We had a great time back in April participating in Phoenix Urban Design Week (in case you're wondering what that acronym is all about)! PHXUDW consists of urban planners, designers, landscape architects, and policy makers to entrepreneurs, artists, and placemaking specialists who are working on making Phoenix a more sustainable and vibrant city.
Thanks to Arizona State University for hosting our talk on design strategies for participation. Sarah and I met some great ASU students at studio visits working on projects ranging from rethinking society's collective wealth in terms of sustainability to exploring the difference between happiness and joy through interior design. Awesome stuff, people!
We also got to roll out a new and improved version of the IDEA tarot cards, for which we asked the audience members to fill out one of the four kinds of cards with their ideas for Issues, Do-ers, Environments and Actions. The purpose of the cards is to spark some new ways of thinking around how we approach activism and social change. We all expect environmentalists to march to city hall to protest fracking, but do we expect nurses to dance at Best Buy in support of a living wage for all workers?
Groups of students received their tarot by choosing randomly from the deck of ideas, but, of course, we couldn't stop there! Each group from the audience then had to face off with the other groups in a charades-a-thon to act out their very special IDEA combinations. I find that when we're forced to turn to alternative forms of communication, it helps our brains make new connections. It's also a great way to end a talk!
- Jill