This semester my workshop team worked on a mobile installation that took place in Pilsen. The project consisted of ten GPS-enabled devices that we gave out to teenagers at the local arts outreach organization, Yollocalli. Over the course of a week, they were supposed to call in every morning to get a different location-based question and mark places with the device whenever they physically passed by somewhere that answered the day’s question. Questions were broad and open to interpretation like, “Where is Pilsen most social? What makes Pilsen unique, unlike anywhere else in Chicago? Where is Pilsen’s pride?”

In short, our project failed. Participants were not engaged with our project and we didn’t get any useful answers to our questions. In fact, the teens were supposed to return their devices to us last Wednesday and we only got half of them back. Yesterday we held a pizza party to talk to participants about the places they recorded and none of them came. Luckily our prof brought his family and we had reps from Yollo and DCASE show up. Even though none of them had actually participated in the project, we still had a good discussion of what things went wrong and what had potential to be improved in the future. When we left the party, I realized that this is the first time (possibly in my life?) that I have legitimately, unequivocally failed at something. Not that the entire project is a total waste (far from it), but the experience we designed for just completely did not happen.

Today we did a run through of our final presentation to a pair of professors and one ID PhD student who had no prior knowledge of our project. The presentation was followed by a healthy dose of discussion and critique, all with the goal of helping us prepare for the final presentation to the City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events (DCASE) and current Cultural Plan team. The feedback we received centred around our struggle to turn the presentation around from being a tearjerker about the failure of our project into a more optimistic presentation of what we learned and what the next iteration might entail. I think the crit was possibly the most intense, emotional session I’ve had – due to a couple factors: sleep deprivation, sensitivity and rawness from our fresh failure (the party was only yesterday!), and frustration that things didn’t work out. Now that a few hours have passed and I’ve calmed down a little, I can recognize my errors in taking the critique personally and start taking steps towards moving past our failure to get up and pull the learnings out of the situation.

I wanted to write out a quick post, as barely coherent it may be, to document this crazy jumble of emotions and thoughts I’ve had in reaction to our big fail. It’s interesting for me to feel the heaviness in my heart, but be thinking in my head about how we knew from the start that chances of pulling off a complete success were slim, hearing Anijo tell us again and again that it’s OK we failed. I hope I can take this experience as a chance to get more comfortable leaning into the prospect of failure as much as my perfectionist work ethic can’t stand it. I’m definitely still sad, but I’m glad that our group took this risk to see what happens when you try to engage a community in a decentralized civic engagement project. Book this one under tough, vivid, bitter lessons that stick.

I wonder if the advantages of offering two different mini post-it sizes actually outweighs the cost of production…

Where the Circles Overlap from Jenn Smith on Vimeo.

Well, this just made my night. Jenn Smith is a Chicago resident whom I only met once, for a day, for a few minutes. It was way back in February 2011 when I flew from Calgary to Chicago to attend an open house at ID. Jenn was another prospective student and we happened to go on a tour of the school together. We hastily exchanged emails and promised to keep in contact as we both made our decisions about coming to ID or not. We did email briefly afterwards, talking to some ID students about how much NFP, social innovation type work goes on in the program, but that’s about it. Jenn decided not to come to ID and things haven’t lined up for us to actually hang out again since I moved here.

Normally that would be that, but instead I find myself here, tonight, completely smitten with this charming video Jenn made to explain what she does in her job as an art school librarian at the SAIC’s Flaxman Library. Don’t get me wrong, I am sooo ready for this school year to be over, however… watching this video makes me wish I was in the research phase of a new project just so I’d have an excuse to schedule a one-on-one research consultation with Jenn. I didn’t even know librarians did that! Also, I think maybe I need to try harder to make a new friend here. Jenn Smith, you are awesome.

SW staff comments to coworker: Well I guess they’re all from New York so…

Dishwasher – Thurible Thurible from martin floyd cesar on Vimeo.

Dedicated to Sacha Miller
Directed by Martin&Eva
Filmed at Studio Bizz
Villa Villa Nola 2012
www.villavillanola.com/store/releases/dishwasher-silence

Chicago Urban Art Society: Before I Die… from Nick Brazinsky on Vimeo.

A couple weeks ago, I went down to Pilsen with John and helped the Chicago Urban Art Society and Yollocalli make a Candy Change “Before I Die” wall.

http://beforeidiechi.tumblr.com/

http://beforeidie.cc/