Steve Lucin | Parsons MFA CDT

Disoriented in NYC from Steve Lucin on Vimeo.
The site that explains the project can be found at disorientednyc.blogspot.com

Voter Registration Form
Hand Out For First Time Voters
Why We Vote
Debate Watch Guide

www.CelebrateMyBirthday.com

I have implemented the rock the vote banner on the main page so that it is one of the first things that our traffic sees. When they click the banner, it pops up a voter registration form. I can track how many forms get completed and how many do not, and also if they are male or female and their race.

I already got one latina to register to vote through the celebrate my birthday site! yay!

Screen Capture of the site below...

My slide presentation can be seen here: http://a.parsons.edu/~lucis270/interface/research.html

Since the crowded subway cars led to population control which led to something that simply didn't interest me anymore (not that serious), I decided last week to take a completely different approach to this project.

I have recently started a nightlife promotion company called www.CelebrateMyBirthday.com. I have used many things that I have learned just from Bootcamp and in my current Co-Lab class, Internet Famous, to make this a very popular site (at least thats the goal).

It would be rather interesting to promote these weekly parties with a political twist. Many party go-ers are young. There are plenty of crowds of people, but how do you know if they are registered to vote? This next month so very important because of the elections going on, therefore I would like to get everybody that goes to these parties to register.

Since the neighborhood that my current parties are mostly Latin, I can target this market and have voter registration forms in english and spanish while they wait on line to get in.

So registering to vote is one thing, but what about the other political issues? So how about I ask everybody that books their birthday through our site what political issues they care about? I can then have some of the proceeds of their party go towards that cause that they care about!

Subway cars are crowded because there are a lot of people in the city. But why are there many people in the city? does it have to do with population control?

Some countries that practice population control would be China, India, Iran, and the U.S.

China does the one-child policy where having more than one child was mad socially unacceptable. "It has come under criticism that the implementation of the policy has involved forced abortions and forced sterilization. However, while the punishment of "Unplanned" pregnancy is a fine, both forced abortion and forced sterilization can be charged with intentional assault, which is punished with up to 10 years' imprisonment. The Chinese government introduced the policy in 1979 to alleviate the social and environmental problems of China" (wiki). Four hundred million births were prevented according to the government.

In India, only people with two or fewer children are eligible for election to a Gram panchayat, which is a local government body in any given village.

Iran has mandatory contraceptive courses for male and females before getting their marriage license. The government also encourages small families and tells everyboddddy the benefits of having them.

In the U.S., "Title X of the Public Health Service Act" was enacted in 1970 which provides access to contraceptives, especially for those in needs and with low income. It also helps couples and individuals whether an when they should have children. It has allowed millions of American women to get contraceptives and avoid abortions.

Problem: strollers in subway

solutions
what: push them out the way
why: to get the space u need.
why not: that's just plain mean, but satisfying but only a lil bit. karma will come around?

what: put ads in the subways that say to close your strollers before entering the car.
why: Yes! but people keep them open. especially the large bulky for no reason ones.
why not: it's been done. not very effective tho.

what: do not allow strollers all together in the subway station
why: completely eliminates this frustration with these damn strollers.
why not: I guess the families without cars can't get around, but if u have a kid, u should be able to afford a car, with a car seat for the kid.

what: only allow small simple strollers into the station.
why: kids can be on the train, but won't take up as much space as those annoying big strollers.
why not: no real reason. I guess the families with big strollers will lose out on having all those random accesories for their child, but if one is traveling, u should keep it to a minimum.

what: provide stroller drop offs at every subway station.
why: so no strollers will be in the actual
car.
why not: this is great! but then whut if they need to continue their traveling by foot? they need the strollers afterwards. maybe when they drop of the stroller they get a baby body carrier in exchange. but then what's the point in bringing the stroller in the first place?

what: provide space in each car specific for strollers.
why: so that they can go to these sits and be bully there
why not: this is done on sum lines already for wheel chairs, but people don't know to use them. this needs to be communicated better.

what: communicate that u need to put ur strollers in these areas. have the newer lines with rotating text say to do this. have pictures near these areas got strollers, and not just wheel chairs.
why: so that people are aware of this solution.
why not: not everybody reads these signs.

what: having videos being played around the stations (before and after entering the turnstyle) that portray the use of these stroller areas. it videos should also be on the platforms.
why: videos communicate better than text (universal)
why not: MTA is struggling with finds right now and for them to add tvs or videos projections everywhere is unlikely. but this would def be a good look.

what: put pictures of strollers in these areas
why: so families are aware that this area is good for strollers.
why not: it doesn't tell them aboutnthr issue beforehad. but will aid in gettig the message across.

what: give out a flyer that gets the message across to everybody in the station with a stroller
why: a message that just says "close your stroller when in the subway station and cars" would suffice and help out. and other details like "use small umbrella strolelrs when necessary" or "please ride towards the front of the car or in the center." also saying that strollers can be hazardous to your childs health, etc
why not: some people may not take the flyer if it s regular person giving them out...if it was an authority figure, i think they will be more likely to take, read it, and take it into consideration.