Tonight I began improv class at BATS Theater. I thought taking a class like this would be a good idea because maybe:
a) it’d help me get more comfortable making a fool of myself.
b) I’d learn to trust my instincts more.
c) with any luck, I’d also experience a nice little confidence boost to top it all off.

And, if none of the above happened, well, at least I would have done something really scary and survived. I remember reading a quote by Madonna that went something like, “If it’s scary then I have to do it.” Signing up for improv class felt kind of like my Madonna moment.

And then I had to go to class.

I went braced with a bunch of embarrassing ideas in my head like:
a) I’d have to bark like a dog or some other animal or
b) I’d have to introduce myself by yelling my name as loud as I could while jumping up and down and scratching my armpit.

The list goes on, but the point is the feeling of utter humiliation with a captive audience. Over and over again.

But, you know, I was oddly surprised by this first class. There were forms of humiliation, yes, but here’s the kicker — they were totally self-induced. The exercises themselves were not, in and of themselves, that outrageous. And yet, I sure seemed to spend a lot of effort diminishing myself while I was acting.

My teacher, Barbara Scott, talked about how we feed, nurture and groom the negative voice in our heads – meanwhile hardly taking care of the positive one. I’m sure many of us know this on an intellectual level, but it’s a different thing to experience this dynamic in the form of an exercise designed to show you yourself. For example, in one exercise, I walk around the room pointing at objects and calling them something other than what they actually are:

ME (looking at a door): “Dog!”
NEGATIVE INNER VOICE: “That wasn’t very creative.”
ME (looking at a lock on the door): “Knob!”
NEGATIVE INNER VOICE: “That wasn’t much of a reach.”
ME: “Shut up. I’m trying to come up with ideas here.”

The more exercises we did, the more conscious I became of the negative talk — and how much it blocks me from accessing my own creativity and imagination. When we did exercises that not only made it safe to come up with an outrageous or silly idea, but actually encouraged this behavior (yes! and..!), I started to see the possibilities for imagination. What would it be like to get out of my own way and let my imagination flow, uncensored?!

I don’t have an answer yet, but I do have glimpses.

Stay tuned next week, and I’ll let you know what happens in class #2.

I’ve been to this bar many times, and I’ve never noticed this lone light bulb hanging over the bar. I’ve sat right in front of it and not seen it. And then, last night, I thought to myself, “Huh. Look at that light bulb. It changes colors.” Now it’s my new favorite thing in the bar…until my next visit, and my next new favorite thing.

I say this because Cafe Van Cleef is jam-packed with stuff. Weird, strange, where-did-they-find-that stuff. It’s an eye-feast inside and will keep you entertained for hours as you sip on their awesome, fresh-squeezed greyhounds.

Okay, so now I sound like a plug for Cafe Van Cleef, so let me get back to my real intention in this blog post: noticing things. I’m a super visual person who really pays attention to the surface of the world. Sight gives me pleasure. I make it a habit to notice little things as I move through my day. To me, that stuff is like candy. I can be in the midst of the most terrible afternoon, and then I notice a beautiful San Francisco sky or an odd combination of objects (like a giant stuffed animal horse left in a shopping cart or a cluster of mannequins through a window), and I’m reminded that there is always wonder around me. Things feel better for a moment. Or, if life was already feeling good that day, it amplifies. In a strange way, this habit of looking is kind of like my form of prayer or meditation. It’s a practice that keeps me sane and loving the world even when it beats me up.

I use my blog, photos, and Twitter to share some of those moments – in hopes that, maybe, hopefully, some of them reach inside a few of you, too.

And if you love Eduard Hill as much as I do, you can always become a fan on facebook.

Afterward, as we wandered through the city back to my car, I snapped some quick shots of little eye candy moments. Cities at night intrigue me: discovering quiet in a place that is typically so full of noise is odd and awesome.

(Note the store sign below; if read without the colon, it’s much more profound than the store owners probably intended.)

Chris Cunningham-Flex. video instalation
Uploaded by enkil_. – Independent web videos.

I cannot get over how rad this is. What a great concept…beautifully executed interaction. Click the link above; Do the whole thing.

STILL IMAGE:

Below is a wish-list of careers. If you know of anyone in the LA area who fits one of these descriptions… please pass the word on! This is an awesome opportunity to reinvigorate the media’s image of a successful women and change the image that little girls will look up to.

Please feel free to forward along to as many people as you would like.

DSC Casting
attn: Juliana Patel
310.776.0678

CASTING WOMEN IN THE FOLLOWING CAREERS FROM WITHIN THE LA AREA:

1. FASHION EDITOR-COULD BE DESIGNER AS WELL

2. TEACHER

3. ASTRONAUT

4. ROCK STAR

5. BALLERINA
-this could be one of our younger girls-like age 6 or so. Or, adult.

6. DOCTOR

7. CHEF

8. ARTIST
-this can be any kind of artist. Let’s find someone with a stunning background. I’m thinking a massive loft with huge paintings/canvas’ as our background type thing. Or, if you find anything else that reads “artist” and will be beautiful to photograph.

9. FIRE FIGHTER

10. VET
-they need to feature an animal. If not a vet, then the equestrian.

11. PILOT
-commercial pilot, not millitary.

12. PHOTOGRAPHER
-could be landscape, studio, whatever.

13. SOCCER COACH

14. SNOW BOARDER/SKIIER
-there’s an Olympic snowboarder we discussed. May be tricky with endorsements, Olympics, etc..But, throwing it out there.

-could be a teenageer as well. Or adult.

15. RACE CAR DRIVER

16. ACTRESS

17. EQUESTRIAN-AN ENGLISH RIDER
-could be a teenager or young girl. Or, adult.

18. CONCERT PIANIST
-could be a a teen or even younger. But, be open to adults too.

19. BOUTIQUE OWNER-
-someone with a very cool looking store.

20. COMPUTER TECH/ENGINEER/SCIENTIST
-she needs to work around computers so we can “read” what she does easily

21. CEO/EXECUTIVE BIZ
-we’d need to film this woman in a high end office, windows all around-very executive, power looking.

This is a collection of pauses in my life shot via my phone during walks, runs, sprints, and frantic circles. I guess it is possible to move and sit still at the same time.

I was a journalism major…and I’m sad to report that this is both a joke and not…it’s exactly how they teach you to put together news stories. I have a reel from my internship at FoxNews to prove it. No, I won’t show it to you – I’d never be able to show my face in public again. Watching it myself is an exercise in humility.

Have a mentioned that I hate American television news?

SFC Double Dutch was founded in 2008 by Death Valley, Switchblade and Venomiss. Trampling on the scruples of good girls and well-mannered men, they created an underground studio where Double Dutch addicts (and soon-to-be addicts) could immerse themselves in the three things their mothers always warned them about: jazz, gin and jump rope.

Today these randy rope fiends teach three different class levels—Level 1, Level 2 and All Stars—kickin’ up trouble with everyone from first-time jumpers to expert tricksters.

WARNING: These girls will stop at nothing to rope you in.

Double Dutch

Website for classes: http://www.sfcdoubledutch.com/

Below is outfit #3 of the week. Check out the rest of her fab-oh Mighty Closet on Maggie Mason’s Mighty Girl blog.

* Photos by Maggie Mason.

Found this animation by Mate Dobray. I love how the pen stays in place, but the drawing spreads…

The song, The Devil is in the Details, is by Boards of Canada. Would really love to use it in a short film I’m mulling over – it’s kindof perfect.

Mate also made this video, called Machine Language:

I love his use of sound as I’ve been thinking a lot about mismatching what a viewer sees and hears in film. In this video, the sounds amplify the sense of movement and strange atmosphere. I had a teaching assistant in art school, Iris Charabi-Berggren, who did something similar, but used actual recordings of human arthritic joints as she projected 3 videos of wrists rotating, heads turning, etc. You can see that piece, Insight, on her website: http://iriscb.com/projects_2006-2007/09.html

All of us in mid-burst…

And here’s my friend Jenni Bregman in all her fabulousness, flinging…

And Jenni free-falling…

If you want to see more pics and posts about this shoot, check:
Modeling in mid-air: part 2
Modeling in mid-air: part 1

Happy holidays to all of you.

They are selling remote controlled tarantulas in Sky Mall magazine – or a black widow; take your pick. My gift-finding quest is over!

That is all.

Make this little guy while messing around with materials.

PostSecret: Confessions on Life, Death and God from Frank Warren on Vimeo.

Watching this, I wondered how the Director, Benjamin Reece, approached these people. How did he get strangers to trust him with their confessions…and keep the camera from being a barrier? What worked? What didn’t? I’m thinking I’ll send him a message to inquire — will let you know the feedback, if I get it.

If you haven’t checked out the book this is based upon, you should: http://postsecret.blogspot.com. It’s a great gift, and something you should own, too.

Here’s some pics I took of Jenni as she was getting pummeled by a puff ball rainstorm:

Gathering the rain

Leaping through the rain storm

Rainfall complete

Gathering the rain for another try

I like to be in front of the camera sometimes because it helps me understand what it’s like for the actors I work with in my films. I am reminded of the importance of clarity of vision and the impact of the director on the mental and emotional space of actors (which, of course, impacts performance). And another tip: being able to see what I look and move like on camera DURING the shoot helps me improve fast. While a good director will use language to help me understand how I fit into a shot, sometimes the best thing they can do is just show me the footage. Then, the light bulb comes on (like it did today): OH! You mean I’m jumping too quickly and am way too far away from everyone! I see it!

I’m really looking forward to seeing the final pics; will post some here later when I get them.

Apparently others were inspired by Longo’s drawings, as well. The “Big Love” commercial below drew from his work – and you can really see the influence. When I watched it the first time, I thought, “Wow. I don’t see many works that make movement feel like something you can touch.”

Kseniya Simonova is a Ukrainian artist who just won Ukraine’s version of “America’s Got Talent.” She uses a giant light box, dramatic music, imagination and “sand painting” skills to interpret Germany’s invasion and occupation of Ukraine during WWII.

[Watch the whole thing]

Saw this leaf and giant water droplets on the ground on my morning walk. Details. I love having the time to notice the details around me.

One of my all-time favorite music videos ever. Beautifully crafted shadow puppetry.

Love how you not only feel, but see, the the bass in this song. Visual physical.

I love her voice. This video is brilliant in its simplicity.

When I watched this video for the first time, I was fascinated on the surface level of aesthetic. I loved seeing words written from the perspective of a pen. And then it struck me that it is also a great reminder of how far we may have to go to really abandon our own way of seeing things. A useful practice when making something for someone other than you.

This video was created by Mike Strasser for his graduate industrial design program at Stanford. He is currently Founder and Managing Partner at the ID firm Think2Build.

Details:

* Wednesday December 9, 2009
* 6:00pm – 8:00pm
* Adaptive Path: 363 Brannan Street, San Francisco, California 94107
* Beverages and snacks will be provided.

Oh, Michel. How I adore your crazy creative mind.

http://www.5qm.de/neo1-en.html

IRMI : Crystal Ball from Hotbed Media on Vimeo.

Hysterical. I love this commercial! If ONLY there were such a crystal ball. As a project manager for creative teams who inevitably navigates risk…I could not stop laughing. Writing is clever and the piece beautifully put together. Bravo to director, writer and editor of this spot, Patrick Wilkinson from Hotbed.

I love this piece by SpiraliNeurali, just because. Because it’s strange, makes me think about how arbitrary this concept of “time” is, and because I like the music. I just like it. Because.

I’ve got an idea in my head for a new short film (additions to The Daydream Series) that involves birds and animation. So, I’ve been playing around a bit with silhouettes and materials:

And, as often happens with me, one idea bleeds into another and those birds flew right into the painting I’ve been working on:

I haven’t decided yet if they’ll stay. Everything in my work needs to be there for a reason, so I’m pondering if there IS a reason. I’ll let you know the conclusion once I get to it. And, to give you an idea of scale, and the landscape in which I’m making these kinds of decisions, here’s a pic of most of the canvas:

It’s the size of my living room wall, to give you an idea. Lots of little choices to make. Lots of answers revealed along the way. I love that about painting; it truly is an adventure, a journey whose end I do not yet know.

Jointly developed with an acoustics research laboratory and a veterinarian, the Bowlingual works wirelessly (your dog must wear a wireless mic around the neck). Let the device catch noises made by your dog (transmission range: 10m) and it will analyze the “animal language” with a special algorithm before telling you on the LCD screen what was being “said”.

The Bowlingual displays text (in Japanese) and a range of graphics to show what your dog feels, in real-time (there is also speech output). There are around 200 text blocks and icons that illustrate a total of six moods: frustration, joy, sadness etc.

Data can be saved for later analysis. And Takara Tomy even threw in a answering machine function that makes it possible to monitor your dog’s feelings when you’re away.

The Bowlingual will hit Japanese stores on August 23 with a $220 price tag. It’s Japan-only for the time being.

* Article from CrunchGear.com

Had a lovely Thanksgiving at the new home of my friends Jenni and Seth. Beautiful table…almost didn’t want to eat off it. Almost.

And here’s another pic, so you can really relish in the table’s glory. I confess I do have a thing for goblets (they are oh so very feast-y) and these goblets are glorious.

Another treat during the evening was the OLD SKOOL MIXER that Jenni’s mom pulled out of their cupboard. I believe this may be a pre-Julia-Child rendition. And, like all well made articles from the past — it weighs a TON: both hands required for operation, please.

And another pic (yes, I’m into doubles today), because you really have to take a closer look at this thing…(Both hands, Shirley! Both hands!). As you look ask yourself: Is she whipping the potatoes or wrestling the hand-mixer? This is definitely open to interpretation. I’m on team Shirley so my vote is for the former.

Needless to say, in the end, the potatoes were no match for that mixer and they ended up, perfectly mashed, on our plates next to the mmm-mmmm-mmm good turkey Seth prepared. Sidenote: that turkey had some strange contraption on it that looked like fried underwear once out of the oven. Seth assured me there was a practical reason for it…I decided not to ask and just eat, which proved to be in my best interest.

I am a sucker for feasts and friendship. By the end of the eve, my tummy, my eyes and my heart were filled up full and thankful.

“Designed and developed by dutch designer Stijn Ossevoort, Flare is an electronic dress embroidered with wind sensitive dandelions. As the wind gently caresses the dress or if you “blow” on the dandelions themselves, a pattern of lights will twinkle across the dress.” – Syuzi

What I love about this dress: it’s both fashionable and kinda nerdy all at the same time. Also, what’s not to love about the idea of making someone do a complete double-take: ‘Did I imagine that lady was on fire or a fairy or…?’ My mischievous side relishes the idea of that moment.

CLOSEUP OF THE TECHNOLOGY

I turned my living room into an art studio + living room hybrid to make completion a priority. Socializing space and making space have collided…or intertwined, depending on how you look at it. In the evenings, I poke at the painting, making changes, switching colors, standing close, standing back. In the mornings, I sit on my couch eating breakfast, looking long, working the lines over in my mind as I chew. There is something really satisfying about having a project like this to walk away from and come home to. And yet, I’m also anxious to be done with it, to let it go.

Download podcast here

Show Length: 16 minutes

How do you really get to know a place? Through the sounds of cicadas singing by its beaches? By watching its men wave their arms wildly to lure a bull into a ring? Or, maybe even, from a stranger’s couch?

When I made my way to Costa Rica for the first time, I wanted to get under its skin to get a sense of what life is really like there. So, I tapped into an international network of people who open their homes to travelers called Couch Surfing. I figured if I stayed with a local who really knew the culture, I’d have a far richer experience than a tour book could bring.

In this podcast, I share that first couch surfing experience with you through conversations with Dan Hoffer, one of the founders of CouchSurfing.com and Brenda Burnside, my couch surfing host. Along the way, you’ll see how this experience profoundly altered my perspective about how to explore new places…

Resources:
CouchSurfing.com
Wanderlust and Lipstick: The Essential Guide for Women Traveling Solo by Beth Whitman

Thanks for reading and listening!
Teresa Brazen

A man sat at a metro station in Washington DC and started to play the violin; it was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, it was calculated that thousand of people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.

Three minutes went by and a middle aged man noticed there was musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried up to meet his schedule.

A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a woman threw the money in the till and without stopping continued to walk.

A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen to him, but the man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he was late for work.

The one who paid the most attention was a 3 year old boy. His mother tagged him along, hurried but the kid stopped to look at the violinist. Finally the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. All the parents, without exception, forced them to move on.

In the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money but continued to walk their normal pace. He collected $32. When he finished playing and silence took over, no one noticed it. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.

No one knew this but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the best musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written with a violin worth 3.5 million dollars.

Two days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at a theater in Boston and the seats average $100.

This is a real story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of an social experiment about perception, taste and priorities of people. The outlines were: in a commonplace environment at an inappropriate hour: Do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize the talent in an unexpected context?

One of the possible conclusions from this experience could be:

If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing the best music ever written, how many other things are we missing?

Five brave workers decide to record themselves simultaneously at their office doing something…unthinkable…

…I love this song…
Enjoy.

According to Personas, a project that came out of the Social Media Group at MIT Media Lab, the image above is how the internet sees me. It’s a fascinating process to watch this image in development…as Personas scours the web, you see snippets of text about you from sources throughout the vast internet. I tried it twice, and the question “Who is Teresa Brazen?” was answered differently. Which, of course, leads me to think about perception, in general. Is this depiction accurate? Yes, of course, according to these particular sources. And, no, it’s absolutely off-base and too narrow, if the source you ask is me.

As I watched Personas create a visual summary of my online identity, I kept thinking about something someone once said to me: If you ask 10 of your friend to describe you, you will get different answers, all true. He went on to suggest that maybe it’s the same with God. I don’t claim to know the answer to that one — but as I watched Personas paint a picture of me, I couldn’t help but reflect back on that conversation.

Perception is an interesting thing.

The Daydream Series – 30 Second Trailer from Teresa Brazen on Vimeo.

She fantasized while awake, nudging pictures into motion with her mind.

The Daydream Series is a short film that consists of three visual tone-poems. Visually beautiful, often magical, each daydream takes the viewer on a journey into a particular emotion or moment. The first daydream, “Love Struck” addresses the anticipation, tension, and release in the pursuit of love. “Puddle Song” explores play and its loss in adulthood. In the last segment, “Wood Nymph”, setting, staging, and camerawork come together to portray a creepy, dark tone that turns the audience into an unexpected voyeur. The three pieces together, artfully conceived and executed, create a strange journey through a world of imagination and feeling.

Conceived by artist Teresa Brazen, the film was created through the dedication and support of a talented crew – all members of the film co-op Scary Cow.

And while you’re at it, have a listen to a podcast about parkour I did with parkour enthusiast, Seng Chen. He explains what parkour is, and then I go give it a try for the first time…

Hilarious: at one point I got an error message that read “Server Overload. Too many people making love right now.”

Now THAT’s an error message I like to see. Lol.

See if you can get it…

www.IJustMadeLove.com

To encourage people to take the staircase instead of the escalator, Volkswagen converted a set of steps at the Odenplan subway station in Stockholm into working piano keys. The effort is just one stunt that appears on the carmaker’s Rolighetsteorin.se or “Theory of Fun” website, which showcases efforts to get people to change by simply making things more fun.

IN – I at Sydney Opera House
(Content below copied from You Tube)

Sydney Opera House presents the luminous French stage and screen actress, Juliette Binoche, and dancer/choreographer, Akram Khan, in a synthesis of movement and storytelling, IN-I from 18th to 28th February.

These two international stars will showcase their own craft while exploring new creative territory by embracing that of the other. Lending their individual talents, disciplines, ideas and artforms to the production, Binoche and Khan have collaborated to create, produce and co-direct the work. Although IN-I deals with grand universal themes, it remains rooted in a personal exploration of questions about love and relationships.

Binoche, who makes her dance debut in the piece, has been training for two years in preparation. IN-I will also mark a first for Khan, who will act, sing and play guitar on stage in addition to dancing.

IN-I marks Binoches return to the stage for the first time in 10 years. Best known for her films including Chocolat, Damage, Breaking and Entering, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Blue and The English Patient, for which she won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, Binoche took up the challenge to dance at an age when most dancers have already hung up their pointed shoes.

On working with Khan, Binoche said, Im in the mood now to do something I dont yet know how to do. We all have possibilities within us. With Akram, I felt that we could confront and share new desires, hopes and visions through our respective arts by inventing a common language. I don’t know the result yet, but I know the path that we’re taking is changing me radically. Any artistic expression is a means to an opening which doesn’t belong to anyone but links us to each other in a mysterious and necessary way.

Khan, the Balham-born Bangladeshi will showcase his vitality, passion and creativity for crosscultural expression which has been influenced by his training in Western contemporary dance and Kathak, the Indian classical genre.

Khan commented: “Throughout my career, I have sought out unexpected collaborations with other artists to explore ideas and themes that are important to me. This project with Juliette has pushed me in unexpected directions and has been one of the most challenging experiences of my life. I think we are both moving.”

And below is what I saw. Listen and read together – would love to know what you think of this! (This is a brain dump, responding in the moment, so just go with it!).

Setting:
1920s. Rich, saturated, moody colors like the interior of a night club.
Through the entire piece, you see details about the woman: feet, stocking, hands, purse, waistline – but not her face.

Imagery:
A woman walking on cobblestone streets in a city. We only see her feet in old-timey high heeled shoes and flesh colored stocking with a seam up the back. Now we see her handbag clenched in her hand.

Screen splits in two: her bag in hand walking through city. Other screen: the ocean/beach, no one there. We stay focused on handbag as she walks from city background screen into beach background. Bag swishes as she walks. Ocean/beach screen expands and is the whole scene now. She keeps walking on the beach.

She approaches and opens a free standing doorway on the beach. She goes through and enters a nightclub. We watch her hand clasping the handbag as she moves through a crowd of dancing people. Suddenly (when record skips), the club is empty – we are looking at her waist, facing us, handbag held in front of her with both hands. Now the room is full of people again, and she is still moving through the crowd. She throws down quarters for a drink at the bar. Drink poured. We see her hand lift the drink out of the screen, empty glass replaced. Her hands push her away from the bar. She walks out a door.

Rain. Feet walking in puddles. Stockings wet. Water running down her leg. She walks across the street to another doorway. She goes through to foyer.

Finger on door buzzer. Toe taps as she waits. Flashes of images from earlier moments (city, beach, club, drink) really fast as we hear a radio channel changing.
Car pulls up on the street behind her, and we see her back still facing the door. She turns, hands on hips, then runs and jumps in the back and slides in.

Interior of the car. 4 people in the car, still don’t see faces, just details. Her hands are rested on the seat back in front of her. Her fingers tapping to the music. Her shoulders shake to the music. A man’s hands are on the steering wheel. Everyone is bouncing around. Cop lights flicker outside the car as it whizzes by.

Split to 2 screens: left screen is car interior, right screen is interior of a club. She slides out of car (left screen) and then is walking into club (right screen) – we watch her waistline as she walks. Club screen then expands and is the entire scene now.
We see her hands clutching her purse as she walks to a table. She puts her bag on table and sits. Fidgeting, she sets her bag in her lap. Her hands rest atop her bag, tapping to music. The piano melody ends, and she lifts her hands to clap.

We watch her hands as they rise up in front of her, and we finally see her face. She is smiling and clapping and beautiful.

LEDOH & SALT FARM PRODUCTIONS

Super 8 – 1974 from Jarbas Agnelli on Vimeo.

And, they’re amazing. There is something special and humbling about standing next to a giant, over 2,000 year old tree.

The website for the film I’ve been working on is now up! www.TheDaydreamSeries.com

I start the process of submitting to film festivals now…we’ll see what happens.

I’m at the Women 2.0 Startup Conference rapidly developing a product/business- and we need your input to help us make it better! Thanks for your input!

A friend sent me this in response to my last post. I love the line “The world will freely offer itself to you”.

Quote I saw at the Exploratorium in San Francisco, California, USA.

And here’s the gist:

This 60 minute online seminar provides aspiring UX professionals and those already embedded in the field with approaches to increase your value and impact within the User Experience Design community.

Who is this workshop for?

Are you new to the world of user experience and find yourself grappling with terms and jargon? Or are you a more seasoned UX professional who is looking for ways to increase the impact you have within your organization and the UX community at large? This talk offers some simple, creative approaches to understanding and navigating the sea of methods and concepts that make up the UX practice, while embedding yourself as a player in the UX industry.

A podcaster, filmmaker, painter and one of Adaptive Path’s project managers, Teresa talks about how she came to find herself a fish out of water at Adaptive Path and the creative approach she took to understanding a new industry and her place in it. She shares the three things that have helped her thrive in her new environment:

+ Knowledge Mapping

Learn how to create diagrams that allow you to visualize what you know about the industry, what you don’t know, and the areas where you can supplement what you already know.

+ Community-Building

Building a community of influential friends is as simple as paying attention to the people around you. Teresa will share how her idea to start a podcast (TeaWithTeresa.com) has allowed her to learn about UX methods and practice from the people who have helped grow the field or who have made huge waves in the industry. She will also share key things you can do to build authentic, rich relationships with others in the field. And networking is not one of them!

+ Using Your Own Voice

Whether you’re a student or an experienced UX professional, finding and using your voice will make a difference for your career. Teresa will provide you with tools to help you uncover what you have to offer, create a mantra (everyone needs one!) and will share videos from others who have created strong personal brands within the UX community.

The photo of this woman showed up on page 164 of Glamour magazine - causing quite a response, in the positive. Seems women were elated to finally see someone that looked like them.

Seriously, I wish there were more women like this in magazines. I was just at the exhibit of the work of fashion photographer Richard Avedon (at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art) and was also struck by how much older models used to be – reminded me that the concept of beauty has really shifted to a significantly younger (and thinner) segment of the female population in more recent history. When you see that evolution in print, it’s hard to take the current concept of beauty seriously — it’s an arbitrary, moving target, and right now the beauty bullseye is a skinny girl, not a grown, curvy woman like it was in the 1950s. That doesn’t make much sense to me, but then again, I’m not the one filling magazines with images, either.

Paused a film I was watching and took this photo (can you see the “pause” notification?) – the brink of falling. Reminds me of the moment when I tipped out of the doorway of an airplane and said a prayer. Funny how a single moment can hold so much power.

On my walk home after work…fog, skyline, clock.

Shadow made from the numbers on the door of a friend’s new gallery. I love empty spaces and shadows.

too many little things
pull at me
a desperate yank at my sleeve

little distractions like
the pin-prick of sweat bees,
tiny but painful
power packed inside itty bitty napoleons

i swat because
i don’t know what else to do
i swat because
it’s a habit
like a horse’s tail
flipping about, a fan of hair
temporary and pointless

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An interview with Dialogue in the Dark Creative Director John Zaller and Guide Gloria Fisher
Show Length: 20 minutes

In this podcast, I’ll take you with me on a journey into a world of darkness…where people use their hands, hearing and sense of smell to discover where they are. We’ll explore an immersive exhibition called Dialogue in the Dark, were blind guides help visitors move through multiple environments, experiencing the world without sight. Creative Director John Zaller and exhibition guide Gloria Fisher talk about the mission behind this experience and the profound impact it has upon visitors. As the Dialogue in the Dark website says, while the “exhibition environments have been carefully crafted, the physical space is not the focus of the experience; it simply provides a frame for interpersonal connection”. Join me on this adventure into darkness…and the world of the “other”. I promise your perspective about sight will never be the same.

Resources:
Dialogue In the Dark website
Blind & Low Vision Services
Civic Atlanta (staffed the Dialogue in the Dark exhibition in Atlanta)

Just ran across this picture again. My little sister and I. The look on her face…wow.

REGISTER on AdaptivePath.com

Who is this workshop for?

Are you new to the world of user experience (UX) and find yourself grappling with terms and jargon? Or are you a more seasoned UX professional who is looking for ways to increase the impact you have within your organization and the UX community at large? This talk offers some simple, creative approaches to understanding and navigating the sea of methods and concepts that make up the UX practice, while embedding yourself as a player in the UX industry.

A painter, filmmaker and one of Adaptive Path’s project managers, Teresa talks about how she came to find herself a fish out of water at Adaptive Path and the creative approach she took to understanding a new industry and her place in it. She shares the three things that have helped her thrive in her new environment:

Knowledge Mapping

Learn how to create diagrams that allow you to visualize what you know about the industry, what you don’t know, and the areas where you can supplement what you already know.

Community-Building

Building a community of influential friends is as simple as paying attention to the people around you. Teresa will share how her idea to start a podcast (TeaWithTeresa.com) has allowed her to learn about UX methods and practice from the people who have helped grow the field or who have made huge waves in the industry. She will also share key things you can do to build authentic, rich relationships with others in the field. And networking is not one of them!

Using Your Own Voice

Whether you’re a student or an experienced UX professional, finding and using your voice will make a difference for your career. Teresa will provide you with tools to help you uncover what you have to offer and create a mantra (everyone needs one!). The seminar includes guest appearances (and advice!) from Scott Berkun, Whitney Hess, Merlin Mann and Rachel Hinman – who have all created strong personal brands within the UX community.

How does a Virtual Seminar work?

You’ll participate in the seminar through an online presentation on your web browser. The technology works on both PCs and Macs. We encourage you to share the seminar with your colleagues on a big screen. Feel free to wear your pajamas if you’re at home (we can’t see you!). Detailed instructions for attending the seminar will be sent out a few days before the seminar, including audio information, system requirements and a few technical tips.

I had this little artwork I created in a frame that I’ve disliked for a long time. Decided to paint it black to offset the little black ninja in the work.  And voila! Amazing what a frame-lift can do. I suddenly like that little ninja a whole lot more.

Taken on may way out of San Francisco. One of my favorite things about living in the Bay Area – fog rolling over the hills.

(Still image above – click to view video)

A little video I made of observations during happy hour. Listen with headphones and enjoy.

Still image: Click to view video

A little abstract video diary of yesterday.

Creative fodder to help me explore…will be making a song in the electronica genre and have been trying to figure out where to start. Decided to make a handful of little videos of my days and either create random melodies to accompany or hum to what I see. Then I pair the audio with the video and send that off to my friend Brandon Hopp who I’ll be working with on the music. Hoping something in these little guys inspires a melody thought and we can build from there. And if not, an interesting exploration, nonetheless.

I used two cool tools (you HAVE to go play with the music one):

Flip Video Recorder
Small like a little digital picture camera. Fits in your purse or your back pocket. REALLY easy to use. Plugs right into your computer for simple offload of media. Even has its own editing software (which I didn’t use).

Tone Matrix
You can make your own melody in seconds by clicking and dragging your mouse – and it’ll sound lovely no matter how hard you try to make it sound like crap. I watched the video I made and then adjusted the sounds to try to match the pace of the video – so, sortof played it like an instrument.

Enjoy.

Download podcast here

An interview with Scott Berkun, author and public speaker
Show Length: 20 minutes

In 1956 a documentary called The Mystery of Picasso was released, showing two hours of Pablo Picasso doing what he did best: making paintings. This film gave the public a first-hand glimpse directly into this infamous artist’s creative process. Public speaker and writer Scott Berkun and I got together for tea to talk about the film and our own experiences around creativity. As both managers of creative teams and creators of work ourselves, we looked at how our processes aligned with Picasso’s…or where we could learn from him. As the discussion unfolded, we came up with an interesting set of guidelines that enable creativity to flourish.

Trailer for “The Mystery of Picasso”
IMDb’s listing for “The Mystery of Picasso”
Wikipedia’s description of “The Mystery of Picasso”

And here’s an article about how they got the data.

A blog excerpt from one of the creators of this project:

“This is an experiment in playing a homeless family in
The Sims 3. I created two Sims, moved them in to a place made to look like an abandoned park, removed all of their remaining money, and then attempted to help them survive without taking any job promotions or easy cash routes. It’s based on the old ‘poverty challenge’ idea from The Sims 2, but it turned out to be a lot more interesting with The Sims 3’s living neighborhood features.

I have attempted to tell my experiences with the minimum of embellishment. Everything I describe in here is something that happened in the game. What’s more, a surprising amount of the interesting things in this story were generated by just letting go and watching the Sims’ free will and personality traits take over.”

Visit Alice and Kev’s Blog

Liking this song today…my friend Jenni (and fabulous star of The Daydream Series) always points me to the best of the best…thanks for this musical enjoyment. Perfect for a grey San Francisco afternoon.

   
What I feel like when I go dancing…in my own little world.

A short film made with post-it notes and stop motion.

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An interview with Natasha Alani, Cafe Enterprise Manager, Community Vocational Enterprises
Show Length: 20 minutes

Have you ever thought about the basic knowledge you need to use a mobile phone? There are fundamental assumptions that designers make when designing mobile phones…such as literacy, an understanding of numbers, and a grasp of basic computer concepts such as menus or folders. But, what if, like millions throughout the world, you couldn’t read or you’d never seen a computer before? How might your interactions with and understanding of mobile phones be different?

Researcher Natasha Alani went to the Kutch region in rural India to explore these questions within a culture that is nomadic and highly illiterate. I had tea with Natasha to find out what she discovered out in the field…and uncovered an exciting challenge for mobile phone designers everywhere.

NOTE: After this interview, Experience Design firm Adaptive Path used Natasha’s research to take a first crack at developing mobile phone designs that are not based on common assumptions of literacy and knowledge of computers. View the designs at www.adaptivepath.com/mobileliteracy

(Here’s a short synopsis of what I’ll talk about….)

Coming from outside the user experience (UX) industry and landing smack in the belly of the beast, Teresa knows fresh eyes can be an asset. In her talk, she will present three creative approaches to understanding and navigating through the sea of methods and concepts that make up the User Experience practice, while embedding yourself as a key player in the UX industry. She comes from the perspective that “It’s okay not to know everything about User Experience” (most people don’t know what it is, anyway!) and reveals some simple, creative ways to learn about the interesting processes, methods and practices that make up the field.

Big (D)esign Conference
May 30, 2009 | 9am-6pm (My talk is at 1PM)
SMU Campus | Hughes Trigg Student Center | 3140 Dyer St, Dallas, TX 75205

The other day, my mind slipped back to a one-week video art residency I attended in Kentucky years ago. I remembered the simplicity of my life then, how my only task was to edit a documentary. Not only did I accomplish a surprising amount, but I possessed a certain peace in knowing my To Do list contained only one item. I realized that week was the only time in my entire life I can recall having only one thing to do (well, not including vacations, of course). How is it that in all my years of living, I have only one memory of singular focus?

I can attribute some of my fragmentation to my tendency to find more things worth exploring than I really have time for. But, that’s not the whole picture. The truth is, that time in Kentucky was also the only time my environment supported singular focus – and granted me time for it.

I was recently in Costa Rica where time ticks to a different kind of clock. The town I was in had only one bank that only took Visa. Of course, I had a Mastercard, so the locals informed me that the only way to get cash was to take a two hour bus ride on a dusty road into another town and return via the same route. This meant a 4-5 hour trip for money! My American mind couldn’t grasp this, and I kept putting my Mastercard in the local bank ATM, in some vain hope that it would show me special treatment. Of course, it didn’t, and in the end, I took the bus…which turned out to be a fantastic opportunity to see how people really lived in Costa Rica. The thing that struck me about this experience was that in the United States, not only would I have been distraught by the situation, but my environment would have had a problem with it as well. How many Americans could comfortably take 4-5 hours out of a work day to retrieve cash?

That experience has gotten me thinking about the impact of our environments on our lives. Multitasking is commonplace and expected in the United States. The technology boom certainly encourages it. Advocates might argue this pace makes us a more productive society – after all, we have to keep up. But…at what cost?

I love to travel because inevitably I am reminded that there are so many other ways to approach life. This last trip left me wondering about the impact of the frantic pace of American culture. I’m not convinced there is a genuinely good reason to demand so much from ourselves in the pursuit of more and more productivity. We are human beings, after all – not robots.

So, two nights ago, the current editor, Brandon Hopp, and I suddenly decided to do the unthinkable: we cut the piece in about half. After working, reworking, and working again, a section that wasn’t coming together, we just took it out. Now, keep in mind, that section was the climax of the film. But, upon its removal…alas, a functioning film arose. I was floored to realize that we’d spent 6 months forcing something that just needed to go.

This was a reminder: less, often, is more. And, the original vision shouldn’t always be the final – not if you’re paying attention to what is really happening, rather than focusing too hard on what you first had in mind. One of the hardest, but most successful tricks in the creative process (that I’ve discovered, anyway), is the ability to step back and, as they say at Adaptive Path, kill your darlings. Being willing to hack your work up for the sake of experimentation, sometimes, redeems it.

And thank God.
Now, on to the next piece, machete in hand.

For more info: http://www.patchworksfilms.net/coming_soon.html

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An interview with Rachel Connolly, Director of Rauch Planetarium at the University of Louisville, Kentucky
Show length: 18 minutes

When you think about planetariums, you probably think about craning your head way back looking up at a sea of stars spread across a dome ceiling, right? Well, something is changing in the planetarium world. With the introduction of digital projectors, planetariums are evolving into 3D spaces that are being used for much more than star-gazing. I learned about this revolution through Rachel Connolly, Director of the Rauch Planetarium at the University of Louisville in Kentucky. We had a long distance tea and she told me about all kinds of possibilities for planetarium use in the future and potential impacts upon scientists, astronomy, and education. Imagine if, while learning about molecules, you stood inside one, for example…

And thanks to one of my favorite podcasters, Jeff Parks, for instigating all of this…Teresa