IMPROVERSION* Symposium 2014

*The portmanteau Improversion combines “improvisation” and “subversion.” We created it as a framework to explore how we might reveal design assumptions and norms when approaching “design problems.” Is Improversion a noun? (Time for an improversion.) Is it a verb? (Improvert meaningfully.) An adjective? (Improversional standards.) An adverb? (Challenge improversionally.) How will you apply it?

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*¡*Party Favor Posters*!*

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#improversion tagboard compilation. Thanks for contributing!

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York's Response to Improversion Art Show

Book on tape. Robin Vuchnich

By changing the book into a participatory experience, the artist turns the user into the author of his own story. In the process, the reader becomes a time-traveler, each of his decision or intervention into the original story affecting the unfolding of the events.

What is Improversion...? Ryan Foose

This project is a satire on the emotional connection a community holds with its symbols. The mascot of this university is reinterpreted and revisualised into a multiplicity of variants, questioning the grounds on which we build a collective identity.

Mini collection of collection. Sean D. Gardner

Engaging in a curatorial activity of carefully selecting objects and recontexctualizing them, the artist gives a new meaning and a new life to the salvaged object. In their new context, each object acts as an empty vessel in the creation of a new narrative, losing its past story in the process.

Blind study. Jeri-Lynn Gehr

This drawing acts as a comment on the amount of time lost in the culture of self obsession and social media. The artist, by substituting the blind and quick snap shot for the lenghty and thoughtful process of blind contour ends up giving a new cultural value to self-representation.

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Response to Nearsoft's Improversion

Texas State responded to Nearsoft's musical representation with their own distinct symphony of technologically produced sound, with each individual controlling their contribution to the whole.

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Texas State's Failure Mapping and Response Project

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And that's a wrap!

What an AWESOME symposium, right?! We had a great time here and hope all our virtual participants enjoyed their experience as well.

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MICA's Thoughts of Failure (left) and Curricular Universe (right)

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VCFA Failure Mapping

An education system that promotes failure must also be willing to provide an environment in which a person can feel safe -- where he/she will not be judged (at least not too harshly) and be given the constructive criticism (tools) to move forward. VCFA is just such a place.

As Denise Crisp can attest to as my guest thesis critic, my moments of failure were so memorable, they became points of discussion during the crit. Yet, without those failures at the end of my first semester, faculty would not have been able to address so specifically the areas of my weakness and the strategies to address and improve in those areas (form explorations, presentation skills, and design exhibition installation).

VCFA creates a place of trust by fostering risk-taking amongst peers. It would have been impossible to successfully defend "whimsy" for my thesis without the open, nurturing, and supportive community that VCFA embodies.

Is it possible to fail forward without having some fail safes in place?

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Response to NCSU's Improversion Research Lab

A humorous extension of the initial hypothesis of design research as an assembly line production. What happens when roles are changed midway through? What happens when ideas don't make it to the end? What happens when it is no longer a linear production?

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NCSU Failure Mapping

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NCSU (Current & Alumni) Response to York's Manifesto

NCSU's response was constructed in similar fashion to York's, with a multimedia display placing digital imagery on a physical paper layout.

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Response to MICA's 'Hive'

The Bee's Nest

While working on a response to MICA's project, a majority of the conversation was about what The Hive meant and resembled in our current design culture. The final result ended up being a randomly placed sentence about who MICA really was...MICA is dynamic thinkers collaborating within an interdisciplinary culture.

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Report out & Wrap up

STARTING SOON!! Tune-in to the live stream as we report out on group insights from the activities. Virtual participants: we will connect through a Google Hang-out for discussion and closing remarks.

Continue tweeting @improversion and/or using #improversion! All our social media documentation will live on as a record of what happened here at Improversion.

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Live Stream

During the activity portion of Improversion, you can access the live streams here and here. Join the social media conversation @improversion and/or use #improversion.

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TEXAS PROMPT: PROMPTS for mapping activity (15-20mins):  - Draw a map of your grad program's curriculum  - Identify areas where failure is allowed/encouraged (color them green)  - Identify points where failure is not an option -- "too big to fail" (a red X)  - Where in this process have you personally failed? (different color for each person)  - Did you "fail forward" (it led to something useful) or just fail? (happy face / sad face)  Please annotate the map and feel free to improvise.  Questions to consider while you are working -- you may respond with written answers, or simply use these as jumping-off points for discussion within your group:  - What do you think would happen if your program were more open to failure?  - Do you think that your students fail more or less often than those in other programs?  - How do you share your failures (and the lessons learned) with others within your program?  - Do you think your school has an institutional attitude toward failure? Positive or negative? 

At 2:15, we will reconnect with virtual attendees to discuss and do the documentation activity.

DISCUSSION PROMPT: Choose a submission to discuss, in depth, for 20 minutes. Can you identity aspects of their design microculture that were highlighted or challenged through Improversion? How are those aspects similar to your own microculture? How are they different? What was their interpretation of Improversion? Based on your discussion of the Improversion, write a seven word statement describing the original microculture (the unsubverted version). Use the moveable whiteboards to write/sketch/map your discussion. This will help you during the following activity. DOC ACTIVITY: Documentation activity in small groups. Small groups construct an artifact in the form of a document, a series of vine videos, a map, a poster, an image, etc. that captures key insights about a particular submission. It may also be a reaction, question, or argument against the design culture themes that seem to be associated with a submission. It can also be a spin-off, alliance with, or re-articulation of an identified theme. Each of these documents will live alongside the original submission in the digital archive (Tumblr/elsewhere) after the event to provide a record of attendee response and insight.