alexrmann

[alexrmann]

LA+Creature Design Competition

Competition: LA+ Creature Competition, 2020, Weitzman School of Design, University of Pennsylvania

Above: Original photo by Alan Krakaeur, CC BY-NC 2.0, modified with text overlay

This entry proposes demilitarizing the Yakima Training Center in Eastern Washington's Sagebrush Sea in order to restore habitat and develop a new means of co-existence with Greater Sage-grouse.

The 2020 LA+ CREATURE design ideas competition—the third in the LA+ international series—asked whether we can live with animals in new ways, if we can transcend the dualism of decimation on the one hand and protection on the other, and how we can use design to open our cities, our landscapes, and our minds to a more symbiotic existence with other creatures." Entrants were challenged to:

Choose a nonhuman creature as your client (any species, any size, anywhere) and identify its needs (energy, shelter, procreation, movement, interaction, environment, etc.).

Design (or redesign) a place, structure, thing, system, and/or process that improves your client’s life.

Your design must, in some way, increase human awareness of and empathy towards your client’s existence.

Research

The Yakima Training Center (YTC), a U.S. military installation near Yakima, Washington, is host and parasite to one of Washington State's few remaining viable habitats for the greater sage-grouse, Centrocercus urophasianus. Populations on the YTC have been trending downward for six decades.

Population trend for greater sage-groud in Washington State, 1964-2019. Source:

Estimates for three populations of sage-grouse in Washington, 1980-2012. The Yakima Training Center population has experienced a generalized decline relative to the other two populations. Source:

Cover of competition entry displaying habitat suitability relative to land cover.

Habitat Pressures

The Greater Sage-Grouse experiences a number of habitat pressures at the Yakima Training Center. Although the sage-grouse enjoys human admiration via indigenous ritual and lek voyeurism during the spring mating period, subpopulations throughout the state have been extirpated due to human encroachment and conversion of land to urban and agricultural uses. Artillery and firearms training at YTC renders many square miles unlivable. Fires are a common outcome, some of which escape control. These pressures and the resulting habitat loss are intensified by global warming. These pressures are depicting the following image and described below.

2-page spread from competition entry displaying habitat pressures experienced by greater sage-grouse at the Yakima Training Center.

Militarism

The YTC is host to multiple artillery ranges including a massive "Primary Impact Area" located almost exclusively within the Lmuma Creek Watershed. Active leks have been discovered at the periphery of the impact area.

Geology & Soil

Prehistoric volcanic activity on the Columbia Plateau resulted in multiple layers of subsurface and exposed basalt rendering the top soil thin and relatively dry.

Fire

Wild and anthropogenic fires increase in frequency and intensity as summers become drier with longer periods of drought. These fires contribute to habitat loss and significantly reduce air quality.

Noise Pollution

Noise disturbances disrupt sage-grouse mating. The YTC seasonally prohibits flight over priority sage-grouse habitat conservation areas. Lek voyeurs are instructed to arrive before and leave after the spring morning mating ritual on the lek.

Slow Vegetative Regeneration

The Greater Sage-grouse requires sagebrush for cover and diet. The pace of vegetative regeneration is naturally slow and highly contingent on soil and air moisture, making the shrub-steppe extremely sensitive to fire events.

Physical Disturbance

Construction of roads results in disturbance, inviting invasive species, such as cheatgrass to encroach upon shrub-steppe and bunchgrass habitat.

Agriculture & Grazing

The Columbia Basin Project resulted in the nearly wholesale colonization of greater sage-grouse habitat in Eastern Washington expansion of irrigation and agriculture. Legacy consequences of utilizing the shrub-steppe for rangeland.

Predation & Ecocide

Existing sage-grouse predation management conducted by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife requires both lethal removal and non-lethal discouragement or relocation of coyotes, ravens, owls, hawks, and others.

Mating & Nesting

Mating and nesting occur in and immediately adjacent to generational leks (from the Swedish "playground"). Reestablishing extirpated leks, like sagebrush germination and survival, has a low success rate. Nearly all females in a Greater Sage-grouse community will selectively mate with only one or two individuals from the male population, significantly reducing genetic diversity.

Ideation for ways to build human empathy for a creature and improve the creature's life.

Design Concept

Demilitarization appears to be the last hope for a recovered grouse community. Using the lek as the central organizing element and as formal inspiration, a program of demilitarization of the Yakima Training Center is envisioned to function as a catalyst for international demilitarization efforts.

War games and military training operations will be converted to lek rehabilitation, shrub-steppe restoration and continued research and monitoring of the sage-grouse populations.

Existing opportunities for lek voyeurism will be preserved and augments by the incorporation of architectonic site features, including low-profile lek observation bunkers and a central rotunda for community events and resources, with particular attention to deprogramming the legacy of toxic masculinity attached to empire building and capitalist ecocide.

2-page spread from competition entry displaying a conceptual (re)assemblage which generates co-existence between humans and greater sage-grouse at the Yakima Training Center.

Assemblage Components

Lek Defense

Military personnel mobilized for landscape restoration practices, barbed wire fence replacement, and defense of lek mating arenas from predation, ecotourist disruptions, prescribed fire, and emergency response.

Lek Voyeurism

Air- and ground-based long-distance lek voyeurism remain a viable activities. A field research program supplements recreational observation with long-term scientific oversight of the Greater Sage-Grouse population.

No-Fly Zone

Airspace above the DMZ is a no-fly zone, ensuring further reductions to potential noise disturbances.

Repurposed Drones

Use of drones and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) should be repurposed and restricted to the scientific study of land and life.

Lek Observation Bunkers

Camouflaged observation bunkers offer outposts for near-field lek voyeurism as well as shelter for field researchers and ordnance removal experts.

Lek Rotunda

A rotunda placed upon an elevated point will serve as a meeting place more distant from leks and other critical habitat. It's circular form will afford panoramic scenery and a central hearth evoking the Terra Amata and the concentric form of a sage-grouse lek.

Next Steps

Exploring the concept of sage-brush as the limits of pre-historic time.

Revisions to the Proposed Assemblage photomontage. Distance to LEK.

More accurate depiction of lek, and reflection in the rotunda architecture.

A more detailed plan of the rotunda.

An exploration of my philosophical limits in terms of anthropomorphicizing the sex of greater sage-grouse through a cis-gendered ideological filter. The purpose is to find a new relationship to gender and a better understanding of sexual evolution.

Incorporation of research the preceded the development of this entry + Darwin + Elizabeth Kolbert into this work's essay.

[alexrmann]

Antinomy Visual Art

Show Title: Antinomy, 2018

Curated by: Anne-Claire Mitchell

Running Dates: September 15, 2017 - October 31, 2017

Part of a group show at the Richmond Art Collective, these two works were digitally created with Adobe Illustrator, laser printed onto over 100 sheets of 8.5x11 bond paper at full-scale using a stock Adobe Acrobat print automation script, then tiled onto 8'x4' plywood sheets using wall size as adhesive.

Artist's Statement

The materiality of the piece was inspired by wheatpasted street art. Aesthetically, the piece demonstrates a form of hyperrealist art, à la Jean Baudrillard. Written content blends original prose with borrowed philosophical quotations.

[alexrmann]

NSC Placemaking Participatory Design

Above: The Place Diagram (adapted from Project for Public Spaces).

EWU URP Director: Dr. Kerry Brooks

Student research assistants: Teal Delys, Kylee Jones, Garrett Kenney, Tyler Kimbrell-Knutson, Aren Murcar, & Danielle Olson

While a more comprehensive (and very large) summary document exists for this project, I am working to digest its content on this site and more succinctly flesh out the project’s story.

In early 2018, I served as the lead researcher and public facilitator for the Washington State Department of Transportation's (WSDOT) North Spokane Corridor Placemaking process. In collaboration with faculty and students of Eastern Washington University's Urban and Regional Planning program (EWU URP), I was responsible for developing and facilitating a first-of-its-kind participatory planning process for WSDOT. I coordinated with lead representatives of public agencies and neighborhood leadership, trained support staff in facilitation of group planning exercises, provided oversight for a team of student assistant planners, guided the production of supporting materials, synthesized results into a summary of findings and presented those findings to stakeholders.

This process adapted placemaking strategies from Project for Public Spaces (PPS), to give community members affected by the North Spokane Corridor a voice in the design of its architectural features, public space improvements, and a 10.5 mile shared-use trail extension.

Above left: Aerial photograph by Joe Mabel (CC BY-SA 3.0), labels added.  Above right: Map of project extent. Completed section of the corridor spans between points a and b, while portions of the corridor subject to this planning effort lie between points b and c. Original map by Wikipedia user, Jdubman, additional labels added.

What is Placemaking?

Placemaking is defined as:

...a people-centered approach to the planning, design and management of public spaces...Put simply, it involves looking at, listening to, and asking questions of the people who live, work and play in a particular space, to discover needs and aspirations...This information is then used to create a common vision for that place. — Project for Public Spaces and The Chicago Metropolitan Planning Council, from "What is placemaking?" in A Guide to Neighborhood Placemaking in Chicago

The "NSC Place" Project attempted to give power to those neighborhoods through which the NSC traverses. WSDOT intends the outcomes of the project to reflect distinct perspectives, unique ideas, and collective needs of the communities affected by the NSC. Guided by the EWU Urban and Regional Planning program, a public input process was conducted including three neighborhood placemaking charrettes, and a charrette dedicated to the Children of the Sun Trail. The results of these charrettes was summarized, published to the project website, and presented to the NSC Collaboration Team, a citizen group tasked with distilling the results into a common vision for development.

Placemaking involves discovering the needs and aspirations of a community by looking at, listening to, and asking questions of the people who live, work and play there. This information is used to create a common vision for place.

The Lexicon of Placemaking

The Project for Public Spaces provides a detailed overview of the four primary placemaking attributes that "make great places," a summary of which is provided below:

Sociability

Uses & Activities

Comfort & Image

Access & Linkages

The Place diagram. (C) Project for Public Spaces

In evaluating thousands of public spaces around the world, PPS has found that to be successful, they generally share the following four qualities: they are accessible; people are engaged in activities there; the space is comfortable and has a good image; and finally, it is a sociable place: one where people meet each other and take people when they come to visit. PPS developed The Place Diagram below as a tool to help people in judging any place, good or bad. — Project for Public Spaces. "What Makes a Successful Place?"

Charrette Process

Three placemaking charrettes were conducted for the neighborhoods of Bemiss-Whitman (combined), Minnehaha, and Hillyard. The Bemiss-Whitman charrette constituted three tables of approximately 6-8 people per table, whereas both Minnehaha and Hillyard necessitated approximately six tables each. Each charrette featured a mix of neighborhood residents, residents from adjacent neighborhoods, and other interested parties, in addition to staff. The charrettes were conducted at the Northeast Community Center (Bemiss-Whitman and Minnehaha Charrettes) and Shaw Middle School (Hillyard Charrette).

Sign-in & Orientation

Attendees signed in at the front desk and were assigned a Table Group. Tables groups were limited to 6-8 people. A brief staff huddle was conducted to ensure all facilitators were prepared for the event. A safety announcement was provided at the beginning of each meeting in case of emergency.

Charrette Introduction

Staff introductions were made, and an overview of the NSC project's history, status and timeline was presented by Bob Hilmes of WSDOT. The concept of placemaking was introduced and the charrette process was explained. An overview of the agenda was presented in order to prepare participants for the activities.

Example charrette agenda.

Charrette Activities

Each charrette was divided into two phases: (1) Special Place Evaluations, conducted in the morning and (2) Sticker Mapping, conducted in the afternoon. These two phases were divided with a lunch break between. Each phases was comprised of separate activites, with each activity building up to and supporting the next.

Sharing and Presentation

After each activity Table Groups were asked to share their ideas or findings. Usually, a participant or facilitator was nominated by each group to present. Due to time constraints, groups were asked to limit their presentation to the most important ideas or findings that emerged from the activities. Morning activity presentations were provided at individual tables during a lunch break. Final presentations involved pinning up maps around the room and presenting in front of that work.

Charrette Activities

Morning Phase: Special Place Evaluations

The primary purpose of the morning activity was to immerse charrette participants in the concepts of Placemaking, think critically about the issues and opportunities pertinent to their neighborhood’s Special Places, and then identify preliminary solutions for Placemaking in and around those Special Places. This process was termed a Special Place Evaluation and was specifically designed to help participants think in terms of Placemaking. The collated results of these evaluations are presented in Appendix B.

Due to charrette time limitations, and a large number of sites, a "priority place" scoring system was developed to help maximize the impact of participant feedback as it relates to the NSC. Scores from 1-to-5 were generated from three measures:

Popularity: How many times was this place mentioned by community members?

Distance: How far is this place from the NSC?

Visibility: Can you see the NSC from this place?

These descriptions were included on each Special Place Evaluation worksheet, along with the score the Special Place received and a map and images of the location.

Above: Special Place Evaluation Worksheet. Worksheets like this one were provided to charrette participants.

The Place Diagram provided the foundation for performing the Special Place Evaluations. Informational sheets were provided to table groups which described each attribute in detail, including a selection of its qualities, descriptions, specific techniques for addressing those attributes, and a range of potential placemaking activities organized by technique.

Placemaking attributes cheatsheet developed for charrettes participants. Theses graphics dissected the four attributes of placemaking to describe their essential qualities, provide questions to ask about a place’s expression of each attribute, explore techniques for realizing each attribute, and show examples of places that successfully implement these techniques.

Above: All placemaking attribute cheatsheets.

Above: Ideas for Placemaking Goals by Technique for each placemaking attribute.

Afternoon Phase: Placemaking Maps

The purpose of the afternoon placemaking activity was to identify a range of placemaking options that answered the question: What should happen in and around the NSC? Ideally, the participants would build upon their Special Place Evaluations by identifying place-based and NSC-based solutions that supported the placemaking goals or activities identified in those Evaluations.

Skyway category placemaking options.

Charrette participants used large-format neighborhood maps and color-coded stickers to locate placemaking options. Groups selected a lead presenters to share their results.

Data Analysis

Placemaking charrette participants evaluated approximately 30 different Special Places. Each of the 15 Tables produced placemaking maps constituting a total of over 700 placemaking option data points. The following describes how these products were analyzed.

Analysis 1: Special Place Evaluations

This analysis collated all responses regarding specific Special Places into a summary evaluation for each place. By studying all of the Place Evaluations generated during the charrettes, a dataset was developed which summarized the ratings each place received. The mean (average) and mode (the value that occurs most frequently) of the place ratings are included to assess participant attitudes about place quality relative to the four attributes established by PPS.

A second dataset was developed by studying the "Goals and Activities" portion of the Special Place Evaluations. It collates all of the suggestions regarding the choices to connect, enhance, protect, or remake. These two dataset were consolidated into a summary graphic for each Special Place.

Example results summary for a special place.

Analysis 2: Placemaking Maps & Focus Areas

Each sticker placed on a map was geo-coded in a Geographic Information System. For each sticker, its point location, the Placemaking Option (PO) Category (e.g., Trail Crossing, Streetscape), the PO number, and the Charrette Group number were recorded. Any lines drawn on the maps or additional written comments were also captured. Linework was correlated with segments of the existing street or trail network.

From this data, we developed visualizations to better understand patterns in the data set. We were most interested in how the location and density of placemaking options aligned with the previously identified Special Places. We also sought patterns of popularity between all Placemaking Options.

Akernel density analysis was conducted to calculate the Placemaking Options sticker density across all neighborhoods. By using a threshold of 1.75 points per acre, we were able to visualize hotspots where charrette participants had placed the most stickers. The resulting density maps helped us determine which parts of the study area were high opportunity sites for placemaking interventions. These came to be known as Placemaking Focus Areas.

Placemaking Focus Areas Legends

Hot spot map displaying density of Placemaking Options stickers placed north of the Spokane River.

Using a density threshold of 1.75 points per acre, we eliminated sites with only one sticker or with substantially low affinity between stickers.

We further narrowed the scope of Placemaking by correlating the proximity of Special Places and the NSC to the minimum threshold area.

The high concentration of Placemaking Options revealed by the Focus Areas, afforded us the following insights:

shared affinity for those places by the broader communities involved in the charrettes,

opportunities for minimizing construction costs and maximizing design impact by consolidating placemaking features, and

locating placemaking interventions in coordination with the Children of the Sun Trail.

Focus areas in combination with the geo-coded Placemaking Options and aggregated Children of the Sun Trail paths help to show reveal opportunity sites for placemaking interventions.

To understand the data at a more granular level, pivot tables helped us visualize relationships between variables in the data set. The process began with condensing all of the raw data into an Excel workbook and selecting the data range. Once the data range is selected, a pivot table is inserted by selecting "Insert > Pivot Table." This is then exported to a new worksheet. There are many options to develop tables which show relationships between variables. We selected the following relationships:

Counts of each color from all charrettes

Charrette > All colors > Table number > Option number

All charrettes > Individual colors > Option number

Top 3 option numbers for each color from all charrettes

Top 3 option numbers for each color and from each charrette

Counts for each category from all charrettes. The pivot tables were formatted by applying the correct variable to the correct field. For example, in order to get the counts of each color from all charrettes we put the “Nhood” variable (the variable that depicts which charrette the data was recorded from) and the “ColorCode” variable (the color of the sticker on the map) into the “Axis (categories)” field and put “ColorCode” in the “Values” field to get the total count of the data. Colors stand in for their respective placemaking categories.

The resulting visualizations helped us determine which placemaking options were most suitable for each place. For example, in the following graphic we see that kernel analysis group 8 has the highest sticker count, particularly in the yellow placemaking option category. The yellow category refers to placemaking “Edge” strategies. From this observation, we could infer that the community is interested in landscaping, noise walls, or habitat restoration which establish the physical boundaries of a that place.

Counts for each placemaking option category by color relative to their kernal group (i.e. Focus Area).

In another example, considering the popularity of the red, "Crossing" strategies, code in kernel group 10, objects like pedestrian bridges, underpass lighting, murals, and other structural and artistic options for crossing the North Spokane corridor might be prioritized. Inferences like these were to be vetted with the community through the Collaboration Team—an ad hoc citizen and intergovernmental committee tasked with processing the findings of the charretttes and developing design programs for placemaking sites.

To support the Collaboration Team, a graphic representations of the data were developed for each Focus Area. One sheet displayed the locations of each placemaking options sticker, as well as the kernel group boundary, overlaid on key features of the neighborhood and the proposed NSC.

A Focus Area Summary representing geocoded data obtained from the placemaking sticker exercises.

Another sheet included the total count for each placemaking option identified within the Focus Area boundary, example images of the most popular placemaking options, and a collection of comments associated with those data points.

The Focus Area Summary maps are supplemented by an analysis of stickers place by category and type. All related written comments provided by charrette participants are included.

Reflections

After completing the north phase of this project, and presenting our findings to the Collaboration Team, I chose to resign on the grounds that the project would become a detriment to the community. Later, many of my concerns about the project proved themselves out as citizen participants complained that their input had not been incorporated into the highway design (see this article from the Spokesman Review). I attribute this to a contradiction "baked into the cake" of WSDOT's planning approach, namely that WSDOT had imposed a top-down, project-drived process upon the community while espousing a grassroots planning methodology organized from the bottom up.

The opinions of the professionals involved, as well as a spokesperson for Project for Public Spaces, vary greatly from one another. I continued to process these events for the next few years. Eventually, I prepared a presentation to articulate why I left the project and how I believe planners and designers should approach placemaking to prevent placation and tokenization of communities. I provide the slides for that presentation here for your review.

Slidedeck presented at the American Society of Landscape Architects, 2022 Washington Chapter Conference: Emergence.

[alexrmann]

3xP Bioregional Urbanism

Finding a Place-Based Pattern Language Through Bioregionalism, Rhizomic Association, and Food

Senior Project, Bachelor of Landscape Architecture, Washington State University, Class of 2010.

Recipient of an American Society of Landscape Architects Honor Award, awarded by the ASLA Washington Chapter, 2010.

Bioregional Urbanism is a theory of urban design which derives its motives, processes, and artifacts from bioregional ideology. Bioregional Urbanism takes a cue from bioregionalism and landscape urbanism. Landscape urbanism a theory of urban design which uses the landscape as the city's form-giver and organizational concept, rather than privileging architectural structures, such as skyscrapers, as that which gives the city form.

Linguistic Explorations

The title of the project plays with three essential ingredients in bioregional urbanism, each with both noun and verb forms:

Produce: to create (verb) and food which is grown through agricultural production (noun)

Place: to position or locate (verb) and a geographic locale with identifiable characteristics bestowing a unique character (noun)

Pattern: to arrange or generate, through repetition, a distinguishable form (verb) and a repeatable motif or shape with distinct characteristics to be used as a guide for the generation of form.

Bioregional Assemblage

At this point, I'm seeing this class project settling into one or two stages within my bioregional design narrative.  The narrative involves what bioregionalist and landscape architect, Robert Thayer, calls "bioregional actualization" and the stages that support reaching that point (Thayer 258).  Bioregional actualization is a condition in which an individual is "in tune" with their surrounding region or "life place" and their actions reflect a place-based ethic.

The exploration of the self within the context of a bioregional network is a highly decentralized experiment with reality.  I argue that individuals derive bioregional consciousness via rhizomatic automata, a philosophical analogy first proposed by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari (19).  To put it simply, an individual's memories and interactions with the bioregion serve as a foundation for a consciousness of the actions required to maintain and promote its well-being.

There are five stages: awareness, acceptance, education, engagement, and actualization (Thayer 258). For the purposes of this class, I will be focusing on the stages of education, engagement, and actualization.  This assumes that someone, such as a designer, has an awareness of their living region and has accepted its constraints and opportunities as starting points (Thayer 259).  From there, one can further transform their relationship with place through rhizomic experimentation and innovation.

Bioregional education involves the personal generation of Deep Maps of the places we occupy. Exploration and discovery are critical to such education (Thayer 260).  We draw little rhizomes between pieces of information that generate our deep maps to test and analyze the interconnections, adjacencies, relationships, and associations between those pieces, thereby constructing our unconscious (Deleuze & Guattari 13).  This approach allows us to learn about place on a personal level, empowering us to act knowledgeably within our life place.

That sense of empowerment through education allows us to engage in bioregional discourse.  It fosters discussion and participation between bioregional residents and develops civic pride (Thayer 261, 262).  Engagement requires opportunities for such connections to be made and discussions to be held. When given those opportunities, it generates patterns, solutions, and agreement about how to best build, manage, and live within the region. Such consensus lays the groundwork for experimentation, creativity, and innovation and fuels the social construction of individual identities (Thayer 261).

In the process of actualization, many iterations and methods are generated that seek a best fit to existing bioregional conditions and potential new futures. The results will always require and encourage re-education of certain bioregional components and subsequent re-engagement with civic partners. This reiterative process will generate a rhizomatous mapping of increasing multiplicities on an ever expanding horizontal plane (Deleuze & Guattari 9). As the depth and complexity of the map increases, new individual and social implications may unfold, pushing the bioregional consciousness and identity of residents to new levels of redundancy and resiliency. This project will explore a bioregional indicator through the stages of education, engagement, and actualization. Education will expand my understanding of the indicator. Engagement will further articulate that understanding and explore solutions. Actualization will test those solutions. The process will then repeat itself.

I intend to use basalt outcroppings as the indicator. The extent of basalt is far reaching through the region, locally acknowledged, and widely used. It appears in a host of settings, from natural spaces and parks to abandoned lots and urban blocks. In spite of its redundancy, residents of Spokane may not necessarily be aware of its importance as a material and natural indicator and consequently are unprepared to accept its relevance. People currently use it as a plug-and-play material, because it is useful for so many different building tasks, but the authenticity of each production and their purposes are not readily apparent. In essence, the use and preservation of basalt does not currently contribute to a bioregionally-founded identity.

My site is within the urban fabric, and will interpret this bioregional indictor as a component in a decentralized bioregional assemblage, called a “half-world” (Head & Muir 90). Basalt weaves rhizomic networks throughout the region, running below the soil, springing up in unexpected places, dictating human activity and characterizing our environment (98). I intend to learn what those connections mean to us, and then propose an intervention that can be placed either in tandem or juxtaposition to the component. This intervention shall be the subject of dialogue and revision. Then it will be actualized on site. The results will be dissected and learned from. Afterward, a summary of the findings will be drawn up, so future iterations can be tried and tested.

The presentation will include a survey of the materiality and tectonics of basalt in the region as well as its formative processes. It will be expressed as a rhizomatous assemblage, with those rhizomes played out in terms of their significance to my chosen site. From there an exploration of the meaning that can be derived from this component will be articulated via class engagement. Finally, iterations of a component-based, plug-and-play design will be drawn up, modeled, and installed.

Works Cited

Deleuze, G. & Guattari, F. (1987). Thousand plateaus: capitalism and schizophrenia, a. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.

Head, L. & Muir, P. (2006). Edges of connection: reconceptualising the human role in urban biogeography. Australian Geographer, 37(1), 87-101.

Thayer, Jr., R. (2003). Life-place: bioregional thought and practice. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

[alexrmann]

Organisynth Interactive Arts Residency

Residency: Laboratory Interactive Arts Residency, October–December 2017

Additional support: Anne-Claire Mitchell & John Choma

Above: Photo ©Ira Gardner (modified)

Imagine an evening where you make incredible music with complete strangers using a simple, intuitive device. Imagine experiencing new sights and sounds as every change you or another make affects the environment around you. This is ORGANISYNTH, an interactive, collaborative music experience comprised of custom-designed electronic instruments. This project is the culmination of a 4-month residency with Laboratory Spokane, an international interactive artist residency program.

Problem Space

Making music can be intimidating for beginners. While it’s nice to listen to music played by your friends, we wondered how we might level the playing field such that everyone, even non-musicians, could participate in spontaneous music making. It takes time to pick up the basics and it takes years of training to master.

The idea for this project began with experiences making music at house parties. Image Credit:  Cristina Bejarano  [CC BY 2.0]

Design Goal

Our objective was to radically simplify the process of music creation in order to immediately transform a non-musician into a musician. With this in mind, we decided to catalyze the process with a mutually agreeable take-off point.

We asked ourselves: how might we create a communal, interactive music-making experience that inspires participants to work cooperatively?

Inspiration

Building up from a well-known science fiction metaphor of being lost in space—a community of planet refugees is forced to adapt to their newly marooned life and learn to survive together. How might these people organize themselves in such a way as to sustain their own lives without losing their humanity? How might a communal, interactive experience function as the interface between humans and computers? What if, by turning their "spaceship" into one big interstellar house party, the dehumanizing consequences of technological-dependency could be mitigated by the mediative experience of that interface?

NASA’s 1970s Space Colony art was a huge influence on the concept of this project. Image by Rick Guidice, NASA Ames Research Center.

Project Evolution

At the project's outset, the basic usability requirement we established was that no one need understand music theory or know how to play an instrument to make music with ORGANISYNTH. Every change to the system was automatically synchronized so no user could ever “mess up”.

The project went through a two very different phases. Our first attempt involved utilizing personal mobile devices as the primary interfaces of user interaction. With their mobile device, users opened a locally-hosted webpage with a built in web app. After onboarding, each user's mobile device was networked to electronic synthesizers whose tones were triggered by selecting an “organism” and then tapping their phone to “excite” the organism.

Each instance of "organism excitement" triggered a unique audio tone assigned to the organism type and caused the organism to wiggle and move inside of a virtual petri dish represented by a digital display which included all active user organisms. In this way, the interactive concept was about as simple as we could make it: tap your phone screen to make a sound and watch what happens in the "petri dish".

Screen states for different organism selections.

The Petri Dish Experience

The user journey unfolded as follows:

Users were provided an address for the web app.

Using their preferred browser, users opened the web app on their mobile device.

Users chose between one of three "organisms", symbolized at the bottom of their screen by tapping their desired selection.

The selected organism became highlighted and visually loaded into a larger area of the screen, symbolizing the preparation of the sample for transfer into the "petri dish".

By pressing a "+" button, the user effectively "transferred" their sample into the petri dish where it would float around amongst other users' organisms.

The user could then tap their organism on their own device to "excite" it, which resulted in a tone being played and visual feedback on a “shared” screen as a wiggle and change in direction and velocity of their organism.

Optionally, a slider bar was provided below the organism selector which allowed users to change the pitch of the tone.

I produced this Facebook Event Banner and a print flyer to advertise the pop-up usability/fundraising event. With a meadery hosting the event, the forms and color scheme are accordingly inspired by bees and honeycombs. I wanted the aesthetic to feel fresh with a touch of posh—sort of "Berlin EDM Rave meets Spokane Farmer's Market".

Pop-up Usability Testing

With our prototype ready to go, it was time to find some volunteers to test the user experience. We convinced Laboratory to partner with the Richmond Art Collective, an animal shelter, and Hierophant Meadery, which provided the storefront to host a fundraiser pop-up event that was part art show, animal adoption clinic, mead tasting, and usability test all-in-one! The multiplicity of interests attracted users of all ages, and provided us with an approximation of “house party” conditions with visitors coming and going at will.

This preliminary proof-of-concept test demonstrated clear implications for the design that would have to be addressed before creating the final product. The test had revealed that the onboarding of users and the act of “making music” was too confusing. We observed four keys reasons for this:

Logging in was cumbersome. Making music doesn’t require logging in. Making music happens tangibly and immediately through the use of the instrument. Our solution needed to embody the immediately tangible experience of using a musical instrument.

The “lost in space” metaphor didn't make sense. Who am I? Where am I? Why am I? It wasn't clear what these little “organisms” have to do with making music? We needed to figure out a strategy to connect the user experience to the interactive metaphor of cooperative life-support.

It didn’t feel communal. Every individual was acting alone, through their own screen. Their actions displayed on the screen with everyone else, but apart from their “organism” wiggling and changing speed, direction, and color, there was nothing “interactive” between the players. We needed individual user actions to form a comprehensive whole.

It wasn’t fun. The only behaviors users could perform were to select an “organism”, change it’s pitch, and tap it to play that note over and over again. The result was a cacophony that became boring really fast. We needed the experience to delight and hold users' attentions.

In response to the findings of our usability test, we set about redesigning the experience. We knew from our findings that the on-boarding experience needed to be fast and easy, connect user actions to recognizable changes in the environment, encourage more meaningful interaction between participants, and that the experience needed to be fun.

The solution to move from a digital interface to a physical one proved to address almost all of the issues we observed. A tangible device in a visually immersive setting encouraged play.

Rather than limit users to interactions to personal devices, we challenged users to interact with one another on shared devices which controlled separate aspects of the total musical system. In this way, user-to-user interactivity would be essential to the function of the experience.

By interacting with the "Bridge" users controlled drum patterns and an effects mixer to shape the sounds produced by the analog sequencer table.

Shared Devices and System Components

We set about designing custom devices meant to be touched, moved and interacted with at different stations in our metaphorical space ship. The re-designed system was composed of the following devices:

Analog Sequencer Table. The table provided the musical melody through the whole-step and sixteenth-step melody tracks. Users could modify the pitch of each step using potentiometer knobs. Steps could also be deactivated to vary the space between notes.

Power Cubes. Two “power cubes” controlled the audio patch for each separate melody track. These wireless cubes utilized a six-axis sensor to determine their three-dimensional rotation, which then sent a signal to the system to change the patch of the assigned melody track.

The Bridge. Similar to the way a spaceship has a bridge where ship-wide decisions are made, we designed an interactive webpage with a point-and-click Drum Machine and Effects Control Panel modify select drum rhythm patterns and a variety of audio effects, including volume, delay, distortion, decay, release, and the envelope of each melody track.

Vocoder. Users could add their own voice to the mix and "tune" their voice on the fly using a touch-sensitive pitch slider.

Visualizer. The visualizer provided a form of visual feedback that all users could see. These visualizations were projected onto the walls of the room where users could see changes to the “room state”, the internal sequencer clock, and the selected pitch of each note.

The Analog Sequencer Table's physical form was drawn from the shape of a coneflower.

Analog Sequencer Table

It’s worth elaborating on the development of the project’s centerpiece, a sequencer table about 5′ in diameter. Inspiration for its physical form was drawn from the shape of a coneflower. Each “petal” of the flower represented a step in a musical sequence. Users of the device controlled the pitch of each step by setting a potentiometer knob to the desired tone. The sequence of tones created the melody. The final design utilized two separate channels to produce a combination of whole-notes and sixteenth-notes. 

An early schematic plan and elevation for the table. The table’s design underwent a series of subsequent revisions.

A cardboard prototype of individual leaves of the table. This allowed us to get a sense of the full scale of the table and imagine the layout of its physical interface.

Different colors signify different types of cuts (center, inside, outside, and clean out).

Once we were satisfied with the table’s form factor, a CAD template of the table leaves were drafted for the CNC mill. Each table leaf was cut from MDF board. You can watch the milling process here.

Final milled table leaves. The edges were later sanded by hand.

Interface panels were also drafted in CAD. These panels would be laser cut to house the potentiometer knobs and provide visual affordances and tactile cues to the user.

Prior to assembling the table, individual components were laid out to get a sense of the overall aesthetic. The central cone was constructed of numerous pieces which you can see in the center and stacked to the left. To the right, tiny assemblages for LEDs would later be placed below each petal. Also pictured is a laser cut power cube panel.

The fully-assembled central “cone” pictured above was later fitted with LEDs synced to the sequencers internal clock. It’s structural design was based on a yurt.

Above left: Wiring diagram for each petal. Potentiometers sent signals to an Arduino, which in turn controlled the pitch of each respective channel, as well as the color of an LED assigned to each pitch. Above right: Construction process image of the underside of a petal depicting the wiring of potentiometers and their respective LED assemblages.

Assembling the table and room in anticipation of opening night. You can see most of the components are in place, including the petal panels, knobs, central cone, and the flower vases through which the LED lights were diffused.

Opening night, visualizers and LEDs aglow. You can see the Power Cubes in the foreground and background. The main server and sound controlling synthesizers are at the back corner of the room.

See ORGANISYNTH for yourself and learn more about our process in this interview produced by fellow Richmond Art Collective member, Ira Gardner.

Read the Inlander's article about the project.

Follow ORGANISYNTH on Instagram.

[alexrmann]

Ant Hill Critical Urban Theory

A story of transience and isolation, Ant Hill, is an album-length music video set to Boards of Canada’s masterpiece of an album, Geogaddi. This film is a reflection on contemporary socio-economic values, challenging capitalist behavior and accepted notions of “The Good Life.” It imagines the world as a single city, Ant Hill, where human beings function as small pieces of a larger, ambiguous society outside of their control while attempting to generate individual meaning in their lives. 

Beginning with an erasure of past technology and traditions from the city and importation of new technologies and values, the video contrasts past modes of life with mid-century imaginations of “The American Dream.” The video critiques this dream, attempting to expose its inherent futility, hypocrisy and vapid nature. Finally, the video imagines an exodus of humanity from itself using the metaphor of flight and the space race. The conclusion signals an acceptance and return to the physiological and psychological “life waters” from whence we originate.

This work is intended as an educational mashup. Footage and audio are used to generate new meaning. Buy the album and support the artists.

Licensing of footage varies.

Footage Sources

In the Suburbs - American Society - Educational Documentary (1957)

Slum Clearance - New York (1938)

The City - Housing in America Documentary (1939)

Town Planning - British Government Educational Documentary (1948)

The Dynamic American City - Town Planning Educational Documentary (1956)

Man's Reach Should Exceed His Grasp - A History of Flight (1972)

The Story of Hoover Dam, Bureau of Reclamation, United States Department of the Interior

[alexrmann]

Hazel’s Creek Master Plan & Site Interpretation

Client: City of Spokane Wastewater Department

Consulting Firm: AHBL, Inc.

Post-occupancy Photography: Craig Andersen, AHBL, Inc.

This 19-acre site was master-planned to minimize site disturbance, restore degraded habitat, offer sustainability education to the public, and support engineered water detention basins. Walking paths respond to the existing topography and physically connect green stormwater technologies demonstrated across the site.

Project Overview

AHBL provided planning, landscape architecture and civil engineering services to the City of Spokane Wastewater Department to update the Draft Hazel’s Creek Regional Drainage and Conservation Area Master Plan, prepared by others in 2005. The master plan introduced an integrated approach to stormwater management in the City of Spokane. Historically, the City prohibited the public from accessing regional stormwater management facilities. The opposite is true at Hazel’s Creek. Community recreation and site interpretive opportunities, natural wetlands and wildlife enhancements, and low impact development demonstrations were combined with constructed stormwater treatment wetlands and a detention and infiltration system intended to manage off-site stormwater runoff.

Key objectives included:

Master Plan revisions focused on integrating the pre-determined design program elements into a functional whole.

Providing the City of Spokane with plans for creating a landmark example of sustainable urban stormwater management.

Scope of Work

Project requirements consisted of:

Compilation of site technical investigations;

Investigating extending the Hazel’s Creek stormwater management concept into the surrounding neighborhood, enhanced with a network of open space and pedestrian connections through the local community;

Site development and phasing sequence concepts; and

Meetings with City management, stakeholders, and the public to obtain input on the draft master plan;

Revision of the draft master plan document and graphics.

The homestead property and its surroundings.

Site Description

The Hazel's Creek property, named for the last resident of the site, is now a 19-acre open space and stormwater management facility in the City of Spokane. It was historically a working landscape, owned by the O'Byrne family and farmed for many years. Today, it continues to be a working landscape, with a creek, wetlands, stormwater ponds and peculiar geological conditions contributing to stormwater infiltration and storage, and providing critical riparian and upland habitat for an array of plant and animal life on the Moran Prairie and the Southgate Neighborhood.

The homestead property and its surroundings.

Site Inventory & Analysis

The site affords open views due to the gently rolling topography. A few old, large willow trees break up the view and provide focal points. The central location of the original homestead affords a navigational landmark visible from all corners of the site.

The landscape was generally unmaintained with significant overgrowth of weeds, some of which were designated as noxious. The City had previously graded portions of the land for stormwater storage ponds. The site's adjacency to wildlife corridors, its mostly undeveloped condition, its available surface water, and its suitable vegetation attracted a variety of terrestrial and avian wildlife.

Boards depicting existing site conditions.

Site inventory and analysis board.

Design Development

Conceptual diagram.

Design development drawing.

Site Interpretation

Budgetary constraints precluded ubiquitous site signage, but offered the opportunity to interpret the site through a combination of physical and digital resources. Interpretive signage greets visitors at site entrances, upon which sustainable interventions are described briefly and their locations marked on a map. In the landscape, numbered recycled power poles orient visitors and allow them to match these markers with information provided by a publicly-available brochure and website. These resources include information highlighting the site’s history, ecology, and its sustainable infrastructure.

Key user groups to benefit from the site interpretation design.

Early conceptual exploration of the interpretive marker design.

Interpretive marker section elevation.

Early interpretive signage concepts.

Interpretive Logos

Logos were designed as stencils to be cut into sheet metal and affixed to each interpretive marker located across the site. The client chose to go with a numerical approach, however the logos still coordinate with a brochure, on-site interpretive panels, and a website to orient visitors and highlight the site’s history, its hydrology, and LID BMPs.

Each interpretive element was categorized and color-coded using the following groups:

Site History (Orange),

Low Impact Development BMPs (Green), and

Hydrological Components (Blue).

Add logos.

Low Impact Development Site Technologies

Add description.

Trail section-elevation.

Trail planting scheme section-elevation.

Service drive section-elevation.

Elevated boardwalks set on pin foundations recommended as replacements to culverts. Culverts degrade ecological conditions by restricting stream flows to narrow, artificial passageways. As plant and animal life move up and downstream, culverts function as a barrier, fundamentally altering the streambank and disconnecting habitat corridors. Pin foundations significantly reduce excavation which disrupts sensitive wetland soils. The inclusion of a constructed curb maintains ADA accessibility.

This conceptual section-elevation depicts a transect from 42nd Avenue at left across the property line to a proposed trailhead. The constructed trailheads featured navigational and interpretive signage under covered shelter. Benches constructed from brick reclaimed from the demolished residence were instead located at the previous home site.

Final Master Plan

Add description.

Final plan.

Existing condition. View from the southwest looking northeast.

Proposed condition, same view.

Post-Occupancy Evaluation

Ecological Services

In keeping with the concept of conservation, the project generally preserves the status quo for ecological site functions. Apart from the targeted, one-time removal of invasive species, no other major restoration occurred. The site deserves better, and a program of sustainability ought to focus less on low-impact development and more on the site’s restoration.

Site Interpretation

A hybrid physical/virtual interpretation schema was fundamentally enacted, however lack of website maintenance, resulted in the disappearance of its information. Without a symbology supplemented by ���findable” information, the physical site markers tend to confuse rather than reveal.

Final Thoughts

The results serve to formalize recreational uses and ecological services on site, challenging the exclusivity of the landscape’s utilitarian purposes. Though the site’s future is still in question, its value as a neighborhood nature destination presents new possibilities for community environmental stewardship.

Learn More

For more information about the Hazel's Creek site, see this video produced by the City in 2013.

In this video Marcia Davis, City of Spokane Capital Programs/GIS Senior Engineer, provides information on LID Best Management Practices (BMPs) implemented at the Hazel's Creek Conservation Area.

[alexrmann]

Aging With Autonomous Vehicles User Research

This project fulfilled the master's capstone requirement for the University of Washington’s M.S. Human Centered Design & Engineering (HCDE) program. Project sponsored by Intel Corporation.

Project Team: Kim Lambert, Alex Mann, Melanie Penney, & Brenda Weitzer

Download the final submittal: AV, Baby! Capstone Project

Background

Following World War II, during the period known as the "Baby Boom" (1946-1964), approximately 76 million Americans were born largest population increases in American history. At the same time, the automotive industry grew dramatically, fueled in part by the development of the federal interstate highway system. As Baby Boomers reached driving age, they cultivated and embraced a driving culture, associating private vehicles with personal freedom, independence, and even personal identity.

Problem Space

To support the changing needs of the Baby Boomers, it will be key to reimagine existing transit systems, including interaction points between individuals and the built environments which support those systems. Yet persuading Boomers to reject their culture of driving, established over many decades, and learn a new system poses many questions and potential challenges.

Key Considerations

As of 2016, ninety percent of people 65 years or older continue using private vehicles over all other forms of transportation.

The natural again process tends to negatively impact one’s ability to drive. Vision impairment, hearing loss, decreased mobility and reaction time, cognitive decline, and medications all pose potential safety risks for seniors.

Many aging drivers find themselves compelled to surrender their licenses and vehicles. In a society built around automobile travel, the loss of a driver's license can equate to a sacrifice of independence and social connection. This is compounded by the fact that efficient transit systems are less available to those living in suburban environments, where up to 70% of the Baby Boomer generation reportedly reside.

In light of this reality our design team asked:

How might we create a system of autonomous vehicles that supports the transportation needs of late-career, retired, and elderly Baby Boomers?

Autonomous vehicles (AVs) are emerging as a viable alternative to the private, human-driven automobiles we know today, especially for people with barriers to driving. Since AVs can sense their surroundings and navigate without human input, they can extend anyone’s ability to travel from one place to another independently and with an increasing degree of safety.

Our project sponsor, Intel, encouraged us to focus our design lens seven to ten years into the future (2023-2026). Rather than focus exclusively on the experience design of AVs at the scale of the vehicle, our project also examined the built environment, transportation infrastructure, and the culture surrounding cars, including the concept of ownership. Our findings and the resulting design recommendations explore ways to support and delight aging drivers and generate meaningful relationships with AVs that support their widespread adoption.

Our design process was segmented into 4 phases:

Research

Ideation

User Testing

Experience Stories

Research

We conducted an extensive literature review with a spotlight on the aging population and their relationship with driving. This helped inform and frame our understanding of the space, revealing specific problem areas to focus on.

Additionally, we conducted a competitive analysis across a number of transportation models in an effort to highlight opportunities where autonomous vehicles could better serve this population.

We then deployed an online survey to garner input from our target audience on their current transportation behaviors and associated pain points.

Finally, we conducted remote interviews to explore attitudes toward autonomous vehicles and reveal how the Baby Boomer population envisions self-driving cars fitting into their lives today and in future years.

Ideation

To ensure that our final design solution met the transportation needs and lifestyles of the Baby Boomer generation, personas and experience maps were created to help us better visualize our target users. Using these tools, we created a list of important design principles to consider while exploring design solutions.

Design Exploration & User Testing

Using our personas as inspiration and our experience map to explore and empathize with the daily life of our users, we generated sketches that highlighted design solutions for a system of autonomous vehicles that could support the Baby Boomer generation. To test these concepts, we employed a Rapid Iterative Testing and Evaluation (RITE) method in three rounds, using (1) online surveys, (2) in-person interviews and (3) a focus group. New iterations were generated for each of the three rounds of user testing. Concepts and features which received positive feedback were retained and ideas that received neutral or negative responses were transformed or removed completely in the following round.

Experience Stories

Using the findings we garnered through multiple rounds of user testing, we created three final journey maps to envision our personas’ future interaction with autonomous vehicles (AVs). These journey maps highlight the features we designed that both support the needs of Baby Boomers and offer delight to each phase of the transit journey - planning, enroute, and arrival. They represent design solutions that can support the Baby Boomer population throughout the years, from working professionals to older age. We included information about the front-end user experience and the back-end technologies that enable the interaction. We also included both ownership and service models of AV systems.

[alexrmann]

Skype Mobile Usability Testing

Client: Microsoft (some information omitted due to NDS)

Project Team: Valerie Bays, James Fenske, Alex Mann, Roberto Morales

Introduction

We developed and ran a usability test of the Skype app for iPhone and Android tablet from February 20 – March 1, 2015. The study focused on six overarching tasks including the log in experience, calling and leaving a voicemail, viewing and sharing content, finding a contact, video calling, and leaving a video message.

These tasks were composed of a series of Experience Outcomes (XOs), which are used to evaluate the task completion experience of test participants. These XOs operate as subtask flows, include metrics for passing or failing that subtask, and ask qualitative questions measured on a Likert scale elaborated on by the participant.

Participants were screened with demographic questionnaires prior to testing and given a follow-up survey at the end of each study. Eight iPhone participants and two Android tablet participants were evaluated along with an iPhone pilot. Per request by our client, the eight iPhone participants were our primary focus.

Study goals:

Assess the current release of the Skype mobile app on multiple devices

Evaluate key tasks using Microsoft’s Experience Outcomes (XOs) framework

Obtain usability data on key XOs

Analyze trends and patterns between devices

Identify user expectations around pain points

Identify consumer delighters

Make concrete design recommendations

Significance

This study was conducted using Microsoft’s Experience Outcome (XO) framework - a task scorecard. To date, the XO framework has only been used to capture usability data for Microsoft’s in-house products, however this study represents the first time XOs were used to evaluate a consumer product. Consequently, our findings were imported into Skype’s UX database and used to directly impact future product development.

Experience Outcomes (XOs)

Our study was designed around the Microsoft Experience Outcomes (XOs) framework. The XOs focus on measuring the user experience of the most important tasks within the Skype application. They also allowed us to look broadly for consistent trends across the Skype offerings. The XOs are measured by having the participant perform a given task, following up with a set of interview questions with a 1-5 scale rating that provided their feelings on performing the task, and additional follow-up on why they rated the task as they did. This allowed us to pinpoint delighters, issues, and pain points.

Participants & Study Design

12 participants were tested (10 + 2 pilots) over 90 minute video and audio recorded sessions at the Microsoft usability labs. Participants screened for the study met one of two of the following personas developed internally by Microsoft’s Skype team.

Aadi, 18-28, Student, “Social Enthusiast”

Kayo, 30-40, Working Professional, “Productive Lifestyler”

The study utilized a within-subjects design, meaning all subjects were exposed to all independent variables, rather than splitting subjects into groups to test individual variables. Therefore, we were able to limit the total number of participants and justify exposing everyone to the same tasks. To mitigate the transfer of learning effects (e.g. one task reveals the method of the next), we carefully constructed a study script which organized each session into groups of tasks, wherein the order and nature of those tasks closely reflected the likely sequence of their occurrence in the “real-world”.

Observation & Measuring Satisfaction

We observed participants as they performed specific tasks to obtain detailed information on XO pain points, challenges, successes and suggestions for improvement. After each key task, we noted whether the participant passed or failed the task, and then asked a series of questions related to the XOs associated with the task. This helped measure participant satisfaction compared to participant success, providing insights into Skype’s overall usability and user perception.

Equipment and Setup

The study took place in a controlled setting, using the Microsoft usability labs. The testing room contains a one-way mirror, allowing researchers and stakeholders to view the participant from an observation room. Lab cameras were positioned to capture the device screen (zoomed in), participant’s face (zoomed in), and both participant and device (zoomed out).

Project Timeline

The two month study was broken into preparation, testing, and evaluation stages. The first month of preparation was used to develop define team roles, develop a study plan and script, screen participants. Testing occurred over two weeks and included Dry run, Pilot and Regular sessions. In the evaluation period, a final report of the study findings was generated and presented to the Microsoft Skype team.

Findings

Skype’s brand is readily recognizable in the app store experience and phrases such as “I know it” and “I trust it” were used by participants to describe their confidence in finding Skype.

Once installed, Skype setup was hindered by the lack on inline, reactive error messages that could otherwise expedite account creation.

Locating friends was another task that repeatedly confused participants due to high volumes of unnavigable results.

Basic communicative tasks such as initiating and IM, voice and video call were successful and received overall satisfactory scores.

Participants experienced mild confusion with the placement of Skype’s video messaging capability and the iconographic complexity of the “Add Participant” screen.

The majority of participants consider Skype to be highly responsive.

Since our participants were native iOS users, they also provided feedback on the disparity between iOS standard behaviors, iconography and communication enhancers (such as emoticons) that could be used to positively impact the product for iOS Skype users.

[alexrmann]

OASIS Instructional Design

Lead Researcher: Chelsey Wilks, then Ph.D. Candidate, UW Behavioral Research & Therapy Clinics, University of Washington, 2015-2016 AY

Alcohol and Drug Abuse Institute. Grant No.: ADAI-0315-2

National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Grant No.: F31 AA 24658-01

Background

Suicide was the 10th leading cause of death in the United States in 2012, and the rate has been increasing steadily since 2000. Alcohol use is considered to be a significant risk factor among those who die by suicide. Suicide risk is particularly high among those who drink alcohol to regulate their emotions. Treatments that target drinking alone are likely to be insufficient to address both heavy drinking and suicidal behaviors, as these individuals are likely to experience problems outside periods of acute intoxication.

Computerized psychotherapy holds great promise in reducing the treatment gap, particularly among those out of touch with established treatment structures. The skills component of dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) has a strong evidence base in the treatment of behavioral dyscontrol in the form of suicidal and addictive behaviors that are associated with emotion dysregulation. Thus, the Online Alcohol & Suicide Intervention Study (OASIS) is a DBT skills intervention with the goal of reducing heavy drinking and suicidal thoughts by targeting the underlying mechanism of emotion dysregulation. The results of this study will inform the design of a subsequent full-scale randomized controlled-trial of cDBT for heavy episodic drinking (HED) and suicidal thoughts.

Design Approach

As the OASIS instructional designer, I became familiar with DBT theory and methods through study of DBT-therapy handbooks. This research set the foundations for translating those methods into a multi-session, web-based, clinical therapy intervention. I conducted expert interviews with the lead researcher to understand how DBT is taught in a face-to-face, one-on-one clinical context.

I also provided oversight of and mentorship for several volunteer undergraduate design and psychology students. These students were primarily responsible for generating the session content, including layout and animation. Most student had little to no background in experience design. 

To assist in the development of each session, I created a template document from which to source basic graphical interface elements and adapt depending upon content. Throughout the design process, this template was modified and refined to operate within the confines of the integrated development environment (IDE).

Front-end design had to be consistent with the IDE’s back-end, which operated like a pre-package learning management system (LMS). Limitations of the LMS had to be coordinated with input features on the front-end, such as practice activities.

Intervention Structure

The intervention is composed of eight individual sessions. These sessions are divided into 4 individual DBT modules (Mindfulness, Addiction Skills, Emotion Regulation, Distress Tolerance). The sessions are composed of a series of learning slides, videos, and activity slides intended to convey specific skills pertaining to the module at hand. These skills create the foundation for individuals to manage their behavior, emotions, and thoughts.

Each session followed a similar arrangement:

PART A: Warm-up & Review

For each session, except the first:

Mindfulness Practice

Weekly Assignment Review

PART B: Module Introduction

At the beginning of each new module:

Define the purpose of the module

Establish and define individual skills to be taught

PART C: Teaching

For each skill:

Describe the skill

Video describes key points and examples

Key points are reiterated as slides

Practice the skill

Provide instructions with examples of answers or results of practice as appropriate

Perform task

Provide corrective feedback if appropriate

PART D: Summary and Consolidation

For each every session:

Homework Planning

Distribute Practice in Context Worksheets

Participants select what they are willing to try

Participant defines what they believe is possible within their own life

Their goals are reiterated by the program

Participant records their behavior at the beginning of the next session

Aesthetics and Interactivity

The intervention aesthetic and interaction methods formed out of the following list of priorities:

Clean, legible content with a linear narrative

Calming / neutral visual style

A simple and intuitive UI with minimal need for instruction

Consistency to facilitate user wayfinding

A sense of progress within each session and across the intervention

Variety of content to create interest

A sense of flow and rhythm

[alexrmann]

RPWRF Landscape Design

Client: City of Spokane Wastewater Management

Design Consultant: CH2M Hill + AHBL, Inc. + Others

Personal Contributions: Conceptual Design / Schematic Design / Planting Design / Construction Details

Post-occupancy Photography: Craig Andersen, AHBL, Inc.

The Riverside Park Water Reclamation Facility (RPWRF) is the City of Spokane’s primary sewage treatment plant. Installation of new outdoor wastewater clarifiers prompted the design of a visual screen to minimize the visual impact. Rather than completely obscure this infrastructure, which is culturally significant, the adopted design utilized large sculptural screens in conjunction with locally-appropriate plantings to beautify the corridor and screen less desirable views without completely obscuring the inner workings of the facility.

Site Description

The Riverside Park Water Reclamation Facility is the community's oldest and largest water recycling facility. The facility recycles about 34 million gallons of wastewater a day and returns the cleaned water to the Spokane River. Water recycling occurs in a multi-step process requiring the water to pass through dedicated physical infrastructure. The earliest phases of this process occur within clarifiers located in the eastern outdoor portion of the facility.

The installation of upgraded clarifiers prompted significant site improvements guided by a master plan developed some two decades prior to recent construction. The master plan's designation of viewshed screening along the frontage of Aubrey L. White Parkway became the focus of landscape architectural services. The area of work, approximately 650 linear feet by 20–25 feet deep, rests on the parkway's southern edge. The site is exposed and subject to solar exposure, heat, wind, and precipitation. Its adjacency to the parkway subjects it to vehicular traffic, dust, gravel, and plowed snow. Large electrical vaults are permanent features of the site. Prior to site improvements, the site functioned as overflow parking for employees and visitors. It also hosts a large, permanant sculpture called "Evaporation Screen," designed by rhiza A+D, made of perforated galvanized steel and set in concrete footings.

The RPWRF facility is nestled between the Spokane River and Aubrey L. White Parkway, located at the toe of the north slope of the Spokane River below the Northwest Neighborhood. Riverside State Park covers the area on the south and west sides of the river.

My contributions were specifically related to the Phase I improvements (denoted in green). The design aesthetic, sculptural screens, and plant palette set the tone for future Phase II improvements.

Project Goals

Meet the intent and goals of landscape restoration, storytelling, masking, and creating a sense of place outlined the the RPWRF Aesthetic Master Plan.

Minimize the visual impact of the interior site infrastructure and wastewater clarifiers as necessary.

Design cost effective, low maintenance, and resource efficient landscapes consistent with the goals of the Aesthetic Master Plan and Schematic Design documents.

Balance the goals of the RPWRF Aesthetic Master Plan with current City development codes that were predominantly oriented towards new construction and not landscape restoration.

Develop enhanced wayfinding and arrival experiences at the visitor entry while protecting restored landscapes from foot traffic.

Provide cost effective public education and site interpretation for stormwater, wastewater reclamation, sewage treatment, and landscape restoration.

Design Program

Conceptual design and construction documents for visual mitigation and streetscape improvements along Aubrey L. White Parkway from the East Approach near the Headworks Area to the Administration Building.

An existing chain-link fence and degraded stacked rock retaining wall was removed. A new retaining wall was to be constructed with a security fence affixed to it, except near the clarifiers where the wall would be kept and the security fence built adjacent to it.

A new plaza would be created to surround an existing public artwork and fucntion as an outdoor classroom. Materials and plant selection were recommended to be sustainable and for site runoff to be minimized.

Selected images of previous site condition. This stretch of the site perimeter represents the main focus of screening efforts. Images depict existing utilities, chain link fencing, a public art piece to be retained, and groundcover of gravel shoulder and lawn.

Sketched analysis of the proposed infrastructure to be screened superimposed on composited panorama.

Design Concept

Drawing the ideas of massing, geometry, and fluidity from the above, the concept brought the allegory of water to life through impressive sculptural wave screens that rise up amongst a simulated riparian landscape of dry riverbed. The semi-transparent screens cooperate with the planting scheme to softly screen undesirable views of the facility's infrastructure without totally obscuring it. Through intrigue and excitement in the landscape, the landscape celebrates the important role that the water reclamation facility plays in preserving the vitality of the Spokane River.

This final concept drew upon previous iterations to integrate the theme of the riparian landscape with significance of the facility's infrastructure.

Line drawing of the screening concept.

Rendered conceptual elevation including superimposed infrastructure height markings.

Construction Detailing

Wave Panels

While the early concept imagined waves of bluestone emerging from the ground as both sculpture and screen, the more economical and flexible decision was made to construct these as perforated steel panels, formed to shape and powder coated in blue, with a dark accent panel. These were mounted on galvanized pipe posts and set with concrete footings.

Layout of Boulders, Rock & Hardscape

To simulate the river, a winding dry bed of river stones and boulders were set along the length of the frontage.

Landscape Plantings

Given the dry, exposed conditions of the site, as well as the likelihood of snow accumulation from plowing, the planting scheme required a tough, hardy front edge comprised of drought-resistant bunchgrasses and evergreen groundcover. A dappled shade canopy was created with multi-stemmed river birch trees. The design program's screening requirement necessitated a backdrop of medium evergreen shrubs and trees. Seasonal color contrast was provided with drifts of purple catmint and yellow solidago.

The west end of the frontage included plaza plantings distinct from the rest of the landscape, integration with the main building at the facility, and a shady understory due to the preservation of mature London plane trees.

The east end of the frontage is narrow and required the most screening.

Post-Occupancy

Photos by Craig Andersen

Roadway Screening

As time has progressed, the frontage plantings have matured and created the soft screening effect imagined by the design concept.

Dappled shade provided by the river birch canopy helps reduce solar exposure to the groundcover. (c. 2021)

Preservation of the existing pine, in combination with new plantings and the wave panels, forms a contiguous screen. (c. 2021)

Plaza

The plaza remains a visual centerpiece, however there are some issues. In particular, the imagined screen to be provided by mature ash trees failed to materialize. This may be a consequence of the site's exposure, problems with the plaza planting well details, or perhaps poor installation practices. Whatever the case, the landscape would have benefited from a secondary soft screen as backdrop to the plaza.

c. 2013

c. 2021

c. 2013

c. 2021

Administration Building Frontage

Perhaps the more enduring quality of this project is the way it established a paradigm for the rest of the campus. Following the completion of Phase I, Phase II saw the extension of the plantings across the whole of the parkway frontage.

c. 2013

c. 2021

[alexrmann]

Sketchbook Selected Sketches

Sketches from top:

Colonnade.

Riparian boardwalk. Puget Park, Tacoma, WA. Scanned pencil sketch, color marker.

Entrance improvements. Puget Park, Tacoma, WA. Scanned pencil sketch, color marker.

Pedestrian crossing. Puget Park, Tacoma, WA. Scanned pencil sketch, color marker.

Stylized tree.

Henge perspective.

Winter sky & Trees.

Rural landscape. Selah, WA.

Arletta Schoolhouse. Gig Harbor, WA.

[alexrmann]

HoloGuide Blended Reality Experience

Course: Holographic Interactions, DESIGN 582, University of Washington

Professor: Axel Roesler

Design Team: Alex Mann & Zhuoxi Shang

More than 3D visual overlays, HoloGuide is about changing the way we relate to our surroundings. The project began with an open-end prompt for students to develop a blended reality experience using a line-of-sight device, such as Microsoft’s HoloLens or a device yet to be invented. My partner and I discussed our mutual interest in the way understanding is fostered between people of different cultural backgrounds. We landed upon the concept of empathy as a basic requirement of cross-cultural understanding.

In our attempt to understand the essence of empathy, we began investigating how humans develop an appreciation for entirely different species. Zoos have traditionally created formal spaces for generating knowledge of and empathy for animals, but are generally limited to showcasing exotic animals. Conversely, the Internet has expanded our access to data about animals, at the expense of deemphasizing more visceral connections afforded by real-world experiences.

So, what began as an inquiry into person-to-person empathy, became an exploration into the contexts and environments which create empathy between humans and other living things. We envisioned blended reality as an opportunity for holographic displays to transform natural environments into learning spaces where unseen animal life can be visualized.

We selected a local nature trail in which we could insert holograms to create personalized, realtime nature learning experiences on top of the existing environment.

This video prototypes interaction methods with educational markers. It demonstrates how holograms can be expressed as temporal objects in real space, as well as how this system may connect to an audio device to create guided experiences. Subtitles describe broader themes about climate change to convey the connection between these experiences and social change.

Holographic Interactions Final from Alex Mann on Vimeo.

[alexrmann]

On the Move Design Competition

Competition: Portland METRO Integrating Habitats Design Competition

Design Team: Derrick Eberle, Midori Fukutani & Alex Mann

Course: LA 362, Landscape Architectural Design Studio III

Instructor: Jolie Kaytes

This entry for the Portland Metro Integrating Habitats design competition presents a resilient community in flux, bridging the divide between nomadism and urbanism. The project fulfilled the final requirements of this junior-level landscape architectural design studio. Landscape ecology served as a key theme for the studio, guiding the project research and design investigations.

Postulating urban responses to the approaching climate crisis, On the Move imagines a nomadic house, capable of occupying space in support of the goals of infill urbanism as well as roaming landscapes to occupy new spaces in support of a fire-managed oak savannah ecosystem. Operated by solar-powered hydraulic legs, homes literally plant themselves in and uproot themselves from the ground in order to provide stability in human habitations in tandem with the nomadic necessities of one of the most fragile and rare ecosystems on the planet.

Studio Background & Competition Brief

Landscape ecology served as a key theme for the studio, guiding the project research and design investigations.

Site De-SCRIPT-ion

Students were encouraged to play with the concept of “scripting” as a creative means of generating site descriptions. The non-specific nature of the competition brief made visiting a “real” site impossible, leading us to infer the character of the site from similar residential neighborhoods in Portland. Working in small teams, students generated photomontage site sections in order to characterize the imagined competition site. What emerged were visions of something akin to the setting of a play, providing the context for a story, or script, to unfold.

My team members and I submitted the following site script:

The site is a city block located within a mature urban residential neighborhood in Portland. Within this urban matrix, the neighborhood includes convenient, walkable clocks with a multitude of human corridors, including sidewalks and alleyways situated within the block. A very popular public transportation system connects the site to the rest of Portland. To the southwest, a park willed with an oak woodland habitat borders the neighborhood. On its eastern boundary lies a triangular park with remnant oak stands. We infer from the proximity of these oak stands that the site was previously part of what is now a disconnected oak woodland corridor. Consequently, the diversity of species is altered due the habitat patches exhibiting a greater degree of edge and a lesser degree of continuous interior habitat matrix. Historically, the site would have been distinguished by a vast, spreading oak canopy. Now, patches of mature oaks are scattered and discontinuous. The site is a laid back residential block with little commercial or industrial interference. One can easily imagine residents and visitors alike enjoying the quiet and inviting atmosphere. Walking through any of the alleyways.

Oak Savannah / Woodland Ecology

Diving into the ecological conditions of oak savannah / woodland habitat...

As the oak woodland encroaches upon the community, migration occurs to occupy a recently harvested and maintained landscape area.

After community migration, the landscape is monitored until it reaches a point of ideal maturation.

Maintenance of the landscape is performed through controlled burns and selective oak harvest.

Accomplishing the audacious proposition of reestablishing native ecosystems in urban Portland requires equally audacious means which would seamlessly integrate human dwelling with the essential ecological processes. The concept of mobile housing that literally walks solved a multiplicity of problems. In terms of engineering, elevated housing affords a usable understory and a suspended footprint that allows rainwater infiltration.

Spiritually, mobile communities that migrate in response to the temporal and spatial growth of oak savannah and woodland inevitably bring humans into conscious communion with ecological succession. The additional potential of interlocking structures creates intimate groupings and restructures the alleys into multi-level corridors of movement, meeting, and collective gardening.

The community center features a permanent core with mobile segments that create an environment for gatherings and markets. Site parking is confined to the community center, thereby encouraging casual interaction amongst neighbors and reducing the need for driveways and other non-permeable surfaces. Permacultural interventions are imagined to supply communities with supplemental food and income. Elevated housing and accessible mesh “sky hammocks” that screen crops from intense heat also bring residents into contact with the oak canopy. Additionally, they provide a sense of spatial hierarchy and privacy, as do innovative screens that support climbing crops, such as hops, beans, and peas.

Final Boards

[alexrmann]

SURGE Storm Garden Streetscapes

Client: City of Spokane Wastewater Department

Consulting Firm: AHBL, Inc.

The Spokane Urban Runoff Greenway Ecosystem (SURGE) program retrofits existing streetside curb and gutter systems with green infrastructure strategies to mimic the natural hydrologic process.

Project Description

Polluted stormwater and combined sewer overflows have been identified as some of the leading causes of urban water pollution and have significantly contributed to pollution of the Spokane River, the City of Spokane’s primary water body and a tributary of the Columbia River. The SURGE projects improve the operation of Spokane’s combined sewer system, provide a low-cost alternative to treating and managing stormwater runoff, and increase urban green space to provide an enhanced aesthetic environment.

In what would become SURGE’s keystone projects, the City hired us to retrofit Broadway Avenue and on Lincoln Street with “storm garden” planters between the curb and sidewalk. Each project presented its own unique challenges, including varied building set-back distances and overhead utilities in the urban commercial block of Broadway, and unevenly distributed sunlight and shallow, non-infiltrating soils along the 11-block residential Lincoln Street corridor. Due to budgetary constraints, the City requires that adjacent property owners maintain all storm garden planters.

In response we utilized “planting zone” concepts, creating multiple planting palettes for different solar conditions along Lincoln Street and selecting tree varieties appropriate to the specific site conditions of Broadway Avenue.  This required close cooperation with neighborhood members to select plants appropriate to the neighborhood and train residents in proper maintenance procedures.

In 2010, the City of Spokane was awarded an Environmental Protection Agency PISCES Award for the Broadway SURGE project.

LID Brochure & Mailer

To provide public outreach and educate the public about these projects, the City requested that we design a brochure and mailer insert. The design displays images of local Low-Impact Development (LID) projects exemplifying LID best practices. Included plan diagrams explore the benefits of low impact development, best practices for the region, and Plan drawings illustrate a case study exploring the differences between conventional and low impact development strategies in the context of a multi-family residential development.

The intended audiences of each object were different. The brochure sought to demystify LID for developers and explain the benefits. The mailer was intended to inform citizens of Spokane about the work being done by the City to implement LID into its built infrastructure.

The density of required information is counter-balanced by the calming palette of teals and lavenders, which are suggestive of water and nature.

Broadway Avenue

Broadway Avenue video produced by the Washington Stormwater Center in collaboration with City of Spokane Senior Engineer, Marcia Davis, PE.

Lincoln Street

Lincoln Street video produced by the Washington Stormwater Center in collaboration with City of Spokane Senior Engineer, Marcia Davis, PE.

[alexrmann]

Pacific Ave. Streetscape Revitalization Urban Design

Client: City of Tacoma

Firm: AHBL, Inc.

Personal Contributions: Architectural Illustration / Design Development / Site Grading / Construction Details

This revitalization project implemented a complete street approach in conjunction with innovative stormwater management. Fourteen rain gardens now treat stormwater prior to it draining into the Thea Foss Waterway. Other site improvements include upgraded sidewalks, curbs and curb ramps, site landscaping, public art, street furnishings, improved street lighting and road resurfacing.

Pacific Avenue is the City of Tacoma’s main street and downtown commerical center.

Design Retrofit for Key Bank Frontage

A 13-inch grade differential between the street curb and the adjacent sidewalk required a creative solution at the street frontage adjacent to the Downtown Tacoma Key Bank. To capture the grade, we designed a series of planters with interspersed steps. A landing was provided between the curb and planters to facilitate the egress of vehicle passengers. Stormwater runoff from the upper sidewalk is captured in runnels at the base of each planter. Sample details and the final result can be seen below.

Post-Construction

The Pedestrian Experience

Chase Bank Frontage

Description

Post-Occupancy Reflection

Key Bank From the Street

Chase Bank From the Street

[alexrmann]

Sound Awareness Physical Computing

Course: Physical Computing, HCDE 539, University of Washington

Instructor: Andrew Davidson

Sound Awareness is a prototype for a context-aware listening room, an environment that changes music and lighting depending upon who occupies it. It simulates a ‘smart’ multimedia environment utilizing user identification to determine the context of the room (i.e., who is present) and adjust the audio-visual experience for that context based on pre-determined personal preferences.

This course reviewed fundamentals of designing and prototyping human-centered interactive systems and environments that include software and hardware components. Students built projects using electronic devices and fabrication tools. The course provided hands-on experience in a project-based, studio environment.

This project fulfilled the final requirement for the course.

Problem Space

A listening room is a space designed to host audio-visual experiences. An example could be in the form of a hi-fi stereo system paired with a display which projects visuals that sync with music. These rooms are places to zone out and listen in! Context awareness describes situations in which the changing conditions of a space generate new responses and conditions. An example could be a room with a basic condition when there is no one present, but which generates response to a person entering a room, or different responses depending upon who is and how many are in the room.

To generate context using the Arduino as the computing environment, “presence” is determined via push buttons. Sound Awareness pairs the physical computing environment with the visualization and audio capabilities of Processing. The system is programmed to activate unique user preferences into the space. When a user “enters” the room (signaled by pushing a unique button), music (played through computer speakers) and visuals (displayed through a laptop screen) play to reflect the “preferences” of that user. In this way, the buttons are used to check a user in and out of the room. When multiple users are checked in, the system creates an entirely different experience that only exists in the presence of multiple users. It also responds to messages from a server (Xbee) to alter the experience of the room.

How The Code Works

At the beginning of each software loop, the program listens for messages from the home gateway. A series of “if / else” statements tells the program what to do depending upon the message received. Each statement sends a message back to the gateway to let it know that it received the message, as well as generates a line of serial text.

The rest of the loop also uses a logic of “if / else” statements to determine the room state. The system does this by assigning a room state every time a button is pushed. It remembers this state at the end of each loop and then compares it against any new state that is created. If they do not match, then the system knows there has been a change of state since the last loop. It then checks the value of the room state (0-3) and performs actions accordingly (i.e. turning on LEDs, generating serial text, sending messages about the room state to the gateway).

On the Processing side, the program, or virtual room, is listening on the port the Arduino is connected to. If it receives serial messages, it then, truncates them into a format it can understand, reads those messages, and changes the display and song accordingly. In this case, the program knows how many songs it can draw upon, so it stops all songs before playing the song assigned to a particularly serial message. This way, one song doesn’t keep playing when another is told to start.

Extending the Design: Realizing Virtuality

The critical concept to accept is that the Internet of Things is not limited by form factor. All that is necessary are unique signatures with music preference data to share connected to a network. A mobile app with geolocation comes to mind. This system could be adapted to utilize RFID readers and tags, geolocated mobile devices, near field communication, or just about any IoT solution one can imagine. The concept shines in both physical and virtual settings. The “space” users occupy could just as easily be a real room as it could be a chatroom. A Twitch channel could be programmed to do this. The sky is the limit. What makes one solution more successful than another depends upon the comprehensive novelty of the experience.