The final stretch

For those of you who follow this blog regularly, or even for those who might be brand new to it and wondering why it is that there have not been posts the past two months, I want to offer an apology! A dropped ball on my end set things off balance and we never got the ball moving again - truly my bad.

Let me reassure you that just because there have not been posts does not mean that we have been inactive - far from it, actually! The last post left off on workshop week, since then, the pace just picked up.

What did this picked up pace entail? A lot, more than I can adequately describe in detail, but here is a snapshot:

- Ethics papers

- Ethics projects

- Final workshops

- Finals for other classes

- Finishing professional projects

- Thesis defenses (this was a biggie)

- MakeSense go-rounds and roundtables on how to make next year’s program even more impactful

- End of year show

- Graduation

- The Present

Ethics was a tight end - we each took our interests and yoked them into ethics projects that could produce a positive impact.

For Smarti, this took the form of an incredible papier-mache depiction of the Coca-Cola company’s ethical footprint since its founding.

Hanna helped us see the feminist future of coffee by introducing the “Feminista Espresso Machine” (coming to a future store near you).

Rica pulled out his tech skills and introduced us to an ethical (and sassy) chatbot that helps you weigh the consequences of potential decisions.

Vaila made mirrors, tarot cards and teddy bears take on a whole new meaning by creating an original future-forecasting game that helps you make decisions based on the ethical theory with which you best identify.

I explored how the Ethics Canvas can be used to help sport for development entrepreneurs think about potential consequences of business decisions, and provided illustrated examples for these.

Of the activities yet to be covered in the blog, what is probably most interesting for you are our thesis defenses. These were the oral defenses of our written theses and the coinciding professional projects. Truly, a culmination of the passionate energy we each poured into a social/ environmental issue that ignites and sustains a fire in us.

For Smarti, this was a professional demonstration and food-sharing to reveal the problem of plastics and how alternative packaging is a step towards ameliorating the problem.

For Hanna, it was encouraging us to see how a universal basic income could create fun, imaginative and more liberated futures.

For Rica, it was allowing us to be attendees at one of the TED conferences of the future (what will be called KEDx) and looking at moral imagination and the blockchain.

For Vaila, it was hosting a funeral for a dearly-beloved tartan shirt, thereby opening our eyes to the gross realities of the fast fashion industry and motivating us to rethink our relationships with our clothes.

Each of us truly poured into these projects - we were stretched and strengthened through the challenge, but ultimately came out stronger and more committed to continuing our efforts.

Our defenses were followed by an end of year show where we displayed some of the work that we’ve done in addition to thesis projects, including a forecast of the IKEA of the future for the Sprout Workshop, and the printed rendition of our What Art Can Do Design Thinking manual (thank you for the professional output, @smarti!)

Graduation was a very special way for us to come together and celebrate our work with the people we love.

The passion and dedication to our causes didn’t fade, even through the celebrations of graduation. Though our class has left PCA, you’ll be seeing more from our guinea-pig inaugural group. We will not be made quiet in our efforts to see a world that is better-designed and where the impacts we dream of making come to life.

Workshop Week

There is a special week at PCA in the spring semester dedicated to a unique learning experience. Its a time when art kids kick it around with storytelling, digital play, paint, future designing for a whole week. No grades, no obligations. Just fun learning. 

Since I don't have a class this Monday, I'm out and about with a friend whose come to Paris to visit. I want to show him the place where I did a bookbinding apprenticeship at Listel Or near the metro Lamarck-Coulaincourt. We join up with a free tour through Montmartre and learn about the hot spots beyond Moulin Rouge, taste a baguette "traditional" and end up at the top of Sacre Couer looking out over the city.

Tuesday Rica and I signed up for a workshop called "Storytelling: Sherlock Holmes and the Internet of Things." Alexis, the facilitator, shares with us a storytelling prototype from Columbia University's Digital Storytelling Lab. We set up a crime scene, then enhance it with clue cards (featuring augmented reality HP reveal) and then trade with another group to finally solve the mystery. Our mystery ends up being a hilarious dramatic death and Rica and I pretend to be twins. Back in the classroom we extrapolate one of the clues into a future technology idea. Our idea is to make a brooch that projects a holographic butterfly. This butterfly would provide useful info to children so that they can be autonomous but stay in a safe zone and catch messages from mom. 

Tuesday afternoon I do a photo shoot of a collection of folded paper models I made in for a 3D fabrication class. I've been folding paper for the past couple of weeks so I'm grateful to finish this project and put together an end-of-year booklet for it. Here's a sample of some of the folds.

From Wednesday to Friday our class participates in a workshop hosted by a team called the Normal Normals. They are a duo studio from Berlin/Paris that build speculative design ideas. Speculative design? That's right. The team goes to the moon with all kinds of ideas dreamed up for prototypes. Jelly bags for sea turtles, happy face masks to avoid facial recognition, trucks that deliver a farming experience. It's wild in room 102. We trash the space, build all kinds of prototypes and set up props amidst snacks. Friday the whole revolution is filmed live on youtube. It's a skit show featuring ideas, props and a lot of acting. Check out the video here called Streaming the Future.

Sunday is Earth Day so Amy and I meet up at Gare de Lyon and take the train out to Fontainbleu with some friends. We walk straight into the forest from the train station and enjoy a long hike in the sunny weather. There are tons of little bugs, and perfect baby acorns and we even collect a bit of moss for a side project I have in mind. 

The best part of this week is that spring is full on strong. The sun is bright, people are smiling and there's a nice breeze in the air. The wisterias on my windowsill are in full bloom and it is gorgeous in Paris right now. We finally get some good sun and everything is warming up. Happy Spring!

27 – FinalFinal_Version_07_Final_Thesis_Lastv13, Venus, MakeSense Festival and a new French grandma over oysters and wine

Classes are slowly fading out and we need to manage ourselves in Paris daily life. This week we finally hand in our thesis, deep dive into Botticelli's artworks, hang out at the MakeSense Festival and immerse fully into Frenchness.

This week was the day of all days: handing in the thesis! This feeling of plugging in the pen drive in the copy shop. Of seeing the pages spat out from the printer in proper white DIN A4 sheets. Smelling the glue of the hot-foil-cover-binding. And finally holding the wrapped plastic thesis in hands. Amazing. All this work of the past months actually in one result. But there is also a bit of a bitter taste — apart from the charming plastic wrapping. There is also this unsatisfaction of being aware of all the little faults and mistakes. But also the bigger ones. Now I dove so much into the topic that I know that there is still so much more to say and to learn. I have to recall Lilian’s words again and again: “done is better than perfect.”

The week goes on and the vacuum the thesis hand in created is filled right away with our individual projects, the paper for Designer’s Ethics and Responsibilities and — well — with some wine with friends in a sunny Paris. Further down the week on Thursday we have Laura Sibony as a guest at our Professional Practice Series. Laura works at Google Arts and Culture and with her, we dive deep into high-resolution artworks, discover Venus’ skin issues and create conspiracies on the Botticelli Code. Rica masters the machine learning drawing app and Laura introduces us to Emoji hunting.

On the following day, I am invited to represent our team from the Cumulus Network workshop with Centre Pompidou: together. The conference takes place in Ensaama in the south of Paris. From this international workshop, I actually learned mostly about the French design education. I arrive and am instantly involved in last minute preparations before our talk starts. We are taping scotch on the floor and transform the room into little chair islands. We speak about our projects from last week and our experience to collaborate with Centre Pompidou. I notice that I am the only women speaking. No-one else seems to. We end up having wine and snacks in the sun on the rooftop and chat about the world, optimism and despair and — well — design.

On Saturday it is time for the MakeSense festival. It takes place in La Bellevilloise, a beautiful location with a wide concert hall, a grungy basement and a garden with view over Paris. The place is packed and the atmosphere playful and lose. Amy brings all her team from their sports program and I find myself nodding my head to the beat of the refugee rap battle and cutting donated strawberries at the disco soup.

This Sunday should be known as the day, where we gained a French grandma. Even though school is all but over yet, it’s time for self-treatment. And how to start a Sunday better than with wine and oysters (veggie exception) at Le Baron Rouge. A beautiful Madame with her orange hat and her spring pastel colored outfit joins us next to our table. We start chatting and sharing wine and food. She tells us about her life, Paris, and summers on the Bretagne where she got the chance to own a house there. We get invited to fill it with life and swop numbers. And even further we are now her official party committee to organize a soirée soon at her place. With fromage in strips from the ceiling. We cheer: “il ne peux pas tuer personne!”

25 - Mushi-gotchi, Parfum and are you there, Spring?

It’s week 10, and we’re bordering on spring – I think. Monday is a beautiful sunny day – ‘taps aff’ weather as we call it in Scotland – which makes me instantly happy. I walk to PCA with my sunglasses on, taking in the surroundings and appreciating the newly blossomed cherry trees. In thesis class, we go over the mysterious ‘Annex’ and peer edit one another’s conclusions: a true sign that we are reaching the end, just that final push to get it done! Afterwards, I head home to read my idea of a ‘self-help’ book for realists: ‘The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck’, which is laugh out loud funny whilst providing some tough love.

The next day I head over to Hanna’s flat to work on thesis. We do some peer-editing and Hanna helps me create mock-up invitations for my ‘clothing funeral’. Yes, you read that right. Stay tuned for more, or hit me up if you wan’t to read about it in my thesis, HA.

On Wednesday I work on my thesis at PCA, and later meet Karen Ralph from the Research and Writing Lab for an extremely helpful session. In the evening, I meet Hanna at Le Troisième café for their amateur chef night. 3 courses for 13€: not bad, until you can barely walk from all the food in your belly!

Thursday morning begins with a class field trip (Intellectual Property Rights) to the Palais de Justice, the main court house in Paris. Stephanie – an IPR lawyer, as well as our teacher – gives us a tour and we get to sit in on a criminal court case, pretty intense, and interesting! That afternoon, we have Design Studio class, where we develop our MVP (minimum viable product) as part of the business plans we’ve been creating with help from Diane. Rica, Hanna and I work on the ‘Mushi-gotchi’, a modern-day tamagotchi to help people grow their own mushrooms. Stroke of genius, we know! Then we have Professional Practice Workshop, where interior designer and architect Marie Deroudilhe speaks to us about her area of expertise. Afterwards, Rica and I feast on pizza at Sette, delicious as always.

On Friday, myself and students from the Photography and Fashion Design courses visit Mane Headquarters – fragrance creators – to hear about the parfum project we will be taking part in. We learn about the family business and all the different types of scents. It proves to be super interesting, a real nose work-out, and I will probably never look at the perfume the same way! For the project, we have to create stories centred around our own individual scent, and then one person will be chosen to develop their scent with Mane perfumers, which will then be distributed at the end of year show. Exciting stuff!

On Saturday I work at Hanna’s with Amy. Hanna feeds me delicious Martini’s, and onion and potato soup. I’m so spoilt. I virtually forget about Easter amongst all the thesis writing madness. My mum had sent me an easter egg a while back, and of course I ate it then, oops. So I celebrate by cooking myself a giant veggie chilli and feasting on that instead, very traditional. I just hope that now April has begun, we’ll get to enjoy lovely spring weather in Paris.

24 - Design for Social...Business?

For this week, I am choosing to share a little bit about social business. Why? Because, strange though it may seem, it actually plays a significant role in this masters program. You’ll find that, through partnership with MakeSense, which has a significant focus on the incubation and encouragement of social business endeavors, the world of social entrepreneurship will be opened up to you. Further, other classes like design studio, professional practices, ethics and social and urban governance all address business in some way. Whether it’s how you make money as a design professional, or how we deal with modern capitalism as designers, this emerging concept of ‘social entrepreneurship’ or social business will come up.

Paris too has a unique stance on the subject of social business. Mayor Anne Hidalgo of Paris has partnered with Muhammad Yunus, a Nobel Peace Laureate and considered one of the fathers of modern social business, to make Paris the Social Business capital of the world, and have their sites specifically set on the Paris 2024 Olympics, for which both have partnered with the French Olympic Federation and the International Olympic Committee to design the first ‘social business games’. It’s because of this partnership and initiative that I have structured my thesis research question the way I have: How might we design a sports based refugee integration program to be sustained on a social business model?

So what is a social business? That I could give a super simple and direct response to that question! It is a relatively new term and can be viewed as interchangeable with social enterprise, and sometimes gets confused with Corporate Social Responsibility and revenue-generating non-profits.

The first academic definition came from a scholar, Greg Dees, at Duke in 1998. He focused attention on defining the actions of the social entrepreneur:

“Social entrepreneurs play the role of change agents in the social sector, by:

Adopting a mission to create and sustain social value (not just private value),

Recognizing and relentlessly pursuing new opportunities to serve that mission,

Engaging in a process of continuous innovation, adaptation, and learning,

Acting boldly without being limited by resources currently in hand, and

Exhibiting heightened accountability to the constituencies served and for the outcomes created.”

Since then, this definition has been adapted, affirmed, challenged, and built on by an overwhelming number of academics and business professionals. Here is a helpful chart by the Social Innovation Center that adapts on Dees’ work distinguishing social entrepreneurship from other sectors:

It should be noted that these definitions will vary country to country. In the EU alone a number of legal designations exist in individual member states that do not apply to others.

The underlying premise is that the business or enterprise generates social and monetary capital.

What is most relevant to this MA in Design for Social Impact program at Paris College of Art is a specific definition that comes from Muhammad Yunus, as his model is used by MakeSense and the newly founded (November of 2017) Social Business Center of Paris. His definition consists of 7 key principles: 

“1. Business objective will be to overcome poverty, or one or more problems (such as education, health, technology access, and environment) which threaten people and society; not profit maximization

2. Financial and economic sustainability

3. Investors get back their investment amount only. No dividend is given beyond investment money

4. When investment amount is paid back, company profit stays with the company for expansion and improvement

5. Gender sensitive and environmentally conscious

6. Workforce gets market wage with better working conditions

7. ...do it with joy” (Yunus Centre, 2015, webpage).

The underlying premise behind Yunus’s definition is to modernise and reshape modern capitalism, which is widely acknowledged to be a contributor to social injustice and wicked problems of the world. Social business is one approach to redesigning a system that makes a positive social and environmental impact.

I hope that this special post helps clarify (or introduce!) a concept that, if you’re interested in the program, will come up when you’re here. It may even be a subject that plays an integral role in your thesis or your future post-graduation!

In my next post, I’ll share a bit more about my thesis and the social business development there - stay tuned!

References:

Dees, J. G. (2017). 1 The Meaning of Social Entrepreneurship. In Case Studies in Social Entrepreneurship and Sustainability(pp. 34-42). Routledge.

Yunus Centre. (10 June 2015). “The Seven Principles of Social Business.” SocialBusinessPedia [webpage]. Retrieved from http://socialbusinesspedia.com/wiki/details/156/the-seven-principles-of-social-business

23 - Kitty, Design Fiction Club, Drag Queens and Paris all in White

We are getting near the end. Which may imply making the library our home or taking this amazing city all. Or – well – doing both and everything! 

This week kicked off with our thesis midterms. Compressing all our super important and highly complex writing work into 5 minutes is actually a challenge. Even though we took all in all 2 hours longer than intended it is a great way for peer-reviewing the work we’ve done so far and to steer the upcoming road to go. My friend Kitty – now future studies graduate – who visited us already in September is in town. She turns all the presentations into beautiful strong images with her visual thinking brain. We end this day with some good Pizza and wine at the little Italien place, we call home. At Sette you enjoy a wonderful burrata with the finest techno beats (they are not paying me.)

Tuesday is another whole thesis day for me, which is much needed. In the evening it’s the monthly meeting of Design Fiction Club at Gaité Lyrique. This times' topic ‘Design Fiction and Marketing’ takes a critical dive into the capitalistic application of design fiction and its real-world feasibility. Benoît, my thesis advisor, hosts the roundtable this time. Since my French is absolutely not enough I am more than grateful for the images and live notes. The bar next door is actually where the interesting stories from all these design fiction rockstars unveil themselves. Of course, Benoît pushes me to also talk about my project. A very good exercise and I’m happy that also the design fiction pros here give encouraging feedback. Right on track, yeahi!

Wednesday is MakeSense-day and it is always nice to start the day in this eclectic and warm atmosphere. We meet up individually with Sabine to get our practical work started. This means for me curating a fictional exhibition about fictional law cases about basic income. Further recording an audioguide for this fictional exhibition. Well, let’s see where we’re heading there... In the afternoon I’m meeting up with Manon. She is a student at SciencePo and currently taking the very first degrowth class. With her expertise (and enthusiasm!) I want to find out how basic income may affect a transition towards a degrowth society. Meaning a society that does not depend on economic growth. With my brother’s GoPro around my chest we are sipping Cappuccino and imagining the future of storefronts in this future scenario. Let me tell you so much: we won’t see handbags for sale anymore in our future construct. Before we’re heading to the Hitchhiker-Association-Party in St. Germain, Manon takes me on a tour at SciencePo. The following evening is full of inspiring talks about environmental policies, feminism and well, Paris.

Thursday feels to me like the longest day on earth. And this time, we already start one hour earlier than usual with our Intellectual Property Rights class. After four hours of design copyright pitfalls and law cases, we head right into Business Design Studio. With Diane, we construct business plans for our fictional businesses. Where Smarti is calculating the costs for her hydrating ovens to produce edible packaging, Vaila dreams up the Mushroom Lab (wait for it or sign up for the newsletter.) Amy refines her not so fictional business. In the Professional Practice Series, Giorgio Martinoli allows us insights into his world as an art director ranging from high shining fashion magazines to black and white music videos for the band Her. A long day ends for me with some good reads and a cup of tea.

Friday is time for Designer’s Social and Ethical Responsibility class with Emilie Prattico. These classes debating about Man vs. Nature and Design Activism tend to soak up all my energy while simultaneously letting me leave the classroom full of inspiration and zest for action – in confusion though. Right after I am meeting with Fabien, who invited me to his office to co-imagine the future of basic income as an impact on the education sector. For two hours we walk through optimistic, pessimistic, probable and unexpected scenarios for the upcoming 30 years. Jazzed up with new ideas and dreams I hop on the metro to meet my friend Til, visiting over from Kopenhagen. We spend a weekend full of thoughts and idea bouncing about the economy, society and live in general. The next two days consist of getting together with our wonderful fellow study buddies from uni, ex-roommates from passed exchange semesters dancing at Paris’ finest drag queen shows and the next day drinking pink Champagne with two beautiful OECD-renewable-energy-power-women at a dinner soirée; can it get any better? Not so sure about that. 

21.5 - Spring break living lab

Last week was spring break for PCA...and taste-testing for SMarti thesis on edible packaging at Carrefour Numerique² at Cite de Science et de l’Industrie.

My small exhibit space at their event "Au Fil du Plastique" let me share my project with around 200 people. I did roughly 80 presentations and 42 separate workshop tests which accelerated my edible packaging concept into a stronger and more appealing design.

Just a quick background - Carrefour Numerique² is in Cité des sciences et de l’industrie and they host many different events and exhibits throughout the year. They have an open Fab Lab space with 3d printers, laser cutters and  they host maker talks and science exhibits. Luck was on my side this year because they were hosting an event relating to plastic. I got in touch last semester thanks to PCA Associate Dean Klaus Fruchtnis who suggested reaching out. I emailed them a blurb about my anti-plastic packaging thesis project. A couple email exchanges later, a formal presentation (see Week 14) got me a small part in their planned event called "Au Fil du Plastique." The project revolved around plastic - my thesis on plastic packaging and eco-alternatives packaging design fit in nicely. Win for them because it's an interactive experience for museum-goers to taste-test prototypes. Win for me because I needed lots of opinions to guide me in developing a better prototype.

The whole event was a three tiered process. A) I made a stand out of boxes, tubes, cardboard, and alligator clips, entertaining for children (belly-button down) and information dense for adults (head space up). B) Opening event presentation (all in french - woot!) to share my work with other like-minded makers. Then C) in the days that followed I did mini-presentations with all kinds of families visiting and did taste-testing workshops with volunteers. Results? Overall, over 72% of respondents enjoyed the edible sample, 60% understood the edible packaging concept, although over 68% had traditional hesitations about it (e.g. hygiene, sanitation, purpose.) Only 10% of respondents could point to edible packaging concepts existing in France (ice cream cones.) While everyone had different taste, a smooth flax-meal blend with carrot food scrap use ranking highest. The best part was hearing from the younger participants who wild and fun encouragement to give me about making packaging out of chocolate, rice, savory flavors, and even designing dishes with walking legs, etc. 

My advice to future student/artists wanting to do a residency at Living Lab:1) have a project that needs public testing, 2) make your visuals big and durable and have physical things to lure them in (I used spoons molded from sugarcane and potato to pass around and then physically walked people into my exhibit space), 3) set your schedule early for workshop days, 4) brush up your french (intermediate level at the least) 5) prep a volunteer release form for permission for photos/videos/workshop participation. Thank you to all who came and volunteered to taste-test my crazy idea. And a big shout out to Carrefour Numerique² for giving me a chance!

22 - midterm week, 3d printing, and first draft thesis submissions

This week fast-forwards. It’s post Spring Break, it’s midterm week and it’s go time for thesis drafts!

Monday started it all off with our thesis writing class where everyone debriefed their difficulties. Lilian covered the requirements for the writing and the bibliography. We each had particular misgivings and questions but the overall attitude was just to get it done.

Tuesday Rica and I went to 3d printing class to see how the equipment in 303 worked and didn’t work…and then worked again. These 3d printers are quite fickle. It reminds me of when the internet was a thing and loading one page could take an entire day. After 3 hours Rica managed to print a mock-up of his final project. He was pretty chuffed! Later that night we had a makeup class on Ethic and Social Responsibility. Half of the lecture was wrapping up arguments about how capitalism takes the shine, drains the drive and can sometimes warp design. How does one work in legitimate projects without playing the fiddle to capitalism?  The other half of the lecture was an intro to Man vs. Nature with a William McDonough TedTalk about circular design. Oh cradle to cradle for the win! I wish we had started here since THIS is what tugs on my mind. Wednesday we had a visit with Sabine about our individual projects. [I do a skype call since Wednesdays are my workshop days and I’m normally testing prototypes at PCA.] By the end of the day messages on whatsapp slowed way down and keyboard tacking sped up. Tackity-tap-tap. We all worked to spiffy up our thesis drafts in time for the Thursday submission. Thursday the Sprout Workshop hosted the final lecture. Our group presented a future forecast of Ikea becoming IKEA-gro in the future scenario where we all live in solar punk communities and IKEA provides a nature consultant for in-house gardening and biomimicry products. Other teams present on Uber, IBM and even H&M. Who knew that we could all future forecast something beyond Black Mirror dystopias? [Hang tight for final presentations and posters at end-of-year show!] The future looks bright and green.

Thursday night the lecture series brought in a leader from the social business sector. Her name is Caroline Delboy and she is the Global Happy Team Leader for the social business accelerator MakeSense. Her lecture was mostly about her personal journey. She started in business background but new opportunities brought Disco Soup http://discosoupe.org, makers movement and finally into joining MakeSense community where she switched careers. She gave advice to all of the artists/photographers/social-impact-designers in the room to be true to your passions (what makes your heart break) and try to sync it with how you work best (when do you find yourself in the flow). Crossing my fingers we are all that lucky! After lecture there was an exhibit in the PCA gallery where our colleagues in Transdisciplinary New Media were presenting their work in a show called “Sound/Speech/Noise” with students from  ESAT (Escuela Superior de Arte y Tecnologia) in Valencia. So we got to walk through, talk with our friends, hear their ideas and see folded paper dresses, cubes for communication and gestural sound emotions.

Friday morning was another round of edits and visits with Lilian for the thesis drafts. It’s a safe space in a meeting with Lilian and she gives great advice for writer’s block. Afterwards the weekend finally drifted into view. I pounced on a real escape from non-stop studies, prototypes and work. It’s time to see an exhibit, take in a movie (Black Panther!), and take a walk outside - it’s almost springtime!

21 -  Ground Control, Paris history & Goodbye SUG

And there goes by the 7th week of our second semester. February is almost coming to an end and hopefully so will winter. I need sun and light back to my life. 

Monday we started very early with our last Skype class for Social & Urban Governance. Vaila presented us the articles from Sanders & Stappers: "Probes, toolkits and prototypes: three approaches to making in codesigning." in which they discuss the process of codesigning within different approaches to design. Later that day we didn't have our class of Research & Methodology, so we used that time to finish our future scenario for our sprout workshop with Maurizio and Laureano: we are rethinking the role of IKEA as a brand and a company in a "solar punk" future where nature and civilisation intertwine. A bit on the topic, I had a debate in my French class about the benefits of living in the countryside against living the city and vice-versa, which gave a bit of reason to our future scenario bringing together the nature of the countryside with the connectivity of a city. 

Tuesday was a day to play with machines for me. For my Digital Fabrication class, we met at the fantastic L'Etablisienne in Nation, in which I could play with laser cut and test the sign for my bar in Berlin. Some adjustments are still to be done, especially in the material area as wood is not ideal. Wednesday I met Hanna and Amy at MakeSense for a 1to1 session with Sabine as she is helping us with our personal projects. 

Thursday we had our first session with Diane, in which she talked about writing a business plan, helping my fellow students that never had to write one yet - but crucial for any company/project development as it helps not only get some funding but also to organise and strategically see the business you are in. Our Professional lecture that night was with the very talented (and very charming) artist Athier Mousawi, he gave a much personal talk about his incredible work and things that he learned during the way, after sitting with us in an engaging back-and-forth conversation. 

Friday was out very last Social & Urban Governance class, in which I presented the text from Saskia Sassen: Impacts of Information Technologies on Urban Economies and Politics". In the article, she discusses how IT can reshape the cities relationships with its surroundings and other cities; at the same time, it completely changes the power relations of local and global actors. 

We continued our class on the next morning, presenting our final project for the course which was a poster relating two of the texts read in class with our thesis subject. After the presentations, we walked around and had lunch at the fantastic Ground Control (OMG I ate a banana caramel heaven there) - a rethought place that used to be an unused train station and transformed in a space for the people with food, concept stores, activities and other stuff. After we went to the Pavilion D’Arsenal museum, to check how social and urban governance dictated the paths the city Paris took in its development - incredible history moment. To wrap everything up, we ended up in a café to talk about the course and future ideas, some articles and our whole experience in the program. Sad to see such a thought-provoking course go by so fast. 

One more week went by, and now we have a week off for spring break - which for most of us is not at all a break, as we have our thesis draft due in one week and the whole thesis in one month!  Enjoy the Siberian-like cold this week, and we meet again in March!

"What we need are alternative horizons that trigger the imagination." Rutger Bregman - Utopies réalistes - 2017

20 - Pastel de Nata, Rue Crémieux and Future Dreaming

It’s week 5 of our second semester at PCA, which is strange to say as time really is flying by in a scary way. So even though the work load is heavy, I want to make the most of the next few months because it will be over in a split second, and I know I will be hit by a wave of sadness about this course finishing.

Monday begins with Social and Urban Governance class - where Hanna presents a section of Ezio Manzini’s ‘Design, When Everybody Designs’ and we look at innovations for sustainability within the realm of social governance. In the afternoon, our DSI group prepare our ‘future prism’ for the Sprout Workshop: a future world led by self-sufficient communities with a heavy investment into agriculture and our wonderful planet. Oh how we love inventing these dreamy, utopian scenarios!

On Tuesday I head to Hanna’s lovely little flat to ‘work’, bringing with me the best pastel de nata in the whole of Paris [from Nata Republic in Le Marais]. But it seems my brain is in full procrastination mode, and I spend the day forcing funny videos and satirical articles from The Daily Mash upon my work buddy - oopsie, sorry Hanni. In the end, I manage to come up with a concept for our Designer Ethics class - where we are currently writing up proposals for our individual projects. In the evening, we make our way to Gaîté Lyrique for Design Fiction club - because well, I’m with Hanna.

On Wednesday, Hanna facilitates a ‘Futuring Governance’ workshop at Le Social Bar [and on the way I find my favourite street in Paris full of beautiful coloured houses - Rue Crémieux] where we imagine new worlds and future systems of governance - there’s a bit of a theme developing here. On Thursday we continue on this wave of future dreaming by developing our ‘future prism’ further: modern agriculture and the synergy of city living and countryside farming. In the evening, we hear from artist and designer Martin De Bie as part of our Professional Practices workshop series: his work incorporates traditional craft with modern technology, including some super cool light up flutes!

On Friday morning, Hanna, Amy and I started the day with a yoga session in our classroom: an instant reminder that I need to make more time for yoga - it soothes my little soul. Afterwards, we had our minds boggled in our Design Ethics class [philosophy is mad deep] where we are presented examples of bad design by Rica and Amy - a racist chatbot and Facebook, respectively -  and discuss the effects of capitalism on the world of architecture. We continue the discussion on Saturday during class, expanding it from architecture to the world of design in general, before heading to the American Church in Paris to observe the football refugee integration program [which Amy is running alongside Kabubu and REF].

Now it’s Sunday night, and I am madly rushing to finish chapter 2 of my thesis, which is due tomorrow [after taking a 2 hour Hank’s burger/gelato break with Rica and Hanna - worth it!] So I better jump back to it. TTFN! - V

19 - “Take the attitude of a student, never be too big to ask questions, never know too much to learn something new.” Og Mandino

So I’ve become accustomed to posting in this blog in a way that is more “tell you everything we’re doing” than examining a specific area that we’re exploring as a group. I’ve changed that up a bit this week.

Let me explain. Our courses are challenging us quite a bit more this semester with the “who are you as designers for social impact?” and “what are your roles and responsibilities?” questions. It may come as no shock that rather than arriving at definitive answers, these questions lead to more questions for us on a personal and a group level: What do we value? What does design mean for us? Social impact? How do we see ourselves designing for a better world? What does this world look like? Who specifically are we designing for? What are we contributing? How do we make sure that what we’re contributing (and how we are contributing it) are responsible and ethical? How do we encourage others in our discipline to do the same? How do we measure impact? And how do we do all of this in the context of a world that is changing so rapidly with social, economic and governmental systems as we know them being fundamentally challenged and changed?

Snowy weather and brisk runs help with the posing of questions

These are only a few of the questions we’re considering, and each of us has a different focus. As we progress further in the semester, you’ll witness through this blog a lot of our daily work and efforts that help us to formulate our responses to some of these questions, and, to be sure, there will be a lot of other questions that come to fruition in the process.

In the meantime, I will share a bit about our endeavors through the week (were you worried I wouldn’t? Never fear, the play-by-play is still here).

I see the week starting on Sundays, so I’ll begin there. The day entailed working on the thesis first draft (yesterday was the first official week of my thesis sport integration project. We started with a trial week to try and recruit players to commit for all six weeks. We were gung-ho, until we realized that our assumptions about the pre-registration process were, well, not accurate. But this is what prototyping is for! We learned that people who register might not necessarily come, and that people who do not register WILL come. This is helpful for us as we iterate the program each week. It meant some serious struggles and questions for me in terms of evaluations, as I based my evaluations plan on a consistent group of people coming - but fortunately I have some awesome mentors who have helped steer me anew. I’m strong in my faith that this will be as God wills it, and it will work out for good). 

Here is a pic of week one of the program - this week we had to cancel because of an event at the church, an inability to play outside because of the snow, and a hard situation for one of our leaders preparing for his refugee status interview. Praying HARD that this inspiring human is rightfully granted the status to continue his noble work in France. 

The rest of the day contained church service, reading for school, and preparing a presentation for Social and Urban Governance demain.

Monday, a LOOOOOONG haul of early social and urban governance on community mobilisation, which raised tons of questions about the ethics of activism for me. How far is too far in challenging the powers that be and bringing power to the powerless? Saul Alinsky, in rules for radicals, makes an argument that ridicule is a most powerful weapon - but is it ethical? Super stimulating subject area - I’m loving our readings and linking them with the readings we have for Designer’s Social and Ethical Responsibilities.

We followed this with Research & Methodologies, which was a peer-editing workshop, for the most part. Lillian took the time to connect with each of us and give wise advice. I really appreciate her as a professor. She is encouraging, insightful and dedicated. Not to mention wonderful at keeping those of us who may be a bit neurotic (ahem, moi) grounded.

Tuesday is group KILLING IT day as we forecasted the future for the Sprout Methodology that we are lucky enough to work through with Maurizio & Laureano. I would share more details about the process, because it’s a practice that I find really useful for any professional domain, but because our professorial duo is waiting to publish, I’ll refrain (I’m encouraging those interested in developing for the future to keep an eye out for the methodology when it’s published). We finished the day discussing our social and ethical responsibilities assignment and I spent an absurd amount of time deciding on an example of “bad” design from an ethical and social responsibility lens and examining different ethical theories. I was really convicted by some of the current trends we’ve been discussing in design studio with AI, as well as an ethics reading about the mental manipulation that mega corps like Google and Facebook design their technologies for. I went to bed with more questions about a solid “bad design” than I did answers.

Wednesday AM is a MakeSense morning, where we meet with Sabine (and Layla, my thesis mentor) and discuss our projects individually. This was crazy-helpful for me in re-evaluating WHAT I’m evaluating with my thesis project. Was it easy to go through? No, but so important for me to reassess with the advisement of these women who are well-versed in the social business sector.

I spent quite a bit of time devoted to my hefty pile of french assignments (yes, a lot, but so good for me! And the professor, Emma, is INCROYABLE - I feel myself learning a lot, even if it’s hard to keep up with! The wonderful thing is that Emma is one of the most attentive teachers I’ve encountered in terms of a) practicality and b) adaptation to the level of each of her students. She also GENUINELY cares and wants each of us to excel. She doesn’t play favorites or make anyone feel incompetent - it’s a joy to delve into this beautiful language with this strong woman guiding us!

Then I spent the evening trying to figure out our ethics assignment. It was incredibly challenging; I was reminded from my undergrad days in philosophy just how mentally demanding the field is - especially when it comes to ethical arguments on something like Facebook (which was the “bad” design I chose to focus on).

Thursday and Friday, as I’m sure you know by now, are long ones for us. We “sprouted” with Maurizio and Laureano in Design Studio, learned about the professional practice of art buying and consulting from Matilde Biondi Morra di Belforte. 

Then Friday AM rolled in (me for French) with cozy socks for a fully-loaded friday, and settled in for a SUPER discussion about Tactical Urbanism (Holla at our girl Smarti for a bomb presentation) and even toyed with questions of ethics when it comes to designing with vs. for communities. Which was a nice segue into ethics presentations, where each of us chose a “bad” design to present on.

Rica and I didn’t have time to present, but Smarti delved into the good and the bad about the “sweater of the future” made of recycled plastic fibers, Emilie Logan talked to us about the ethics of the swank LA-based fashion brand Revolution, Vaila filled us in on the good intentions but bad consequences of a water pump playground in Africa, and Hanna brought us into a critical space regarding a project called salivation, meant to make a statement about food rationing and the future. It was reassuring to know that I was not the only one in the group that really struggled with the assignment in terms of trying to apply these ethical theories to our bad designs. 

“Can something really be designed well if it does not consider the ethical impacts that it may impoe on our planet and people?” This is the big question for us moving forward. 

More to come on this next week as Rica and I present. Until then, we’ll be reading and thinking critically about our design projects for this class (if you have ideas for us, please don’t hold them back!)

Us asking Thomas Watkin, our Social and Urban Governance prof, to pose for us for the blog. He was a good sport and laughed with us as we did the least-candid “candid” shot ever. 

Have any thoughts on the questions from part one of the post? Or any questions of your own? Please let us know! One thing I feel certain of: as designers for social impact, we cannot work alone - we can contribute better when we collaborate with each other.

Thanks for joining with us in exploring a better future. We believe that more smiles are in store.

18 - now we are serious because we have a tea kettle, citizen participation, ethics and other design lessons

This week Master of Design for Social Impact students explore power relations in urban planning, run prototype workshops, develop future speculation analysis, and start questioning ethics in design. Oh yea, and we finally got an electric tea kettle.

Thanks to Amy we finally have a kettle in our classroom. It was such a sweet communal gesture that it inspired a little sprucing up. Painted a corner shelf, got a lamp, folded some paper cubbies, cleaned with tea tree oil and voila! Come on in to our classroom in room 102 of the Paris College of Art. The space looks warm, friendly and downright hygge. Just in time too - no sooner said than bam! We're in Week 3 of the spring semester and thick into our studies.

We have this brilliant class Mondays and Fridays called Social and Urban Governance. In class we talking about power relations in urban actions and discuss Shelly Arnstein's A Ladder of Citizen Participation. I think back on a college internship on Capitol Hill with Congressman Serrano (NY-D, Bronx). I remember the work I did as a diplomat abroad. I think about governance theory and the fragmented ways in which government systems actually work. In all, I find myself thinking cynically (because I'm old enough to know better) but hoping fervently (because I'm also young enough to believe in change). I hope this class helps me dream about what design can impact in the urban/government sector.

Research and Methodology class in the afternoon turns into another writing workshops so we can develop our thesis outline. This week my research buddy Rica and I scribble all over our outlines. We are trying to make everything clean and easily understood. Our session dissolves into back-o-the-class laughter. Inevitable. I'm lucky to have Rica as my partner because he cracks up all the time. And for someone like me who takes things WAY too seriously it's one of the best reminders to chill out and enjoy the littles of life. 

I bustle home in the metro rush hour to skype John Shneider,  the cofounder of a company called 3DFuel. They make biodegradable filament for 3d printing from all kinds of bio-waste including beer, coffee, trash and hemp. https://www.3dfuel.com He's classic hipster in a Fargo warehouse. Kind, quick, eager. I'm nervous and I ask too many questions. He links me to a project where the brown coffee filament they make is actually helping to create prosthetic limbs in matching skin tones for kids. I check out the website. There's a lot of good in this world, eh? http://enablingthefuture.org/lend-a-hand/

Tuesday morning I wake up early with my partner's alarm clock. He's off to work. I'm off to the gym. I pump on the stationary bike, catch up on political comedy skits and see all the hype about the upcoming State of the Union speech back in the U.S.A. Political positions fascinate me as a beautiful and inevitable part of identity and culture. I cannot help wanting to know more - especially since I have so many colleagues and friends who continue to work the political/diplomatic ring.

Home again I set up a series of recipes that I'm testing for my edible packaging concept. I'm extrapolating lessons from raw food cuisine dehydrating to design sealable edible food packaging concepts. Some of my designs are downright wacky (check out this lattice weave of a banana peel plate). But that's part of the experimentation phase. I'm hoping to develop a catalogue of my different designs. But I'm certainly no chemist! Let's just see what happens. 

By Tuesday afternoon I am back in 3D Lab class practicing new tricks on Rhino. This semester we have three new classmates from the interior design degree and they are wizard-fast with the software. I feel silly with my rudimentary skills in comparison (last semester I barely worked out how to make a box print properly, see Week 14) but the goal is to just keep learning. Alessandro, who teaches the class (and just agreed to be my thesis advisor!) is hella patient. He reminds me that I can only get better.

Tuesday evening I create a photo shoot in my office/spare room and hang paper craft bits for a scene promoting my prototype creations. I spend a happy couple of hours cutting, glueing, arranging and testing the scene ready for the prototype. (It's still baking in the dehydrator.) I need to make a presentation that appeals to both adults and to children, so I decided that paper craft images could be an easy way to entice people into a whole new colorful and playful world. Plus, I can't help myself. It's so cute! Here’s how it turned out in post-edit. Ooh, and check out the facebook event for my upcoming artist residency at Living Lab: http://bit.ly/2DZhjxW

Wednesday morning I open up the dehydrator and pull out the newest prototypes that have been setting and dehydrating for 24 hours. They look good and I pack them into a box carefully and cross the city of Paris via metro to MakeSense headquarters. Once there Solene gives us an update presentation on the ways in which MakeSense is changing due in part from our class experience with their massive open online course (MOOC). They have fortified their programs for each volunteer level of participation. 

More interestingly they are trying to reconcile their blursing (blessing/curse) of being a vague international entity. "MakeSense is....tools? a playground? a social thing? a movement?" They've been able to survive on a whole range of descriptions precisely because MakeSense can be different things for different people. But now they are heading into a rebranding to simplify how they present themselves. Good luck, and go make sense of those things.

"Have you eaten yet?.....Would you like to have lunch with me?"    Its time for my mid-week, mid-day workshop testing my prototypes in the PCA gallery (aka student union space.) My workshops do triple duty: 1 - test how the packaging holds food  2 - test how the package gets handled by users 3 - compensate my workshop participants (students love free food) And since very few people know what I'm up to - it's a wonderfully confirming moment to watch their shock and surprise when they open the bag and pull out my packaging. Ta-da! It's confirming for me that there is a place for edible, compostable, biodegradable takeaway packaging in lieu of plastic.

Hanna reminds me later that food waste is also a problem that I exacerbate with my designs. And maybe my design is not circular at all since it doesn't become renewable material. She's absolutely right - I'll have to acknowledge that my packaging wastes food. I'll also have to figure out how to explain that it's not circular design, but it does have a circular mentality. I have to be smarter about my designs and keep trying to do better. Maybe there’s a way to use more food scraps in the design of my prototypes? Hmm...back to the drawing board. In the afternoon I head to the pool at Neuilly-Sur-Seine for a lengthy swim to clear my head. The water is heated and laps in the pool feel effortless. I find in France no matter the pool I go to and no matter the lanes I pick (and they have plaques reading from slow to fast), the entire pool is filled with leisure swimmers paddling around. Fascinating but frustrating. I try to leave a gap for the swimmer ahead of me, forget the workout and just enjoy the swim.

In our second SPROUT workshop session with Maurizio and Laureano Thursday afternoon we test our observant eye for signals. "Look at the next image for 10 seconds, no writing and then tell me what you see." And we learn to pay attention to visual information and to categorize and title each with a concept. We’re not trend-hunting here. We’re future forecasting. It goes beyond the "cool" and into future realities with a subjective point of view. One of the 20 slides shows a 3d printed ear floating in a glass cup of pink liquid. Another shows metallic medical tattoos printed on wrists. Yet another features cars that drive you according to your mental state and not your destination. Each slide makes me wonder what I know about the future. Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore.

In Professional Practices later that night we meet Mathieu Merlet Briand, an artist who frames his work around the digital and technological perception of reality. He shows us his portfolio with marbelized glass created by algorithms of digital material [iceberg] to integrated iron sculptures on the loom [Google Dark Matter]. His generic advice "You will find a solution" sounds vague yet true. Sometimes all those questions we have cannot be answered, you just have to trust yourself to overcome that difficulty when it arises. At home again I watch a documentary called Urbanized (2011) as homework while munching dinner. It showcases the plight of urban planners, politicians, residents, city-dwellers, etc. The documentary highlights 12 different cities and the social impact created or ignored based on planning. I think about all the places I've lived in city-wide project launches. Luanda's marginal construction, London's empty olympic city, Buenos Aires 9 de Julio bus. Design is integral to social impact in city planning. It feels more grounded to finally study practical applications that affect people’s day to day lives in an architectural way.  Friday afternoon we skype Thomas Watkin for Social and Urban governance class - this time about "What is public?" We compare our insights on the readings/documentaries and then talk about how to make a project public. How do you design a public space that allows people access? Allows them to be an audience? Allows an environment that fosters sharing? Its part of understanding the conditions laid out by Kevin Lynch in building Image of the City. We look at fun graphs showing walking spaces, architectural spaces, and public transportation studies. I leave just a little bit early for a private meeting in the gallery hallway of PCA's entrance. Her name is Emilie Prattico and she clips her words with a slight British accent but has a very down-to-earth conversational speech style. She's our professor for Designer's Social and Ethical Responsibilities. I pose a question to her about how to design without using necessarily Human Centered Design (HCD). To me, HCD doesn't seem to be proactively supporting environmental needs. She pivots my question and asks why not include environment when considering an optimal human experience? I'm intrigued but not convinced I understand. I see so much displacement of nature in pursuit of human interests that I struggle to make sense of what is ok and what is not. And how do we know that we are doing ok when only hindsight is 20/20? More questions, less answers....sigh.

We climb the stairs and enter the classroom. A quick shuffle of papers (we have about 5 minutes between one class and the next in the evenings.) We spend the first rounds of conversation talking about our program, what we're doing and what were are studying. Emilie works full time and she teaches on the side. She confirms that she is passionate - Friday night/Saturday all-day classes means that all of us will have to be committed too. Considering my question earlier, I feel grateful that we’re finally talking about the ethical issues. When class lets out early Rica invites everyone out to eat at a tiny Italian place around the corner from his place. Pizza? Yes. The music bips in the background, sourdough bread wafting, and we wait impatiently for our orders. We scarf down dinner while talking about Palermo, Italy (Hanna has a new job there potentially), New Zealand (Vaila is considering doing some back-packing), and Berlin, Germany (Rica is intending on going straight back to his company who he desperately misses.) I'll be in Paris for the foreseeable future. But you never know where a project might take you, eh? Saturday morning I head to the gym with my partner. I love lifting weights and he's a great gym partner. Doesn't yell, doesn't compete. Just does his bit and helps me when I ask for it. I love working out together. I shower at the gym and then head right back to PCA where we have a second lecture in Designer's Social and Ethical Responsibility. We go through a slide deck, watch a documentary, talk about theory, watch conference lectures on Youtube, talk some more, and of course, have some tea. Here's the quotes I pulled from our conversation in our ethic class: "theory can be a bummer" "your experience of your values is NOT the same thing as your values" "if you blindly accept then you give up your rights" "now you have tools to analyze very complex problems that arrive" "what you do with the lenses is to focus on different parts of the situation" "we generate reason from rational discourse with each other. Doesn't come from on high, doesn't come from a book. Everyone generates it through dialogue that is honest, equal, respectful..."

Afterwards, I walk into drizzles of rain towards the canals of St. Martin. I'm meeting my partner for noodles at Tien Hiangs. This place is always hopping, but class ended early and we're able to make it before the rush comes through at 20h. A vegan bowl of pho, a gorgeous basket of dumplings and my darling partner to share it with! What more can a girl ask for? 

Sunday is studying, reading, writing, etc. I jump through 17 new articles related to composting, recycling, packaging, plastic, etc. I'm drowning in sources but I still cannot get enough to capture all the information I'll need. I'm sending in today my first draft of the thesis. I know it will go through many revisions, but I want it to be as close to finished as possible. This whole month of February is going to squeeze us like a sausage factory. Both Social and Urban Governance and Designer's Social and Ethical Responsibility are front-loaded so that we finish the course requirements March-ish. This would give us time to create our thesis and individual projects afterwards, except that due dates are also front-loaded so that our thesis are due in early April. So right now it feels rushed and hectic, but it will slow down as the weather gets better and as the semester winds down.    Just gotta keep on track...which reminds me I feel like going for a run. It would be a nice way to rinse out my mind this Sunday afternoon.  A long run always feels good. So I head to the neighborhood athletic track with my partner. We bounce on the rubber path and fall into rhythm of step. Just gotta keep on track and moving forward. 

SMarti out.

17 – Paragraphparty, Gaité Lyrique and creativity knows no borders

The semester is kicking in and after a rather gentle start we realize: yap, back to school! This week is full of exciting people, new inputs and treatyo’self.

This week starts off with a lunch with Hugo, who is visiting us from Portugal. Hugo, a designer and teacher originally from Brazil is currently doing his PhD in Lisboa and a case study on the Design for Social Impact program at PCA — so basically on us. Followed by out MA thesis class we learn about plagiarism with Lilian (urgently needed apparently according to Vaila’s and mine failure in labelling plagiarism from originals successfully…)

Tuesday is an amazing free day and fits very well with my new weakness for co-working cafés. Labelling them back in Berlin as the spawn of gentrification, I have to take it back a node and admit that I quite like the mokka, free muesli and little cactus in the window. So after starting my productive working day there I continued in the Gaité Lyrique, a wonderful place for studying with an excellent library containing an own section for Speculative Design. It is dangerous though to get lost in these bookshelfs… But how on earth ever get started with this thesis. This scary white paper, that just does not want to be filled in. When you find yourself in research anxiety, it is time for Vaila’s Paragraphparty! Just write random paragraph per day, assemble it on the page and patchwork a fist chapter togehter. The day ends with some spicy chinese noodles at Trois Fois Plus de Piment with my friend Ailin and a little night ballad with Laura along the flooded Seine.

My broken computer takes up so much precious time spending in support hotlines, that the Wednesday seemed to just pass by. The afternoon got occupied with thesis research and writing. When learning a new language, passing a soirée can become an excellent French training. So actually felt very productive with my ginger cocktail talking french all night, oui oui.

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”With this Einstein quote our first class of Intellectual Property Rights begins. Vaila and me were brave enough to choose this elective, acknowledging its importance and that we would probably never engage with it otherwise… Our Thursday lunch break is enriched by Catherine joining us. She and Chloe invited the DSI crew to curate an exhibition for the foundation students exploring the topic of water. In the afternoon we had the chance to join a workshop in the PCA gallery, hosted by Chris Roberts from the foundation department in Central St. Martins in London. The project #creativeunions crosses borders between disciplines, places and people to show that creativity knows no boundaries. With four simple steps the project provides a powerful — and beautiful — toolkit: 1) think of a thing 2) write it on a poster 3) do the thing 4) share it with the word #creativeunions. Thursdays are going to be long, but exciting ending each week with Professional Practices series, where artists and practitioners show their work and we can ask all our burning questions. This time we have the pleasure to talk to Cyrille Weiner, a photographer with a very unique style, approach and background. His work resonated a lot with me and I’m happy to expand my design bubble a bit further in other creative disciplines. Not that this day wasn’t exciting enough I am heading  straight to the European Lab Winter Forum.

Friday morning Amy is guiding us through a morning Yoga session. Inhale. Exhale. Ah, this is how to start a Friday! In the afternoon we have our first session of Social and Urban Governance with Thomas Watkins from Nîmes. With his experiences in the field and his multicultural perspective between the U.S., Mexico snd France this class seems to hold exciting topics for us to explore! Soaked up with new inspiring information Vaila, Smarti, Rica and me need to compensate our stomaches for this brain load at the H.O.P.E — home of the plant eaters. Mjamjam!

Saturday I spend again in the support hotline… Well, well, these things happen when writing a master thesis. Meeting my thesis advisor Benoît is simultaneously inspiring and sorting by thoughts. Slowly but steady i’m getting a feeling of being on track with my thesis. Woop!

16 - The First week of Spring

2018 has started, so did our classes halfway through the month. New semester, new people, new adventures. As our new blank canvas in our new organised room, this year promises to be a year full of great work and discoveries.

We started the spring semester on Monday with our new MA Thesis class, a class that will help us to write our Thesis in the eight weeks we have to do it. We are together with the master students from photography and interior design and the teacher Lilian, a researcher and writer herself. 

Tuesday Hanna, Sara and I attend the first class of Digital Production Design - which will be another FabLab course, giving continuity to our last semester. Our teacher will Alessandro again, a master in 3D modelling and architect. After the class, Vaila, Hanna, Mirna and Alistair went to have a beer at La Colonie - delightful to be around these ladies again :)

Wednesday was a free day for me (at least from school), which I dedicated to my work in Berlin and organising my life for the new semester here in Paris. Besides that, I had my first meeting with my thesis mentor/adviser, Janine Gölz; she works at Makesense in The Future of Waste and has done her thesis about using technologies in communities in Brazil - which will be of big help for me - it looks like a very fruitful relationship partnership. 

Thursday was a long day for us. We start with our first session for the Sprout Model Workshop, ministered by Maurizio and Laureano. Both of them created this methodology putting together their backgrounds in branding, critical design and human centred design, to come up with a practice that goes beyond the user and makes us think about trends and future vision to propose more assertive innovations. After that, we had our first session on Professional Practices Workshop, with the artist photographer Christophe Beauregard - he presented us his work and his best practices in conceptualising, producing and showing his photographies.  

Friday was a day of celebrating our friendships and new beginnings. While Vaila, Hanna, Amy and Sara were having a dancing night extravaganza, I was at home at my flatmate's farewell party. I need still to catch up in the dancing with the ladies...

It was a very good start of the semester, showing us that is a lot of interesting things to come our way! But not forgetting that with such a short time for finishing the thesis, we have to become the masters of our time, or it will just fall between our fingers. Looking forward to all developments and new ideas sprouting everywhere!

15 – Finals, what art can do and the festivities begin…

It’s the end of our final week of this semester, and I’m trying to recount the events, but it’s such a blur that it’s proving quite difficult. A week of presentations and hand-ins later and I’m ready for hibernation, but before I retreat to my bed for the foreseeable future, I’ll round things off with the pre-holiday blog.

Monday began with thesis proposal presentations. As our thesis’ are the basis of our personal projects, and one of the only projects where we don’t work as a team, it was quite a daunting task to put our ideas out into the open to be assessed. We presented to our lovely MTNM PCA neighbours, as well as the panel of judges, and waited for the results. I have to say, I felt very proud of our little family that morning - I think you could feel the passion we each had for our individual projects:

SMarti: challenging the world of plastic with innovative food packagings

Rica: using technology to provide a platform for marginalised communities [focusing on Favelas in Brazil]

Hanna: using speculative design and social fiction to democratise imagination [centred around the theme of universal basic income, of course]

Amy: tackling the refugee crisis through sports integration [as a social business model]

Me: challenging the phenomenon of fast fashion by enhancing human connections to clothing

On Monday evening, as part of our French assessment, I presented a painting by one of my favourite artists, Joan Eardley, to my classmates. I hope SO hard that my French is improving, I’d really love to finish this year with good ability, but ugh, my accent. [this, to all French people, I sincerely apologise for]

On Tuesday morning we concluded our Leadership Skills course. As a group, we presented our learnings and feedback on the MakeSense community programs - MOOC - to Sabine, Linda and Solene [as well as Rachel and Elsa via Skype]. The response to this was up lifting, everyone seemed to appreciate the feedback, and - of course - our role play of suggestions [thank you Hanna]. Afterwards, we headed to PCA to meet Alistair and Khadija and finish off plans for the What Art Can Do event, which was being held in 2 days time. In the evening, Hanna and I decided to treat ourselves to a guilt free pint [how did we manage that?] - I dragged Hanna to a bar I knew served BrewDog, Scottish beer that I love, so I could have a little taste of home. Ok yes, they sell BrewDog in Monoprix, but it tastes better in a pint glass, inside a cosy pub amidst conversation of the history of Paris and Berlin and various feminist chit chat.

By Wednesday the 24 hour countdown for the event was on, so it was a day of tying up loose ends. I worked from home to finish up on work for our Social Entrepreneurship class, and collected some supplies for WACD. I also did some cooking, and watched Cosmos for some relaxation time [the voice of Neil Degrasse Tyson will forever soothe my soul].

Thursday was the day of the big event! I made my way to kisskissbankbank [the venue] in the AM, and didn’t leave all day. However, this is not a complaint, I was really excited and happy to be there for the ‘odd jobs’. The day was a combination of venue and exhibition set up, artists and speakers prep, odd jobs - oh and printing, printing and more printing [thanks Alistair]. With a few minor incidents along the way we were ready to begin on time, and at 6PM the guests began to arrive. The venue quickly began to fill up - a wonderful feeling - and there seemed to be a buzz in the air. Of course, it was our first event so things weren’t perfect [they never are, especially when tech is involved], but - all in all - WACD seemed to go down well. The artist exhibition and embroidery workshop sparked much interest, the speakers were inspiring, and the manifesto a triumph. This was just the first instalment of our WACD events, so don’t worry if you missed it, just watch this space - and our Facebook page - for the next one!

Friday was a day where sheer exhaustion took hold. We visited Living Lab in the afternoon, a really exciting space [where Smarti will be showing her work next year, as spoken about in the previous blog]  centred around co-creation, exploration and experimentation. Unfortunately, at this point, zombie mode had taken over a few of us, but I’m sure by our next visit we’ll be back to our usual enthusiastic selves.

We then made our way to MakeSense for the 4th - and final - presentation of the week: a showcase of our journeys with the social entrepreneurs we have worked with over the semester:

SMarti: Champerché [developing eco-friendly and healthy agriculture methods through bioponics]

Rica and Hanna: Mytroc [a trading community platform challenging the current economic system]

Amy: Réseau des Exilés en France and Kabubu [both working in refugee integration]

Me: Clothparency [making the production of clothing more transparent to encourage responsible buying]

On Saturday, Kabubu, REF and Amy had organised a football tournament for refugees and the public - a great way to break down language barriers and encourage integration. It was an amazing event, and it won’t be the last. So if you like to kick a ball around, or just spectate and cheerlead, then please join us at the next one! 

On Saturday evening, Hanna, Rica and I went to a dance performance at Centre Pompidou: ‘Bacchantes - prélude pour one purge’. It was by far one of the most unusual things I have ever seen, but completely fascinating, and I loved it. Think David Lynch meets Berghain - I cannot stop thinking about it.

Which brings me back to today, where my hibernation period commences. Thank you for following us on our journey, and Happy Holidays folks, we will be back in 2018! But for now, space croissant out…

14 - The Magic Is Happening

The MDES cru starts prepping for our big event <<What Art Can Do...>> amidst a slew of final exams and presentations. Lots of personal victories, we brave the bright lights at a pop culture show and I strive to teach the beauty of a cinemagraph. Because well, MDES is classy like that and ‘tis the season.

Most of the team knows me for my bad-dad jokes. They make moments zip and they soften even the hardest of hearts. I'm not surprised if people secretly love to hate them. But I also know that they won't stop you from sharing them! So welcome to Monday, and How many tickles does it take to get an octopus to laugh? Ten tickles.

No tickles for us - our class for Research & Methodology converts this Monday into one-on-one sessions to review our thesis proposals. This week the projects feel more refined and practicing literature reviews has given each of us an appreciation for the science of research writing. [groan] For those of you keeping score - Amy: Refugees and Sports, Vaila: Identity, Clothing and Slow Fashion, Hanna: Universal Basic Income and Speculative Design, Rica: Blockchain System to Resource Favelas, and me, Smarti: Plastic, Un-plastic and Packaging Design.

The race is on for presentation phase next week. The presentation is a chance to showcase our proposals in front a panel who will judge our work and help us decide on our thesis advisors. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that there is an advisor in the lists available for my work AND who is stimulating but calming. I'm a nervous type and I work hard so I just need someone who can bounce ideas and release the pressure off my work pace valve.

In French that night we go over subjunctive tense. I would/I wish/I doubt. How perfectly ironic that in the second to last week of school we are talking about the expressions of necessity, possibility and judgment. A squiggle smile plays on my face as I say phrases Je doute que..., Je veux que..., Il est possible que... The moody french take no prisoners! Je reve d'avoir un chance. Wait, did I win? Is that subjunctive?

Tuesday is another back to back meeting day. We start with our beloved leadership class as Sabine leads us through a standing meeting. (This is a regular meeting but you get to stand. I really like doing these. It reminds me of a chiropractic exercise I did once at a yoga camp. It made me aware of all kinds of small things I do unconsciously with my body. Like I often collapse my chest downward and lift my chin when I sit. But when I stand, have to round my shoulders back and drop my chin. It corrects so much pressure in the lower back.) Today I say that I feel like that IKEA alarm clock that flips and changes colors. Lots of work ahead so lots of flipping to do.

Sabine even leads us through a presentation on how to do a proper pitch, and we get to learn about a project she did with design thinking in a development project with World Food Programme. The project was about break through the hierarchies and limitations in int'l development to  to get innovative ideas from the field. A lot of times we put pressure on international politics to solve things when they are incapacitated because of limitations of bureaucracies and hierarchies and quite frankly, funding. Grassroots work or even high-level int'l political work with a grassroots access and mindset can be part of a solution.

In the afternoon we reconvene the Design Thinking group to cover details on how to take the next steps for the event What Art Can Do [14 December, 6-9 p.m. We have such an amazing group of artists scheduled to speak at the event. It's been a dream (and a headache - gotta confess) putting all the details together right while finals are looming. Is all event management a bucket of planning and then one day of problem-solving on the fly? We shall find out.  Eventbrite tickets here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/what-art-can-do-tickets-40799667905. 

In the evening I work to finalize the prototype Social Entrepreneur that I created to help them overcome a community-building challenge. It's all about getting people to galvanize around their cause, and for Champerché it's about getting them to explain just why bioponic gardening can be so great! Check out their crowdfunding site: <<https://bluebees.fr/fr/project/391>>

We're back at Draft Atelier on Wednesday where a couple of us are finishing our last printed pieces. We share the lab hour with the Transdisciplinary New Media cohort who will be judged for their finished work in a critique in another class. Our Design for Social Impact cohort will have to present our work separately. Ultimately the main goal is to learn how to 3d print, laser cut and how to use the CNC mill in relation to your work. So, since my project is about compostable, biodegradable and edible packaging I only found purpose for the 3d printer and the laser cutter. In the laser-cutter I worked to make a tessellated folding creation that will help me design an edible paper folded packaging. 

In 3d printing here's my small test take-away container box printed with biodegradable filament made of beer! (It gets covered by tree-resin coated paper cover and sits inside a cloth-sling packaging). This little thing took 1 hour to print last week so I'll have to purchase extra hours in the print lab in order to do a full test. I didn't realize that 3d printing can be so very slow.

In the afternoon I go to a meeting at Living Lab at La Villette in the top right hand corner of Paris. I've been in talks with the staff there about hosting my un-plastic creations in their upcoming exhibit on plastic. Fortunately, they like my prototypes (especially the beer filament 3d creation) and they offer me a residence in February, as well as a chance to present at the event and a space to do testing with my prototypes. YES! So I am dreaming up ideas on how to showcase possible finished work and how to prepare a presentation in french. Also, what exactly does a test-group interaction look like? Maybe I'll serve people food from my packaging and then ask them questions afterwards? I'll have to search around for answers...

This evening calls for a show with my French class at Le Quotidien. Our fearless professor Julie got us tickets to a night entertainment show. Think Daily Show. It's got all the lights and fake set furniture. The host seems nice, the topic is about Johnny Hallyday, the Elvis of France who died today. Apparently he was well known in France, but a most obscure person worldwide. We were told in advance to wear anything but black as the lighting crew prefers to have colorful audience. So here we are - colorful and happy and trying to follow along! I’m wearing green in the very back row, can you spot me?

Thursday is prepping at home for all the different deadlines coming up. Marina Hor-Meyll Lemos mocked up a funny ‘zine on finals - it cheered me up while prepping my bits. So here’s the line-up: Final presentations on thesis and French on the 11th. Final presentation in Leadership on the 12th. Final event for Design Thinking on 14th. Final presentation for Social Entrepreneurship and a manual turned in for Design Thinking on the 15th. So I use the day to move forward on each of these presentations. One by one. Afterwards I head to the gym for a long cardio session. I need to clear my head and zone out for a bit with some therapeutic gymming. I slip into a Netflix Outlander episode and enjoy every minute.

​Friday midday we meet back at our PCA classroom. We're practicing delivery on Leadership presentation. We each did different tracks in the leadership training modules provided by MakeSense. So each of us has different perspectives to share in the presentation. I think MakeSense will be pleased with how we brainstorm solutions for the future of this MOOC. 

Tonight I have a soiree with my husband's company so I get a dry-hair cut in preparation for it. Haven’t tried a dry hair cut before? They are absolutely divine.  I hear it’s a growing trend and I can see why. Who wants to stare at themselves looking like a wet dog while getting snipped? Not me. Bring on the dry cuts. I’ll never go back. We head out to the annual holiday gathering - this time booked at a small cafe in La Marais. There is music-a-playing, spouses a-glittering, ​and even a couple of vegan plates-on-offering! In the back I find a wall-to-wall bookshelf filled with antique books. My book-binding eye begins to twitch. I cannot help myself - and I slide some books out. I even find a random vintage copy of Walt Disney sci-fi books featuring none other than Les Castors Juniors Astronautes aka Huey, Dewey, and Louie Duck, nephews to Donald Duck go to the moon.

The night is complete with a walk down Parisian streets back to the metro. It's nice to hold hands and walk through the chill. There’s lots of sparkly lights glowing up the city. We're dolled up and it's likely the last time I'll feel so fresh because the weekend will be spent glued to my computer screen, typing away, designing the last bits and finishing all the work left on my to-do sheet. Finals are looming!

Saturday and Sunday is more of the same prepping for finals. Except I found a gorgeous cinemagraph that made all the work worthwhile. The magic is happening...

13 – And it was called “Blellow”

Monday

What’s our workload like on this lovely 13th week of the semester? Calm before the storm? 

Ha! More like eye of the storm! Thesis proposal drafts were sent in today! Fortunately, we have a hope that anchors us and gets us through it: we have each other. 

As most days do, our Monday started off with a continuation of group texts from Sunday, supporting each other through our phones. 

Hanna and I met and worked at her apartment on our own projects. Sharing coffee, tea, fair-trade chocolate and baguette as the rain poured down, we took comfort in sharing with each other as we moved through our work.

While theses loom and take a lot of our time and energy, we couldn’t forget about our big Design Thinking project. This What Art Can Do event that we’re holding on December 14th has been a roller-coaster of a group endeavor, and a great learning experience to boot. Facebook and Eventbrite events were created today, an open call was sent out to students, and we continue communicating with artists and performers to make this a truly stellar evening.

Monday night after French was my first time visiting the Sport Social Business Lab at INCO, where the social entrepreneurs I’m working with for my SocEnt project are being incubated for the development of their social business. The evening was spent checking-in on individual progress and going over the social business model canvas for Kabubu and REF’s partnership, which we would present at their “hold-up” on Wednesday evening (more on that later). Just a little note, I love these opportunities that this program is providing for us to venture into other worlds, like this one at the Sport Social Business Lab. It’s an awesome space and I completely vibed with it (I’m sure that statement sounds weird, but that’s the best way that I can think to describe it). I can feel that the work going on there is good, if that makes any sense, and a feeling of excitement reigns when I’m there. Pretty special feeling.

Tonight was a bit bitter-sweet personally. My dear old friend from undergrad has been staying with me for the past week as he visits Paris, and tonight was his last evening. While I felt particularly aware of my inadequacy as a host (I spent the whole time he was here working on school stuff), it was such a blessing to have someone here who knows me well, who heard the word “thesis” more than any human should have to when on vacation, who dealt with me neurotically typing away at night, and who was willing to intersperse his time visiting tourist attractions with sitting in cafes and pubs with me while I worked on schoolwork and he read or worked on his creative writing. After my meeting with Kabubu, I rode through the rain and met him at a pub, where he read and I worked on prepping for tomorrow’s leadership development class. Definitely going to miss having a brother (and cafe-work buddy) around all the time!

Tuesday

Our Leadership Development class at MakeSense had an interesting start today. The SenseSpace was abuzz with the visit of former French president Francois Hollande. Once we’d gotten a few glances in (as he made hand-shakes and pleasantries with SenseSpacers), we moved into one of the quiet workrooms. After going over the previous week’s community program content, we hopped on a Skype call with Mana, a friend of Sabine’s and a PhD student in Design Thinking from the HP Institute in Potsdam (in partnership with Stanford University). 

Speaking of ‘thinking’, this conversation encouraged us to do so critically. Mana’s work explores how the experts and program designers of DT adapting to their specific contexts. Our conversation delved into so many elements of DT: exclusivity; flaws in teaching (we do it so fast-paced, making us miss opportunities to learn more about the context of problems we’re trying to solve);  the ‘language of DT’ and the ‘designerly’ way of thinking and working; the way culture implicates ability to be “disruptive”; and the possibilities that DT offers.

After our session, Hanna and I stayed at the SenseSpace and made lunch for a meeting with one of the artists who will be speaking at our What Art Can Do event. Lina JK-Rose, a painter from Syria, had so much to share with us about art as an agent for change. If you are looking to be inspired by what art can do, make sure you plug the event into your calendar for the 14th of December from 6-9pm!

Speaking of this event (again), it continues playing a MAJOR role in our week and featuring big time in our What’s App and Slack conversations. 

During the week, our amazing design manager, Alistair, finished the invitations created for PCA students and faculty, with the help of Hanna, Smarti, Vaila and Khadija personalizing the invites. 

Our DT class this afternoon was spent hanging the invitations (it was amazing to see and hear students immediately respond to the invitations we posted in the gallery - first reactions were positive!), checking in about the event, and moving forward with outreach. Smarti, Rica and I joined forces for staying on top of the speakers.  As the week has progressed, so too has our speaker list and our outreach to students who might be interested in submitting a piece to the exhibition we’re curating for the event. 

Wednesday

I began my day with breakfast distribution for refugees at Port de La Chapelle and then proceeded with meeting the crew at Draft Lab. We all made progress with our individual 3D printing, laser cutting, and CNC milling projects. Smarti, super committed to seeing a plastic-free world (and inspiring the rest of us along the way), ordered biodegradable 3D printing filament to forgo printing in plastic. Pretty awesome, yeah? She is working on a box to coincide with her thesis project.

We also wanted to say thank you to our dear Smarti, because she and her partner Carlos hosted us for a beautiful vegan Thanksgiving last week. Smarti brings smoothies from home everyday, and we lovingly call them her “blellows” (because they’re kind of a mix of blue and yellow). We made a little ‘thank you’ card and placed it where? Of course, right beside her blellow.

I made some progress with the design of a whistle in Rhino. It was a crazy-frustrating experience, yet again, with trying to figure out what seems to be so simple in this software! But all of the complications were pushed through with the help of others in the class (thank you, Leore!). Sitting around the table and commiserating about the difficulties of these softwares and machines with others was oddly comforting, and encouraged me to keep going!

After this, we made our way back to PCA and were delighted to find this little thank you note on the What Art Can Do invitation wall:

It affirmed for us that we are already making a positive impact with this event. It’s convicting to see that an act of acknowledgment for another human can inspire people to share the love and communicate thanks in return.

After French, it was time for me to dart to MakeSense to facilitate a hold-up for the social entrepreneurs I’m working with (their partnership for a sports integration project coincides with my thesis, so I was both excited and super-curious about how the event would proceed tonight)! Fortunately, all of the attendees were such positive contributors and lent ideas that encouraged us to move forward with a business plan, while allowing us to consider some new concepts that could prove really valuable to incorporate as we move forward. I was especially grateful for Smarti and Vaila, who came to participate in the hold-up, lent their creative minds, and helped with set-up and clean-up (Shout Out to you both!)

Thursday

While we didn’t have a scheduled class, we sure had our work cut-out for us today. Both exciting and over-whelming, a lot of the afternoon was spent with all of us deep in WhatsApp, moving forward with details for our event, coordinating the emailing back-and-forth with artists, continuing our open-call outreach, taking stock of the onslaught of Eventbrite notifications (tons of people are coming to our event, according to Eventbrite!) and working a bit on our leadership development project. I also commenced with the follow-up documentation for my Hold-Up, worked a bit on a project for my team at Kids in the Game in New York, and communicated with my SocEnt team to set an agenda for our meeting tomorrow.

Friday

Today was, in many ways, a repeat of yesterday, with heavy work on our DT event, thesis work, hold-up review for me, as well as research, blog writing and event brainstorming for the company I work with back in New York. I spent the afternoon and evening working at MakeSense, where I had a check-in with Sabine and with Yasin, after which I prepared for a meeting I would have tonight with some of the Kabubu team (SocEnts I’m working with). A bit silly, but while I work at the front desk of PCA on Friday nights, they came and met with me there from 7-8:30, where we spent time reviewing the hold-up and working on finding a space to implement the prototype we’re moving forward with to gain insights for a tentative social business model.

Our whole crew stayed connected as always through our WhatsApp group. We got some confirmations for our event, which was super exciting for us. It’s encouraging to know that we’ll have a full line-up of incredible speakers. We also received more confirmations from students about their intention to submit projects for the exhibition. I’m really prayerful that we’ll have a nice array of projects for this exhibition on the 14th.

Saturday

Hanna set out for MakeSense to check out the SenseFiction event, Smarti and Vaila met with their SocEnts, and I went south to Antony to have an afternoon of family work time at my pastor’s home. A new weekly tradition, I’ll make chai, Marita (my pastor’s wife) will cook a little something, and we will work quietly together on our own little projects in their living room (me on my thesis) while their two sons (7 and 10 years old) play. These times are so comforting to me and keep me grounded in the truth that I am loved, cared for and have a beautiful spiritual family in Paris who are doing life with me. It may sound strange that I go to hang out with them and spend the time working on homework, but something I’m learning is that true family doesn’t judge or exclude because you’re not bringing something exciting and fun to the table. Family accepts and welcomes doing life however we need to do it. In this season, it means just being together while we work (but,of course, interrupting the work for laughs; sharing random thoughts, ideas, praises; drinking chai, and marveling at the christmas tree (the sight and the lovely pine smells).

Coming home tonight, I also had a special surprise: a buddy of mine, and incredible artist, showed me a piece he’s working on for submission to the What Art Can Do event. I so badly want to share a picture of the work here but….you’ll just have to come to the event to see it!!

Sunday

Seriously special morning. Kabubu, Yasin and I have been working together to increase refugee inclusion in and through sports. We are still hard at work on a program that can generate income and employment opportunity through social business, and today we made a small and simple step towards this. We brought a crew of seven refugees to be a part of the Adidas running club in Paris. It was an awesome early-stage success to celebrate.

I went to church afterwards and was asked to be on the American Church in Paris’s radio show tomorrow evening, where I’ll share about this project. The show broadcasts to 30,000 people, so I’m prayerfully prepping for this! 

As the week closes, Smarti and I connect tonight on what we’ve got going forward, and I’m saying prayers of thank you for this team I’m blessed to do life with!