Final Project

This project was confronting the common issue of providing

food to those who may not be able to afford it. Giving consumers of

any age or physical ability the opportunity to have home gardens 

without previous gardening knowledge or infrastructure.

The initial phase of growing requires knowledge, soil, 

and facilities which Earth University has. While the 

growing and harvesting phase can be done by the 

consumer. Giving Earth University  the ability to 

focus on the first step of production and letting the

consumer grow on their own ground.

Slater Mill

Last Week we visited the Slater Mill museum in Pawtucket, which is considered the “birthplace of industrial design.” Of the many machines and tools on display the one that interested me the most, in terms of my studio project, was their looms. The purpose of a loom is to weave cloth. It works by having long threads, called warps, and interweaving it with threads going the perpendicular, wefts. The wefts go back and forth along the piece and every time it reaches one end a different set of warps are lifted up by gates, sandwiching the wefts into place.  This machine relates to my project because it is takes strands of material and by organization gives it structure. I was also instead in the role of the gates and how they determine the weave.  I plan to use the logic of looms to create more calculated decisions for in my studio work.

Costa Rica Trip

Filling and Insulation possibilities

Drawings from the nature lab

The most valuable things that I gained from the trip to the nature lab was looking how the bonding agent interacted with the surface of the material. Also just looking at what the surface of the materials looked like.

Current uses of rice straw and rice hull

http://www.biomassandbioenergy.nl/filesricestraw/KeijsersSustainableBuilding.pdf

Not really something for our class, but this was one was people dealt with excess rice straw

Earthen plaster consruction

Using straw for insulation and construction

Material Studies

Instead of looking at chemical or other ways of transforming the materials I was looking at how I could exploit the physical properties of each materials.

-I saw rice straw is naturally tied-up and knotted. Instead on compressing it I mixed it with glue and was seeing if it would hardened up into a brick form that would still be filled with empty space. I created rectangular spaces that straw would have to take shape in.

I also was looking how well the materials could keep a form. I dipped a ballon in glue, rubbed rice hull to cover the surface, and then repeated the process several times to build up a skin.

I also tried vacuum forming one of the balls to seal all of the material in

-I also tried the turning the sugar cane back into solid form similar to which it once was.

Costa Rica economy

Peabody Museum visit

Seeing artifacts at the museum was a great way to start thinking about materials studies. The biggest thing I got out of the visit is that any material can be utilized to fit a need. Such as what we saw with the banana  fibers ,which I assume would be a difficult material to work with, was being used in a variety of ways. If you approach a material by focusing on one "unit" at a time it is possible to see how one can create a larger form.

Article Responses

The Meaning of “Social Entrepreneurship” by J. Gregory Dees

I found it interesting and agree that entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship have different boundaries and must be held to different qualifications of success. Entrepreneurship success can be quantified and lives within a market that weeds unsuccessful attempts out. While social entrepreneurship success is hard to determine because it deals with changes within a system. The true success of social entrepreneurship is its ability to sustain over a long period of time.

The initial development of social entrepreneurship must also be different from entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship may be spawned from a moment of genius. While social entrepreneurship process needs to be a development and adaptation to be successful.

Social Entrepreneurship: The Case for Definition by Rodger L. Martin & Sally Osberg

I do agree and like the reference of an entrepreneur as someone who questions the norm and look towards the ideal wondering why are we not there. Asking what can I do to get us there.

One of the problems I find with this article is an entrepreneur is portrayed as a lifetime profession. Entrepreneurs are described as someone who is always out seeking opportunities rather then someone who happens to address the current situation that they are living in.

Reshaping Social Entrepreneurship by Paul C. Light

I agree with the notion that an entrepreneur can be just as effective by looking at the system in place and seeing how it can be used to its full potential. Which was slightly overlooked in most of the other articles, which identifies the entrepreneur as someone who completely shakes the foundation of the current system in place.

This article shows some of the problems of social entrepreneurship today: trying to pin point success to individuals and only acknowledging huge success instead of taking note of small failures. 

Course Questions

What design studios have you taken in the past? Which did you enjoy the most?
ESPN studio, Nanovation studio, and internship and small design firm. I enjoyed my work in the ESPN studio because it dealt with something I was very familiar with and was rooted in the real world.

Do you have a background, a double major, or a pervious degree in another discipline other than ID?
Previous to RISD I was doing fine art with a history of painting and drawing.


What are your strongest skills in terms of craft/visual communication?
Highly experienced in Photoshop and good understanding of model making.


What skills would you most like to build during this course?
Hoping to learn the basics of making a business plan and looking at  how to establish a whole system for your product to live.


What areas are you most or least interested in working on during this course?
Creating a system that can be sustained


Do you have experience working on social entrepreneurship projects in the past? If so, what were they?
After reading the articles on social entrepreneurship it would be more considered more of a social service. In my Nanovation studio we developed arsenic detecting devices for water in Bangladesh 


Do you prefer team or individual projects?
Individual or small teams