The Resistance

An introduction of the OrangeContest took place on the Picnic festival of 2008. In the following lessons within Concept Development on the College University of Rotterdam I tried to gather up students with an interest to participate in this orangecontest .

And with succes, with some students we managed to set up a project for the contest; mail goal: 'putting holland on the map'. Now after several weeks of time pressure the following plan 'The Resistance' has been finalized, and is in the run for the election of the ultimate Dutch experience.

On the 21th of Novembre we held a presentation about our plan according to the participation of the Orange Contest. We started out with the following taste of orange:

In short; our concept basically stands for the retake of Manhattan. Nearly 400 years a go, the Dutch ship 'De Halve Maen' crossed the rivers around manhattan and set foot on a piece of land which will finally rise to one of the world most popular cities. 'The Resistance' brings us back to the urge of the Dutch to take back what is supposed to be theirs; New Amsterdam.

The project is divided in three chapters; preparing, transitioning and invading with a covering television program following the route.

The preparation is a long term project including the capturing the 17th century battleship 'the 7th provinces', and rekruting craftsmen (cause you need an army ofcourse). Dutch people can sign up for the program (winning a free ride) by presenting themselves with their most original thing they will bring to conquer New York once again, ending in a serious competition for the crew.

The transition is a two monthly show (which can be stretched) taking place on the 17th century ship where the crew selected in previous rounds of the preperation will battle for leading the invasion, battles on the boat will take place in extraordinary and never seen reality tv.

The invasion will take place, entering Batterypark, where the winner of previous rounds will run as Prince Carnaval in the orange parade turning Broadway and Nassaustreet orange once again!

Read our final document here

Let it snow...

It had been a while since I had seen snow, and yesterday it was finally there, made me think of the time I spent in Mongolia, The whole day it snowed covering trees, roads and buildings with a white layer and as seen on the picture, the peace palace also got some.

I thought I'd share.

This picture was taken from Anna, a 'creative' space near the peace palace. The building shelters creative companies, artists, galeries, and even a small movie theatre. And that's why I thought to check it out; ending up into seeing the manga classic Akira once again.

For those who are interested, take a look at Artikraak.org for more information about Anna.

The College-University Fair, do you stare or do you dare

On Monday 3 November the college-university of Rotterdam organised a fair where students from second and third year could get information about their possible ‘minor’ (the so called ‘specification’ within your study). I had the chance to promote and inform other people as a representative of the ‘minor’ I am following currently, formally known as ‘concept development’.

The fair took place at one of the main buildings of the school department offering information and services and first encounters with these ‘minors’. As soon as I entered I had the feeling of chaos, and it was, quite.

Though there was a map, the interaction with the environment lacked severely, not mentioning the programming and understanding timetables and ‘whereabouts’ on the location itself. We even had to share our small stand which made it even harder.

In the afternoon we organised two lectures for interested students, and two times we were able to fill the room, nevertheless not always with the most interested students seeking for their obligations within the minor.

The presentation ‘thinking outside of the box’ answered questions of students as in why students should choose for this minor, what you can do by following this minor, what is expected from you and of course, what do you expect from it.

A lot better than previous slides I have seen, I must say. The presentation has improved a lot, and fairly stands out amongst the others. Strong and clearly students could see now what it is about, with me and my fellow student giving live examples and interact with the audience. And by taking that last thing, that is exactly what should be, by my understanding, more encouraged.

Interacting with the potential students can be improved. This could be simply realized by picking examples and making it more fun which is exactly what will keep it attached, remembered and told about.

Simple solutions to make the concept development presentations more interesting is to start with a ‘check in’, a kaospilot technique, naming what were you thinking in a maximum of one sentence, breaking the ice already.

The content of the presentations could be also somewhat more active, like naming trends, you name a trend! What did you noticed lately? Or why do you have an iPhone ? Why do you wear GStar, why do you stand still on the escalator? You could play more to the awareness of the students present, like 'did you notice the red arrows on the sealing?' or 'did you notice that the text under my name tag is upside down?'.

Let them name their ideas, their quest for life, let them think out loud and feel free to join the fun and serious sides of concept development.

Preview OrangeContest

...of a new project we are working on...

... just a preview... soon more :D

Windy Windmill (3)

Last week we had a meeting with Eneco and it seems Windy Windmill has a follow up...

Windy Windmill isn't just an idea, it is a well thought of plan, a longduring proces, and this week we had a meeting with Eneco about it. If you don't have a clue what I'm talking about. Windy Windmill is a concept which won 2nd prize with a battle (within BattleOfConcepts) for Eneco, which proclaimed goal to create 'a windmill you can love'.

Windy Windmill is a character builded program where in Windy Windmill and her friends Seta SolarScreen and Wilbert Waterpump are bound to save the world from all evil for instance Olga Oil and Ali Atom.

if you are interested look also at the previous posts;

http://sanderwesterduin.blogspot.com/2008/06/windy-windmill-2.html

http://sanderwesterduin.blogspot.com/2008/06/windy-windmill.html

where there is more to be explained.

But the future is bright, talks and meetings are planned for the upcoming weeks and who'll know what is about to happen...