Eileen Levinson: An Analog Wiki Map

My perspective on design today is largely the product of two sources: feminism, and interactive media.

As a student at CalArts, I am continuously conscious of ways in which feminist strategies have shaped postmodern design: valuing collaboration, specificity to the subject matter, and subjectivity in voice.

Similarly, the trends in current technology have expanded these postmodern notions. With a boom in self-publishing and open source programming, designers are pushing the interactive capacity of their work. The agenda is not to concretize the singular statement of one author, but to find meaning, and occasionally consensus, in the nuances of a group dialogue.

I chose to map design as an “analog” wiki to serve as both a conceptual model for the design process, and to determine the tenets of design that have the most current significance to my community of students at CalArts.

I established a set of 30 terms which has been most used by peers in previous trials. Over the course of the video, the first maps differ drastically from each other. Eventually, the change slows as students recognize points of agreement and negotiation.

Comments

[Monika Parrinder]

Hi,
This project is very interesting and I hope you don't mind but I used as an example it to feed into a discussion on www.limitedlanguage.org a web-platform for discussion about visual communication. The blog is called Who are the Semionauts? - a semionaut a reconfiguration of the designer in to someone who makes links and connections in culture. I am sure you'll understand that I don't claim to speak for your intentions, I have simply posted some thoughts on how your mapping projects illuminate something for me on this topic. I would welcome your thoughts if you feel this characterises an aspect the potentional of mapping - or not!
Best Wishes in your work,
Monika Parrinder

http://www.limitedlanguage.org/discussion/index.php/archive/who-are-the-semionauts/

[Monika Parrinder]

Sorry about the spelling mistakes above. The laziness of speed - it's one of the evils of blogs and wikis!