conversation maps, part 1

three years ago i had an idea in an elective i taught, called stories of the city, that i referred to as "conversation maps". the point was to use them as a way to record interactions with people in the community, organize the information, and be able to utilize it to gain new insights.

finally, i'm actually attempting to use it myself to map a couple of my initial interviews with k.c. bike activists. it's not all pretty just yet and it may not get any better. it was somewhat useful to go back through my notes and do this. i hope it will help me to sort through issues and ideas more easily as i move forward.

screen grab of (most of) the bottom half of the map.

two-wheeled trips

one idea i had recently for my sabbatical projects was to design a website with a social component that would allow people to input bike trips they've made and see how much gas, money, and emissions they've saved, as well as add up miles and calories burned. then you could share that info on FB and twitter. there could even be a challenge component to it, allowing friends, groups, or even cities to compete against each other. the point of it is to encourage people to use bikes for various trips (commuting, eating out, small errands, visiting friends) rather than cars.

sabbatical realizations

a little 2" x 2" card i designed, among other things, to promote 816's fundraising efforts. yeah, that's a big-ass image. photo by an unknown 816 fan or member.

currently on what i'm calling "day two" of my sabbatical. not knowing when the starting line was (last day of spring term? end of fiscal year? first day of fall term?), i decided it would be when lori and murphy started back to school – aug 15.

the 816

i walk past a large, old, 2-story, typical kansas city style house into the alley at 3116 forest avenue. further, past a huge pile of decaying junk, is evidence of grassroots bike culture – a kid's frame here, a few old tires there, and small groups of bikes in various states of disrepair. i come upon a busier scene than i expect, with a couple of boys fixing a flat and several other people doing basic bike repairs, guided by collective members.

free idea #2

a collectively-run vegan or vegetarian "fast casual" or fast-food restaurant

there is a growing national wave of restaurant and service workers rising up to protest low wages and a host of other workplace ills (no sick days, no healthcare or benefits, etc). why not offer an alternative model for how this industry could run, giving these workers a real option, rather than fighting huge corporations that will fight to the death to keep their wads of cash?

worker-owned organizations are based on collective decision-making and empower people in non-hierarchical relationships that honor their unique skillsets and team contributions.

vegan and vegetarian diets do the least harm to the environment and if things are locally sourced, all the better. "fast food" or "fast casual" (a bit upscale looking and more conducive to dinner than fast food) because it would be convenient for lunch and quick visits as well as being at a more accessible price point than sit-down restaurants. plus the fast food market definitely needs to be shaken up.

there could even be a pricing structure that honors walkers (lowest prices), bikers and transit users (mid-level prices) over car-based visitors (highest prices). sorry – no drive through.

native foods is pretty close to what i'm talking about, and it's pretty stinkin' good, but i'm thinking more local.

this idea is free to use, co-opt, or otherwise exploit. let me know if you want to discuss further or contact me if you use it.

free idea #1

weight- or volume-based trash collection

users pay a per-pound fee for landfill use and receive per-pound refunds for recyclable materials. deffenbaugh industries (local trash hauler) already has mechanical arms that pick up containers. these could be outfitted with a weight sensor of some sort that electronically updates your account each week, resulting in a dynamic balance for each pay period. per-pound fees could be calculated based on research of average amount of trash disposed of by an average household. this would ensure the company would not lose money, and in fact may even make money.

this idea is free to use, co-opt, or otherwise exploit. let me know if you want to discuss further or contact me if you use it.

measuring sticks

as a creative person dealing with inherently messy problems of socially-oriented communication, i'm a bit frustrated with the notion of "measuring success" or "effectiveness" of projects. related is the ultimately subjective notion of measuring student learning outcomes for my graphic design students. western society, if not our world in general, (but yes, probably just western society) seems to defer to science and math as the hard evidence or the last word on the existence of a thing.

i'm not opposed to this way of measuring things but would argue that there are things like belief and faith and feeling and motivation that are just as existant in this world. those things are worthy of consideration in terms of how they affect people and clearly much harder to measure. i acknowledge that i'm being reactive here, and largely ignorant, of other ways to measure these "soft effects" we'll call them. but even as i try to think of alternative measuring systems, things like the 1–10 pain scale at hospitals fall back to numeric quantification.

perhaps that's an okay place to start and will lead to new, valuable, accurate ways to measure the effectiveness of social change projects, but part of me is just concerned with the the disproportionate amount of power math and science have over belief, faith, feeling, and motivation, which are largely lumped into notions of pre-enlightenment superstition.

to my original intent in recording these thoughts – jotting down a preliminary list of possible ways to measure outcomes/impacts of social design work. what are ways to measure success, even if they do circle back to quantification? it's a start i suppose, but i'm definitely open to other methods. are there methods from the social sciences that are useful here of which i'm unaware?

okay, here we go:

number of artifacts distributed (flyers, booklets, etc)
website hits / pageviews / other web metrics
social media shares / retweets / etc
press coverage (number of articles written, photos published, etc)
number of conversations engaged in
event attendance
number of people involved in the process
soliciting audience feedback via surveys
number of people engaged in "the next step"

okay, i'm outta gas for now. whadaya got, people? any other ideas for measuring success?

steve lambert is hot

"capitalism works for me! true/false" by steve lambert, 2011. 9 ft x 20 ft x 7 ft, aluminum and electrical

recently discovered this guy, steve lambert, who flows effortlessly in that gray area between art, design, and politics and he makes me jealous. very smart and beautiful work.

bike-in movie sneak peek

a quick peek at posters in the works for the annual bike-in movie happening in rosedale this spring. my student collaborator, michael jumper, and i hand built the sign as a parody of the boulevard drive-in sign. another collaborator and kcai alumnus, ben hlavacek, did most of the photography. the idea was to produce a series of images showcasing the wide range of cycling culture in kansas city and hopefully attract those particular types of cyclists to the event.

crimethinc posters

the crimethinc ex-workers collective consistently provides incisive political commentary with a solid design sense. this is one example of many they offer for free download. check out the others here.