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In this class we explored our given user. In our case Allergic people. And tried to make a detailed persona about them.

First we started brainstorming about what allergic people all can be.

But then we saw this pin and our imagination started working...
What if our user-group is allergic to abstract art?

Based on this we introduce you to Tineke!

Tineke Roter - Van Dam
Bord and raised in Rotterdam for 58 years

This is a pity, because Tineke does like art. But only the art she can recognize something in it. A human, a plant, everything. As long as it shows. Not this abstract shit. What is it even, A HYDRA?! A hydra is a 3 headed dragon, and this is not it. She does not like it when art is not recognisable. Even worse Rotterdam seems to fill itself with these abstract art. And she likes to avoid them. If only BKOR had a way to avoid this abstract art...

Tineke likes to be creative. Her favourite hobby is to do diamond painting. These paintings she is super proud of, and she posts them on Instagram. Her desk is right in front of the window. Then she has a view on the abstract art, gosh, she really hates that thing. If she is not being creative, she likes to hike through Rotterdam. Preferably using art routes and taking pictures of the art she discovers. Which she also shares on her Instagram.

She loves gossiping about her neighbourhood with her friends who are also her direct neighbours. A favorite topic of them is ofcourse the hedious art that spawns in Rotterdam. When they gossip they look a bit like the picture to the left.

An important thing we didn’t tell yet. Tineke has a sweet teckel dog named Abutaleb, because she is big a supporter of the Rotterdam municipality. Her sweet teckel almost drowned in the pond in front of her house when he was a puppy so now every time he comes in contact with the water he freezes and is not able to safe himself. Maybe deep in her heart Tineke blames the abstract art sculpture named the Hydra for it. He is the loch ness monster in her lake.

We hear you people of Rotterdam who are allergic to abstract art!

Pleurt op met je ballen!

7 April Belle's class
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Tineke is getting crazy by all the abstract art that has been placed around Rotterdam. And it is getting worse. There is now one right in front of her house.

After our presentation to the class Jonah told us about a real happened event in Rotterdam. The people of Rotterdam being angry of abstract art placed in front of the station!

Thank you Jonah for this great reference.

See left for the pictures of the Facebook page.

14 April Belle's class
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Back to beginning...

In class we made a diagram to visualize what we have in common and how we are different from the user group. Then we started with our assignment to collect objects which could represent our user group.

I was sick during this lesson so I followed it from home.

Above diagrams are my thoughts. I tried to limit the words to only things that could be a relevant connection.

Above diagrams are Kim her thoughts

We chose to focus on the people that are allergic of abstract art. But this raised some questions that needed to be answered. More of that later in on >>

After the diagrams we started to work on collecting items for our user group. Above you can see the items I thought of. I gathered these items based on the question: What would this person take on a walk through Rotterdam. What are the things they can not miss?! What represents their character? Based on these questions to bags came out. The left one more an artist that gets a lot of inspiration from Rotterdam and who wants to document this. And the right lady likes to be creative herself and wants something to do when she will go on a walk through Rotterdam.

Now that we chose our sub user-group multiple question we're raised:

- On which sub category are we going to focus within our chosen user group?
- We are convinced of this user group, but how do we explain our choices to the teachers?

Before we start with our proposal we want to further investigate our user group and we want to write down why we chose this usergroup.

10/18 April user group
research
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We analyzed our chosen user-group, allergic to abstract art, by looking into the facebook group "pleurt op met je ballen". This group was made when there was a riot against two huge abstract yellow globes on the square of Rotterdam central.

In this research you can find the subcategories we found within this group. Aswell as shared intrests and other interesting similarities of contradictions.

Active left politics

Analyse profile
pictures and profile:

Conclusion analysing profile pictures and profiles from facebook group members pleurt op met je ballen:

- Suprisingly many people with creative education/jobs or hobbies
- Many left politics
- Age average: 55
- Male
- Hate for Amsterdam, love for Rotterdam.

But what drives these people to hate the two huge globes? Why do they hate abstract art?
>>

Some reasons I found in the reactions:

Conclusions from reactions:

- Many refer to the history of Rotterdam, to its proud character. How it was destroyed during the war. And how the new buildings in the city represent the power of rebuilding. The typography of Rotterdam central was used before the war. Many people say it is a pity if it going to be hided by the yellow globes. This tells me that our user group wants artwork that represents the city. Proud and strong.
- Many refer to the Icelandic artist who designed the balls. This tells me that the people of Rotterdam are maybe upset that a foreign artist, someone who doesn't have anything to do with Rotterdam, wants to show his work in such an iconic place.
- Many people just don't see the meaning of the two globes. They think it is ugly. I think this is because they dont know the meaning of the artwork, or because it is not clear in one look. They want art that they can understand.

Some other interesting content of profiles

Rough interface ideas that pop-up in our heads

Make a place where the artists of Rotterdam can share their work with others. With no rules. So no one gets excluded

Place where Rotterdammers can vote for art that is going to be placed in the city.

Interface which explains the story of the art work (in special that of abstract art)

Art that shows the history of the city. Within category on website. Or maybe booklet.

21 April Belle's class
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Today in class we focussed on what is expected from us with the presentation 25 april. Kim and I had a personal talk with Belle with some tips for giving the presentation.

During the lesson Kim and I finished the exercise Knolling from last lesson.

You can find it right from here.

Hipsters with opinions category

Stereotype Rotterdammer

Reasons for hating abstract art

After analyzing our objects for Knolling we discovered 4 categories.
These categories were very similar to the first discovered categories in the Facebook group we analyzed. With finding our images we tried to keep in consideration: hobbies, thoughts of abstract art, abstract art they dislike, etc.