The theme for the Biannual Symposium that will be held at NC State on January 23_23, 2010 is Design, Community and the Rhetoric of Authenticity. I have been working with Brooke Chornyak, Sidney Fritz and TJ Blanchflower on the design. We are interested in illuminating a number of things about the design process and our understanding of what authenticity might mean. To be clear, we have NO conceptions about what authenticity is, but we do have ideas about what popular ideas of authenticity are. How’s that for a workaround?
i think one of the main agreements that we came to in terms of themes for the design was authenticity as transparency. So, the design becomes about transparency of process, ideas, tools, methods, iterations, mistakes, and on and on. It’s a good opportunity (or experience) to think about how to work in a group – how we can all have some ownership over an idea or a design, without all necessarily having our hands on the mouse simultaneously. I actually really feel that this, so far, has been a pretty good process. Of course, we are designers, and we have strong feelings about visualization. So, when things don’t go our way, we get pissed. But, I think that’s normal, and means that we care, and are passionate. Or, maybe it just means that we’re all primadonnas. I like to think it’s the first. If it’s the second, then we’re making shite, which I don’t think that we are.
Below is the final save the date. Part of the idea behind the design is that is builds, changes, becomes more and less complex.
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…and some previous versions.
ROUNDABOUT 