Serious Cartoons

It was inevitable...and necessary--a class in Serious Design has a responsibility to discuss and study the situation surrounding the global reaction to the so-called Muhammed drawings. We pondered the facts, we weighed the values, we engaged the world-views (to the degree possible) of the cultures that are deeply involved in the clash heard round the world. We studied. That is our job, as students, as teachers, as designers of our own lives. We did not answer our own questions, much less those of the world...questions that are bearing down on Denmark, and other countries, with increasingly violent forms of asking. Let me retract that. Violence is not a question. It is the end of questioning. THAT is also something we must study. Design as communication must wrestle with the nature of art, the divide between form and content, the role of designer, the question of living with one another and enhancing social conditions through design. Serious goals for serious design.

This course, taught by a member of IT University's Research in Innovative Communication group, is poised auspiciously on the cusp of this global crisis. We will handle our study responsibly. We will study our responsibility vigilantly. But we will not be design vigilantes.

4 ideas for sale :)

Hi class
I’ve got some different ideas for either a 'collective action' or a 'case study' project.

The ACTION projects could be:

Integration
I would like to work with some kind of alternative ’integration’ project.
The aim would be to make an event or a product that will INCLUDE people; get people to come together and work together in a project where everybody can participate equally (there shouldn’t be a system-client relationship). The message should be communicated through ACTIONs rather than words.
I think that an interesting ‘target group’ could be women and maybe kids.
I have many different ideas to what the case could be, but I’m off course very open!
.. Could be a cook-book, a product line (e.g. food, cloth, jewellery), a festival, an ‘upside-down-integration’ with Danes living in a refugee camp or ghetto, an art project, a poster campaign …

or
Health
I think that HEALTH could be an interesting subject for a serious design project. Whether it’s a small local problem (e.g. better food in the schools) or a large scale global problem (e.g. AIDS or hunger vs. overweight), there’ll be plenty of problems to deal with.
Maybe the Imagine Cup could be used as a frame for developing such a project. Imagine Cup is a competition which aim is to use IT to improve conditions around the globe, this year the theme is health.
“Imagine a world where technology enables us to live healthier lives,” is a challenge to the world’s top student technologists to actively contribute to the mission of improving health around the world. Health means different things to different people. You may think of health as a medical breakthrough. Or you may think of health simply as a clean glass of water. In the Imagine Cup, you define health and decide how to use technology to make a real difference in the lives of people everywhere.“
www.imaginecup.com

or
For CASE studies I’ve thought about:

Serious Clothing
or
Serious Drinking

In the docs linked to, I've described some specific cases. These could also be used as inspiration and background for an activist project.

Please feel free to comment and develop these ideas!!

:) Sophie

Group formations

Please post a project idea in order to gather potential group members. Those interested in a posted idea should indicate their interest in that group by commenting. Groups must be formed by 2/15 whether or not a solid idea is in view. Perhaps you only know you prefer the 'collective action' vs the 'case study' project option, or perhaps you just have a vague idea what you want to do. The idea is form a group, with other students you know, or with students you do not know. Remember to introduce yourself in your posts/comments and state any design/technical expertise you may have that will help the group. Or any other kind of theoretical or practical experience you wish to acknowledge that the group may benefit from. We will talk more about this in class on 2/8.