8th day – thu, Final presentation

Final presentation was held  in Toto bar garden, Slomšek square.

7th – wed

The first ever Desktop Olympics took place at the Glavni trg in Maribor. Athletes were competed in seven olympics disciplines: Folder Wrestling, Scroll Racing, Notepad Fencing, Tapping Slalom, Tug-of-Word, Mouseboxing and File Archery.

Athletes from Maribor and all over the world were virtous and competition attracted cheerful audience on the Main square in Maribor.

Winners celebrated their medals till Thursday dawn…

http://www.vimeo.com/7297449

http://www.desktopolympics.org/maribor-2009

6th day – tue

At the conclusion of the Embodied Vision group project the Bridge was re-appropriated as a gallery to exhibit the pictures taken during the previous 2 days. People who had taken the photographs returned and walked the bridge to admire the work of the people of Maribor and perhaps hope to see their own contribution.

Project web site: http://www.preckam-most.co.cc.

5th day – mon

Embodied Vision group started campaign (flayers, posters, web site, facebook…)  to communicate Tuesday event at the The Old Bridge (Stari most)  where their  “Crossing the Bridge” exhibition will take place.

Website has also been created to act as a resource for the photographs captured on the bridge and day4s cultural probe has transformed into day5s content generator.

The photos exhibited were taken by everyday passengers while crossing the bridge. The idea was to capture the moment of crossing over, becoming aware of the every day routine and making it more memorable and special. Today the group’s publicity machine swung into action – Maribor was fly posted advertising “Crossing the Bridge” and the people of the town created more pictures for the gallery event in the afternoon.  The people crossed the bridge, stopped, took a little time and photographed the view from the bridge, the bridge itself and other people on the bridge. Moments of contemplation were experienced, meetings took place and glances exchanged as the people of Maribor crossed the bridge, something that they do throughout the year – just this time the experience was a little different, perhaps even a little more playful.  Each photographer received an invitation to the gallery and a sticker promoting the event.

Two strangers meet on the bridge, a moment is shared …

Field study showed great potential of the idea and designed cultural probe offered more than promising insights for potential design solutions.

Olympics still working on perfecting the games, developing the web site and running online campaign,  and on design and preparation for the  event (choosing the place, finding athletes, acquiring equipment…).

At the end of the day, both groups had a short presentation, to show each other  work done so far and plans for the finale of the workshop.

4th day – sun

Olympics group are divided in subgroups for developing final sets of disciplines, website, visual identity and planing the event.

Embodied Vision team moved on the field  and their planned intervention on The Old Bridge began to take shape. Half of the team tested the plan on bridge with two digital cameras and they have returned with stories of interactions between the people of Maribor on The Old Bridge and now they are preparing campaign for the Tuesday exhibition on the bridge.

For the creative break during lunch pizza story telling contest was organized.

3rd day – sat

While Olympics groups was developing and testing their games and organizing their schedule for final event and website, the Embodied Vision group have been discussing about transitions – both in terms of movement within the urban landscape but also in people’s lives – life is a journey after all. Also what it means to be part of a city, the social experience and how this relates to identity and self. The question is how can experiences be designed that provoke, encourage and elicit such emotions.

The group theme of transitions recurs and focused on The Old Bridge in Maribor. The bridge is both a transition route between north and south, old and new – the journey across the river acting as a metaphor for life. Maybe getting people to somehow record that journey and interact with others on a similar journey could act as a mechanism for self reflection. Slowing down the journey – focusing on details – unpicking the rituals that shape our lives.

2nd day – fri

Next days was reserved for field study. Olympians went to the real world advertising agency to test their ideas. Our  hosts divided themselves into two groups, Mac and PC team. Its more than obvious that Mac team was created by designers and PC group was left for project managers.

Its role was to test the new Olympic disciplines created by the group. Somehow the agency stopped being a silent working environment and became fool of hectic screams. They all fight to win in their medals.

1st day – thu

Workshop started with introductory lecture by Ivica Mitrović, then participants were divided into groups and started working on their briefs, brainstorming about Embodied Vision and Desktop Olympics.

Workshop venue is old Water tower (by the river), great and inspiring place for both groups.