eternal design workshop

Along with Curt Gambetta, and in collaboration with Side Street Projects Pasadena and The Eternal Telethon, WGA helped to guide and conduct this group design workshop around aging, retirement and community.

Around 30 participants of all ages and backgrounds attended.

Participants were first asked to write down on index cards habitual, routine actions that they do or perform in their everyday lives (for example, “do homework,” “go to work,” “check email,” and “hang out with pets.”)

Then, participants were asked to write down on index cards everyday activities they imagine they would do in retirement. The suggestion prompted some typical, some aspiring, and some fantastical acts. All types of activities were encouraged.

On the eve of the event, the retirement cards were formulated into a script and projected onto a house on the Side Streets Project site.

Two “day in the life” narratives were shown in the large format projection, allowing all attendees and visitors to imagine a “day in the life” of certain retirees by visualizing a string of activities and interactions that came directly from the cards written earlier that day.

One retiree’s wish to “sing Dolly Parton karaoke all day long” inspired one of the projections pictured here.