Suppliment Idea

So after some talk, we decided that we should add something to our brochures. While talking, we came up with the idea of incorporating some kind of card... perhaps like a trading card for kids... but I'm still not sure how this would work out.


However, while playing around with a million little pieces of paper, I think I've come up with something that could actually work... Now to run it past my group members... Let me know guys!


SIDE 1: The human point of view of the world... In this example: homes on a hill with the sky and birds in the background.

SIDE 2: The mouse point of view of the same place/image as above. In this particular case, the example would be: A hawk with a snake in its talons.... basically I figure that a mouse could care less about human homes on a hill and instead would focus in the birds flying in the sky (ie something humans wouldn't necessarily care too much about).

THE RESULT: When flipped together, they form one image. This could be a metaphor for the lives of humans and mice; we all live together and occupy one space even though we live different lives and focus in on different things.

Brochure Cover refined

Here is our brochure cover layout as of this point. The content is starting to be added, as visible under the "welcome" column.

Again, conversing as a group remains necessary to make sure that everything stays consistent and interesting.

What I Have So Far....

Ok guys, check this out and let me know what you think!

Brochure Ideas cont.

Here's some the ideas/experimentations I've been doing... just an update. Needs to be discussed further with my group members hopefully over the weekend.

Any of these could be the front/inside/back... I was just seeing what they would all look like together, what one panel would look like with a box, etc. These are in NO WAY a finished product....

Brochure Ideas

http://www.whatsthebigidea.com/wp-content/gallery/brochures-and-their-many-forms/brochure-folds.jpg

Idea for MidTerm continued

So after thinking about it, I'm still really interested in the wildlife of the area. Before my focus was probably more on the dogs and dog owners who seemed to frequent the park but after visiting it the last time, I realized that there are a lot more than just dogs running around. I was especially fascinated by all the little critters running around; the mice and gophers. Thats when I had the idea to incorporate this interest into the project.

Since my group members are interested in the different aspects of human use around the park and I'm interested in the wildlife, I thought that we could do two different and yet connected advertisement pamphlets... It could maybe even be combined into one depending on how it works out. Each pamphlet would have a separate target audience:

Pamphlet #1) Humans, which would show pictures and give details about why come to Glen Canyon Park, what to expect there, importance/human relationship to the creek, relationship with wildlife, brief history, etc.

Pamphlet #2) Wildlife, or more specifically from the point of view of the mice that live there. This one would have all the same elements/components but directed towards other wildlife or mice looking for a good place to move to and live. This could describe food sources, dangers (birds, coyotes, etc), the best real estate and communities (the clearing where we saw the most activity), a guide on how to co-exist with humans, etc. The ultimate purpose of doing it through the point of view of the mice is to describe how animals are able to survive and prosper in the city; a very unlikely place. It would be a way to point out to us humans that even though we think that we live in an urban setting, nature and wildlife is still all around and (possibly) still depend on the creek; something that most humans have forgotten.

BOTTOM LINE: 2 very different point of views of the Glen Canyon Park area, illustrating its different purposes.

This way, both human and animal interests are addressed. As for the digital mapping component, this could be where we saw human activity and mouse/animal activity... kind of like a comparison of how a bunch of different beings can co-exist in a particular area and how they use certain parts of the park differently.

This Glen Canyon Park pamphlet served as the inspiration for my idea....

 

Thoughts on "The Beholding Eye"

Apparently landscapes are everywhere and I think that this is true. There are many problems attributed with them and possible solutions but everything depends on how you view what you see and feel around you. It is important to remember that there are many different things to consider, such as history, nature, and the different relationships between the two with humans. Humans see things materialistically and ponder how to make nature bend to our every whim. This is probably why this reading was so interesting as it forces the reader to think outside the box and consider landscapes in different ways.

I think that all of the different ways to consider the same thing is always interesting, and in this case maybe even more so. This is because landscapes and nature are all around us but as humans living in cities we barely give it a second thought... pretty sad.

And although the reading raised many interesting thoughts and ideas, I found it a little hard to read. I never thought of landscapes in so many different ways and sometimes the concepts were a little hard to wrap my head around. I guess I never realized how complex a problem landscapes could be and that there are so many things to consider. Also, until this class I never realized just how much landscapes have changed over the years and how it can effect people today. I find the history of a location, especially San Francisco, very interesting and as I do more research for the mid-term I understand the importance of restoration.

Videos

Here are some of the short videos I took on my Iphone while in Glen Canyon park...

Here is the very short video of the birds that were flying above the dead mouse... You can hear the birds screeching in the background at the very beginning.

Although we never saw the animal that was doing this, I'm going to figure that it was a gopher because it was pretty strong.

We came across this sewer drain while looking at the gophers and mice... If you listen closely you'll hear running water.

First Draft Ideas/Documentation

At this point, I'm still not sure what form the final product will take. My group and I are still very much in the initial stages of planning and examining different ideas. Last Thursday we decided to head on over to the Glen Canyon Park area of Islais Creek to check out the things that we had talked about in class and do some observations; namely looking out for wildlife and any possible children walking through the park. Our walk began on the Elk Street entrance to the park and we decided to just go from there.

Just as before, the first things that I took notice of were animals. Again I saw a large number of birds and dogs. We also noticed that the day care center was open and that there were a lot of young children running around playing, screaming and laughing. As we continued down the path, something in the middle of it caught my eye... a dead mouse. When I pointed it out to my group members they were surprised to see something like that lying in the middle of the path and were curious to try to determine what killed it. Moments before while waiting for my group members, I had seen two hawks flying right above that section of the path (maybe they were fighting?) and had tried to take a video but only caught a couple of seconds of them before they flew out of range. Could there be a connection?

One interesting thing that really came to our attention while making our way through the paths (after having noticed the mouse) was the network of mazes created all the living things in the park. I first noticed that there were mice and gophers running through the grass and into holes all throughout the hills. We talked to a guy walking his 3 small dogs and he said that he had noticed a lot more of them in the last year. Suddenly I had the realization that their little mazes formed a community, much like the different communities of the city. Also, everything seemed to come into contact with the creek; a necessary part of life. Whereas we humans have seemed to forget and bypass the creek, the wildlife still communes and survives off of it; its still an important part of life.

Once this connection was made, I realized that just about everything creates a maze in the park... tree branches, the different paths, gopher and mouse holes, and even us when we map out our tracks on the GPS. I feel that this could be an interesting thing to examine... each one of us take a different subject and examine how a path or maze is created in all different manners around the creek. We already found out how easy it was to get lost in the jungle of plants and paths around the creek, as one little detour took us up to SOTA, then to a clearing with chairs, then to several dead ends all of which required us to climb over tree limbs and plants.

Basically, the idea of creek as the epicenter of all the life (human, plant and animal) is becoming our thesis.