Fall 09 / P1 / Cultural Probe / Round 2

The Thought Journal: When re-evaluating my "thought catcher" I realized that I am interested most in the thought, where the mind wanders while engaged in the ritual of being in the coffee shop. I don't want to be too intrusive in their process I just want to capture the thought as it is happening. And in return make the person aware of the wandering thoughts.

My New Idea: Provide a Thought Catching Journal that is left on the tables for the individual to discover, contribute and explore.

An interior page reads,
"What are you doing in the coffee shop today; reading a book, studying, having a meeting, texting a friend, day dreaming? Amidst this facade the mind wanders. Where does it go? This journal here is a way to capture those thoughts. Keep it with you the entire time you are in the coffee shop today and take pause each time a wandering thought enters your mind to record here in these pages.

Before you leave return the thought journal to the collecting bin near the doors and visit www.justathoughtproject.com to see what other thoughts are floating around the shop beneath the surface."

Each page has a place at the top to record the date, time and what they are doing at that time, then space for their thoughts.





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Fall o9 / P1 / Cultural Probe / Round 1

The Thought Catcher: Ritual and a Cultural Probe: Are the rituals performed in the coffee shop experience just part of an illusion of busyness or importance, a facade? Where does the mind wander during those ritualistic experiences? What are the thoughts beneath the surface of ritual?
My Probe: A single blank nesting doll is left randomly on tables, with a kit for creation inside including, a sheet of paper with directions and small colored pencils.

The customer is first prompted to capture what they were thinking of the second before they encountered the doll and write that thought on a piece of paper that will then be rolled up and placed inside the nesting doll. They are then encouraged to imaginatively represent their coffee shop persona on the outer most doll (through drawing, color, writing, etc.) and prompted to create directly onto the blank canvas of the doll.

The directions read:

just a thought...

What were you thinking about the moment before you encountered this object? Capture in your mind that thought and hold it there. Record your thought on the back of this paper. Then open the doll to place it inside.


An image...

What is your coffee shop persona? Are you all business, a slow sipper, a day dreamer, a book reader, a socialite? Using the tools provided and your imagination create directly onto the blank canvas of the doll a representation–a sketch, a sentence, or perhaps a single word–of who you are and what you do while here in this coffee shop.

and finally...

Place your captured thought and tools back into the doll and leave it in the collection bin near the register.

Then visit www.justathoughtproject.com
to view other representations and thoughts as well as your own.




Some creativity during critique...
contributors: Cady Bean-Smith, Tania Allen & Lauren Waugh...



contributors: Denise Gonzales Crisp, Kelly Bailey & Laura Rodriguez...


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Fall 09 / Cultural Probe / Findings

Upon explorations and musings on cultural probes getting at ritual I found that I am interested in where the mind wanders during those ritualistic experiences. What are the thoughts beneath the surface of ritual? And how can they be visualized? A "thought catcher" in a way. My classmate Tania, turned me towards a rather compelling photographic study (wish I would have thought of this on my own, and never told that this actually existed, although my photographs couldn't have been nearly as breathtaking). Explore The Thought Project by Simon Hoegsberby. [...]

Fall 09 / P1 / A Story

This semester is all about culture (Design as a Cultural Experience, to be exact). We could sit in the studio discussing culture round the clock (which I am sure we will take a stab at), and/or we could get out there and experience, observe, explore and wonder a bit. We start things off with the latter. For seminar we are to take a stab at a Thick Description (See Clifford Geertz's writings on this). The description is to be based off of observations in a local coffee shop. I camped out in a Starbucks on the corner of Gleenwood Ave. and Peace St. and the fun began. From our observations we began our first Studio Project...

The assignment: Write a story from the perspective of a player in the experience, i.e. a particular customer, barista, dishwasher, busboy, manager, delivery person, etc.

I choose a curiously contemplative customer. Check mine out:

Blessed rain. I hadn't had the heart to look out my park facing windows for several weeks now and watch as the grass turned to brown. Loraine would have loved this drop in temperature. She would have pulled out her fingerless gloves her daughter had made, then tugged at the imperfections. She would have reminisced about the good old days when we were neighbors, young mothers, with "tight assess", she would have said, on that Michigan cul-de-sac. I would have laughed then prayed that any foul language that finds its way out of her lips will taste like dirty gravel in her mouth.

Dear God, give Loraine's family the strength for another day and unwavering faith. I pray that you will soften their hearts to your words, to your guidance and that when unforgiveness tries to take root in their soul that YOU will pluck it out by the roots and replace it with the peace that passes all understanding. I pray that when all else fails...

Oh, is this a break in the rain? I should go now so I don't have to fumble with that awful umbrella.

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