For this Mass Collaboration = Innovation exhibit, three design problems will be provided to be attempted on. The problems include generation of ideas for reusing ghost nets, ideas for an interactive artwork, and ideas for sustaining Rancho al Medio.

Ghost Nets | Interactive Artwork | Rancho al Medio

Ghost Net Reuse

Design Problem:
Give a value to discarded ghost nets as a raw material for a consumer product in order to provide both an incentive to remove these destructive nets from the ocean and a source of income for poor communities located near the ocean.

Background:
Ghost nets are fishing nets abandoned or lost in the ocean. These giant nets cause great destruction to the wildlife every year. Thousands of pounds of fish, whales, turtles, and sea birds are trapped and killed by these nets. Ghost nets are also responsible for the destruction of coral reefs around the world.

Goals of Design Process:

• Draw artists and architects into the exhibit. They may start by working on this project, but soon migrate to the others
• Include a problem that has a very hands-on process. It is feasible that the design solution could be generated entirely from the materials available in the exhibit
• Introduce to visitors the idea of "reuse" as a feasible means of generating income, along with reduce and recycle

Goals of Design Solutions:

• Inform people of the issue of ghost nets and show them how an engineered design will affect both people and wildlife
• Provide communities near with a way to generate income by selling a product made from these waste nets
• Ceate a demand for waste ghost nets, people will be more inclined to remove them from the ocean

Resources:
The resources available to visitors will include a large sample of a ghost net, the same building materials that communities near the ocean will have access to, and information about the ghost net issue. These resources will allow people to invent a product that can help solve a serious wildlife issue and also help create a source of income for people living in communities near the ocean.

Display:
On display in the exhibit will be a number of objects that follow the "reuse" design principle, and some narrative stories of communities around that world that are reusing discarded objects and turning them into a profitable business.

Interactive Artwork

Design problem:
Design an interactive sculptural work of art to be displayed somewhere on North Campus that demonstrates the relationship between a small energy-input from a large number passersby to another form of energy, or multiple forms of energy (electric, solar, gravitational)

Goals of Design Process:

• Get design collaborators thinking about how small contributions can have an impact (metaphorically). The resulting art piece may only represent metaphorically the impact of small contributions of many, but in general we want to encourage design-thinking along these lines as a principle that may yield fruit in other applications.
• Give design participants an anchor for the amount of human energy that can transfer to, for example, the energy that is required from an outlet to perform a task

Goals of Final Art Work:

• Get passersby thinking about how small contributions can have an impact (metaphorically).
• Foster a sense of community on North Campus by having people work together to literally produce energy.
• Serve as a teaching device for students of all ages to understand the relationship between the effort required to produce energy (human-powered) and the energy that comes from other sources, such as the sun or a socket.

Resources:
Visitors to the gallery will utilize markers and paper to create design ideas for this project. They will have the ability to post questions to other students and BLUELab members about the details of their design. They will be able to build scale-model prototypes of their ideas, take pictures of these, and print them out to be displayed. As the exhibit progresses, final designs will be selected and the details of these designs will be worked-out, hopefully ending in a fully-formed idea that is ready to be produced.

Display:
A smaller hands-on diorama-type display will be present in this project's area of the gallery. It will demonstrate the relationship between human energy and electrical energy through simple means, such as turning a crank to light a bulb. It will also provide information such as "How many humans would it take to power a _____?" in a visual form, a "Wall of Power," where distances are scaled-down and equated to energy units, such as "Lance Armstrong would have to bike this far in an hour to power a hair dryer for five minutes."

Sustaining Rancho al Medio

Design problem:
Help the community of Rancho al Medio, located near the coast in the Domincan Republic, improve their own lives by creating sustainable business plans that utilize the resources and opportunities that surround them.

Goals of Design Process:

• Instill empathy for the community members in Rancho al Medio and a heightened sense of awareness about the challenges faced by many around the world.
• Create a vivid image of the town, so that when visitors and collaborators leave the exhibit they would recognize Rancho al Medio if they were to "walk into town."
• Understand the complications that arise in creating viable business plans for a town that has few raw materials and resources

Goals of Design Solutions:

• Spark many creative ideas for locally sustainable business plans
• Develop promising concepts by identifying the resources and challenges for community members to implement such plans
• Make these concepts as realistic as possible, by having real-time correspondence with NGOs in the region and other groups from the University of Michigan that volunteer in the town

Background

Rancho al Medio is a community of approximately 1200 people on the southern coast of the Dominican Republic. The community itself is about 3 miles inland along a dirt road. The community was identified by a local NGO (Manos a Tiempo) as a good candidate for assistance both locally from their organization and from outside groups such as BLUELab. The University of Michigan has developed a relationship with the community through visits by several groups including medical, public health, and engineering students, as well as literacy volunteers.

A survey conducted by Manos a Tiempo in 2003 estimated that 57% of the adult community members work, leaving 43% of adults unemployed. Only 5% of those working have fixed employment. The others who find some work do everything from street vending, construction, taxi service (on scooters), and other odd jobs. Some work is available on larger farms during some seasons of the year.

Typical economic activities within the community include: subsistence agriculture by a few; occasional sale of chickens, pigs, and fruit; commerce at nearby beaches, 4 small stores and two bars in the community, transporting individuals down to the beach or to neighboring towns, and a small ceramics factory. Some individuals in the community find work outside the community and then return on the weekends or send money to family members living in the community.

In addition to the economic struggles felt by most of the community, there are also other significant challenges. Many men from the community work in the city and send money to their familes while others have abandoned their families. Frequently, this leaves the women with the responsibility to care for multiple children while also providing for their subsistence. There is no reliable source of clean water that is accessible and affordable to the community. Rainwater is harvested during the rainy season, but is often mishandled. The local river has significant levels of bacteria and potentially other harmful agents. The few local wells are also contaminated. There are few opportunities for education. The only school in the community can only accommodate children until the age of 9 or 10. Only a few community buildings have electrical connections installed by the government. Electrical supply that is "pirated" by members of the community is unreliable and dangerous. There is no system for waste disposal or removal.

By collaborating on this problem we hope to find synergies between opportunities for economic advancement and improved quality of life for community members.

Resources:
Numerous resources from the community will inform the layout and content of the display. Some of the resources that we have available now are photos and videos from the community, maps of the community and surrounding area, a diagnostic report about the community compiled by Manos a Tiempo, photos showing the interior of local shops, churches, and school. In addition BLUELab maintains continued contact with Manos a Tiempo-an invaluable resource for ideas, questions, and future work in the community.

Display:
We plan to create an immersion experience for visitors to the expo using the many resources we have gathered. Providing access to as many dimensions of the community as possible, we hope to spark novel concepts while providing a realistic foundation for the new ideas. There will also be a heavy emphasis placed on including large images of the people in the community.