Rather than picking a design project to work on, team 5 has decided to work on art projects, starting with the OCADSU’s call for site-specific installations at OCAD around the theme of “space.”
This was our actual presentation in class:
(If you cannot see the video, you can click here for the transcript, slightly edited for clarity; unedited version also available.)
If you watched the video, you will know that we originally intended to call our team either “Dead Bird” or “Blind Spot,” which were meant to be vague references to several things including the obscurity of the Inclusive Design programme itself. However, while we were still trying to decide which of the two names to settle on, it came to us that a dead bird—a dead pigeon in fact—had recently been found in a blind spot—a chimney to be exact—, with a secret message tied to one of the bird’s legs.
Which led us to realize that during the Second World War, pigeons used to carry messages—including secret messages—across enemy lines, sometimes risking their lives. There is in fact a medal, called the Dickin Medal, which honours the valiance of animals in war, and the number of pigeons which received the Medal was 32.
As carriers of secret messages, pigeons are in a way all about “communicating the uncommunicatable.” Thus we have chosen this name over “Dead Bird” or “Blind Spot.”
(And in retrospect, we are team 5, and 2 to the power of 5 = 32. Which is great.)