Marina's Thesis Journey

1. Building trust/ lessening apprehension in the community when working on a  public art/ design for social change project.
- Define public art/ design for social change
- Forms of distrust/ apprehension that we encountered during the various stages of the project,
- What makes people apprehensive (social context, previous experience, not understanding art, more pressing problems to solve, is there anything in art/ artists/ graphic design that makes people apprehensive etc.)
- How is trust established?
- What we did for the 400lb Baby project, what worked, what did not work
- Analyze the process, compare with other projects, give recommendations
- Public art involves publicly shared spaces, who are the stakeholders, how do they interact, what are they concerned about?
viii.Different types of communication with the different stakeholders?
- What tools has Graphic Design that can be helpful when building trust:
1.Design Thinking
2.The Power to engage
3.Visual Communication – a picture is worth a thousand words
4.Seeing patters/ relationships
5.Introducing a sense of wonder
6.Make things visible, attract attention
7.Creativity
8.“Provide plausible theories for change”

3.From Like to Act
- What does it take for people to move from passively liking something to actually doing something, analyze our experience with 400lb Baby and compare to other projects.
- When/ where is the tipping point? How do you get there? How does psychology, sociology, organizational theory explain what happens? Can design thinking/ process/outcomes help the process?
- How can visual communication/ graphic design be helpful, what else is important, what seems to be the necessary mix of process, steps, players, visible and invisible factors?
- How do you retain interest?

3. Use 400lb Baby project, do research about similar projects and come up with insights that add to the greater discourse on design for social impact.
- Talk about building trust. Hold interviews before and after.
- Document communication with the various stakeholder groups – City, neighborhood associations, businesses, residents, participants, observers.
- Discuss how a public art project can reflect a community – talk about the process, what, whose input did we use, how did people respond to the artwork, which themes, art works were more/ not successful and why.
- Trace change – interview the various stakeholders and participants, trace any newly created connections or ideas that might have sprung from the project.

Other Ideas:

4.What does it take to make social change sustainable? What steps in all stages of the project could you make to provide for sustainability of the project?

5.What does it mean/take to empower the community? Can you do that through graphic design/ visual communication? What else is necessary?

6.How can we communicate to a community that design for social change is “inherently exploratory and uncertain”, but it is a way of learning, building new relationships, defining a common vision? Design for social impact is not just the final outcome, it is a process of co-creation, bringing people and minds together, aligning for common goals, discovering common goals, values. It could be a healing process, requires time, submission of personal interests for the whole. Can a community embrace uncertainty, iterations, failure, risk?

7.How can we explain (through visuals, interaction, events or words etc.) the importance, the need, the magic of (public) art especially when it comes to creating or strengthening a community?

8.“While collaboration can be highly productive in solving inter-organizational problems, conflict also has a clear role in challenging existing frameworks and forcing … change in directions considered by at least some members to be positive. Both aspects deserve equal attention, since failure to recognize the importance of conflict leads to a preference for the status quo and an implicit adoption of the viewpoint of powerful stakeholders”, Cynthia Hardy and Nelson Phillips, “Strategies of Engagement: Lessons from the Critical Examination of Collaboration and Conflict in an Inter-organizational Domain.”
- Can conflict (surprise) be helpful when working with a community? When? How? What other factors are important?
- Types of conflict?
- Can you orchestrate conflict?

9.Research different community development (empowerment) projects and see if I can add to Frog’s Collective Action Toolkit or IDEO’s HCD Toolkit?

I did the free writing exercise after I had spent a lot of time mapping, thinking and rethinking one of my initial ideas – How to build trust/ lessen apprehension in the community related to public art/ design for social change projects. I don’t think I came up with anything new with the free writing exercise.  I think I repeated the same ideas and concepts I had on my map. Maybe  I could do the exercise again after I do some more research and get new information about the topic, and definitely before I map it. I think mapping the information made me rationalize the process and compartmentalize every bit of information. I could not loosen up after that to write freely and allow for new ideas to come up.

Here is my free writing. I decided to write instead of type to “free” myself, but it did not help much. I will try it again. Please excuse my English.

I found the following theses that dealt with:

- The psychology of space and place

- How a community can create a place from a space

- The importance of cultivating empathy in the designers and the community

Feavel, Michael “A Case for Place: Transforming Meaning Through Graphic Narrative”. Diss. Savannah College of Art and Design, 2012. Savannah College of Art and Design Digital Collections. Savannah College of Art and Design, May. 2012. Web. 13 Jan. 2013.

Torres, Carla P.“Empathy: A Driving Force in Graphic Design”. Diss. Savannah College of Art and Design, 2012. Savannah College of Art and Design Digital Collections. Savannah College of Art and Design, November. 2012. Web. 13 Jan. 2013.

Carter, Melissa N. “Community Creates a Space: Cultural Arts Center + the Tree, Savannah, Georgia”. Diss. Savannah College of Art and Design, 2012. Savannah College of Art and Design Digital Collections. Savannah College of Art and Design, March. 2012. Web. 13 Jan. 2013.

Shores, Brody D. “Traditional Community, Non‐Traditional Space: Developing an urban living place type (residence, people, activity, business, and street) that fosters the
development of ideal place, while interjecting aspects of traditional neighborhood design and promoting community interaction. Diss. Savannah College of Art and Design, 2012. Savannah College of Art and Design Digital Collections. Savannah College of Art and Design, May. 2012. Web. 13 Jan. 2013.

DIRECTION 1:

Use 400lb Baby project, do research about similar projects and come up with insights that add to the greater discourse on design for social impact. Here are my initial ideas.

a.    Building trust/ lessening apprehension in the community – forms of distrust/ apprehension that we encountered during the various stages of the project, what makes people apprehensive (social context, previous experience, not understanding art, more pressing problems to solve, is there anything in art/ artists/ graphic design that makes people apprehensive etc.), what we did for the 400lb Baby project, what worked, what did not work, analyze the process, compare with other projects, give recommendations. Public art involves publicly shared spaces, who are the stakeholders, how do they interact, what are they concerned about, different types of communication with the different stakeholders…

b.    From Like to Act – What does it take for people to move from passively liking something to actually doing something, analyze our experience with 400lb Baby and compare to other projects, how is visual communication helpful, what else is important, what seems to be the mix? How do you retain interest?

c.    What does it take to make social change sustainable? What steps in all stages of the project could you make to provide for sustainability of the project?

d.    What does it take to empower a community? Can you do that through graphic design/ visual communication? What else is necessary?

Opportunities:
400lb Baby is still in its initial stages. It was stalled for about 6 months because of changes in the administration of the City of Savannah, previous bad experience with a Candy Cheng wall on Waters Avenue, unfamiliarity of the city administration and the city of Savannah with public art. Things look much better now after several meetings with the City of Savannah and the community. We have a presentation next week to the neighborhood associations on Waters. The City wants the neighborhood associations to approve the project before we move on. Hopefully we will have the approval soon.
After the approval, we would like to get more students on board, do research in the community for potential planter adopters and canvas the community for relevant themes for the artwork. Since this is a pilot project, we would like to create 6 planters within a 6 months period, have a community celebration event when we install all 6 planters and then conduct a 2 weeks monitoring of the community interaction and feedback.
After that we are planning on preparing a detailed project documentation and analysis and presenting it to the City of Savannah to initiate a conversation about further expanding the project or using other forms of public art on Waters Avenue to complement the revitalization efforts of the City and the community .

Potential Threats:
Since the project is very dependent on forces that are beyond us, I am not sure how quickly we will be able to move on with the project. I think I will have a better idea in a few weeks. Fingers crossed. I think I can still do research and work on my topic (s) in the meantime. I am sure whatever happens will be interesting to ponder on.

DIRECTION 2:
Research different community development (empowerment) projects and see if I can add to Frog’s Collective Action Toolkit. I will probably use the 400lb Baby Project for some of the insights, but my discussion will not be limited to the 400lb Baby project. This direction will require much more research and deeper understanding of a wide array of community development (empowerment) projects.

I got involved with the project in the spring of 2012. The project explores the possibilities of bringing art and dialogue to the Waters Avenue community (Savannah) through creating art pieces in the abandoned planters on the street. It started as an idea in a Sustainable Practices in Design class in the winter of 2012. The class was asked to come up with creative ideas to help the Waters Avenue Revitalization Project. The class collaborated with public artist Jerome Meadows, living and working on Waters Avenue, on the research and cataloging of the planters, and initiating conversations with the community about the potential use of the planters for public art.

I worked with Jerome Meadows on creating the first planter prototypes and developing an adoption program which encouraged local businesses and neighborhood organizations to “adopt” planters by working with the team to come up with community or business related concepts for the art and monitoring and taking care of the planter after the installation of the artwork.

The 400lb Baby Project Related Links:
http://vimeo.com/43227868
http://www.designethos.org/wp/2012/09/27/a-new-baby-is-born/
www.facebook.com/400lbBaby

Initial Thesis Direction
I am really interested in using art/ public art/ visual communication to provide social change, bring attention to problems or opportunities, start conversations and bring people together for a cause. My initial idea is to use our experience with the 400lb Baby Project to add to the wider discourse about using art for community empowerment. See more exploration of the topic.