Post Summary / Artist Statement
This post, I feel, captures a small but effective representation of my enjoyment with creating things. I have always been deeply interested in pursuing the feeling you get from creating and making - especially functional things. This post is intended for future IMD students working on capstones and peers in the cohort. I want the reader to think about what things they might be able to make on their own to help them in their work process.
In early November the capstone teams had just recently formed and we were all still going through rapid changes to our original designs. My group has had a particularly interesting journey and looking back on the timeline of events I'm pretty thankful for it. Our original shared vision is very different from what our current recommended design is, and I think we're all really excited to build it.
Why is this backstory important? In a group setting its important to have someone who can help as a facilitator of activities for everyone to work on. One method for brainstorming that helped our group a lot that requires that role is the 10+10 method. The exercise is simple and consists of breaking up the group into small clusters and each cluster generating 10 ideas. At the end of a 20-30 minute span the clusters come back together as a group and evaluate.
However, there is still a big obstacle with doing some design exercises with the team which is having to do it all remotely. I knew we'd be learning remotely for a while so to prepare I thought about ways to maximize my own presence on screen. Below is a picture of components of the 10+10 method written on post-it notes as I understood them. The thing they are stuck to is an old TV that is no longer is use - this was my substitute for a whiteboard.
I figured there had to be a way to upgrade from this because getting the TV in frame was difficult and the screen reflects a lot of glare. Using this over video/voice chat was not as effective as I thought it might be, so I went back to brainstorming.
Makeshift Whiteboard 1.0 (first prototype)
The thing behind me (seen below) in zoom calls is the most recent prototype for having what I want in the future which is a giant, floor to ceiling whiteboard. We've used it multiple times for different design methods like Rose, Bud, Thorn and managing action items from meetings.
I wanted to use a material that wouldn't harm the wall and could be quickly replaced and added to. I also wanted to try something experimental which was to make it portable. The little tabs seen in the image below sticking out from behind the poster board are velcro strips. This gives me the ability to actually remove individual boards and move them around which turns out to be really neat. Being able to change up whole sections lets me see things differently and helped a lot with clustering.
In action during our first rose, bud, thorn exercise. This is after I clustered them from their previous state which was scrambled all over the place.
I highly recommend using tools that work for you and I do plan on adding to this in the goal to cover the whole wall. I really like wall sized boards because I feel like it is suited for someone that needs to keep all their ideas separate but also wants to see them in one space occasionally.
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