Synapse Blog

Phase I: 

People and Place (ecology and context) Designing a platform criteria for selecting of the participants in the Synapse.

• to develop partnership and build network within Qatar community
• to develop an understanding of different demography within Qatar
• to identify individual or group of participants for the Critical Analysis session
• to promote design thinking and design problem solving
• to expand students perspective and understanding of the context

MICRO & MACRO: a study of how to develop a linkage (a system of link) between a binary opposition and to create a relationship between the micro and macro scale.

MICRO                                        MACRO

Qatar                                                         Specific Objectives

Organization                                           Individual

Government (characterize)                 People (demography) 

Networks and Relationship building: 
a study the ideas of network, how network operates and how to build a relationship of an individual to the network system.
Tools: 
study of Ecology human ecology: the study of the interaction of people with their environmentthe branch of biology that deals with the relations of organisms to one another and to their physical surroundings.

Tools

Mapping = to indentify changes that Qatar want to make
Linking = to build relationship between parts
Profile = to identify players
Potential Impact = to see how it is effecting

 

Interview: Pornprapha Phatanateachea

‘Link’ is the keyword or theme; We are dealing with many different types of people: design students, designers, stakeholders and business developers… our intentions are to act as the ‘link’ between these components.” -Pornprapha Phatanateacha

An interview with course creator and conference architect, Pornprapha Phatanateacha, sheds light on the goals and intentions of the Tasmeem Synapse elective.In her opinion, the bi-annual Tasmeem conference, hosted by VCUQ, provided the perfect opportunity to bring students and professionals of different disciplines together in a collaborative effort. An exciting prospect for the future grew from this idea: through group effort, why not pursue local ventures that would significantly impact the lives of people living in Qatar?
According to Pornprapha, the main objective of the course (as leading assistant professor) is to facilitate a student-driven endeavor, and source input from a variety of professionals to step in and out along the way. The idea of “link” between project players led to the course title, since ‘synapse’ denotes the chemical activity in the brain where the rapid firing of nerve endings spark new ideas. Based on this concept, ‘Synapse- Designer as Link’ was founded. Synapse introduces some significant changes to the traditional Tasmeem layout. While in the past, the conference’s objective has been to share the work of global designers through lectures and presentations; the new format seesthat designers would instead be invited for the intention of participating in the development of student-driven projects.
While the conference itself is not for a year (March 20 – 24, 2011), it is expected that the selected ventures will likely carry on beyond the conference itself- and hopefully, the efforts of everyone involved will result in a brighter future for the people of Qatar on some scale, whether large or small. 

Reflection:

In this course, we have learned a lot in dealing with the issues and topics of our community. We have learned several methodologies tat helped us analyze the process of these topics, and make us aware of what is happening around us. At the beginning of the course, we mind mapped different major topics and issues that are in Qatar. Several of these topics were transportation, women’s rights, laborers, education and much more. We took these topics and focused on the people that get affected by them, and those who are responsible. We created a scale of macro and micro that was based on the hierarchy or the power of people in one discipline, for example the Minister of Labor at one end of the scale and the laborer on the other end. We then defined the people between them, and the steps it would take each to reach the other. After this we mind mapped the possible people we could invite to contribute in sharing the ideas for the Synapse conference. It was confusing at first to see whom we can invite, so we categorized the people according to their age, power, discipline and accessibility. From this we were able to contact some of the people and invite them to our class.

By: Fatima Zainal
 

 

Interview: Byrad Yelland

“In order to get a comprehensive understanding of the problem, you need to get comprehensive data from a variety of sources-“ Byrad Yelland, Director of Liberal Arts and Sciences 

One of our first, most dynamic guest lecturers was Director of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Assistant Professor, Byrad Yelland. Coming from a background in psychology and sociology, Byrad helped the class become aware of the importance of examining issues from a variety of perspectives. He stressed the idea that there can be many “right” answers to a problem, and that great value can lye in sources that may not seem obvious. He illustrated his points through a very intriguing exercise. After dividing the class into small groups, we entered a brainstorming session that strived to answer the question: what is the root cause for society’s psychopaths? Each of the three teams assumed the role of a different professional, with a perspective distinctly different from the others. One group, for example, played psychologists. Asked to determine the factors at play in the creation of such a killer, they examined the topic from a physiological perspective. The second group, concerned with sociology, approached the issue from an environmental point of view: what kinds of economic, social, or political factorsmay be contributing to the problem. Finally, a group of “psychiatrists” explored reasons associated with mental disorders; or nature as opposed to nurture. The fun and the power of this lesson lay in the fact that, while every group’s hypotheses were different, they were all justified and provided fresh insight into the topic, generating dynamic reflection and discussion within the class. Based on this class, we were sensitized to the importance of viewing all topics from the perspectives of a great range of people, lending a greater amount of integrity to our findings.

Reflection:

I found that Byrad Yelland’s guest appearance in class was one the most interesting synapse sessions we had. He was able to lead the student groups effectively, and the yield out of the exercises done in class where of utter value to me. We were able as a group to fully comprehend, just by role-playing, the wide possibility of variant interpretations of one very specific topic. The example given in the exercise was the issue of serial killers and why serial killers become what they are. The different roles we played focused our interpretation to be based on our assumed background, for example psychologists. The outcomes were extraordinary, where we found that one effect could have so many possible causes. And that not one cause is a definite one and only cause. The moral of the exercise done was effectively portrayed and realized by the student participants.

By: Nour Abu Ghazalah 

 

Summary: Muneera

An interview with course contributor, Muneera, provides insight into the origins of the Tasmeem elective.VCUQ professor Muneera is no stranger to the idea of collaboration. In fact, her studies over the past decade have very much focused on the study of collaborative processes and what those processes entail. A great deal of her interest in the Synapse concept lies specifically in the course’s constant shifting of players- the broad range of disciplines, professions, and cultures involved- and the possibilities generated by this unique “group” dynamic. In an effort to fully “engage” students in the Tasmeem Conference, brainstorming between colleagues such as Pornprapha resulted in the idea of Synapse; a fresh take on the conference, that would effec- tively see the student’s role as more significant, and the designers’ role transformed into something more hands on and impactful. The idea of direct collaboration between student and professional was a very excit- ing prospect, and steps were quickly taken to initiate a shift in direction for the upcoming 2011 Tasmeem conference. While acknowledging the risks involved with implementing such a new course, and fast-approaching deadline, Muneera claims she is very pleased with the content that the students have come up with, and is delighted about the involvement thus far of faculty from a range of disciplines.When asked about the success of this semester, and its impact of the next months leading up the March conference, Muneera had the following to say:
“I feel like it is a marathon and there are teams running and they have to pass the stick to the next one, hoping that it is flawless. Like in the Olympics, if you drop the baton the team loses; we need to keep that baton going. I am very pleased; I really think the students have done well.”

 

 

Interview: Peter Martin

“…The idea of Synapse is to link the design effort in VCUQ with the context outside VCUQ.”

Assistant professor Peter Martin facilitated a four-day workshop combining VCUQ students with people from the community. The purpose of this workshop was to facilitate creative integrative and collaborative thinking in problem seeking and solving.
Balancing the different disciplines within the attendees, Peter devised four sessions that utilized everyone’s strengths and abilities, resulting in well-rounded outcomes. The challenge of this workshop was getting people to develop similar tolerance levels and expectations towards the ambiguity of the outcome without unifying their thought processes. Peter’s role in the workshop assisted the process towards the final goal through facilitating different approaches to problem solving. Working in one room with a group of people, it was interesting to reach a positive and constructive result for the good of the community.

Reflection:

Working with a diverse group of people was an invigorating experience, where we were able to link the real world with design thinking. Throughout the workshop the group combined our individual skill sets and talents to brainstorm prosperous achievements for the future of Qatar. These achievements merge the visionary outlooks and focused determination of the individuals within the group. Completing this experience, we left the workshop with a more optimistic vision on the possibilities and potential of design thinking in Qatar.

By: Asma Al Thani 

 

Interview: Jesse/ Patty/ Levi

“I think that what our project offered was an opportunity for students to really think beyond those upper levels, and to think about different sectors of society, different cultures in Qatar that could offer different perspectives.”(Jesse)

Jesse actually played two separate but equally important roles in the development of the synapse course.The first was to help the students to realize that it is not only the biggest names that make the difference; all it takes is just one passionate person. Jesse and his colleague, Patty, are working on collecting an Anthology of art from the migrant workers. It was because of this specific project that they were asked to come in and speak. Many of the students believed that the best people to ask to contribute to the synapse conference were at the very top of the socioeconomic ladder. It was through Jesse and Patty’s presentation that we began to see that everyone has a voice and deserves the chance to contribute, regardless of social status. The second portion of Jesse’s contribution was the role of a Teacher. He was influential in generating written responses from the students. For the last few weeks he has been helping the students to “reflect, analyze and articulate through writing” (Jesse) what we have learned
though out the semester. It is these writings and responses that will be passed along to the next SYNAPSE course in order to build upon and
decide what the next phase of the project will be. One of the challenges that Jesse sees for the future is the fact that the conference is student driven. He understands that the conference is large and is something that the students have never done. He believes that it will be the faculty will play a key role in guiding the students, however make sure that the students learn and produce an excellent conference. “So I think that is a very positive thing to do, it offers deeper learning for the students, but it can also be messy, it can also be disorganized, there can be lots of times where people don’t know what the next step is going to be, and perhaps even the faculty themselves don’t know what the next step is going to be, and that is part of the risk, but it is also part of the reward”
(Jesse)

By: Zlatan

 

Interview: Michael Wirtz

“Information [is] the catalyst for developing something else”
– Michael Wirtz
Michael Wirtz is a research librarian at VCUQatar. He stands as an experienced, dynamic link between the students, or contributors of SYNAPSE and the information they seek. Although he in not a teacher in the same sense as some of the other professors involved with SYNAPSE, he does play an important role in the connection of student and information. His aim is to support ad guide the students in locating the information they will need to enact a change.
Michael played a supporting role. He stood to provide the guidance information, and even more importantly a link to the information available. Mike uses his background to analyze and find information critical to the synapse process. He is here to help the students understand what sorts of information is out there, and to gain access to it. He also thinks critically and gets the students to question, inquire and investigate their information.

Reflection:

Although Michael wasn’t with us for very many class sessions I can easily say that he was very influential. He can to us on one of the last few days of class when we were beginning to narrow down to the four project topics. (These four topics were the original outcome for the class, but as it progressed we noticed that this might not be exactly
the best solution. One of the topics that everyone seemed to be pretty invested with was something along the lines of “Education for Qatar to bring about a better community”. It seemed as though we all saw our own personal agendas within that topic and it was almost a shoe-in. That’s when Michael turned around and said, “Well, maybe we shouldn’t include it…” We were all taken back, why wouldn’t we want to include the best topic? It was only then that we realized what he meant. This topic was so broad that it was actually really vague and wasn’t strong enough to be a topic of its own. I believe that it was because of this insight that
we decided it best to put the book together instead of attempting to outline four topics.

By: Zane Bevan

 

Day 1: Group Formation

The first session was designed to establish group trust and aware- ness. We did a multiple of mapping sessions where we listed our goals, strengths and values. We all opened up to each other, including Peter, and ended on a briefing of what is expected on the next session.

Day 2: Knowledge Externalization

This part of the workshop was about externalizing individual knowledge building a library of information. We were given different characters, such us student or female, and as a group we listed all the terms that described that certain character.

Day 3: Knowledge Integration

After capturing all the knowledge we then had to integrate it into bigger understanding. Using values and trends as forms of knowledge, we documented the changes within Qatar and analyzed the reasons behind them.

Day 4: Future Scenarios

The final part of the workshop was to encourage ideas that design can contribute in. Using the form of scenarios we had to imagine and create concert future settings that were either positive or negative. The final outcomes were four different future possibilities that were then presented to the whole group.

Conclusion

The objective of this workshop was to generate ideas that were relevant to this context. Having people from different backgrounds provided us with a spectrum of information that allowed us to see certain situations from a number of perspectives. Observing the amount of knowledge that each member had on a related subject was an eye-opening experience that built richer scenarios.