Lab, 10/26

Here are three different ways to tell a story about yarn bombing and street art in Pittsburgh.

1.  It would be interesting to tag Pittsburgh street art with actual physical tags that encourage people to tweet or communicate in some way about the art they are viewing. This would be a fantastic way to learn about how people interact with the art they are viewing, and Pittsburgh's Yarnover Society does something like this with their work. They tag their pieces and ask people to tweet @yarnoversociety basically anything they want, just to acknowledge that they've seen the work.

2.  A comic strip could show the construction or installation of a street art piece. The Yarnover Society, as well as other street artists, typically work under the cover of night so that it's discreet as possible. I think a comic strip would be a great way to communicate these kind of top secret, incognito missions that are more playful than really serious.

3.  If possible, it would be really interesting to use the street art media itself, whether its paint or wheat-pasting or yarn, to tell the story. Pieces could be created and installed in a particular order that tells some kind of a story though, right now, I'm not really sure how it would work. But I'm envisioning an installation each day, maybe at a new location each time, and then a picture is taken and put online. It might work well if viewers were responsible for taking and posting the pictures for others to see, and they could discuss where the story was going next, both in terms of narrative and geography.

Lab, 10/12

Theme: "WINTER IS COMING"--What Pittsburgh is thinking as winter approaches

Format: Like Longshot, we’re aiming for a publication that can be printed and/or posted online. We’ll have articles and stories that contrast each other on a two-page spread. Each story and infographic will have its own page, making the magazine roughly 20 pages long.

Story Ideas:

"Where do the LARPers Go?" / "Where do the Homeless Go?"

• The first story will focus on LARPers (Live Action Role Players; people who re-enact fantasy situations) in the area that meet in Schenley Park and Shadyside and see where they go in the winter.
• The second story will contrast the LARPers and see where Pittsburgh’s homeless seek shelter during the winter, covering the local organizations that help the needy.

"Seasonal Depression" / "Sun Lamps"

• “Seasonal Depression” will take a look at those in the Pittsburgh area effect by S.A.D. (Seasonal Affective Disorder) and how they cope with the city’s weather.
• “Sun Lamps” will be a brief report on sun lamps, what they do and the positive effects on users.

"Ode to and Ugg Boot" / "Ugghs"

• A brief poem in favor of Ugg Boots opposite a brief poem or manifesto attacking such a vile fashion trend.

infographic: sunny days in winter: PGH vs. Honolulu or wherever

• Envisioned as a kind of GOOD Magazine-style info graphic - where data is presented in an aesthetically pleasing manner

Jobs Won in Winter / Jobs Lost in Winter

• Profile on the employment opportunities created by winter weather in Pittsburgh: for example, Christmas tree lot salesman, Snowplow driver, etc.
• In contrast, lots of people end up losing their jobs come winter, like Kennywood employees, construction workers, etc. This profiles the hardships they face and how they endure

infographic: alcohol consumption v. winter injuries

• Again, presented like the previous infographic. Data localized with regards to the Pittsburgh region

Winter Crime / Winter Charity

• “Winter Crime” will be an inforgraphic on crime rates in Pittsburgh as weather worsens.
• “Winter Charity” will be an opposing infographic on philanthropy in the Pittsburgh area during the holidays.

Weatherman / Snowplow Driver

• These pieces will be characters sketches of local weathermen and how the public feels about their predictions (and therefore the weathermen themselves) for Pittsburgh weather during the winter. The opposing piece will be about local snowplow drivers and how the public feels about them. It will examine how children like bad weather predictions (snow days) whereas adults are the opposite and how these roles are reversed when it comes to the snowplow drivers.

Art
The art will include several infographics (like the charts for alcohol consumption and injury rates
in the winter). These playful infographics will be in the style of GOOD magazine. In keeping with
the theme of contrast throughout the magazine, art will also be “dark” or “light” in color and tone.
Finally, there will also be photography throughout the magazine.

Facebook pages

I joined the New York Times Healthy Living (Well Blog) and Wired on Facebook.

Slate and Grantland

Slate and Grantland have several social media pages. Here are a handful that I found:

Slate

1. Twitter @Slate
2. Twitter @SlateArticles
3. Twitter @SlateCultFest
4. Twitter @Slatest
5. Facebook Slate.com
6. Facebook Slate Culture
7. Facebook Slate's Culture Gabfest
8. Facebook Slate Political Gabfest
9. Facebook Slate Explainer
10. Facebook Slate Politics 

Grantland

1. Twitter @Grantland33
2. Facebook Grantland

Lab 2, 10/5

The Atlantic has its own Facebook page and Twitter feed, which I follow. Both Facebook and Twitter are great tools to post headlines and direct interested readers to the full story on the website. However, when it comes to interactivity, the Atlantic makes much better use of Twitter than Facebook. On Facebook, as well as on the Atlantic's official website, readers can post comments and reactions to stories. There's interactivity in the sense that readers can discuss ideas with each other, but there is no real dialogue between the Atlantic and its readers. I think this is probably the case for most nonfiction sites' Facebook accounts. On Twitter, however, the Atlantic can, on rare occasions, retweet relevant news and articles that readers might be interested in, though most of these are drawn from other areas of their own website.

New York Times food and health writer Mark Bittman has both a personal Facebook page and a Twitter account. Just like the Atlanitc, Bittman primarily uses these sites as vehicles for promoting his column and for keeping readers up-to-date on his articles. He also uses it to announce television appearances and talks. While his Facebook page feels personalized and directed to his readers, there is still no real back and forth dialogue between him and readers. Readers post questions to which he never responds. It almost makes me feel like the interactivity of these social media are mere guises, when, in reality, it would be almost impossible for a writer like Bittman to respond to all the comments and questions he receives. However, I do like that on his Twitter he shares articles from other sources. His tweets aren't just promotional tools but ways for him to share other information with readers.

Lab 1, 10/5

1. William Faulkner won the 1949 Nobel Prize in Literature, and he made his acceptance speech, an excerpt of which can be heard here, on December 10, 1950. In his speech, he described how the writer's job goes beyond simple documentation of facts and is really about lifting the human spirit:

He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance. The poet's, the writer's, duty is to write about these things. It is his privilege to help man endure by lifting his heart, by reminding him of the courage and honor and hope and pride and compassion and pity and sacrifice which have been the glory of his past. The poet's voice need not merely be the record of man, it can be one of the props, the pillars to help him endure and prevail.

Source: http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1949/faulkner-speech.html

2. January 1, 1644 was a Friday. The weather in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania was cloudy and rainy, though warm.

Sources: http://www.searchforancestors.com/utility/dayofweek.html
http://www.jstor.org/stable/20083411

3. The five deadliest hurricanes in the United States were:
    1. Galveston, Texas in 1900
    2. Southeast Florida, 1928
    3. Hurricane Katrina, Southeast Louisiana and Mississippi, 2005
    4. Cheniere Caminanda, Louisiana, 1893
    5. Sea Islands, South Carolina and Georgia, 1893

Source: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/pdf/NWS-TPC-5.pdf

4. The original blueprint for Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater can be found here.

Source: http://historical.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleNo=629&lotNo=25650&type=prte-pr082406b#Photo

5. An image of Ernest Hemingway's 1923 passport can be found here.
The photograph shows a young Hemingway dressed in a three-piece suit. Faded and with holes from staples and clips, the photograph is in sepia tone. It is stamped with the number 359666. There is a boxed line on the passport, in which the photograph was crookedly adhered.

Source: http://www.archives.gov/historical-docs/todays-doc/index.html?dod-date=721

New Twitter accounts

Here are the ten new Twitter accounts I've started following:

This American Life @ThisAmerLife
New York Times Health @nytimeshealth
The New Yorker @NewYorker
Chuck Klosterman @CKlosterman
Byliner @TheByliner
Science Writers @ScienceWriters
Society for Neuroscience @SfNtweets
Scientific American @sciam
Mark Bittman @bittman
The Atlantic @TheAtlantic