Month: September 2021

Design for this Century

Wk 4 Blog Post: Primary & Secondary Research | Systems Design

In Leverage Points, Donella Meadow clearly outlines and explains with a range of relatable examples what the 12 ways, in increasing order of effectiveness, are to intervene in a system. With reference to stocks or states of a particular system, she talks about the dynamic between the inflows (stock increasing) and outflows (stock reducing). She also mentions instances when it is easier, more important, and hence better off to physically…

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Major Studio 1

Smells in Trees – Reflection

You can view the presentation and the video documentation of the final setup by Yellow 5 (Hanna Borg | Johanna Schneider | Smitha Rao Aluri) This post is a reflection of our project, Smells in Trees, upon completion. We created an instruction set for strangers in New York City, without using any form of spoke or written language. By making use of the sense of ‘smell’, we hung bags of spices…

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Major Studio 1

Smells in Trees – Prototyping

My teammates and I went to shops to identify and choose the smells we’d like to use. We ended up at a store called Kalustyans at 28th and Lex Ave. I was surprised to see such wide range of aromatics, that too from all over the world! We considered strong scents such as spices, herbs, teas, dried flowers, candied fruits and coffee. After we eliminated sandalwood chips, garlic, cardamom and…

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Design for this Century

Wk 2 Blog Post: Seeing, Representation and Power Dynamics

Sturken and Cartwright’s Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual Culture largely reminds of John Berger’s Ways of Seeing, a book that I read a few years ago. Berger’ talks about how seeing comes before words. This indicates how visual representations always have a greater claim over verbal or written representations. What is seen is usually put into words in an attempt to describe it, but during the process some…

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Major Studio 1

Observation Drawings

Drawing 1 – Standing | Waiting Location: 96th street, 2nd Ave Time: 5:32pm – 5:44pm Duration: 12 minutes Observations entry / exit elevator to 96th Street Subway Station glass enclosure with spider fittings entrance faces 95th street bushes on either side services Q train can hear the train moving below paver blocks and tiles close to East River, FDR Drive can hear the loud roar of buses and bikes (services…

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