What's in your beach bag?

On our minds

Whether you’re into learning by doing or learning through media, these things are so fun, you’ll completely forget about the “learning” component.

MAKE & DO

Based near Ithaca and itching for power tools? Hammerstone School was founded by carpenter Maria Klemperer-Johnson 11 years ago to lessen the gender-gap in the building trades. Open to femme and nonbinary folx of all ages, the nonprofit offers courses on a sliding scale. These include a two-day basic skills course, a two-day “Build an Adirondack Chair” course, and an intro to building your own tiny house.

Near the Big Apple? The NYC Department of Parks and Recreation offers seasonal free public kayaking on the Hudson and East Rivers. Launch points are from Brooklyn Bridge Park, Hudson River Park and the Downtown Boathouse. Paddlers of all ages are welcome; kids go tandem with adults.

LISTEN & READ

Have you been meaning to read Robert Caro’s 1974 biography on one of America’s most influential urban planners, but 1,200+ pages seem daunting? The podcast 99 Percent Invisible is dedicating its entire season to breaking down the book The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York, with additional insight from the author and other experts. It’s like the Cliff Notes version, but more engaging and beach friendly.

One of our team members has been reading The Almost Nearly Perfect People: Behind the Myth of the Scandinavian Utopia by Michael Booth. This book distinguishes between cultures the rest of the world lumps together and presents a more nuanced (and less rosy) view of the “happiest” countries on earth.

New York Times Bestseller Your Brain on Art covers a topic esteemed by PLASTARC—the power of art to transform our physical and mental health, build communities and positively impact our lives. We've long touted the benefits of art in the workplace and the importance of designing for a multisensory experience. With a data-based approach grounded in evolution and neuroscience, this book traces real-world effects and proposes creative and transdisciplinary approaches to collective challenges.

The Olympics are over, but the debate over who qualifies to compete, under what gender, continues. Tested is a collaboration between the CBC and NPR, a podcast that follows elite runners who are told they must take meds to lower testosterone or no longer compete as women. These athletes must decide to comply, fight, or quit.

PLASTARC team members also love Design Emergency, a podcast where designers tackle global challenges, such as sheltering refugees, combating climate change, designing for accessibility and more. Save some time to dig into The Business of Home, tracking trends and challenges in interior design; or Time Sensitive, which features fascinating people talking about their lives and interests through the lens of time. It's a perfect time of year to imagine placing our own situations in historical context, musing on our attempts to document or “freeze” time, or looking at how the presentation of one's life’s work has changed over decades.

Nostalgic for that bike tour you took years ago or new to biking but eager to try longer riders? Or maybe, just interested in cool STEM students doing unique service projects? If so, check out the Spokes blog. Through this MIT nonprofit, eight students are biking cross-country (from DC to the Golden Gate Bridge) and teaching STEM workshops at libraries, camps, and community centers along the way. In part, it’s about personal growth. But it’s also about exciting kids in rural areas about STEM and breaking stereotypes. These “nerds” are both athletic and adventurous.

Speaking of nerdy nostalgia, check out this article that examines the “most underappreciated” films in terms of box office performance versus cult classic status and analyzes “formulas” that pretty much guarantee underappreciation. What can't you do with data?

GET SOME REST

Need to stock up on shut-eye before the semester kicks off? How about some “social sleeping?”

The virtual reality platform VRChat offers numerous “sleep rooms,” where users can relax or sleep with their headsets on, and in the company of others. Advocates say social sleeping helps with loneliness and insomnia. Some of these rooms create campsites, with the sound of crickets and owls and the glow of a roaring fire. Others evoke beach scenes, hotel rooms, or cuddle afterparties, following a night of VR-raving. But are these rooms always the safe and peaceful places users need them to be? A writer for MIT Technology Review investigates.

BACK TO WORK

As we head back to work and school, post-vacation, we’d like your help. PLASTARC is conducting a cross-industry study of approaches to post-occupancy evaluation (POE). We're looking to capture insights on the methods that occupants and designers are using to conduct POEs and which values these approaches demonstrate (sustainability, interdisciplinary approaches, more integrated tech). Will you take this short survey and be a part of our research? (And if you’re curious about how we use our research and the solutions it helps us uncover, check out this interview with PLASTARC founder Melissa Marsh.)

From the archives

Last summer PLASTARC was helping folks optimize their distributed work experience and encouraging US workers to actually use our vacation time. In previous summers, we analyzed what going remote taught us, how we can use design to turn crisis into opportunity, and how to use data to design better laboratories. We were also thinking about how DEI works in a hybrid environment and musing on the importance of office acoustics.

As we tiptoe into fall, with all of the frantic back-to-school and nose-to-the-grindstone energy that brings, don’t forget to protect your free and “me” time. May this spoof get stuck in your head and serve as a year-long reminder!