iDo Colombia – Two Powerful Videos Thanks to Steve Jobs

Yesterday, I spent all day editing two videos from the iDo Colombia final graduation ceremonies delivered at Fundacion Niños de Los Andes. Despite the fact that this was a time-consuming process, I was overjoyed by the fact that I could be my own video editor. This experience was facilitated by iMovie and my iMac, both by Apple. Thanks to Steve Jobs and  his vision of making technology accessible to everyone, I was able to choose what to share with the world. Cheers to his life and his direct influence in the work I do.

Today, I am asking you a favor. Please take twenty minutes of your time to watch these two videos. I would like to pick the best one to share at my graduate final presentation and to send to people interested in learning and hopefully supporting iDo Colombia. Please let me know your thoughts and suggestions. If you don’t know what iDo Colombia is, please check my March 2011 post. You can also see the process on my June and July 2011 posts.

Thank you for your time and help,

~Isabel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHPayulijOk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sys_8zSgwa8

Au revoir San Javier

It’s five in the morning and within the dreams we hear the moan of the cattle. It’s six in the morning, the air is crisp and the first car passes by the road picking up the dirt and the memory that we are in the country side. It’s seven am and the rooster makes sure we know he is up and checking everything is under control. It’s seven-thirty and my cousins wake me up and pull me out of bed. We must go to the mountain before the adults wake up. It’s eight am, we leave the house and walk on the dirt. The mist of the savannah of Bogotá touches our bones, we run to warm up and reach the mountain. We climb up and play there until one of the adults comes on a bicycle and calls us from the bottom of the mountain. It’s time to go home and eat the pancakes that our grandpa Juan taught everyone how to make.

The day goes by and we clean the house, play with the dogs, visit the neighbors and drink fresh milk. We dream of a bright future as we sneak through the fancy interiors of Rocas de Lourdes a house that belonged to the president’s cousin and was being taken care by a humble peasant and his wife. We have lunch with them, which consists of potato, yuca, green plantain, rice and beef, and after that we drink a tinto to prepare for the siesta.

After the siesta, we play more and attempt to make a camp fire outside of the house. As the evening drops, we take showers, put on our Christmas clothes and cover them with ruanas. We sit down by the fireplace, pray, play music and enjoy the warmth of the San Javier house.

This was a chunk of the Espinosas’ life spent at Finca San Javier in Tabio, Colombia. A house built by Don Juan Espinosa and Doña Isabel Granados de Espinosa. The design of the house was inspired by a dutch magazine that Don Juan had taken from work, and even though he wasn’t an architect, he was a clever guy that could teach himself English by just reading books, and of course could build a house for his family. The house stood for many decades and yesterday had to be demolished as the structure wasn’t sound anymore.

I want to share with you, the last images of the San Javier house built by my grandfather, where my mother was born and raised and where I got to spend the most beautiful holidays of my life. A house where many love stories began and flourished, where I bonded with my cousins. This is San Javier the beginning of a family that like many other families has seeing glorious times and not so good times, and that despite all the differences and changes, still keeps the memories which will always be food for the soul and light for the heart.

Enjoy …

Dining Room - Where we had great meals and conversations

One of the bedrooms

Back of the house - Showing it was time to rest

Left side of the house - Dipping into the soil

San Javier during its last days

The mountain - Tabio, Cundinamarca

Tabio's main square with church behind

Love doesn’t know age

Today’s post is not Design related, yet it was inspired by the design of love.

Last week, I began the Design workshops at a new house called Albachiara which is also an emergency center where street kids are taken to be put into rehabilitation programs. When I started the workshop one of the kids caught my attention as his face’s left side was all bitten up. To be honest, I felt intimidated by him no only because of his face’s wounds, but also because he didn’t speak to the other kids and felt disconnected.

On the second day, he came to me and asked me if he could tell me something. I said yes. He told me that he was worried about his “woman” as he had been taken into the emergency center and his family probably didn’t know he was there. I asked, why are you worried about your “woman”? He told me she was pregnant and he didn’t want her to think that he had disappeared of her life just because she was pregnant. I asked him to give me what he wanted to tell her that I would do something to make sure his “woman” knew he was living now at the emergency center.

He wrote this letter to his “woman”

Love letter from sixteen year old boy to his "woman"

(Translation)

Hi:

My love, I only write to let you know that “I haven’t left you” and to tell you that I love you specially because of that little person that you have in your belly. I will never leave you!. My little princess I am in Albachiara in the neighborhood xx xx. I will be here for about fifteen days. I only ask you to wait for me to raise the baby that is on its way. I only ask you to wait for me that as soon as I can, I will go to your side because I love you and I am not an inept to raise our baby. Try to survive these days that as soon as I get there, believe me, you won’t have necessities. I love you.

A big kiss to you and the baby.

Soon to be father ... here his facial wounds are almost healed.

I was no able to get the letter to the girl, but I was able to make sure his family and specially his aunt (which lived in the same neighborhood as the pregnant girl) knew he was now in a rehabilitation center. Today, he wasn’t part of the Albachiara house anymore, as he had been taken to a stable home where he can be in touch with his “woman” and his baby.

With this letter, he taught me that Love has no age, social status, nor education. This boy will do what it takes to be a responsible father even if he has to be so at the age of sixteen.

Much love,

~Isa

iDo Colombia – Final Ceremony at Casa Corazones

Here is a thirteen minute video showcasing the final ceremony we had at Casa Corazones from the Children of the Andes Foundation in Bogota, Colombia.

After two weeks od exploration, creation and prototyping, we developed beautiful instruments that represented our identity and inspirations.

Please enjoy …

Prototype development at Fundacion Niños de Los Andes

Hi all. I wanted to share with you the latest images of prototypes that the teenagers at Fundacion Niños de Los Andes and I have been working on for the last couple of weeks. These are musical instruments made with reclaimed plastic lids and inspired in the teenagers’ personal experiences.

Hope you enjoy them …

iDo Colombia: Week 1 at Fundación Niños de Los Andes

Did you know that your body is capable of getting used to many environments? including highly polluted ones? Yes! Finally my throat doesn’t hurt and my eyes don’t cry any more. I have assimilated Bogota’s pollution.

On Tuesday June 13th, I began to apply my design curriculum with the teenagers from the Children of the Andes Foundation. Although the first day was overwhelming and challenging, as of today, I have learned so much from the kids and am more than happy to have the opportunity of working with them.

Day 1: I introduced the kids to the world of design by presenting a visual gallery with designs made by Charles and Ray Eames, Eero Saarine, Le Corbusier, Carlos Montana, Custo Barcelona, Desigual and truly yours Isabel Perdomo. I also shared with them inspiring art by Van Gogh, Cezanne, Rodin, Botero and Guayasamin.

They thought about identification through art and design, as well as the different ways design affects their life and they affect design. At the end of the class they made road maps on how they identify themselves through design and exposed their ideas to the class.

Creating road maps in relation to Identification and Design

Day 2 & 3: I introduced them to the creative process by creating a visual gallery in which I showed my personal process to produce the Albero Lamp and the Gaudi Pen. They learned the words sketch and prototype.

After understanding the process of design, they began the sketching process in which they explored their inspirations and how they could transform them into musical instruments.

At the beginning of day 3, I showed them their constrains (exclusive materials they could use when making a musical instrument) that way they could start thinking as a designer (within constrains). In addition, I created a visual gallery with different instruments around the world that could serve as inspiration. On this day their sketches started taking a much more design oriented form. At the end of the day, we had a critique session in which each student exposed his inspiration and possible idea for his design.

Sketching and Critiquing work in order to design a musical instrument

Day 4: Today we began making the first prototype of what will be a musical instrument made with reclaimed plastic lids and leather. I showed them how to use the crop-a-dile, gave them materials to build their prototype and helped them to solve design problems.

We played music and enjoyed ourselves as we wandered around the world of design with our own hands. Today, was the most productive day and, to be honest, the most exciting. Indeed, they like to use their hands and their imagination. Some kids worked on their own, while others partnered with a close friend in order to explore and create.

Exploring, creating, working together, Designing!

Please feel free to comment and of course to follow this blog in order to receive updates of this exciting and inspiring project.

Warm regards,

Isabel

First Visit to Fundación Niños de Los Andes

Greetings from Bogotá, Colombia!

Here I am, updating you with the beginning of my Design education experience, as I try to fight what seems to be either a cold or an allergy to the Bogotanian pollution.

I arrived Bogotá on Monday June 6th at 11:30 pm, had a day to rest and today headed to two of the houses belonging to the Fundacion Niños de Los Andes. My first stop was the emergency center called Casa Corazones where I met with Martha Gozalez the Coordinator of two of the foundation’s emergency centers. She explained to me that the emergency centers were places where male teenagers stoped for a temporary period of ten days as a way to enter a rehabilitation program from being in the streets. She also made clear that most of these teenagers had problems related with substances. According to Martha, the emergency centers’ goal is to provide initial protection to these kids that is health services, food and housing. After ten days, some kids leave the house to go back to the streets, others are reintegrated to continue the temporal rehabilitation process, and some are taken to permanent centers where they begin a rigorous therapy. After introducing me to many of the educators, social workers and even cooks, she took me to where the kids were playing.

I was incredible nervous about meeting the kids I was going to have under my wing and to whom I was going to introduce to the world of design. When I saw them, they looked vulnerable and sweet at the same time. They were playing soccer under supervision of their teacher Diego. I saw many of them had beautiful bracelets, and Martha and Diego told me that the kids made those bracelets themselves. With authorization, I was able to take a few pics of those bracelets.

Manillas weaved by kids

Kids showing their manillas

They were quite excited about having me taking pictures of their “manillas”. They also asked me what was I going to be teaching them. After I told them Design, they got happy and started asking me if I could teach them how to take photographs as well. Of course I will!

Martha suggested me to focus on transcending from the idea of creating a product to the idea of sensibilizing the teenagers. She made me aware that my work could be therapeutic, and I could help them become aware that by staying in the program they could have better dreams for themselves. Finally she made emphasis in the importance of collecting their opinion on the workshops, that way I could make changes accordingly.

Tomorrow I’ll be back at the house to prepare materials and see what I need to buy, and thanks to all the donations I have received, I will be able to buy what’s necessary, important and even exiting for them. Again Muchas Gracias for all your help.

See you next week with an overview of the beginning of the workshops.

iDo Colombia – Segunda Parte

Pandereta with bells

Done and done with classes . Now my main focus is to continue the development of my graduate creative work. That is: iDo Colombia, Industrial Design Outreach for at risk teenagers in Bogota, Colombia.

In less than a month, I’ll be in Bogotá working with teenagers from Fundacion Niños de Los Andes (Children of the Andes Foundation) and delivering a seven week design curriculum that hopes to inspire them to reinvent their lives. Because iDo Colombia will be in Bogotá for such a short period, the materials used for the development of prototypes need to be easily accessible that way when iDo leaves, the teenagers from the foundation, guided by the social workers, can continue developing ideas and exploring design.

Thanks to the director of the foundation, I received samples of some of the materials they already have in-house. Some of these materials are various sizes of plastic lids and rolls of different colors and types of leather. The greatest challenge on using these materials is that for security reasons the kids cannot use any sharp tools such as scissors or x-acto knifes. This makes the alteration of the materials much more difficult. After searching for a safe tool that the kids could play and design with, I found the crop-a-dile, which elegantly opens holes on plastic, leather and paper without exposing any sharp parts.

Learning how to use the Crop-A-Dile

Here are some of my initial prototypes using this tool:

Attempting to make a mochila with plastic lids

Attempting to make a container

Attempting to make a mochila without sewing the leather

After receiving some feedback and ideas from the iDo team and my graduate advisors, I decided to focus on developing a noise maker that not only inspires the kids to be creative but also to share something in group. Here are some of the prototypes:

Pandereta with beads

Roll with beads

Pandereta with bells

These prototypes are nothing but an inspiration for the kids, and I know that the noise makers they develop are going to blow my mind … Our minds!

Stay tuned for the second week of June. I’ll be updating you with the development of iDo Colombia, all the way from Bogotá.