A design school class called “Creating Infectious Action” is doing just that on campus today. From chalking White Plaza to distributing fliers, class members have been hard at work on their latest project. At noon today, a flash “concert” will showcase just what they’ve been up to. The class is offered by The Hasso Plattner Institute of Design, commonly known as the d.school.

“What we’ve been doing all quarter is finding ways to motivate people to do stuff,” explained Jason Fang, a co-terminal student in management science and engineering (MS&E).

This week, the class is working to promote a hip-hop concert that will take place Wednesday night at 8 p.m. at the CoHo. Four performers from Conduit Records — a label started by Stanford students — are scheduled to appear.

Among the four scheduled performers is Chane Morrow, co-founder of Conduit Records and a Stanford alumnus from the class of 2001. Morrow, who goes by the stage name “Epiphany,” first began rapping as a student at Stanford.

Huey Kwik, a co-terminal student in computer science and another member of the class, elaborated on the unique nature of the concert.

“One side of hip-hop tends to get the most attention: the bling, the violence, the offensive lyrics,” Kwik said. “But there is another side to hip-hop, exemplified by the artists visiting Stanford this week. At its core, hip-hop is poetry: lyrical wordplay with a story to tell.”

Liz Gerber, a doctoral student in MS&E, is a member of the four-person teaching team, which also includes MS&E Prof. Robert Sutton, consulting Prof. Diego Rodriguez and Institute of Design fellow Susie Hosking.

Gerber explained that the students have been assigned “to use the design process to create infectious action around hip-hop. We hope they will learn about the interplay between production and consumption in the business of hip-hop.”

Each group was assigned one artist around whom to “create infectious action.” For help in the process, each group was also given Myspace accounts and artist biographies, opportunities for artist interviews and 50 CDs of the artists’ single.

“We’ve distributed fliers in dorms and parties and chalked White Plaza,” Kwik explained. “We’ve also created different Web sites for our artists, such as http://www.bigpiph.com, and have talked to people at Stanford as well as within the Palo Alto and East Palo Alto communities. Selling CDs out of our cars, auctioning memorabilia on eBay and conducting a flash mob are just a sample of the other methods we’re going to be using in the coming days. We’ve also acquired sponsorships from several businesses in the Palo Alto area.”

Fang added that the flash mob will take place at noon today in White Plaza next to Old Union. This “flash concert” will feature artist 607 standing on a car roof.