photos from the installation

Some photos of the Ghana Think Tank installation for our presentation at RISD on May 24, 2006.

socio drama vs. powerpoint

To resolve our disgust with Powerpoint as an art-discussing technology, the Salvadoran think tank suggested we perform socio dramas instead of powerpoints, so we developed a sociodrama based on the imaginary world of TheySaySmall as it related to the films and theory of Trinh T. Minh-ha. Classmates adopted the roles of characters engaged in disembodied time-travel...

Watch the video, read the "script", and check out the clickable flowchart.

playing chess with JWU

On the advice of our Ghanaian and Cuban counterparts, we set up a chess and checkers table at the JWU quad, and invited passersbsy to sit down for a game. Turns out JWU didn't even realize the building across the street was full of RISD students!

Watch a video or check out the flowchart here.

photos and audio from ghana

We have received photos and audio from our Ghana Think Tank that is actually based in Ghana. Eb will need to translate this so we can edit into something comprehensible to Americans, but there are already some gems: "They have the best cars and houses and still they complain?"

may 10 reflections

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

We have gotten back replies from all three sites. Each of them are interesting in some way and each disappointed in some aspects. Luis from Cuba was the first to arrive. He intercepted an e-mail targeted to his grandson and has been going to town on it. He speaks perfect English and is very intellectual, and very pro-cuban/socialist, although it should be noted that he would have to be, given he is corresponding on e-mail to someone in the united states.

we struggled this week trying to put the solutions into prazctice b/c none of them seemed particularly exciting, to us. After discussing with each other and Tad and Seth and Catherine, i personally see 3 things that we could change to move forward.
1) Ask the right question -- ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer! We sent out a variety of questions to see which ones would generate interesting responses. None of us cares passionately about the relationship between JWU and RISD. Homelessness is apt to receive cliche answers. On the other hand we have to establish what is the interest of those who we are asking to do the work?

2) define your process more -- what is the process for choosing solutions? We commited to doing whatever they said, but obviously we're not going to, what is our process and criteria for selecting a solution to execute.

3) have faith in the process, maybe the "boring" solutions are doors into more interesting avenues, or maybe they will open up a dialogue with the think tanks. Don't get caught up in judging the project based on each individual solution.

4)find a way to document the process, our expectations, the miscommunications , etc , etc
posted by John Ewing at 9:18 AM 0 comments

The Roots of Ghana Think Tank

I am going to post this immediately I switch computers to my mac which has some images I want to share.