Friends of the Social Studio

Liz Ogbu—Design Acts: Creating Impact, by Design

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0400

We had the honor of spending a week w/ Liz Ogbu, a designer, social innovator, and academic. Liz is an expert on sustainability and spatial innovation in challenged urban environments. She runs her own multidisciplinary consulting practice and is serving as the first-ever Scholar-in-Residence at the Center for Art & Public Life at California College of the Arts. Previously, she held senior leadership positions at IDEO.org and Public Architecture. Liz is also a Senior Fellow of the Design Futures Council.

Liz helped the MASD students transition from their individual thesis work into thinking about a unified approach to their thesis show. She also spent 6 hours during studio meeting one on one with each student to review their progress. On Tuesday evening, she gave a public lecture at MICA’s Studio Center Auditorium to a packed house of students, educators from various disciplines and, of course, a bunch of architects.

See description of her talk below:

“Design Acts: Creating impact, by design”

Everyone deserves good design. Yet, those in our society who lack the most resources also most often lack access to good design. This talk will explore creative opportunities to not only address this gap but also to enable lasting social and sustainable impact.

Andréa Pellegrino—Implementing Social Change

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0500

This week we were fortunate enough to host Andréa Pellegrino fromPellegrino Collaborative as our first visiting scholar of the Spring semester.

Andréa works at the intersection of strategy, communications and business development for forward-thinking organizations dedicated to driving positive social change. She launched Pellegrino Collaborative out of a belief that working with a network of multidisciplinary collaborators is the straightest path to helping her client’s impact society while building brand equity.

She worked with the students one on one analyzing and discussing their thesis questions and process and gave a public lecture on: Implementing Social Change.

In Andréa’s words: The current model for social innovation is highly dependent on contributions of time, resources and skills. Although honorable, this model is not economically sustainable, with less than 5 percent of social change concepts reaching fruition. Implementing Social Change examines the critical processes of actualizing solutions to social challenges with a sense of entrepreneurial spirit. Andréa Pellegrino works at the intersection of strategy, communications and business development for forward-thinking organizations dedicated to driving positive social change. She launched Pellegrino Collaborative out of a belief that working with a network of multidisciplinary collaborators is the straightest path to helping her client’s impact society while building brand equity.

Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson—Designer as Storyteller

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson joined the MASD team this week to to talk about designer as storyteller and the role storytelling should play in the MASD thesis proposals.

Elizabeth is a journalist, author, and editor whose articles, essays, and fiction have appeared or are forthcoming in publications and Web sites including The New York Times Magazine,Slate, Next American City, The Baltimore Sun, Urbanite, Grist, Design Observer, The Atlantic Cities, Johns Hopkins Magazine, Baltimoremagazine, Conde Nast Traveler, Print, and Little Patuxent Review, among others. She is a contributing editor at Architect and Architectural Lighting magazines and the Home and Design Editor for Style magazine in Baltimore. Dickinson was also the editor-in-chief of Urbanite magazine in Baltimore for three years. Her writing has earned awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and the 2011 Roger D. Redden Award from the Baltimore Architecture Foundation for achievement in the field of architecture. She is an adjunct faculty member at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) where she teaches graduate level writing. Prior to November of 2007 she published under her maiden name, Elizabeth A. Evitts.

Elaine Asal, architect from Gensler spent the whole day w/ us...

Sat, 17 Nov 2012 13:53:54 -0500

Elaine Asal, architect from Gensler spent the whole day w/ us working on our Deconstruction pitch to Humanim.

Lee Davis—Social Design + Social Enterprise

Mon, 12 Nov 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Lee Davis Rules!! and was our first Robert W. Deutsch Foundation Visiting Scholar.

Lee Davis is a social entrepreneur and designer with over 20 years of experience in the international development, philanthropy and social enterprise fields, and author of several books on social enterprise and venture philanthropy. He is co-Founder and Chief Innovation Officer (CIO) ofNESsT, and served for 15 years as co-CEO. With a team of 50 and operations in 10 countries across Eastern Europe and Latin America, NESsT has pioneered the field of social enterprise in emerging markets, has incubated over 3,500 social enterprises solving critical social problems, and was a 2004 winner of the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship.

In 2011, Lee was appointed as a Social Enterprise Fellow at the Yale School of Management. He is a former Research Fellow at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) where he was a Professorial Lecturer in Social Change and Development.

Most recently, Lee was curator of the Social Enterprise World Forum, the premiere global event on social enterprise, hosted by NESsT in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in October 2012.

Lee was the first in-house designer for international relief and development agency CARE, and was a 1988 recipient of the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship to undertake a yearlong independent design project in Switzerland and Japan.

He holds an M.A. from the Johns Hopkins Institute for Policy Studies and a B.A. in Studio Art from Connecticut College.

Lee is a native New Yorker, has lived and worked across the United States (including in Baltimore!), Eastern Europe and Latin America, and currently lives in the San Joaquin Valley of California.

Dr. MA Greenstein—Neuroscience & Design Thinking

Fri, 28 Sep 2012 15:02:21 -0400

Dr. M.A. Greenstein (a.k.a. Dr. G) delivers the power and wisdom of truly applied neuroscience into the hands of leaders and learners to inspire and transform education, health and media across the globe.

For thirty years, Dr. G. has been on the front lines of the arts and sciences to help decode the complex data of neuroscience into relevant insights and whole-system strategies. Her work, and the emergent field of applied science translation is currently enriching thousands of children, adults and organizations alike.

Dr. M.A. Greenstein is a futurist and recognized pioneer in translating emerging neuroscience into meaningful insights, strategy and applications into education, allied health and media arts. Early in her career she made the connection between neuroscience, Asian thought and somatic systems training, and has brought that to bear in her work. As a creative catalyst and systems thinker, she pulls together seemingly disparate patterns and relations, framing how holistic insights help people grow, learn, invent and change. She is a recipient of the Fulbright Scholarship to Asia, as well as an internationally recognized researcher, author, and dynamic keynote speaker, working across the AsiaPacific region during the heady early days of AsiaPacific triennales. As a social entrepreneur, she was amongst the first to develop a human-centered systems model of problem solving that integrates neuroscience, psychology, design thinking and contemplative and sensory integration techniques. Dr. Greenstein has applied this methodology to enhance cognitive, creative and emotional development from universities to lower school students, as well as for corporate talent. She was first to bring meditation practice to TEDActive, neuro-design to SXSW and has helped to evolve “brain-smart” coaching methodologies for learning and leadership within multiple communities, and industries throughout the globe.

In 2006 she founded and became the CEO of The George Greenstein Institute (GGI), a 501c3 think tank that delivers neuro-tech tools and holistic principles into education and allied health services for military veterans. She is also the publisher of Bodiespace.com, and a member of the BLUEMiND community that is exploring neuroscience, decision science and the biosphere.

Dr. Greenstein holds a doctoral degree in interdisciplinary arts education, with core academic studies in neurosomatic and cognitive science education) and offers nearly twenty years of experience teaching graduate students on how brain function impacts individual and social perception, attention, memory and creative decision making. Dr. Greenstein is in a unique position to translate complex brain science for those who are motivated to apply its findings to improve the lives of existing and future generations.

Myra Margolin—Community Psychology

Fri, 21 Sep 2012 09:17:33 -0400

This week we reconnected with the amazing Myra Margolin (actually the virtual version of Myra) as she left Baltimore last year to work with youth in India. Myra received an MA in Community Psychology from the University of Illinois and a BFA in Film and Video Production from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. She has been involved in the field of youth media for a decade, having taught media production to young people in Chicago and Brazil. In addition, she has written about and given numerous presentations on participatory and youth media practices. Before leaving for India, she was the Program Manager at Wide Angle Youth Media in Baltimore.

Her insight and connection between community psychology and social design was so useful to last year’s class, we had to have her back. Surprisingly, the technology worked well and the session was informative, intense, and extremely valuable.

Myra focused on many structural tools to help the MASD students with their research and challenged them with the importance of understanding a phenomenon and clearly articulating the definition of a problem. She covered Problem Definition, Critical Praxis, Levels of Analysis, and Theory of Change and the students conducted a deep and critical evaluation of their Blitz experience from week 03.

Paul Rucker—Interdisciplinary Artist

Mon, 17 Sep 2012 00:00:00 -0400

Thanks to Neil Didriksen from the Robert W. Deutsch Foundation for introducing us to Paul Rucker. Paul is an interdisciplinary artist, who combines mediums. He finds inventive ways to integrate live performance, sound, original compositions, and visual art. The music he creates on cello involves extended technique, prepared cello and electronics. His compositional style ranges from improvised to strictly notated. His visual artwork incorporates infrared beams, lasers, touch pads, glass instruments, sound, video, photography, animation, and large-format printing.

He spoke to MASD about his current work, Recapitulation, an installation demonstrating the parallels between slavery and the contemporary prison industrial complex through animation, digital stills, sculpture, original music compositions, interactive sound and video.

John Bielenberg & Greg Galle—Future Blitz

Fri, 14 Sep 2012 11:47:00 -0400

It was a pleasure to welcome our good friends John Bielenberg and Greg Galle of Future to the East Baltimore studio this week.

Future is an innovation firm that creates positive change by uniting the powers of design, enterprise, and humanity. They recognize that human ingenuity has been responsible for the many crises that we face in our world—but believe that human ingenuity can and will solve them.

Future rallies an ecosystem of the world’s most innovative, passionate leaders from all walks of human endeavor. Their allies include leaders in business, government, education, culture, technology, and design. They tackle some of the world’s toughest challenges, using an approach that quickly converts ideas into small steps that enable immediate learning and action. They believe design, ingenuity, and ventures can change the world.

And, they lived and worked with the MASD students this week and led an intense Blitz project. They took the students through ideation and team building exercises and focused on getting out and doing things. Students were then given 48 hours and the prompt: What iconic thing could we do to better engage our partners in positive change?

The goal was not to have students “solve problems” or engage in a specific issue, but rather look at ways to begin to develop trust and relationships within the community and with other partners.

David Sachs—Teams & Teaming

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 11:17:00 -0400

Today we welcomed David Sachs to lead a workshop on collaboration, leadership and personal working style.

David believes strongly in the power of design thinking to drive social innovation. As a Professor of Practice and Program Chair of the Executive Masters in the Management of Aging Services at UMBC’s Erickson School, David taught human-centered design, innovation and leadership within the context of human services. A former Executive Director of Harvard Business School’s Executive Education, David most recently led the global Corporate Learning and Development group at T. Rowe Price. He earned both an MBA and an MPA from Harvard University where he studied organizational creativity and innovation, particularly in the social sector, and was first introduced to design thinking.

MASD students came to the session prepared to discuss the following questions:

1. What has been your most and least gratifying experiences participating in a formal team or other group working towards a common purpose?

2. What made those experiences gratifying to you or not?

3. What contributed to those teams/groups successes and/or failures?

4. How did you personally contribute positively or negatively to the group dynamics? What, if anything, would you do differently if you could relive those experiences?

The structure of the workshop involved discussions, the marshmallow challenge, Individual reflection, theory/best practice, a trip to Cascades, and team design principles.

A good (and productive) time was had by all. Thanks David!!!

"The only way to have a friend is to be one."

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 12:32:54 -0400

“The only way to have a friend is to be one.”

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Mark Stern, PHD

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0400

MICA welcomed Mark Stern for a lecture and roundtable discussion involving MASD, MFACA, and MFA Curatorial Practice students. Dr. Stern is a professor at the University of Pennsylvania in Social Policy & Practice. His research focuses on US social history and the social impact of the arts.

Stern’s work has documented the role of community cultural providers in improving the quality of life in urban neighborhoods.
In addition to teaching in the social work program, Stern co-directs Penn’s Urban Studies program.
Stern co-authored the article “The New African American Inequality” that appeared in theJournal of American History in 2005.

Keetra Dean Dixon

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 12:21:57 -0400

Keetra Dean Dixon came to the studio to lead a workshop for the MASD students on How to give an effective presentation. It was an effective presentation, and the students were very happy to have Keetra before she (sadly) heads out of Baltimore.

Keetra is a designer and artist working under the handle FromKeetra. Her often frazzled workshop pushes its focus towards non-commissioned work, but occasionally finds the lure of a shiny client job too seductive to resist. Voted most likely to meander, FromKeetra straddles a wide set of mediums in the design of 2D, 3D & experiential projects. Keetra Dean developed many of her core objectives during her masters studies at the Cranbrook Academy of Art. Her ceaseless pursuit of wonder and irreverent whimsy previously landed her the role of Art Director with motion graphics studio Brand New School and a position as New Media Lead for the LAB at Rockwell Group. Her work continues to attract media giants such as Nike, The New York Times Magazine, Sony & MTV.

Dixon’s work has been recognized on several fronts including a place in the permanent design collection at the SFMOMA, the choice for STEP magazine’s Emerging Talent ‘09, and the honorable ranking of ADC Young Gun ‘08. She has been featured in numerous publications, speaking engagements, and exhibits, including feature articles in Etapes Magazine, works exhibited for the ‘09 U.S. Presidential Inauguration, and highlight pieces in several publications by Die-Gestalten. Dixon’s first solo exhibit opened it’s doors in November 2009 in London’s Kessel Kramer Gallery: KKOutlet.

Edward Boatman

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0500

We had the privilege of hosting Edward Boatman of the Noun Project at MICA PLACE this week. In addition to working directly w/ undergraduate students from Kyla’s Design for Change course in the graphic design department, he participated in MASD’s thesis review and led an Iconathon w/ MASD, MFAGD and the Baltimore City Health Department. We focused on community health, specifically food and physical activity. We very much look forward to a continued relationship and friendship w/ Edward.

See his story below:

A fascination with the ordinary……

To introduce myself, my name is Edward and I think a good starting point for this story is my sketchbook. Back when I was studying design in college I started drawing very simple sketches of seemingly ordinary objects like cranes, trains, trees, etc. I was fascinated with their complexity and mechanics. After a while I had a nice collection of these sketches, and I began to think - what if I had a sketch for every single object in the world? Now that would be great! I also started referring to these sketches as “nouns”, after all the drawings were representing a person, place or thing, and I loved the simplicity behind the concept of a “noun”. I even went as far as to design and draw a space where other artists could come and contribute to the project. But like for so many other people, life got in the way of my idea and nothing came of it.

After graduating from college I started working at an architecture firm. While there I began to notice a lack of good resources to quickly and effortlessly find free high quality symbols/icons for my presentations. I started to think again about my old noun idea and thought what if instead of sketches we collected every single noun-symbol and placed it on one easy to use website. I thought people could really find that valuable. Just like the first time though life got in the way of the idea and nothing materialized. However, during the recession, I suddenly found myself laid off with a new-found surplus of time on my hands. I convinced my wife Sofya (the business brains behind the scenes) to help me turn this noun-idea into an actual project.

We knew we needed a great website so we partnered with my old friend Scott Thomas and his design studio, Simple Honest Work. Scott and his team helped shape the idea and before long we were talking about sharing an international visual language, which led us to the beautiful simple site you see today.

We’re excited about all the support we’ve received and look forward to what lies ahead!

Rosten Woo

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500

We had the privilege of hosting Rosten Woo at MICA PLACE for a lecture and discussion Friday night.

He posed these questions: How does new information become meaningful to a public discussion? How can graphic design help or hinder the creation of a public?

Rosten Woo is a cultural producer living in Los Angeles. He makes work that helps people understand complex systems and participate in group decision-making. His work has been exhibited at the Cooper-Hewitt Design Triennial, the New Museum, the Venice Architecture Biennale, Netherlands Architectural Institute, the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, on the internet, and in various public housing developments, tugboats, shopping malls, and parks in New York City and Los Angeles. His first book, “Street Value,” was published by Princeton Architectural Press in 2010. He is co-founder and former executive director of the Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP).

James Rojas

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500

James Rojas led a Create Your Own Ideal Place workshop w/ Kyla’s Design for Change students and the Reservoir Hill Community.

James is an urban planner who devotes a lot of his time to translating the impenetrable maps and language of land use planning into a activities that are visual, tactile, and playful — the language of how we actually experience the world. His basic goal is to create environments that elicit ordinary people’s ideas and solutions to urban problems.

Scott Burkholder

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Scott Burkholder is the executive director of The Baltimore Love Project, whose self-described mission is to connect people and communities across Baltimore City through love themed murals. He visited MASD this week and led a workshop titled: What it takes to make LOVE! He talked about the 5 Knows of Business:

• Know your story

• Know your market

• Know your needs

• Know how to get it done

• Know how to follow up

Cindy Plavier Truitt & Henry Posko, Humanim

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 13:25:51 -0500

It was a pleasure and honor to have Cindy and Henry from Humanim, join us as MSD thesis advisors.

Cindy Plavier Truitt

Ms. Truitt serves as the Chief Development Officer of Humanim a NPO which provides workforce development and human services to over 4,500 individuals a year throughout Maryland. Ms. Truitt has been employed with Humanim for over 23 years. In her current role, she oversees all of the Baltimore Region Operations, Development and a $3 million dollar document management/IT social enterprise.

Ms. Truitt received both her bachelor’s and a master’s degree from Goucher College and a Certificate of Advanced Graduate Study in Clinical Community Counseling from Johns Hopkins University. She has been invited to participate, present, and consult on issues nationally related to workforce development, poverty, disability issues, community development and racial justice.

Ms. Truitt is a resident of Baltimore City, MD. She previously served on the board of Leadership Howard County, Leadership U, Suited to Succeed and the Neighborhood Design Center. She is currently the Chair of the Social Enterprise Alliance, Maryland Chapter and an active member of Baltimore Racial Justice Action. Ms. Truitt is a graduate of both Leadership Maryland and Leadership Howard County.

Ms. Truitt has received numerous awards and honors including: Child Advocate of the Year for Howard County, Top 100 Women 2006 and 2009. Since 2009, she and her colleague received numerous awards for their work on The American Brewery Project: Innovator of the Year (The Daily Record); Wave Maker Award (Urban Land Institute); Heavy Hitters in Commercial Real Estate (Baltimore Business Journal); Good Business = Good Design (Baltimore AIA); Baltimore Heritage Award for Best Adaptive Re-use; AIA Baltimore Presidents Award for Client of the Year; J. Timothy Anderson Award for Excellence in Historic Rehabilitation Most Innovative Adaptive Re-use; Maryland Preservation Phoenix Award; National Trust for Historic Preservation Board of Advisors Award.

Henry Posko

Mr. Posko serves as the President and CEO of Humanim, a position he has held for over twenty-five years. In this role, he leads a team of over 650 staff members as they offer a broad range of workforce, community, and business development services to assist individuals and communities in moving out of poverty. Annually, Humanim serves over 4,500 individuals throughout Maryland.

Mr. Posko received his Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of Baltimore and his Masters degree in Counseling Psychology from the Loyola University of Maryland. During his career, he has been invited to participate, present, and consult both nationally and internationally on issues related to workforce and poverty related programming. Mr. Posko has also presented on board development at the National Community Leadership Conference and has been the opening retreat facilitator for a local youth leadership program. In addition, his leadership has resulted in key state legislation for workforce development and social enterprises, resulting in employment for thousands in the Baltimore-Washington region.

Mr. Posko is a resident of Severna Park, MD, and has participated in numerous community activities throughout his career. He previously served as Chairman of both Leadership Maryland and Maryland Works and is a graduate of both state and local community leadership programs. Mr. Posko also was named to the City First Bank of DC and the National Trust for Historic Preservation Tax Credit Advisory Boards. In 2007 he became a founding Board Member of Revere Bank, a community bank in Laurel, Maryland.

Mr. Posko has received numerous awards and honors including: the Humanitarian of the Year for Howard County, Maryland, Leadership Maryland’s Outstanding Leader of the Year, the Horizon Foundation’s Richard McCauley Award, and recognition as a distinguished alumnus of Loyola University. In 2009/2010, he and his colleague received numerous awards for their work on The American Brewery Project: Innovator of the Year (The Daily Record); Wave Maker Award (Urban Land Institute); Heavy Hitters in Commercial Real Estate (Baltimore Business Journal); Good Business = Good Design (Baltimore AIA); Baltimore Heritage Award for Best Adaptive Re-use; AIA Baltimore Presidents Award for Client of the Year; J. Timothy Anderson Award for Excellence in Historic Rehabilitation Most Innovative Adaptive Re-use; Maryland Preservation Phoenix Award; National Trust for Historic Preservation Board of Advisors Award.

Rebecca Yenawine

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Rebecca joined us on Monday, February 6 as an advisor for the first Thesis Review.

She works as an adjunct faculty member at the Maryland Institute College of Art in the Masters of Community Art Program where she teaches social justice curriculum. Rebecca is the founder and co-director of Kids on the Hill and oversees all art and curriculum at KOH, insuring that the projects that young people focus on creatively address systemic social justice issues. Her primary goal is to help teens become leaders and active citizens and to put their vision out through art and media. Rebecca also works closely with the Board of Directors to direct the mission, goals and outcomes of the organization.

Her background includes training in mediation, teaching writing and art to inner city youth and providing childcare at a battered women’s shelter in New York. Ms. Yenawine has a BA in English from Goucher College and has completed courses in Psychology, Adolescent Development and Intercultural Communication. In 1999, Ms. Yenawine was the recipient of a Community Fellowship Award from the Open Society Institute and in 2003 was accepted into the yearlong LEADERship class sponsored by the Greater Baltimore Committee.

Kel Smith

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0500

I am Kel Smith

I own a digital accessibility company calledAnikto
I write stuff onTwitter
I write other stuff onTwitterrelated to Anikto
I’m writing abookon accessibility and innovation
There’s aTwitter feedon that as well
I’ve been published inSpringer Press, theJournal of Virtual Worlds and Education, theE-Access BulletinandSTC Intercom Magazine
I wrote something for thePentagon Library
I wrote something forUX Magazine
I was interviewed for a podcast onhealthcare thought leadership
I can be found onLinkedIn
I can be found onFaceBook
I’m part of theHumanities Arts Science and Technology Collaborative Something or Other
I work in healthcare communications running adigital innovation practice
I do a lot ofpublic speaking
In fact, somebody did aspeaker wikiabout me
In 2010 I spoke atCSUN 2011,IxDA10,AHG 2010andUAB in Barcelona
In 2011 I spoke atSTC 2011,UPA 2011,LEEF 2011,WFS 2011,AHG 2011,Health Literacy 2011andWUD 2011
In 2012 I’m speaking atIxDA 2012,CSUN 2012,UAB 2012,WFS 2012,Knowbility AccessUand a few more yet to be confirmed
There’s a video of me speaking that I refuse to watch, butfeel free
I had mypicture takenby a guide dog
The BBC oncespelled my name wrong
Feel free tocontact me, but don’t try to sell me anything