"How Might We use Cross-media to inspire a culture of sustainability on the UC Campus"
Nate is a young, funny guy that studies architecture at U.C. He likes cars, blond girls, junk food and anything a 22 year old enjoys in life.
He is very good at what he does, he loves great buildings, beautiful designs and creating all of it from scratch.
But when it comes to sustainability and caring about future generations, Nate doesn't really care. Actually, he doesn't care at all. He is a self-centered douche bag and would always act stupid. Really stupid.
We (a team of
cameras/reporters) would follow him on his on-campus life : Just like a reality show or a report about his life at UC. We will create the web-series : Douchebag Nate.
Every episode, he would interact with his friends, go to his classes, attend campus parties. hit on girls, etc… Our team will follow him through every event and eventually ask him questions. He will confess to cameras from time to time, but mostly, he will make us laugh. Because Nate is a funny guy, he would be stupid and reckless and really irresponsible most of the time, but still so entertaining and fun to hang out with.
Here is what will happen : Nate and his classmates will have to work on an architecture project that you are all familiar with : Create a green building to increase sustainability at U.C.
To achieve his ends, we will follow him through every step of his project : his research about sustainability, his interviews with all kinds of people, and all the stuff that would require him to think about future generations. And of course, he would hate it.
DoucheBag Nate will be aired on the internet and U.C. or external students will follow his adventures, laugh at his jokes, love him or hate him, learn about sustainability and green buildings at the same time.
The viewers will be able to interact with him in many ways : comment about the show on the website, ask direct questions to Nate through the reporters, share funny stories and vote for his stupidest quotes. The viewers will also be able to give Nate challenges to keep the story alive and participative !
Cool T-shits will be created in "honor" of the mascot with his face or his famous quotes. Of course he will be very present on social media : He will have a personal facebook page where he would share all his thoughts where viewers can comment, Have a twitter account #douchebagNate and you can follow him on instagram and all sorts of social platforms.
There will even be real "Douchy Nate" parties on campus for all to attend and have a good time.
The link to sustainability at U.C seems quite obvious : Everybody would either make fun of Nate, or hate him even, but it would be clear to all that Nate's attitude is NOT the right way to act. Students would realize how some people are totally insensitive and closed-minded for sustainability and future generations, they would be more
careful about their own attitudes on campus.
Plus, on some
episodes, Nate would have to find new technologies and design for a more
sustainable building and the viewers would learn things through that. We thought of a different approach to inspire sustainability than just sustainable driven ideas !
So basically, it's funny, it's constructive and every student on campus would definitely be a fan of Douchebag Nate !
Friday 22 March 2013
Thursday 21 March 2013
Week 7
Tutorial - Experimentation
I have been quite sure about the idea I would develop for my project by now so when this tutorial was about making prototypes and taking pictures to finalize our ideas, I was pretty sure where to go. The Architecture rooms in building 09.
It has been a few weeks now and my story to inspire sustainability at UC was forming clearly in my mind. My character would be an architect student.
So I went to take some pictures and draw what I was thinking would look like the character in my story that I decided to call : Douchebag Nate.
I try to get some inspiration by going to the architecture workshops and taking some pictures...
Architecture Class building 07
Architecture Workshop - Building 07
These pictures gave me a idea of how my character would look like :
(Please do not make fun of my crappy drawing skills)
(Don't mind the left page)
Now that we had our inspirations and our drawings, we had to define the two main medias our character would be using. Douchebag Nate would definitely use Facebook and the Internet.
I have been quite sure about the idea I would develop for my project by now so when this tutorial was about making prototypes and taking pictures to finalize our ideas, I was pretty sure where to go. The Architecture rooms in building 09.
It has been a few weeks now and my story to inspire sustainability at UC was forming clearly in my mind. My character would be an architect student.
So I went to take some pictures and draw what I was thinking would look like the character in my story that I decided to call : Douchebag Nate.
I try to get some inspiration by going to the architecture workshops and taking some pictures...
Architecture Workshop - Building 07
These pictures gave me a idea of how my character would look like :
(Please do not make fun of my crappy drawing skills)
Now that we had our inspirations and our drawings, we had to define the two main medias our character would be using. Douchebag Nate would definitely use Facebook and the Internet.
Week 6
Workshop 02 - Ideation
I was unfortunately unable to attend the workshop on Wednesday, so I didn't get the chance to hear Emma Beddows's presentation. But by reading her slides, I understood that she based her research on understanding how the users react to transmedia storytelling. Who is the audience and what is unique about them.
She wrote about how people engaging in transmedia storytelling where mainly very loyal fans, people that are ready to dedicate themselves to the story over different medias.
We went through the ideation process like they did at the inspire center. We gathered into groups of 3 and had to select an audience we wanted to target from the list. We chose : Gym Junkies. Once we had our audience, we had to make up a list of all the kinds of media they would interact with. We found a bunch of them :
Radio at the gym
Facebook
Events
YouTube channels
Magazines (such as Men Health...)
Apps
Movies/Cinema
TV screens obviously (at the gym and outside)
Instagram (#Instabbs)
Internet
Posters at the gym (and outside)
and finally, Ipod / MP3 players.
Then, all the groups had to place their post-its into 4 distinct groups : Social Media, Location Based Advertising, Communications and Other.
To continue the exercises that Emma gave during the workshop, we had to then choose the two more appropriate medias for our audience and put them together. In our case, twitter/facebook and TV screens at the gym.
From there, the storyworld begins. We had to imagine a story (inpiring sustainability at best) for our audience with all the information we got. Which were : Gym Junkies - Social Media - TV Screens at the gym. So, as we discuses and brainstorm on the subject. We found a pretty interesting story to tell...
Gym Junkies, the campus's new battery.
Once upon a time, in the lovely city of Canberra, deep in the university's campus, a man, an athlete of sorts, was busy devoting himself to his favorite activity in the hole world : the gym. Cycling, spinning, running on the treadmill, rowing, he loved it all !
One Friday night, the man was tired of doing nothing, walking around his room, so he decided to go to the gym for the 3rd time of the day. He arrived at about 7:30, and the gym was quite empty. Running, watching the TV screen casually, something became the subject of his attention..
An interesting report in the news about Hamster Power. How Nanogenerators produce Electricity from Running Rodents...
It made him smile : "I am just like that hamster" he thought... It was something he should even share with his friends as a joke "-is running on the treadmill at night watching a hamster running on TV... Feels like I'm looking in the mirror...LOL"
And that's when it hit him. Of course, screw the hamster power, he would create : The human power.
He knew it would be a challenge, nobody thought he could do it, so he kept tags on his work via social network to prove he could make it. His research on Nanogenerators, green energy and all the devices he would use. At one point he started charging his iphone by running, then his computer and eventually, with a couple of friends, he would show off by running to provide power for the entire gym.
It became a huge phenomenon around campus, and on social media #thehumanpower. Everybody would come and take a look at what he created. People producing energy while working out was so amazing, all the gym junkies got together for the University of Canberra to become the first human energy provider for the whole campus. Students from all horizons got together to work out for themselves and the environment at the same time. A first in the history of sustainability !
http://www.abc.net.au
I was unfortunately unable to attend the workshop on Wednesday, so I didn't get the chance to hear Emma Beddows's presentation. But by reading her slides, I understood that she based her research on understanding how the users react to transmedia storytelling. Who is the audience and what is unique about them.
She wrote about how people engaging in transmedia storytelling where mainly very loyal fans, people that are ready to dedicate themselves to the story over different medias.
We went through the ideation process like they did at the inspire center. We gathered into groups of 3 and had to select an audience we wanted to target from the list. We chose : Gym Junkies. Once we had our audience, we had to make up a list of all the kinds of media they would interact with. We found a bunch of them :
Radio at the gym
Events
YouTube channels
Magazines (such as Men Health...)
Apps
Movies/Cinema
TV screens obviously (at the gym and outside)
Instagram (#Instabbs)
Internet
Posters at the gym (and outside)
and finally, Ipod / MP3 players.
Then, all the groups had to place their post-its into 4 distinct groups : Social Media, Location Based Advertising, Communications and Other.
To continue the exercises that Emma gave during the workshop, we had to then choose the two more appropriate medias for our audience and put them together. In our case, twitter/facebook and TV screens at the gym.
From there, the storyworld begins. We had to imagine a story (inpiring sustainability at best) for our audience with all the information we got. Which were : Gym Junkies - Social Media - TV Screens at the gym. So, as we discuses and brainstorm on the subject. We found a pretty interesting story to tell...
Gym Junkies, the campus's new battery.
Once upon a time, in the lovely city of Canberra, deep in the university's campus, a man, an athlete of sorts, was busy devoting himself to his favorite activity in the hole world : the gym. Cycling, spinning, running on the treadmill, rowing, he loved it all !
One Friday night, the man was tired of doing nothing, walking around his room, so he decided to go to the gym for the 3rd time of the day. He arrived at about 7:30, and the gym was quite empty. Running, watching the TV screen casually, something became the subject of his attention..
An interesting report in the news about Hamster Power. How Nanogenerators produce Electricity from Running Rodents...
It made him smile : "I am just like that hamster" he thought... It was something he should even share with his friends as a joke "-is running on the treadmill at night watching a hamster running on TV... Feels like I'm looking in the mirror...LOL"
And that's when it hit him. Of course, screw the hamster power, he would create : The human power.
He knew it would be a challenge, nobody thought he could do it, so he kept tags on his work via social network to prove he could make it. His research on Nanogenerators, green energy and all the devices he would use. At one point he started charging his iphone by running, then his computer and eventually, with a couple of friends, he would show off by running to provide power for the entire gym.
It became a huge phenomenon around campus, and on social media #thehumanpower. Everybody would come and take a look at what he created. People producing energy while working out was so amazing, all the gym junkies got together for the University of Canberra to become the first human energy provider for the whole campus. Students from all horizons got together to work out for themselves and the environment at the same time. A first in the history of sustainability !
http://www.abc.net.au
Saturday 9 March 2013
Week 5
Tutorial - Interpretation
This week we had to pair in groups of 4/5 and just talk about what we've discovered so far. Tell each other the stories of our research, interviews, etc...
So Uyen and I started to tell our classmates all about our research, the fact that we wanted to concentrate our project on sustainability in architecture and design. We told them about our interesting interview with Jeremy and a little bit about the ideas we got so far for our project. (which I will write about later)
The other members of our group also shared their research about sustainability, eBooks, On-campus gardens and other ways that where used to make campuses more sustainable.
We got to write every idea down on a post it and put them into different categories. We realised all our research was kind of related. Architecture and design students, using eBooks in classes instead of copy books, and learning kids about sustainability all seemed to lead to the same conclusion : Education.
We all agreed that having a more sustainable campus should start early on in education : Teaching about sustainability would change people's perspective about saving energy. So buy combining every post it at the end of our brainstorm we came up with one sentence that seemed the best : "Sustainability starts with changing attitudes"
After this (brilliant) conclusion. We had to put random post its together and generate one idea that would come out of it. We came up with quite interesting axis of reflexion :
"How to improve sustainability through learning and education?"
"How to involve students into a more sustainable architecture on campus ?"
"How to use new technologies to change the attitudes of students regarding sustainability?"
And finally, We had to make a graph regrouping all our reflexion so far and show how we got to this conclusion. This is pretty much how I got to this final ideas in a simple bullet point graph :
This week we had to pair in groups of 4/5 and just talk about what we've discovered so far. Tell each other the stories of our research, interviews, etc...
So Uyen and I started to tell our classmates all about our research, the fact that we wanted to concentrate our project on sustainability in architecture and design. We told them about our interesting interview with Jeremy and a little bit about the ideas we got so far for our project. (which I will write about later)
The other members of our group also shared their research about sustainability, eBooks, On-campus gardens and other ways that where used to make campuses more sustainable.
We got to write every idea down on a post it and put them into different categories. We realised all our research was kind of related. Architecture and design students, using eBooks in classes instead of copy books, and learning kids about sustainability all seemed to lead to the same conclusion : Education.
We all agreed that having a more sustainable campus should start early on in education : Teaching about sustainability would change people's perspective about saving energy. So buy combining every post it at the end of our brainstorm we came up with one sentence that seemed the best : "Sustainability starts with changing attitudes"
After this (brilliant) conclusion. We had to put random post its together and generate one idea that would come out of it. We came up with quite interesting axis of reflexion :
"How to improve sustainability through learning and education?"
"How to involve students into a more sustainable architecture on campus ?"
"How to use new technologies to change the attitudes of students regarding sustainability?"
And finally, We had to make a graph regrouping all our reflexion so far and show how we got to this conclusion. This is pretty much how I got to this final ideas in a simple bullet point graph :
Week 4.2
Discovery - The Interview
During the week we thought of someone to interview that matched the profile we where looking for. That's when we met Jeremy.
He is an exchange student from France and he was the perfect candidate for our interview : He just arrived at UC for the semester and was a 3rd year architecture student. During the interview he was surprisingly honest and some of his answers where quite interesting.
We told him about our assignment and our research, we shared with him what we knew about green architecture and sustainability, and we started the interview :
Q: Jeremy, throughout your 3 years studies so far, are you, as an architecture student, told about sustainability in class, and did you already have to work on a "sustainable" building ?
J: Of course I've been told about sustainability in class. Nowadays, "sustainability" is truly becoming a custom, a lifestyle of some sorts. But I think this word is used too much, for no particular reason. It goes without saying that "sustainable" architecture is better for business, so now, everything is sustainable.
Personally, I didn't get to work on anything related to sustainability. I think we will start that unit at my school next year, or something. Although I know that for every building in France we have standards : A, A-, B, etc... that defines if a building is "green" or not. But when you check out the houses that are for sale, on the "house passivity" section it's always written "in progress", just saying how much non-passive the houses are back home...
Q: So you think sustainabilty is more the latest trend than an actual growing awareness about energy saving?
Well, let's say it's a little easy to talk about sustainability at the first opportunity you get.
For example, the designer Philippe Starck made this design chair that's supposedly sustainable, because it's made from all these recycled materials, but when you think about it, the chair itself will never be recyclable... And think about all the pollution and energy that was used just to create this chair. The process in building it used more energy that it actually will save once it's build. Even wood, that is apparently very sustainable, stills destroys hectares of forests... so I'm just saying the world "sustainable" lost a lost of value to my eyes, so personally, I wouldn't matter about it that much.
Q: So you are saying sustainability is not you priority when you build a design ?
No. I prefer to think about the design itself first. Of course, the sustainable argument is a plus for the marketing aspect of the object, but it would definitely not be the first thing that comes to mind.
I have to say as an architecture student, I don't feel I have any responsibility towards that stuff yet, just because I never had any assignments on the matter, It just doesn't touch me personally, that's it. Nevertheless, I understand that the teachers, or the Dean at my school will have to make an extra effort, because they have more responsibilities towards green architecture than I do, as a student.
Q : Did you know about sustainable campuses and the fact that ANU is one of the more sustainable campuses in ACT ? Is that interesting for you to know ?
Yes I suppose I would check it out for inspiration, why not, and I'm sure other American campuses are all about sustainability and growing their own food in the campus gardens, good for them I guess. But in France it's different, people don't really feel concerned or are even aware about this kind of stuff. And I must as a student walking on campus at UC, I wouldn't give a crap about sustainability because I don't feel concerned, all I need really is my water fountain to fill my bottle and a recycling bin !
Q: Last question, If you where in our shoes and you had to work on a way to make UC more sustainable, what would be the first thing you'd do ?
I would probably start writing the answers on recycled paper ! Because I think that if you don't even think "green" in the basic stuff, and in the little things of your daily life, you can't pretend to work on a "big sustainability project" because right now, you have zero credibility to my mind ! [Giggles]
The mysterious Architect, J.
Week 4
Tutorial - Discovery
We had to pair up for this tute, think together and answer ourselves some questions to try to understand better the point of view of other UC students, and get some inspiration about our project. In view of the briefeng we got : "Use cross-media to inspire a culture of sustainability at UC" we had to ask 4 important questions :
The first one, "What do people need/want ?" We asked ourselves. We thought of a whole bunch of simple facts : a campus where she could eat balanced food everyday, have access to water fountains, she said she wanted a campus where everything could be very accessible. Have classes in good conditions : Not too hot or too warm and equipped with functional material.
Then we thought about "What technologies can help with this challenge?" We obviously thought of today's green technologies : solar technology, sustainable landfills, offshore wind power, biofuel for cars, electric cars,... Basically all the fun you can get with the ecology.
Next question was "What solutions/ideas are being tried in other areas?" And through our research we found some facts very very interesting : We read that through architectural and design mediums, buildings can be made more sustainably and the energy use would decrease significantly. For example, "The University of Texas at Dallas, US, has won multiple awards for its student services building, which is designed to stay naturally cool and light, cutting down on energy used for air conditioning and lighting."
Or also "The ‘Green Lighthouse’ building at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, generates its own energy from solar cells and panels, storing excess energy underground."
Which are two really good examples of how a sustainable architecture can save a lot of energy.
Finally, the last question was "Have you got hypotheses about how to solve these Design challenges?" I would simply say we got to one conclusion : We think the best way to solve this design challenge is by improving the sustainability of design and architecture.
So we decided to pair up for our final project and begun to wonder what path to choose. We definitely wanted to dig more into the question of sustainability in architecture and design. Since the next step of our "thinking process" was interviewing a person that related to our project, what could be more interesting than to interview directly the persons involved : An architecture student at UC.
While preparing our questions we realised it could be interesting to interview someone with an outside point of view, someone who just discovered the campus, and would be more sensitive to the details and the work methods in Canberra.
To be continued...
We had to pair up for this tute, think together and answer ourselves some questions to try to understand better the point of view of other UC students, and get some inspiration about our project. In view of the briefeng we got : "Use cross-media to inspire a culture of sustainability at UC" we had to ask 4 important questions :
The first one, "What do people need/want ?" We asked ourselves. We thought of a whole bunch of simple facts : a campus where she could eat balanced food everyday, have access to water fountains, she said she wanted a campus where everything could be very accessible. Have classes in good conditions : Not too hot or too warm and equipped with functional material.
Then we thought about "What technologies can help with this challenge?" We obviously thought of today's green technologies : solar technology, sustainable landfills, offshore wind power, biofuel for cars, electric cars,... Basically all the fun you can get with the ecology.
Next question was "What solutions/ideas are being tried in other areas?" And through our research we found some facts very very interesting : We read that through architectural and design mediums, buildings can be made more sustainably and the energy use would decrease significantly. For example, "The University of Texas at Dallas, US, has won multiple awards for its student services building, which is designed to stay naturally cool and light, cutting down on energy used for air conditioning and lighting."
Or also "The ‘Green Lighthouse’ building at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, generates its own energy from solar cells and panels, storing excess energy underground."
Which are two really good examples of how a sustainable architecture can save a lot of energy.
Finally, the last question was "Have you got hypotheses about how to solve these Design challenges?" I would simply say we got to one conclusion : We think the best way to solve this design challenge is by improving the sustainability of design and architecture.
So we decided to pair up for our final project and begun to wonder what path to choose. We definitely wanted to dig more into the question of sustainability in architecture and design. Since the next step of our "thinking process" was interviewing a person that related to our project, what could be more interesting than to interview directly the persons involved : An architecture student at UC.
While preparing our questions we realised it could be interesting to interview someone with an outside point of view, someone who just discovered the campus, and would be more sensitive to the details and the work methods in Canberra.
To be continued...
Thursday 7 March 2013
Week 3
Workshop 01 - Discovery
We where introduced to our first workshop in quite a nice a place : the Inspire Centre. All Media and Graphic Design students were debriefed about the project we must produce by the end of week 7 : "How Might We use Cross-media to inspire a culture of sustainability on the UC Campus"
Of course, the presentations we got to hear was about this exact subject : Sustainability.
We listened to very interesting lectures, which I think gave us very useful informations about the subject : Different types of sustainability, a few example of how they managed to improve it in certain places and of course the case of UC in particular.
As an international student, this lecture was really interesting and enlightening, I got to understand better the importance of sustainability in Australia, which seems to be a bigger matter compared to western Europe.
I think this assignment will be a discovery and an improvement, for my studies of course, but also as a person.
During the workshop, we had to form separate groups of media and graphic designers.We where given an assignment with a pattern of questions and steps to follow that would eventually lead to an idea.
The assignment was to use the space on campus called "The Garden" and come up with creative ideas to make it a sustainable area at UC. Naturally, through Trans-media Storytelling.
We would choose a target : Students, Teachers… A smart use of the space, a relation to sustainability, etc.. Our group was quite effective since we managed to win 2nd place.
We though of this "garden" as a place where students could enjoy the nature and the calm. We turned that garden into a place where students could study and relax between classes.
We would have tables and seats, shades in a comfortable area. Students would realise that this place would be valuable and fragile, and to maintain it for future generations is important. There would be signs with QR codes to scan and discover more about the nature/plants that surrounds you.
And for the Cross-Media touch : we thought of calling the place "UC garden" and to make this unique spot on campus for social gathering, meeting new people, relax, and study.
We thought of an iPhone app where we could "check in" and see which of your friends did as well, the QR codes would be there, there would also be a magazine that describes the place and a few more interactive additions.
I think this workshop really made me understand about the issue of sustainability, discovering about the creative process in cross media and get a little inspiration from the other groups ideas. I am definitely eager to attend the next workshop.
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