creative experiences in Norway

2008-05-22T02:33:00.000-07:00

New screen shot

2008-05-21T02:14:00.000-07:00

Some screen shoots ideas

2008-05-16T06:39:00.001-07:00

Personas

2008-05-16T06:21:00.001-07:00

These are our two personas. Jørgen and Helena.

Two people not far from eachother as age, but very different in their habits, life style and caring about money.

Jørgen is father and cares a lot about money. He has to pay back his student loan and the loan for the appartment he bought for his family. He also want to try to save money for his daughter's future education.

Helena is single and really likes to go out partying. She is studying graphic design and she is also highly concerned with fashion. She spends her money for branded cloths and especially for bags!

Rapid Prototyping

2008-05-16T06:14:00.000-07:00

In these days we are having collaboration with the students from the 2nd year of the industrial design course.
They are going to help us to make an object in rapid prototyping related to our project.
Ingrid and I thought about a give away token that people who become part of our service would receive with the welcome package.
It is probably going to be something to attach to the mobile phone.

We got different ideas about the function and this morning we discussed those with Kjetil, Ida and Fredrik.
Some ideas:
- The object should have an organic, pleasant, soft shape. It has to be a pleasure to touch it and to see it.
- A led light could be embedded into it and it could switch on every time you make a payment transaction with your phone.
- The object can have embedded a RFID tag witch communicate with the mobile phone. For example when the phone and the object touch each other, the object can give the information to open the page of your bank e-mail account.
- It can represent which kind of customer you are. If you are VIP customers, because you probably make many transactions, your object would be different from the other people’s object. So it should be a range of products and it should represent you as a client of the service.
- It can show that you are part of the service (if it is attached to your phone) and so that you are able to make payment transactions with your mobile.
- It can change shape based on how your account is. For example if you have a lot of money on your account the object becomes bigger. So it is affected on how you spend your money.

The importance of experience

2008-04-30T20:47:00.000-07:00

According to Schulze and Webb experiences are very important and strongly connected with the product that provoke them.
When we design something we have to think to the experience we will create for the users.
There are moments we remember about the products we own, for example we remember the first time our mobile phone fell down, or when we unrwrapped our I pod.
Designing we have to focus on those hooks moments!

They showed us a cigarettes innovative packaging. In this case that brand is producing a product but also creating experiences, for example conversations with my friends about it. Maybe they don't sell just cigarettes but also conversation or the situation of meeting new people.

I'm glad I had the opportunity to learn from this two very talented designers.

Schulze & Webb

2008-04-28T20:03:00.000-07:00

Today we started our adventure with Schulze & Webb!
They are interaction and product designers from London.
It was actually very inspirational and interesting.

As a first exercise we had to define our project.
Ingrid and I described it as:

“We want to create an accessible, trustful and attractive system to pay anything through NFC technology and to introduce it in the Norwegian society.”

Talking with them, they suggested us to work on a second layer level adding services to our system.
We have to give more values to it and more services than paying with credit card or with cash.
This question is very important: “Why our system is better than credit card and cash?”
In my opinion it is mainly because of the transaction history that you have always available on your mobile phone and because of the diagrams which show you how you have been spending your money. But we can do more!
Schulze & Webb advised that we should help people to manage their own economy, creating services that help you with money.
I believe this is a good street to give values to our system. They rose up the same questions I had in my head and now Ingrid and I have a path to follow.

NFC payment system - diagram

2008-04-11T10:53:00.000-07:00

This is how the system is supposed to work on a mobile phone's wireframes.

For now it is just a diagram but we are working on the graphic and realistic visualisation.

New system diagram

2008-04-07T16:22:00.000-07:00

Here is how our system is supposed to work

You have a bank account for example with DNBnor. Then you have a mobile phone contract with Telenor.

Into your mobile phone you have 2 accounts. One for calling, sms, mms, etc and the other for paying.

You can transfer money from your bank account to your calling account. Then from the calling account you can transfer money on the paying account.

This guarantee security and a limited amount of money in your phone.

We know where to go!

2008-04-04T01:19:00.000-07:00

The Project

Ingrid and I want to design the experience to pay with NFC transaction (with the mobile phone).
We want to design how the experience will be for any kind of payment transactions focusing on the mobile phone screen.
The idea is a partnership between Telenor and DNBnor for example (a telephone company and a bank company) that allows you to pay anything with your mobile phone using the money you have on your bank account. People are going to have 2 accounts. The bank one and a small one (which are the money you would usually have in your wallet). You have access to the both of them using your phone. To pay the tram for example you will pay with the small one simply swiping your phone on the reader. Instead if you buy a laptop you would use your bank account and to pay with it you will have to type a code on your phone to activate this option.
You can transfer money from the bank account to the small one.
In case your phone gets stolen then you will just lose the money you have on your small account which cannot be more than 200 nok.

We also want to focus on helping people to keep track of their transactions in a very easy and intuitive way, with drawings and illustrations.

We also want to introduce this new system to people with touch points and create valuable social services around the payment transaction.

Our Goals

to design the perfect experience to pay through
NFC transaction

to introduce the new system to the people

Process

1 :: Create personas

our target 17- 30 years old

2 :: Detail design

how the system works
give to the system a social value
helping people to create their own identity
giving a kind of intellectual challenge

3 :: Evidencing

4 :: Testing

Where to go?

2008-03-27T18:27:00.000-07:00

At the moment we are working on this interface project which is mainly a research. We would like to have feedback from people on which of these different interactions they trust more or they enjoy more and in general how they felt getting involved with these different characters.
On the other hand we are also interested in working on a market penetration plan, using service design to get people to trust the new ways of payment trough RFID technology.
The project we are carrying on now is a study that can help us on this second project.
At the same time it would be interesting also to continue with the research. We need to discuss about this.

Working with interfaces

2008-03-27T18:25:00.000-07:00

This is an interesting work. We have in some way to communicate a character through an interface. The tools are mainly colours, fonts, graphic and movements.
We are working with Flash and we are experimenting different possibilities.
We are working both with access and credit card.
At the moment the interfaces are still basic but they start to be communicative.
For now I have been working with the access on a friendly interface, on a patronizing and on a fresh one.
I’m not totally satisfied. I think they probably need more elements and maybe I’m too blocked on my style, but I believe it is a good start.

Our project

2008-03-13T13:54:00.000-07:00

Ingrid and I are working on our idea.
The concept is to have a table or a flat surface where people will place their personal objects, connected to access like keys or cards and to payment such as credit cards.
Doing this on the screen will appear an interface that can be either:
- friendly and polite
- cold
- patronizing and frustrating

(The connection between objects and screen is given by photocells)

After people will experience this device we would like to have a feed back from them about their emotions. This will make us understand what people trust, what they enjoy and what they expect from an interface.

At the moment we are figuring out how these interfaces should appear graphically.

Attending the workshop

2008-03-13T13:13:00.000-07:00

Tom Igoe's workshop is quite intensive and still many times I feel lost, but I try to follow as much as I can..

On Monday it was such a pleasure to see a simple interface working on my computer. It was a simple circle on a black background that could move up and down and change colour based on how I turned the potentiometer! Of course this was made with help from Tom and Christer, but The good point was to understand the wires connections on the Arduino board! Codes instead are still a kind of mistery..but I got some basic principles.

Tom Igoe’s workshop plan

2008-03-07T16:04:00.000-08:00

Introduction

Ingrid and I are working on the brief “Interactions of transactions”.
The main brief about this field is: What kinds of interfaces would be ideal for transactions and how might they be implemented on the mobile phone using RFID technology? How might we add valuable new interactions, services or information into the transaction process that makes it more useful than simple payments?

We started our journey into this field going around in the city and analyzing transactions that are in our daily life. We would like to end up with some projects that are critic toward the existing scenario.
At the moment we are thinking to a global system, either connected to the parking-entrance to Oslo or to the transportation system in the city.
At the same time we believe it is important to introduce these new technologies to people, creating specific services to make them trustful and understandable.

Our problem definition is: how can we make transactions less frustrating and more trustful and understandable?

We ran two workshops and as a next step we would like to map people’ experiences connected to transactions, how people relate to transactions.

The Workshop

During the Tom Igoe’s workshop we would like to construct a device that provokes emotions. We want to look into forms, sounds and languages (tones), related to the different type of emotions through interfaces, to modulate emotions from a platform.

The first step is to decide which emotions to take into consideration.

The idea is to create a cube, probably a white plastic one, that if placed on a reader communicates with the screens and generates different kinds of interfaces, like a happy interface, or an annoying one or a super quick one, for example.
It will be very valuable to see people’ reactions to what appears on the screen. We would like them to give us a feedback about the feelings they got experiencing the device.

This will make us understand what people trust and what is frustrating. In this way we can angle our project, to generate good solutions involving RFID technology and new services and values in the future transactions.

Workshop_2

2008-03-07T15:57:00.000-08:00

Ingrid and I decided to run another workshop yesterday to try to generate some more tangible ideas in connection to our brief.

Me, Ingrid, Marianne, Knut, Christer and Martin participated at the workshop.

We gave a problem definition:
“How can we make transactions less frustrating and more trustful and understandable?”

Later we asked to write on post-it notes all the words that came in people mind in association with “trustworthy” and “frustration”.
Afterwards we grouped the words and we gave a title to every group.
Then we asked to generate ideas that would answer to our problem definition using these concepts.

Some of the ideas we generated were valuable.

Less frustration in a transaction:

- The concept of “wrong” doesn’t exist anymore. People are always right, no matter what they do. So they have the power.
- Award anyone that goes through a tough transaction with chocolate.
- At any transaction there should be a bubble of tranquillity to focus, calm and not make feel embarrassed the actors.
- One gate for “effective” users and one for “new-slow” users.

Transaction more trustworthy:

- Use RFID tags as cash vaults similar to money but with variable value.
- To create a device that tells always the truth. You can test it before starting a transaction, for example asking: “Which colour are my eyes?”
- Show the transaction history of a sale point to new customers.
- The language disappears. Other kinds of interactions more intuitive.
- No on line system anymore, people trust more mechanics, so back to the tangible.

Possible problem definitions

2008-03-05T15:15:00.000-08:00

Ingrid and I tomorrow are going to run another workshop to investigate more about our field and try to generate valuable ideas.
Yesterday we were trying to generate a good problem definition…

How can we...

How can we make transactions less frustrating and more trustful and understandable?

How can we create a global system that involves every means of transportation?

How can we make people trust RFID transactions more and more?

Thinking…

Arduino workshop

2008-03-05T14:08:00.000-08:00

Today, as a first thing, we learned how to solder different components together.
Afterwards we worked with Arduino. The relationship between me and this program seems like improving more and more!
The task for today was to try to give power to a motor. After this we connected a potentiometer and we could adjust the speed of the motor.
It was nice to see the motor working, but for me the most important thing was to look at the board and understanding all the connections. Everything made sense!

Outcomes

2008-03-03T05:16:00.000-08:00

Thought_13

From the workshop Ingrid and I arranged on Thursday, we basically got analytical results.
Now we have so much more parameters regarding transactions, but not a defined pattern.
We focused on words that are important for us connected to our field: values, trust, knowledge and frustration. Then we divided the workshop in four sections connected to the four themes.
We asked questions like:

List your main 3 values.

Which values do you associate to diverse transactions? (There were pictures of transactions)

How would you describe “value” visually?

Which transaction do you trust more? (There were pictures of transactions)

What do you trust in your daily life? (Based on people and products)

Can knowledge and trust be related?

What makes you frustrated in your daily life?

Which colour do you associate with frustration?

This workshop confirmed many things we knew from before, but we want to find out more what people trust and what they don’t.
That’s why we were thinking to organize another short workshop during this week where we will give a problem definition like for example:

How can people trust RFID transactions?
What will make people trust RFID transactions more?
Which kind of transactions can happen with RFID?
What people trust and what their values?

We also thought we can make a map of transactions that a person does in one day. It would be interesting to see where, how, why that person did that transaction but especially which feeling he/she got from it.
With Tom Igor it would be nice to create a device about that. Maybe a machine that a person has to click every time he/she does a transaction. So it would be easy for us to map the place and the feelings out coming from the action.

We think this could be interesting because we want to create a new kind of interaction, through RFID, that people would trust.

We also got a more specified idea for the task. It would be interesting to create an RFID Transport card that for the city of Oslo that would enables people to travel with every possible means of transportation: buses, boat, plane, car, car sharing, and flytoget. So again a sort of global system.

Workshop

2008-02-29T15:09:00.000-08:00

Thought_13

Ingrid and I arranged a 3 hours workshop yesterday to investigate about our field and especially about concepts connected to transactions.
Arranging the workshop we understood we wanted to know more about what people think concerning values, trust, knowledge and frustration related to transactions.
We decided to create a booklet for every person who was participating. They had to fill it, answering to the tasks we proposed.

Feedback

2008-02-25T16:03:00.000-08:00

Thought_12

On Friday Ingrid and I presented our investigation to the teachers and to the class.
We used as parameters trust and knowledge to analyze different transactions.
Timo recommended to take into consideration also other parameters like frustration, wondering at which point in the transaction this feeling appear, for example.
They also suggested taking a step back, not focusing already too closely on the parking system, but keeping our minds open to all the transactions.

Another important point is: “how physical shape and interaction can generate trust?”
We want to create something that people would trust, working also with service design to approach them, to introduce them to the new transaction. We want to understand how to build confidence and trust through transactions and interactions. This process involves also branding.

We also have to research about conversational interfaces. How do they communicate with us, with which tone and understand the role of people in the system.

Analyzing Transactions

2008-02-20T13:32:00.000-08:00

Thought_11

Analyzing Transactions

In between yesterday and today Ingrid and I have been analyzing transactions in our everyday environment and around in the city.
We took into consideration many kinds of them and we found out it would be interesting working with the parking system and try to improve it with the RFID technology.

We thought you could give more values to this experience and helping people, making it simpler through RFID technology.
We considered creating a prepaid card for parking connected to a system that enables you to “buy” more time if you are late through a simple sms. The idea is that you would get a remind 15 minutes before the time you set at the parking will expire and if you want to have more time you can just top up your card by sending an sms.

We gave attention also at the system and we think we could create an RFID prepaid card which is valid to pay the entrance to Oslo, the parking in parking houses and the normal parking on the streets. This could be something useful for people driving into the city.

Also the approach to the customers is important, so we want to take care how people will get in touch with this new system, how to get the right target to know about this and to make them to trust it.

2008-02-19T13:19:00.000-08:00

Thought_10

Main Task_Getting started

Brief_Interaction of Transactions

Yesterday we had to communicate our own direction for the main task to the teachers and to the class.
As I wrote on the previous post I was thinking to this global system where people will be able to pay with RFID for different transactions such as payment, tickets, personal transfers, access keys, parking, gym etc.
I spoke with Ingrid yesterday and she is interested too in this field, so we want to try to work together.
Our plan is to analyze transactions and to see how we can improve them using the RFID system as Timo suggested.
I was thinking at the Oyster card system in London and at the yellow symbol they have, which according to me represent and make the system recognizable everywhere.
Maybe we should go in that direction, having a symbol like that represents our global system. So everywhere you find it you know you can pay with RFID system.

But the global system is not the only direction we took into consideration. We were also thinking about travelling. When people are in a trip they usually forget how much money they are spending or in general, with credit card usually people don’t remember how much money they have, so it would be good to create a system that could help people in this.

Moreover we were thinking it would be good to help people in general, considering how they function together and how relationships work.

2008-02-14T15:25:00.000-08:00

Thought_9

Now is time for us to start the major task and I'm quite excited about it.
I'm satisfied about the four tasks we developed in the previous weeks and I think now I want to focus on transactions, trying always having as a focal point service design.
The brief “Interactions of transactions” sounds very interesting.
I think here the main point is to be able to make it more USEFUL than simple payments, and this means to add to the system some values and services that can be valuable for people. At the same time we also need to educate people to trust these new technologies and get familiar with them.
This could be an idea for a service… to create a new transaction and at the same time to try to develop a service around it that help people to get in touch with it.
I was also thinking about a global system…where we will be able to pay everything with our RFID phone, from paying the ticket for the bus, to use it to get access to the gym, maybe we can use it to take out money from the ATM machines and maybe it can also contain our personal information, becoming a sort of our ID.
At this point another problem rises: Is the mobile phone the right object to supply to all these actions? Maybe we need an object connected by Bluetooth to the mobile that we can have attached to the arm, for example…

I’m thinking and thinking…

Anyway I want to narrow down and just concentrate on a single transaction, but I think it is important to have clear the scenario around it.

2008-02-12T07:02:00.000-08:00

Thought_8

Here is the idea for the design of the 2 machines.

They are thought to be placed close to eachother as the shape suggests, but they can also be installed by themselves.

Now we have to start to think what we want to work at as a main project.

I really enjoyed this last task so I'm considering going for the brief "Interactions of Transactions". At the same time anyway I'm interested also at the brief "A graphic language fr RFID" which is about making symbol to visualize the RFID interaction.. maybe I can combine these two briefs...

2008-02-05T15:39:00.000-08:00

Thought_7 interaction design

Task_4

This week the task is to re-design the ticketing system for the Oslo Sporveien considering the use of RFID cards.
I’m working at this project with Natacha and Knut.
During the week end we have been taking pictures of the existing situation and yesterday we started to define our concept.
We basically want to use just the RFID machines to validate tickets and not having anymore machines that validate paper tickets. From here raises the challenge of making also the one way ticket with RFID technology and not in paper.
Consequently we thought that’s a sort of universal ticket that you have to buy in any case, both if you want to use it as a one way ticket or if you want to use it as a weekly, monthly etc. In this second case you have in some way to UPGRADE your ticket topping it up…
We thought to have a machine divided in two parts for the 2 options:
- 1. Genarate the ticket ( if you need just a one way ticket you are done and you go!)
- 2. Upgrade your ticket (topping it up and making it to become a dayly, weekly, monthly etc )

Now we are thinking to the design of the new tickets and machines.

2008-02-01T19:06:00.000-08:00

Thought6_interaction design

Task_3

Today we presented our concept for task 3. It is called tagger.com
It is a system that wants to empower the customers;
It is an underground system, consequently not allowed;
It is a kind of second layer information on products;
It is a Wikipedia of products to let know to people/consumers that don't see it themselves, what is going on in the world.

How it works: First step is to have something to communicate to the other customers. Then you go to tagger.com and on the tag generator you can create your own tag with the message you want to convey. In the future it will be possible to print out RFID tags. Afterwards you can go to the shop where they sell the product you want to communicate a message about and you stick the tag on it. Other customers can read it through their mobile phone with a RFID reader. In this way they are able to see if it is an approved or not approved product by you and by tagger.com. They will also read your message. If they want to find out more about that product, they can also go to the web site directly from the phone.
This system is against marketing and wants to make every consumer more aware about the products he is usually buying.

2008-01-28T16:41:00.000-08:00

Thought5_interaction design

Task_3

The task for this week is to develop new mobile services to increase conscientious behaviour in shopping, knowing that with conscience we mean “the ability that distinguishes whether our actions are right or wrong.
Me, Marianne and Gunnar thought to a system that gives power to the customers, a kind of underground structure where everyone can say freely what he thinks about a product and he can communicate it to others without any censorship.
Main points of the project are:
- it is concentrated on users
- it is underground
- the contribution to it is free (it gets something social)
- fighting the marketing
- secret but always visible (people get curious about it and maybe they join it)

2008-01-28T07:11:00.000-08:00

Thought4_interaction design

On Friday we have been presenting our project to the teachers and the class.
It was actually the first time we were trying our game, so it was something new also for us.
As a general feedback we got that the game was funny, but at the same time a bit annoying! The process of reading the questions and other information was a bit problematic and not too clear. We should have given more importance to some elements in the graphic.
But a good point that the teacher underlined is that we took a different directions, removing people from the RFID interaction. He defined our choice as “refreshing”, because we made it less obvious to make understand that it was a RFID interaction and we gave importance to the physical part of the game.
In conclusion if we make it easier it is going to be more fun!

2008-01-23T18:31:00.000-08:00

Today's work...

2008-01-23T11:43:00.000-08:00

Thought3_interaction design

Our RFID game!
Now is time for us to create something through the RFID technology! :-)
We have to create a tag that is going to be read from the reader and something should happen on the screen!
Yesterday we came out with making a quiz game! A question is going to appear on the screen, with 3 possible answers. Every answer has a colour. Then we are going to have tags which are placed around in the room. They are 9. They are going to be like 3 red, 3 green and 3 yellow, for example…and there are 3 players! Everyone is going to have a long stick to reach the correct tag and place it on the reader! The first who is going to do this wins! (of course if the answer is the correct one!)
Now we have to develop the idea…we are thinking to the tags and stick shapes and materials!
Yesterday we did some experiments about this.

2008-01-22T07:54:00.000-08:00

Thought 2_Interaction design

This week we are working with RFID technology...Something that I realized I have experienced already in my life, but that I didn’t know that much about! I remember when I was living in London I had an Oyster card. That was actually a very good method to pay the underground entrance. You top up your card and every time you use the public transportation, they take some money from the Oyster through RFID technology. You simply touch a reader with your card, and you pay.
During the lectures we also saw that in the Far East this technology is used through the mobile phone. Instead that touching the reader with a card, you pay touching the reader with your mobile phone (that needs of course to have a RFID tag inside).

2008-01-21T14:01:00.000-08:00

Thought 1_Interaction design

As a first task, last week, we have been reading literature about interaction design.
It was an overview about the history and contemporary practice of this field.
We had to pick out with five words or concepts that for us were interesting related to the different texts.
Natacha and I choose the words: “people”, “skills”, “information technology”, “products and us” and “context”.
The last concept according to me was the most valuable. We looked at the literature through that point of view and I think we came out with some interesting considerations.

Of course the context is a basic point for interaction design, but when we are talking about fictional products that becomes vital. Fictional products are those that don’t exist for real, but we can visualize them because of prototyping and to diffuse them through internet.
So people are able to create and spread these ideas thanks to the computer. If that wouldn’t exist, these concepts maybe would never been generated.

In the article “ Cultural Probes and the value of uncertainty “ the designers from the Royal College of Art tried to understand better the users involving them in the research phase, asking them to interact with their own house and analyzing the relationship with it and happening inside it.
In this case they used interaction design to understand the customers and to create new products. So they used interaction design to produce industrial design, having as a context the house and the family.

The role of context is very relevant also in the study made in Tokyo, Los Angeles and London to understand how portable devices mediate relationships to urban spaces and infrastructures.
The authors realised quite quickly that things were changing, based on the different city, but at the same time that everywhere people tried to create their own context inside the city context, generating phenomenon like “cocooning” and “camping” where they try to create their own space for example inside a public space.

Also in the article “Don’t design for “mobile” – design for mobility” the context concept is significant. In the past designers were designing thinking that people would remain in one place for a long period of time, but now the environment around the user is more and more dynamic.
We don’t have to design for the device, but for the context in which the device is being used.

2007-10-10T02:09:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we had a lecture about sound art. I’m actually interested on installations, but I didn’t know that much about what you can do with music and sounds, so for me it was a pleasure to listen to Natasha talking about her experience.

I think her exhibition about sounds not connected to reality was a very interesting idea.
I believe that’s the only way for people to concentrate on sounds.
Nowadays we all usually use more the view than all the other senses. In her exhibition this is not possible because the environment is completely dark and in this way you can really focus on music. You are able to forget about all the rest and probably to live a new experience, you are not used to. Perhaps we will always try in our mind to figure out what we are listening at, but I think we should just relax and stop to remind to reality. I’m probably going there today. I’m really curious to try it!

2007-10-10T02:08:00.001-07:00

Last week we had a very interesting lecture with Christian Tollestrup an associate professor PHD from Denmark. He taught us how from an idea you can arrive to a concept
Usually when I come up with a new idea I don’t follow a method. I think a lot, I research, I try to understand what users want, I try to visualize something that is not there yet, to imagine the future. This is our work.
He created an innovative method to do it. On the top of the pyramid there is the value mission, which means that you have to explain in words what you want to do. Under that there is the interaction vision, where you have to create a story to show the values you want to convey with the product. Then there is the concept and then the solution, which is the final object you will create. The interaction vision is the bridge between what you say you want and the transformation in a concept. Moreover it is very important to use metaphor. When you have a concept you need something to remind it. For example: I want to create “a bicycle fast as the wind”.
It was particularly exciting to try this process! I think we came out with very good ideas for a new bicycle for Simon!! :-)

2007-10-10T01:34:00.000-07:00

Some weeks ago we had two lectures with Eva Brandt. She taught us how games can be important in the research phase, to understand better who our customers are, and to imagine future scenarios and visions.

I think the best part of the experience we had with her, was when we had to create a game.
It was actually quite challenging, I never did it before, but it turned out to be fun and useful at the same time. The purpose of the game was to encourage people to come out with new ideas based on the inspiration cards they received during the game. According to me the game was valuable because the cards (they were pictures of objects, materials, colours or settings taken from magazines) gave to people so much inspiration to come out with something completely new, they probably could never imagine without that kind of stimulation.

2007-09-09T09:35:00.000-07:00

Last Tuesday we have been visiting an photography exhibition called Absence, by Mikkel McAlinden. I have really enjoyed it..but the best part was to have the photographer there..He has been answering to all our questions and with that background I saw the pictures from another point of view!
He took pictures of ordinary places, like his own kitchen, or some houses during night, or skyscrapers from the top.. but he transformed these spaces in something special.. especially in the picture with the skyscrapers! They are not simply buildings..they are a composition…something that put all together gives an emotion..that picture is amazing.. I love the perspective and the strong tension that brings you to watch towards the bottom..but at the same time there is so much going on all around... It is like if you would like to watch all the points of the picture at the same moment…and at the same time this piece of art has quite big dimensions.. so you can’t do that..
I liked a lot also those two pictures with light effects.. At first sight you think it is something so abstract.. a composition, but then on the extreme side of the picture you recognize something familiar..some books.. and this brings you back to reality..to something that you know.. I like this contrasting emotions..

While I was looking at the exhibition anyway some questions poped up in my mind.. When (or how) you decide that a pictures is so perfect ( or maybe imperfect! ) to be exhibited somewhere? What makes a picture great and another one just mediocre and ordinary?? Let’s take two pics and lets say the both of them are technically perfect..how do you chose which one is the best? is it because of the emotions they can give you? I think so.. I would do that..

2007-09-01T01:58:00.000-07:00

Thinking...searching...googling ... and something caught my attention..a explaination about creativity:
"because creativity is based on a deep knowledge of rules to exceed, a person, to be creative needs some specifical characteristics: curiousity, need of order and success (not economic), indipendence, critical, not satisfied, to have self-discipline."
I actually felt my self beeing so similar to this description.. which I think is a good start for this course!

I think that as designer we have to be very creative.. but it is not something artistic..to be a designer means to find the right balance between been craziness and rules in some way..

2007-08-28T11:04:00.000-07:00

Today first lecture of a course called Exploring Creativity.. from the name sounds very cool... and actually it is!

My studying experience in Norway is more and more interesting.. I feel like it's opening my mind so much! And...I feel that I really need a course like this.. I consider myself a creative person..but still too analytical sometimes...and also still too afraid to be wrong!! Actually...I want to be wrong! Be strong, be wrong! I'm sure this course will help me!

For now I was thinking to explore the different approaches to creativity in different cultures..like the Italian and the Norwegian.. Still I'm not sure..but I would like to realte these two coutries, which I love for different reasons and see them from a creative point of view!

Thinking...