Come to the Windup Space, at 12 W. North Ave., Wednesday, May 5th at 6:30 pm for Design Conversation #19: Streets/Art (part 1)

This is part one of a two part Design Conversation on public art. This first one, curated by Fred Scharmen, will look at aspects of public art that occur outside and between the institutions that have traditionally supported art in communities.

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Panelists for Design Convo 19 include:

Sculptor and Performance Artist Jonathan Taube

Activist, Artist and Facilitator Paulo Harris

Street Artist, Sculptor and Painter Andrew Pisacane

… and more TBA

Check for part 2, curated by Ben Stone, on the first wednesday in June.

Don’t forget that this Wednesday, April 14th is Design Conversation #18. The theme is invention, and the diverse lineup of guests includes neuroscientist Charles Limb, MICA’s Ellen Lupton and Inna Alesina, and David Peloff, Program Director for Emerging Technologies at Hopkins. As always, at the Windup Space, 12 W. North Ave., at 6:30 pm.

# 18 Wed., 14 April: Invention
Curator: Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson
(note that due to a schedule conflict, this will be the second wednesday)

#19 Wed., 5 May: Streets/Art Part 1
Curator: Fred Scharmen

#20 Wed., 2 June: Streets/Art Part 2
Curator: Ben Stone

#21 Wed., 7 July: Sketch & Bitch
Curator: Amber Shriver

#22 Wed., 4 August: Raw Materials
Curator: Peter Doo

This is just a quick note to send you all to check out our flickr page, where we’re starting to add some pics from last thursday’s panel discussion at MICA. Many thanks to our moderator, panelists, co-sponsors, and audience! Stay tuned for a proper writeup later this week, but for now, see this recap at the Design Revolution Roadshow blog: link.

We’ve got a homework assignment: D:center Baltimore has challenged each of our constituents to write up a concise, clear vision for effecting change, this is our brief:

What’s your idea for a project that will change the way people think about the city? Be as abstract (manifesto) or as concrete (manifest) as you like, write a call to arms or an action statement, but it should be a vision that you can stand behind and support, and it should be something that the D:center has the unique opportunity to participate in.

… now we’re at the due date, and the responses are flowing in:

There’s a proposal for an Art Market incubator zone on the West Side of downtown near Charles Center, from Craig Purcell.

We have a point-by-point primer on the relationship between social interaction and the essence of creative change from Marian Glebes.

There is a vision of a physical Design Center at 10 North Charles St. by Klaus Philipsen.

Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson imagines a design-build competition that would make Baltimore its own developer, and its own client.

Mary Anne Akers wants to see a sustainable redevelopment project for the Baltimore City Gateway site.

I’ve posted a new diagram and concept plan for The PLANT, a phased, multidisciplinary, small scale development project originally created for the Baltimore Bioneers Conference.

… a lot of similar themes are emerging here. What’s your plan for changing the way people exist in the city? This post will continue to be updated as new writeups come in.

The Plant is a sustainable strategic development masterplan proposal for Baltimore. At the the building scale, The Plant is a mixed use prefab construction, containing a small meeting, office, and retail space for a nonprofit cultural institution, with apartments above. At the scale of the block, The Plant generates surplus energy for its neighbors, food from an onsite garden, and improved water quality. Income from The Plant, along with added equity from the block’s other properties, is able to effect change at the municipal level, helping fund a prefab construction supply startup, which is then able to export new techniques and technologies to other postindustrial cities in the larger region.

The Plant was created for the Baltimore Bioneers Conference in the fall of 2008, by the Visionary Green Design and Development Panel: Lisa Ferretto, Eric Leshinsky, Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson, Prescott Gaylord, Thibault Manekin, & Fred Scharmen

Click Here for a fullsized version of this diagram.

Click Here for more information.

We’re going to try to have paper and pencil available at the Design Convos from now on, we’ll collect your notes, doodles, grocery lists or whatever and post them here in the blog. Design Convo #16 (we went back and counted, and decided it really was 16, after all), had some great doodling fodder. The collage here shows what looks like some notes from Dana Bourland’s excellent presentation on her work at Enterprise Community Partners (Food Distribution, Public Transportation, Healthy Housing). On the upper left corner is a graphic that looks inspired by some of the amazing diagrams from Pavlina Ilieva of PIKL (this one is my favorite). In the center are some bubble diagrams, reminiscent of Julie Gabrielli’s presentation on wrangling the diversity of constituents involved in the production of UMD’s award winning LEAF House Solar Decathlon entry. Someone’s got some notes on the Baltimore Community Foundation’s Kresge Grant program, which we were lucky to hear about from BCF’s Melissa Warlow.

There’s also what looks like a sketch for some kind of cryptographic or programming matrix, a diagram about greywater capture in a plumbing drain stack, and, interestingly, a small illustration labeled: Blueberry, Mint, Cardamom (sounds delicious). Click here to see a larger version, and check here to download the presentations. Keep the doodles coming!

Thanks to Geoff Stack for curating this one, and thanks to Russell, our host at Windup Space, and to everyone who donated, for helping us raise some funds for Architecture for Humanity’s reconstruction plan in Haiti. Those are on their way to AFH now.

Join us for Baltimore Design Conversation #15, which will revolve around all aspects of “sustainability” in the large and small senses. The curator for this conversation is Geoff Stack, of Stack Coordination.

Wednesday, February 3rd, 6:30 pm. At the Windup Space, 12 W. North Avenue, Baltimore.

(We will be encouraging folks to find ways to support Architecture for Humanity’s efforts in Haiti at this event. If you cannot make it, please check out A4H at this link.)

The latest round of Cyberattacks on the Baltimore D.Center have been successfully repelled by our web guru, Amber Shriver. And not a moment too soon, fast on the holidays, there are two fascinating posts by Design Center co-conspirators to point you to.

The first is from Baltimore Museum of Art Director Doreen Bolger has written a comprehensive look at the lifestyles of the young cultural producers in Baltimore:

Here, in Baltimore, it’s a rising creative class, young people who came of age in the anxious decade following 9/11. Many, but not all, of these culture-creators studied at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), now among the very top art schools in the nation. Add into the mix the creative types attracted to vibrant arts programs at Towson University and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and by the music of all kinds at Johns Hopkins University’s incredible Peabody Conservatory. These kids are transforming Charm City.

Read the rest of the article on Charm City Current here, we’re very glad to discover that this only the latest installment in what seems to be a regular column from Doreen. (Doreen, why didn’t you tell us?!)

Another regular column is Elizabeth Evitts Dickenson’s Letters From Baltimore. Check her latest on revived tradition of letterpress printing in the city, by way of a visit to the Gilah Press.

We got a closeup look at typesetting and letterpress printing at Design Conversation #14: Absorb. This was hosted by Holly Burke, and featured a presentation and demonstration by another local letterpresser: Kyle Van Horn:

(photo by Marian April Glebes, for more, see the D.Center flickr page here)

We also heard some thoughts on the changing nature of graphic design in advertising and visual culture from Holly, illustrated by way of a few clips from the 2007 documentary Helvetica (the first feature length film starring a typeface, but hopefully not the last). And I was able to contribute a few images of the ongoing decay of a side project of my own: link.

Keep an eye out for Design Conversation #15, this coming wednesday, Jan. 6th, as always, at the Windup Space.