CLASSICS
The Strategy David Korten
Design for Democracy African Style Wendy MacNaughton
Bruce Mau and the Apotheosis of Data David Stairs
English and Palinese Victor Margolin
Agenda for a 21st Century India Report Arvind Lodaya
First Name Basis (Part 2) Wes Janz
Design-Altruism-Project has been included in the recently published Blogs: Mad About Design from Barcelona’s maomao publications, and Singapore’s Page One. Edited by Macarena San Martin and featuring over 500 pages and 243 sites from the design blogosphere, the book promises to be a resource for anyone with an interest in contemporary online design discourse. D-A-P is honored to be a participant in this project.
Wes Janz
In Part 1 of this two-part post, I called for a “humane architecture” and reflected on the challenges and potentials found when designers put people at the center of our work.
Among the individuals and architectures discussed: Mary Martha and a dormitory for border crossers returned to Mexico; Michael’s block in Camden, New Jersey; and the “meanwhile house” of Emilia in Panama City, Panama. Three profiles set out persons making their way in difficult conditions: Adam in Flint, Michigan; Rasika post-tsunami in Kalametiya, Sri Lanka; and John, the mayor, Braddock, Pennsylvania.
Nihal Perera and Wes Janz (in trench, right to left) participate in an “auspicious moment” in Kalametiya, Sri Lanka, March 2005, four months post-tsumami. House owner Manoj extended this honor and gave instructions, as the ceremony was coordinated with the Sun, stars, moons, and Earth. Rasika’s house was built adjacent to Manoj’s. (Photo by Kwanlert Nunthavisith)
Wes Janz
1. It’s two years since the Midwess Distress Tour, a 6-day drivathon with architecture students, organized by Olon Dotson and me. To challenged places, abandoned lives, upstart efforts. Detroit, Flint, Gary, Chicago, East St. Louis, and Cincinnati. Written up as “Compared to What?” Posted on Archinect in early 2007.
Then, Olon mixed a 6-CD soundtrack and “Compared to What?” was there. Eugene McDaniels (lyrics) “love the lie and lie the love,” Les McCann (vocals) “hangin’ on with a push and shove,” and Eddie Harris on tenor sax “tryin’ to make it real.”
I’ve been on the road quite a bit since— Gulf Coast, West Coast, East Coast, Rust Belt, Central America, Middle East, south Asia, east Asia—lookin’, as McCann sings, at “the motivation that is hangin’ up the God-damn nation.”
Messin’ with myself. Seein’, but more importantly, wantin’ to believe.
Victor Margolin
Illustration by Lucien Stairs
As a remedy to the current economic downturn, economists tell us that we have to spend more money to keep the financial system from collapsing. This advice is on a collision course with the admonition to conserve resources for ecological reasons and save money for future needs. Should spending slow down, we are told, millions of jobs will be lost. But let’s look closer at the situation. Should addicts and recreational drug users continue to buy drugs to keep pushers from seeking unemployment compensation? Similar to the thousands of parts suppliers who are supported by the automobile industry, think about all the jobs that would be lost if drug users went cold turkey. What about all the luxury industries that drug dealers with fistfuls of cash support? Fancy hotel suites, expensive clothes, limousine services, luxury cars, fine restaurants, gold chains and more. Thousands of people work in these industries and earn their livelihoods indirectly from drug money. And what about the huge industry of drug prevention? Drug counselors, methadone suppliers, and anti-drug campaigns that employ thousands of soldiers, FBI agents, and advertising agencies.
Editor’s Note: With this article we celebrate the third anniversary of the Design-Altruism-Project. Always intended as an outlet for the unheralded young who are doing good work for the unknown and forgotten, it is appropriate that we enter our fourth year with the following account by a Ugandan-born designer, now working in America, who is attempting to assist her former countrymen. DS
Julian Kiganda
I’ve always wanted to use design as a way to build bridges and literally cross borders. The development of the Designers Without Borders Online Design Exchange has allowed me to do just that. The program came about as an idea that I had to connect designers in Africa to mentors in the US and allow them access to knowledge, techniques and skills that they may not otherwise have in their sometimes less-than-ideal academic environments.
Born in Uganda but raised in America, I have had the privilege of a very good formal education. Thanks to our African tradition, it was ingrained in me that education is almost sacred. A good education was just as important to me as it was to my parents because I knew that with it came the power to better control your destiny. I recently found an essay from my junior year of high school where I wrote: “As an individual hoping to pursue a career in graphic arts, I came to the conclusion that although I may never be one to step into the political arena, art—as an alternate means of communication—can still be very effective. Sometimes art is the best way to relay a message to the rest of the world for the mere fact that there are no words to contend with; only what is seen in the eye of the beholder.”
I’m blessed to be able to say that I’m doing exactly what I’ve always wanted to do: using art and technology to communicate ideas and influence thought and action. What’s even better is that I’m able to use this same passion to enhance the education of Ugandan students across the Atlantic. Technology is a beautiful thing.
Andrew, Ruth, Michael, Susan, and Nicholas. DWB’s first online mentees. June 25 through August 15, 2007.
David Stairs
Kasule Kizito is not your everyday Ugandan. For one thing, he’s too direct. He says what he thinks without undue regard for taboos or political correctness. In an oral culture this of itself is amazing. For example, he’s the only African I know who’s not in ecstasies over Obama’s victory. Kizito had wanted Hillary. And then there’s the matter of his goals in life. A few years ago (2002) he was determined to build his Mother a house to replace the one she’d occupied for 50 years. He succeeded, and she enjoyed it until her death last year. He also decided to try to repurchase the parcels of land adjacent to his traditional home in Masaka that had been sold after the death of his grandfather. But even that pales when you consider the school.
Overlooking Lake Victoria at NIAAD
Raymond Prucher
“In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.” - Desiderius Erasmus
Images taken at the Qalandia checkpoint inside the West Bank, well beyond the ‘Green Line’ that was set up by the 1949 Armistice.
I became a designer in Palestine. In 2003, three years after we’d met during our graduate studies in New York, I flew with my wife to her home in Jaffa. We spent the Christmas holiday together with her family, then parted ways. I came back to New York, a newlywed without a wife. As a Fulbright scholar, she was required to spend two years at home, applying her new degree, before she could again enter the United States. This was the start of my three years as ustaaz (teacher) fanuun ou tasmiim (art and design) in the Arab world.
David Stairs
I was trudging through my local neighborhood big-box megastore the other day en route to my weekly rendezvous with groceries when I found myself in what passes for the book section. This isn’t a Borders experience; more somewhere between B. Dalton and the magazine rack at the local regional airport. So I wasn’t surprised to see Marley & Me spin offs, but I was a little taken aback by what Victor Margolin calls “Obamiana.” There was a lot of it.
More Barack than Marley on the shelf at Meijer’s
David Stairs
I’ve never been a joiner. When I was eleven years old I signed up for the Boy Scouts. All my friends were in Scouts. It was the thing to do in those days. I soldiered on for three years, through weekly meetings, camping trips, merit badges, fundraisers and all. But as soon as high school came along, I was done. To this day I have an aversion to joining organizations. If you go to the end of my resumé you will not find the typical long list of affiliations common to academic CVs. Something about the Boy Scout experience stayed with me.
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