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The Philip Johnson Glass House Conversations Website Launches
glasshouseconversations.org homepage
The National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Philip Johnson Glass House, and the School of Visual Arts MFA in Interaction Design have launched glasshouseconversations.org, a website that extends the signature Glass House Conversations program, an invitational held at the Glass House during 2008 and 2009 with cultural, business and educational leaders sponsored by Oldcastle Building Envelope.
The goal of the new site is to reach an international audience of people with design-related interests and provide them with an on-going forum and new community for insightful conversations.
The site has been in development since last fall through an inventive partnership between the MFA Interaction Design Department at SVA and the Philip Johnson Glass House. Its goal is to adapt the intimate Glass House Conversations series to an expanded digital forum, and build on the legacy of architect Philip Johnson’s home in New Canaan, Connecticut, a place that architectural historian Vincent Scully called the “longest running salon in America.” It was at the Glass House that Philip Johnson and longtime partner David Whitney brought together people like Andy Warhol, Frank Stella and Robert. A.M. Stern, for discussions that shaped the cultural dialogue of the 20th century. This project engages a new, online audience and expands the conversation into the 21st century.
“The challenge was two-fold: first, how to engage a broader audience in the design leadership conversations that occurred at the Glass House and became a branded program; and then how to stay true to what Philip Johnson and David Whitney did best— always staying on the cutting edge of innovation,” said Christy MacLear, Executive Director for the Philip Johnson Glass House. “SVA was the perfect partner to envision how a meaningful dialogue could occur in a digital forum, examples of which were limited to date. The students’ work is truly groundbreaking.”
Each week on glasshouseconversations.org, a host puts forth a provocation in the form of a question or a debate topic, and members of the public worldwide have up to five days respond. Alice Rawsthorn, the design critic for the International Herald Tribune, hosts the question for the week of July 19, and upcoming conversations will be hosted by leaders in cultural fields, including John Maeda, Ralph Caplan, and John Lilly.
Six students from SVA—Clint Beharry, Derek Chan, Kristin Graefe, Katie Koch, Russ Maschmeyer, and Eric St. Onge—developed the site from the fall of 2009 through the spring of 2010 in the course Continuing the Conversation. “Glass House Conversations was a dynamic opportunity for our students to extend the learning from the classroom, and work in a creative collaboration with clients who care deeply both about design and the community at large,” said Liz Danzico, chair, MFA Interaction Design Department at SVA, who directed the project with Jason Santa Maria, mentor, and Dorothy Dunn, former Director of Visitor Experience for the Glass House. In the MFA Interaction Design Department, students work both individually and collaboratively to learn the concepts and methods of interaction design, starting with an understanding of people and the environments that drive their needs, goals and experiences. Course materials consider these social constructs and human experiences as the basis for approaching problems across media.
SVA will continue to be involved through the site’s launch as two students from the MFA Design Criticism Department—Emily Leibin and Molly Heintz—have been named fellows at the Glass House to help shape content for the site, inviting moderators and designing questions to inspire on-line exchange and use. Initial audience use has been targeted to the 120 leaders involved in the 2008 and 2009 Conversations and will expand to include the 100 participants of Modern Views, a project for which contemporary artists, architects, and designers created and donated works of art and written statements, capturing their thoughts and inspirations about the Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Farnsworth House (1945–51), the Philip Johnson Glass House (1949), and the architects who created them.
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Introducing the Project: Interaction Curriculum
How does mobile technology change the way we interact with products and services? How can your community benefit from interaction design? What IS interaction design?! These are some of the questions MFA Interaction Design students Derek Chan, Carmen Dukes, and Katie Koch will be exploring in their 10 week after-school program, Project: Interaction.
After months of research and development, the team is happy to announce a thoughtfully constructed curriculum. From the very first week students will be making things, using New York City as a catalyst for creative thought and exploration.The curriculum challenges students to think as designers, inviting them to brainstorm, prototype, test, and evaluate their ideas.
With plenty of ideas in hand, Project: Interaction is looking for a NYC high school to partner with in the fall.
The Project: Interaction team welcome your questions, comments and ideas at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
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Video Excerpt: Research & Prototype Presentations
PopTech reports from last Thursday’s Research Methods and Prototyping User Experiences final presentations. Below are excerpts from the night, including two projects tackling issues on reporting pain (Patient Empowerment System) and consuming water (Hydr8).
Read the summaries to learn more about each project (PDF).
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Believe It and Achieve It
MFA students with Chair Liz Danzico
After doubleheader presentations this Wednesday and Thursday, MFA students get their much needed rest. Congratulations to all students for their great work, and thanks to all who came in support. Projects will be posted shortly. Meanwhile, check out our Flickr pool for more photos from the Entrepreneurial Design Student Expo and Research & Prototype Presentations.
See you in September!
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Hard Data, Cool Delivery
Russ Maschmeyer‘s Die hard Index determines the quality of a sports team’s fans.
For the Information Visualization finals, Steve Duenes asked students to visualize an art museum collection or a sporting event. From sculptures to sports car races, Shaun White to Frank Lloyd Wright, students responded with a main visualization, supporting figures, and a plan for interactivity based on substantial quantitative data they collected.
View selected projects
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Core77: Students Eye the High Line
In an article for Core77, Russ Maschmeyer reviews final projects students created for the High Line as part of the Design in Public Spaces course:
Our instructor, Jill Nussbaum (Executive Creative Director, R/GA), had tasked each of five teams with examining the rise of ubiquitous technology and how it might alter our everyday experiences with and relationships to place. Each team would spend the next few weeks imagining some variety of technological/ wearable/ networked/ immersive/ social experience for the High Line, to augment its already impeccably carved public architecture. Her brief insisted “interaction designers are critical to crafting these location-aware experiences.”
Story View by Jeff Kirsch, Colleen Miller, and Evinn Quinn updates the idea of a traditional coin operated binocular viewer to provide visitors access to short spoken-word stories and historical facts about the High Line and the surrounding city as they look through the viewfinder.
To see this project and many more, visit the students page.
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Student Awarded NYWICI Scholarship
Stephanie Aaron is one of the selected few to receive a prestigious scholarship from the New York Women in Communications Foundation this year. An arm of New York Women in Communications, NYWICI is the largest foundation for communications scholarships for the tri-state area. This annual scholarship is awarded based on academic achievement, work experience, need, demonstrated leadership, participation in school and community-service activities, statement of goals and more.
In addition to recognition amongst the industry’s biggest names, such as Oprah Winfrey, Katie Couric, Tina Fey, Sheryl Crow, Ina Garten, Gayle King and more at the Matrix Awards, Stephanie will be presented by Brian Williams of NBC’s “Nightly News” with her fellow scholarship winners.
Students who wish to apply for consideration of this scholarship in the future may visit NYWICI for a full list of requirements and download an application.
Congratulations, Stephanie!
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Student Apps Project Featured in GOOD Magazine
In her latest design column for GOOD Magazine, Alissa Walker shares the goods on an apps project students created for the Interaction Design Fundamentals class last semester. Initially inspired by the NYC BigApps competition, students developed different concepts using at least one source of data from the NYC.gov Data Mine.
Read the column for student concepts and insight from faculty Chris Fahey for the NYC BigApps project. Find out more about this assignment in our new projects page created by Katie Koch.
Clint Beharry created NY Loves U based on Richard Layard‘s Big Seven factors of happiness.
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Nicholas Felton Designs Department Business Cards
Data visualizer and summer faculty Nicholas Felton recently designed department business cards for students and staff. Like his Feltron Annual Reports where order, through maps and graphs, emerges from the disorder of daily life, Felton’s play and assembly on the department identity by The Heads of State reaffirms a sense of unity through the chaotic.
The business cards have already been with students to Interaction10, and will be sure to make more cameos at conferences, events, and presentations to propel students forward. We want to extend our gratitude to the designer, and will be honored if we could end up as “just another statistic” in his next Annual Report for “kind deeds performed.”
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Student Project: Interaction Design Education
Sparked by a keynote speech by Kim Goodwin at Interaction 09 last year, students Derek Chan, Carmen Dukes, and Katie Koch recently embarked on a self-initiated project to bring a design education program to New York City schools starting in fall 2010.
In their latest stage of research and exploration, the team met with Katherine Schulten, editor of the Times Learning Network for some advice. Katherine recommended the team to begin their study in a K-12 classroom, and start by observing the teachers and how they engage students. She shared her own “secrets” of engagement including “hands-on” activities, as well as finding ways to make classroom materials relevant for students to connect on an emotional level.
To follow this project from development to implementation, visit the Interaction Design Education project blog. Find out more about the inspiration behind the initiative, and why it’s important for the design industry at Derek Chan’s blog.
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New SVA Summer Intensive Program: Impact! Design for Social Change
The new SVA program Impact! Design for Social Change launches with the help of Interaction Design student Colleen Miller, who designed its website. Co-founded by Steven Heller, Co-chair of MFA Design as Author and Mark Randall of Worldstudio, the program is a six-week summer intensive that will “introduce participants to a growing field of design for social advocacy.”
Impact! invites professionals, educators and students in the disciplines of graphic design, product design, information design, interactive design, fashion design, photography, and illustration to participate. Applications are being accepted now until April 31.
For more information, visit the Impact! website.
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Student Redux: Interaction 10
Through rain in Georgia and snow storm in Virginia (on the drive back), students have returned from three inspirational days of Interaction 10 to synthesize what they have learned from the industry’s best and brightest. Here’s what they remembered most about the conference and the city of Savannah:
What was your favorite session at the conference?
My favorite session was Ben Fullerton’s talk on Designing for Solitude. At the session Marc Rettig asked “We’re blazing into overconnectedness that was created by us. How do we protect the people who we affect with our design decisions? - Gene Lu
I loved Greg Vassalo’s talk, 10 Things I Learned About Being a Design Consultant While Living in the Hospital For a Year. The relationship he created between our family lives and our work drove home the value of empathy in interaction design. - Katie Koch
Jon Kolko enthusiastically and clearly explaining the pillars of IxD as they relate to social change, which brought together many of the concepts we have learned at SVA so far. - Colleen Miller
My favorite session was Richard Banks with his talk about how memories will be passed down through the generations and how that media will change over the course of time. - Evinn Quinn
Co-chairs of the conference Bill DeRouchey and Jennifer Bove introduce Interaction 10.
What was the most interesting idea you learned about at the conference?
Consumerism isn’t dead, but it needs to be so we can move on to a path that is innovative, sustainable, and profitable. (Nathan Shedroff) - Stephanie Aaron
That we should be designing our products to reflect human behavior, not mimic it. (Chris Fahey) - Derek Chan
Design something meaningful. - Angela Huang
Interaction design manifests itself in ways beyond websites. - John Finley
Thinking about designing objects not to be quickly turned over, or even just sustainably replaced, but to attempt to design for longevity — to make electronics that get better with time, not just more out-of-date. - Jeff Kirsch
Your work will change culture, so do work that is meaningful” (Jon Kolko) - Beatriz Vizcaino
What was the best thing you did in Savannah?
Arriving exhausted after 14 hours of driving and then heading to a ghost tour pub crawl with a hilarious tour guide was the best welcome to Savannah I could have hoped for. - Clint Beharry
Meeting a lot of amazing people who I plan on begging internships from in the near future. - Russ Maschmeyer
I had an amazing meal at Mrs. Wilkes’ Dining Room. I think I’ve finally had authentic southern food! - Eric St. Onge
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Interaction 10: Day One
Reporting live from rainy Savannah is one of thirteen MFA Interaction Design students attending the Interaction 10 conference. From a packed days of lectures to a rain-soaked walking tour of America’s first planned and designed city, Stephanie Aaron recaps the day’s highlights.
The historical Cotton Exchange building from the walking tour of Savannah
Nathan Shedroff kicked off the conference this morning with a challenge: innovate and create meaning. For him, meaning is the deepest connection one can make with the user, and all design is the process of evoking meaning. His key point for the future? Consumerism isn’t dead, but it needs to be so we can move on to a path that is innovative, sustainable, and profitable. Nathan left us with three key questions to ponder: What does a more sustainable world look like? What does a more meaningful world look like? What does a post-consumer world look like?
After Nathan’s talk I went to hear our own Liz Danzico speak on, and lead an experiment in improvisation. She also asked that we creating meaning in the products and services we design. Her talk, ranging from jazz to neuroscience, showed how frames can allow consumers to be co-creators.
Greg Vassallo launched the third talk of the day with a moving segment on lessons he learned while living in a hospital for a year and how he applied them to being a design consultant. His ten lessons include useful tips such as “lighten up,” “it’s okay to ask for help” and “treat the patient, not the illness,” which encourages all to step back and consider the big picture, to ask ourselves, “are we solving the right problem?”
The morning was capped with a rain-soaked walking tour of Savannah—America’s first planned and designed city. The city has not one center but 24 squares, each is a self contained unit consisting of all walks of society, from richest to poorest. The streets surrounding the squares have no traffic lights, and is a self regulated system. There are two overlapping grids, the back streets contain services such as electricity, telephone poles and sewage, etc. and the front streets are of homes, shops, and civic institutes.
Students will be covering the conference over the weekend. Check back for posts to come.
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Physical Computing Final Projects
Final projects for Fundamentals of Physical Computing are up. Students have documented projects and labs through their blogs and video work. See the result of many whiteboard doodles, post-it notes wireframes, and brainstorm sessions.
What a wall looks like in the studio on a typical day.
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Student Project featured in Magazine
Cover and page 53 of the Community Currency Magazine feature work by students Gene Lu, John Finley, and Colleen Miller.
The neighborhood currency project, which garnered much attention last semester, has been extensively featured in the Nov/Dec issue of the Community Currency Magazine. Gene Lu‘s local currency for Alphabet City made the cover of the magazine, and images of other student designs appear throughout the issue.
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Not all updates belong in the curriculum, and the Interaction Blog is where we talk about news and events around interaction design far and wide.
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- Glass House Site Launch: A Conversation with Jason Santa Maria
- HUGE and Suite Tours
- The Philip Johnson Glass House Conversations Website Launches
- Alex Wright Interviews Author Nick Carr
- Summer School Is In
- FullCodePress Wrap Up: Congrats to All
- Local Projects Named National Design Award Finalist
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