Collapse | Governance | Logo | Outrage

In 2018 Santa Ana implemented the MemoryBoard project. It was a permanent interactive art installation designed to preserve the memories of places and the time one spent in them. 3 MemoryBoards were installed in the Downtown area at the major gathering sites. People contributed photos and video to the MemoryBoard System through the large scale touch screen interface. Aside from the large touchscreen, the fanciest piece of tech built into it (at the time) was face recognition. So as a person approached it the system would detect the face, retrieve and display all the photos linked to it. The project was designed to exist for generations. One of it’s goals was to preserve memories of Santa Ana’s places and people so it could act as a digital interactive time capsule for future residents.

The designers made a significant effort make the system resilient so that it could last a long time: Heat and water resistant glass and plastic enclosures for the touch screens. Solar panels captured enough energy to completely power the different parts of the system. Solid state memory so there were no moving parts. And ethernet cables run underground between the 3 sites and control room creating a closed network.

15 years later the Great Internet Slowdown happened. The proliferation of IOT devices had reached a saturation point that brought the internet to it’s knees. Everything was connected  to the internet. Your shoes, the fillings in your teeth, yours cats. Everything depended on fast internet connections, power companies, cell carriers, cars and pretty much everything broke. Except Santa Ana’s MemoryBoards.

Generations later.

Pollution had always been a big problem but the effects during years of the Great Slowdown were devastating. We always knew there was a link between pollution in the air and memory impairment, but when people stopped trying to educate and better themselves, this sent their mental capacities on a dangerous downward spiral. People stopped going to school, stopped learning. People were forgetting who they were, forgetting their histories, names and what they looked like.

Santa Ana residents were struggling with everyone else, but in some ways a little less because of the MemoryBoards.

It became a daily ritual to make the trek from all parts of the city to the 3 MemoryBoards. It became the only way to remember yourself, your name and your past.

Visitors arrive.

Outsiders began arriving in the city hearing of the mythical MemoryBoards that could show you who you are. When asked for their names they couldn’t tell you, they just held out a piece of paper a small distinctive drawing. To 21st century eyes these were symbols of what they called ‘corporations’ or Logos. These people were NBC, Pepsi, McDonalds, CNN, Shell and so on. Their identities had been reduced to corporate logos. They didn’t even have the imagination to design their own.

At first the residents were fine with the newcomers moving into the city and using the MemoryBoards, but then the word got out to distant places and the crowds became unsustainable. The lines to use the MemoryBoards began to stretch past a day and this was unacceptable. “They are risking our memories, we must protect them“. The city government in partnership with it’s police began a policy of testing the lengths of memories that came out of the MemoryBoards. Anyone with less than a year’s length had to leave the city. Outrage spread amongst the outsiders, a storm was brewing outside the city.

And so began the ‘War to Remember’.

Exercise 3.3

Collapse, Religion, Device, Embarrassment

Informatics282_Exercise3.3_arashidifar

DIRECT LINK TO PRESENTATION

Speculations: Discipline | Pets | Gift | Decadence

Exercise 3.3: Speculation presentation link

3.3 Speculations

Arc: Collapse
Terrain: Childhood
Object: Festival
Mood: Shock

Presentation Linked. 

Link to PDF

Transform, Justice, Corporation, Outrage

3.3 SPECULATIONS

A short story.

Assignment

Collapse, Robot, Machine, Decadence

The Drone Wars 

Link to full pdf

Transform, Climate, Gift, Serenity – Link to PDF

Click here for presentation

This Exercise is Available by Clicking this Link to the Slideshow

Personas

persona_corn

Persona, Scenario, Storyboard

Link to PERSONA & SCENARIO

persona_Gilberto

Exercise 3.2: Personas

Exercise 3.2: Personas

Persona

Scenario

Christina has found a great solution to her shopping problem that will allow her more time with her family and children instead of shopping. She has found an app that she can order her grocery needs from her local grocery stores. After receiving her order will be delivered to her doorstep on the same day by the store for free.

This app is very simple and easy to use. All Christina needs to do is to enter her list and if she has already purchased an item, she can simply re-order the same product without browsing the stores. In the case that she needs to order a new item, she can browse the store to see more options. Christina can pay using an online check-out, and wait for the store to deliver her order to her doorstep.

Storyboard

Intervention 1: QR Code “What’s the local story”

Persona 1: Conner D.

Conner is a born and raised Phoenix native who lives and works in the Arcadia area. Like the majority of the area, he is middle class and has a strong sense of pride in the local community. He works for a local non-profit organization that promotes local businesses and volunteers his time in the downtown Phoenix arts district at DIY gallery and music venue spaces. He is 25 years old and single.

Scenario: Conner is having lunch with a friend at the popular casual dining spot La Grande Orange located in the heart of the Arcadia neighborhood. The holidays are approaching and Conner is still in the market for a few small gift items for family. After he finishes eating, he walks around LGO to look at the various displays of accessories, goods, foods and items for sale in the market side of LGO. He comes across a wooden display rack of desert inspired jewelry. He picks up a necklace with a cactus charm and a small piece of quartz hanging from it. The sign displays the name of the vendor, but gives no other information. Conner wants to support local artists when he buys gifts since this is a cause near and dear to his heart. He scans the QR code on the necklace’s tag and a page pops up:

“Sonoran Silver is run by Arizona Native Sharon Sorensen. Growing up in the valley, she has a love for her surroundings. All materials are locally sourced from silver and gemstone mines in Arizona. Each piece is hand-made, one of a kind and made with local pride.”

Conner is thrilled to learn that the items are not only made by a local artist, but from locally sourced materials as well, further supporting local economies. He decides to buy the necklace confidently knowing he is supporting the local business he is in and a local artist as well.

Storyboard:

Intervention 2: Interactive Store Shelves

Persona 2: Heather M.

Heather was born and raised in a middle class family in the Arcadia neighborhood of Phoenix. For many years of her adult life she worked as a relator specializing in the signature 1950’s ranch homes in the area as part of a “Arcadia Specialists” real estate group. In her late-thirties now, she has a young child and is a stay-at-home mom. She still stays very active, running the canals in the area every day and actively working to maintain a healthy lifestyle for herself and her family. She is passionate about clean, organic living and is interested in the farm to table lifestyle trend that is currently popular in the area.

Scenario 2: Heather has had a busy day and is picking up some pre-made items for dinner from La Grande Orange and neighboring business Ingo’s Tasty Food. After she picks up her order from Ingo’s, she walks across the street to LGO for salads and drinks to go with dinner. She walks over to the refrigerated area and picks up a bottle of local lemonade. When she removes the bottle from the shelf, the integrated screen next to the shelf turns on. The display states that the lemonade is “organic and locally grown, picked, squeezed and bottled.” Under the text is a picture of the lemon tree the lemons grew on with a hand-written looking text overlay that says “it all started with me!” with the name of the local orchard underneath. Heather smiles as she chooses the lemonade, happy to give her family juice that is organic and local.

Storyboard:

Persona

Scenario and storyboard

Assignment 3.2

Link to PDF of Persona, Scenario, Storyboard

PERSONAS – PATRICK & TYRA

LARGER VERSION WITHOUT WALL

SCENARIO

Patrick & Tyra are just married. They met in their MFA grad program two years ago. For inspiration they used to enjoy going on long walks. Due to their apartment being close to the downtown area this has become an exploration hobby, with both of them enjoying finding new places for their own reasons.

They’ve almost outgrown Tulsa and the surrounding area for various reasons, and so they’re very excited to hear of a new freebie urban exploration tour of the Tulsa Arts District and downtown area. They’ve heard of the underground tunnels between the oil company headquarter buildings, but have never been able to go until now.

Made a reality by the same group behind the First Friday Art Crawl, the Third Thursday Tour (3T) is sure to be an awesome experience!

STORYBOARD

PDF version

Exercise 3.2 – Personas – Jennifer Du

Personas, Scenario & Storyboard

5 students from UCSB are hunting for jobs at Camino Real Marketplace. They feel thirsty and stop by at Starbucks to get a beverage. They sit down to catch a breath. The student from Peru named Quinoa Tortilla Chips starts talking about how he misses his home in South America. Another student from Mexico named Holy Guacamole, says “Hey I thought you were from Mexico”. Quinoa says, “I get that a lot, because of my last name. But my mom met my Dad in Peru where they fell in love and got married. I was 8 when we moved here to the States. My roots lay in the ancient South American culture.” Hearing this the two other students  says, ” I miss home too.” Quinoa asks them where they are from. Speculous cookies says ” I am from Belgium.” To this Quinoa responds, “Oh is the other student, Brussel Sprouts from Belgium too?”.  Speculous shakes his head and says, ” No, he’s from Rome!”. English Toffee says “I am from Britain”. “Oh where the Queen lives!”, exclaim Quinoa and Guacamole. Shy Chamomile just smiles. Guacamole asks her where is was from. Chamomile in her soothing calm tone says, “I’ve travelled a lot of places like Europe, India and Western Asia.” Everyone is amused to hear that. Wise Quinoa then says,” It is amazing to know that each one of us is from such different lands and ended up here in the states”, to which Holy Guacamole says, ” That’s why this place is called a land of immigrants!”

Persona and Scenario/Storyboard

Persona

Scenario

Gloria has been concerned with speeding cars in her neighborhood. Her children and their friends like to play outside next to her house. Some new businesses have recently popped up down the street and have become very popular. They attract people who are new to Santa Ana who may not be aware that they are very close a residential neighborhood. Gloria wants to voice her concerns about their speeding and decides to use the Santa Ana Community Cloud board to share her thoughts. She creates a post about speeding in local neighborhoods. She doesn’t have the resources to research the issue on a large scale, but in the coming days she learns that other residents who have been using the Community Cloud board agree with her. This agreement creates a trending topic and gives her the confidence and evidence to approach the city council to do something about the issue. In the coming months, the city responds by putting up new signage in Gloria’s area warning drivers to slow down.

Storyboard

click images to enlarge

Link to Deck

Persona + Scenario

Storyboards

Download PDF of both pages

For my whole adult life, I’ve lived in major cities. First New York City, then San Francisco, and now Los Angeles. In NYC and SF, I had strong walking habits. During my free time, when the weather was nice or when I just felt an urge to explore and a restlessness in my legs, I’d head out on foot, sometimes walking up to 12 miles a day.

I intentionally walked because for me, the practice was one of seeing, rather than of getting to a destination. So standing at 5′ 3″, walking at a slow to moderate pace, I would look up, left, right, and down to the limits of my ability and attention. Some days, I’d notice the particular shape of a leaf on a tree. Other days, I’d sense changes in air texture, moisture and heaviness. Rain was coming.

In LA, my geographic ramblings are much more car-oriented. It’s partially to do with the sprawl of the city and its crisscrossing freeways. And, the other part is cultural. It is simply strange to see people walking when most people are car-bound.

I felt this acutely on this mapping project, which I did in a combination of foot and car. On foot entirely, I would have been constrained to a very small area, or I would have walked all day to cover the spread I desired. What I wanted was to find a balance of breadth and detail.

Something that occurred to me while on foot was how clean the streets are in my area. I’ve been in LA only about half a year, but long enough to take for granted streets uncluttered by litter, feces and bodies and unadorned with the scent of body fluids. In San Francisco, every left and right turn was an assault on the senses, with most scents carrying a medley of eucalyptus, stale alcohol and urine notes.

In this particular part of LA, where my nose lacked stimulation, my ears made up for it. The white noise! Almost everywhere, there’s a background hum of freeway traffic. Rarely honking, but occasionally tire squealing and sirens.

In my descriptions here and in the notes I jotted on the sketch, my observations are grounded in the framework of comparison. How does this environment I’m here in now compare to other environments from my past? What about my past experiences bias my attention to the very things I am calling out? To the question of “Can our observational faculties be trusted to objectively describe a familiar environment?”, my answer is a resounding no.