Hasta La Ideas The Adventures of Star Wars Figurines in Nature Archives

Mar 03

Learn HTML and CSS in a Weekend

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Admit it. Your seven-year-old nephew could out-HTML tag you any day and you think that a Cascading Style Sheet is something with a thread count. That’s where the mediabistro.com mothership comes in. They’ve asked us to tell you about an upcoming weekend course in HTML and CSS. In one backslashtastic weekend (March 26-27), artist, designer, and interactive developer David Tristman will guide you in breathing digital life into a pre-designed web page. Along the way, you’ll learn how to turn a PSD layout into HTML, the fundamentals of CSS3 styling of color and transitions, and why “@font-face” describes more than the contorted visages of typographers on deadline. By Sunday, you’ll be creating fully functional web pages, debating the finer points of inline and block display, and have gained all the tools necessary to launch your site. Register here.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Mar 03

Princeton Review and GamePro Release Rankings of Best Video Game Design Programs

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Because this writer is ancient, he still remembers way back to when only children and the socially inept played video games, largely because he fit into both camps at one time or another. And even though it was the dream of many to one day be creating the next MegaMan or the like, to actually do so and, even more bizarre, prosper at it, still holds a tinge of ridiculousness. But then you remind yourself that the gaming industry seems to pull down more money in a week than both the film and music businesses do on an annual basis. Only then does it make sense that The Princeton Review and the magazine GamePro have banded together for the second year to release their ranking of the top 10 undergraduate and graduate video game design programs. The University of Southern California mopped up this year, winning the top spot in both categories. The rest, well, if you’re like us, you might be thinking, “They have a video game department?” However, if you’re the parent of a soon-to-be-college-age kid, maybe this list will help you better come to terms with your child’s choices and you’ll let them pursue the video gaming field, instead of getting a traditionally extremely valuable degree like English Literature. Now if you’ll excuse this writer, he needs to go sew some new patches onto all his clothing scraps. Here’s the list of top undergrad programs:

1. University of Southern California, Los Angeles
2. University of Utah, Salt Lake City
3. DigiPen Institute of Technology, Redmond, Wash.
4. The Art Institute of Vancouver, Vancouver, B.C.
5. Michigan State University, East Lansing
6. Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, Mass.
7. Drexel University, Philadelphia
8. Champlain College, Burlington, Vt.
9. Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, N.Y.
10. Becker College, Worcester, Mass.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Mar 01

"Dangerous Toys" and other Different Thinking from U. of M.’s New Toy Design Professor

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The University of Minnesota has a new Toy Product Design program, guided in part by twentysomething Barry Kudrowitz, a new addition to the teaching staff. The unusual Kudrowitz taught the same class at M.I.T., studied theme park design and forewent culinary school to get a masters in Mechanical Engineering; somewhere in between these things he sang in a “gypsy pirate rock band,” wrote children’s books, and had toy designs appear in Hasbro’s lineup and on “The Martha Stewart Show.”

If it’s not obvious from his background alone that Kudrowitz is a different thinker, a Minnesota local newspaper’s article on the guy brings it to light:

At one of the first classes, devoted to idea generation, Kudrowitz talked about research showing that the area in the brain that lights up with an innovative idea is the same one that gets excited when you get the punch line to a joke. “I believe all innovation is funny at some point in time,” he said. “Those silly ideas, the ones you think are funny, those are going to be the innovative products in the future.” Kudrowitz also told the class that the best way to come up with a good idea is to have a lot of bad ideas. So when brainstorming, defer judgment. Just crank out ideas.
He cited research that says higher levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine are associated with the ability to see the off-the-wall connections that produce good ideas.
He invited everyone in the class to dig into the dopamine enhancers he left at each table: bags of candy. Then he had groups brainstorm. The theme: dangerous toys. Lead plushies, nitroglycerine snow globes, extreme Jenga, barbed wire jump ropes and that old reliable, the board with a nail in it, came up.

Check out Kudrowitz’s long, illustrious, and rather bizarre bio here. Hard to believe the guy’s just 28.

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Feb 26

Casal de la Juventud de Novelda by CrystalZoo

Posted in: Crystalzoo

Casal de la Juventud de Novelda by Crystalzoo

Spanish studio CrystalZoo have renovated this former school in Novelda, Spain, to create a youth centre for the area.

Casal de la Juventud de Novelda by Crystalzoo

Top photograph is by David Frutos

Called Casal de la Juventud de Novelda, the upper part of the building has been wrapped with a skin of polycarbonate panels, causing it to overhang the lower part.

Casal de la Juventud de Novelda by Crystalzoo

The architects have created a new plaza at the entrance of the building, featuring little grassy mounds and a zig-zag pattern on the paving that creeps up onto the wall of the centre.

Casal de la Juventud de Novelda by Crystalzoo

The windows are slightly recessed in the façade and highlighted in bright colours.

Casal de la Juventud de Novelda by Crystalzoo

Photographs are by Rafael Galán unless otherwise stated.

Casal de la Juventud de Novelda by Crystalzoo

More youth centres on Dezeen »
More Spanish architecture on Dezeen »

Casal de la Juventud de Novelda by Crystalzoo

Above photograph is by David Frutos

The following information is from the architects:

Casal de la Juventud de Novelda

This building is placed in Novelda, a small town near Alicante (Spain).

Casal de la Juventud de Novelda by Crystalzoo

It consists in a renovation of an old school building ant its yard to allow new public uses.

Casal de la Juventud de Novelda by Crystalzoo

This proposal is a work about the reuse of old buildings and their adaptation to contemporary needs.

Casal de la Juventud de Novelda by Crystalzoo

In this sense the Casal de la Juventud reinvents itself and establishes a dialogue between each stage of its evolution.

Casal de la Juventud de Novelda by Crystalzoo

Above photograph is by David Frutos

Life opens up, in this case, creating a new wrapper able to equip the building and the plaza with new technologies and services.

Casal de la Juventud de Novelda by Crystalzoo

Above photograph is by David Frutos

The plaza is raised as a hub of social activity in Novelda.

Casal de la Juventud de Novelda by Crystalzoo

Above: existing building

This system consists in connecting paths that also define soft areas that can adapt and establish links with what is happening inside the building.

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Working with an old school offers the opportunity to have the yard, which is a valuable open space within the dense urban fabric.

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This courtyard is a place that complements and makes possible the use of this new building.

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Materiality and lighting are the way this proposal establishes new links and relationships between the building and the public space.

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We try to provide complete and sophisticated equipment to this building and its plaza, through the installation of a new structure that surrounds the old school, with its own program, and also the support for the new activities.

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This structure provides lighting, energy and information systems, that define the specific environments for all the different situations that may happen.

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Reflections on LIFT Conference 2011

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All images by Ivo Näpflin, courtesy of LIFT Conference – Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic

A few weeks ago I was, together with about 1000 other people, in Geneva, Switzerland, to attend the 2011 LIFT conference.

LIFT is really a series of events, launched in 2006 and now taking place in France, Korea and Switzerland, built around a community of pioneers who get together to explore the social implications of new technologies. The LIFT conferences are driven by a dynamic and informal team of people whose public faces, Laurent Haug and Nicolas Nova, are quite well known in the user experience community.

The main event is the acclaimed three-day yearly conference in Geneva (now in its 6th edition) and this year the theme was: What can the future do for you?

Writing about a design and technology conference has changed a lot recently — especially when that conference streams all sessions immediately and Twitter comments have become pervasive.

So I chose to wait a bit, look back at some of the videos (they are all online here), let it all sink in and look back in reflection.

My angle is personal of course, but it struck me that there were a number of core themes that drove a substantial part of the discourse at this year’s LIFT. They are also, I think, the main challenges we as experience and interaction designers will need to address: networks, identity, people and openness, and algorithms.

NETWORKS

Don Tapscott

Today we are vividly witnessing the fact that revolutions don’t get made by leaders anymore. And this is illustrative of a larger social paradigm shift in our society, argued Don Tapscott, author of the 2006 bestseller Wikinomics, How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything, in his keynote presentation. Social media has lowered transaction and collaboration costs and enhanced people’s capability to collaborate. Hierarchical leadership models are becoming more and more outdated, stalled and failing. The Industrial Age and its institutions have run out of gas. In short, Tapscott says, we are facing nothing less than a turning point in human history, and this creates friction, of course. The huge challenge for us now is to shape this emerging open network paradigm which, to many in charge, seems to lack structure and organization. There is no easy answer in how our societies and businesses can deal with the challenge of rebuilding themselves along this new model of networked intelligence. We do know the principles though — collaboration, openness, sharing, interdependence and integrity, and you may want to see the presentation or read Tapscott’s new book Macrowikinomics: Rebooting Business and the World to understand how these principles are currently starting to be applied in business and government.

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Feb 23

David Rockwell Wins FIT’s Lawrence Israel Prize

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David Rockwell, come on down! You’re the 2011 recipient of the Lawrence Israel Prize, bestowed annually by the Interior Design Department at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology to an individual or firm whose ideas and work enrich FIT Interior Design students’ course of study. Past winners of the prize, endowed by architect Lawrence Israel, include Gaetano Pesce, Charles Gwathmey, AvroKO, and Lewis.Tsurumaki.Lewis. “At FIT we encourage our students to develop their own design ‘process’ rather than creating a fashionable ‘look,’” said Takashi Kamiya, chairperson of the interior design department at FIT. “Rockwell embodies that ideal.” In recent years, the Rockwell Group founder (and—fun fact—son of a vaudeville dancer) has been racking up awards, including a National Design Award for interior design, almost as fast as high-profile projects. Having conquered everything from Oscar show sets to urban playgrounds, his firm is currently at work on the new restaurant at the Whitney Museum of American Art, W Hotels in Paris and Singapore, and the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Society at Lincoln Center, among other projects. Rockwell will give the 2011 Lawrence Israel Prize Talk (free and open to the public) on Thursday, April 28, at 6 p.m. in FIT’s Katie Murphy Auditorium.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Feb 22

University of Iowa Fights Off State Legislature’s Attempts to Sell Their Prized Jackson Pollock

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While the University of Iowa continues its frustrating battle with FEMA over where and if they can rebuild their art museum after floods in 2008 damage the former structure and forever made it un-insurable, the school has found itself locked into an art-based fight with another party, the Iowa state legislature. Unlike at Fisk or at Brandeis, where the universities themselves were trying to sell off some valuable art to help pay the bills, in U of I’s case, it’s the Republican leaders of the Iowa House, who just recently introduced and passed a bill that once again tries to make a case for the selling of the university’s prized, Peggy Guggenheim-donated “Mural” by Jackson Pollock (their last effort was just two years ago, immediately after the flood). The school doesn’t want it sold, the museum’s namesake, John Pappajohn, thinks the idea is “a disaster,” the Association of Art Museum Directors and the American Association of Museums have issued letters saying what a horrible idea this is (the AAM has also threatened to pull accreditation from the university, should it go through), and original letters from 1963, written by Ms. Guggenheim, have been dug out, indicating that she wanted the canvas to stay put or would fight for its return, should the University ever got the itch to sell. The House believes that the sale of the painting, which is estimated to be worth somewhere between $100 to $200 million, would help create a large scholarship endowment for arts students and programs. All well and good and altruistic, until, as the LA Times‘ Christopher Knight puts it, once that endowment runs out, “someone would tell the Legislature that the university’s great Max Beckmann painting was also worth a lot of cash. And how about that Ad Reinhardt? And — well, you get the idea.” Lee Rosenbaum, per usual, is going full guns on an important arts issue, recapping this ongoing controversy. Given how these things usually pan out in long, drawn out fights, we’re guessing/hoping she continues, and we’re all beneficial for it. For those in Iowa this week who are against the move, we highly recommend hitting up the ‘Save the Pollock’ Rally on Thursday morning.

Update: The issue is now moot, with the legislature backing down and the sale now off the table.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Feb 16

From the Core boards: Master’s in ID or not?

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“To get a Master’s Degree in ID, or not.” That is the question currently under debate in the Students & Schools section of the Core boards, kicked off by a reader asking whether it’s better to get a job and some real-world experience after undergrad, or stay in school to build those “skills and connections.”

Of course it’s an intensely personal question and no two people are likely to have the same experience, but it is interesting to see what the range of those experiences are. This being the internet, this topic has raised the expected amount of mindless knee-jerk responses (“Do it,” “Don’t do it”), but thankfully there are enough experienced and patient Core77 readers to sound off with more nuanced discussion of the ramifications. Dive in with your own two cents, or just lurk, here.

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Feb 15

What if Designers were Better Explorers? by Erin Moore

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all images courtesy of Ahsan Iqbal, 2010

SVA student Erin Moore is working towards an MFA in Interaction Design and asks an important question about the world of possibilities when designers become explorers. She’s launched a Kickstarter campaign to return to the Gilgit-Baltistan region of northern Pakistan to document the lifestyle and stories from the people she meets from the region. Moore shares her perspectives with Core77 below.

What if designers were better explorers?

It is hard to say when I first decided that I wanted to go to Pakistan but I can tell you with certainty that several years ago, if you had asked me to pick Pakistan out on a map, I would have swirled my finger around in general circles somewhere north of India and east of Saudi Arabia where most of the “stan’s” live and said, “over there somewhere.” I only had a vague idea who it shared and fought for borders with and what it’s national flag looked like. I didn’t really know what languages Pakistani’s spoke, what they ate for breakfast, what their homes looked like or what a common surname was. But for some reason, I have always been intrigued by this nation I know so little about.

I believe it is this kind of curiosity that has always propelled people to explore. And I have seen that for westerners, the cultures of the near east, far east, middle east — are often uncharted territory. Like 16th century explorers did when confronted with the vast expanse of sea, we use our imaginations and stories from others to try to explain what we don’t have access to or don’t understand.

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