Hope for the "technical zombie?"

I heard an interesting quote at a user experience workshop last week: "Our smart devices and screens are making stupid decisions on our behalf all of the time...We are not in control. We are at odds with social etiquette. They are starting to shift our social norms. Walking zombies are now the social norm...Our devices are making us miss out. We are experiencing life through a filter." 

Thankfully the act of carrying and sketching in a notebook has the opposite effect. We become more observant to our surroundings. We look up at the world around us. We bring focus to the mundane and common objects. And what we record in our sketchbooks are there for our enjoyment forever.

Urban Sketching (USk) is a global community of artists that practice drawing on location in cities, towns, and villages in which they live, work or have traveled. It is a nonprofit organization that is dedicated to raising the artistic, storytelling and educational value of location drawing, promoting its practice and connecting people around the world who draw on location.

USk Chicago is the local community of diverse artists united by a passion for sketching, discussions, socializing and sharing their unique visions of the world around them with others. In fact, the Urban Sketchers motto is "we see the world, one drawing at a time."

Details and examples of sketches are available on the following links:

Urban Sketchers Chicago Blog: http://urbansketchers-chicago.blogspot.com

Urban Sketchers Chicago Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/UrbanSketchersChicago/

Urban Sketchers Chicago Twitter: @USk_Chicago

Urban Sketchers Chicago Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=USkChicago

Urban Sketchers Chicago Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/USkChicago/

Urban Sketchers Chicago Instagram:  http://instagram.com/uskchicago