematic interest and images on the platform and received passwords. Because they do not know anybody on the platform, they would browse the final work in the gallery space and browse other users’ profiles in the profile space. By leaving notes to each other, they would get in touch, agree on a project and create a session.

As the project proceeds, they would be present in

the same session through simultaneous actions – drawing, uploading images or text, or video chatting. If they are not on the platform at the same time, they can leave messages for each other as text-chat, which will also serve as a history of their notes. When the project is finished, they will agree on what to publish in the public space. This use of the platform would first be a mix of social construction and team setting, and also a substitution for the lack of physical presence amongst the users. The simultaneous activity, while being a temporal feature, seemed to be the benchmark of remote presence.

A scenario for a supplemented process path could be that a group of designers is well accustomed to working together but needs a new way to record and document their work process. They would quickly create profiles and move on to create a session for their shared project. The solving space of their session would function as a shared consciousness of the project, containing all the files they use, all their correspondence and all their notes. If some of them decide to work at home or has to do field work, the platform moves with them. Since it runs on mobile phones and PDAs the virtual team can still keep in touch and have access to all the material, live video-chat, interactive sketching and uploading of images even though some of them are at a construction site, a factory or visiting a client. Thus the

platform becomes a supplement to the ordinary tools of the designer, providing him with a way to keep track of the design process in time and bring his work environment with him.

Both of these scenarios have been used in student work at Kolding School of Design.

Evaluation Tests and evaluations were an integrated part of constructing the project. Two usability tests with approximately 70 students working in teams were carried out during the development phase, which provided invaluable knowledge and feedback on the use and construction of the platform. They facilitated the improvement of the interaction between users and the adjustment of the flow of the process path. After the platform was constructed, another and longer test was performed in a real-world situation in the form of a workshop on the theme ‘space’ involving American University of Beirut, American University of Sharjah and Kolding School of Design.

The overall feedback from the tests and evaluations was concentrated on issues of informing the user of the spatial configuration he is in and how he navigates in that space, general usability, hardware issues and the ability to customize particular sessions and design spaces. Some of the users asked for:

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• A better division between public and private areas of the platform, which could give better control of how sketches etc. would be shared and made public.

• A more intuitive use of the tool, which comes even closer to the real thing.

• An even faster flow of data between client and server.

• The possibility to change session.

• Information on who is in a particular session.

•A clearer definition of rights and ownership of the shared objects.

The feedback also touched upon the use of the tool as a substituted process path versus a supplemented process path as described above. Some students expected a tool that could supplement all of their ordinary tools while the tools they were presented in the test merely substituted the presence of their teammates. The real world test that was carried out as a workshop was a mix between these two ways of using the platform.

The members of a group at one location would leave messages on another group’s platform to ensure a continued work process with the members of that group at another location. In that workshop, virtual teams were working together on the platform, while the members were physically located in Kolding, Beirut, Sharjah, Saint Petersburg and Tokyo.

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The space of the Virtual Platform must be seen at a conceptual level – as a design space for exchange and communication. Hence, in essence, the spatial environment was created to provide the users and teams with an ability to qualify their presence and related artifacts, and thus create both a formal and informal environment for greater creativity. This presents at least two options: a) giving the user the ability to customize the specific workspace and thereby allowing an individual view on other team members to get a more personal feel of the interaction, and b) providing the users in general with more ways to organize and structure their process path.

As the concept of design is expanding from a traditional view of an aesthetic preparation of industrial production to entail a wide range of structuring and planning activities in anthropology, economics and human resource management, a new therapeutic role for the designer is being defined. He or she has to be a ‘go-between’ for other vocations in order to make the whole integration work. Thus we could see virtual teams in the spatial construct of operands as described above, even as an economy of information – an intricate exchange of information, experience, expertise, opinions and ideas – which would serve the higher purpose of adding value to a shared enterprise.

As the concept of design is expanding from a traditional view of an aesthetic preparation of industrial production to entail a wide range of structuring and planning activities in anthropology, economics and human resource management, a new therapeutic role for the designer is being defined.

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IMAGES OF THE Middle EasT Thomas Leerberg

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In the summer of 2006 Denmark had a great cultural event with focus on the Middle East, North Africa and the Gulf Region. About 400-500 authors, musicians, dancers, actors, artists and intellectuals came to Denmark to create a vivid and personal image of the Middle East.

Images of the Middle East was a cultural festival which changed the perception of the Middle East for many Danes and also influenced the project Virtual Platform.

The initial contact to partner schools in Beirut and Sharjah was initiated by project planners from the festival, who did a tremendous job as ‘cultural icebreakers’. Without their support it would have been near impossible to set up the kind of cooperation needed for the workshop and research project.

The cooperation with Images of the Middle East also gave Kolding School of Design the opportunity to have a visit by the Iranian artists Farhad Moshiri and Shirin Aliabadi who exhibited some of their work at the school and thereby gave the students a creative introduction to Middle Eastern culture.

Photos page 31, 32, 33.

Work by Farhad Moshiri and Shirin Aliabadi shown at Kolding School of Design.

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32

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Photo page 34.

Work by Farhad Moshiri and Shirin Aliabadi shown at Kolding School of Design.

Photo page 35.

Students from Kolding School of Design sitting on a printed carpet by Farhad Moshiri and Shirin Aliabadi.

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The Workshops in Sharjah AND Beirut Thomas LeerBerg

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American University of Sharjah.

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Campus at American University of Sharjah.

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Beirut, 2005.

Students at American University of Sharjah.

In the early spring of 2006, Denmark was in the middle of the country’s worst diplomatic crisis in recent decades caused by cartoons published in a Danish newspaper. During the very same weekend as the consulate in Beirut and the embassy in Teheran were stormed, I travelled to Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates.

My purpose was to make arrangements for a joined workshop on cross-cultural communication between design students from American University in Beirut, American University in Sharjah and Kolding School of Design. It was a trip, which began with a lot of uncertainty, but ended in high spirit, with great hospitality and aided by a strong will to cooperate across cultures and borders through creative design dialogue.

The themes of the workshop were ‘identity’ and ‘communication’, which was only made more relevant by the event that took place in the surrounding world.

The workshop took place during the four weeks from

March 13 to April 8 2006 in four locations – Beirut, Sharjah, Kolding and Virtual Platform, a shared digital workspace. During the fourth week of the workshop the group of students from the three schools, were joined by additional students from Saint Petersburg State University in Russia and Kolding School of Design.

To make the workshop more concrete for the students, we picked three sub-themes with a whole range of topics for each. The first sub-theme was ‘gender’ with topics like man, woman, love, beauty, clothes, career, education and home. The second sub-theme was ‘generation’ with topics like children, elderly, culture, dreams, memories and perception of time. The third and last sub-theme was ‘space’ with topics like public, private, borders, surveillance, flow and nomadic cultures. Students were divided into groups of 4-5, combined from the different schools and had to decide on a specific topic, define a design task, produce a design 41

solution and present it each week. The students were encouraged to relate the three sub-themes and topics, from week to week, to investigate how they could get a broader picture of the main-themes of ‘identity’ and ‘communication’.

The result of the workshop was both the formal design solutions that the students did and presented each week, but also the experiences and professional alliances that the students gained from the workshop – some of which are still active now more than four years later. The atmosphere of the workshop was very positive and the students were all very well informed about topics of design and the major global issues so they were able to freely discuss the wide range of topics raised in the workshop.

Another valuable result of the workshop was the experience gained from setting up such collaboration between institutions with different teaching practices – some project-based and others lecture-based. The workshop showed that the main challenge in this kind of cooperation is neither the will to cooperate nor the language skills, but rather to find a balance between the busy schedule of the individual student, to get used to different time zones and to establish the necessary dedication to the platform, when students are already using other tools of social networking. But these challenges are all something that can be solved by planning

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and foresight, and not something, which should hinder cooperation.

The conclusion of the workshop is that the concepts ‘team-setting’ and ‘team-solving’, which are discussed in other parts in this book, are even more important for workshops in virtual space, than merely dealing with ‘problem-setting’ and ‘problem-solving’. Further more, the workshop showed, that students adapt to design tools like Virtual Platform very easily and constantly find new uses for them.

The workshop proved that international cooperation on design dialogue is important and necessary, and that the participants gain more from such cooperation than just solving traditional design problems. Design dialogue on digital platforms is a great way to expand the students’ cultural horizon.

Photo page 42.

Stress testing of the platform with 70 students from Kolding School of Design.

Photo page 43.

Concentrated studies at American University of Sharjah.

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Photo page 44 Presentation of work at American University of Sharjah.

Photo page 45.

Working on the Virtual Platform.

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The result of the workshop was both the formal dEsign solutions that the students did and presented each week, but also the experiences and professional alliances that the students gained from the workshop – some of which are still active now more than four years later.

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Photos page 46 and 47.

Student work from the workshop at Kolding School of Design.

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The Dubai skyline seen from one of the many desert freeways.

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The DIALOGUE workshop in Saint Petersburg Inger Merete Skotting

The Danish students who participated in the Russian workshop.

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Aalto University School of Art and Design, Helsinki.

The Invitation At a Cumulus meeting in 2004 in Saint Petersburg, Russia Olga Shustrova, art historian and docent at the Saint Petersburg State University proposed the idea of a future workshop between students from Saint Petersburg State University and Kolding School of Design.

A project group was established and Olga Shustrova became the Russian project leader.

The project group from Kolding School of Design consisted of Inger Merete Skotting, at the time head of the Institute of Visual Communication; Elle-Mie Ejdrup Hansen, head of the Institute of Interactive Media and Industrial Design, and Thomas Leerberg, associate professor at the Research Department.

The design education was going global. Over a period of six years Kolding School of Design had developed a series of international interdisciplinary workshops called Dialogues – both virtual and in real space; several of these workshops were held both in Kolding and in China.

Though there were problems with the structure and smoothness of the virtual communication students and teachers felt that it was so interesting that we had to further develop this part of our design teaching.

With the Virtual Platform project the intention was to do research into ways of structuring and optimising a virtual platform to ease and develop this kind of international design cooperation.

The workshop in Saint Petersburg was planned to be a combination of groups working physically as well as virtually with groups in Russia and Denmark and with students from the countries that had previously participated in the Virtual Platform projects.

The Russian workshop became a reality, and on March 27th 2006 we left Denmark. The group consisted of three teachers and 22 students from the departments of Graphic Design, Illustration, and Industrial Design.

In addition to the Danish students quite a few other countries were represented such as China, Germany, USA, Canada, Slovakia, and the Netherlands.

Real Space The first stop on the route was Aalto University School of Art and Design in Helsinki where lectures were given focusing on topics such as the Virtual Platform, the ideas behind the workshop in Russia, and design teaching in Kolding.

The next afternoon we left Helsinki on a Russian train bound for Saint Petersburg. The flat landscape we were passing through was vast, like painted in a snowwhite, greyish colour. It seemed without borders. Heaven and earth had the same misty colour tones. The only evidence of any inhabitants was a few wooden houses scattered along the frozen lakes and rivers. The train seemed tiny in this endless space of nature and gave us a clear feeling that we were now entering a country so enormous and with a history so different compared to our small well-known Denmark.

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The train seemed tiny in this endless space of nature and gave us a cLear feeling that we were now entering a country so enormous and with a history so different compared to our small well-known Denmark.

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Photos page 55, 56, 57, 58.

From the train between Helsinki and Saint Petersburg.

Photo page 59.

Tapio Vapaasalo, head of Visual Communication, Aalto University School of Art and Design, Helsinki.

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At the departure from Helsinki a few hours earlier our colleague, Tapio Vapaasalo, head of Visual Communication, Aalto University School of Art and Design put into words what we felt: “For me it is impossible to think of a world without Chekhov, Isaac Babel, Dostojevsky, Turgenev, Mandelstam, and Jesenin. Film without Eisenstein, Kuleshov, Medvekin, and Tarkovski.

Theatre without Stanislavski, Meyerhold, Ljubimov, and Vytovsky. Modernism without Rodchenko, Lisitsky, Tatlin, Varvara Stepanova, and Malevic. Not to mention music, dance, semiotics, mathematics, sciences etc.

Hollywood would not be true without those moguls who all came from Russia. Russia is so rich. It is also rich in astonishing contrasts. It is a state of mind and yet sometimes impossible to understand.�

None of us had been to Russia before. We knew we were coming to a country with a society in change, with social problems, but also a country with a rich cultural history which at times was strongly connected to the Danish past.

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Photo page 60.

The first experience of ‘being lost’ gave inspiration to the project of one of the groups.

Photo page 61.

Saint Petersburg seen from the river Neva.

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Saint Petersburg From the very first moment arriving at Saint Petersburg’s main station we had a strange almost desperate feeling of having lost our ability of orient ourselves.

We couldn’t understand the language. Signs were incomprehensible. The Cyrillic alphabet was like an unbreakable code. There were crowds of serious, busy people everywhere. The students were taking the Metro in small groups to their rented apartments in Saint Petersburg. They seemed a bit desperate and lost. Finding your way in the Russian Metro is really demanding!

Our first impression of Saint Petersburg was overwhelming. The atmosphere of the city was so different from what anyone had experienced before: New as well as old decaying buildings, snowy, dirty streets, the frozen river Neva, but also a city with an impressive, historical heritage in architecture, art and music.

A complex society with social problems such as alcohol, poverty and racism, but also with a very dominant historical heritage and a surprising avant-garde art history and the energy to experiment with new media and art forms.

After almost a year of intense work of planning, funding etc. we had finally arrived at the Russian metropolis Saint Petersburg!

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The workshop in Saint Petersburg.

Students discussing ideas.

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The main objectives of the workshop were the introduction of design methods and team work in the physical space, as well as application of the experiences from the Virtual Platform research project, which had been carried out in Kolding shortly before the workshop in Russia.

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The first meeting with the staff and the students at Saint Petersburg State University.

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The Dialogue Workshop The Dialogue Workshop was taking place at Saint Petersburg State University, the leading university in Russia. Today 20 faculties, 32.300 students and 2.500 PhD students are affiliated with the university, which also boasts more than 250 post-doctoral student programmes in 71 specialities and 31 areas of higher professional education. Former president Putin was educated here. He and the current president Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev both lectured at their old university through the 1990s. And don’t forget: the University has produced eight Nobel Prize winners!

The main objectives of the workshop were the introduction of design methods and team work in the physical space, as well as application of the experiences from the Virtual Platform research project, which had been carried out in Kolding shortly before the workshop in Russia.

The overall theme of the workshop was ‘space’.

‘Space’ as a concept can be perceived as e.g. town and street scapes, media space and private space; as physical, virtual and spiritual spaces, open and public spaces, closed and forbidden spaces. The subject and inspiration would be Saint Petersburg.

The various group projects had to be completed in different media e.g. photography, drawing, video etc. and be applicable to different design products or prototypes such as a device, packaging, ideas for a computer game, intelligent installations and similar uses. The only requirement was that the idea and the proposed solution should be presented in a clear, conceptual and communicative manner.

Introducing the Project at Saint Petersburg State University The day of our first meeting with the Russian students and the professors, we were asked to meet at the main building of the University. We walked down a longcorridor – the longest of its kind, we were told – with books and statues along the walls, surrounded by the atmosphere of history. We almost felt the presence of one of the famous Russian Nobel prize winners and other world-famous scientists.

The presentation of the projects received a lot of attention from the head of the institute, the staff and the students. Gathered in the large historic room with dark furniture and the many portraits on the wall of persons belonging to the Russian intellectual elite, the occasion was for us a historic moment. It was the first time the department had opened up for this kind of cooperation – a workshop with a group of teachers and students from abroad.

Our partners, students and staff on both sides were very enthusiastic but also a bit nervous about the outcome of the project.

Saint Petersburg State University has the longest university corridor in the world – quite impressive.

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The Groups The students were divided into seven groups, which turned out to be rather mixed both in terms of the age of the students – some of the Russian students were quite young – and also in terms of their international background; eight different nations were represented.

It was a challenge to overcome the language barrier so that all group members could agree on the next move. Yet after a day or two the groups seemed to handle these initial problems quite efficiently.

The first days the groups were discussing the key word: What is ‘space’? Many proposals came up: Open landscape, corridors, passages, surveillance of space, mapping of space, physical space, virtual space, abstract space, open and closed spaces, doorways, walls and fences, experience of space, perception, senses, perspectives, panorama, accessible and forbidden spaces, walls, fences and many more.

Daily sessions were held where the students presented their ideas, and after a few days the framework of the projects became clear.

The last day of the project period the groups gave a final presentation of their ideas and project work for the staff and the other students. The classroom was packed with interested people who responded in a very positive and enthusiastic way.

The topics of the different groups were:

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Group 1 Lost in Space The very first day one of the Danish students, Maria got lost in the Metro for quite a long time. This event gave rise to the idea of conceptualizing the feelings of coming to a place you don’t know. You don’t know the language, can’t read the signs or the alphabet. How can you communicate the feelings of confusion and frustration being in a space where you cannot orient yourself, the feeling of not fitting in?

The group wanted to make you experience these feelings of being lost through different media, video, posters and sounds.

Group 1.

Posters inspired by the theme Lost in Space.

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Photo page 68.

Group 1 presenting their ideas and research of their project Lost in Space.

Photo page 69.

Group 2 –an American, a Danish and three Russian students – are discussing their project Passageways.

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Group 2 Passageways Saint Petersburg itself was a passageway to Europe founded by Peter the Great in 1703 – as a window to Europe. A passageway is the point that links two spaces and allows you to move from one to the other.

It contains the conditions of both spaces but none of the extremes. In that sense, a passageway is both a space with two places in one and no place at all.

Many places in Saint Petersburg are passages from one space to another, doorways leading from one room to another, bridges connecting one bank of the river Neva to the other, staircases new but mostly with traces of former grandeur.

The group worked to conceptualise this concept in a MÜbius Ring – a shape where both sides are connected in an endless circle.

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Photo page 70.

Group 2 found many different examples of passageways in Saint Petersburg.

Photos page 71.

A Mรถbius Ring.

Assistant professors Pavel Sherbakov and Sergei Schwemberger helping students with their Mรถbius Ring.

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Group 3 Plug In The idea was to visualise the feeling of connection between human spaces including the dimensions of place and time. The group wanted to study other spaces than the visual space. They used the experiences from the Virtual Platform project which some of them had worked on in Kolding shortly before coming to Saint Petersburg. The group established a connection between Kolding, Tokyo and Saint Petersburg. The media used were text and video.

Photo page 72.

Group 3 working on the Virtual Platform with the project Plug In. Photo page 73.

Screen shot from the Virtual Platform.

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Group 4 Invaded, Invading The focus of this project was to map different spaces of Saint Petersburg from the beautiful old town with its huge historical buildings and as a contrast the industrial areas with people drinking and using drugs and homeless children living in cellars.

The group also conducted interviews with the Danish and Russian students about their first and second impressions of meeting each other – about prejudices and expectations from both sides and how these changed during the week. These interviews were displayed with illustrations at the final presentation in a very humorous way.

The group also produced a very poetic video about different parts of Saint Petersburg.

Photo page 74 and 75.

Group 4 research and presentation.

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Photo page 76 and 77.

Group 4 and group 6 research and sketches .

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Group 5 Public Space – PrIvate Space / Letters The focus of this group was the comparison of letterforms in public and private messages: Public: Strict, straight, enormous, box, black.

Private: Organic, characteristic, individual, colourful.

The group observed the differences between public space and private space and the differences in people’s behaviour. These observations led to a study of the use of letters communicating public and private messages.

Official writing reflects the impression of people in the public space, whereas handwritten letters portray and represent the characteristics and behaviour of the individual. The group did research in the metro and in private homes.

The final presentation was photos and a video.

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Photo page 78.

Group 5 visited a Russian family and took a photo of the graffiti on the wall in the private room of the teenager of the family.

Photo page 79.

Group 5 research from the streets of Saint Petersburg.

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Group 6 Passing on the Baton The group chose a spot in Saint Petersburg, a yard near Bolshoi Prospect. Each member of the group went in different directions to explore and map the space around them. The baton was a camera, and each group member had to express her story with only six photos.

Their final exhibition, a series of photos and sketches expressed the different directions and the structure of their spatial research.

Group 6.

Passing on the Batton.– sketch of the idea.

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Group 6.

Passing on the Baton – backyards in Saint Petersburg.

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Photos page 84 and 85.

Group 7, research and and project box with the final illustrations of the idea.

Group 7 How to Climb a Roof in Russia Viewing things from beneath and above. The group depicted a trip from down in the Metro up to the rooftops of Saint Petersburg. They wanted to view and record the space from angles that were different from the ordinary human point of view. Their travel from A to B and back again was documented in a video.

They also made a guide book in a casette with the title: How to Climb a Roof in Russia.

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The Differences in Teaching Systems During our stay we had the opportunity to observe the differences in teaching of design in Denmark and Russia. The Danish system is primarily based on training the students to work in interdisciplinary settings and in groups. The awareness of the design process is also a central aim. The Danish students are trained to set up their design process and do research, analyse and design solutions.

The Russian system of teaching design is more professor-driven. The students are unaccustomed to working in groups and to defining their own projects.

In terms of basic skills the Russian graphic design students really master drawing, communicative typoragraphy, art history etc. The interactive students were excellent in programming.

In general the Danish students are older than the Russians and many of the Russian students still live with their parents.

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Dosvidanie –Goodbye and see you again During our two-week stay we realized the vast differences between our two countries regarding history, greatness and importance. By taking us into their daily lives the Russian design students taught us a lot about their studies and about daily life in Russia.

It made a great impression on us being part of discussions about their ideals and ambitions for their future as designers. Most of the students came with a strong interest in exploring other methods of designing.

The curiosity and eagerness they expressed experiencing the two different teaching philosophies were a great inspiration to us.

In the beginning of April after almost two weeks in Saint Petersburg we left one early morning, bringing with us the pulse of the city and the unforgettable meeting with the Russian students.

Thanks to Olga Shustrova, to our Russian colleagues and to all the design students for their generous welcome and support during our stay in Saint Petersburg. We took back with us impressions that made an unforgettable impact on us all. Since our departure from Saint Petersburg we have frequently been in contact with our Russian colleagues, and I sincerely hope the cooperation between Saint Petersburg State University and Kolding School of Design will continue in the future.

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Photo page 86.

Group 3 presenting their project Plug In. The list of names is mirroring the many different nationalities of the students participating in the workshop in Saint Petersburg.

Photo page 87.

Group no 7 How to Climb a Roof in Russia.

Viewing the skyline of Saint Petersburg.

Research photo.

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RUSSIA LEARNING wOrkshops Olga Shustrova

Group 4 presenting their project Invaded, Invading.

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The most interesting experience for our students was the work in stress situations, where the speed of thinking and creativity gives satisfactory results not only to you personally, but to all in the group. It was a new form of responsibility, seldom USED IN OUR educational system.

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International cultural cooperation, as reflected in student projects in higher education, has experienced a substantial development and proven its value. I am convinced of the success of such cooperation, provided it is a well prepared project, where every participant found his or her exact place.

As a rule, the more experienced, western participants in these projects are the initiators. They determine the topics, schemes and technological base of the projects, which are going on not only as part of the studying process at the institute, but also in summer camps or in experimental settings.

In the large number of cases the financial side of these projects is also the responsibility of western partners or charitable organisations, based in the developed European countries.

I believe that the idea of international student projects in art in Russia is one of the most important for research and application in the educational process.

Unfortunately, decades in a closed society is reflected in Russia’s current very old fashioned education system.

Even the word ‘workshop’ is unfamiliar and usually met with great surprise in Russia. Many, even cultural people have never heard about the residence system for artists in Europe, since they never took part in any international projects or seminars.

Traditionally the cradle of Russian art education is the classical French Art Academy, which was the model for practically all art institutions in Europe. The Russian Art Academy established by Elizaveta, the daugter of Peter the Great, and solemnly opened by Ekaterina the Second in the middle of 18th century, determined the forms and methods of the art education in Russia.

First of all, it applied a very strict system of values, which has been the ideal for generations of artists.

Even now the main art institution in Saint Petersburg, ex- Art Academy, includes The Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, though there are also departments of theatrical art, and theory and history of art. All departments are very independent of each other. They have no connection, and students have no contact with their colleagues from other departments during any time of their education. In this system of values computers are not allowed. The administration of the Academy is convinced that the conservative education, maintained for 250 years, should still be upheld today. This attitude results in a form of anachronism that still exists in the Russian high art school, where the graduating student, in order to find his proper place in contemporary life after six years of education, has to get additional education, or learn new technologies himself.

However, this method also has its positive sides.

First of all, the traditional Russian art educational system has preserved a dedication to basic artistic skills, which is the topic of the best art schools. In many institutions drawing, composition and painting are taught by very old methods, which give good skills to the hand, and a feeling for colour, form, taste and spatial reasoning. Western schools on the other hand, went in a totally different direction in the field of spatial reasoning and composition because of the orientation towards the values of 20th century art, with its direct connection to the speed and technologies of modern life. Secondly, the educational process, as other things in our society, is undergoing a transformation towards 91

democracy. New institutions or new departments of old institutions have no need to mimic the best programs of leading art schools, and they produce their own methods and technologies in their educational programs, where the role of computers depends on the level of knowledge and experience of the department’s leaders.

In this case the traditional teaching of drawing and verpainting could be completely absent or given in the light sion, replaced by other disciplines that are more in line with the direction of the department. Often both methods (the traditional and the new) are mixed rendering very unexpected results.

In case of the ‘space’ project, which was initiated by our Danish colleagues, the Russian part was represented by a group of students from the newly established Art Institute at the Saint Petersburg State University, one of the oldest universities in Russia. This institute has several programs, and students of the programs 92

Design and Information Technologies in Art and Humanitarian were invited into the project. The former represents the typical traditional art education; the latter is more directed toward computer systems and the latest programs. For these students it is more important to be in touch with contemporary culture than with the history of art before the 20th century. There is a strong belief in Russia that without history we have no present.

Still, the new forms of education do not mean a total denial of the past, but only less of an emphasis on it, because the educational process can only include a certain number of disciplines.

We must not forget that art is always oriented towards the present and serves as its reflection. Art education, on the other hand, consists of the technological, financial and ideological instruments, which exists in that particular state. And we have to remember that certain political systems could sometimes act as a kind

Group no 3 presenting their project, Plug In.

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of jump start for quick and successful cultural development or as a hindrance and a factor of the dramatic filling of the art.

Russian avant-garde of the beginning of the 20th century was so saturated by new ideas that for a very long time it was a nourishing medium for art all over the world; but it became a battle field for Russia itself, and the last exhibition with the participation of Russian avant-garde artists was organized in 1937. For many years this period of art was closed for discussion in Russia, works were hidden in museum vaults, not mentioned, and not researched. At the same time, the West had an extensive knowledge about these works.

The ‘suprematism’ theory of Kazimir Malevich is still the basic educational element there, while in Russia abstract art is understudied. It seems that the traditions of 18th and19th century art still have more significance for Russians than all contemporary art history.

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By the reaction of students studying contemporary art in Russian institutions, I see that they are very ill prepared for the perception of even Picasso’s art, a classic of the avant-garde world and a part of history for a long time. How will they react to Piet Mondrian, Lucio Fontana or Jackson Pollock? The fact that abstract art arose with the help of Russian artists (as everybody knows the first of this genre was Wassily Kandinsky) seems a paradox. But there is silence about this subject, and very little research is done in Russia. Seemingly, the reason is that the traditional Russian way of thinking needs to explain everything thoroughly, to put all points under ‘I’, as we say. The Soviet period of life with its denial of religion, its trust in science and dialectical materialism and in the system of Copernicus also promoted these beliefs.

Another drawback is the absence of a positive view of all things contemporary in the traditional Russian educational system, including the arts. The upbringing in Russia – grandmothers, who emphasise the traditions of the past in families, mentors in kindergartens with their questionable knowledge about the arts and schools teachers who are far removed from contemporary cultural processes – all contribute to young persons arriving at institutions of higher education with an assortment of outdated ideas about society and the world, which are hardly possible to correct quickly.

At the same time in the Russian mentality there are very valuable instruments, which can be used in the work with students. First of all there is the famous Russian ingenuity, who can ‘weld a soup from the axe’. A life of constant deprivation, not only of information, but also in terms of necessities of urban (village) life, has taught

Russians to manage with little. For the generation of 1960s-1970s a small hint was enough to understand very deep truths. That is why in Russia romanticism and poetry is so popular. Probably for today’s students, growing up in a free Russia everything has changed.

But the nation’s life does not change so quickly, as some may want, and, of course, young people through their inheritance also subscribe to the concrete way of thinking and the subconscious dislike of anything avantgarde; but there is also the Russian ingenuity, which is, in my view, the main instrument for us teachers, which we have to apply very delicately.

The relationship between Russian students and their contemporaries from other countries is not such a big

Photo page 94 Group 7 presenting their project How to Climb a Roof in Russia.

Photo page 95.

Docent Olga Shustrova, assistant professor at the Department of Information Technology, Art and Humanitarian Department of the Philological Faculty, Saint Petersburg State University.

Olga Shustrova teaches history, theory of art and art management. Olga took the initiative to our corporation.

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problem. In the beginning our students, of course, felt a kind of discomfort, because of the insufficient experience in speaking English and the difference of mentalities. But those differences faded away quickly, because all the time students were working together in small international groups, discussing important problems, focusing not only on the idea of the project, but also on ways of expressing common ideas and thoughts.

The most interesting experience for our students was the work in stress situations, where the speed of thinking and creativity gives satisfactory results not only to you personally, but to all in the group. It was a new form of responsibility, seldom used in our educational system. Even the Dutch, German and Slovenian students, who came from Denmark together with the Danish of students to participate in this project, are used to working in this way. And they had to decide on other problems: adapting to the new unusual environ96

ment (the problem of space, discussing the project), hearing and reading foreign languages with another alphabet than the Cyrillic. This caused problems in the city, where the students were used to another traditions and public rules, and some of the Russian systems seemed to them almost medieval. For Russian students the role of translators and support in the adaptation of their western colleagues was just as valuable as their participation in the creative work.

For me, as one of the organisers of this project, it was very important to create a feeling of community between students and teachers in our department and emphasise the importance of deciding common creative and technical problems during the project together.

This project was the first one of this nature during my three years of working in this place, and I realise that this goal was not fully achieved. The success depends on our work in the department, on our partners being interested in working with us, and on our new state laws, evaluating the importance or lack of importance of financing such programs in Russia.

Photo page 97.

Group 4 presenting the design process of their project Invaded, Invading.

Photo page 98.

Professor Nikolai Borisov and docent Olga Shustova welcoming the students at the final presentation.

Photo page 99.

Group 4 showing a video about their project, Invading, Invaded.

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The most surprising and unfamiliar method which students from Denmark taught us was brainstorming. We had never really been exposed to it before, but we enjoyed it; and although it is quite irrational it gives the feeling of true creativity.

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THE Workshop VIRTUAL PLATFORM – METHODs of OF management Pavel Sherbakov and Nikolai Borisov

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From March 30 to April 5 2006, students and teachers from the Kolding School of Design, Denmark conducted a common project based at the Informational System in Arts and Humanities department of the Philological Faculty, Saint Petersburg State University. The university was represented by the department students of Sergei Schwemberger and students from the Graphic Design department.

This project was aimed at developing work methods in the virtual regime with the help of net programs and multicultural dialogue.

In order to gain real advantage from the intercultural communication, all participants were divided into small groups, where students from each country were represented, and no one was working only with people they knew. Thus no one’s work was given preference.

Within the framework of the given theme ‘space’ these ‘mini collectives’ produced their own projects, and solved all problems by themselves. The groups also agreed on times for meetings in the workshop, where they could communicate with everyone. In these meetings they could become acquainted with each other and exchange opinions, ideas, problems, and discoveries, helping each other and getting additional communication experience. At the end of the workshop there was a presentation of all the groups’ projects, which also demonstrated the capability of the groups to work together, in spite of cultural, language and other differences.

Such workshops are very interesting from the students’ point of view in terms of interaction, since they have to formulate and solve common projects, but the special interest we see lies in the system the project

provides. In our view, difficulties in this field appear to be in the cultural difference of the participants, and the success of the project is dependent on considerable organisational efforts. The department, which was the technological base of the project, had to supply the support for the participants.

However, preliminary negotiations with the Danish team, which provided the server, did not give the complete picture of the technical and organisational requirements involved in the project. The absence of such information in the Russian workshop made it impossible to confidently appreciate the scale of the problems we had to solve. Fortunately, however, our apprehensions were not justified. The software support needed for the project did not present any problems for the local centre of system support, and the capacity of the communication link easily allowed exchange with the multimedia information from the Danish server.

Some questions connected with the politics of computer security at the Saint Petersburg State University, and the necessity of leading the educational process at the same time were successfully resolved. But the use of computer classes, which were at the disposal for participants of the project, did not provide the feeling of comfort to everybody because of the total absence in the Danish group of anyone speaking Russian. That’s why it was very important to give the option of using personal mobile computers. When the workshop opened Danish participants were using Apple Macintosh computers and related software, which is hardly used at all at Saint Petersburg State University. Unfortunately, the Danish professor, specialising in these problems, left after two days. During preparation for the project it was decided 101

Photo page 102.

Pavel Sherbakov.

Photo page 103.

Screen shot from the Virtual Platform documenting the first meeting at Saint Petersburg State University. .

to organise the point of the wireless communication for mobile computers connection for which the department provided the special equipment. We also solved other problems connected with additional equipment and resources very quickly.

As a result we managed to satisfy all project software requirements, and the experience of multicultural communications was very well received not only by the students, participating in the project, but also by research fellows of the department and the centre of system support.

Pavel Sherbakov – Assistant Professor (Area of expertise: Publication of database to Internet; Projecting informational systems) Humanities Department Faculty of Philology Saint Petersburg State University Nikolai Borisov – Professor of Physics and Mathematics (Area of expertise: The language of programming) Head of Information Technology in the Arts and Humanities Department, Faculty of Philology Saint Petersburg State University.

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Group 2 working with the theme ‘space’.

Their solution was a Möbius Ring illustrating the many passageways in Saint Petersburg.

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Within the framework of the given theme ‘Space’ these ‘mini collectives’ produced their own projects, and solved all problems by themselves.

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During the workshop teams from the different schools kept in touch and shared material on the Virtual Platform.

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A Horse does not eat cucumber sal at Nadja Kothe

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A Horse does not Eat Cucumber Salad What Hath God Wrought?

Working Four Times Faster Kolding 8.00 h/Saint Petersburg 10.00 h/Tokyo 16.00 h Niels: Hello to the world!

Jakob: Hi there!

Shine: Hey, you are here!

Yukari: Hello!

Niels: Can you see me?

Shine: Yes, I see you! Guys, we uploaded some pictures /impressions from our project. They should help you understand us over here.

Jakob: What are the pictures supposed to show?

Shine: Connections of human space.

Yukari: What should we do with them?

Could these first words written between design students in Virtual Platform become as important as the first words spoken through a telephone: “A horse does not eat cucumber salad?” Is Virtual Platform the future work tool to expedite design processes up to four times?

Or even make business flights irrelevant?

To find this out, a group of students from Kolding School of Design were sent out into the world to test how group work over the Virtual Platform interface could work. Our team (Alexandra: Russian, student of informatics; Nadja: German, graphic design student; Shine: Canadian, interactive media design student; 108

Sofia: Russian, student of informatics; and Thomas: Danish, industrial design student) from Kolding School of Design and from Saint Petersburg State University was working in Saint Petersburg; a partner team (Jakob: Danish, interactive media design student and Niels: student of industrial design) stayed back in Kolding, and Yukari (Japanese, industrial design student), a former exchange student at Kolding School of Design, was working from Japan.

Our team in Russia had received the task ‘space’ a few days earlier than the other teams; due to the groupfinding process, we did not know each other. When the rest of the group signed in, we immediately did some brainstorming with pen and paper on the wall, digitalised all the ideas, and put them with explanations on the platform. In our first online meeting, we had to explain to the others how we would like to solve the task and discuss it with them. We all left with the agreement to work on the subject, the connection/the space between humans in the public space, and to collect some material until the next meeting two days later.

For that meeting Yukari put some pictures from space on the platform, but the Danish group was missing.

We filmed everything, but our file was too big to upload.

So we decided to meet again the next day to see what Jakob and Niels had done and to have some more time to cut down our film into small movies.

The day of the final presentation in Russia was quite a hard test for the platform. We were sending a lot of material to each other such as examples of our work, parts of the presentation, questions about how to solve technical problems, and discussions of how to express things. Everybody’s knowledge was needed and exchanged until the presentation could start. We finished one minute before the scheduled time, but could present three animations, made around the world.

All in all, the work process with the Virtual Platform proved to be useful. Team members can work independently of time and place. They only need to log in through a browser and can see the status of the process; server and storage function members can easily add their part of work or just continue where the last worker stopped. Results and former agreements are saved and can be opened again. So everybody can always get all the necessary information.

But until some shortcomings are solved the Virtual Platform cannot be truly successful: One difficulty of this kind of work is the lack of personal interaction. It is quite hard to work anonymously and therefore difficult to produce good result, because you haven’t met the team members you are chatting with. A solution could be either some more private areas, like time and space for building friendship or real meetings.

The other drawback is the enormous amount of time you need to dedicate to ensure that all the members have received all the information. How can you explain brainstorming, drawings, ideas etc., if you don’t sit in the same room and see each other? Probably we have to change the way of creating ideas and to work according

to the same clear rules. If this would be possible, we could work in four teams each for six hours, plus two hours for handover/presentation to the next team.

I look forward to a good solution, which probably one day could let us work together independently from where we are located, so that we can continue the successful teamwork between our universities.

Kolding 18.00 h / Saint Petersburg 20.00 h /Tokio 2.00 h Nadja: We made it! Tak for i dag!

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REflections on the space workshop Victoria Khvan and Tatyana Kushnareva

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This workshop was a wonderful experience for all of us.

Our University offers no similar projects, and we really appreciated this method of learning. At first there were, of course, some language and culture barriers, but we can say with confidence that we soon overcame those difficulties.

The most surprising and unfamiliar method which students from Denmark taught us was brainstorming.

We had never really been exposed to it before, but we enjoyed it; and although it is quite irrational it gives the feeling of true creativity. You are almost completely free to express your ideas, so in the end all projects were different and special and truly interesting.

The workshop was very intensive and it was taking all of our strength and resources. We worked whole days from morning till night and we didn’t even know what exactly we were trying to invent. We had our meetings at the university, at home, at streets, in cafés and

in restaurants. The first day of the workshop we ‘lost’ a girl from our group, named Sahar. It turned out that she had got lost in the suburb. We worried so much and didn’t know how to find her. But fortunately she met another girl from Denmark who was also lost, and together they found the right way. By the way, the word Sahar in Russian means ‘sugar’, and some of the guys from Kolding started calling her Sugar. We are still corresponding with her by e-mail.

During the process of exchanging ideas and discussing them we had a lot of fun. While walking down the streets of the historical centre of Saint Petersburg, we, the Russian girls, were telling the group about the city, and we took pictures of everything we saw. Luckily it was spring and the weather was fine, sunny and inspiring.

It seemed like we were all good old friends, as if we had known each other for years. There was no tension or discomfort. We felt very lucky to have such nice people on 111

our team, and it was quite surprising for us how well five people, who had never seen each other before worked together, especially since we spent whole days in each other’s company. After they left we didn’t know what to do with ourselves and we really missed them.

Although we were tired and exhausted after that ‘crazy’ week, the rapid pace and the speed with which we used to work stayed with us for a long time. We felt such power and enthusiasm. We had started to work on the project and develop some new ideas and projects. It was an exhilarating feeling.

‘Space’ is such a huge theme, with almost infinite room for reflections, images, concepts and views. The world around us is one global space, the universe, but it still falls into so many dimensions that intersect and supplement each other. When you leave your house you are moving from your private space into the public space. When you change positions or conditions your 112

point of view also changes, as does your perception of things, people and the environment. These shifts from one space to another, the connections and relations between them, the transformation from internal to external gave rise to the idea of passageways. That is the title of our project.

We tried to visualise it by creating a large Möbius ring made from paper with the panoramic pictures of Saint Petersburg printed on it. The production was real torture, but it was worth all the effort. We had to take proper panoramic photos and prepare them for printing and learn how to print a two-meter-long picture on the roll of paper. We spent about five hours on the printing process (the last five hours before the final presentation). Thanks to our teachers, who helped and supported us, we made it in time.

We still keep in touch with some of the participants of this workshop through the Internet and even by snail mail. In summary, we are very pleased to have had the opportunity to attend this workshop and experience team-work and brainstorming and all the other things we learned. We think we also got to know ourselves better, and it most certainly broadened our horizons.

Photo page 112.

We also had time for a lot of fun.

Photo page 113.

Poster on a wall in Saint Petersburg.

A Journey To The unknown Thomas LeerBerg

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The Virtual Platform was in many ways a journey into the unknown. Not only was it an attempt to produce new knowledge on virtual design processes, it was also a personal, cultural, social and pedagogic journey into the unknown territories of cultural exchange and cooperation across borders for all.

We believe that all participants gained something new from the project new friends, new techniques, new ideas and not least new thoughts about their own work and the world around them.

The project was also a creative statement of how research can be – and already has become – an integrated part of design education and international relations.

Through design research it is possible to expand the creative potential of designers and to nurture the crucial networks of a global world.

Throughout this book there are countless examples of how co-designing in an international setting has changed the students view on both design and the world they live in. By engaging in workshops like the one carried out around the Virtual Platform students have gained valuable experiences of team work, cultures and new pedagogic methods. The result of the project can be summoned up in three parts: • The proof that a tight integration between research and education is indeed possible and that both research and education can benefit from such an integration • That new knowledge was produced in the course of the project, both in a strict scientific manner and in the experience of pedagogic methods

• That the students were offered a unique teachingcourse, which changed their view on design and the world we all live in By ending one journey we always prepare for the next one. The project team want to thank all who took part in the shared efforts of this project and hope that we can continue our journeys together in the future.

Thanks!

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PARTICIPANtS American University Beirut faculty/staff Lena Merhej American University Beirut students Celia Jaber Dana Nasser Dima Boulad Farah Assir Layla Naamani Maie El-Hage Mohamed Modara Ramzi Ibrahim Shareen Al-Dakkak Tariq Ayass

American University Sharjah faculty/staff George Katadrytis Tarek Al-Ghoussein American University Sharjah students Alia Alsuwaidi Amir Berbi Danuta Dias Farah Banani Faris Sarrar Farnoosh Rezapour Fatima Hammadi Fatma Alken Haifa Malhas Jasem Nedoum Maisa Jarjous

Mariam Hobeldin Mina El Taieb Mona Mahmoud Nadia Abdeen Nazima Ahmed Noora Khammas Nour Shihabi Raed Skaik Reem Al-Ghaith Reem Falaknaz Sabreen Aziz Sarah Al-Sharqi Sharon Ahimaz Sumayya Al-Senan Tasqeen Syed Zahra Pedram Zainab Alhaj Yahya Zohreh Jami

St. Petersburg State University faculty/staff Olga Shustrova Pavel Sherbakov Sergei Schwemberger Saint Petersburg State University students Alex Borisova Anastasia Fomicheva Elizaveta Dmitrieva Iya Grigalashvili Jenya Nazarov Jevgenia Slav Kate Taranenko Maria Kraskova Marina Alexandrova Marta Krylova 117

Naschekina Juliya Natalya Kolossova Nina Pechkovskaya Sofia Chebanova Tat Kozlova Tatyana Kushnareva Varvara Sochivko Viktoria Khvan Zolotukhina Yekaterina

Designskolen Kolding faculty/staff Andrew Nagel Damion Bailey Elle-Mie Ejdrup Hansen Inger Merete Skotting Jens Paldam Jorgen Skogmo Lars Lyngstadaas Nadja Kothe Thomas Leerberg Designskolen Kolding students Anne Bay Shindel Anne Luther Anne Sofie Bendtson Benny Noergaard Henningsen Ditte Olesen Farhad Moshiri Henry Philippe Schlesser Jakob Dunning 118

Joaquim Nielsen Johan Grann Kristiansen Karin AndersenKenneth Weigelt Kim Yang Jacobsen Kristian Lindhardt Noerhave Lasse Bolvig Engedal Lea Klaaborg Line Weinkouff Jakobsen Louise Ry Mathiasen Louise Springborg Malte Kohn Marcus Hannibal Madsen Maria Eskjaer Marie Louise Noergaard Makinen Marieke Amalieh Bulow Marjetka Kurner Mette Hjoerngaard Lauritzen Mette Schmidt Mi-Hyang Park Michael Larsen Mie Damgaard Morten Bender Adamsen Niels Grubak Iversen Niels Jeppe Jensen Nils Koster Qin Du Sabine Maria Stougaard Knudsen Sabine Storm Sahar Ghaheri Sidsel Christel Bach Song Zhong Thomas Willemoes Tilde Burrows

Tore Larsen Torsteinn Laufkvist Helgason Yukari Hotta

Images of the Middle East staff Per Henriksen Peter Bloch Shirin Alibadi

Utrecht School of the Arts faculty/staff Anke Coumans Antoin Buissink

The aim of the research project Virtual Platform was to create a link between the real and the virtual workspace of the designer and to connect individual designers through virtual means.

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The first Dialogue Workshop with participation of 112 students – held in China 2002 at Tsinghua University.

This photo was taken just after the opening of the exhibition with the results of the workshop.