POEM: join me in anxiety

join me in anxiety
--------

stained, lost - at a loss
not wanting to speak
scared, shaking - mustering
SPOKE - stop
and the room reacts
but it's underwater
enhanced sound waves
I hear it all
the whisper at the front
the diss
the laugh
and suddenly
I am on stage
SWEATING
my mind screams
"THINKG OF A RESPONSE"
and I blurt...


the anxiety jitters
I'm shaken
I hear good feedback
and I force a florish
I hear negatve returns
and I build my own hell

and the force flows
i am on fire, from the face back
burning centered on my soul
sequestered without console
looking for a laugh

found the escape button
make them giggle
they won't stare
not if you can joke

and again suddenly
I am the star
on the stage
making the crack
sharing the slack

anxious with delight
I sit back silent
un-won
but forgiven.

M

Mitchell Tremblay
Graphic Design Student,
SparkMuse Designs

Finding The Story Exercise!

Be sure to click to expand.

Phase #1: Assignment Due next week

What is due:
Post the assignment as a Web site on your account, with the following pages:
index.html must be your 60x60 icon with an image map linking to the menu
menu.html with 6 hyperlinks:
1. Global Issue & description, & Local issue and description
2. The Dimension and description of the dimension
3. The Metaphor and explanation of the metaphor as it relates to the issue/solution
4. Look & Feel ( typefaces, colours, animations, visual style, music style)
5. Project Resources (people, equipment)
6. Project Budget ( Costing in the number of hours) & Schedule (detailed list of all the tasks that will need to be completed)

Annual Conference 2009: Fighting for Rights & Fighting the Right

Annual Conference 2009: Fighting for Rights & Fighting the Right

Saturday, February 28 @ 9am - 5.30pm
Hart House at U of T, 7 Hart House Circle
INFO: lawunionconference@gmail.com; www.lawunion.ca

Registration fee: full conference: $45 ($15 for students) or PWYC single session: $15 ($5 for students) or PWYC

KEYNOTE: Dying for Water

IS THE PUBLIC'S RIGHT TO WATER SLIPPING THROUGH OUR FINGERS? Tony Clarke, Founder and Executive Director of Polaris Institute, Ottawa, and co-author of Blue Gold: the Fight to Stop the Theft of the World's Water

Panels:

ABORIGINAL: Fulfilling the Promise of the Indian Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission: Mission Impossible?

CORPORATIONS: Corporate Social Responsibility: An Oxymoron?

CRIMINAL LAW: Sex, Silence and Crime: Prosecuting People Living with HIV/AIDS for Not Disclosing

ENVIRONMENT: Wind Power: Green Energy or Greenwashing? Ontario: How's the Water?

CHARTER OF RIGHTS: The Homeless Have Rights! Implications of Recent Court Victories for Rights to Housing

IMMIGRATION: Conservative Attacks on Immigrants' Rights

INTERNATIONAL TRADE & HUMAN RIGHTS: Free Trade with Colombia: Free of guilt?

LABOUR: Justice for Migrant Workers: Legal and Activist Strategies

U.S. MILITARY TRIALS: Omar Khadr: Child Soldier, Torture Victim, Alleged Terrorist, Legal Anomaly

Call for Artists

Call for Artists
Toronto Multicultural Website Project: What image best represents your ethnic identity?

CAMH is now accepting original art work, artists/writers/photographers/video-graphers, to participate in a Toronto Multicultural Website Project that best depicts your ethnic group/population. The calls are for a response to the question What represents your ethnic identity?

The chosen designs will appear on the main page of a new Toronto-based website that will symbolize and serve each ethno-cultural community in the city. Images produced in any medium are desired – including photographs, animation, paintings, sketches, graphics, mixed media, textiles and more. We are looking for submissions that visually represent each of the many different ethnic groups in Toronto.

One image for each ethnic group will be picked for the site. Prizes will be awarded
to the chosen artists.

Please photograph your work and send (as a jpeg) with personal contact information to torontoincolour@camh.net by March 1st, 2009.

For further inquiries please contact Aileen O’Dowd at 416-535-8501 ext. 7616 or email aileen_odowd@camh.net.

Call for artists/writers/photographers/videographers: Toronto Multicultural Website Project. Please visit: www.camh.net for more info.

Week 03: Metaphor for the Issue

This week we will complete Phase I, the following:
1) confirm our local issue
2) write up a phase one document
3) submit an icon for use on the web site (60 x 60)
4) decide on the dimension for the issue
5) create a metaphor for the issue
6) participate in a creativity exercise
-------------------------------------

Design Step #1: Define the problem, is completed
Design Step #2: brainstorm for solutions
Design Step #3: collect and study related ideas
Design Step #4: Sketch... start sketching, gathering material for the site.

Week 02: TRANSCEPTION

Read the TRANSCEPTION handout article and web linked pdf (see course readings) and be prepared to answer the following questions in class.

Questions to be discussed during the class:
1) What is transception?
2) What are the nine dimensions of evolutionary guidance media?
3) What is your global problem?
4) What is a local example of this global problem?
5) What metaphor might be used to tell the design solution story?

Project Samples

Find below, a link to project samples.
Please review the sites with regards toward the topic, design dimension, and use of metaphor.
View Project samples here

Week 01: The Web Metaphor

Major concepts for the Web Metaphor
Inter-dependence: We are dependent upon each other for our happiness, well-being, and peace.
Inter-relationship: We are in community; in relationship with other. It's not just me.
Inter-connection: We are connected on many levels (body, mind, soul)

The Net of Indra...
is a metaphor that may be used to describe the internet.

Read the TECHGNOSIS article...

Visit Erik's web site for more: http://www.techgnosis.com/

For Next Week:
1) Pick a global problem
2) Pick a local example that you will work with for the Web design project
3) Read the TRANSCEPTION article and choose the dimension you think will fit your design.

Our User Generated Content REMIX Culture

http://newmusicstrategies.com/

http://newmusicstrategies.com/
May also apply to new media, web designs, flash designs.

Think about 2009 and The Canadian New Media Awards

Think about 2009 and The Canadian New Media Awards

Product Awards categories include:

EXCELLENCE IN SOCIAL MEDIA WEBSITES: This award will be presented to a website that demonstrates excellence is connecting a community of users through a variety of different tools and functions.
The site will be judged on
1) quality of user experience,
2) the appropriateness of the functionality to the community group it serves and
3) the amount of community activity generated by the site.

Submissions can represent a corporation, a non profit organization, a citizen or a political realm.

http://www.cnma.ca/index_e/nominations.php

Media That Matters (attend this at least once in your life)

This year, David Kirkpatrick and others...:
http://www.mediathatmatters.org/MtM/mtmain.html

David Kirkpatrick, senior editor, internet and technology at FORTUNE, specializes in the computer and technology industries, as well as in the impact of the Internet on business and society. He writes a column which appears weekly on fortune.com and through e-mail subscription.

Kirkpatrick joined Time Inc. in 1978 while working as a video artist, and started at FORTUNE in 1983. In 1991 he began covering the computer beat. In 1990 his story "Will You Be Able to Retire?" was a finalist for the National Magazine Award in the personal service journalism category. He has written cover stories on Apple, IBM, Microsoft, Intel Sun, and numerous other topics including blogging. He is regularly ranked one of the most influential tech journalists in the U.S.

Kirkpatrick has appeared frequently as a technology industry expert on CNN and PBS. Working with other FORTUNE editors, he developed and hosts Brainstorm, a multi-disciplinary conference which brings together global leaders to interact and discuss the future. The conference, first held in 2001, takes place annually in Aspen and is produced in partnership with the Aspen Institute.

David is currently in the throes of a book project, "The Facebook Effect", which will be published mid-2009.

He is in constant demand as a speaker and moderator at conferences, including the World Economic Forum, The World Congress on Information Technology, and other global events.

Subtle Technologies Festival

Some specific topics which we will address at this years festival include:

net art
networked performance
biological networks
wireless networks
social networking
communication, transportation and economic networks
virtual worlds
systems theory
community networks
network theory
collaborative and open source initiatives
online culture
“small world problem” and mathematical models
genetic networks

http://www.subtletechnologies.com/2009/

motion design contest, deadline January 23, 2009

Toronto link:
http://www.cutandpaste.com/events/2009/mar/14/toronto-2009/


The deadline for North American competitors is January 23, 2009 and European and Asian designers have until February 20th. Here are some details…

· This year, Cut&Paste is introducing the first-ever live 3D design and motion design contests

· The 2009 tour will begin in North America in March (Europe and Asia will follow)

· The Global Championships—which will feature a winner from each of the 16 participating cities—will take place in New York City in June 2009

· Grand Prize: One Grand Prize winner from each category in each city (48 in total) will receive an expenses-paid trip to New York City for the Global Championships.

For a complete list of prizes, visit: http://www.cutandpaste.com/tours/program/formats/

Getting Started... Welcome to 2009

Welcome back...
I am hopeful you have anticipated that a site for Web Design I would be up and running by now under the blogspot name of GRAF1131. Here it is...

I've been busy over the past couple days, posting some material for you.
Read the brief TRANSCEPTION article (pdf file) to get into the design context and language.
Another article on TRANSCEPTION will be distributed first day of class.

I've also posted the two major projects, so take a quick look... lots of requirements... so be prepared....

Start thinking about choosing to work with one of the nine design dimensions (they are listed below):
1. Social Action
2. Economic
3. Moral
4. Wellness
5. Learning and human development
6. Scientific
7. Technological
8. Aesthetic
9. Political

Media produced with TRANSCEPTION, through the lens of one of the nine interactive dimensions, is called Evolutionary Guidance Media.

Project #2: Site Final & Presentation

Due Dates:
• Class Presentation: Week #14
• Submission of WEB SITE/WORKING FILES CD: Week #15

Project Theme:
“Think Global, Act Local.”
Evolutionary guidance media are those that guide the development of human systems encouraging the holistic development of both individuals and their systems.
Using creative imagination, design a solution to a local problem, through the window of one of the nine interactive dimensions. The Web Site becomes the interactive window through which transception flows.

To be eligible to receive full marks, the FINAL WEB SITE must present the design solution to the local problem.
Requirements:
The FINAL WEB SITE is the redesigned and completed prototype and must include the following content and technical specifications:
1. Design Rationale explaining all design decisions, and Self & Peer Evaluations:
2. Paragraph explanation of the design dimension;
3. Paragraph explanation of the global problem;
4. Paragraph explanation of the local problem;
5. Paragraph explanation of the design solution;
6. Paragraph explanation of the web site metaphor and how it directly relates to the local problem and design solution;
7. Paragraph explanation of the multimedia and interactive elements;
8. Paragraph explanation of how the web site will be able to transform the user;
9. Evaluations: Self & by another class member;
Technical items include:
10. Wrapper Layer; use of layers for type, images, forms;
11. Visual interface based upon a metaphor, supporting the dimension, the local problem, and the design solution;
12. Background/Layer images or gradient fills;
13. CSS for all type and positioning of layers;
14. Meta tags (keywords, description);
15. Alt tags for all images;
16. Animation: Animated GIF or Flash SWF,
17. A/V: Audio or Video – May be Flash or Quicktime;
18. Form (including name, email, message, radio buttons, check box buttons, drop down list) for interactive gathering of information from the user;
19. Hyperlinks to at least three web sites that are related to the design dimension, local problem and to the design solution;
20 Web Site Designer Contact Information (Picture, Name, Email)
21. References/Hyperlinks to primary and secondary research materials.
22. Presentation (Week #14) to the class of the FINAL WEB SITE;
23. All working files, the Web Site Prototype (Project#1) and the FINAL WEB SITE (Project#2) must be submitted on one CD/DVD-ROM and the Site must be fully functional on the CD/DVD-ROM.

Evaluation:
The Web Site will be evaluated according to the following:
1. evidence of creativity,
2. aesthetics,
3. demonstration of web design principles,
4. meeting all content and technical specifications,
5. functionality,
6. ease-of-use.

Project #1: Site Prototype & Presentation

Due Date: Week #7
Value: 25% of Final Grade

“Think Global, Act Local.”

Terms:
1. Cyberception means getting a sense of the whole.
2. Transception is cyberception with compassion.
3. Evolutionary guidance media are those that guide the development of human systems encouraging the holistic development of both individuals and their systems.

The Web Site Project:
Using creative imagination, design a solution to a local problem, through the window of one of the nine interactive dimensions. The Web Site becomes the interactive window through which transception flows. The design problem, research data, and proposed solution, are all presented through the Web Site Prototype.

Steps:
1. Dimensions: Choose one of the nine interactive dimensions of an evolutionary guidance system.
2. Group Cluster: Form a group cluster for technical and content support with all the students from each particular dimension.
3. Local Issue: Think global and act local, exploring and discovering a local design problem that needs immediate attention.
4. Data: Gather and present evidence of the problem.
5. Web Solution: A design solution will be proposed and presented as the Web Site Prototype.
6. Links: Recommend at least three similar sites in the same dimension.
7. Share research and prototype with the class.

Technical & Content Requirements:
To be eligible to receive full marks, the Web Site Prototype must include the following content and technical specifications:
1. Paragraph explanation of the design dimension;
2. Three links to sites as examples of that specific dimension;
3. Paragraph description of the local context & design problem;
4. Presentation of the design solution as the Web site;
5. Navigation structure & Visual interface to support the dimension;
Recommend the following:
1. Wrapper layer
2. Use of a background image/gradient fill;
3. Table;
4. External CSS file for all type;
5. Meta tags (keywords, description);
6. Alt tags for all images;
7. Sketches
8. Evaluations: by self & by another class member from your dimension support group;
9. References to primary and secondary research materials.
10. All working files and the final Web Site Prototype must be submitted on a CD/DVD-ROM and the Site must be fully functional on the CD/DVD-ROM.

Evaluation:
The Web Site will be evaluated according to the following:
1. evidence of creativity,
2. aesthetics,
3. demonstration of web design principles,
4. meeting all content and technical specifications,
5. functionality,
6. ease-of-use.

Planning A Web Site in Five Phases

Tip: Be mindful of the project “Driver” (Time, Cost, Resources, Quality).
Remember to have only ONE project driver.

Phase 1: Site Definition (The pre-planning stage)
Step 1: Client Survey – Define the following:
client goals, overall concept, purpose of site, message to convey to audience, type of media content, organizational structure, visual styles, technical specifications, budget, timeline, deliverables, resources (people and equipment), quality level.
Step 2: Creative (Look & Feel) Brief
Step 3: Concept (Metaphor & Story) Defined
Step 4: Project Team (Skills/Resources) Created
Step 5: Budget (Time) & Schedule (Tasks) Created

Phase 2: Site Structure
Step 1: Site Map
Step 2: Content Overview – Includes gathering content, writing new content, and editing.
Step 3: Technical Specifications: Media (A/V) types, R/W files, Forms, HTML, DHTML.
Step 4: Navigation

Phase 3: Interface Design
Step 1: Visual Design
Step 2: Prototype (“Alpha” – a click-through presentation with rough visuals)
Step 3: Client Approval
Step 4: Production – Artwork, optimization of graphics, HTML/Scripting, CSS

Phase 4: Technical Engineering
Step 1: Front & Back-end programming – HTML, CSS, DHTML, PHP, Actionscripting.
Step 2: Browser Testing
Step 3: Type Proofing
Step 4: Link Testing

Phase 5: Publishing
Step 1: ISP Selection – Domain Name & Hosting
Step 2: FTP Files
Step 3: Test Site
Step 4: Registering with Search Engines, and Submitting to Directories

Some Other Considerations
1. Include Dynamic Page Content
2. Include a “What’s New” Section
3. Set a Maintenance/Update Schedule
4. Trade Links with other related sites
5. Promote the Site – Using “traditional” media forms (newspapers, magazines, postcards, bookmark, related industry associations, CD/DVD web hyperlink, radio, TV, email, blogging (blogspot, wordpress,...), myspace, facebook, Youtube video)

Happy New Year!!!

-18 C when I went downtown today for a walkabout...
then visited my parents and watched a DVD on John Paul II...
then... reading The Way of a Pilgrim and the Pilgrim COntinues His Way, translated from Russian by Helen Bacovcin...
then... some blogging...

re: WEB SITE LAUNCH
finished up a web site this week:
a very fast "beta" version of the site is up at www.rekindlingindigenousspirit.org if you want to take a peak.
Some pre/post client brief/design notes:
1) Client has many design ideas that they included (So not all decisions are Web-Designer driven)
2) Fast delivery (still buggy and requires some technical fixes for Browser Firefox)
3) Use of framesets for nav bar set up
4) Opacity filter for watermark
5) Watermarks not all the same sizes
6) Type designed with no consideration for screen sizing
7) Video's to be embedded from You TUbe site ( Alpha version used flv's on site)
8) HTML version ( Consider all Flash redesign with creative multimedia interface ... future version possibility)
9) Budget $0.00, volunteer effort
10) produce in three days
11) Many photos, unformatted from multiple sources ( need to be resized, indexed)
12) Flash photo gallery custom designed ( LoadMovie used) to suit size of pictures ( which varied)
13) Mapping used for participants bios... (still missing some content on launch date .. pictures, bios... this is what often happens in the real world of web design... namely: Content never arrives on time, or at all, thus affecting the look/design).
14) international scope, with global social, spiritual, humanitarian, implications and perhaps political implications due to powerful transformational content
15) Documentation, , community building, and global action, are intentions/outcomes for the site
16) A documentary film is in the works about the "trip"
17) Press release sent out on December 31, 2008 to international educators, movers, shakers, transformers.
18) Modifications-to take place ongoing.
19) training included to help maintain site by local team.
20) no easter eggs ( as of yet)

time for dinner ( 6:56pm)
bye for now.
pr