DesignInquiry

Some links relevant to Lynn’s ‘virtual fence’ presentation:

NY Times - 28 Mile Virtual Fence

Watching Baghdad Gated Communities Develop

Blast walls of Baghdad becoming oases of art

Art prankster sprays Israeli wall

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An interview with him about his recent logocities symposium which addresses identity in some ways:

http://news.concordia.ca/faculties/009277.shtml

Also, another item from Matt about his drive to DI from Montreal to Portland:

Montreal to Portland (2007)

Sound: Owen Chapman
Video: Matt Soar
Editing: Frances Millerd

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from Maryam Hosseinnia (DesignInquiry participant 2003)

I don’t think I am unique in this situation; I am just another voice with my own experience. People cross Atlantic all the time, and people do hold more than one passport. However, I think my situation is distinct in this given time and space.

I hold two passports and neither give me feeling of protection, especially, today when there are three American Citizens missing in Iran. And, I don’t particularly feel secure or proud to want to show off this documentation, especially when traveling.

Passport is an official document certifying individual’s identity and citizenship, with a right to travel. When I was nine years old, my mother removed me from her passport and my first individual passport was issued to my name. From early on, I knew this document was an important piece of identity to have; always keep it current and it is ones ticket out in case of emergency or pleasure. Also, I think having pages of visa entries stamp on the passport definilty is a good conversation piece and can be very inspiriting. It is a confidence booster. It is documented that one is adventurous, appreciates history, culture, people, food, education, and of course, travel.  Not to mention the fact that each visa stamp is a work of art by itself.

I hold two passports. I am a citizen of two countries, Iran and the States. Both have been in conflict with one for decades.

One passport has my hair covered, and the other uncovered. My Iranian passport has the United States as my country of residence. My American passport has Iran down as place of Birth.

It is evident that 9/11 to present has changed our lives, how we look at our own surroundings and global perspective. The media ponders over tensions, fear and lack of trust in one another. I am not sure where we are headed!

I wonder how to bring the personal touch of ones self on to this document? What if one page or spread is dedicate to the individual choice of self exploration to place family photos, or with a use of collogue define ones identity? Something that can say a bit more than just name and numbers!

The design of American passport has been modified in recent years. The colors of choice can improve. (Boy/girl colors?) It would be great to bring a little more life to this document that becomes ones “identity” for a decade.

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from The New Yorker

Surveillance Society
by Caleb Crain
The Mass-Observatoin movement and the meaning of everyday life.

From Peter:

I’m attaching an article from the New Yorker about the “Mass Observation Unit” founded in the UK in the 1930s that will might inspire you (as it has me)…its organizers were a sort of group of intellectural ne’erdowells who set about building an “anthropology of ourselves” by observing the minutiae of everyday life…one mass-observation book titled “The Pub and Its People” introduces the term “swiggling,” the moving of a nearly empty glass in circles, “so that the beer eddies round and round.”

Here’s a link to the article:
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/09/11/060911crat_atlarge

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I recently had the pleasure of receiving my updated American Express Blue card as my old card had expired. Ever since “Blue” was introduced, I’ve been a total sucker for the card. Something about the clear plastic combined with the blue holographic square, the “Membership Rewards” (which sure would be more of a reward if I paid my card off in full every single month), and AmEx’s generally excellent customer service make this my card of choice. But before I start sounding like an advertisement for American Express: when I got my card this time, I can’t say I was happy.

In 1999, when Blue was introduced and the Optima card I had through college was phased out, my replacement credit card arrived in the mail with a computer peripheral intended to enhance my online shopping experience. Blue itself had a “smart” chip embedded that, when using the card in the peripheral device, would automatically populate internet order forms. At the time, it never occurred to me that this could be a security issue. But because I had a Mac and not a PC, I couldn’t use this attachment anyway (though I really wanted to).

Fast forward to 2005:
American Express started shipping Blue card with embedded RFID tags. If you’re not familiar, RFID stands for “Radio-frequency identification”. RFID is technology that allows information to be passed wirelessly between two or more items in close proximity. What this means is I can use my credit card without “swiping” it. This is supposed to add a level of convenience to the user; they can just walk to a compatible payment kiosk, wave a card near the terminal and the payment is done.

The technology also isn’t new: in 1997 Mobil introduced SpeedPass which uses RFID technology. By 2001 you could use your SpeedPass - a key fob - to pay for gas just by waving your keys at the gas pump. This program then expanded to include Mobil gas station convenience stores and eventually could be used at McDonald’s (though the McDonald’s-SpeedPass partnership went south in 2004).

It’s true I was little late to the party getting my first RFID credit card in late 2006, but I wasn’t really in a hurry. Though I’m an early adopter for plenty of technology, I’m skeptical of technology that relates to my sensitive personal information. I don’t like the idea of any of my personal information just floating around, waiting for someone to catch it.

Which is why I was a bit dismayed when I got my Blue card with the RFID chip. I don’t care that American Express gives me a guarantee against fraud, I just don’t like it.

Because I wasn’t so thrilled about the technology in my replacement card, I called Amex to ask them if I could get a Blue card sans RFID. The first rep I spoke with thought this might be possible, but after I was transferred to a more knowledgeable rep I was informed that my only choice was to keep the Blue card I was given or cancel my Blue account entirely.

My main issue with RFID is that the information is easy to glean. It used to be that if a stranger walked by me on the street they have no immediate way of getting any personal or account information about me unless I stop and show them my wallet. With my RFID card, someone with the right equipment can get information about me or an account without my consent. Yes, the information is encrypted but that doesn’t mean it’s 100% secure. Case in point: In early 2005, RSA Security and a team of Johns Hopkins students broke the Speedpass encryption and used a duplicate they made to purchase gas.

This news should comforting given that most US Passports now use RFID chips capable of holding 64k of info (which is a lot of information considering that most of the HTML content of web pages I build are between 8 and 16k and the New York Times home page is 99k).

What exactly is on this was hard for me to pin down: one source says this includes passport holder’s name, nationality, gender, date of birth, place of birth, digitized photo, passport number, issue date, expiration date and type of passport. And 64k leaves room for a lot more.

While I could go on about the concerns (for passports alone, see wikipedia), the point is this: unlike a transaction in which I choose to provide information to another party (whether that be a server or a teller at a bank), RFID compromises my ability to choose to broadcast information which I might otherwise choose to keep to myself.

While RFID “shields” and “sleeves” are being manufactured for everything from credit cards to drivers licenses and passports, these shielding technologies are a questionable fix for a problem we’ve made ourselves. I can’t understand why RFID is being used for documents with such sensitive information instead of a technology which requires a physical connection or direct scan. Why is our personal privacy being compromised yet again for the sake of security and convenience when other more secure and equally convenient alternatives exist?

Additional reading:
Engadget - Dutch RFID Passport Cracked
Wikipedia - RFID
Wikipedia - RFID Biometric Passport
Wikipedia - Speedpass

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Someone (or some zombie junk bot) using the alias “Allan” sent a spam message out using an email address of mine. Ok, they spoofed a valid email address but they got my name wrong. I got the bounce back message when the mail was undeliverable to its end user.
Interestingly enough, this spam message is pitching logo design. The message reads (in graphic text): “Your visual image is too important to experiment with it. Professional help with logos: www.makemelogo.com”

I would be really sad for myself if I actually were sending these messages. And I wonder if any potential clients have gotten a message from me pitching logos “on demand”.

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let’s say that design, whatever it is, causes behavioral patterns, in lab rats, in citizens, in electronics, etc. and when margo asked me how or if transsexual issues (a part of my identity) relate to ‘design’ i got flustered. to me they do. as a strong athletic kid i got harassed because people were uncertain and uncomfortable about my gender, and then as a masculine female i got so used to being harassed and chased out of public bathrooms because of my gender representation that i just learned to avoid situations and people. i learned that completely random people can react with such aggression when my body questions the arbitrariness of their classification system that it becomes undeniable. about 2 years ago i decided to stop trying so hard and transition from female-to-male. by now things have changed, the aggression has stopped, i feel at ease with my transitioning body, i pass as male, but i know that the moment i get read as deceiving the system i might be a dead duck.

__it is actually really hard to say with certainty who of us is born male or female as the social invisibility of successful women and men who have undergone gender corrections supports the notion that transsexualism is extremely rare. However, intense transsexualism is not all that uncommon. Recent calculations indicate that the condition occurs in about 1 out of every 250 to 500 children born as boys, and that about 1 in every 2500 males in the U.S. has already undergone surgical sex reassignment. Transsexualism is thus more than twice as prevalent as multiple sclerosis (MS), cerebral palsy or cleft lip/palate conditions. besides that, roughly 1.7 out of every 100 children born involve babies with varying degrees of intersexual development. and that is a hell of a lot of people.

__long story short, i think that as long as we will continue to perpetuate the idea of simplified perfection, designers with their ability of creating authenticity, reality, and binary classification systems have everything to do with transsexual issues. - luke
for all kinds of links see www.luckytrunks.blogspot.com

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[Below is a project involving Chris Thompson, a DI’05 participant. Two PDFs related to this post can be found at the end of this entry]

As some of you on this lengthy list already know, my colleagues Gwen Allen and Iain Kerr and I edited/compiled a two-part project recently published in the journal Performance Research which gathered entries from colleagues across many disciplines for a “dictionary of re-received ideas”… key terms, concepts, sounds, images, etc. that, taken together, could
constitute a set of tools for generating research.

The first version of the project took shape as an attempt to figure out what it would mean to cross Flaubert’s “Dictionary of Received Ideas” with Fluxus artist Robert Filliou’s “Research on Research.” The full proposal for what was ultimately published in Performance Research — and to which many of you contributed — is below, and the 2 volumes of the project are attached in pdf form for your review.

We have had substantial interest in the idea of collecting additional entries, expanding current ones, and developing the entire project a bit further in the direction of its own publication. We would be delighted if you would consider participating in the project — now that the constraints on form and length are less of a concern, we are able to invite longer entries, additional images, essays, etc. We’d imagine folding new and expanded contributions into the dictionary as it exists, but are most open to the idea that contributions/suggestions could change this substantially.

Please let us know if you’d be interested to participate and what you might like to contribute — as yet we’ve not set deadlines etc. but would hope to begin to gather things sometime late spring, though we’re happy to be flexible about deadlines if you have ideas that require additional time.

All the best,

Chris

Below is a full description of the project as we proposed it. We are open to your suggestions and look forward to the possibility of working with you. If you are interested to contribute, we ask that you send us your contribution by December 1, 2005?¢?Ǩ?Äùif you are inclined to contribute but expect to require more time, please be in touch with us and we can make other arrangements.

This collaborative project uses two earlier perverse scholarly initiatives?¢?Ǩ?ÄùFrench Fluxus artist Robert Filliou?¢?Ǩ?Ñ¢s 1971 project ?¢?Ǩ?ìResearch at the Stedelijk?¢?Ǩ¬ù and Gustave Flaubert?¢?Ǩ?Ñ¢s ?¢?Ǩ?ìDictionary of Received Ideas?¢?Ǩ¬ù?¢?Ǩ?Äùto develop the framework for a generative dictionary of key themes and terms in contemporary performance research. Filliou?¢?Ǩ?Ñ¢s project was a self-reflexive inquiry into research methodology: essentially research about research. Instead of beginning the research process with a specific topic in mind, he set out to develop over the course of several weeks a research agenda that would permit him to discover what was worth researching, and to invent a methodology that would help him to determine what a useful methodology would be for researching research. Much more widely known, Flaubert?¢?Ǩ?Ñ¢s dictionary, unfinished in his lifetime, compiled a list of definitions for some of the choicest received wisdoms and witticisms of his day.

What interests us about both of these prior projects is the mechanisms that they invent in order to create novel positions with respect to the production of knowledge. Following in this line, we imagine that the intersection between the two fields of inquiry marked out by Filliou?¢?Ǩ?Ñ¢s and Flaubert?¢?Ǩ?Ñ¢s projects would take the form of a provisional dictionary, culled from the input of various invited colleagues (artists, critics, theorists, historians, and various other deviants), that could help establish a toolkit for crafting an approach to understanding what forms of practice, and of thinking through practice, are taking shape as central ones to the future of performance research.

We understand this field in the broadest possible sense; anyone pushing at the definitions of what research might entail, even if he/she/they have little or no explicit relationship to what is typically understood by the term ?¢?Ǩ?ìperformance,?¢?Ǩ¬ù are welcome?¢?Ǩ?Äùindeed they are sought.

Often lists of key terms?¢?Ǩ?Äùfor a discourse, a field, a process or series of them?¢?Ǩ?Äùdo not reach out to engage with the relationalities between the terms, whose interactions produce the space of meaning. Stein and Hemingway used essentially the same words; their relations make their work so different.

Beginning, as did Filliou, with the question of what is worth doing, we intend to solicit responses from a range of contributors who we shall ask to provide us with a list of terms that they consider to be crucial ones in their efforts to understand what is at work and at stake for them in the field of contemporary performance. What terms haunt them, chase them, elude them, guide them in their inquiry? They will be invited to provide terms with and/or without definitions/elaborations, to send us their input in sketch form?¢?Ǩ?Äùvisual, verbal or otherwise. We will then collate them and begin the work of regrouping them, massaging them into a map of points of entry into contemporary debates.

The objective here is to develop a document that is at once an archive about and as performance.

On the one hand, we hope in some sense to ?¢?Ǩ?ìrescue?¢?Ǩ¬ù certain terms from their overdetermined status in current critical discourse, and on the other hand to capture other terms at the threshold of becoming ?¢?Ǩ?ìreceived?¢?Ǩ¬ù (an entry, for example, would be: ?¢?Ǩ?ìBoundaries: these are always pushed and/or blurred, particularly those separating art and life.?¢?Ǩ¬ù Or: ?¢?Ǩ?ìFlux: always paired with ?¢?ǨÀúflow,?¢?Ǩ?Ñ¢ and seen to be eminently superior to anything static, particularly where ideas or practices are concerned.?¢?Ǩ¬ù) Certain entries from Flaubert?¢?Ǩ?Ñ¢s text retain their import today?¢?Ǩ?Äù?¢?Ǩ?ìART: Leads to the workhouse. What use is it since machines can make things better and quicker??¢?Ǩ¬ù?¢?Ǩ?Äùand would thus be worth folding into our own dictionary.

Our intention, then, is to create a diagrammatic dictionary of differing forms of relations that correspond to artists, ?¢?ǨÀúmovements,?¢?Ǩ?Ñ¢ or possible positions?¢?Ǩ?Äùand to find in this the possibility of revitalizing certain constellations or inventing new composites.

We welcome any input and advice you may have, and hope that you will be interested to contribute. Again, there are any number of options for forms that contributions might take, likely many we have not imagined. You may wish to insist on the inclusion of one of Flaubert?¢?Ǩ?Ñ¢s own entries, a kind of readymade; revise, rewrite, or supplement one of those entries; invent one or more new ones; create entries or parts of them that include images, diagrams, poetry, etc. We may have to edit a contributions but are more than happy to respect any requests you have concerning presentation, format, and to circulate our work back to you for your review and input before finalizing it.

Flaubert?¢?Ǩ?Ñ¢s Dictionary can be viewed online at
http://www.robotwisdom.com/flaubert/bouvard/idees.html

We look forward to the possibility of working with you.

Sincerely,

Gwen Allen, Assistant Professor of Art History at the Maine College of Art

Iain Kerr, Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary Studio Practices in the Maine College of Art MFA Program

Chris Thompson, Assistant Professor of Art History and Theory in the Maine College of Art MFA Program

PDF 1
PDF 2

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I really liked this article and thought you all might enjoy it as well. It expresses some of what I think we tried to address at times at D.I. regarding developing a democratic design process that can effect change. How do we get our surrounding communities/educational systems to engage in design and art rather than being passive receivers while at the same time embracing new technologies? Can participatory methods of research and design creation produce quality process and product that is culturally inclusive of the groups we set out to engage? Do we need to start by changing the processes of learning that we teach our children? Do we really want to be the “experts?” Maybe our design work should include being expert facilitators of inclusive processes of creating.

Just a few things I have been dwelling on.

Jennifer

An Exhibition About Drawing Conjures a Time When Amateurs Roamed the Earth

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Just a few days ago I was working at a coffee house and had mostly completed my work for the afternoon, so I thought I’d take a moment to read the City Paper. When I went over to grab a copy of the paper from its wire rack, I noticed a stack of oversized paper packs just underneath. The 12×18 packs were printed in dark blue and white, with a large “PARTISAN PROJECT” set across the top of the cover followed by a quote reading:

Cover of Poster Pack

“The idea is that the state doesn’t have rights to limit individuals’ wants and passions. I disagree with that. I think we absolutely have rights because there are consequences to letting people live out whatever wants or passions they desire.”

This is a quote from Rick Santorum, some would say Pennsylvania’s most notorious (nefarious?) Senator. Inside of the pack, you’ll find a series of 11 posters, some of which feature more of Santorum’s, um, pearls of wisdom. The posters are by designers and artists David Burns, Art Chantry, Neil Donnelly, Brian Ponto, Post Typography, David Rees, John Riegert, Melina Rodrigo, Larkin Werner, Ted Williams, and Brett Yasko, with an essay by Chris Potter.

The posters vary in their degree of disdain for Santorum. Some of the posters are a bit tongue-in-cheek, while others are so serious in tone, the message sends shivers down my spine.

Neil Donnelly

A visit to the PARTISAN PROJECT website shows that the project was born in the time leading up to the 2004 presidential election. Wanting to know more about the project, an email inquiry sent to the project put me in touch with Brett Yasko, the designer who got PARTISAN PROJECT started. What follows is a series of questions and answers from our interview.

AT: From what I?¢?Ǩ?Ñ¢ve been able to gather, this is actually part two of a project that started in 2004. Can you tell me who spearheaded this project in 2004 and how it came about?

BY: I did. I was angry with President Bush. And I was frustrated by the non-partisan ?¢?Ǩ?ìGet Out the Vote?¢?Ǩ¬ù campaigns. I know they have merit but I felt that, in times like these, telling someone to ?¢?Ǩ?ìget out and vote?¢?Ǩ¬ù without explaining who they should vote FOR seemed almost reckless. It?¢?Ǩ?Ñ¢s funny, after the Project started getting some local and even national press, a guy wrote a letter to the editor here saying (sarcastically, I assume), ?¢?Ǩ?ìthis is just what we need — some artists and designers telling us who to vote for.?¢?Ǩ¬ù But he missed the point. The intent of the Project was never to actually change people?¢?Ǩ?Ñ¢s minds. If we did, great but that?¢?Ǩ?Ñ¢s asking a lot from a poster. The real goal for the Project was to preach to the choir of people who felt the same anger and disappointment with the current administration that we felt. And to give them a way to express themselves. It was also important to me to have a thoughtful essay to accompany the posters (and Chris Potter did a fantastic job with it). I wanted to get people interested and engaged in the election and then hit them with a ?¢?Ǩ?ìcall to action?¢?Ǩ¬ù: VOTE for the guy who has the best chance of defeating George Bush. It didn?¢?Ǩ?Ñ¢t exactly work out as planned but we won Pennsylvania and Pittsburgh was overwhelmingly in favor of Kerry. Please believe me when I say that I?¢?Ǩ?Ñ¢m not claiming ANY credit on behalf of Partisan Project for these small victories. But I still see posters from the first Project in windows of homes two years later. And I?¢?Ǩ?Ñ¢ve gotten hundreds of emails and photos from people saying ?¢?Ǩ?ìthanks?¢?Ǩ¬ù and showing off their postings. That doesn?¢?Ǩ?Ñ¢t replace another four years of the current administration. But I think it matters in some small way. And you?¢?Ǩ?Ñ¢ve just go to keep trying. There will always be a new election and a new candidate to go after.

Larkin Werner

AT: I see special thanks for financial supporters on the website. How did they find you (or you find them?) Did these supporters emerge after the ?¢?ǨÀú04 project?

BY: I funded the initial print run for the first Project out of my own pocket. I didn?¢?Ǩ?Ñ¢t want to wait around for funding that might never come for just an ?¢?Ǩ?ìidea.?¢?Ǩ¬ù I pulled a favor with the printer I use for all of my other ?¢?Ǩ?ìreal?¢?Ǩ¬ù jobs and got 7,000 poster packs (105,000 posters) for just under $1,500. Then, once they were out there, we received $7,000 from a donor to print a second run of 8,000 poster packs or 120,000 posters. (The printer wasn?¢?Ǩ?Ñ¢t going to do me a favor twice after SEEING the posters.) I also received around $2,000 in orders and donations so it more than paid for itself. For this year?¢?Ǩ?Ñ¢s Project, Larkin Werner (who has done a poster for both projects) hooked me up with Mark Power who wrote us a nice check. And William Benter is a neighbor of mine who is a really generous activist. I simply told him we were planning another Project and he asked me how much we needed. It was great. So everything is paid for and any donations or orders we get will go towards 2008. It?¢?Ǩ?Ñ¢s been a a lesson to me that when you believe strongly enough in something, you just have to do it. Money usually takes care of itself with these types of things. My initial financial investment was not that much, relatively speaking. (My time spent is another story.) But I?¢?Ǩ?Ñ¢m glad I just sucked it up and did it because once people had the actual product in their hands, they wanted to support it.

Art Chantry

AT: This year?¢?Ǩ?Ñ¢s project is initially limited to Southwestern PA. How is the effort going to get these posters through the rest of the state, and what could be done to make that possible?

BY: We want to get the poster packs to as much of the state as possible. It just takes time because we can?¢?Ǩ?Ñ¢t pay anyone to do it. We rely solely on volunteers. For the last Project, it came together the closer we got to the election and we were able to get packs to over 15 Swing/Red states. Three weeks before the election in 2004, I drove a truckload of posters to Youngstown, Ohio where a woman met me with her pickup truck to drop them off to volunteers in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Michigan. And this weekend, we?¢?Ǩ?Ñ¢re going to a family event in Harrisburg, so I?¢?Ǩ?Ñ¢m dropping off a load of the new poster packs to a volunteer there.

Brett Yasko

AT: How was it determined to make the Santorum issue the next issue? Was this something that the group had been planning on all along, or was it a more recent development?

BY: Santorum was always in my sights. I find him to be such an embarrassment to the good people of Pennsylvania. Once I saw that the first Project worked out, I knew we?¢?Ǩ?Ñ¢d go after Santorum this year. I also did a version of the Project for the Pittsburgh Mayoral Democratic primary last year (in support of Bill Peduto ?¢?Ǩ?Äù 0 for 2. Ugh.). It was very small. Just one poster that I designed with an essay by Rob Hart on the back.

David Burns

AT: When did the distribution of this year’s posters start?

BY: We started distributing them locally a few weeks ago. We start light and then get more out the closer we get to the election. I?¢?Ǩ?Ñ¢m also getting orders for posters from all over the country ?¢?Ǩ?Äù not as many as I received for the first Project but I?¢?Ǩ?Ñ¢m getting some.

AT: How were artists/designers selected?

BY: The whole idea for Partisan Project was inspired by seeing Kyle Goen?¢?Ǩ?Ñ¢s ?¢?Ǩ?ìElect a Madman, You Get Madness?¢?Ǩ¬ù at a show of political art here in Pittsburgh. Seeing his poster put the thought in my head for what the Project could be. So I knew that, no matter what, I had to at least ask Kyle to participate. I wasn?¢?Ǩ?Ñ¢t disappointed when he sent ?¢?Ǩ?ìMadman?¢?Ǩ¬ù to be printed in our new color scheme. After that, I wanted to have a mix of both local and national designers/artists. Selecting the local people was easy. I just asked my friends who I knew would share similar opinions of Mr. Bush. Then I put together a ?¢?Ǩ?ìwish list?¢?Ǩ¬ù of the national people I wanted and, without fail, each and every one of them agreed. It was amazing to me. Not to be dramatic but Michael Bierut, James Victore and Art Chantry are heroes of mine. So to have them join in on this was really special. But, more importantly, their posters were terrific. For this year?¢?Ǩ?Ñ¢s Project, I asked a few designers who contributed the last time plus a few new people.

Post Typography

AT: Is there any way in which people can be involved that you haven?¢?Ǩ?Ñ¢t mentioned yet or isn?¢?Ǩ?Ñ¢t listed on the website?

BY: To get involved with the Project, email us at info@partisanproject.org. You can donate your money (to print more posters for this year?¢?Ǩ?Ñ¢s Senatorial election and for the Presidential election in 2008) and/or your time (to help distribute poster packs throughout the state of Pennsylvania). But you can also get involved by simply talking to people about the upcoming election and why you?¢?Ǩ?Ñ¢re voting the way you?¢?Ǩ?Ñ¢re voting. People might not agree with you but interesting things can result from the discussion. If just one of these posters sparks a dialogue between two people about issues/positions/candidates, then I think the Project is doing its job.

For more information on PartisanProject, to view the 2004 posters, or to make a donation, visit partisanproject.org.

(Post-Script: For people new to this blog, the blog is an extension of DesignInquiry, a week-long conference/workshop/symposium exploring a particular but loosely-defined theme. This year’s theme was ‘More than business as usual’, which for me ended up being about the extension of design into the personal and the personal into design. When I discovered Partisan Project, it was the perfect example of ‘More than business as usual’ and seemed like an ideal project to profile - AT)

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