c o m m o n
s p a c e
Mai Kobori
Portfolio Vol 2. 2010 - 2012 MFA Transdisciplinary Design School of Design Strategies Parsons The New School for Design
exhibiting the past together
alone together
ANNA TZAKOU
Investigating ways of understanding the locale, the group translated their awareness into a creative process of collaborative research, work, and action. Through walking tours, interviews and multi-sensory mapping, learning from scholars, local experts and neighborhood activists, sharing research and experience in collaborative design settings, they used varied disciplinary methodologies to examine and propose immediate interventions and long-term strategies for engagement. Amid laughter, food, frustrations, play and mis-translations, the workshop tried to create a safe zone of mutual exchange. The resulting actions -- contingent, light and provisional – were aesthetically audacious but ethically humble.
ELEANNA MARTINOU
This installation is the city as a site of translation – a tabula across which voices and itineraries intersect and engage continually in daily urban life. It represents the multiple cultures, personalities, stories, trajectories and disciplinary backgrounds that gathered around the table or in the streets during the AAO workshop. It also speaks for all of us who find ourselves across the table with fellow urban citizens, and who find that imaginative solutions and creative possibilities are frequently foreclosed in the inability to hear one other. Faculty Members: Lydia Matthews, Michael Morris, Lina Stergiou, Radhika Subramaniam
facilitating together
s o c i a l
food: social social
dynamics
service scenarios
design + social innovation
g a t h e r
gathering data
gather observations gather process
EXARCHIA
POLITICAL
BLAND HOKE
KELLI JORDAN
KOSTANTIA MISYRI MAI KOBORI MARIOS DANESSIS MEHDI SALEHI NATALIA MICHAILIDOU ORLANDO VELEZ PABLO GOMEZ URIBE TAMARA MAKAREM XENIA MASTORAKI
SATURDAY, MARCH 12: PSYCHO-GEOGRAPHY MAPPING
POSSIBILITIES INTERACTION SYMBIOSIS SYNERGY DIALOGICAL
A B O U T
IOANNIS SAVVIDIS
TIMELINE RESEARCHING COLLABORATIVE PRACTICES
STRINGS OF
ANSLEY WHIPPLE
EXCHANGE OF PEE
L E A R N I N G
revealing myths together
In Athens in March 2011, a group of young designers, architects, and artists from Greece were joined by students from Parsons The New School for Design in New York for a week-long academic exchange. They were asked to envision a process for working together in response to current circumstances in the neighborhood of Exarchia.
ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH
t o g e t h e r
SUNDAY, MARCH 13: WALKING TOUR
POINT
LISTENING SHARING CREATIVE PROCESS ACTION OF HEARING
EYE-OPENING INTO THE
RABBIT HOLE
DIFFERENT MONDAY, MARCH 14-15 : SHARING KNOWLEDGE
TUESDAY, MARCH 15 : 24 HR INTENSIVE DESIGN WORKSHOP BEGINS
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 16: CO-DESIGNING A STREET ACTION
THURSDAY, MARCH 17: PROTOTYPE ACTIONS
WORK IN PROGRESS
FRIDAY, MARCH 18: CRITICAL REFLECTIONS
about me.
I’m a design researcher, strategist, and educator that seeks inspiration through unexpected discoveries and insights that drive innovative opportunities. Mai believes that complex issues need to be investigated from multiple perspectives and addressed collaboratively using new methods and strategies. Her background in interior architecture and interest in human behavior afford her to look at creating meaningful experiences, services, and places with people. Mai explores design not as an artifact but as a reflective process and an experience that weaves our social fabric
together.
fo o d : s ocial dynamics
distributed food storage
HOW MIGHT WE CULTIVATE A FOOD-CENTRIC COMMUNITY IN AN AREA CURRENTLY CHALLENGED WITH ISSUES OF FOOD JUSTICE?
3rd space blanket
paint path
travel with food game food hunt - grafitti kiosk
basket delivery
packaged food to go
auto-parts boat picnic sculpture 90% less corn bodega
CASE STUDY
+ BLANK PLATE (Hunts Point, Bronx) Blank Plate is an experimental workshop that aims to inspire Hunts Point teens, encouraging them to make new connections with their community and transforming their relationship to food through creative culinary experiences. Collaborating between key players in various fields, the workshop is part of a flow through Hunts Point’s food ecosystem with the potential to create a ripple effect of transformation in the neighborhood. The project coordinates with several other food and education initiatives in the South Bronx with the goal of cultivating a food-centric community in an area currently challenged with issues of food justice.
+ My capacity: Working with three others on a design team, our role was to conceptually reframe our research in the food system: production, distribution, and consumption. I worked to create storyboards and scenarios; as well as identify key players that could be potential collaborators in the system.
+ Together with: Howard Chambers, Amy Findeiss, and Eulani Labay
floating gardens
i m a g i n a t i v e
food sculpture
food “train” food advocacy
contest
r e a l i s t i c
community garden
reappropriating commond food
food skateboard
cook off
this is a Durian! still life art of food
food fight directly related to food food related - artistic indirectly related to food
90% less corn exhibition
food play food 4 thought photo essay future eating 1wk consumption
food of future by color
connecting w/ heratige request 4 food
dinner party colorful market
not related to food
c e n t r a l
HUNTS’ K TCHEN
MEET MARIA Maria is a 16 year old Hunts Point local. Like many people that live in her neighborhood, access to healthy affordable food is limited and Maria knows the result of this well as her brother was just diagnosed with diabetes. The school year has just begun and she is excited to spend more time with her friends.
HOWARD CHAMBERS, AMY FINDIESS, MAI KOBORI and EULANI LABAY
M F A T R A NSD I SC I P L I NA R Y D ESI GN, P A R SONS T H E NEW SC H OOL F OR D ESI GN
MARIA AT SCHOOL
MARIA AND ZARA PLAN TO GO TO HUNTS’ KITCHEN
MARIA MEETS COOKING TEACHER JUANITA
Maria loves to gossip and check out boys with her friends at school. She keeps hearing about a cooking program at the Point and thinks her friends might know more about it.
Maria’s friends do know about the cooking program! Maria and Zara make plans to go to an upcoming class and see if the new guy at school is there too.
Maria and Zara show up to the cooking class and are surprised at the interesting fruits and vegetables everywhere. They meet cooking teacher Juanita, who will be leading the class, and Sven, a facilitator from a design school in Manhattan.
Maria at school. Maria loves to gossip and check out boys with her friends at school. She keeps hearing about a cooking program at the Point and thinks her friends might know more about it.
Maria meets cooking teacher Juanita. Maria’s friends do know about the cooking program! Maria and Zara make plans to go to an upcoming class and see if the new guy at school is there too.
Maria meets cooking teacher Juanita. Maria and Zara show up to the cooking class and are surprised at the interesting fruits and vegetables everywhere. They meet cooking teacher Juanita, who will be leading the class, and Sven, a facilitator from a design school in Manhattan.
EDIBLE SENSATIONS BEGINS
MARIA IS AMAZED BY ALL THE NEW VEGETABLES
MARIA VISITS THE MARKET
MARIA LOVES THE RECIPE CARDS
MARIA TELLS HER MOTHER ABOUT HUNTS’ KITCHEN
MARIA AND HER FAMILY HAVE A PICNIC
As the class begins, Maria is asked to close her eyes and recall a memorable food experience. After talking about this with the class, Juanita instructs the students to put on blindfolds and experience the vegetables without the sense of sight. Maria is amazed at what a different experience this is.
Maria is excited about what comes next, already she is experiencing food in a whole new way. Juanita begins instructing the students as the cooking begins.
After the cooking class is finished, Maria joins Sven at the Hunts’ Kitchen Market where he explains how the food is brought in from theTerminal Market and divided between the classes and the market. She can’t believe that the fresh food in the market is so cheap.
Sven gives her a picnic blanket to wrap the vegetables in and the recipe card for the meal she cooked earlier that day.
As Maria is unpacking her bag at home, her mother arrives. Maria tells her mother about the class, she is very pleased that Maria is learning useful skills and spending time at the Point. She is also thrilled to learn about the Market, she always wants to give her kids the most healthy food and the Hunts’ Kitchen Market will make that easier.
It is Maria’s mother’s day off and the family decides to go to the Hunts’ Kitchen Market and then have a picnic. They choose a spot from the Hunts’ Kitchen map and set off to enjoy the nice day together. This is the beginning of a new healthy family tradition.
Edible Sensations begins.As the class begins, Maria is asked to close her eyes and recall a memorable food experience. After talking about this with the class, Juanita instructs the students to put on blindfolds and experience the vegetables without the sense of sight. Maria is amazed at what a different experience this is.
Maria is amazed by new vegetables. Maria is excited about what comes next, already she is experiencing food in a whole new way. Juanita begins instructing the students as the cooking begins.
Maria visits the market. After the cooking class is finished, Maria joins Sven at the Hunts’ Kitchen Market where he explains how the food is brought in from theTerminal Market and divided between the classes and the market. She can’t believe that the fresh food in the market is so cheap.
Maria loves the recipe cards. Sven gives her a picnic blanket to wrap the vegetables in and the recipe card for the meal she cooked earlier that day.
Maria tells her mom about Hunt’s Kitchen. As Maria is unpacking her bag at home, her mother arrives. Maria tells her mother about the class, she is very pleased that Maria is learning useful skills and spending time at the Point. She is also thrilled to learn about the Market, she always wants to give her kids the most healthy food and the Hunts’ Kitchen Market will make that easier.
s o c ia l design scenari o HOW MIGHT WE TELL THE STORY OF MARIA WHO IS FROM HUTNS POINT?
2011
DATA COLLECTED BY
Meet Maria. She is a 11th grade student at Hunts Point High School who has a strong passion for art and cooking. She took part in the Teen Chef Battle program that was held at the Point last year and nearly won!
FOOD FIGHTS
GROUP 3RD BIRDS TITLE
DESIGN REALITIES of the HUNTS POINT COMMUNITY FOOD ECOSYSTEMS
APRIL
Hunt’s Point, a neighborhood in the South Bronx, often gets the unlovely distinction of “food desert,” a title bestowed to places that lack healthy food options such as fresh fruits and vegetables. Instead this neighborhood is saturated with junk food outlets and fast food restaurants offering cheap, belly fixes for the low-income consumer. Food deserts are often associated with health-related issues of its residents, like obesity, diabetes and heart disease. The Hunt’s Point community is no stranger to these illnesses. Adult diabetes rates in the area are the highest in New York City (17%), and 1 in 4 adults are obese. Urban food deserts in the US share common realities much like Hunt’s Point. However, the great irony of Hunt’s Point is that it is home to one of the world’s largest food distribution markets,supplying wholesale fresh produce, fish, and meat to over thirty million consumers in New York region. Sixty thousand diesel trucks travel through the community each week, not just for food distribution, but also to transport 40% of the New York City’s waste.
Maria and her family have a picnic. It is Maria’s mother’s day off and the family decides to go to the Hunts’ Kitchen Market and then have a picnic. They choose a spot from the Hunts’ Kitchen map and set off to enjoy the nice day together. This is the beginning of a new healthy family tradition.
d e s ig n + social innovati o n HOW CAN WE AMPLIFY SOCIAL INNOVATION IN COMMUNITIES?
CASE STUDY + AMPLIFY CREATIVE COMMUNITIES (Williamsburg, Brooklyn) Amplify Creative Communities is a two year long project funded by the Rockefeller Foundation’s Cultural Innovation Fund that identifies creative citizens and organizations collaborating to invent innovative solutions to overcome problems in their neighborhoods. + My capacity: Social Innovation Researcher: Identified and conducted researched under the direction of a social scientist over the summer of 2011. 30+ interviews were performed, analyzed and captured into videos based on Social Innovation + Together with: Rachel Lehrer + DESIS (Design and Social Innovation + Sustainability) Lab
e x h ib it i ng past togeth e r HOW MIGHT WE DISPLAY EVERYDAY OBJECTS THAT REVEAL TIME AND CULTURE ? BONDING
BRAINSTORMING
PROTOTYPING
CASE STUDY + Naked Shapes ( Domaine De Boisbuchet, France ) Naked Shapes is a traveling exhibition that focuses on the period during and after the Second World War when there was a severe shortage of materials in Japan. One of the few metals that could be easily recycled was scrap aluminum from US combat planes that were left behind. An exhibition collaboratively designed and constructed by a mulit-displinary group of designers (architect, product designers, and artist) from Parsons who were awarded a Design Fellowship from Vitra. + My capacity: My role involved facilitating the collaborative process as well as designing the spatial experience and construction of the exhibition. My Japanese background informed cultural awareness of the objects that were being displayed. I bridged the cultural gap between the Japanese collectors and the design team. + Together with: Mayra Cimet, Bairon Garzon, Lee Gibson, and Daniel Kern Vitra Design Museum photo credit: Deidi von Schaewen
BRAINSTORMING
SPACE PLANNING
IDEATING
SYNTHESIZING
BUILDING
CONTEXTUALIZING
BUILDING
TESTING
RE-ITERATING
BRIDGING THE GAPS OF CULTURE
Everyday object that are stripped down to its bare form by Japanese collectors. In their simplistic material nakedness, they express a quiet yet clear poetry of everyday objects from the past.
photo credit: Deidi von Schaewen
borhood of Exarchia.
Investigating ways of understanding the locale, the group translated their awareness into a creative process of collaborative research, work, and action. Through walking tours, interviews and multi-sensory mapping, learning from scholars, local experts and neighborhood activists, sharing research and experience in collaborative design settings, they used varied disciplinary methodologies to examine and propose immediate interventions and long-term strategies for engagement. Amid laughter, food, frustrations, play and mis-translations, the workshop tried to create a safe zone of mutual exchange. The resulting actions -- contingent, light and provisional – were aesthetically audacious but ethically humble.
re v e a ling together
This installation is the city as a site of translation – a tabula across which voices and itineraries intersect and engage continually in daily urban life. It represents the multiple cultures, personalities, stories, trajectories and disciplinary backgrounds that gathered around the table or in the streets during the AAO workshop. It also speaks for all of us who find ourselves across the table with fellow urban citizens, and who find that imaginative solutions and creative possibilities are frequently foreclosed in the inability to hear one other.
WHAT CAN WE DISCOVER FROM CROSS CULTURAL + TRANSDISCIPLINARY COLLABORATIONS? IDEATING
ANALYZING
SYNTHESIZING
Faculty Members: Lydia Matthews, Michael Morris, Lina Stergiou, Radhika Subramaniam TIMELINE RESEARCHING COLLABORATIVE PRACTICES
1
CASE STUDY + Against All Odds: ETHICS / AESTHETICS (Athens, Greece) Voice of Exachia: The Purpose of the action was to reveal the effects of social miscommunication, and promote the coexistence of different people who might participate in a game of geopolitical and social reconciliation.
2
3
+ My capacity: Facilitating brainstorming session where students from various disciplines and countries came together to ideate a proposal. + Together with: Tamara Chehayab-Makarem, Bland Hoke, Xenia Mastoraki, Natalia Michailidou, Constantia Misyri, Anna Tzakou, Orlando Velez + Ansley Whipple
4
5
Shared observations of Exachia by various disciplines: (1) Visual Artist, (2) Transdisicplinary Designer, (3) Architect, (4) Performance Artist, (5) Policy Maker
POSSIBILITIES INTERACTION SYMBIOSI SYNERGY DIALOGICAL
KOSTANTIA MISYRI MAI KOBORI MARIOS DANESSIS
– MEHDI SALEHI NATALIA MICHAILIDOU ORLANDO VELEZ
e PABLO GOMEZ URIBE TAMARA MAKAREM XENIA MASTORAKI
SATURDAY, MARCH 12: PSYCHO-GEOGRAPHY MAPPING
PROTOTYPING TESTING
A B O U T
KELLI JORDAN
-
EXCHANGE OF PEE
L E A R N I N G
d IOANNIS SAVVIDIS
ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH
ELEANNA MARTINOU
SUNDAY, MARCH 13: WALKING TOUR
POINT
LISTENING
SHARING CREATIVE PROCESS ACTION OF HEARING
EYE-OPENING INTO THE
RABBIT HOLE
IN PROGRESS Data Vizualization of each student’s process journey - exhibited at Benaki Museum WORK Athens, Summer 2011 DIFFERENT
MONDAY, MARCH 14-15 : SHARING KNOWLEDGE
TUESDAY, MARCH 15 : 24 HR INTENSIVE DESIGN WORKSHOP BEGINS
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 16: CO-DESIGNING A STREET ACTION
THURSDAY, MARCH 17: PROTOTYPE ACTIONS
FRIDAY, MARCH 18: CRITICAL REFLECTIONS
alo n e t o gether HOW CAN WE BE ALONE + TOGETHER AT THE SAME TIME?
CASE STUDY + Cafe Solo (New York, NY) Cafe Solo is a place that caters directly to the needs of the “Soloist.” The Soloist is a person—any person—who happens to be alone by circumstance (a traveler) or someone who enjoys it (an artist). Through our investigation on soft and emergent infrastructures, we identified a gap within the sharing system. This gap generated the possibility of a spatial experience that could possibly reframe behavior and de stigmatizing being alone together.... + My capacity: My role in this project was planning and developing the spatial experience of Café Solo. By understanding the behavior of how people sit alone in cafes, and providing a customer journey narrative, the collaborative process was enriched through the experience of working togeter. + Together with: Aabhira Aditya + Ben Winter A conceptual layout of social spatial experience of being alone togegher.
f a c ilit a ting together HOW MIGHT WE SHARE RESEARCH INSIGHTS AND IDEAS THROUGH FORMS OF PLAY?
PREPARING
TESTING
PROTOTYPING DIAGRAMING ASSEMBLAGES
CASE STUDY + SPARK ( Transdisciplinary Design Studio 2 ) Spark is a game/method that was developed by the food systems group in hopes to develop new insights and connections while synthesizing transversal relationships across data sources. The connections, links, and rule sets to create a new way of interacting as a team. The resulting framework enabled the team to distill a series of speculations, leading to a hypothesis.
+ My capacity: My role was developing and designing the method. As well as organizing and faciliating a workshop amongst our TD collegues to simplify the process of sharing insights and research together.
+ Together with: Aabhira Aditya, Jacquline Cooksey, Steven Dale, Bland Hoke, and Eulani Labay
ion
borat
colla sharing spaces
DESIGN-LED RESEARCH: CULTURAL PROBES
TD
T + D
CE WORK SPA
+ COLLAB-SPACE, GATHERING DATA FROM THE UNEXPECTED Design research is not about finding the right answer but rather asking the right questions. This project was exploring the potential of probe cameras to gather insight from others in different programs of study. By using Cultural Probes as a research method, this research method looked at the opportunistic ability that the method can reveal through interpretation and qualitative data. The method hoped to understand a certain student demographic, expose insights through student’s perspective, and inspire further design possibilities. In conclusion, the report evaluated the method’s appropriateness in context with the Designled Research process.
WORK SPACE
g a t h e r data HOW MIGHT WE GENERATE INSPIRATION AND INSIGHTS FROM THE UNEXPECTED?
WHAT IS YOUR WORK SPACE LIKE? Use this camera to document your work space when you are working alone or with others collaboratively. There are no right or wrong answers. STEP STEP STEP STTP
1: 2: 3: 4:
Shoot Shoot Shoot Shoot
9 images of your work space - home, school, work, etc. 9 images of places you feel most comfortable working. 9 images of spaces that express collaboration to you. until the camera film is full. Thank u!
DATE ISSUED: NAME OF PARTICIPANT:
DATE TO RETURN:
S
1
During the interview, each researcher had a role as interviewer, note taker, and photographer so that each researcher’s role was clearly understood by the participant.
2
The most compelling answers that was gathered from this interview were those coming from open ended questions. These were usually the most unexpectedly creative. Figure 4 shows an example of answers that a constituent wrote down answering 3 words that best describes his neighborhood.
3
4
DESIGN-LED RESEARCH: ETHNOGRAPHIC METHODOLOGY + AGAINST ALL ODDS (CASE STUDY) The method of ethnographic research was adopted as a means to observe human behavior and understand the life styles of the community that was being researched. Led by a Greek team member, a walking tour around Exarhia occurred in small groups where researchers conducted individual observation studies.
.
Reason why the method of Ethnographic research was deployed for this exercise: 1. It allowed researchers to gather information on human societies and culture. 2. It is inherently unpredictable as a methodology. The research does not speculate on what might happen. It is a speculative method that allows for different qualitative variables to arise to the surface.
g a t h e r observations HOW MIGHT WE DISCOVER INSIGHTS THROUGH ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH?
Also, another interesting insight that was gathered through these interviews was gender differences. It seemed as though this played a strong role in the answers that were provided.
Figure 1: interview participant, Vecillis. Figure 2: interview participant, Anna. Figure 3: interview participant, Pablos. Figure 4: image of written response on paper Figure 5: images of interviewee’s exterior house Figure 6: various ways to gather observational reserach
6
5
S
S
g a t h e r process HOW CAN DIFFERENT DISCIPLINES INFORM METHODS OF HOW ONE ORGANIZES OUR DESIGN PROCESS?
Mai Kobori
Portfolio Vol 2. 2010 - 2012 MFA Transdisciplinary Design School of Design Strategies Parsons The New School for Design Š 2015 MAI KOBORI All Rights Reserved