This is the project description that I sent to members of the Academy community, attached to an email inviting them to schedule an interview time with me:

3 October, 2009
Member of the Academy Community:

My name is Linda Duke and I am an Affiliate Fellow in residence at the Academy for four weeks, Sept. 28-Oct. 26, 2009. Back home, I serve as Director of Education at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. While in residence in Rome, I hope to collect from members of the Academy community descriptions of and reflections on their recent aesthetic experiences – with works of art, architecture and other design arts, gardens and thoughtfully-prepared food.

View from AAR balcony

Volunteers will be invited to speak or write about whichever experiences they choose and may participate as many times as they wish. There are precedents for using language as a window into the types of thinking that are engaged (see below). In this project, it will be important to capture participants’ actual words, via audio recording or in written form. My interest is in examining what commonalities of critical and aesthetic thought might be found across the domains of art, design and culinary art.

If such commonalities can be documented, the implications for educators in any of the three areas would be significant. They would indicate that experiences with the tastes, textures, aromas and appearances of food – experiences that are commonly enjoyed – could be used as an entry point for expanding young people’s capacities for noticing, describing and other activities and mental habits that are fundamental to appreciating art and design. Noticing, wondering, savoring – these mental activities slow us down and put our full attention in the present moment, connect our senses and emotions, and often prompt us to make links to related knowledge from past experiences. Engagement with the arts both fosters and requires these activities. So does the enjoyment of real food, the kind of food that nourishes body and spirit with its sensual beauty. Rich or poor, urban or rural, people, including school children, enjoy food. I hope the data I collect might provide an argument for educators to more often exploit the use of language – in discussion and writing  – related to direct, personal experiences with art, design and food to enhance aesthetic development and awareness. I anticipate writing one or more articles describing what I learn in this project.

AAR Pranza

A well-known model for using discussion and writing to support aesthetic growth and development related to viewing works of art is Visual Thinking Strategies, or VTS, a discussion-based approach to teaching in museum galleries, a professional development program for classroom teachers, and an image curriculum based on the research of psychologist Abigail Housen. VTS is the basis of the IMA’s highly regarded Viewfinders program in several Central Indiana school districts. In her basic research, Housen has demonstrated that language can be used as a kind of window into thinking and, therefore, into the changes in thinking that occur with aesthetic growth. Housen and others have shown that VTS supports aesthetic development in controlled studies. She has also demonstrated that aesthetic thought can be shown to overlap with what is more generally called critical and creative thought. This makes the implications of a program such as VTS, as well as the promotion of aesthetic development itself, important for educators very broadly, beyond the disciplines of art or art history. If aesthetic development is very similar – if not identical – to the development of critical and agile thinking in any field or arena, then the term “aesthetic” is due for a make-over. Instead of referring to something effete and impractical, it may be understood to be an essential aspect of human consciousness and creativity.

For my Academy project, I imagine applying some of the same techniques for gathering language that Housen has developed, expanding them to elicit language describing experiences in the three arenas. With nearly 20 years of professional experience in facilitating discussions about art, I look forward to exploring the potential for fostering discussions of the three arenas (art, design, food) with the Academy residents. I hope that the raw data I collect – the recorded interviews and discussions – might be of interest to others who have the scientific training to analyze them through the lenses of linguistic anthropology and developmental psychology. I am currently seeking collaborators who might play this role. Developmental psychologist Karin DeSantis has agreed to review the material. I hope to engage the assistance of a linguistic anthropologist as well. I imagine these specialists might look at language from several points of view. When and why do people pull terms from other domains? For example, when is it helpful or even necessary to describe a painting’s colors as luscious, a building’s roofline as inspiring, or a pastry crust as heartbreakingly flaky? Do these kinds of appropriations occur more often when people have more or different kinds of experience with art, design or food?

Chefs in AAR

A few words about the usefulness of initiating this project at the American Academy are in order. A quick scan of the impressive list of scholars and artists who are in residence shows that this is a gathering of gifted and uniquely experienced people. So this project is not about collecting samples that would be considered “average” in any way. However, it is an opportunity to learn how much variation there might be between the kind of noticing, reflecting, and wondering an individual directs to an experience with a painting and a building, or a garden, or a seasonal dish. The Academy may afford the opportunity to gather data from individuals who have highly developed critical thinking skills in at least one arena, and to examine whether and how those show up in a non-specialty arena.

The fact that internationally renowned chef and food educator Alice Waters has recently helped the Academy overhaul its dining program is a plus (In Rome, the Academy Learns to Cook, by Elisabeth Rosenthal, NY Times, 3/15/09). That fact ensures that some of the residents will have noticed the quality of the produce and other foodstuffs brought in for meals, as well as the nuances of preparation and flavor juxtapositions. Back at the IMA, educators have been considering opportunities to partner with that organization’s new food provider, Nourish Café.  They’d like to experiment with educational programs that might link thoughtful sensory experiences with food to thoughtful experiences with works of visual art. For me, the opportunity to learn first hand about how a fellow arts organization, the American Academy in Rome, is pursuing this idea will be very useful and timely.

Thank you for your consideration.

Linda Duke
Director of Education, Indianapolis Museum of Art

A few days after sending this, I decided that some interviewees would feel more comfortable if I asked them to choose a picture to discuss. I paid a visit to the wonderful photo archive and was able to get digital images of Academy gardens, the historic Villa, works of art made by artist Fellows, and the nearby Tempietto of Bramante.

Bass and Kitchen Gardens at the Academy

I grateful to say that I have been able to record some wonderfully thoughtful interviews. One of the first was with Alexandra Vinciguerra, the master gardener who has restored all of the Academy’s gardens – the Bass Garden and kitchen gardens at the main building as well as the historic gardens of the Villa Aurelia just down the street. I’ve interviewed the master chefs and interns in the kitchen as they chopped and stirred. I’ve captured the thoughts of scholars about their work here. They talk about the buildings, paintings, music and ruins that have captivated them and sometimes drawn them into relationships lasting decades. The artists and musicians have also given me some astonishing and thought-provoking interviews – fueling my growing sense that our culture needs to better understand that range of aesthetic thinking and the role of the senses in understanding our world and lives. I started with a simple idea: collect samples of language people use to describe aesthetic experiences and see what similarities are found across domains of experience from the arts to design to food. I now feel I have material that begs to be looked from other angles as well.

After a full day of shouting “Watch your eyes!” as the strobes went off, we found the results well worth our efforts. The shoot took place on a Monday in the IMA’s new Design Center (store) for easy access to product. Our challenge was to include items from the Museum Store, Design Center, Greenhouse Shop and the newly opened Nourish Café. Keeping a consistent look and feel between these entities took some extensive product planning, and having holiday products in early September also posed some limits. Luckily, we had Tascha as our pro photo editor, Matt the daring designer, and Tad and Mike, two amazing photographers on the team.

A little humor you won’t spot in the published pages of the magazine — We included a pair of cat salt and pepper shakers in the shoot full of bird decorative items. A porcelain origami crane ornament took the hungry kitties’ place in the final shot. We also all fell in love with the Charles and Ray Eames House Bird available in the Design Center for $210. You might call that funny too…

Look for the “Shop & Celebrate” photo spread in the new issue of the magazine this October, and have your holiday shopping list handy.

I thought that these sparklines might be an interesting way to represent data on the IMA Dashboard, and so I’m experimenting by bringing this nugget of wisdom to bear on a chart that I haven’t been very pleased with.

This is the chart that we have on the dashboard to display power readings from our machine room (please note that these charts were all generated on Monday, Sept 21st 2009 and thus do not include the readings for that day). The problem here is that I was trying to show three different things, and none of them ended up being communicated very well. Because I’m trying to show individual measurements along with the total, the scale on the vertical axis diminishes the appearance of trends in the data. It is fairly clear that overall, consumption dropped during this period, and that there appears to be a significant decline in usage by the server components. But it is hard to tell if there is also a trend in the cooling system measurements.

The same story about the overall consumption could be told by this sparkline representation of the previous 28 daily totals:

The maximum value over this period is shown by the dot at 1350 kWh, the minimum value is 1222 kWh, and the latest value (from yesterday) is 1227 kWh. This sparkline includes eight values from last month, and you get same story with more precise information added by a single sentence, all in significantly less space than the original graph… pretty potent stuff.

Applying a sparkline to the server readings, we can see that after the peak at 807 kWh, consumption dropped and is leveling out around the lastest value at 759 kWh. Okay, so that was an attempt at using the sparkline as a word-like sentence element, which is supposed to be one of it’s strong points. It actually works fairly well, even scaled down to font-size, but here’s the sparkline at the native resolution:

The sparkline clearly reflects a drop in consumption a little over a week ago, which is due to the removal of some units from our server rack.

Similarly, we can look at the cooling system readings, which fell from 545 kWh four weeks ago to 457 kWh when we raised the thermostat setting by 3°F, and has been slowly climbing on average since then to 468 kWh – a fact that is more difficult to derive from the original bar chart.

So, it seems that sparklines can be useful for teasing out information about general trends. But, there are a few things to be careful about. For example, each of these sparklines has it’s own vertical scale, so while trends can be compared, the actual differences in consumption cannot. Also, I might look at those bumps in the cooling system sparkline and wonder if those occurred on warmer days. I may then look at the temperature records and see a pattern that appears similar, but without the actual dates and readings I’d be treading on thin ice in forming any conclusions.

So, I think I’ll add the sparkline to my array of tools, but I’m still deciding how to use it’s principles to improve upon our power consumption chart.

Moving Time

Yes that’s right, I moved here from the center of America, Sioux Falls, South Dakota.  I actually am a native Hoosier but moved further out west a few years ago.  South Dakota is an interesting place, it is very flat and has a lot of wind.  There are a lot of windmill farms popping up all over the state.  We enjoyed living in South Dakota but the opportunity at the museum was a good excuse to move back.

My family freezing in South Dakota. I will not miss the long cold winters.

Enough about me, now to something interesting I found over the summer.

While browsing the web I found and became an avid watcher of a design contest called Layer Tennis.  This contest pitted designers against each other in a challenge to build off of each others work.  Here is the description from the website:

We’ll be playing matches using video, animation, sound, photos, type and lots more, but the basic idea is the same no matter what tools are in use. Two competitors will swap a file back and forth in real-time, adding to and embellishing the work. Each artist gets fifteen minutes to complete a “volley” and then we post it to the site live. A third participant, a writer, provides play-by-play commentary on the action, as it happens.

There were a lot of interesting designs that came out of this contest.  I thought it was really exciting to see how each designer was able to take a quick 15 minutes and really add their own style to the work.

One of my favorite series of images came from this ‘volley‘ where Chris Glass and Aaron Draplin ended in a draw.  This fall they will be having another challenge so keep an eye on the the site if you liked what you saw from this series.

Art is quite pervasive at GenCon, from the richly illustrated manuals of role playing games like Dungeons and Dragons to the decorated cards of collectable card games such as Magic: The Gathering. Even the war games that sprawl over multiple tables feature sculpted miniatures, some of which are painted in painstaking detail by the players. And of course, we can’t leave out the creative fashions put together by live action role players (also known as LARPers) and cosplayers. For those interested, the costume contest is on Saturday, though you will undoubtedly see people in costume downtown throughout the event.

There is even an art gallery at GenCon that features paintings and sketches mainly in the genre of fantasy, many of quite high quality (at least compared to my skill) and most available for purchase. And speaking of purchasing, one of the best reasons to visit GenCon is to check out the dealer hall, where hundreds of shops sell dice, games, t-shirts, videos, comics, costume garb… pretty much anything a game enthusiast might desire. Video game companies even have a presence that has been expanding annually.

All of this is fascinating of course, but board games are the reason that I go to GenCon. Board games have been a part of human culture for thousands of years. Those available today comprise a spectrum from games based on simple rules that bear out complex competitive strategy like the games of Go or Chess to games like Arkham Horror, where the complex rules define interesting game mechanics that pit players in a collaborative challenge against the game itself.

As with other types of games, there are a number of aspects of a board game where design is important. The physical materials that make up a game can be elegantly simple, like stones on a wooden board, or made up of intricately carved wooden pieces placed on a board printed with gorgeous artwork. The concept of a game can be based on history, on novels or movies, or be completely original or abstract. Then there is the most important aspect of a game… the mechanics.

A game’s mechanics can be defined by simple or complex rules, and their design can simulate real-world experiences such as trading, resource management, and evolving systems, or fictional elements such as magic and time travel. The best games, in my opinion, have balanced mechanics that allow for a variety of strategies.  And lately I’ve become more interested in well-designed cooperative games.

Hopefully I can find a great new game to add to my collection this year.

I sat down with IMA Senior Graphic Designer Matthew Taylor last week in the Design Studio to take a hard look at our current IMA membership magazine (Previews) and talk content and design. A bit of history: The magazine has been around since 1988 with its current name.  (Before that, it was called the Quarterly Magazine. A bit of an improvement?) Matt was kind enough to hang out with me for a few minutes after our redesign brainstorming session to answer some questions:

Do you have a design philosophy?
I feel like George Bush in the movie “W.”. You know, when he was asked what he would consider to be his biggest mistake…I’m kidding.  As a designer, you can’t help but put something of yourself into every project. But I think the less of yourself you put into it the better. A piece can be clean and beautiful without shouting “Matt Taylor did that.” My philosophy is stay true to the project.

How does the design department at the IMA work?
The environment of the Design Studio is truly collaborative. We have exhibition designers, graphic designers, a lighting designer and a technical designer. It’s a multifaceted team. Everyone has a specialty, but we work together on projects that aren’t necessarily in our own area of expertise. We work with every department in the Museum to make well-designed, cohesive exhibitions.

What are the challenges of designing in a museum setting?
The biggest challenge we face is over-designing. You are working with a museum brand and an exhibition brand. Everything here is an art form and design itself is art. The challenge is to find a balance in your work. Part of my job is to get people to come see an exhibition, but at the same time know when to pull back and not overshadow the art with my design.

What upcoming design project are you most excited about?
Redesigning Previews magazine, of course. I’m excited about incorporating the new IMA brand that we are rolling out now into the magazine. The old magazine doesn’t live up to our new mission of art, nature and design. I would like the new design to be true to that mission and the new brand, as well as be more engaging and exciting than it is currently.

Can you describe the new IMA brand? (above)
The new IMA brand was designed by Indiana native Abbott Miller and his team at Pentagram in New York. We discussed our needs with them and why the old brand wasn’t working. They came up with something conversational, welcoming and inclusive. Using two new typefaces, Taz and Brioni, the brand has the flexibility to say the right thing at the right time. It’s got personality. We’re doing a soft roll-out of the logo to be green, economical and smart.

What’s your favorite magazine?
I.D. (The International Design Magazine)—The design is beautiful.  Great layout, typography etc. The magazine as a whole (from design to content) is always fantastic from cover to cover.

Design Inspiration

And so the conversation continues… With a content strategy that’s mission-consistent, flexible and collaborative and two full boards of design inspiration, we will bring you a new and improved quarterly IMA magazine this winter. Your thoughts and title suggestions will be considered—please add them below!

Everyone needs a little everyday design, and Target has got the right idea by teaming up with design super-stars like Michael Graves and Isaac Mizrahi on everything from fashion and beauty to decor and dishes. My favorite collab has to be the rock ‘n roll infused line by Alexander McQueen, inspired by my all time favorite front woman, Leila Moss of The Duke Spirit.

McQueen's muse, Leila Moss modeling the Target line

And these days at the IMA, it’s all about design, design, design. The European Design exhibit is drawing to a close (hurry if you haven’t seen it!) but the Design Center will stay open with great pieces you can take home. Already have a lot of design in your life (or living room)? Take some photos of your everyday design objects and upload them to our Flickr group.

And here’s some great news: tonight you can hear Jeff Carter, senior designer for Target Stores, speak here at the IMA.

• Thursday, June 4
• 7:00 pm
• The Toby at the IMA
• $7 Public / $4 Members / $5 students, click here for more details

And let me just take a moment to mention Target’s website.  I’ve always been a fan of their clean layout (although the mega menus are over-stuffed), and the Design For All section provides a mini profile on each designer they’ve collaborated with. Nice. Although,  I’d really like to see video interviews with each designer or even a Design For All blog. That’s probably asking too much-  but hey, a girl can dream, right?

Speaking of blogs,  check out these Target posts from local design blogs The Design File and Level: zine.

And this one from The DieLine:  Los Angeles-based illustrator Hiroko Sanders created the illustrations for the Kleenex ‘Perfect Slice of Summer’, new limited edition tissue box series for Target Stores.

Juicy.

Image from toxel.com

While roaming the Internet one day, I ran across a design website with photos of fun coffee mugs of all shapes and sizes. It made me think of our newly opened European Design exhibit, and work, and drinking coffee since that’s what I do at work–drink coffee.

I found some more interesting websites about coffee, especially ones where coffee intersects with art and design. And I thought back to the old days when our coffee arrangement here at the IMA was entirely different. Cue the harp sound effects and wavy visual for a flashback…

Back in the day, the IMA was a different place. Security was a brand new department with all its damn rules and procedures, and the staff lounge was on the Service Level (basement, for the uninitiated), now the Art Viewing room. Coffee was free and the Bunn always had a pot of Joe on the warmer, thanks to Marty Krause, our Prints and Drawings curator. You see, smoking was allowed in the break room back then, and Marty had a reserved table where he smoked his pipe, wrote on his legal pads, and answered the phone (usually calls for him).

Staff from all departments would come in at various times of the day to grab a cup of java and sit and chat with whomever was present at the time. Conversations were often lively and wide-ranging, and everyone could get to know the new security people. The officers guzzled coffee to stay alert while working 12-hour shifts.

Move to the present and we find that coffee is no longer freely supplied by the museum. As a result, various departments have their own coffee and coffee makers. In addition, departments which once lined the corridor along with the old break room have now been moved up and away, a sort of urban flight which has impacted cross-department chit chat. Add a new location for the staff lounge, a new café, and new technologies like Twitter, Facebook, and this site and you have a situation where staff is more inclined to stay in their own neighborhood, so to speak, instead of venturing out and having casual, face-to-face interactions with co-workers.

The idea of a “coffee break” was to get workers away from their activities in order to relax and refresh themselves. With a combination of economic needs (no free coffee), restructuring (department relocations), and new technologies (Twitter) the chance for workers to relax, share ideas, and entertain each other has been reduced.

Now, I find myself refilling my mug and either conversing with my own staff or returning to my desk to check email, the IMA blog, or get my political news fix. I have the luxury of being able to get out and wander the building and grounds, and speak with other folks, but too often my interactions are limited to email or meetings. I miss the days of sitting in the break room listening to travel stories, tales from the C.I.A., and hearing about who fell asleep on post. Sigh.

Image from toxel.com

The campaign includes Russian Communist inspired artwork on limited-edition bags, window displays, catalogs and an in-store presentation, all hitting stores on March 12.

Saks' Spring campaign

The campaign is inspired by the bold graphic designs and propaganda tone of Constructivist art. Though a controversial move, Saks sure could use the attention. The luxury retailer has felt the recession’s sting, recently announcing a $98.8 million loss.

Smart move, Saks. After all, Fairey has developed into one of the most influential street artists of our time. Despite the cloud of controversy surrounding him, his work can now be seen in museums and galleries, graphic design, signature apparel, and now: your favorite upscale department store.

Shepard Fairey

Terron E. Schaefer, the senior vice president of marketing at Saks recently said, “What we do every day, really, is propaganda.” Read the whole article at NYTimes.com. Pretty fierce stuff, but this could definitely be seen by Fairey’s fans as a major sell-out move. What do you think?

Obsessed with well-designed packaging and everyday objects? Check out some related links I found:

• The Dieline is chock full of fresh ideas in package design. From the latest soda bottle concept, to clever music packaging- critique a design or suggest your own.
  

  Wine bottles by Let it Grow

• Looking for a chic fly swatter or watering can with as much form as it has function? Check out the new Design Center online or here at the IMA.

Dr. Skud Flyswatter- $20

• On May 14^th, you can meet film director Gary Hustwit (Helvetica) and see his latest documentary, Objectified,  about the creative process of product design. The film features designers who shape our manufactured environment and our interfaces with mass-produced objects including the people behind IKEA furniture and the iPod.

Objectified movie poster

So how did ArtBabble get to where it is? I’ll let the graphics do the talking. We have posted a handful of interface design mockups which were considered for this project in a Flickr set. What started off a slick techie look (I was way off!) morphed into the hand drawn, yet clean and casual website you see today.

Below is a punch list of essential tools I used to create the ArtBabble design.

1. Bamboo Fun Tablet – I used this to create the header sketches, and various interface elements and icons. Having barely ever used a Tablet before, this was a great tool to learn on, and produce exactly what we desired.

2. Adobe Web Premium – Photoshop for the hand drawn and organic elements, Fireworks for page layout, interface elements, and image optimization, Dreamweaver for HTML & CSS editing, and Flash for the video player.

3. The Internet – The web was a great source for inspiration and more importantly graphic resources such as Photoshop brushes, and the hand written font we are using, Soli.

4. Caffeinated Beverages – I need these to survive in general.

ArtBabble is currently available via invitation and in beta mode, but you can still sign up while we’re polishing things up and adding content.