Kiosk 20/20
Maybe it's just because I was in Chris Swain and Tracy Fullerton's 488 Game Design Workshop when I happened upon Justin's post on Naimark's course, but it got me thinking. Can this class be used to develop a vocabulary for public installations through experimentation? Chris mentioned that he and Tracy are attempting to solidify a vocabulary to use in designing and discussing games, the way the film school has helped to developed the language for discussing films in the 20th Century. Also, another goal they have is to look at game design as a craft, and examine what "practices" are better than others.
So can we do the same for public art?
Looking back, we(the 3rd-years) didn't use the kiosk project as an experiment as much as we could have. That is, it was as much of an experiment as life is; I think we all came away having learned a lot about ourselves and each other, as well as what it is to work on a public piece, but we didn't treat the project itself as a legitimate experiment into creating public installations.
Maybe I've been working with the Army for too long, but I would urge this class to document your process well. What are your objectives and goals? What would be the best way to achieve them? And when you're done, document your thoughts on if you were right or not. How could it have been better? I don't only regret my class's lack of a group post-mortem, but I regret that we didn't approach the project as an experiment straight from the start. We were all so excited to just create something for the school to see, I think we forgot that we are also IN school, and the biggest advantage of that is that here it is totally acceptable to fall flat on your face - as long as you document it well.
And through this documentation, maybe some vocabulary will immerge - what are the core, formal elements of public art? Is creating public art an craft that could have better practices?