Design workshop in incredible India.

It’s been four days now. I’m in Pune-India, for an awesome one week workshop between Teague and the International School of Design DSK-ISD.

I’m the super tourist here, taking pictures of my food, people, nature, animals, cars—pretty much everything—and I love it! All my senses are alert and it’s difficult to follow all the incredible differences and surprises that await me at every corner.

From a foreigner’s point-of-view this is real organized chaos, at least on the road where lines don’t mean anything, honk sounds are the heartbeat of the city, trucks are pimped out with floral patterns and bright colors, helmets don’t seem to exist, and 125cc motorbikes can support three or even 4 people. After only four days I’m getting used to it a little but it’s still awesome. Everything seems different; even if my first reaction is still to ask why, my brain starts to say why not. After all this is the way they live, react, treat each other or express themselves and why should it be the way I was imagining it? I’m supposed to be here to teach but really I’m here to learn and it seems like every step and every minute here is another occasion to discover all those cultural differences—sometimes shocking, sometimes exciting and even sometimes mind-blowing.

This is a totally eye opening experience for me and it’s not over yet. Indian culture offers way more things than you can actually imagine; people here are really lovely, your belly will probably not be the happiest part of your body but those flavors and colors on your plate are totally worth it.

Stay tuned for the workshop results as well as some more shots of my day-to-day experience here.

A lil R&R: Relationships & Recognition.

Teague wants to know:

• What makes commenting on a respected bloggers page so appealing?
• Why do we feel the need to curate and share information about ourselves so broadly and openly?
• What are the drawbacks to all of this sharing?

As we explore the topic of digital identity, we started to ask ourselves, why do we continue to participate socially online when it can be so difficult to manage our online identities?  The truth is, social media is a useful and an amazing application, and as it continues to morph and grow, new values are being discovered.

Some of the reasons why we currently participate:

Social Connectedness

This has always been an innate human need, but is now being made possible in ways that were previously inconceivable. This can obviously have many positive advantages given the scale and reach it allows. Back in the 1960s, “social psychologist Stanley Milgram’s “small world experiment” famously tested the idea that any two people in the world are separated by only a small number of intermediate connections, arguably the first experimental study to reveal the surprising structure of social networks.”

The Facebook Data Team recently released a study they did, in collaboration with researchers at the Università degli Studi di Milano.  By studying the Facebook social graph, they discovered that these degrees of separation are shrinking rapidly.  “We found that six degrees actually overstates the number of links between typical pairs of users”.  “And as Facebook has grown over the years, representing an ever-larger fraction of the global population, it has become steadily more connected. The average distance in 2008 was 5.28 hops, while now it is 4.74.”

So not only are we able to bond socially online, we are also able to recognize how connected we all really are.

Self-validation and creative expression

Social media platforms tap into the very nature of humans to connect and share ideas.

One teen we interviewed talked about her joy in sharing on the site Deviant Art, “The best compliment ever is when others save your photos as their favorite. It spreads the word about your work and shows you how many people have looked at it.”  In another interview with a tech businessman, he said, “I post articles I think are interesting, but I don’t expect a response. I like to share my knowledge, and give others the opportunity to check it out too.”

Benefits to having social influence

Corporations are picking up on the fact that their consumers will speak very openly and honestly about experiences with products and services through social media.  In short, we ALL have the opportunity to have an influence now, and this is changing the traditional fundamentals of corporate- consumer interactions.

One example of this is Chevrolet’s new 2012 Sonic subcompact car.  It’s being promoted to a targeted group of consumers using a partnership with Klout, the company that measures online influence and awards members with Perks. “The campaign implements the first national automotive Klout Perk, offering qualifying users the chance to drive the Sonic on a three-day vehicle loan and then share their thoughts online with friends and followers.”

We will often go out of our way to post information, openly or anonymously. So, we really want to know, what makes commenting on a respected bloggers page so appealing?  We put personal information out there for others to view. And we view other people’s personal information. Why do we feel the need to curate and share information about ourselves so broadly and openly?  What are the drawbacks to all of this sharing?

tweet us @Wallywants2know

The tangled web we weave.

After getting out and talking to a variety of people about the notion of the ‘digital self,’ it has become even more apparent that nearly everyone is struggling to control how they are perceived online. Many of us are tangled up in the day-to-day managing and controlling of our online identities.

The more connected we become…the more we need to understand how our identities can be shared authentically and in a meaningful way when socializing online.  Social media like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter are very sticky mediums and in turn, cause us to become socially hyperaware, and even at times overwhelmed. The reality is, we need the convenience too much to reject social media completely, so we go on to create workarounds to get the platform to work for us. Banning certain people from Facebook or censoring what we share are just a few of the workarounds, but people are still left feeling vulnerable.

These workarounds can cause social media to lose meaning. In the worst-case scenario we are unaware of the pieces of our digital identities that are out there and often misrepresentative, fragmented and more likely than not, taken out of context.

• What will social media be like ten years from now?
• How can management and control fall to the background of that experience, while still ensuring trust?
• Given the opportunity for a ‘reset’ how important is it to have Facebook friends?
• What would you change?

To weave in your ‘digital self’ story, tweet us @Wallywants2know

What is digital storytelling in 2011?

By definition it still has the same rules storytelling has traditionally always had, the who, what, where, when and why of a topic. Conveying an overall message to an audience with a beginning, middle and end.  But the act of creating a narrative for today’s consumer has additional requirements now.

With social media, smart phones, and instant access to any information, a storyteller must instantly prioritize what the focus of a story will be with pinpoint precision and speed. Today’s audience will check out in seconds if they loose interest.  Video can quickly communicate emotion and it is that emotional response that will hold the interest of the viewer.

Recently we had the good fortune to host Marc Cahill, President / CEO of C4 Media: Marc@C4Mediatv.com, to find out how key video editing techniques are in determining what type of communication you can have with your target audience and how those same techniques can help produce the desired response from your audience.

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Teague Academy features Carlo Ratti.

Last January Emily Pilloton, from Project H Design, revived Teague Academy after a two-year hiatus.

This October Teague Academy was back again, but this time featuring Carlo Ratti, Director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s SENSEable City Lab. Carlo and his team turns everyday data into works of art. SENSEable takes information from massive data sets—from phone calls we make to the garbage we throw away—to create perplexing visualizations of city life. Their work includes interactive environments, such as moving water and flying light powered by simple gestures caught through sensors.

Many thanks to Carlo for sharing SENSEable City Lab’s work and getting us to think beyond ordinary day-to-day data. For those of you who missed our event—we hope to see you at our next one—a video of Carlo’s presentation is soon to come. In the meantime, check out our Facebook to see photos from the event.

First-ever airline leather purse?

I’m always looking for new ways to create and when I heard we were throwing out large leather samples, I knew there was a hidden craft project in there. I took a variety of colors home even though I had no idea what I was going to make. After a few days of thinking and numerous Google searches later, I sketched up a leather purse that seemed simple enough to make. Make a tube, put a bottom on it and poke a bunch of holes in it?! Ok, I can do that! I broke out my mom’s old 1970’s sewing machine, the sucker had to weigh a good 40 pounds, purchased some leather sewing needles for it and got to work.

All in all it was fairly easy to sew and only took maybe 8 hours over several days. When it came to putting on the grommets that took some creative thinking. I live on a second floor apartment and didn’t want to annoy my neighbors with the super loud hammering, so for a couple nights around 11pm I was in my apartments gym sitting on the floor hammering away. Worked great and only had about 3 people walk by and give me this very odd look! The end product turned out great and I think the best part is it being airline tested, it can stand a good 30 seconds of direct flame before it actually catches on fire!

Holy heritage.

Some time last fall, after stumbling on a few boxes of historic items we realized we were sitting on a treasure trove of Teague history. Now for the past year or so we’ve been carefully collecting and archiving each and every item. And holy heritage! To date we’ve got 500 cubic feet filled to the rafters with boxes, press clippings, awards, drawings, prototypes, and more than 25,000 digital images.

During the process we hooked up with Western Washington University Professor, Jason Morris, who just so happened to be putting together a documentary on our fearless leader and industrial design icon, Mr. Walter Dorwin Teague.

While we’re still in the process of determining what to share and how, Jason recently posted a video that is sure to whet your appetite.

Support Jason’s documentary here.

Get a life. A real one.

A couple weeks ago I was out with a friend for dinner. To the right of us was a couple pecking away on their smartphones while they waited for their meals. To the left of us was a man working on his laptop while enjoying what looked like a niçoise salad. Noticing, my pal said with a laugh, “Maybe I should go sit at the bar and we could just text each other, sharing our meal remotely.” The scene was funny and sad at the same time. I get the allure, a world without boundaries, etc. A little weaving of global social fabric is great for the common good. But in this context I wondered, do we really want to be more connected, or just less connected to the people we’re physically with?

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