“Are you a scientist?” a student asked me as he walked into the room with his class group. I paused to think in the midst of organizing construction paper and Play-Doh. “Well, sometimes, yes.”

Recently, Nina had the opportunity to speak at the College Art Association’s national conference in Chicago on “Designing a Better Future.” This is her presentation that introduces peer-to-peer learning to more traditional college educators.

Nina Bianchi wears many hats, but they all relate back to one thing: making technology accessible and bringing people together. This is especially seen in her work with the Detroit Digital Justice Coalition (DDJC), which is made up of a group of organizations that came together under the main belief that communication is a fundamental human right.

We recently launched two new pages that help explain how to interact with the project on a fundamental level. We’ve completed new infographics that describe how to Get Started and Get Involved with the project and the content is currently being developed by the Commotion team. Our intention was to offer simple text along with explanatory graphics that would demystify the process.

I get excited when I have the opportunity to work with creative people who have mastered their craft (and invested years doing so). So, I’ve really enjoyed completing our latest web project. We just launched the new online home of Grito Productions, which makes films that combine personal narratives with archival material to explore historical, political, and cultural themes. The company is the work of Pam Sporn, who has been telling stories through documentary film for over 25 years. She is based in New York City and grew up in Detroit.

In February, The Work Department co-sponsored the Technology, Collaboration, Community, and Change event with Emergence Media, rootoftwo, ArtServe Michigan, Allied Media Projects, MOCAD (Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit) and the Detroit Digital Justice Coalition. The event series was ignited by the openFrameworks conference which was also co-hosted by the The Work Department and OmniCorpDetroit. We had some nice media coverage from the Knight Foundation here and Michigan Public Radio produced a fantastic radio story here.