Blogs
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Ignite 7Ignite Philly 7 was last night, good thing I got my ticket a week in advance because it was sold out as usual. IgnitePhilly is part of a global series of Ignite events that allows anyone to present about anything inspiring, but in 5 minutes or less. Lots of ignite events are organized around the world.
It's critique week. The final week of school. The week when everyone shows off what they've been working on for the past semester. The week when work is validated or destroyed. While it may seem more calm than the craziness of the week prior, the tension is just less tangible. Students huddle around computers quietly reciting their presentations in hopes of receiving congratulations. However the anxiety of waiting for their chance is almost palpable.
On the roof of the Gershman Y, Mike Barakat, Woody, and Tony Guido held a 3 hour workshop to build birdhouses for the American Kestrel. They brought power tools, scrap wood from old projects and some motivational food like vegan chili and hot dr. pepper. It was a cold day but there was a good turnout from grad's and undergrad's alike. When all was said and done 8 new nest boxes had been made and no injuries had occurred, so it was a success!
For Mike Barakat, and Woody this was only the first step though. They are applying for Spring Program, a $5,000 grant to support local biodiversity, and this workshop was one way for them to take action towards achieving that goal. Ultimately, they want to create Nestworks, an urban planned network of nesting areas for the American Kestrel in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. This network will be composed of a series of ready-made and constructed nest boxes, built from found materials in the area, along with a guide for local bird watchers, because it is one of the most elaborately colored birds of prey.
The American Kestrel is a great candidate for repopulation because it likes to live in urban areas and feed off the small rodents, insects and pests like the house sparrow, that live in the city. Pittsburgh and Philadelphia are excellent cities because it is native to both areas, and both cities have rivers nearby for water. Since it is one of the smallest birds of prey, the man-made nest boxes can be relatively easily build and because it usually nests lower to the ground than most birds of prey, mounting them won't be as much of an issue.
Last week we had Jonny Goldstein come in and give us a two day workshop on visual thinking.
As we start winding down the semester (although some members of our studio don't even want those words uttered) we are finally getting to the points in our projects where we start making/doing/building things. After many weeks of research, interviews, and sifting through information to filtered analysis we are moving into the building/designing phase of our projects. This is the time when we implement our prototypes and start making changes to them based on what works.
