LET'S FLAG

[mozfest-bot]

[ UUID ] 4f9e88c3-9da6-43ac-89a2-4e02e723ac16

[ Session Name ] LET'S FLAG [ Primary Space ] Youth Zone

[ Submitter's Name ] Una Rebic

[ Additional facilitators ] Metod Blejec

What will happen in your session?

Let’s Flag is a session specifically designed for children and youth. It will focus on ideating and designing a Flag of the Earth. A brief introduction will include the history of flags, their meanings and basic principles of flag design. This will be followed by a warm-up exercise—world flag analysis. The practical part will comprise of thinking about attributes of our world and how we would present it (at an intergalactic congress for example). Through discussion our flags will be sketched while taking into account our world in all its diversity. In groups we will then design our flag symbolizing our vision of the world (positive, reactive, alarmed, etc.) and produce copies to take home.

What is the goal or outcome of your session?

This session aims to provide tools and methods that will aid participants in adopting basic principles of (flag) design (applicable broadly in visual design) and finding creative ways to render complex ideas by using simple graphic elements. With advancement of our visual literacy, we will be able to consider the role of visual language in the contexts where the use of verbal expression is limited or not possible. Notably, the goal of the session is also to critically think about the role of an individual and the society in relation to the world, its sustainability, ecology, our responsibility towards it, its past, present and possible futures.

If your session requires additional materials or electronic equipment, please outline your needs.

The session is tailored to suit the best possible learning methods and outcomes depending on the group and their age range. The session requires no electronics or specialised material. At the session we will need basic stationery: A4 copy papers, pencils, felt tip colour pens (sharpies), rulers, scissors, colored papers (as many colours as possible including black), glue and wooden skewers / chopsticks for final flag production.

Time needed

90 mins

[unarbc]

@EPIKhub - Hello I opened the GitHub account a couple of days ago and still getting familiar with it. You've added my session to formats Shed and Gallery and I am wondering what is the procedure from here. Thanks. Una

[EPIKhub]

@samouna this year at the festival we will be grouping sessions within a common format:

Shed; make stuff Gallery; show stuff Learning forum; share stuff

These formats will guide our festival audience to help them make a clearer informed choice; they should by the label know better what to expect :)

[unarbc]

@EPIKhub I think that's great. And thank you for the clarification :)

[EPIKhub]

@samouna - we will unfortuantely not be able to accept your session this year, it is not fitting within our theme. I noticed you dint put a second space choice so I would like to invite you to have a look at the other spaces and let me know which would be your second choice so I can pass your session to them.

[EPIKhub]

@ArtsAward might you like to have a look at this session?

[unarbc]

@EPIKhub thank you. I had put Youth Zone only because I first held this workshop with youth and also because I was not sure if it'd fit into other spaces by what I read. Surely I could adapt it to Web Literacy or Open Innovation should there be interest. Kind thanks for your consideration :)

[EPIKhub]

@samouna I've pinged @ArtsAward for you

[ArtsAward]

Hi @samouna I'm part of the Web Literacy space and I'm interested in fining out a bit more from you about how the advancement of visual literacy through the hands-on approach to the flag making session will enable participants to develop their web literacy? For example, whether you'll be making particular reference to graphic based programmes/tools that can be used electronically to transfer the manual work etc. Do let us know! Thanks

[unarbc]

Hi @EPIKhub, thank you :)

Hi @ArtsAward, there are a few options where we could spin this session. I'll just briefly list them and we can choose together which one seems a better choice.

Originally LET'S FLAG workshop that I designed would last 3h (180min) and would dedicate the last hour to vectorializing the flags, printing physical copies and posting them online. I thought this wouldn't fit in 90min which is the maximum length of the session at MozFest this year. So I took this part out and left manual production of flags for kids because teaching/using new programs would require more time. Now, in this case we could add this option to the proposed session plan or we could chose to design another type of flag. There are three options of which two are new ideas: a) to design the flag of the Earth b) to design the flag of the Internet c) to design the Moz:lla flag ;) (since Mozilla redesigned its visual identity this year)

In all three cases, we could use Illustrator or some open source vector graphics editor like Inkspace or even Vectr which can be used online. We could also visit or use @andrewsarnold's Flag Maker that allows the export of .svg and .png files of any size.

Personally, I would now opt between designing the flag of the (b) Internet or (c) Mozilla. I think these options might be more suitable in the context of MozFest and Web Literacy space.

If we'd do Internet flag, I'd refer more to net.art practices and then we could visit or even use Marc Napier's net.flag, work commissioned by Guggenheim museum in 2002 that is still active:

"Net.flag explores the flag as an emblem of territorial identity by appropriating the visual language of international flags. An online software interface makes this language of shapes and colors available to anyone with web access. The visitor to net.flag not only views the flag but can change it in a moment to reflect their own nationalist, political, apolitical or territorial agenda. The resulting flag is both an emblem and a micro territory in it's own right; a place for confrontation, assertion, communication and play."

The session would then proceed with intention of developing visual literacy but in this case, the one that is strictly related to visual representation on the web and options that could be taken for the flag to become a physical object. Besides that, the discussion would shift a little but not too much. From talking about nations claiming territory on land and creating division, we'd focus on the occupation of web and connotations this brings along and send out a message through a visual representation within a flag.

If we'd go for the option (c) Mozilla flag, this would be great considering that an amazing rebranding has has been done earlier this year. The Protocol 2.0 identity that has been selected and brought to final version with the help of the Mozilla community is a perfect example of simplification of the big idea of the internet, the big code that needs to be written in order for us to have a simple representation—a link—and the whole experience of using the web:

"Our logo with its nod to URL language reinforces that the Internet is at the heart of Mozilla. We are committed to the original intent of the link as the beginning of an unfiltered, unmediated experience into the rich content of the Internet."

And the fact that the marketing strategy was to not only invite everyone interested to design the new visual identity but to take everyone into the selection and finishing process was just simply amazing—and participatory. To continue in that spirit, as part of the Mozilla community we could take this route and propose new ideas and representations of the mission and values of Mozilla in form of the flag. Again, we'd practice visual literacy while focusing on its relation to web and then bringing it out of the web context and testing it in physical world and dimensions.

I find this option particularly interesting because we’d be dealing with web literacy and visual literacy in parallel. We’d talk about the meaning of new design and how the chosen option is a typographic one because it represents a code the Internet is written in and its textual programing language that serves the purpose of creating both text and graphic elements. In the case of designing a flag, the principles of good design suggests avoiding any text so we’d need to consider how to represent the written typography with different kind of graphic elements to represent the same idea(l) and meaning(s).

Finally, with any of the options we'd choose to go with, time permitting we'd try to squeeze in a little campaign online for sharing the ideas and solutions that were chosen. Depending on the number of participants, we could fire away more solutions generated in groups or we may all agree on one solution and share it online through our social and other media networks, personal websites, blogs...

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this in order to create a session that would be most interesting for Moz://a community! Thanks :)

[ArtsAward]

Hi @samouna thank you very much for your sift and detailed reply, this is really helpful in our curation process.

[unarbc]

Hi @ArtsAward, you are most welcome.

[edovio]

Hello @samouna - We are very happy to announce you that we have decided to accept your session at the festival this year! Congratulations! 🎉

[unarbc]

Hello @edovio! Woohoo! That is super, thank you. Will speak soon then and see you in october :)

[unarbc]

Hello @edovio and @ArtsAward, @flukeout, @jonathanprozzi, @mwakaswanga. I'm happy to confirm my presence at Web Literacy Space at MozFest 2017 :)

[edovio]

Hello @samouna , Thanks for your confirmation! :)

[jonathanprozzi]

Hello @samouna! As MozFest is approaching we’re asking that you reply to this issue with an outline of the topics and activities for your session. A rough, bullet-point outline with time estimates would be ideal.

I wanted to also check in about your proposed session length. Is there any way that you could trim down to 60 minutes? We have limited slots for 90 minutes and we want to see if this is a possibility. Please consider this as you send us your session outline. Thank you and let us know if you have any questions.

[unarbc]

Hello @jonathanprozzi! :) Of course, I will prepare a short outline and post it here in the next couple of days.

It would be possible to trim down the session but this would also mean quality loss. However, if you need 90min for sessions that are strictly time-based, I will plan to shorten the length of this one.

I have a question actually. Would there be a data projector available for this session? Thank you and see you soon!

[flukeout]

Hello @samouna - yeah do you mean like a video projector?

[unarbc]

Hello @jonathanprozzi and @flukeout,

here's the outline of my session: Let’s Flag is a session specifically designed for MozFest. It will focus on ideating and designing a Flag of the World Wide Web. In a brief introduction we will cover the history of flags and their meanings, present some examples related to our topic and then learn basic principles of flag design. In the practical part of the session, we will start ideating and creating our flag(s). Through discussion about complexity of the web, its structure, and (im)materiality, purpose and control, we’ll sketch out designs while taking into account our considerations. We’ll then analyze our flags according to acquired principles and create a final version with chosen elements that represent our collective design.

This session aims to provide tools and methods that will aid participants in adopting basic principles of (flag) design (applicable broadly in visual design) and finding creative ways to render complex ideas by using simple graphic elements. This will be a challenge particularly because we will be making a design for a physical object representing something intangible. While developing our visual literacy through creative problem solving, we will promote web literacy by trying to understand complexities of a subject we are dealing with and hopefully encourage participants to approach it elsewhere.

This session is scalable, however ideal number of participants would be around 15. For the practical part of the session participants will be divided into small working groups of up to 4. I will be assisted by my partner who is also attending the MozFest 2017.

--

Regarding the video projector, it'd be useful to have one in case of bigger attendance, but I can do everything without it as well. As for the trimming down of the session, it's be preferrable to have it 90min long but if you are still having difficulties with assigning slots then let's do a 60min session. Thanks.

[edovio]

Dear Facilitators, we are happy to share with you the MozFest facilitators 2017 Guide at the Link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fezzIH8u0Li6pIHMNYDCuUjA_gHpB4Px9eXQo4Ol7es/edit It is also important to sign in here: https://public.etherpad-mozilla.org/p/festival.fabriders.facilitatorcoaching2017 for the coaching session, that helps you in your facilitation role! :)

[flukeout]

@samouna - Thank you for the updated description! I think the 90 minutes will be fine for this session! We'll arrange the projector.

Another question: are you interested in collaborating or engaging with the Artist in Residence in our space this year? Each space will have one artist, and ours will be running a sort of Meme-maker Lab. I thought there might be some good opportunities to collaborate or share ideas. Let me know if your'e interested and I'll let the artist know.

[flukeout]

Hello @samouna - we've created the first version of the Web Literacy Space schedule for the weekend and wanted you to have a look...

• Web Literacy Space Schedule
  • It's a public Trello board, so please don't make any changes!
  • We are still finalizing the longer Gallery Space session drop-in times.

Please take a few minutes to locate your session (I've had to abbreviate the session names) and let us know if you have any questions or if there are any reasons that you cannot host your session during the chosen time (like a travel conflict or another session you are hosting at the same time). Please comment in this issue and and include @flukeout to get my attention.

We'll be finalizing the schedule next week and updating the Guidebook app that attendees will use during the festival.

Thanks!

[unarbc]

Hi @flukeout, Thank you and great re projector.

It'd be great to engage with your artist in residence and participate in the Meme-maker lab! Sure, connect us :)

Also, all good regarding the time slot I've been assigned with.

Thanks!

[edovio]

Hello @samouna , I need to ask you to give me the Email contact of all the additional Facilitators in your Session. You can send me by Email at the address: edovio@mozillaitalia.org. Thanks you & see you at the MozFest!!!