Here's the Archeworks Alumni survey:

1)Please indicate how your obtained initial information about the Archeworks program (check all that apply):
__ From friend of colleague
__ Radio or print advertisement
__ Poster or catalogue at college/university
__ Attended Archeworks lecture or student project critique
__ Other: I did my own research

2) What factors influenced your decision to apply to Archeworks? (check all that apply):
__ Interest in obtaining knowledge/skills in socially responsible design
__ Interest in networking
__ Reputation of program
__ To gain experience in design
__ To gain experience in social service field
__ Other: Interest in getting into verbal arguments with people I have never met


3)Did Archeworks influence a change in your career or academic focus?
___ Yes ___ surprisingly NO
If yes, how?

4)Please indicate what actions you intend to take after completing Archeworks (check all that apply):
__ Enroll in graduate school (or professional program) in architecture/design - eventually
__ Start or continue to work in socially conscious design field
__ Start or continue to work in nonprofit sector
__ Continue to work in same field
__ Other: continue to re-tell Stanley Tigerman stories to people who have no idea what I am talking about, and then when I try to explain the Archeworks expereince they just stare blankly

5)How has Archeworks affected your life personally and professionally?
- I've begun to realize how really important and insignificant everyone is. For instance, every single person in every single community must recognize without a doubt their responsibility back to their community; you cannot take if you do not give. On the other hand, it really does not matter to me, nor do I care that Victor Margolin is totally disgusted with my group's project. How dare we ask him to understand?!

6)Please indicate the extent to which you agree or disagree with the following statements:

The scope of my team's project was feasible
-once we re-wrote the project...

My team received sufficient feedback about the progress of our project
-yes, and good stories too. Thanks Ed!

The time commitment of the Archeworks program was what I expected
-no way...I never expected to have Archeworks dreams and nightmares.

The facilitator(s) assisted my team by providing knowledge and insight about the design process
Above and beyond, sort of like Cirque Du Soleil at your design table

The facilitator(s) assisted my team by providing specific ideas about the project design
Once again, like magic!

The facilitator(s) assisted my team in team building and group dynamics
Yes - they disagreed, disliked, and disapproved of us as much as we did of eachother

The Tuesday night courses were intellectually challenging
That's all covered in the blog...

7)What changes would you have made to the direction of the team project?
Our group pretty much made all the changes we wanted. We weren't given specific partners, we weren't given a “must-do” set of goals to meet. We took what we were given, saw how it could be so much more, how it HAD to be more, and went from there.

8)What materials/supplies/resources would you have liked to have available to you for completing the team project?
I wish we had more time, and more money. I am glad you didn't give us too many direct contacts or specific groups to talk to. This allowed us to pave our own way. This of course also allowed us to make fools of ourselves, to fall flat on our faces, and to succeed in a lot of different ways.

9)What event(s) during the year was (were) most beneficial to the team project?
Once a week, every week we had great stories from Ed Keegan. Who else could tell you in a round about way stories about a fellow Archinect blogger? (By the way Savannah, hello.) Once a week every week, Samar Hechaime would help us "find our way" through anger from Tuesday night classes, and frustrations. Then there would come Ed with more stories...These were by far the most beneficial events throughout the year.

10)Who were the most important contacts for your project?
Obviously Ed and Samar, Stanley was good for breaking the ice, Eva was good for saying Utopia, Sonja Griffin who wasn't Sonja Griffin, but was actually Sonja Griffin was an AMAZING contact. But really, none of our successes and failures would have ever materialized if it wasn't for the 6 contacts we made right away, and didn't forget about and kept in touch with: the six of us in the group.

11) What further efforts would you have like to occur to promote positive group dynamics?
There should be a huge effort to make sure you really screw with people's saftey zones and make sure that students with an architectural background don't go to the architecture project...that people don't match themselves with what they already know. That's what made our group work so well, not one of us had a majority claim on this project as far as background...

12)What changes would you suggest to improve the program?
Well, first off; make the groups get more involved with eachother. Not as some crazy competition to win Stanley's favor, but a real chance to understand all the different people at Archeworks that year. Instead, we really never talked to eachother; I have no idea who those people really are, and they are really just strange generalizations that happen to sit next door.

13)Please indicate your ratings of the following:

Application/interview process strange, good cop/bad cop-ish
Archeworks Retreat boring, nice presentations from the facilitators, but once again; stange akward moments...I don't want that to happen again
Lectures very good
Computers crap,crap,crap & I don't like it
Technical Equipment eh...
Shop Equipment dusty crap...but functioning
Archeoutings luckily I never went on any

14) Please choose the most appropriate answer for the following questions:
I had ____ contact with my facilitator(s)
* Too Much *Too Little *Perfect Amount
I had ____ contact with my fellow students
* Too Much & *Too Little *Perfect Amount
I had ___ contact with the co-founders
* Too Much *Too Little *Perfect Amount
I had ___ contact with the executive director
* Too Much *Too Little *Perfect Amount

15)Did Archeworks meet your expectations? Please explain.
Above and beyond by far. I never would have expected to hear stories about Japanese people sitting around rubbing wood, or real-live AIDS patients. So that would be BEYOND my expectations. It met my hopeful expectations by being just as heart-pounding, gut wrentching, and critiqueingly awesome as art school was...

16)Where should Archeworks recruit students/ how could recruitment be improved?
I have no idea how you managed to find the strangeness that you did this year. I would really like to know if people were turned down from the program. Or are we all that applied?

17)Would you be interested in being involved in alumni events?
__ Yes, I've got good stories __ No

18) Additional Comments:
To Archeworks I say thank you for being a giant pain in the ass. A pain in the ass that didn't cooperate, didn't listen, didn't interact like a civilized being.

I guess it's a “tough-love” school for design. Kiss my ass and get over it.

And I wish I had a real job...not that I hold too much against the Chicago Architecture Foundation...

byebye!
-pamela

by the way: here's the link to our book:
link

Well almost. Tomorrow or today (Wednesday) is our final presentation and critique. Boxes, Books, and Bookmarks; that's our approach. And a bunch of cool crap. So here's some images, I really can't think clearly enough to type much. Powerpoint has actually become very addictive. Soon there will be... View full entry

...Archeworks isn't really about great design ideas...it's about playing around with a bunch of crap. It takes alot of work to make well designed crap...usable crap... View full entry

Tonight's class with Eva is addressing the Future of Globalization...I did my time on Wikipedia and Google, and instead am more fascinated by NPR... I heard a story on NPR a few weeks ago, that the UN had taken out an insurance policy against Drought in Ethiopia...which is currently in the grip of... View full entry

...With Archeworks. That aside, things went really well. Our group ABC'd our presentation and I'm sure some people didn't like it, but at least was different, we stood out in that respect. We really ended up with a good dialogue after our presentation. Stanley was telling Victor Margolin that he... View full entry

Our midterm critique is this week. We've been working like crazy. One of our ideas is creating an ABC that relates more to Chicago but not the usual Chicago highlights, of Bears, Cubs, Wrigley...It's hard writing your own ABC. We went to a pre-K class last week with the "tools for schools". That... View full entry

Our topic this week for Eva's Future Studies class was the Future of Crime/Terrorism... It's harder than I thought writing for this class, actually coming up with possible design solutions for future issues that don't even exist yet. Some the future situations that were discussed were: -having an... View full entry

This is a picture from a lawn in my hometown in Texas...I had no idea Jesus had such a playful side. There's been alot going on with my group's work here at Archeworks. We're trying to protoype as much as possible as quickly as possible 'cause we are heading into the classrooms in a few weeks. We... View full entry

I believe I've had the worst week of my life... Last Thursday while I was home in Texas I came in the house to find this cat dead. Attacked and killed by this dog and this dog. This dog was bitten by both dogs and the cat Both dogs were put to sleep because not only had they killed this cat but... View full entry

Actually I liked that crap...(what I could imagine Stanley thinking) That's what you want to hear from Stanley after your presentation... Our group was awesome - we even got Ben Nicholson to start talking about being the Oracle at Delphi... Stanley even admitted that he came to the critique that... View full entry

...I am working on the opposite of this statement. Children in school are generally educated not as a whole being, but instead the brain is seen as an independent object to enrich. Instead of developing a single organ (the brain) in hopes of a student succeeding why not develop the whole person... View full entry

...because it was dangerous." This came from Stanley when a discussion unfolded on fences. The group presenting the dialouge is working on a community schools project with Pat Saldana Natke and Helen Grimes. Some of the photos passed around to illustrate their points were showing puppies behind... View full entry

So after watching Chicago Tonight on WTTW I was depressed. There was a news story about a mansion up for auction in Hyde Park whos sale will be benefiting The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (from where I just graduated) The house ends up being John's. I wasn't prepared for this, I was... View full entry

...Stanley Tigerman's comment, not mine. Among other topics breached, words spoken tonight during our discussion of WABI SABI and how it could or should pertain to our projects... Things that came up during the discussion: "most people with disabilities aren't nice people..." (they are like that... View full entry

So...Archeworks had its midterm critique this past Wednesday evening (10/26) and while I can say we as groups did recieve interesting, at times useful constructive criticisms, there were some: holy crap, did you just say that? moments. The first group presented their project dealing with... View full entry

So, during last week's debate which dealt with the title: "Hebraic Thought Compared with Greek" the majority of the time was spent listening to Stanley's stories... First off he compared one group with the golf balls from the movie Tin Cup... The other stories consisted of : AIDS Patients, working... View full entry

"The Ethical Function of Architecture" by Karsten Harris... This is the title I plan on using as some sort of textbook for Stanley's ethics class. Today's paper is supposed to be a response to the text "Hebraic thought compared with Greek" Our group is the only group that hasn't "won" We'll see... View full entry

...and I mean that in a good way. The fact that someone actually reads this (As compared to my blog for SAIC) should make me post more often...and the fact that it's one class... So the last debate went not as planned. Our group didn't win. Stanley liked how my paper was written, didn't agree with... View full entry

...I quote Stanley Tigerman's paper we are reading for our ethics class he gives once a week. This week's paper is titled "Creativity, Melancholy, and the Divine" I have huge issues with assigning an ownership to the idea of creativity as has been presented to us. Especially being a divine or... View full entry

...via Stanley Tigerman's Ethics class. Our design group needs to respond to a paper Stanley has written regarding the treatment of MASS and SPACE within religious context...the goal is to WIN. I won't reveal our game plan until after the results are given... Our project "Tools for Schools" is... View full entry

*HOW DOES THIS EFFECT AFFECT?* So studio and class begin this week. Here's a recap of the overnight retreat/orientation that took place last week. There are about 20 of us or so...I didn't get an exact count; and there's a really excellent mix of people from all different backgrounds. There are... View full entry

Acheworks via The School of the Art Institute... So, I got accpeted to Archeworks and school starts about the second week of September. We have an overnite orientation/retreat in Indiana before hand to figure out projects and stuff. I am really excited and looking forward to moving beyond the... View full entry

So...interview went really well, although really quick. they say they want me! Archeworks here I go... -pamela View full entry

so Wednesday I have an interview for admissions at Archeworks http://archeworks.org here in Chicago...Does anyone here know anything about Howard Alan Architects? I'm interested in the firm, but I have limited info on them...http://www.howardalanarchitects.com/ thanks for any info View full entry

So, I am still waiting to hear any response from Archeworks...I applied to the school early this summer. That's it really, resume sending and messin' around in the city... yes, my apartment is this much fun... View full entry

So, I came home (houston Texas) for a month after graduation. A week ago I got back from the family road trip...Not your usual road trip in that half the people who went with us were not family... anyway, here's the awesome pictures of West Texas. There will be more later. -pamela -big bend... View full entry

Umm yeah...I did sorta kinda really go away after the final week of classes and graduation. But here I am in, in Texas. Eventually I'll post something of my thesis project, I am really happy how well my final critique went, and and SO glad school is over...for a little while. Next week I will be... View full entry

So...I blame all evil in the world on Kinko's...they are the devil. I was at the end of the line the other day, I broke down and cried at kinko's ...how shameful is that>? I did however make sure to tell them I hated them and that they are horrible people before I stormed out... . this is how... View full entry

Yes, I know I have been missing for so long. So here's a slight explanation of what's been going on: earlier this month I installed work at the MaxMara store on Michigan Ave. as part of the ArtWindows competition...here's some pics of that. Lunch anyone? Last week I started pouring urethane for my... View full entry

Um yeah...good ol' SAIC has given us two whole days of Spring Break, Thursday and Friday. I better slow down and not spend my fun time all in one place...I went to a cool concert last night at some little hole in the wall at Division and Milwaukee, when I can figure out what their name was I'll... View full entry