Driving Question: How might we collaboratively implement a design-thinking process to meet the needs of the community we serve?
What were your goals for this module? How did you achieve them?
The team’s main goal was to work collaboratively to achieve maximum efficacy and the best results. When we wrote the agreement, we all shared the same ideas of working in a team. We all liked working with people, but we all had concerns because the 3 of us have had somewhat bad experiences with people working on a team. However, the group bonded really well and really quickly, and that gave us a huge advantage because we knew we could trust each other, which led to more effective and fun work sessions. Also, the 3 of us wanted to work in all aspects of the project; we did not want to split roles. That’s why the 3 of us collaborated in all five parts of the design thinking process, and we did not split the work; we worked together.
What did you learn about yourself or about your creative process or about your medium?
The team thought this was a huge learning experience and the 3 of us learned a lot about ourselves and how we collaborate. In addition, we learned a lot about architecture and design, considering our project lied in those fields. We learned that designing plans for a school is challenging, especially when you have to meet certain criteria for the people you are working for. We also learned that we are good collaborators because some team members thought that they were bad at working in teams. We think that the most valuable thing we learned was how to create a professional but at the same time laid back team environment that archives good efficacy. The team dynamic that we created was very effective. We can attribute its success to the agreement that we wrote and the meetings we had before actually starting to work on the project.
What did this project mean to you?
We all felt very excited about working on this project as it was both a cool opportunity to use skills we were interested in and create physical change, as well as being able to work with an organization that one of us knew personally. While the end result of this project may be years down the line, it feels good to create something that may become reality due in part to our design.
Driving Question: How might we collaboratively implement a design-thinking process to meet the needs of the community we serve?
Explanation of Summative
Our summative product is the concept design and layout for an app designed to help households cut back on their domestic food waste by providing them with an interface to better manage the contents of their fridge, their dietary needs, and trips to the grocery store. The app would address some of the main reasons for domestic food waste that we identified – overbuying of food in general and poor storage of it in the house (i.e. forgetting about it in the fridge, letting it exceed its expiry date and having to throw it away, etc).
What were your goals for this module? How did you achieve them?
Our primary goal as a team was to learn how to collaborate effectively online, especially when deprived of the intimacy and information exchange of real human contact. Our meetings were casual yet productive, and we made the most of our situation by calling each other frequently in between to compensate for the lost opportunities we would have had if we were physically together. Another of our goals was to learn how to properly conduct interviews with users – we achieved this first by researching the nuances of good and bad interviews and then interviewing members of our families, the TGS community, etc.
What did you learn about yourself or about your creative process or about your medium?
A large part of our creative process had to do with accommodating various people in our team. This meant scheduling meetings, which included keeping in mind a distance of 7 hours between two of the members’ timezones. In another sense, though, this involved designating roles based on different people’s abilities and expertise, largely to do with technology and software design. Therefore, we learned the importance of using the strengths of the people on our team and assigning them to the areas that they’d be most effective in.
What did this project mean to you?
This project was meaningful in that it brought a group of us students together who didn’t necessarily interact very much outside of school before; it also taught our team much about the real nature of collaboration as something that can be both online and in person.
Driving Question: How can I develop and combine a well-designed and written book which conveys, in a simple but significant way, part of someone’s TGS story and experiences, by the perspective of the others?
My final product: I created a book in which TGS community members (including alumni) share stories, moments and memories with Karen, Elyce and Jamie. We didn’t have the change to properly say goodbye, and show our appreciation. So, this is a way to convey our gratitude.
Driving Question: How might we collaboratively implement a design thinking process to meet the needs of the community we serve?
Prompts were created by Viktoria
Jars were created by Asja
Social media/logo/website by Dia
What were your goals for this module? How did you achieve them?
Our collective goal was to make a fun product that could potentially boost the mental health of teenagers all around the world aged 13-17. We did it by creating Asombro – a collection of jars filled with surprising prompts suiting every person’s individual interests. Asja created the jars; Dia the website, the Instagram account, and the logo; Viktoria did the prompts.
What did you learn about yourself or about your creative process or about your medium?
We learned how to apply design-thinking into making something into reality, and figured in the end that following a structured way of creating a product made the process a lot easier. Our team will definitely apply design-thinking skills to our future projects. We took into account our stakeholder’s needs by conducting over 20 empathy interviews and went through feedback sessions, and got a lot of positive responses regarding the idea.
What did this project mean to you?
It meant a lot, each of us learned something new about ourselves.
Driving Question: How might we collaboratively implement a design-thinking process to meet the needs of the community we serve?
What were your goals for this module? How did you achieve them?
Our goal for this module was to find a solution to help teens in online school keep in contact with their friends. We wanted our final product to be easily implementable and useable. We achieved our goal by following the steps design process and consulting students in our community.
What did you learn about yourself or about your creative process or about your medium?
As a group, we learned the importance of hybrid brainstorming in collaboration. It allowed us to connect different ideas when problem solving to create a better overall product.
What did this project mean to you?
This project is important for us because we made something to positively impact our community in these difficult times.
Driving Question: How might we collaboratively implement a design-thinking process to meet the needs of the community we serve?
Who was your target audience? Why?
Our target audience was the TGS community. We saw the impact that going online had on the community’s morale. Since there were not as many opportunities to connect with one another, so we decided to create such an opportunity.
What were your goals for this module? How did you achieve them?
We aimed to give an opportunity to the TGS community to connect with each other in a way that is fun and comfortable. We did this by hosting an open-ended discussion about controversial topics.
What did you learn about yourself or about your creative process or about your medium?
Each one of us learned something different about ourselves.
What did this project mean to you?
This project gave us an opportunity to form more connections within the community. It was also our first time collaborating with people we hadn’t before, so this project also allow us to form bonds within our summative group.
Driving Question: How can I grow my own indoor herb garden in Finland’s dark winter?
What are you passionate about that lead you to choosing this project?
Being home so much allowed me to reflect on my personal actions and how I was contributing to the environment. I had in the past wanted to do a gardening project however traveling and limited outdoor space prevented that.
What do you hope people will get from looking at your page?
I hope people will be inspired to possibly start their own mini herb gardens and realize that even having limited space won’t prevent you.
What was your initial idea and what did you want to do/learn with this project?
My initial idea was to just grow a herb garden and learn about the various herbs and how they grew from seed.
Did your project develop and change from your initial idea, if so how?
Upon looking at the different learning targets I could possibly utilize I ended up adapting my project into a more of a science project where I explored how different soil types would effect growth. In my research, I ended up using 2 main variables: the soil type and 3 different herb seeds so that I may achieve the best results.
What are your big takeaway lessons from this project?
I think my biggest take away is that it was fun. I enjoyed observing and taking pictures of the plants growing. Watching something grow from seed is extremely rewarding and a beautiful part of life.
What were your goals for this module? How did you achieve them?
Initially, my plan for this module was to produce both a song and an accompanying animation. The first thing that shattered this initial goal is the fact that I cannot sing. There is no way around it. Secondly, my laptop was not powerful enough for animations. My goal then morphed into being able to produce “paintings” on a digital medium at the standard I usually do with physical paint and a canvas.
What did you learn about yourself or about your creative process or about your medium?
For one, I never thought I would ever make art from a laptop. Often when I am using my laptop, if I am not on Youtube or Reddit, I am definitely tinkering on a program or programming one thing or the other. As such, I have always labeled my laptop as a tool for me to express only the more “analytical” tenet of my creativity that solely produces output like programs, algorithms, and 3D designs. As such, I have only ever expressed the equally potent “visual” tennet of my creativity in my extensive painting and drawing. I never thought of using a laptop to produce art of the same standard I do with physical paintings. Not only that, but I never thought that painting on my laptop could put me in the transcendental flow state that physical painting always does for me. Boy, was I wrong!
What were your goals for this module? How did you achieve them?
I wanted to reflect people’s thoughts on Covid-19 by including various world events, situations, and feelings I’ve heard of or experienced myself. Whenever I feel a strong emotion, I like listening to songs with the same vibe, and I hope others feel the same way. My second goal was to grow my creative confidence. I achieved both of my goals by writing a song – and presenting it on this website.
What did you learn about yourself or about your creative process or about your medium?
I learned that it’s effortless for me to start the creative process, but difficult to finish. I also like to write many songs at a time, and that slowed the process of “perfecting” one song. That’s why I’m open to any feedback on the song – to me, it still sounds unfinished. From the resources we were provided by the educators, I learned that judging someone’s skills vs. them is an entirely different thing – a person whose skills are being judged shouldn’t take it personally. And although it’s crucial to receive some type of feedback in songwriting (as it should be creative, but not too alienated), one should still be comfortable showing their artistic style and not make every little change people are telling them to. It’s good to finish a song with a similar tune you used in the song, as it will make people come back again and again. For example, The Weekend’s “Can’t Feel My Face.” I still have a lot to learn about songwriting, producing, singing – all of that. I’m definitely going to continue writing songs and receiving feedback. If I do write some release-worthy songs in the future, I’ll let all of you know!
The Lyrics
Verse:
Yeah, sometimes I don’t talk to people for a reason
It’s never a good place to begin with
When I’m laying on the bed with my headphones on
And imagining every possible scenario
Of people coming and going, leaving and staying
And when the only thing we thought about was playing
And praying for the people we have lost in the chaos
of the world bringing hatred towards different people
Yeah, looking at the news, I guess that’s what I’m best at
During those times of social distancing acts
On the front page, furious (yeah), they think I am hilarious (yeah)
“Let’s get you a bible”, the situation seems precarious
And honestly, I must say that they’re making me mad
Before you didn’t even care, but now all you do is so fad
“Can we go outside?” I hear a voice while keeping distance
“Sure, my love”, and I hope what she says I didn’t just listen
I still can’t hold my head down, oh no,
I just want to let the truth out and scare them with all
The things happening in front of their noses
I’m straightforward, but sweet and you
Want to hear me whisper all this nothingness I see
Chorus:
Everything’s gonna be okay
We’re gonna see a brighter day
And it goes ay, ay, ay
Thank you to the doctors and the nurses
Thank you for being so diverse, yeah
Now all we gotta do is observe
Let’s not hope for the worse
Verse:
You can do what you want or whatever you’re best at
Obeying the rules isn’t the best, huh?
For achieving herd immunity please stay at home
A vaccine will come out, “at least let’s all hope so”
And if not, then what will going outside give you?
Covid-19, so please maintain some hygiene
Flattening the curve might take some time
But washing those hands might help achieve it faster
“I will do it all for the people, not for the fame”
Well, finally, someone’s got some common sense
All those celebrities go viral singing Lennon’s “Imagine”
As if we’re all dreaming of winning and survival
They’re kind of right though, aren’t they?
Because “hey dude, real people are dying!”
“Okay-okay, I’mma head outside for some fresh air”
Look ahead, man, there’s nothing to flair
The economy is failing from the left to the right
They wouldn’t care much, would they?
Unless they couldn’t take another flight
And fight because “there’s no food at sight”
“I guess that’s not a problem for us, eh?”
Chorus:
Everything’s gonna be okay
We’re gonna see a brighter day
And it goes ay, ay, ay
Thank you to the doctors and the nurses
Thank you for being so diverse, yeah
Now all we gotta do is observe
Let’s not hope for the worse
Verse:
I promise I won’t leave, I won’t leave you behind
I will fight every time for our human rights
But if we’d all die, (laugh) no, not just once or twice
Wouldn’t it be nice to say that at least we tried?
If you’re told what you’re doing is wrong,
Why keep doing it?
You only have one body and mind, one life to live
Keep living it, and hope for the best
Oh, you’re stressed and not impressed
By the words I’m rapping as you cannot digest
So you just guess and participate in a protest?
That’s weird, man…
But in 1920, things worked like that…
Yeah, we can learn from it, but let’s not forget the fact
That tomorrow’s not yesterday, we can’t dive that deep
Today’s medicine, techonology aren’t the same
We should all reflect on what the experts say
I know you have a brain, and you seem pretty smart (small voice: intelligent)
What were your goals for this module? How did you achieve them?
In this module, I wanted to delve into the old East Asian Buddhist tradition of using art as a form of meditation, freeing the mind of its rational constraints and leading to samadhi or meditative awareness. I did this by both developing skills in calligraphy itself as well as attempting a form of meditation while practicing those skills and making the pieces above. The result, I hope, is some appearance of spontaneity and creativity, the two terms that anyone would use to describe the works of calligraphy that Buddhist monks in China, Japan, and Korea made while immersed in their happy, cheerful meditation.
What did you learn about yourself or about your creative process or about your medium?
The most interesting thing that I learned while painting the Chinese characters was how challenging it is to attain any sort of balance or beauty with them. A simple downward brushstroke takes many months or perhaps years of practice to look even half-decent to a person who knows calligraphy. I did not get to this stage over the course of the project; what I did do was get a very brief look into the complexity of this medium – how the characters that you paint with the brush are not so much those that you paint but those that are left behind by the brush itself. Any stroke, whether it be a horizontal line or a dot, can very candidly suggest the calligrapher’s state of mind when painting it, meaning that any frustration or hesitance is immediately visible in the forms of the characters. This is perhaps the harshest aspect of calligraphy – each stroke is permanent and irrevocable, and cannot be embellished afterward. Not only does each brushstroke reveal your skill with the ink, but it will also reveal your ability to leave distracting thoughts behind and pool all of your mental energies into a single movement of the hand.
Poem Translation
The pieces above are renditions, in various styles of calligraphy, of three poems that I composed in a kind of bad Classical Chinese; the English translations are here:
Regular Style Poem
In the snore of my dog and the sound of my Mother cooking dinner, I hear Buddha’s joyful laugh; Just as there are many drops of water but only one Pond, So are there many Buddhas but only one Dharma.
Semi-Cursive Poem
Alone I walk to the pond, Looking for solitary ducks to feed with my Brown paper bag.
Cursive Poem
The perpetual sound of hail on the window – Instead of my friends’ happy chatter, Every day I hear only this.
