Corinna Sherman

Reading #2:
“Dilemmas in a General Theory of Planning”
Working Papers from the Urban & Regional Development
Horst W.J. Rittel & Melvin M. Webber

Bitch bitch bitch. Whine whine whine. Suddenly everybody’s an expert, and nothing’s good enough, despite the fact that we have well-trained professionals in countless fields. Well, if you think the situation’s bad now, just watch while we tackle issues that are actually hard! Goal-formulation, problem-definition, and equity issues are going to weaken the professional’s support system in a serious way.

In the 1960s, professionals in the U.S. were asked to consider the systems they dealt with more actively, what they do and what they should do, rather than what are they made of. This “goal-finding” turned out to be difficult. Boo. Meanwhile, people began protesting the systemic processes of contemporary American society left and right. Think the civil rights movement, the student movement, the anti-war movement, consumerism, conservationism, etc. Planners had to pay more attention to end-results, because obeying The Man was no longer a valid excuse for screwing up.

In the face of discouraging complexity, planning and policy sciences have been regarded as potentially viable means of improving society. But are social professionals up to the enormity of their task?

We have learned to question not only the efficiency but the appropriateness of a given solution. We have also become more sensitized to the interconnectedness of systems and, thus, more apt to realize that a targeted action may have undesired consequences.

Problems no longer appear as straightfoward as they once did. Defining and locating the problems turns out to be as difficult as outlining their solutions.

Creating a planning/governing system is difficult for one gigantic reason: we can’t see the future! It doesn’t help that societal problems do not have a steady state solution. They are less like science and engineering problems and more like Whack-A-Mole. We call them wicked problems in reference to their tricky and difficult-to-describe nature. Also because we’ve always wanted to see how many times we could use the word “wicked” in a scholarly paper. 49.

Even the task of describing wicked problems appears to first require identification of their solutions. If that doesn’t blow your mind, consider this: no matter how good a solution we find, there could always be a better solution. There is no way to tell for sure, so we just stop working when we get hungry or sleepy.

Also, there is no do-over for solving wicked problems. The system cannot be reset, and we can’t tell how long the effects of a particular attempt will last.

Come to think of it, we don’t even know what our end goal should be. Crap.

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I am in design school, but I am not a designer. As I plow through stacks of assigned readings, my non-designerly brain is straining to distill erudite works into comprehensible nuggets. And entertain itself late at night. Here goes…

Reading #1:
The Design Way
Chapter 1: The First Tradition

Everything kickass in human history that someone did on purpose should be considered design. And the geniuses who achieved these things should be called designers but probably weren’t because the world has never fully appreciated the awesomeness that is design. (Note to future-designer self: Create an experienced reality to fix this!)

Imagine something that doesn’t yet exist, then make it: that’s design.

Designers can’t know the full impact of their creations ahead of time. They’re not God, duh. But their creations can still have large-scale impact, either good or bad.

Why do we design? To survive, to improve, to develop, to create. And because we can. Designing gives us a sense of control over our lives and an opportunity to move closer ourselves to perfection.

Back in Plato’s day, thought was hot, and manual labor was not. This situation didn’t bode well for design, which unites thinking and making. The situation today isn’t much better. Consider: we still distinguish between blue-collar and white-collar work. Does maintaining this distinction serve us?

The pre-Socratic era had the idea of design broken down into useful chunks, but by the middle ages, it had become oversimplified to the point where people mostly abandoned design as an answer as they struggled to deal with the changes taking place around them.

Nowadays, people react to problems in their lives by trying to solve them. But some problems cannot be effectively solved with a problem-focused mindset. They are part of a larger system that cannot be optimized by ignoring all but one or two of the revelant variables.

Design wisdom combines reason with observation, reflection, imagination, action, and production. Being design-wise means you can shift from an analog experience of life, to a digital or analytic perspective of the world, and back again.

Agents of change: chance, necessity, and (design buzzword…) intention.

“Design utilizes a process of composition, which pulls a variety of elements into relationship with one another, forming a functional assembly that can serve the purposes and intentions of diverse populations of human beings.” (pulled verbatim because this sentence did interesting things to my brain)

A designer should critically analyze the nature of design. Think and practice with intention. Spread the word.

Directions I got from a local to the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh included the phrase, “It’s just past the dinosaur.” I found it fairly quickly after that. Can you spot the dinosaur in this photo I took outside the library?

Corinna

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I’ve been putting off getting a replacement for my Canon Powershot S500 for a long time. This photo, taken today, has convinced me I’ve waited long enough. Now if I can just find the broken camera adjustment layer tutorial for Photoshop…

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Yesterday I watched the first episode of Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse on Hulu, a drama in which the heroine Echo’s memories are regularly expunged and recreated by a secret organization. The process allows Echo to forget painful experiences in her past. But in forgetting life’s most painful lessons, she loses knowledge that could help prevent future tragic occurrences. Then today I read this article from the BBC about how a heart medication could suppress the emotional intensity of memories, allowing people to blunt traumatic effects of the past. The parallel struck me immediately, and it made me wonder: How should we help individuals cope with past trauma?

Six years into the Iraq War, we have no shortage of citizens suffering from traumatic experiences: war zone conflicts, the death of loved ones, job loss, and home foreclosure. Some people have been so affected that their everyday quality of life has declined dramatically, and perhaps for individuals, starting over with a clean emotional slate would seem a blessing. Imagine for a moment that it were possible to push a giant reset button on the collective American psyche, that with the aid of a little pill, we could wipe out all our past suffering and look into the future with vision uncolored by experience. Imagine that happened right before the 2008 election.

Tell me, exactly which lessons are best forgotten?

Whenever I’m in New York City’s Chinatown, I can’t resist stopping by Tai Pan Bakery for one of their soft and sweet raisin twist breads. The bakery is easy to find, right on Canal Street between Mulberry and Mott, with purple lettering in the window and a constantly shifting sea of people inside. Don’t be intimidated by the crowds – they are a good assurance that turnover is high and what you’re getting is fresh. With nimble determination, weave your way  to the bread section in the back, being sure to check out the pastries in the counter along the way. Once you’ve reached the plastic bins along the back wall, stare hungrily at the piles of pork buns, raisin twists, and coconut buns, and one of the employees with metal tongs will approach to ask you what you want.

They will place your bread selections on a tray and set it on the end of the pastry counter. Keep your eye on this tray from now on until you pay, as it will move down the counter seemingly of its own accord if your gaze wanders for even an instant. If possible, stand directly in front of your tray and follow it as it makes its way towards the cash register at the far end. It may seem not to move for a while, but have faith, and it will get there eventually. As you wait, you may become distracted by sponge cakes or savory puff pastries behind the glass in the counter. This is the perfect time to practice checking out the goodies with one eye while keeping the other glued to your tray. It’s a subtle art, but one worth perfecting. At any point between the time the person with tongs asks you what you want and the time you pay, either the initial employee or a different one behind the counter will ask you if you want anything else. They will only ask you this once, and if you want anything else in the bakery – including the pastries behind the glass – now is the time to say so.

Once your tray is loaded with everything you want, you can hang out by the register while your tray makes it way to you. This gives other patrons the opportunity to view the counter items and minimizes the chance you will get squashed. Pay with cash, escape the crush, and enjoy your bakery treats!

This recent article by Michael Lewis, author of the infamous book Liar’s Poker, is long but once you’ve read it, you and your former office mates can sit around the flaming garbage can and discuss the finer points long into the cold, cold night:

http://www.portfolio.com/news-markets/national-news/portfolio/2008/11/11/The-End-of-Wall-Streets-Boom

I’ve been getting increasingly miffed at all the fun things I’m not doing while I tend to Very Important Life Matters™, the latest being getting drunk. Also on my not-to-do list:

• seeing Party Central USA‘s new stage show, Riding an Inflatable Hotdog, at the PIT
• marching in the annual Village Halloween Parade
• being part of a FOOD Network show audience

So what the heck am I doing instead?! I’m sorting through the mountain of photos I took during my recent trip to Taiwan! Here’s one I took of some food carts at the base of one of the many temples I visited. There is nothing quite like the agony of standing under the baking sun, trying to decide whether you want ice cream or squid in your waffle cone…