Leah's Big Design Adventure

Leah’s

BIG Design T D E A V N U RE

Once upon a time, there was a girl called Leah.

One day, Leah decided to embark on a . . .

DE S IG N T D E A V N U RE !

Leah wanted to escape from London to start her journey! She wanted to do this by creating a whole new world where she already was, by creating a brand new cultural identity for London.

She went around London and asked people what they thought of the current culture, but all they could tell her was that it was multicultural. She thought to herself:

“People need a new London culture to identify with!�

On her travels, Leah came across the 172 bus. She thought it was a great display of all types of people being connected together.

It also ran between her and her two friends houses, and the three girls came together to create the new culture. And so

THE 172 CULTURE WAS BORN! The culture was created with the idea that the natives of the culture had never been outside of the 172’s route, and therefore their lives and behaviours had been molded by it.

The tra dit fried ch ional delicac yo ic abunda ken, due to th f the 172 is nc e route a e of chicken nd amo s unt eat hops on the itself. en on t he bus

This is the hand gesture the natives use to say hello. It is based on the action of pressing an oyster card on the card scanner as you enter the bus.

This is t he hand gesture th use to s e natives ay good by It is bas ed on th e. e action o f pressi ng the red button o n the bus to indic ate to the d river tha t you wan t to get off at the n ext stop .

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The shop signs on the route are particularly important to the 172 culture as they celebrate the independence of the 172 people and their individual styles. They are also the brightest thing to be seen on the route, and their importance is remniscent of how early cultures the worshipped the sun.

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Many commuters on the 172 favour jeans and a black coat, so this was made into the traditional dress of the 172. The area of the 172 the person comes from is displayed on the back of the coat using their favourite local chicken shop.

The coats are also sourced locally in charity shops.

Creating awareness of the culture is very important to the natives as it is crucial to the survival of the 172 culture itself.

Colourful, crude postcards were created to spread the word but also to celebrate the scenery on the route.

They modeled their way of speaki

ng based on their God,

The

k c e D r e p p U e h t f o d Lor The Lord of the Uppe r Deck is actually the voice th at reads out bus stops and announce ments.

The 172 culture also h as a yearly ritual that mourns the loss of a 17 2 bus that caught on fire in 2014. They visit the sit e of the fire with and list en to the 172 anthem, which is comprised entirely of sounds tak en from the bus.

A short documentary was made to share the 172 culture with the rest of the world. It was shot on the only equipment the locals had, a mobile phone. An informational zine was also produced for the same purpose.

“What did I learn from this?� Leah asked herself.

Leah felt that she became a lot more confident working in a group, and thought she contributed to the group well. Leah discovered the importance of first-hand research. She had originally started out by reading complicated literature about how culture was formed, but ultimately found that exploring it first-hand was much more insightful.

?

Leah made a mistake during the project by taking the wrong path and focusing on food when neither her or her team were particularly talented in the culinary arts. The experimentation with

food was unsuccessful and took up a lot of time.

The biggest thing Leah learned was that some things only work in certain contexts. The tacky postcards worked because they felt genuine, but shooting the final film on a phone did not work. In particular, the audio contained a lot of background noise. The low production value ended up compromising the work massively.

Leah continued on her adventure, having partially escaped London, when she came across...

The tutor monsters!

“These guys look kinda scary,” said Leah.

The first monster’s name was Jo. She told Leah that she needed to be more deadpan when talking and to focus more on the behaviours and less on the imagery.

The second monster said his name was Jimmy. He said to Leah that she should focus more on the bus itself, and the idea of transforming it into something new. He thought that the group should use their 172 voice with the publicperhaps in a bus tour.

Leah began imagining what 172 interior design would look like as a quick experiment. Although the result was interesting, she could not see any potential for this development and moved on.

The Famous 172 Bus Tour Leah and her fellow members of the 172 culture agreed that making a tour would be a good chance to share it with the actual users of the 172. For the tour, Leah continued to mix fact with fiction, with the bus tour being completely factual except for introducing a new character, St. Donatt. The bus passes through St. Donatts road, yet there is no record of an actual St Donatt ever existing, until now. According to legend, he was made a saint in the 5th century for performing the astounding miracle of creating the first ever fried chicken. People today say he looks eerily similar to Colonel Sanders.

“What would a 172 marriage be like?”

Leah made a script for a potential 172 ceremony. It goes as follows: We are gathered here today under the Lord Of The Upper Deck to witness the marriage of _____ and _____. As we travel towards (St Pauls/ Brockley Rise) we are reminded of this couple’s devotion to this bus, the 172. May this marriage be not only a commitment to eachother but also a commitment to the sacred 172. Just as this bus goes on its journey safely, so may they in their journey of holy matrimony.

Do you, _____, take _____ to be your wife? Do you promise to never divert from her, and stay with her until your final destination?

Do you, _____, take _____ to be your husband? Do you promise to never divert from him, and stay with her until your final destination?

O holy Lord Of The Upper Deck, May you always see that this couple will be kept under your surveillance forever. May their oyster cards be forever full, and that when they have a child there will always be space for their pushchair downstairs. May they cherish their journeys on this route forevermore. We pray that Chick Chicken and Morleys will stay in good health so that they may never go hungry.

Amen.

Congratulations, you may now eat your chicken. I present to you, Mr and Mrs ________.

Leah continued on her adventure and came across lots of talking pickles. “How odd�, said Leah.

Leah asked the pickles if they knew they were pickles. They told her they were people, just like her.

Leah was disturbed by this, and vowed to ďŹ nd a way to show the pickles that they were pickles.

Picklism is the name given to an existing practice that, until now, has not had a definitive name. Pickling happens when a person wants their subject to be changed in some way. This person becomes the pickler.

They fill their jar with vinegar - their beliefs and ideologies - and place the subject - now the pickle inside until the pickler decides the process is complete. The subject is unaware that they are jar as the pickling process is very subtle, as it happens slowly over time.

Pickles cannot turn back into a cucumber, but they can become aware of the process they have been through and consciously reject the jar.

er Leah joined forces with five other people and togeth they called themselves

The Picklists! ng. They The picklists began with a mad frenzy of pickli spiraled started with a cucumber, naturally, but it soon whole out of control. Soon, they were pickling mice, cities- nothing could stop them.

be an actual, “If people can feel what it’s like to e aware of the m co be n ca ey th be ay m , le ck pi al liter ed. likeness they share”, Leah ponder

Picklist fashion was created by vacuum-packing foods to spread awareness of picklism by creating unusual, eye-catching pieces.

The picklists then vacuum-packed themselves in order to create th e feeling of entra pment that a pick experiences. le

The picklists used the lens of picklism to highli ght a current case of picklism that was affecting th em and their fellow students. In George Osborne’s autum n statement, he made a retrospective change to the student loans contract made in 2012, which co uld end up costing some students thousands more wh en paying back their loans.

Picklism was used to introduce play and spectacle into protest. These tools worked to create interest but also as a metaphor for the way the government trapped it’s students into an unethical contract.

The picklists created a pickle-throwing catapult and a board with George Osborne’s face surro unded with pickles and pickle jars to launch the pic kles at. The face rotates when hit.

The pickle’s lightheartedness and familiarity makes it a highly accessible and un-threatening symbol.

The picklists hope that the pickle can become a recognizable icon that encompasses both the acknowledgement and objection to the process of pickling.

In order to spread the word, the picklists made a documentary for the general public about picklism. It featured footage from the protest and other picklist works alongside the reflections of the picklists themselves. Unfortunately the film had poor sound quality and was edited together quickly, so it could also have been condensed.

When it was all over, Leah looked back and realisedif everyone has been pickled in some way, then she must be a pickle too.

Leah felt that she learned a lot from picklism. Leah was initially very worried that the picklists had different views on what picklism was and had different directions. However, she came to learn that this was one of their strengths as it allowed a view of picklism from all sides, creating diverse and interesting outcomes and discussions.

Overall, it made picklism much richer.

Leah also learned that making and doing things is a lot more effective than talking about and overthinking things. New directions and development came a lot quicker than she had previously found.

Leah became less afraid of working on larger scales too. The picklists couldn’t actually pickle the city of London, but they could make a model. Leah realised that she could think big, be adventurous, and scale it down to something realistic afterwards. Speculative design had become less scary, and began to make more sense.

Leah gained a lot of confidence in working with the public when she tested the theory of Picklism on Speakers’ Corner in Hyde Park. Being challenged helped Leah consolidate her ideas of Picklism and its potentials.

!

Leah was stopped once again on her journey by some tutor monsters!

“They’re not so scary any more,” said Leah.

This time, they all seemed to say the same thing to Leah:

“Improve the documentary!�

Leah and the picklists agreed and refilmed the documentary. This time it took a new perspective, looking into how the picklists had been affected by picklism, now four months on. They felt that they understood picklism better after having some distance from it. It was a documentary of reflections and emotions, as opposed to documenting events as it was in the last film.

“That was a strange adventure,� said Leah.

She had barely left the strange land of pickles when she was approached by a mysterious figure.

It called itself Public Works Studio, and told her they had come from Lebanon to give Leah a challenge.

“How can key existing urban public spaces in Beirut be reclaimed and new visions afforded to enable minority groups to have different, better and more integrated social and physical relationships and engagements?”

Leah found a new team and they began to find out as much as they could about Beirut- but they soon realised it would take a long time to truly understand it.

“We don’t know much about Beirut... but we do know about the seaside!”

They decided to focus completely on the behaviours and activities that happen at the beach. They were also conscious not to choose a particular minority group to focus on.

In The Sims the people often have issues moving through spaces and performing actions that in real life would be no issue, due to the sim world being made of invisible blocks.

The Sims was used by the team as a metaporical representation of invisible disability. The government is disabling the public as it continues to restrict people in many ways, notably by selling off public space.

und at fo rs u o vi a eh b e th d se ly Leah and her team ana at related to th s ct je b o e th d n a , h c Beiruts public bea them.

It occured t o Leah that many beach activities ar e generally inaccessibl those with e to disabilities.

use a beach, to is it at h w on ti es qu to Leah began beach l fu ss ce uc ‘s a te tu ti ns co and what would she could ow h ed er d on w ah Le ’. ce experien ople do if they pe ld ou w at h W . h ac be a ’ ‘deprogram ach? be e th at o d to at h w ld to had never been

This began a speculation into having seperate beaches for seperate uses.

This way, everybody’s abilities have been equalised . For example, at this beach is specifically for dipp ing your toes in the water.

The team then began considering the possibility of creating an activity for the beach that has a dual purpose. Whilst the user performs the activity, they are also capturing data. This allows the person to explore and experience Beirut in a new way, but also provides data to the public. The information can create discussion in the community and potentially create city-wide changes based on the results. ive Citizen ct A e th d te a re c d n a ea They worked on this id be used with n a c t a th s p e st f o t se a Framework. It is ose activity. rp u p l a u d a te a re c to e any issu

Issue

The Active Citizen Framework can be used with any issue. Potential examples of this could be air pollution, electricity cuts and the privatization of public space.

The public decides which issue they would like to tackle by submitting suggestions online. The online community are then able to vore for the issue they think is most important.

Participants Because the issues - and therefore the activities - are always changing, everyone will have the opportunity to participate in a project or a step of the process.

Matter

The matter collected is not necessarily a physical thing. For example, it can be a collection of areas on a map, counting objects or buildings, or taking photos.

Tools Upon choosing to participate in the collection, the participant will then be sent information about what they need to collect and where to submit their findings. Specific tools for collection can be provided, such as test tubes and worksheets. Depending on the task, participants can provide their own tools, like notebooks or cameras, to record their findings.

Gathering Gathering together to share your results and thoughts is an incredibly important step of the framework, whether it is in person or online.

It is essential that citizens, especially those who are minorities, have strong community links. When groups of people meet to share their findings, they can also discuss the issue at hand and how it has affected them. A physical gathering is preferable, but a strong online community can substitute for those who have difficulty attending in person.

Through these conversations people can contribute tohow the data can be presented, or ideas about how the results could be used.

Sharing Sharing will happen in two different ways. It can be online, in a physical space, or both. It’s very important that the data is converted into something easily understandable by the general public, Sharing in a public space produces a way of communicating information that is accessible to all, regardless of internet access. This allows everyone to make informed choices about how they interact with the city, as well as creating awareness around the issue displayed.

If the data is online, it can also be accessed worldwide, giving people across the world an insight into the true state of the city, unmanipulated by the media.

Example When researching Ramlet Al Bayda, Beirut’s only public beach, Leah discovered that the seawater is not safe to swim in. The government takes regular readings of their seawater and is aware of this, but they choose not to share this information with the public. To test our system, we used London and the Thames river.

Water Londoner Water Provided test tube

In this case the participant has improvised upon the test tube supplied and attatched it to their own fishing rod. This method of collection was inspired by the fishermen found in Dalieh, and considering how they would interpret the task.

Physical

This example explores how a casual gathering could take place. The person collecting data should be a familiar, friendly face- like the person who serves you coffee in the morning or share your daily commute with.

Station / Online

Data can be read at a public station like this. Users take note of the results and upload them online.

Online participants will then help compile the results and check for inconsistencies in the data.

Physical

Leah made a model of Greenwich power station to explore the concept of a physical display of data. It has a simple 1 to 10 rating of the current water quality shown on a screen imbedded into the wall.

What happens after sharing?

It is up to the citizens to use the information as they see fit. In this example, participants mapped the commute between their house and their job. With this, they then mapped out a potential bus route, and can now push the government to make it a reality.

With information about air quality, for example, people with breathing problems can monitor the quality levels and make informed choices about the locations they visit. People who visit the beach can choose whether they want to enter the water, knowing what the quality is.

The aim for the framework’s future is to create a developed dialogue around the issues that the Lebanese people are facing; and to create a strong, caring community. As more people come together as activists using the Active Citizen Framework, the government will feel more pressure to create changes that can reshape Beirut.

“What did I learn from this adventure?� Leah pondered once again.

Leah had already determined from picklism that it was dangerous to over-research and over-think, and made sure to avoid that in this part of her journey too. By focusing on the similarities that exist between Beirut and London, Leah did not allow herself to get caught up trying to find out everything about Lebanese culture.

Similarly, focusing on behaviours as opposed to diabilities allowed Leah to think less restrictively.

Leah also learned that when working with a client you must prepare for all potential questions, and to answer them before they have a chance to occur.

?

Leah felt like she wasted some time taking readings of water samples as opposed to looking at the system more broadly. Her interest in physical computing was actually

somewhat a disadvantage as she got carried away with making a working object, something that was not actually necessary.

Suddenly, some tutor monsters showed up!

“They’re actually quite funny looking,” said Leah. “I’m beginning to quite like these guys.”

They told her that she was missing out on the potential outcomes of this project in the future, and the finer details of how it can form a community. They also reiterated that “The potential of your project is in the process of documenting, so don’t focus too much on the data itself.”

Public works wanted Leah to look into a better physical form of sharing information with the public.

Leah also felt that she could have been more creative with this stage in the process and began work on a lighting concept for the corniche and beach area that indicates the current seawater quality.

Seawater quality guide Best

Worst

OWNYOUR BEIRUT.ORG

LED lighting that adapts to the current seawater quality.

“What a long journey!”

Leah said. “I think I changed quite a lot during that time.”

Leah found that in these projects she had trouble letting go of an idea she liked or a process she enjoyed doing, and ended up spending time doing this as opposed to moving on to the next stage of the design process. This happened mostly with the Public Works brief, but also in the 172 as she got carried away with the aesthetics of the shop signs. In the future Leah should make sure to look at the bigger picture and whether what she is doing is still relevant to avoid this happening again.

When the 172 project was originally done, Leah would never have gone onto the bus with a microphone and presented a bus tour. The picklism project pushed her boundaries in working with the public and gave her the confidence she needed to bring the 172 culture to the users of the 172.

Over the year Leah became more aware of what her design preferences were, her design beliefs and her style.

Interaction, play, fun and fantasy have become the focus of Leah’s design practice.

Leah hopes you enjoyed sharing her design journey with her.

And they all designed happily ever after.

The end.