raftacular

It was always my intention to keep the RAFT project going after school. It was always my intention to develop a simple design that could be scalable, adaptable, modular and work with materials at hand. I am so grateful for having met the fantastic people at eatART who are now supporting (and storing) this project at the hangar. Our mutual love for the sea as well as things like civil disobedience, energy awareness, creativity, invention, and general mayhem brought us all together this weekend, dressed like pirates, armed with a potato canon and ready for adventure. ( : So fun!!!

RAFT :: being held hostage in gallery

Conceived as a floating structure, built mostly of salvaged materials, the project component of my thesis (RAFT) is used as a way to test and work through the creative possibilities that surround slow design. I use RAFT as a research tool – a conceptual and physical sounding board to uncover and develop a template for practicing slow design. The method was conceived primarily for industrial designers, and therefore more often than not includes a physical product output. It has the ability to transfer to other forms of sustainable design and production.

primed - opening!

Thanks to mandroid for taking these!!!

primed

hello out there,
my grad show is coming up quick!
just want to have here for the record; the river; the stream; the flow; the blog.
i installed the RAFT in there this afternoon.
i have to say i'm running on a low tank these days.
nothing a little pulverized pineapple, banana, and wheat grass can't fix.
still lots to do. but when is there not?

ready for the next chapter.

RAFT- test launch

days to come

giant snow flakes are falling from the sky and i'm working from home today. i am making little plans in my mind. i want to collaborate everywhere all the time. little plans to upload my thesis paper here. to paint. to throw paint. to make music. to post photos. to write a short story about the sea. RAFT is coming along nicely. might even see a test launch this weekend, weather permitting.

1 more month of school. thesis defense is end of april. grad show is april 30th. convocation is may 3rd. bang bang BANG.

then?

work. work. travel. travel. fun. FUN. work.

RAFT as platform

Updated sketches coming soon to a scanner near you. and who is YOU? aha I get a kick out that question. It's very Modest Mouse.

sketches

evo lives on

I entered evo (my carleton ID grad project) into the core 77 / inhabitat / greener gadgets design competition. and received a notable mention. Cool! So did terry and shane. go carleton. Check it out over here. I'm flattered that 4 years later, the same design could even qualify for being green. Approaching emotional durability.



Eternally yours,
Sarah

designer memories

Reinier sent this link to me the other morning. Didn't see that coming.

Dear Professor Knight,

That was an incredible experience.
Prototype prototype prototype!

Sincerely,
Sarah

everything everywhere all the time

i asked ryan lukas why he doesn't come out to vancouver? you can sail, hike and snowboard all in winters day. one day! he responds that's not enough. he needs surfing in that day in order to survive! there was a crazy storm in NYC this week. trees crushing cars. subways flooding. and the headlines are all familiar. but familiar from a movie i haven't yet seen or is this for real?



my thesis is taking form. time, design (process of), culture (of design), and perception. all within a global and local context. what's the local? well it might be the producers and it might be the consumers. and maybe its looking at between the locals. whatever it is.. it is taking form. in the studio sense, i am thinking of exploring a few sustainments, conceptually of course.

on lasers, surrealism, jets, and XYZcorp

dear walid,

i know you know.. . but. today at Ci, i'm sifting through magazines.. ID january 07 has some great features on design collectives. Pleix and Plan01 are 2 of them that stuck out at me. also.. i really hope stuff like the eco-jet keeps developing. notice the underline.

re: XYZ corporation... i don't know about you but anything like corporation combined with philanthropic (word of the day) housing projects combined with branding it makes me uneasy.
have a nice day ( :

and he writes back: Hey this is good stuff!

So..... you know .... floating. The sea is salty and flat as a rug. and crystal clear. I practiced floating. After a while you're breathing become slow and you practically fall asleep...

oh ya. easy jet. i love it. "come on, let's fly"! ha! cooooooooooooooooooooome on!!!

re: XYZ corp. I don't know! Maybe they're trying to play grown up ... reinier is coming next month. good stuff, somebody will witness this insanity. you know what's its like? Its like everybody is a fish here. fish!!! like the driving for example. picture NO rules. people just drive where its open. right way. wrong way. reverse on the highway. if its clear, you go, until a bigger fish clear the way...



ummmmmmmmm. miss you!

convergence

Something(s) From Nothing But Time
salvaged materials, time and energy
spring 2007

what happens to an object, a relationship, a community in disarray when you put something as simple as time and energy back into it? simple actions reproducible by anyone with access to the proper tools offer opportunities for new life, and another story.

the table and chairs.
because my research is focused on notions of collaborative and ecological design, the table, for me, is where it all happens… the table here was restored and assembled from salvaged materials: the base was found in a Mount Pleasant alley and the surface was found in a very old and scary Strathcona basement. the chairs were adopted, used, broken and are now in the process of being repaired and therefore diverted from the landfill. the table invites us to slow down and appreciate. conversations. the exchange of ideas. the mapping of information. the sharing of food. it may simultaneously connect us to - and differentiate us from - other creatures, places, and times.

the nests.
each nest above you was woven not by a bird, but by a student or faculty member from the Emily Carr Institute for a workshop called Finding Home, which took place at the SFU WOSK Centre for Dialogue on February 22, 2007. a truly collaborative effort, the materials were gathered from various locations around Vancouver, the North Shore and the Gulf Islands -- many from the fallen trees hit by this winter's storms. Through the act of weaving, of adapting, of working with the physicality of natural materials, these nests served as a metaphor for each of our own journeys in creating a sense of home for ourselves, our families, our communities, our world. The metaphor extended to being playful, local and resourceful.

How About That Weather
digital print, cardboard
spring 2007

this time map delineates the two years I will have spent at Emily Carr. It is a work in progress designed to help me see where I am, where I’ve come from and to suggest where I might be going… . . evolving concepts and influences such as new genre public art, the spime and the changing role of time within the design process are plotted on the bottom forming the foundation which supports my work, my community involvement, my experiences, my everyday observations, my life.

playa soropta

well i did it.

i bought a ticket to panama.



to volunteer on a turtle conservation project on playa soropta for 5 weeks. ( :

http://www.turtleprotection.org/

soropta is on panama's carribean coast mid way down the horn. very close to an area called San San Pond Sak which is recognized by the UN as a globally important wetland based on it's uniquness and bio-diversity. i'm terribly excited although i have no idea what lies before me. haven't done my research yet but are you surprised? and who is you? i'm looking forward to being somewhere else. change of scenery. for scenery's sake. its temporary. i hope to come back with a renewed perspective on the great life cycle inquiry. i've proposed to my teachers that this trip is about biomimicry, immersion, invention, curiousity, transferable skills, biodiversity, community development. my passion lies in mobile-ness, culture and the environment. how to travel and be a researcher / designer / journalist concerned with the fate of our generations.. . pretty broad.. i know.



matt and jen, who i will be working with down there, have also been blogging about the soropta project. they are already down there walking the beaches at night and taking care of things. i met them at julian's birthday. enough said!

stay tuned internet. ( :

and, happy birthday mama!

okay now i feel like writing

I can't speak at a pace that can hold your attention in those empty rooms. I want to speak slowly and thoughtfully but i am abit nervous and i have a lot that i want to talk about. in hind site I should have spoken about maybe 3 projects. less about the past and more about the now.

I regret missing a few important talks that happened recently. .. .
Al Gore and William Rees. But, then, life goes on. I'll see them again somewhere.

---

from the pit of the goose n duck somewhere north west pacific

---

here's a running list of potential thesis / project avenues
may not entirely ready to choose another avenue.
may just want to improve already started ones.. and help others.

1. evolving functional sculptures (ex. rain catchment, edibles, weather metres)
   urban but not only for humans enjoyment perhaps a role change where kids teach and adults learn and everyone plays.
   seed: CIRS design charette
   
   
2. salvage abandoned furniture and learn how to repair it the green way...
   seed: so much waste
   
   
3. arts n crafts vancouver
   seed: new genre public art music space performance social doyle effect
   
   
4. taking the social networking visualization further.
   seed: people dug it.
   
   
5. taking the regenerative ECI project further.
   seed: on the same day, I saw the work of Karolle Wall and was heart broken to hear jokes of contaminated False Creek in the photo lab.
   
   
6. proposing evo to some design empire.
   seed: email from alan to ron and i about sony, gps and photography
   
   
7. Light House design research web 2.0 contextual design
   seed: already doing it
   
   
8. MOBY communication design
   seed: urban agriculture is important
   
   
9. design for need. shelter. portable. exhibit, pimp my rv. someday.