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communication

DREAM:IN – Hunt to Harvest II

January 31, 2011

Earlier this month I wrote about getting involved in the DREAM:IN initiative which is collecting India’s aspirations as a canvas for creative thinking. It intends to form a dynamic database of dreams gathered in cities, towns and villages across the country. These will be categorised, analysed and shared with business leaders, educators, social entrepreneurs, policymakers and designers to devise transformative and inclusive future scenarios. 101 student dreamcatchers were dispatched across India after training at the Bangalore headquarters. They were divided into 11 teams: Sindhoori (red), Hariyali (green), Asmani (blue), Chandni (silver), Sunheri (gold), Gulal (pink), Firozi (turquoise), Anguri (purple), Santili (orange), Kesar (saffron) and Sweth (white) who set out on colourful journeys by road and rail – capturing on video the dreams of a nation in transition.

The teams were provided with various tools to help them consider the search ahead, created by the good folk at Idiom Design. Encouragement was given to seek a range of respondents from migrants to merchants, learners to leaders, athletes to advertisers, drivers to domestic helpers. Within the teams, students were allocated with tasks of spotting, framing and writing to locate, film and record Indians reflecting on their dreams. Mitul Bhat (a usability specialist on Nokia’s MeeGo platform) and I had the task of briefing the Spotters on basic ethnographic techniques and some of the challenges of working in the field.

The journey itineraries were carefully planned to cover an expanse of rural and urban locations, covering 25, 000kms in just over a week. Army protection was sought for dreamcatchers travelling in less stable areas of the country. Accommodation was frequently in local guesthouses but also included places like a Jain ashram and sleep was often snatched on overnight train trips.

Images from the DREAM:IN blog

Alongside the footage of dreams pouring back into Bangalore, also came stories, photographs and sketches of life on the road. I was particularly excited to run into Team Gulal while they visited Ahmedabad during the Uttarayan Kite Festival. Just as they were enjoying a well deserved lunch break, I chanced upon them and dragged one team member off to the Old City to shoot photographs of her with festive kites. They spoke of capturing some great dreams during their trip – including those of a former silver smuggler who changed his ways and became a security guard. His dream: to protect and serve.

The editing team back in Bangalore now have the Herculean task of refining footage and categorising it ahead of the DREAM:IN Conclave next month. This will be supplemented by scenario building tools to assist professionals to translate the dream database into insights which can inform their future strategies. There’s much diversity which has been captured during the Dream Journey. Here’s a few of my favourites so far:

Related posts:
Where are We Dreaming? (Flickr)
DREAM:IN – Hunt to Harvest, I

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DREAM:IN – Hunt to Harvest

January 7, 2011

This week I find myself in Bangalore lending a hand in the flurry of activity leading up to the DREAM:IN Journey. Challenging the notion that future thinking should be informed by people’s needs – the DREAM:IN initiative seeks to explore what Indians are dreaming about. It intends to create a dynamic database of dreams gathered in cities, towns and villages across the country. These will be categorised, analysed and shared with business leaders, educators, social entrepreneurs, policymakers and designers to devise transformative and inclusive future scenarios. DREAM:IN intends to collide the dreams of a diverse India with the thoughts and actions of leaders across a range of sectors.

101 student dreamcatchers have been selected from over 20 Indian institutes of management, design, communication and film. Next week they will be dispatched in groups across 11 itineraries which traverse rural and urban India. Along the way they will be questioning locals about their dreams and aspirations – for family, work, recreation, products and services – and capturing these on video. They are expecting to collect thousands of dreams from across the country. Before heading off they will receive training from a team with various backgrounds including ethnography (I’m pitching in there), education, advertising and cinematography from across India plus Brazil, Italy and the US. This group features professionals from Nokia, Ogilvy & Mather and Parsons the New School for Design. The findings will be returned to the DREAM:IN headquarters in Bangalore to be collated and categorised.

In February the DREAM:IN Conclave is a summit which will bring together a selection of students, educators, policymakers, social entrepreneurs and professionals from sectors such as finance, IT, retail, telecommunications and energy. Participants include powerhouse retail entrepreneur, Kishore Biyani and Fast Company’s Bruce Nussbaum. Findings from the Dream Journey will be shared through a series of workshops. These will be used to inform future scenarios via a rigorous design-thinking methodology – with the view to devising concrete projects to effect fresh thinking around delivering products and services at scale.

From February onwards an open portal will be launched which allows users to upload and categorise dreams by sector – adding to those collected on the Dream Journey. These will be supplemented by scenario building tools to assist professionals to translate the dream database into insights which can inform their future strategies. Drawing on the larger canvas of dreams over needs is expected to fuel enhanced creative thinking.

So with dreamcatchers arriving tomorrow we’re hard at work finalising itineraries, naming teams, refining methodologies and editing presentations. Ironically – there’s little time for sleep – let alone to dream.

Related posts:
One Billion and Counting
DREAM:IN – Hunt to Harvest, II

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Twitter, Hip-Hop & Smoke-Freestyle

September 30, 2010

A while back I was asked to contribute ideas on spreading the smokefree message to New Zealand youth via the awesome Smoking: Not Our Future platform. Noting that they already had an active social media following and a focus on the local music scene, I threw in the idea of a Twitter rap competition to engage youth to co-create positive health messages.

Collaborating with Transmit Media-Creative, the TwitSpit Competition was devised – inviting participants to freestyle/rap their smokefree attitudes via Twitter. The 140-character constraint was reduced even further by the requirement to include the #twitspit hashtag. Judging was done by local hip-hop legend, MC Juse1, who also created the graffiti artwork which branded the competition. The winner scooped an iPhone, with a slew of music-oriented prizes also up for grabs to those willing to spill their skills.

Winning tweet:

@ohhhSunday! you’re killing yourself but it doesn’t end there/
because it also affects all the people that care #twitspit

Highlights:

@DropNutsDean No more banter, Listen to this stanza/
If we lose the battle against tobacco, we will lose the war against cancer #twispit

@geekyORANGEfool: pull out that smoke and will anybody kiss you?
cause when you start smoking your love life’s gonna be an issue #twitspit

@DropNutsDean to coax/all those who smoke/heres a flowed note/
i don’t care if u burn… but i mind if u smoke #twitspit

And more fresh cuts from the prolific @DropNutsDean

… the only thing I smoke is MCs who test me…
… yo smokin dont just result in coughin/it results in coffins
… quit getting thru tar… like a cement mixer
… if you don’t want your ash kicked, the butt stops here

[Images by Transmit Media-Creative]

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Reality Flies in Fresh Directions

August 29, 2010

iButterfly is a quirky example of the implementation of Augmented Reality, in which Japanese users chase butterflies with their iPhones.

For those of you still getting up to speed with the concept, Augmented Reality is the mash-up of digital imagery and our physical environment which encourages new forms of interactivity. If you want a less whimsical and more educational example – check out the Museum of London’s Streetmuseum app.

From functional to frivolous, Augmented Reality puts a new spin on Picasso’s quip that “everything you imagine is real.”

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Same, Same but Different

August 8, 2010

During my last trip to India I was intrigued by the social norms, occupational cues and semi-uniformity surrounding the ear-cleaning profession.

Kaan-saaf wallas often don red head-gear and subtly sport a fresh cue-tip alongside other professional apparatus. This alerts folks to their services without the need for brash announcements of their humble and sensitive trade. More images.

Gotta love those who’s work revolves around enhancing our ability to listen.

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Mobile Enterprise + Mobile Phone

December 24, 2009

One can find ample instances of mobile phones enhancing the lives of those on low and unpredictable incomes at the base of the pyramid across the world. Today I came across a small yet active example of the advantage of mobile connectivity in the context of my current research endeavors at Dharavi in Mumbai.

Jan Mohammed runs a knife-selling and knife-sharpening enterprise, which he operates from his bicycle, to service the Dharavi-Mahim-Sion area. He conducts business by going door to door in these neighbourhoods and often parks up in one of the busy marketplaces during evenings. Since buying a second-hand mobile phone he has been able to attract the business of local restaurants and caterers who provide bulk sharpening work and have become regular clients via the accessibility his phone assures.

The aspect he likes best about his phone is the prepaid payment method. Having a wife and five children back at his village in Uttar Pradesh means that he makes frequent calls home – but when he is low on money and hasn’t topped up his phonecard he can still receive calls ensuring business. In fact he had just last week paid to replace his knife-sharpening grinder so had no money left for phone credit, yet was still able to receive a lucrative call from a wedding caterer to sharpen 75 knives.

Knife-wallas elsewhere in Dharavi who conduct business without mobile phones.

Related articles:
Pavement Purveyors (Flickr)
Tuned-In

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Tuned In

November 29, 2009

I was scoping out Dharavi yesterday for upcoming ethnographic research and came across this pair sharing headphones to catch the India/Sri Lanka cricket match via a mobile phone. The aspiration value of this part-shared, part-private use of a cellphone feature was evident – as onlookers could sense the excitement they were missing, through following the men’s expressions as the game progressed.

Check out images over upcoming weeks on my Dharavi Flickr set.
[Research updates were previously posted on the the now defunct Prepaid Economy blog]

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Deck of Cards Drives Dialogue

June 27, 2009

drivers_of_change_1
Last week I received a box set of Drivers of Change cards from Arup’s Foresight and Innovation team in London. They are part of an on-going research programme exploring those issues most likely to have a major impact upon society. Some time back they had requested an image I had photographed to be included in the publication and its been great to view the entire package which is designed to ignite minds in our transitory times.

drivers_of_change_2
The box contains sets of cards on issues that drive change: energy, waste, climate change, water, demographics, urbanisation and poverty which are further divided into categories: social, technological, economic, environmental and political. Each card covers a single driver and presents a provocative question and image appended by a challenging fact and sub-issue. The reverse features further research, figures, maps and supporting detail – all coming together to prompt exploration of emerging trends in brainstorming sessions. The questions were derived from Arup’s own workshops with professionals on what is driving change in their sectors.

The cards have been used in a number of events by Arup to promote dialogue – always encouraging interactivity and often involving a sense of play. At a Tokyo Designers’ Week the cards were circulated round a sushi bar within the shipping container venue where visitors selected cards and wrote their responses to the drivers.

The image I took in Worli, Mumbai from the card featuring the sub-issue Livelihood Opportunity – posing the question “How do you make ends meet?”

Arup is a global engineering consultancy which has a history of employing a holistic multi-disciplined approach in engineering design. With a global staff of over 10, 000 Arup provides an array of services for the built environment sector including engineering, design, project management and consultancy. Notable projects include the Sydney Opera House, the Pompidou Centre in Paris, CCTV headquarters in Beijing, Casa da Música in Porto and 30 St Mary Axe (The Gherkin) in London.

I feel the Drivers of Change cards are a relevant tool for curating conversations as are other sets such as the Method Cards by Ideo and the NextPlays card set from Moxie Design Group. By breaking groups out of linear thinking they engage minds in a participatory manner and are more likely to gather a brain storm of deep insights than a passing shower of shallow talk.

Related Article:
Solution Seekers at Play

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Fashion, Humanism & the Online Environment

June 11, 2009

I was particularly heartened to come across the recently launched mash-up of fashion and fundraising: The Uniform Project in which a pledge has been made to wear one dress for one year as an exercise in sustainable fashion.

Actually there are seven identical dresses – one for each day of the week. Every day the dress is artfully reinvented via layers and accessories and images posted online in the effort to raise money for the Akanksha Foundation – a grassroots movement that is revolutionizing education in India.

The project’s brainchild Sheena Matheiken recollects “I was raised and schooled in
India where uniforms were a mandate in most public schools. Despite the imposed conformity, kids always found a way to bend the rules and flaunt a little personality… Girls obsessed over bangles, bindis and bad hairdos. Peaking through the sea of uniforms were the idiosyncrasies of teen style and individual flare. I now want to put the same rules to test again, only this time I’m trading in the Catholic school fervor
for an eBay addiction and relocating the school walls to this wonderful place called
the internet.”

It all made me reflect on my past delvings into fashion and connectivity which I covered in my paper Fashion, Humanism and the Online Environment (1.8MB). Written in 2005 I’m the first to admit that the dialogue has definately moved on. However at the time Web 2.0 was still a fresh enough topic to win me a junior faculty travel award to present at the International Foundation of Fashion Technology Institutes conference in the US. (disclosure: my main driver for submitting the proposal was the thought of a two week escape from the excrutiating heat of high Indian summer – to which, as a New Zealander, I was entirely unaccustomed.)

The Uniform Project goes a long way in exemplifing my suggestion:

“through the internet, fashion holds the power to create space for social, cultural and altruistic discourse… the multi-layering of internet based communication affords the opportunity to participate in the arena of commerce while remaining culturally relevant, responsible and active.”

While I was more speaking about fashion brands leveraging cultural connectivity The Uniform Project is instead an online fundraising initiative masterfully leveraging fashion itself. Great to see the Manolo on the other foot!

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Still Life, Smooth Moves

May 29, 2009

Aligning himself with Buckminster Fuller’s notion of a comprehensivist, Carnegie
Mellon industrial design student Nadeem Haidary is one to watch. His provocative
forays into interaction design, anthropology and information visualization command
fresh perspectives.

In his Food of Art exhibition in Pittsburgh he analyses the nutritional content of twelve celebrated still life artworks including pieces by Van Gogh and Cezanne. He points to the data’s indication of the artists’ respective economic means and I’m also interested in the underlying implications encompassing taste, value and the consumption of art.

A delight for label checkers and talent hunters.

van_gogh_still_life_haidary
cezanne_still_life_haidary
bustos_still_life_haidary
From top to bottom:
Still Life with Fruit, Vegetables and Dead Game, Frans Snyders, c.1635-1637
Still Life with Onions and Drawing Board, Vincent van Gogh, 1889
Still Life with Basket of Apples, Paul Cezanne (French), 1890-1894
Still Life with Fruit, Hermenegildo Bustos, 1874