li1ybelle

[li1ybelle]

Painted Cities

How do you pick a Wicked Problem in a world with so many?

Our project doesn’t solve world hunger; it does however work towards a more colourful future.

Street art can have many positive impacts on communities, including celebration of culture, providing jobs, showcasing local businesses, improving mental health and enhancing tourism.

We all know COVID19 has taken a detrimental impact on the world, specifically small businesses for the purpose of this ‘Wicked Problem’. With tourism grinding to a holt in 2020, many small businesses perished or have struggled to keep afloat.

Restrictions are now lifting, at least in Australia. That means we have the ability to rebuild what we had, and to even improve on what we had.

With a survey completed in April 2021, we found that 33 people out of 34 would like to see more street art across NSW.

Our brand Painted Cities is a simple concept of bringing street art to rural communities. We have designed an app to track street art across NSW. This app is designed to promote tourism and give artists opportunities to be seen.

[li1ybelle]

Empathy maps

Empathy maps are extremely useful to visually understand your user audience. Understanding and anticipating what your audience might Say, Think, Feel and Do. Emma Bond illustrated this Empathy map off some questions we anticipated our users would ask. We referenced the Miro template found in the weekly readings (Empathy map template, 2021).

Miro. 2021. Empathy map template. [online] Available at: <https://miro.com/templates/empathy-map/> [Accessed 13 May 2021].

[li1ybelle]

We have empathy. Robots don’t.

Some food for thought.

I read an article called ‘The Rules of Brainstorming Change When Artificial Intelligence Gets Involved. Here’s How.’ by Ben Syverson. The article is about a new technology called GPT-3 that can brainstorm, answer questions, write scripts and come up with scenarios. It was interesting to read how independent this technology is and how how quickly it could replace a dozen office workers. The technology worked fast and efficient. It did lack one thing however; empathy. The technology couldn’t discern a great idea to a hurtful idea.

That is what I hope robots will never acquire. I don’t want to live in a work where robots take businessmen’s jobs.

Syverson, B., 2021. The Rules of Brainstorming Change When Artificial Intelligence Gets Involved. Here’s How.. [online] Learn-ap-southeast-2-prod-fleet01-xythos.content.blackboardcdn.com. Available at: <https://learn-ap-southeast-2-prod-fleet01-xythos.content.blackboardcdn.com/5deddad836ee9/6476715?X-Blackboard-Expiration=1620961200000&X-Blackboard-Signature=JZaCpnuOvBll2bvfv25lgI6mH2s9zVcqTicyUP2s%2Fjo%3D&X-Blackboard-Client-Id=100261&response-cache-control=private%2C%20max-age%3D21600&response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%2A%3DUTF-8%27%27How%2520Would%2520You%2520Reimagine%2520Learning_%25205%2520Visions%2520for%2520Our%2520Post-COVID%2520Future%2520.pdf&response-content-type=application%2Fpdf&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Date=20210513T210000Z&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Expires=21600&X-Amz-Credential=AKIAYDKQORRYZBCCQFY5%2F20210513%2Fap-southeast-2%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Signature=60c6ba6dbf144ed9c318dd1216cf8eb4a486ff4bca4773e14792fad27b0c6a90> [Accessed 13 May 2021].

[li1ybelle]

Were the seeds of your future career planted in your childhood?

“Were the seeds of your future career planted in your childhood?” Avi Solomon asks David Kelly; founder of IDEO and the Stanford d.School. I thoroughly enjoyed this interview, and at the end I posed the same opening question to myself.

I do not claim to know where my career is headed. However, I know it will be driven by creativity.

 I have always been creative. I loved to draw as a kid. None of my family were particularly creative, but they encouraged me nonetheless. When I was eight, I entered the locals art competition and won first price for my age range. I went to Steiner school, then art school, and now I’m studying creative industries at University.

 I often feel grateful that I was allowed to be creative and encouraged to follow that as a career. I certainly feel that art is where is where I belong. It is a feeling like no other.

I do believe that creativity was planted in my childhood. It was planted in my bones, in my heart, and in my mind.

[li1ybelle]

I learn what I do

I recently came across and article by Dennis Hambeukers called Design Thinking and Learning (Hambeukers, 2019). He believes that designers learn by doing, and I stand by that completely. Hambeukers says that;

“Once you start making, you start to see. Once you start to see, your visual mind kicks in and helps you think. 75% or so of the energy in the human brain is dedicated to visual signal processing. It would be a shame not to use that.”

I have experienced this in my creative practice first hand. The only way I feel that I can start to see is when I transfer my ideas to paper. I am a visual learner, so my process relies on mind mapping, creating mood boards, writing down thoughts, honing down on an idea, and sketching it out to get a general idea (story boarding).

For our wicked problem in class I have been visually mapping out our process as we go. Here is a mind map I created that depicts our journey.

Hambeukers, D., 2019. [online] Learn-ap-southeast-2-prod-fleet01-xythos.content.blackboardcdn.com. Available at: <https://learn-ap-southeast-2-prod-fleet01-xythos.content.blackboardcdn.com/5deddad836ee9/6360022?X-Blackboard-Expiration=1619589600000&X-Blackboard-Signature=XRMQCh9DvFQ%2FYgvRsJxpn8c28Vn%2By7mScoKTct%2FCmCg%3D&X-Blackboard-Client-Id=100261&response-cache-control=private%2C%20max-age%3D21600&response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%2A%3DUTF-8%27%27Design%2520Thinking%2520And%2520Learning%25281%2529.pdf&response-content-type=application%2Fpdf&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Date=20210428T000000Z&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Expires=21600&X-Amz-Credential=AKIAYDKQORRYZBCCQFY5%2F20210428%2Fap-southeast-2%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Signature=88aeefa5e14fe57b7a0a9df4c85aaf4da9bfa647e7d886d1b63cc48784b09e75> [Accessed 28 April 2021].

[li1ybelle]

Three illustrators and one law student makes four.

There was a group of four. Three illustrators and one law student. We put our minds and strengths together to solve a Wicked Problem. We came up with many Wicked Problems; too much plastic, not enough trees, so much waste, world hunger, “what about this pandemic”.

There was one area we were undeniably drawn to, and that’s art. The three illustrators and one law student agreed that we need more street art in the world. And we began compiling a list of advantages from street art.

Not long after we had an idea. We’re beginning to see some street art in larger towns, however not in rural areas. Street art is an attraction. Something people will come and see.

We all know how COVID19 has taken a MASSIVE toll on the world. And what about small businesses? With tourism grinding to a holt in 2020, businesses perished or are struggling to keep afloat.

Our idea is a two birds with one stone scenario. Bringing street art to rural communities. This provides jobs to artists, cultural awareness, something beautiful, and tourism, meaning more traffic for businesses.

There’s a lot more too it, however the three illustrators and one law student are happy for now.

[li1ybelle]

Learn, unlearn, relearn

Dennis Hambeukers published an article called Design Thinking and Learning. It is about the importance of embracing the need to “learn and relearn” (Hambeukers, 2019). Hambeukers refers to a quote by Alvin Toffler that really struck a chord with me. He said:

“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.”

Any artwork or design project I approach, I go into with a little intuition, some open mindedness, and experience. I am an experiential learner. That means I learn from the experiences I’m having and have had, not solely off what any one person is teaching me.

Experiential learning is a revolving four stage process. It begins with doing. Which means having an experience. The next stage is reflecting. That means processing what has just happened. The third stage is learning from what you have experienced. And the fourth stage is to apply. And that simply means experimenting and implementing what you’ve learned. It’s a continuous process.

To me this quote said some thirty years ago, is very prevalent to this day. I believe that it not only applies to me as an artist, but everyone who wishes to exist in this ever-changing world of ours. It’s crucial to have the ability to learn, reflect and adapt in order to keep moving forward. And it’s important to be open to learning from the experiences we have. My experiences don’t stagnate, they build. My learning is a continuum. A continuum of doing, reflecting, learning and moving forward. That is my process. An ever evolving process of experiential learning. This illustration is symbolic of my creative process.

Artwork by me

Hambeukers, D., 2019. [online] Learn-ap-southeast-2-prod-fleet01-xythos.content.blackboardcdn.com. Available at: <https://learn-ap-southeast-2-prod-fleet01-xythos.content.blackboardcdn.com/5deddad836ee9/6360022?X-Blackboard-Expiration=1619589600000&X-Blackboard-Signature=XRMQCh9DvFQ%2FYgvRsJxpn8c28Vn%2By7mScoKTct%2FCmCg%3D&X-Blackboard-Client-Id=100261&response-cache-control=private%2C%20max-age%3D21600&response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%2A%3DUTF-8%27%27Design%2520Thinking%2520And%2520Learning%25281%2529.pdf&response-content-type=application%2Fpdf&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Date=20210428T000000Z&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Expires=21600&X-Amz-Credential=AKIAYDKQORRYZBCCQFY5%2F20210428%2Fap-southeast-2%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Signature=88aeefa5e14fe57b7a0a9df4c85aaf4da9bfa647e7d886d1b63cc48784b09e75> [Accessed 28 April 2021].

[li1ybelle]

A ”wicked problem”

We: class DESN2002 have been asked to solve a wicked problem. What is a wicked problem?

If wicked is an adjective meaning evil, or morally wrong.

And if problem is a noun meaning a matter or situation regarded as unwelcome or harmful and needing to be dealt with and overcome.

I suppose we have a pretty serious problem to unravel. And how do you choose just one problem in a world with so many?

Languages.oup.com. 2021. Oxford Languages and Google - English | Oxford Languages. [online] Available at: <https://languages.oup.com/google-dictionary-en/> [Accessed 27 April 2021].