BLOGS AND THE RISE OF THE GLOBAL CHEAP VITAMIN

Our small texting devices, our little free blog – our intimate daily technologies that embed these personal/ social opportunities are surfacing as literally healthy. Blogs specifically are rising as a solution to increase our general wellbeing, and are rapidly being applied (especially in a world full of stress, angst, and inaccessible/ expensive healthcare). Could these daily devices (blogs, for instance) be thought of as vitamins that strengthen certain parts of our bodies? It is a playful analogy; these little technologies as inexpensive accessible over-the-counter vitamins (for example, blogs, wii-fit), compared to the expensive “antibiotics” counterparts (blogs replace shrinks, wii-fits are considered over gym memberships and personal trainers).

Such “antibiotics” /devices are not mere substitutes for the unaffordable. These sorts of small/ personal- scale technologies should not be thought of as just “tools,” for technology is a “medium and engine for social relations”; it generates new spaces for us to meet, gather, talk, vent, cry, love, cope, soothe, and befriend. In other words, technological change informs “what we believe we are supposed to do,” our adaption, or amendments to living.

BLOG AS A THERAPUTIC DEVICE

Journaling has established itself as a therapeutic medium; several studies show it can lead to significant improvements in an author’s physical health, psychological well-being, psychological functioning, and overall functioning. (Baker & Moore 81). While chronicling thoughts, emotions, dreams, fears, opinions, rants and anxieties is not novel, technology embeds a living audience into the blogging medium. Immediately there is a receiver, a listener, a global readership.

AOL surveyed 600 bloggers July 2005 to find the true intent of bloggers; how blogs are actually used. Results showed hardly any signs of users like “wannabe journalists” (16% blog because of interests in journalism, and just 8% blog to share political views). The leading role of blogging is not a news outlet, not a gossip corner, but rather it is emotional, intimate, and open: the survey revealed that nearly 50% blog as a self-therapy (Peterson 28).

Interestingly, the poll showed, when faced with hard or stressful times, 31% of bloggers will turn to writing in their blog or reading blogs with similar issues. Surprisingly, turning to family and friends scored only one percent more bloggers, at 32%. Blogs today have become so powerful, so healing; their breadths of comfort to those who use them are comparable to the blogger’s own personal confidants. Blogs may also be seen as a viable substitution for psychologists or counselors (the results show that only 5% of bloggers would prefer a professional in such times). Blogs have been described as a “typing-cure”, (essentially) free accessible global therapy.

How incredible. Free accessible global therapy.

SURFACING AS A CLINICAL COMPLIMENT

If this is the case, can blogs bloom as a clinical resource? Does this everyday technology really have healing powers, the therapeutic potentials for patients?

Christina Vernon Ayers, The Cleveland Clinic Director for the Office for a Healthy Environment, explains a depressing truth: that many times there are “back doors” in hospitals for certain patients, like those with the visible baldness of cancer, who do not want to be seen at any cost. Physical signs of sickness prevent them from reaching out, and destroy their chances of finding support, advice, or confidant. Blogs may have a strong appeal to cancer patients in this regard, for those sorts of patients that apt to hide themselves because of hair loss, deformity, visible sickness. Blogs can become "…a bit like a neighborhood pub or coffee shop. It's a little like a salon, where I can participate in a hundred ongoing conversations with people who don't care what I look like or sound like, but who care how I think and communicate" (Jones 33). Blogging can be a sort of safe / protected medium for sensitive patients, since the blog inherently has a “high intimacy with low vulnerability” (Bennedett 1).

There is no doubt that patient-blogging is growing in size, popularity and power. Current trends have promptly integrated blogs into recovery/ therapy programs; like Blog for Hope, and CarePages – even if it is simply because "It takes more than medicine to heal. We must meet our most elemental needs for personal connections and community, too, and the Internet is rapidly evolving to meet those needs" (Dr. Sharon Langshur; co-founder of CarePages). Perhaps it is not too farfetched to argue, that a free blog, a ten cent text message, holds a surprising weight in clinical recovery. Today’s small intimate technologies have capacities to globally combat isolation, depression, restlessness, stress, and loneliness. The world is discovering that those “over-the-counter” technologies (for example, texting, blogging, wii-fits) are not only upgrading our wellbeing as a community, but these daily influencers that we take once, twice, three times a day, are actually the producers of communities. “Communities are defined as shared, close, and intimate, while societies are defined as separate, distanced, and anonymous” (Jones 18). It is both adventurous and romantic, that today we have new forms of community, that they can be assembled swiftly, created immediately. The ability for modern technology to create 24 hour community, a sort of pre-assembled community where one can slide between online and offline, is a clear asset for the rapidity and unpredictability of disease.

The blogosphere has actually evolved into a therapeutic space for those who have the most challenges (appearance-boundaries, mobility, intensive treatments, etc) with occupying space. Without a doubt, the blog will rise as a powerful “spatial – vitamin”, not just to the sick, lonely, handicapped, immobile but the blogosphere can be anyone’s “spatial – vitamin” -- the cheap (if not free) amazing supplements to increase each of our social stamina, our emotive wellness and cerebral fitness. In a country where healthcare is slipping out of the reach of the young, becoming a burden to the elderly, and becoming expensive for our parents, the blog will surely rise and contour as (an already-labeled) “typing cure”, perhaps the truest form of a miracle drug we had ever seen: the free global chemical-less vitamin.

References:

Bennett, Jessica. (2008.) My Shrink Says … Blog! [Electronic version]. Newsweek. Retrieved April 9, 2009.

(C. Vernon Ayers, personal communication, March 2, 2009).

(E. McDaniel, personal communication, April 14 2009).

Baker, James R., & Moore, Susan M. (2008). Distress, Coping

Baker, James R., & Moore, Susan M. (2008). Distress, Coping, and Blogging: Comparing New Myspace Users by Their Intention to Blog. CyberPsychology and Behavior, 11(1). Retrieved April 8, 2009 from Electronic Journal Finder.

Jones, Steven G., (1994). Understanding Community in the Information Age. In S. Jones (Ed), Cybersociety, Computer-Mediated Communication and Community (10-35).Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE Publications, Inc.

Langshur, Sharon. (2008). Online Healthcare Gets Personal, Health 2.0 and the Healing Power of Supportive Communities. CarePages.com. Retrieved April 12, 2009.

Lenhart, Amanda & Fox, Susannah. (2006). Bloggers, A Portrait of the Internet’s New Storytellers. Pew Internet & American Life Project. Retrieved April 12, 2009.

Peterson, Tommy. (2005). The Typing Cure [Electronic version]. ComputerWorld. October Issue. Retrieved April 9, 2009 from Electronic Journal Finder.

Saffo, Paul. (1993). Hot New Medium: Text [Electronic version]. Wired Magazine, Issue 1.02. Retrieved April 10 2009, from <http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/1.02/1.2_saffo.html>.

(A NOTE TO EVERYBODY)

So you go to Kent State for Architecture. You go to the school with sub-par facilities. You go to the school where our permanent studio situation (3 poorly designed spaces around the campus) is what most schools do when they’re renovating their main architecture building. You go to the school where plotting at Kinko’s is a pretty reasonable economic choice. You go to the school where you pay for the person to click the button so that you can print something or lasercut something. Then you get to pay for the time you spend watching. You go to the school where not having a wood shop is so out of the question, it isn’t even thought of as a deficiency. You go to the school where an acceptable method of getting into the studio you want is to just wait until all of the sections are full and then have Jane force-add you. You go to the school that has absolutely no pinup space. You go to the school where the lecture series is typically a surprise. You go to the school where it’s not uncommon to only have TA’s for studio until you get to third year…and you go to a school where tenured professors are typically the ones not to take (with few exceptions) and their research is a mystery (also with few exceptions).

So the CAED lacks some things.

Now that that’s over with…

Just think of what a wonderful opportunity it is to be here. You can do whatever you want. My years at Kent have made me realize that the strength of this education lies in personal accountability. Complaining does nothing. Speaking up is rarely productive. But it’s easier to beg forgiveness than to ask permission. Do things.

Lecture series sucks? Make it happen. Find money, get money, get people, make posters, do it. The school will never help you so don’t cry about it; just get it done (this was seemingly so, until this year). Think the print room hours suck? The school won’t change them; make friends with the employees and facilitate favors when you’re in a pinch. Woodshop? Take sculpture so you can use the fine arts building’s. Or bring in your own saw. This whole mess becomes guerilla studio. After all: you want to be here. You like architecture. What more do you need? The guidance of a few who care, friends who want to help, and your own ambitious can take you to some amazing places. For a school with a long list of physical deficiencies and little to no legitimate leadership in the last decade, we’ve sent students to Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Penn, The Cooper Union, RISD, Sci-Arc, IIT, OSU, Washington St. Louis, Pratt, USC…and quite a few of our graduates work for some legitimate firms that aren’t in Akron, Pittsburgh or Cleveland. Kent prepares you. You can get “out.”

In a way, we as students can feel abused by the bureaucracy, and it can be tough to deal with the self-esteem-cutting bullshit that we encounter from faculty and fellow students. It seems that everybody talks down about what we do, what we can’t do, and what we produce. Reviewers come in and are generally positive, but our environment breeds this “I’m not good enough” sentiment. The only people who seem to be proud of KSU architecture are the ‘golf’ type: male, graduated in the 90’s, working as project managers for second-rate healthcare firms and are ‘almost done’ with the ARE after 15 years of working in the field. Not quite the progressive outlook I hope for.

This is where we come in. Kent’s been in a transition period as long as I’ve been here, so let’s take it where we want it to go. We need to quit it with our sense of mediocrity and stand up for our school. We need to be accountable for the education we receive. Kent is a great school for architecture, not because we’re a number on a list, but because we, the students, are hardworking, smart, competitive students who love architecture. Apply to big schools. Apply to big firms. Go out on a limb and explore architecture in the manner you see fit. Never before, has it been truer that you can be anything you want to be and nobody is holding you back.

On your mark.

Get set.

Go.

CRAIG SCOTT LECTURE

Craig Scott of Iwamotoscott Architecture to lecture on the Kent Campus this Thursday.

The lecture is scheduled to begin at 7:15pm in the Michael Schwartz Auditorium and is free and open to the public.



ISAR was recently selected as a finalist for the MoMA/PS1 young architects design competition.



Click here to link to the firm's website for more information.

VOLUME 3 / ISSUE 2 OUT NOW!

t r a c e volume 3 issue 2 out now!




Find it on your studio desk or to view online click here.

IDSC PHILANTHROPIC WORK ON EXTREME MAKEOVER

On a rainy Saturday in October, 50 KSU Interior Design students participated in ABC’s Extreme Makeover, Home Edition in Pittsburgh PA. The participants volunteered their time cleaning up the home site after the construction had finished.

Extreme Makeover, Home Edition with host Ty Pennington surprise families with complete home makeovers. This episode featured a family’s home that was in poor condition; one side was covered with a tarp because of severe water damage and the other side had been destroyed by a tornado that hit earlier that year. With the help of Pennington, Designers, Builders Montgomery & Rust, and all the volunteers the family had a newly designed and built home when they returned from their Walt Disney Vacation.

KSU Interior Design students were offered the opportunity to participate through the campus organization IDSC (Interior Design Student Collaborative). IDSC is an umbrella organization for the national Interior Design Organizations ASID and IIDA. The opportunity to help out the crew of Extreme Makeover was open to all IDSC members. Volunteers were asked to unload accessories from the home and also cleanup the job site once the home was built.

“We knew the house would already be finished – so it wasn’t about seeing Ty Pennington – it was about volunteering our time to help in a neighboring community,” said participant.

IDSC members are familiar with helping out in their community, as the organization does a lot of philanthropic work through programs like Habitat for Humanity, Walk for Diabetes, and the annual KSU Beaux Arts Ball. Members volunteer for Habitat for Humanity throughout the year on Saturdays – however this year working around Saturday classes proved difficult, and no Habitat events were planned. In the fall, all ISDC members are encouraged to walk in the Walk for Diabetes.

“This event is very close to our hearts, in 1997 a student from our program passed away of the disease,” Julie Edwards, Philanthropist Chair of IDSC states.

In addition to the Walk for Diabetes and Habitat for Humanity IDSC members also collect ingredients and meal components for Thanksgiving Dinners and donates them to families in need in the Kent area. This past Thanksgiving, participating members provided five families with Thanksgiving meals.

Finally, the Beaux Arts Ball is organized every fall semester, by the Architecture, Interior Design, and Fashion students. The money is used to raise money for all three organizations and fund any events that occur throughout the year. Both the Architecture and Interior Design students create and set up installment pieces and , while the Fashion students put on a fashion show during the Ball.

Belonging to IDSC means more than belonging to an Interior Design Student Organization, it means giving back to the community through volunteer activities. The Extreme Makeover event was just the ‘tip of the iceberg’ with the philanthropic work through IDSC. IDSC president Kristen Kanotz comments on the experience -

“Even though the weather was cold and rainy – it was a great experience. It brought 50 of us all together from different years in the ID program; it was so nice to spend time with people we don’t get to see regularly.”

This episode of Extreme Makeover was aired Sunday, January 4 2009 at 9pm on ABC.

INVOLVE

You found this issue of t r a c e on your studio desk, and now you are trying to discern what this magazine is all about. To reduce it to a simple set of ideas, it offers connectivity between the layers of our college; it acts as a forum for your opinions and as a creative outlet for inspiring thought. However, t r a c e is not the only channel for these, rather, it is just one part of a wider network of on campus organizations. Unfortunately, t r a c e and other organizations within the College of Architecture and Environmental Design have difficulty getting motivated and passionate people involved. At times we hide behind our workload and use it as an excuse not to involve ourselves in many of the student operated organizations. But if no one helps, who will?

Think of this small article as an opportunity, a call to arms even, to involve yourself in a meaningful way with your major. For those who currently feel apathetic or only view the College of Architecture and Environmental Design as being made up of studio work and our required course load, I ask you to rethink this logic and see all that this college has to offer. Within CAED student organizations such as AIAS (American Institute of Architecture Students), CASU (College of Architecture Student Union), SAGE (Student Association for a Greener Environment), t r a c e, and the Lecture Series Committee exist to link the students and the college. These organizations are currently seeking to increase membership, because as past experiences have proven, decreasing interest results in the death of a vital organization. Outside of CAED there are even more ways to represent the college in the larger scope of Kent State University such as Habitat for Humanity, being a First Year Experience instructor, Undergraduate Student Government, Relay for Life, United Way, starting an intramural sport, etc.

Becoming involved can take hold of you and a domino effect begins to occur where suddenly you realize that you are not just part of one or more organizations but rather a network of people. I hope to act as an advocate for all organizations and will assist anyone in finding a creative outlet. My e-mail is eresenic@kent.edu, feel free to contact me with any questions you have.

INDIETECTURE

Last spring I saw a great show - two hip, young, up-and-comings from New York came in to Kent to perform. When bands come into your town, as the host band, it’s customary to make the touring band feel at home; you go to some record stores, you hit up the dive diners, you show them your gear, and you tell all of your friends about the show, so that there will be a good showing. Swap 7”’s. Provide PBR and a floor/couch to crash on.

For many [young] musicians, this is what it’s about. Most indie-rockers are completely qualified to hold office jobs, wear white collars, and work for ‘the man’, but the ones on the road will tell you: “Life’s not all about money, it’s about friendship, tours, and stories.”[1] After the show last spring, I talked to the travelers about the essence of being on the road. “You wouldn’t believe how many bands there are that are touring the country making just pennies a day with no chance of going anywhere…just for the love of music,” David Benjamin tells me.

Except that David Benjamin isn’t an indie-rocker [anymore]. He’s an architect. His “band” [with Soo-In Yang] is called The Living. They did not sleep on my floor. However, they are from New York [Columbia, Pratt] and we did show them around our studio [and look at the projects/gear we were working on/with]. We also swapped works [I think they got a t-shirt and the poster we’d designed, we received their Life Size books], shared a drink [not PBR], and throughout the day had hyped the show [lecture] to our friends.

From dabbling in both, I can attest: Architecture is closer to indie rock than one might think. What’s more interesting is that the similarities aren’t just skin deep. We’re not like indie rockers because architects are style conscious hipsters, but rather because as architects [and especially architecture students], we’re youthfully idealistic and have a refreshing apprehension for the corporate world that drives the industry. However, unlike our musical counterparts, we lack some steadfastness in maintaining our idealism in a tough industry. When it comes down to it, it’s easy to “sell out” and become one of them.

This is exactly why we should take note. Although lead holders aren’t exactly guitar picks, there are some pretty direct ways that we can look to the indie community for inspiration as youthful designers.

Reason 1: Indie Rockers hold concept and product in equally high regard.

Musicians in the indie community are interested in two main things: expressing themselves through music and sharing this expression with others. As designers, we have similar interests: creating and producing (the product, as the way in which we share our creations). Too often, architecture becomes a choice between concept and buidlability. As we work through problems, it’s easy to bend to one side or the other. If we’re working with tricky forms, we don’t worry about how the building might actually come together (precast concrete of course!). If we’re focusing on the fidelity of a wall detail, then our grand formal moves simplify into Revit-friendly forms. As designers, we should be dually focused on what our design means and how this meaning will be communicated. The Living, for example, use “flash projects” to exercise both creativity and production. By their definition, flash projects take a question and a set sum of money and develop a working prototype. In this sense, the flash project is similar to the musician’s demo - concept quickly developed into a tangible result for the sake of distribution.

Reason 2: The Indie Rock community operates on a DIY ethic.

As a musician with a low budget and high expectations, the best way to produce something is to do it yourself - with a bit of internet-savvy elbow grease and borrowed guidance. If you need a specific sound, borrow the gear you need. If you don’t know the best way to record a cello, call the one guy from the one band and ask how he did it on his album. DIY isn’t as much about doing everything yourself, as it is being personally accountable for what your produce. If you want it, then you do it. As designers, the best way to make our designs well rounded is to learn about the many aspects that go into a design. As students, now is the time to practice, or else in five years, you’ll wished you spent more time ‘building your chops.’ If you’re not good at structures, use your resources (books, teachers, colleagues) to get better. If you don’t know a program, find somebody who does and ask them to teach you. Likewise, promote cooperation by offering your services; you may end up on the liner notes.

Reason 3: The Indie-rock community is propelled by a humility, honesty, and respect.

Regardless of the band, after any set, the other bands on the bill will shake hands, and profusely compliment the performance. Indie-metal-heads will tell folk-guitarists how rad their set was and honestly mean it. For a split second, after any show, personal opinion is set aside and the focus is instead on celebrating the lifestyle and the art of music. The result of this isn’t only the feel-good nature of the moment, but that it brings different artists together and achieves a greater good. Bands will swap shows in hometowns, which leads to swapping music, talking shop, and generally making new friends. While critique exists, it’s always in the positive vain and delivered with tact and with a stylistically open mind. The way to succeed in the indie community is through being friendly and showing respect to everybody else.

Then there’s architecture. Even our closest studio friends aren’t immune to the snarky comments we unleash in the back row of a review. Too often, our Northeast Ohio Sense-Of-Eternal-Mediocraty takes over and it’s easier to cut down everybody than pull anybody up. We can be cut-throat in the worst way, emulating our professors and jurors instead of being compassionate and helpful towards our colleagues. Sure, maybe comic sans is pretty third grade but the best way to handle this is through tact and honesty. If your bandmate was playing out of tune, you’d tell them – it makes everybody sound better.

[1]Sean Gardner of Winter Makes Sailors notes in “It’s Not About You” – www.myspace.com/wintermakessailors

VIRTUAL SPACE

In a time where our reality constantly feels as though it’s turning into a video game, it may be normal for one to question what constitutes their existence in the 21st century. With this in mind, insinuating that in the digital age many of us reside in a form of virtual space more often than in “real space” may not be as far-fetched as might be first perceived. Not only do many of us engage in conventional thoughts of virtual reality such as video games, we also enter other forms of intangible space as well. These spaces, often caused by a collision of new and pre-existing forms of media with the physical world, will increasingly define our existence and possibly even redefine what it is to be human.

Of the multitude of “media spaces,”[1] most apparent of these for the young scholar are social networking sites. In digital platforms such as Facebook, it may seem as though a user is simply viewing online profiles, but while snooping around for the latest gossip, the user subjects themselves to a series of spaces that are constituted by an array of words, pixels, and friend requests; a space that is defined by the human interaction that occupies it. When one uses the phone, that person loses their physical body and is reduced to a voice lingering in the abyss. As well, listening to digitally reproduced music (a Mozart concerto over headphones, perhaps), interacting with an in-car GPS system, watching television, and surfing the web are all additional forms of virtual reality.

We can also see examples of media space in immersive online gaming environments such as Second Life. SL is an online virtual world that enables users from across the globe to interact with one another. Unlike other popular social networking models such as Myspace and Facebook, Second Life places people, represented by avatars, into a virtual environment that in many aspects attempts at representing real life. Still, the possibilities in Second Life verge on endless due to the fact that, as part of its platform, it easily adapts to the needs and wants of its users. Because of this, the computer program is generating a great deal of commotion among analysts, scholars, etc. for the potential and implications of the game.

So in these new conditions, where does so-called tangible space end and virtual space begin? It’s apparent the distinctions are becoming increasingly blurred. The consequences this virtual phenomenon brings with it are central to the way we live. As Tor Lindstrand has commented, “…The profound effect that we live our lives in an accelerating rate through media is something that clearly changes our perspective and understanding of the reality around us.”[2] In these situations the space we occupy is not comprised of the physical and tangible elements that surround us. Instead, we find ourselves in a paradox of place; an absurdity of our indication of position as one or more sensations acts as a deceit to the truth of our current condition. It is true that many of us live life through interactive media that, in some respects, places an obscure threshold between the individual and real life.

Moreover, the way in which we interact with real space is influenced by our connection to these virtual spaces. Take for instance wi-fi signal. As CityofSound recently examined[3], areas in which signal is strong, one can find a collection of illuminated faces toiling on unknown projects. Spaces where signal is weak or non-existent are considered undesirable, sometimes regardless of their physical spatial qualities.

In essence, our presence is constantly divided between two dimensions; one foot in the “real” world and one in the virtual. So what does this mean for the future of architecture and society as a whole? Will the succession of our lives into the virtual continually increase until we experience life in a wholly illusory environment? While life in the digital age continues to progress into unknown realms, experimentation in the world without limits becomes more and more legitimate and less ‘unrealistic’. In essence, our definitions of real and virtual could reverse, where what architecture now considers fantasy becomes the truer manifestation of human interaction and life as a whole.

For instance, in Second Life an enclosure is not meant for shelter from en­vironmental elements; there is no rain. Rather, architecture here serves a much more abstracted role in the lives of the users of the game. In any virtual reality the “rules” of architecture no longer apply. Therefore, ar­chitectural dialogue has an entirely new dictionary. Of course, designing for the virtual is nothing new at all. Lebbeus Woods recently released a set of conceptual sketches done for the movie Alien III.[4] Although the movie Woods was commissioned for was never realized, his design for a decaying world of the future dealt with conditions of an entirely dif­ferent environment that is legitimized by the possibility that it could one day be our own.

In a world increasingly defined by degrees of virtualized space, considering the implications of virtual architecture, and at a broader scale virtual life, becomes more and more relevant. No one in the millennial generation can deny that our lives are experienced in both reality and a computer often simultaneously. If this is where we exist, then shouldn’t our spaces be informed by that juxtaposition as well? Whatever the case, it seems as though the newest frontier lies not beyond our atmosphere or even this solar system, but within the capacities of our technology and the little illuminated screens directly in front of us.

[1] Doesinger, Space Between People, p. 16
[2] Doesinger, p. 137
[3] http://www.cityofsound.com/blog/2008/11/wi-fi-structure.html
[4] http://lebbeuswoods.wordpress.com/2009/02/03/alien-past/

ZOKA ZOLA TO LECTURE

The College of Architecture and Environmental Design to host Zoka Zola of Zoka Zola Architecture + Urban Design in Chicago.

Please click here to view a promotional flier for the event.

The lecture is scheduled to be held on Feburary 19th, 2009 in Cartwright Auditorium at 7:30pm on the Kent State Univeristy Campus.