soft power tools
Soft Power Tools
M/A/I/D
A special thank goes to the following supporters, without whom the printing of this catalogue would not have been possible: remi Dubois Corinna kraus-naujeck of www.leckerkunst.de Anne-Marie Papet regina Wichmann Chung-Sung Wu And the design blog www.design-index.net
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June 2013
Manifesto | Content | Articles | Projects | M/A/I/D Life
Soft power tools Manifesto
Our year’s theme is Soft Power Tools. The shifting balance of global power increasingly makes soft power - the diplomatic ability to convince through seduction rather than coercion a key strategy of contemporary foreign policy. We consider design as a crucial discipline in this exercise, as it generates attractive means for the communication of ideas and discourses. Coming from many different Bachelor courses, all of us previously engaged with the hard ware of industrial design manufacturing techniques, ergonomics, material knowledge, sketching, rendering and modeling... Our Master’s course at Central Saint Martins, gathering 23 students from 13 countries, drew our attention to design’s soft ware: the vast immaterial field of meaning surrounding things. Two years long, our projects led us to various areas of research. We explored semiotics and body storming, used ethnography and design fiction, and created scenarios to formulate relevant questions on our practice(s). We looked for insights, strategies and answers which nurtured our final year projects. This set of soft skills is crucial to contemporary design, allowing the smooth communication and sharing of opinions and reflection. We believe that envisaging designed things as soft power tools implies questioning the political and ethical duty of our discipline.
MAID class of 2013 www.maindustrialdesign.com
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Soft Power Tools
M/A/I/D
June 2013
Content
Manifesto articles
p3 p6-11
Michael wolff
6
the metal workshop
7
What’s the point of art school functions
8-9 10-11
projects
p12-57
M/a/i/D life
p58-63
lucie Barouillet
p12-13
Martyna Bielecka
p14-15
rahul Boggaram
p16-17
liliana s. Carvalho
p18-19
Cecilia (si) Chen
p20-21
Jose a. Corominas t.
p22-23
Victor Johansson
p24-25
anton Bob kraus
p26-27
Masami C. lavault
p28-29
Yineng liu
p30-31
Jing luo
p32-33
LIne uP: yOur gIg STArTS here
enfrAMe
ImPatients
COOk!
WeIghIng uP The SMArTPhOne PArADOX
The MILk Of huMAn kInDneSS
MAkIng SLeePIng nATurAL ‘3CO DuVeT’
The WALL
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neXT In LIne
COnneCTeD InTerACTIOnS
TrAnQuILLITy BAMBOO
Manifesto | Content | Articles | Projects | M/A/I/D Life
Thomas Maisey
p34-35
Paolo Nazzari
p36-37
Pierre Papet
p38-39
Remi Perrichon
p40-41
Alexandra Sidorenko
p42-43
Ian Thomas
p44-45
Yuhan Wan
p46-47
Szu-Wen Wang
p48-49
Chun-Ling Wu
p50-51
Cai Jun Yang
p52-53
Duo Zhang
p54-55
Yi Zhou
p56-57
Drumming Out Dementia
Keeping yourself
Myth of the organic
Why not?
The Crafted Network
Food guard
Gather3d
The Tyranny of numbers
Poet-o-therapy
Lucentee
Addi(c)tion to Perfection
Working together?
Thanks to our tutors for their advice and guidance: Ralph Ball, Silas Grant, Stephen Hayward, Matt Malpass, Nick Rhodes as well as our workshop technicians. Copyright Š MA Industrial Design, Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design 2013
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Soft Power Tools
M/A/I/D
June 2013
“Some people see things as they are and ask why. Others dream things that never were and ask why not.” This is a prescient and potent quote by George Bernard Shaw and I think the best introduction to the work of these students. I have no doubt that many of them will change our world. All we have to do is not to prevent them. We need more encouraging accelerator pedals in those who see and appreciate this work and fewer foot brakes of reason. Shaw also said “nothing is achieved by a reasonable man”. So don’t judge this work reasonably and accept these young designers’ inspirations as invitations to join with them in bringing some their ideas successfully to life. Michael Wolff
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Manifesto | Content | Articles | Projects | M/A/I/D Life
MA Industrial Design A few words from the course leader. Soft Power Tools
Relationships between industrial designers, manufacturers, retailers, buyers, and end users are under renegotiation.
Each Degree Show should reveal something new. The projects you see here are the expressions of our interests and obsessions. This year’s concerns are many, but if I were to pick out a few key strands these would include: identities, nature and culture, design as investigative tool, and most prominently; designers and design as vectors and instruments of culture and influence. Or as we have described it: Soft Power Tools.
MA Industrial Design at Central Saint Martins seeks to apply students’ intellectual development to capacitate our students to take on strategic roles, to identify and respond to change, to initiate new design approaches, and to thrive in multidisciplinary teams.
Nick Rhodes
n.rhodes@csm.arts.ac.uk Nick is Programme Director of Product Ceramic & Industrial Design at Central Saint Martins. His own practice encompasses product design, strategic branding, and new product development for companies - small and large - as well as governmental and non-governmental agencies in Europe, Asia & the Caribbean.
Our approach is holistic in that we see the discipline as process-lead rather than typologically driven. This means that we do not operate “routes” or “pathways” in for instance furniture, consumer electronics, service or social innovation. But all of these, and other types of work emerge in relation to a particular project or task. We are restless in our reappraisal of the scope of product and industrial design practices, addressing critical and socially responsive design, and the application of design in both market- mainstream in-house and consultancy work.
Welcome to the show.
The metal workshop It really makes one rethink the role of the making. My role requires a great deal of improvisation and flexible working which really keeps me on my toes!
Hello folks! My name is Ricky Lee Brawn, I am the specialist metalwork technician at Central Saint Martins.
Ricky Lee Brawn
r.brawn@csm.arts.ac.uk Ricky Lee Brawn is Specialist Metalwork Technician at CSM University since 2008. He previously worked as a mechanical engineer.
In particular, I am always amazed at the broad spectrum and variety of projects that the MAID course always provides! This year is no exception with projects as diverse as making moulded plastic shapes from waste cow milk, understanding and dealing with diabetes, making acoustic music accessible to the elderly as therapy against Alzheimer’s, re-creating the value of photography, inventing an analogue 3D printer...
My interest in metalwork and engineering began in the early 1970s when I first started customizing cycles. I soon moved onto motorcycles and then onto cars, including a V8 engine customised Ford Popular which I made in 1976. My first job was as an apprentice panel beater. Later I got involved in advanced engineering and became a qualified mechanical engineer, building engines for nuclear submarines and large (12 ton +) water pumps. In addition to my engineering work, I have also been involved in rock and roll music for more than 35 years – as a musician, band leader, recording engineer, producer and song writer.
The big surprise to me was the new design consensus which challenges our increasing reliance on digital media, looking for a more traditional, analogue alternative, embracing both old and new technologies. This consensus is a great challenge, in that it really makes one rethink the role of the making throughout the journey to eventual metamorphic outcomes.
In 2008, I decided to make a change from my engineering career and joined Central Saint Martins. I have really enjoyed myself here ever since!
I feel that a major benefit that our workshops provide is traditional craft based skills which enable our students to gain a greater understanding of manufacturing processes, thus enhancing their design capabilities. Inevitably, this will result in greater confidence within their future design roles.
I help run the 3D small model making workshops that cater for a large number of students spread across a wide range of disciplines: BA Product Design, BA Architecture, MA Industrial Design, MA Creative Practice for Narrative Environment, MA Furniture Design and various fashion courses.
Yes, the future looks very good at Central Saint Martins, I am very proud to be part of it!
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Soft Power Tools
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June 2013
What’s the point of art school? Some lessons from MA Industrial Design. The Routemaster bus and the Union Jack Mini In the weeks leading up to the 2013 degree show, Central St. Martins has been experiencing a kind of mid-life crisis. In a series of seminars, conferences, workshops and an exhibition, it has repeatedly asked itself: ‘What’s the point of art school?” There is a sense in which the institution, now relatively settled in its new building and with a new head of college, stands on a threshold.
Stephen Hayward
s.hayward@csm.arts.ac.uk Dr. Stephen Hayward is the Contextual Studies tutor for MA Industrial Design at Central St Martins. He is responsible for critical contexts and research methods across a number of the MA design programs. His current research reconsiders the history of modern design from a phenomenological perspective.
Looking backwards, over the past one hundred years or so, there are memories of a strong public service remit. When requesting government funding, the art school ‘lobby’ could variously portray itself as an engine of the economy, a crucible of the nation’s cultural identity, or as an agent of a more just and civilised society (Frayling 1987). At times, a single ‘product’ exemplified all these ideals. For instance the Routemaster bus, as designed by Central St. Martins’ own Douglas Scott in the late 1940’s. Ubiquitous, democratic, serviceable, the star of many international exhibitions, surely this was the chariot of the Welfare State? But looking forwards, the public case for the art school seems less certain, not least because the funding of the institution has increasingly shifted from the state to the individual. Now that all students - and not just those from outside the UK- find themselves weighing up the costs of an art school education, the package must surely change. Maybe I am overstating the case, for an alternative, more individualistic justification for the art school has been in place since the 1960’s (Whiteley 1987). This is the idea of the art school as a nursery of self-expression, a place where mavericks think -and do- the impossible, but it all comes right in the end. The leading players in this myth are the photographers, fashion designers, pop musicians, celebrities and hangers on who peopled the media version of ‘Swinging London’, or ‘Cool Britannia’ as it became known in its revived, late 1990’s form. Even today, this rags to riches, Cinderella myth informs the college’s concept of ‘notable alumni’. If you are talented enough, and work hard enough, you too can make it. In terms of industrial design the product which encapsulates this myth is not so much the Routemaster bus, which survives in the idealism- and altruism- of sustainable or socially inclusive design, but the Union Jack Mini, and not in its original 1967 form, as conceived for the Montreal Expo. But rather, in its rebranded, re-launched retro form. For Central St. Martins is no longer about ‘Backing Britain’ 1960’s-style, or even ‘Powerhouse UK’, to quote the title of a government sponsored design show of 1996, but it is about equipping an international fraternity to amaze, and/or save the world!
So in the spirit of promoting the ‘brand’, let me drop the long institutional title and ask: Just what is it that makes industrial design at CSM, so different, so appealing? My quotation is inspired by Richard Hamilton’s collage of 1956 and the language of Madison Avenue advertising (Hamilton 2001). For this is a good place to start, as Hamilton was not only a serious observer of industrial design, but his portrayal of the ‘affluent society’ forms the backdrop to current notions of ‘critical’ practice. In a nutshell the students at CSM are born into the world depicted in Hamilton’s work, a world of stereotypes and disposability (just leaf through the pages of the Argos catalogue); but to their credit, they recognise, that in order to make a mark and to justify their existence, they must question almost everything this world stands for. Not least the easy appeal of Cool Britannia and the retro Mini. So this is how I want to characterise the work of this year’s graduating students: by imagining a spider diagram; with the representations that constitute the ‘ideal home’ at the centre, and three strategies branching out towards a possible future; one that is more sustainable, more authentic and more attuned to individual well being, The pathways are marked: the strangely familiar, a new human factors and uncharted regions. The strangely familiar. Route one is fairly easy to grasp because it concerns the visual character of ‘experimental’ industrial design. In turning in its back on superficial styling, in rejecting the fast fashion culture depicted in Hamilton’s collage, today’s avant-garde gravitates towards long-established, seemingly unremarkable forms. In fact many progressive designers have been enamoured of the so-called ‘vernacular’ throughout the 20th century. It was Le Corbusier, of course who introduced the humble bentwood café chair to the living room and the Castiglioni brothers –in the mid 1950’s- who famously produced an iconic stool by repurposing a tractor seat. But these appropriations were largely governed by functional concerns, rather in the way that one might use army surplus equipment on a camping trip. More recently the appropriation of found objects has taken on a Duchamp-like quality. For more than a decade we have seen unprepossessing articles like milk bottles, umbrellas, light bulbs, coat hangers, and the rest doing things they are not supposed to do. The process is rather like short-circuiting the norms that underpin consumer culture, and the results can range from the quasi-political- as in ‘hacktivism’- to the more ambiguous, uncanny and poetic. A new human factors
MAID@CSM At this point I have an image of the X-Men, or maybe the A team, but I want to focus my remarks on this year’s graduates of MAID, for surely one of the best ways of justifying the art school is to explain what the art school actually does.
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The ambiguous quality of many of the objects in this year’s MAID show points to a specific understanding of the consumer. In Hamilton’s depiction of the 1950’s home, the ideal couple model themselves on the body builder and the beauty queen, or in modern day terms, the stars of celebrity culture
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It will be appreciated that this approach is the very opposite of the Post-modern reordering of the past, and I would argue that it is always liable to compromise, thanks to a human need for familiarity. Think of the analogue metaphors that are applied to digital space in order to make the environment more intuitive. Or, how state of the art imaging techniques tend to produce worlds that are reassuringly biomorphic or natural.
and Desperate Housewives. In such a milieu ambiguity would be disastrous. In this context consumerism remains a matter of status, it is a serious business. By contrast, the students on MAID are pursuing a more complex understanding of lifestyle. While stereotypes remain in play, because they constitute the basic grammar of design, their use is ironic or reflexive. The consumer is not a construct, or a set of ‘emotional buttons’ waiting to be pressed, as in Hamilton’s collage, but a highly complex and shifting combination of values and memories. This is why ethnography and post-rationalisation play such a large part in the work.
The other means of escaping the status quo is to follow the doctrine of the designer Victor Papanek (1972) -and more recently the writer John Thackara (2005)- in producing ‘equipment’ and increasingly services that enable ‘real’ people to live fuller lives in real situations. For Papanek in the 1960’s and 70’s this meant working in emerging economies and the post-war Welfare State. For MAID ‘real design’ means leaving one’s comfort zone and working alongside other professionals in situations where no one knows, or cares about the Bauhaus or the Castilgioni brothers. In these regions there are few benchmarks, but many opportunities.
I am sure that these designers would be the first to admit that they do not really understand what an earlier, more confident-or perhaps arrogant- generation called ‘human factors’. For the current ruminations on material existence are just that: speculations and hypotheses, nudges to action, cultural prompts, and probes. And yet, because this is industrial design, as opposed to a one–off craft practice or fine art, there is an obligation to engage with humanity in the round. Today’s speculative or critical designer must, in a sense, reinvent the human factors concept along psychologically nuanced lines. But to what end? To deliver more seductive ‘dreams that money can buy’ for a post-industrial ‘experience economy’, in the tradition of Madison Avenue? Or, to promote a more ethical agenda, closer in spirit to the 1960’s counterculture and today’s slow food movement? In other words an understanding of interaction that promotes ‘real’ happiness while saving the planet.
In 2013 the ultimate uncharted territory is of course the Internet. In terms of industrial design, digital culture is exerting an irresistible, gravitational pull on established ideas of materiality and the object. But just as we have become familiar with the idea of the global 24-hour information society and how software is becoming the new hardware, we instinctively recall how physical ‘possessions’ tell us who are and where we belong (Miller 2005). Similarly in order to operate with confidence in a world that was established long before the Internet, we need tools that are intuitive, dependable and personalised, and as I have already suggested, this is extremely difficult to replicate without recourse to the ‘idea’ of the discrete object.
As I have suggested the MAID students are interested in the transformative power of design, but they recognise that this idealism must be responsive to particular contexts and user groups. They know that the history of technology is awash with unintended consequences, so they are not attempting to save the world. And if the work is commercially successful, so much the better.
In the 20th century, industrial design established its claim to cultural seriousness by offering diagrams for living. This is why Richard Hamilton considered ‘today’s home’ an important subject. In exhibitions, lifestyle features and advertising industrial design emphasised the transformative power of things. For critics of consumer capitalism, from the Frankfurt School to Adbusters this process has been inauthentic and manipulative (Marcuse 1964). I beg to differ. As this year’s MAID show demonstrates the best industrial design may be likened to the most intelligent science fiction. It doesn’t tell us what to do, or where we are going; it doesn’t even warn us about unintended consequences, it matches social trends to technical opportunities in order to produce intriguing and emotionally compelling arguments. This is what makes industrial design at CSM so different, so appealing, so interesting.
Uncharted regions The third strategy for ‘making a mark’ and escaping the orbit of Argos, at it were, involves ‘going boldly where no designer has gone before’. Or more precisely, going where few commercially successful designers have ventured, whether based in the American tradition of styling, or the Italian cult of elegant form. For part of this strategy involves the ‘fundamentalism’ of the Bauhaus, in the sense of rejecting established typologies in favour a truly contemporary language, derived from the exploration of new materials and techniques.
References Frayling, Christopher. The Royal College of Art. 150 years of Art and Design. London: David and Charles, 1987. Hamilton, Richard. Collected Words 1953-1982. London: Thames and Hudson, 2001. Marcuse, Herbert. One dimensional man: studies in the ideology of advanced industrial society. Beacon Press, 1964. Miller, Daniel. Materiality. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2005. Papanek, Victor. Design for the Real World. London: Thames and Hudson, 1972. Thackara, John. In the bubble. Designing for a complex world. Cambridge: MIT, 2005. Whiteley, Nigel. Pop Design. Modernism to Mod. London: Design Council, 1987
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Soft Power Tools
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Functions Challenging fixed and physical conceptions of function Function is widely discussed in literature on design e.g. (Baudrillard 1996 , Buchanan 2001, Greenhalgh 1990, Krippendorff and Butter 1993, Papanek 1984, M. B. Schiffer 1992, Ligo 1984). The popular understanding comes from Louis Sullivan’s (1896) ‘form ever follows function.’ and subsequently popularised in the modernist dictum, ‘form follows function’.
Matt Malpass
m.malpass@csm.arts.ac.uk Dr. Matt Malpass is a lecturer on MA Industrial Design and a Research Fellow in Critical Design within the Socially Responsive Design and Innovation Hub at Central Saint Martins University of the Arts London. His practice and research primarily focus on socially and politically engaged practice in industrial design.
In its commonplace understanding, function relates to optimisation and efficient performance. Lemoine (1988) describes how design is grounded in modernity, which is why from its beginnings the design of things and their function has been geared towards the principle of optimisation, i.e. the idea of a positivistically interpreted controllability of the world. This interpretation of function commonly designates the object’s practicality in use. This has historically been the focus for designers but this strong faith in modernist ideology has provoked criticism, for example, Lemoine writes: This particular debate, in which modernism and functionalism are conflated, has tended to divert attention from the aesthetic to the tactical; there is nothing inherently ‘modern’ about ‘function’ – design has always had a functional element. (1988, 23) Criticism of modernist functionalism can be traced back to an overemphasis on the physical and essentialist aspects of function. However, what function is and considers, even in the strictest modernist ‘FFF’ sense of the term is questionable. Ligo (1984) challenges the foundations of modernist functionalism in an analysis of how function was discussed by modernist architectural critics. Ligo shows that function is not limited to practicality in use and classifies five categories of function. Firstly, he identifies “Structural articulation” which refers to the object’s material structure. Secondly, “Physical function” which refers to the utilitarian task of the object. Thirdly, “Psychological function” which he explains as pertaining to the user’s emotional response to the object. Fourthly is the “Social function” which refers to the nature of the activity that the object provides with regard to the social dimension. Finally, the “Cultural-existential function” which has more profound cultural and symbolic characteristics that includes the existential being of the individual using the object. Archaeologist Michael Schiffer (1992) writes that an object can have three different sorts of function. The most commonly understood of these is “Techno-function,” which is where the object is up to the job in hand. This is similar to Ligo’s “Structural articulation” and “Physical function.” Less frequently, there are “Ideo-functions” that draw from sets of abstract ideas that we share. This is similar to Ligo’s “Psychological” and “Cultural existential function.” Schiffer’s “Socio-function” signals to others the sort of attitude that we hold. This is similar to Ligo’s “Social function.” Additionally, Schiffer writes that just as often the function depends on where the object is, who is using it and when. Function comes about because of the system that an object exists in and an object’s function is defined by the context of use. Schiffer calls this the “System function.” By definition, “System functions” cannot be designed into objects. The System function comes about only in the process of users
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interaction with the object as they create systems for objects to function in. (Fisher and Shipton 2010) Labelling and classification of an object is used to indicate its function and the relationship between the object and how it is used. However, even here objects often function beyond these prescriptions. In no domain is it as difficult as it is in the matter of function and utility to distinguish the actual place of artefacts in human practices. In many societies the classification and labelling of objects appears to indicate a close relationship between artefact and particular function. What is problematic about this is the common assumption that is caused by and in turn indicates some relationship of efficiency between the object and its use. (Miller 1987, 116) Describing how functions emerge in use, Kroes argues that technical functions are related to physical features but just as often, they are subject to human intentions (2010, 85). This thinking is expressed in practice-orientated design, which assumes the relationality of meaning, and states that values and meaning emerges in practice and relations between objects, skills and temporalities that in turn define an object’s use. When technologies appear stable, when their design is fixed, their social significance and their relational role in practice is always on the move (Boiler, 1992). This suggests that moments of socio-technical closure is illusionary in that objects continue to evolve as they are integrated into always fluid environments of consumption, practice and meaning. (Shove, Watson and Ingram 2007, 8) So function is dynamic and relational, open to interpretation in different social contexts and “even the physicality of a material object in one social context might be read differently in another social context and the systems of use that pertain.” (Miller 1987, 109) Function can therefore be considered a matter of concern, rather than a matter of fact, as Latour describes: It was as if there were really two very different ways of grasping an object: one through its intrinsic materiality, the other through its more aesthetic or “symbolic” aspects. The functionalist technical perspective sees the objects as a matter of fact an alternative is to see the object as a thing a matter of concern that is encompassing of object and system. (Latour 2009, 2) Such arguments suggest that an object’s function cannot simply be read from its form, the way that it is labelled, classified or even from its physical properties. Function is a dynamic, immaterial and social property. An object’s function is dependent upon the practices that situate it in a system of use. Function is subject to the designer’s intention however; it is also always open to interpretation by the user. Function might be understood as the plan of action that the object represents and where designer and a user share their understanding about the intended purpose of the object.
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technical objects, however, cannot be isolated from the context of intentional action (use). The function of an object, in the sense of being a means to an end, is grounded within that context. When we associate intentional action with the social world (in opposition to causal action with the physical world), the function can be said to be a social construction. So, a technical artefact is at the same time a physical construction as well as a social construction: it has a dual ontological nature. (Kroes 2001, 85)
The function of an object can therefore be as a symbolic communicating concept and a matter of understanding between the designer and user. Function might be understood as the perception of use, which emphasises the appropriation of the object through the user according to their particular needs, involving what Mazé describes as “…processes of interpretation, incorporation, and appropriation into the user’s lifeworld.” (2007, 2) Function has its counterpart in use, which means, although function and use are normally assumed to converge in the contextual understanding of efficient functionality, they do not have to do so. Consequently, function itself is open to wilful appropriation within use and subject to the intentions of the user. Thus, an object’s function is physically constructed but at the same time is a social construction:
In much of the design work included in MAID’s Soft Power Tools show, the objects’ functions move beyond physical and technical concerns, optimisation and efficiency. The designers embrace social, psychological and cultural existential functions. Objects are used in address to a range of complex technical and social problems through pragmatic, phenomenological and ethnographic designerly forms of inquiry. Common to all the projects is recognition that industrial design is always contextually situated and peoples interaction with the objects, will inevitably give meaning and function to them.
An essential aspect of any technical object is its function; think away from a technical object its function and what is left is just some kind of physical object. It is by virtue of its practical function that an object is a technical object. The function of References Baudrillard, Jean. The System of Objects. London: Verso, 1996 .
Buchanan, Richard. “Human Dignity and Human Rights: Thoughts on the Principles of Human Centred Design.” Design Issues 17, no. 3 (2001): 35-39. Dormer, Peter. The Meanings of Modern Design. London: Thames & Hudson, 1990. Fisher, Tom, and Janet Shipton. Designing for Re-use. London: Earthscan, 2010. Greenhalgh, Paul. Modernism in Design. London: Reaktion Books, 1990. Krippendorff, Klaus, and Reihhart Butter. “Where Meanings Escape Functions.” Design Management Institute Journal 4, no. 2 (1993): 30-37. Kroes, Peter. “Theories of Technical Functions: Function Ascriptions vs. Function Assignments Part 2.” Design Issues 24, no. 4 (2010): 85-93. Latour, Bruno. “A Cautious Prometheus? A few steps towards a philosophy of design (with special attention to Peter Sloterdijk).” Edited by J Glynne, F Hackney and V Minton. Networks of Design: Proceedings of the 2008 Annual Conference of the Design History Society (UK). Online: Universal Publishers, 2009. 2-10. Lemoine, Philippe. “The Demise of Clasic Rationality.” In Design After Modernism, edited by John Thackara, 187-196. London: Thames and Hudson, 1988. Ligo, Larry L. The concept of function in twentieth-century architectural criticism. Ann Arbor Michigan: UMI Research Press, 1984. Mazé, Ramia. Occupying Time: Design, technology, and the form of interaction. Stockholm: Axl Books, 2007. Miller, Daniel. Material Culture and Mass Consumption. New York: Blackwell, 1987. Niedderer, Kristina. Designing the Performative Object: a study in designing mindful interaction through artefacts. Phd Dis. Falmouth: Faculty of Culture & Media Falmouth College of Arts, 2004. Papanek, Victor. Design for the real world. 2. London: Thames and Hudson, 1984. Schiffer, Michael B. Technological Perspectives on Behavioural Change. Tuscan AZ: University of Arizona Press, 1992. Schiffer, Micheal. The Material Life of Human Beings: Artefacts Behaviour and Communication. London: Routledge, 1992. Shove, Elizabeth, Matthew Watson, and Jack Ingram. The Design of Everyday Life: cultures of consumption. London: Berg, 2007. Sullivan, Louis H. “The Tall Office Building Artistically Considered.” Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine, LVII, 1896.
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ImPatients Provoking discussion in the waiting room of a diabetes clinic This project seeks to understand what it means to deal with diabetes. Since design is embedded in everyday life, it is a useful tool to understand a given issue from a practical and quotidian point of view. Applied to a disease, this shift of angle allows to acknowledge its daily implications. Set in the waiting room of a diabetes clinic, a series of five scenarios and their artefacts aim at provoking public discussion about the nature of the condition. The objective is to involve people with different perspectives, experiences and expertise (patients, their families and
Lucie Barouillet
lucie.barouillet@gmail.com
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friends, doctors and specialist nurses, researchers) to talk about and around the narratives. Can the patient still be considered as a patient, since s/he is in charge of managing her/his condition in the everyday? Also, in this context, how is the role and approach of experts being affected and challenged? These scenarios are snapshots of the conversations which took place with the people I engaged with in the course of the project. They are designed to be reinterpreted, questioned and evaluated by these people as well as other audiences within the field of diabetes.
Soft Power Tools
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June 2013
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cook! Rediscovering the cooking experience Cook! is a project on rediscovering the cooking experience. It is built around the persona of a young unconfident cook immersed in busy London life. Not knowing how to cook, he seeks the most efficient and uncomplicated methods of food preparation: microwave seems to be a perfect solution. He avoids spending time in the kitchen, an unfamiliar space full of implements he would not even know how to use. Ready made meals don’t require tools anyway. Relying completely on the microwave and pre-made food with instructions on the packaging, he feels completely powerless in the kitchen environment. Yet, he doesn’t condemn the idea of cooking, as socialising around delicious food is compelling.
Martyna Bielecka
martynabielecka@tlen.pl www.martynabielecka.com
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Giving up the preparation stage of cooking, we are losing not only the understanding of what we eat, but also a potentially empowering and satisfying opportunity of physical making. How can design enhance this physicality and help reconnect with the cooking experience? Through the group experience of distorted food preparation, enabled by the use of unfamiliar kitchen-hacking utensils, this project questions norms and kitchen order. It encourages experimentation and turns the cooking process into a playful experience. “There is no right or wrong way to do it, it’s your way to do it!”.
Soft Power Tools
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June 2013
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Next in line Digital information as an heirloom Next In Line is an attempt to design experiences, to be selective in preserving, inheriting and ethically bequeathing digital possessions in their original form.
Rahul Boggaram
sayhello@rahulboggaram.com www.rahulboggaram.com
This project is designed for people who embrace digital life and want to preserve and bequeath their digital possessions. It is for people who feel responsible for taking care of their ancestral assets and who think it is important to preserve selected moments and choices to convey to future generations. It is for people who view digital possessions as sculptures or possessions of emotional presence. It is for Bruce Willis, who was rumoured to want to bequeath his digital music assets equally to his three daughters (Bruce Willis v Apple, 2012). The concept of Next In Line started when an unexpected gift came to my door. I shared every step of unpacking on my social network page to show that it was from my parents who had never used the Internet before and learnt how to just to order a gift for their son living abroad.
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It was truly a memorable moment, a moment I wanted to preserve. What grasped my attention was that the photograph did not attract any comments or likes on my social network page. I realised that something that was immensely meaningful to me was not at all of interest to my friends. A week later, I came across an article that said ‘Facebook forces everyone to switch in to Timeline’; I perceived that the originality of my personal memory which I wanted to preserve would be lost in time. Being a custodian of an heirloom, I was inspired to understand the differences between my personal object with its emotional durability and a mundane ephemeral object. With knowledge of tangible heirlooms, a similar approach to digital life might create longevity for digital possessions, evocate memories, convey stories, create a sense of responsibilty and outlive a person.
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June 2013
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LINE UP: YOUR GIG STARTS HERe Releasing online frustration through an overview service. The project seeks to show how physical emotion can be expressed in the World Wide Web. It is meant to enable digital cathartic experiences of negative emotions, which result from the decreasing expectation and increasing frustration, when dealing with web usability constrains. Found in the need to unveil new practice areas for Industrial Design, this project wants to demonstrate the profession’s potential to make an input in the digital world. How? By working in a “new ergonomics”, where human interaction is the central piece and user experience’s value is added by specific Industrial Design methods.
Liliana Simoes Carvalho
liliana@lilianasimoescarvalho.com
www.lilianasimoescarvalho.com
The outcome is Line up, a mediator service that gives users an overview of the process of purchasing concert tickets. A band fan waits all night for the online ticketing opening hour for a better chance of getting tickets, as he knows how popular and busy this concert will be. When the time comes, a pick of affluence stops him from buying them. He then switches between different ticket providers and tries over and over again. This situation creates a feeling of disempowerment and frustration.
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As a response, Line up suggests a positive and stress free experience by clicking one button. This application provides real time information about what is happening, while the user comfortably waits for his turn. Very often concerts have an aura of “the ultimate experience”. This service’s aim is to anticipate this feeling by creating a new space where users can relax, being aware of the available tickets and waiting time. Also, by “interacting with their similar”, users get enjoyment out of the purchase experience, converting frustrating moments into pleasant ones. This service presents itself as a “bypass” between ticket provider and user and adds a new dimension to the online quotidian by visualising previously inaccessible information. It also closes the emotional cycle, giving people the chance to deal with frustration online. Please visit: http://lineup4yourconcert.appspot.com.
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June 2013
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Weighing Up the Smartphone Paradox Striking a phone-life balance The smartphone paradox refers to the contradictions inherent in our interactions with mobile phones: private versus public, intimacy versus distance, empowerment versus enslavement. While enjoying the conveniences of mobile technology, some users are losing control over their reliance on smartphones, sinking deeper into this ubiquitous paradox.
Cecilia (Si) Chen
si_chen@me.com www.ceciliachendesign.com
This design object literally strikes a balance in our addiction to mobile technology through two sets of specially designed scales. For each set of scales, one end of the crossbeam is attached to a plate holder on which each diner’s plate is placed. The other end has a phone holder attached to it where each diner’s companion’s phone is locked using a small clamp. When the food arrives and the plate is placed on the holder, the scale is balanced so that the plate sits perfectly on the table while the phone hovers mid-air. If one diner’s companion wants to use his phone he will have to press down on the screen of
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the phone causing the diner’s plate to lift up at the other end of the scale, spilling the food. For each phone to be used during dinner its owner will need to adopt strange body postures to maintain the balance of the scales, or ask the other diner for the key, attached to end of a modified spoon, to unlock his phone from the holder. The more accentuated the companion’s postures become, the more absurd his actions will seem, therefore physically revealing the power his smartphone holds over him. By physically embodying the psychological annoyances caused by addictive smartphone interaction, Weighing Up the Smartphone Paradox accentuates the imbalance that characterises smartphone usage. This project also encourages designers to explore non-technological objects for resolving mobile technology issues, while questioning the alternative roles that smartphones might play in social situations and beyond.
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June 2013
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Making sleeping natural ‘3CO duvet’ ‘People who say they sleep like a baby usually don’t have one.’ Leo J. Burke For all new parents the arrival of a baby signals enormous change. While parenthood undeniably brings huge joy for most, it also brings with it the heavy responsibilities of feeding, protecting and nurturing an infant, which require constant adult input. Perhaps most famously amongst the negatives associated with parenthood, certainly in the West, is that the first year of life is characterized by sleep deprivation for parents, resulting from the irregular sleep and feeding pattern of infants;
Jose Antonio Corominas Tarres
info@corominastarres.com www.corominastarres.com
With sleep deprivation recognized to be an effective form of torture, the impact of such fatigue on the body should not be underestimated. The ramifications for mental and physical health of parental, particularly maternal, exhaustion are notable. In the first instance, by undertaking an investigation of sleep customs past and present, across the globe this project seeks to better
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understand why sleeping habits postpartum may have become so severely damaged in the West. Contextualizing sleep in both historical and anthropological terms, the aim is to examine ways in which these patterns in the West might be changed, seeking inspiration from other cultures where relevant. The aim of the current study is not to present a ‘perfect solution’ to the sleep deprivation resulting from the birth of infants, not least because the sleep needs and patterns of adults and infants are fundamentally different and a degree of sleep disruption is, therefore, not only inevitable, but a biological necessity. Rather, through understanding attitudes to and expectations of sleep, the aim is to propose a practical design solution that will be able to help parents and infants to reduce the effects of sleep deprivation, maximizing the quantity and quality of sleep, and achieve more satisfying and restorative levels of sleep.
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June 2013
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Connected Interactions Seamlessly merging the physical and the digital to create interaction with improved sensory richness. This project is looking at the two main discourses of interaction design; screen-based and object-based, and positions itself in the gap between the two. It questions whether or not it is possible to combine the two and create products that take advantage of both the flexibility of screens and the tactility of tangible interfaces.
Victor Johansson
victor_johansson@live.com objectsandinteractions.com
The interaction design paradigm of the moment is centred around swiping our fingertips on glass, may it be phones, tablets, computers, in-car systems, or even refrigerators. If we are to believe companies like Google, Microsoft and Samsung, the coming paradigm of interaction design is even less tangible with the interaction centred around voice commands and waving your hands in the air. More tangible options exist that often offer more natural interactions with greater tolerances and error margins and that stimulate a wider
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range of human abilities than its screen counterpart. However, more often than not, these tangible interfaces end up having very few and limited functions in terms of adaptation and customisation. By combining the physical with the intangible, this project tries to tame the technology beast. Making technology, connectivity, functions, and actions more graspable and relatable without losing out the functionality of screen interfaces. The project seamlessly integrates interactions with the digital world into mundane scenarios and makes sure that technology becomes in tune with people and our environment, not the other way around.
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June 2013
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ENFRAME Images within you Enframe is an audio recorder and player for outdoor activities such as walking, mountaineering and long distance hiking. We are more and more equipped with easy to use accessible digital cameras and standing internet connection to blog about what we experience. This leads to an increasing amount of digital documents we create to capture and store moments of our daily life; documentation has never been as complete as it is now.
Anton Bob Kraus abobk86@gmx.de abk-design.net
Coming along with rising connectivity, instant sharing and publishing of documents on the internet, there is also a shift of intention we have when taking pictures or writing about incidents. The self-promotion value of documents is increasing, whereas their individual self-reflecting character loses value.
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When seeking an outdoor experience in order to escape your daily life, to have a change of environment and to have benefits on your mind-set, the new generation of documentation tools is failing to serve the journey’s purpose. With Enframe I created a documentation tool whose purpose is to maintain the self reflecting character of such a journey and to capture nature’s impact on oneself, while being out there and when being back.
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June 2013
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THE MILK OF HUMAN KINDNESS Constructing a public around food waste The Food and Agriculture Organisation estimates that 15 billion litres of milk are wasted in European households each year. With simple equipment, we can turn this waste into plastic, and later, into products. A novel moulding technique, developed in the course of the project, allows the manufacture of large milk-protein plastic objects – in contrast to the small artefacts formerly carved out of the ivory-like material when it was first developed at the end of the 19th century.
Masami Charlotte Lavault
In The Milk of Human Kindness, each of the main actors of the casein network is associated with an object. The cow is equipped with a waste milk collection packsaddle – which draws on a current trend of animal powered waste collection in Europe. The farmer wears a
masamilavault@gmail.com
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casein work/protection suit – inspired by recent dairy protests – whilst the end ‘milk drinker’ becomes the owner of a plastic milking stool. The three objects function as macroscopes, illustrating the life story of dairy matter (its origin, consumption, dismissal, and transmutation). They are rooted in the crisis of the heavily subsidised European dairy industry, once a flourishing sector, nowadays undermined by overproduction, which enables wastage. Milk losses aggravate the effects of the pressure livestock puts on resources, contributing to land, air and water pollution. Equipped with a fresh understanding of the environmental and social cost of food waste, a questioning public can softly construct itself around this milk-plastic framework.
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June 2013
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the wall A man-made nature project We live in an uncertain world where nothing remains the same. The random beauty of nature attracts people’s eyes. humans, as a highly developed species, can use industrial methods to duplicate objects, but can hardly use it to reproduce the randomness of nature – randomness being a unique mystery, the result of natural evolution. My project explores how to imitate natural randomness by using modern technology and design methods in order to reduce stress at airports.
Yineng liu
With air travel opening the world to millions and making our lives more efficient than ever before, a significant issue appears: airport stress. My project helps passengers to reduce pressure at airports by using anxiety dispersing design methods. Instead of exclusively placing the passengers’ attention on queues and security checks, my objects catch
lyn.liu610@gmail.com
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the travellers’ eyes and pleasantly distract them, reducing their stress. This is achieved by the introduction of some of nature’s most calming features (a sound akin to wind chimes and atmospheric clouds) into a stressful man-made environment. The design strategy is built around two aspects: low-tech and high-tech interaction. On one hand, the installation consists of a perforated interactive – high-tech – wall which generates a water vapour cloud. A sensor detects the position of the user, which will be followed by the cloud. On the other hand, low-tech ceramic wind chimes create light tinkling sounds when people pass by.
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June 2013
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Tranquillity bamboo Bamboo products create an atmosphere to help young Chinese to gain a sense of tranquillity in urban life. Tranquillity Bamboo focuses on traditional Chinese bamboo craft. A series of bamboo products create a calm atmosphere helping young Chinese people to gain a sense of tranquillity in urban life. Since the Chinese economic reform, people’s living standards are getting better. Nowadays, young Chinese who reside in cities enjoy high economic standards and live a fast-paced life. However, they might feel that life is too impetuous and get the urge to achieve inner peace. They believe that if they seek out their cultural roots, they can rejuvenate their values. They are therefore eager to purchase products which can display aspects of traditional culture.
Jing Luo
luojingjoy@gmail.com
“I would rather eat no meat, than live without bamboo”, said the famous Song dynasty writer Su Dongpo. This statement echoes a
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special phenomenon in the history of Chinese civilization. Bamboo has permeated Chinese national culture as a symbol of tranquillity; it is the embodiment of nobility. This makes it a suitable material to create a serene atmosphere. Yu is the special skill of heating and bending bamboo components. This unique craft technique is bound to disappear. By introducing traditional bamboo craft to the younger generation, we can contribute to the preservation of this precious aspect of China’s heritage. As an emerging Chinese designer, I use it for utilitarian objects, making bamboo desirable for younger consumers. I hope to keep ancient skills alive and introduce them to more lucrative markets.
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June 2013
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Drumming Out Dementia Enhancing life through music
Tom Maisey
tom@drummingoutdementia.com www.drummingoutdementia.com
With chronic illness on the increase and a rapid growth of the ageing population1 there is a need to enhance the quality of life not just sustaining it, music therapy is an effective intervention in neurological rehabilitation2 slowing down the degenerative disease. One in three people aged over 65 will die with dementia3 increasing the demand to maintain standards and continue providing services to this user group. The issue that dementia brings presents us with a demographic time bomb, something that is moving into visibility because of the increasing population and growing paranoia, the development of public healthcare has meant that fewer people are dying.
facilitate positive change in behaviour and emotional well-being, my aim has been to improve the efficiency of how the therapy is delivered executed through a set of working prototypes to assist and encourage participation during music sessions. It concentrates on inclusive design to also be used by supporting candidates as such as carers, care staff and family members. The prototypes are an exploration into removing the stigma and intimidation that existing instruments generate to the amateur player offering the user a level of comfort and confidence to participate, this has focused on turning familiar objects into musical appliances.
This work explores the emotional experiences of dementia patients and addresses the issues of isolation and depression in British residential care homes by connecting people through music and encouraging other methods of communication. The purpose of music therapy is to
1. The Economist - Healthcare Strategies for an Ageing Society
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2. David Aldridge - Music Therapy & Neurological Rehabilitation 3. Alzheimer’s Society - http://alzheimers.org.uk/site/index.php
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June 2013
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WHY NOT? Repositioning objects’ identity. Why Not? is a project about identity. My investigation started by looking at how identity has become a consumption product. As a designer and user myself I felt especially involved in the process of both creation and consumption of identity. In a modern scheme in which the identity metabolism through objects seems to be fixed and predictable, my goal was to find a different opportunity to manage it.
Paolo Nazzari
paolo.nazzari@gmail.com
Starting off with a speculation about identity through semiotics, sociology and ethnography tools, I directed my route towards a tangible experimentation of design languages, to understand how norms work and how to subvert them. The opportunity to twist the identity and the essence of an object, operating on its semantic layers, becomes even greater when we start to link it to another object, connecting and swapping their features. Every object distinguishes itself by shape, colour, scale, function, material and all the meanings we give
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it. Those links allow us to try and find the most effective, significant ones, getting always fresh insights to keep designing. All my physical outcomes came out from a similar process and belong to the domestic scenario. I have played with different semantic layers of everyday objects to shake their own essence, identity, and demonstrate that they still work efficiently. Each one of these designs embodies a provocation against the usual, static or bigoted way we look at and use objects. Through the guidelines of irony, absurdity, uncanniness and contradiction, each of these objects shifts from its most common configuration to an unexpected, provocative one. The identity/essence of these objects themselves is repositioned in a way that the user could find time by time disgusting, contradictory, funny, rough, but still correct and significant.
Soft Power Tools
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June 2013
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Gather3d A creative Platform Take time and risk in a digital manufacturing era. Gather3d is an analogue 3d printer: a manual system as well as a mechanical machine used to introduce craft and the art of making to a broad audience. The project focuses on the process rather than the resulting object.
Pierre Papet
contact.me@pierrepapet.com www.pierrepapet.com
As an open-source design, Gather3d aims to reach a public particularly interested in new technologies and already linked to the Open-Source movement. As this movement is growing, the printer will soon reach a broader audience. Gather3d is designed to be an accessible and evolutive creative platform. It allows younger, web-native generations, who have been used to permanent connectivity, to reengage with making and the real world. Furthermore, the project embodies a critique of the ‘new workshop’ – a future scenario1 of a return to small scale, exclusively digital manufacturing – and of the 3d printer as a technological divinity. It also aims to ignite a debate about these new workshop tools (3d printer,
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3d scanner, laser cutter...) within the design profession. The ‘third industrial revolution’ is constructed around the myth of rapid prototyping, symptomatic of our ‘Everything, now!’ era. What happens if we take the time to reengage with a making activity? Born in an artisan family, I have always made objects, models and tangible things. During this year, it has become an obsession to get the analogue printer to function properly. I want to transmit this energy to the public by offering Gather3d. Hours of practice are necessary to skilfully operate the printer. In that extent, it might allow users to experience a jubilation of real mastering, in contrast with the illusion of know-how provided by deskilling technologies. 1. “Manufacturing and innovation: A third industrial revolution” The Economist, April 2012
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June 2013
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Lucentee A platform for sharing advice. An online tool that enables people to gather diverse opinions in order to make well-advised choices. The Internet has democratised the way we access general information. When looking for alternative points of view we often use online forums for interactive discussion with others. These forums gather an overload of information which is mostly irrelevant, not adapted. Comments seem unsubstantiated, as we cannot be sure of the identity or legitimacy of those with whom we are interacting.
Remi Perrichon
remiperrichon@me.com www.remiperrichon.com
In this regard, I propose an ecosystem which enables the user (questioner) to access the knowledge and experiences of other users (contributors). The tools offered will help the user to find and select qualified people from a specific field. Questioners can then gather the contributors together around their personal enquiry. The discussion will be time-limited (up to one week) in order to dynamise and bring enthusiasm into the conversation. On the one hand, this service is created for individuals in professional and educational retraining who require specific opinions and advice
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outside their circle of friends and family. These questioners are looking for qualified and inspiring people to open new possibilities. They aspire for change and feel the need to prepare thoroughly for it. They are willing to spend time investigating and researching smart ways to do things. On the other hand, this platform is addressed to those contributors who desire to help others. Their motivation may come from empathy for those who are contemplating starting on the same path as they once did. Their intention, then, is to transmit their knowledge and experience with a voluntary approach but also to promote their work. This will be a way to complete their virtual identity, to show proof of qualification and how well informed they are, as well as highlight their generosity.
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June 2013
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Keeping yourself Hidden dynamics of the relationships My project raises the issue of loss of identity in romantic relationships. It is about the progressive, unwitting denial of oneself and one’s own desires for the sake of facilitating and improving the life of another person. Our identity is greatly influenced by people around us, especially our partners. The life of the couple is built on a basis of shared routines. Material culture creates a space where relationships are developing with objects as pivot points. Object 1
Alexandra Sidorenko
alexandra.a.sidorenko@gmail. com
“I don’t like that John sometimes takes my book and doesn’t put it back to the original place. It’s disregard for my things. Why should I go and look for it? Is my time less valuable than his? “
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The object outlines the territory, creates a barrier between the external-common and the internal-private spaces. To take something from the “bag”, you need to climb inside and break the ethical boundary. The function of this object is the definition of territoriality. Object 2 “Sometimes I manage to pull my husband along, but since he works so hard, I feel guilty to disturb him. He usually chooses where we would go and I adjust.” To achieve fair results, I created a scale with which it is possible to measure contributions to a relationship and visually represent unbiased results. It suppresses the possibility to pretend that.
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June 2013
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The Crafted Network A collaborative pursuit of new dialogues with craft practice With the UK government set to cut craft from the creative industries’ list and their recent attempt to remove creative subjects from the UK curriculum, what lies ahead for the future of craft practice? Are young people being denied an opportunity to engage with craft and where will the next generation of practitioners evolve from? The Crafted Network is a platform for craft practitioners, professionally isolated in the Midlands, England. It connects a blacksmith, a carpenter and a willow weaver, three young and ambitious craftsmen who are unconnected and remote from cities. With no one from their direct entourage looking to take on their practice, their skills are endangered.
Ian Thomas
ian.g.thomas@hotmail.co.uk
What if they were connected within a tightly woven network with other practitioners, where skill sets could converge, working collaboratively on common projects and become more closely related to urban consumers? This is what The Crafted Network offers.
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To illustrate the benefits of the platform, three sets of objects have been commonly created by the craftsmen to materialise their cooperation: a series of headphones, a carabiner and a set of temporary furniture. They demonstrate craft’s ability to re-position itself in pursuit of new territories, involving collaborative exchanges of skills and knowledge in a common project and facilitation of a current cultural trend, ‘Flexible working - working from home culture’. To conclude, this questions the role of the industrial designer as a curator, facilitator and director as opposed to creator of commercial products. It is a model that relies on trans-disciplinarity and collaboration, which we can consider today as crucial to sustainable business.
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June 2013
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The tyranny of numbers ‘Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing.’ - Oscar Wilde In modern society, we look for very direct and immediate answers. As a result, almost every single thing is translated into numbers and is followed by a system of unit. The numerical system is the most efficient means of communication, but is it the most understandable way to express and illustrate abstract ideas?
Yuhan Wan
wanyuhan.design@gmail.com http://cargocollective.com/ wanyuhan
Can standardised systems become the only value gauge in a diverse society? A purely material measure, that takes no account of the blessings of nature or leisure. However, we tend to believe in the latest published scientific research, because things that can be proved with statistics seem more reliable. For example, someone’s attractiveness used to be a more abstract and subjective concept, related to personal preference. Once scientists propose a universal scale on which to measure it, they actually assume that everything is quantifiable. Even
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diverse individuals can be evaluated on the same scale. In my opinion, this runs counter to moral beliefs and ignores diversity. It also sets up a very narrow standard of beauty that is only suited to the few. Because of obedience to authority, we lose our ability to judge. It is obvious that we are over-dependent on science and technology in a digitized generation. The United States Declaration of Independence proclaims that ‘all men are created equal’ (Jefferson, 1776); nonetheless, one hundred per cent equality has never existed. Only if we remember that we should be equal, but are not the same, will the pursuit of equality not be in vain. Otherwise, making comparisons, by any means of technology, will only result in endless competition, and cause social problems. What we need to do is to accept diversity, in order to appreciate uniqueness.
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June 2013
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Addi(c)tion to Perfection Identity in pain Human beings struggle with who they are and what they want to be throughout their lives. Biomedical advances are much more available today and we think they can solve the problem of desiring the perfect body. However, does biomedical surgery relieve the pain of our desire or do we simply then ask for a much higher standard and fail to accept what we have and how we look?
Szu - Wen Wang
In general, psychological pain is enlarged and physical pain is negated through the process of cosmetic surgery. ‘Pain’ is an individual feeling that is difficult to describe to others. Levels of ‘pain’ can be verified by how they are interpreted. For instance, while it is regarded as a necessary process to complete a goal, that pain can be minimised.
szuwenwangid@gmail.com http://cargocollective.com/ szuwenwang
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Conversely, our imagining of pain can be stronger than the actual pain. This project translates the painful relationship we have with aiming to pursue a perfect version of ourselves. The tools presented here were made to create an imaginary pain to synthesise a conversation between our desires and our body. It raises awareness of the vulnerability of our bodies in this era.
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June 2013
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Myth of the organic Nature, perfection, convention, or morality? From chaos to order, there are conventions within human society to justify our behaviours and these are often made in two opposing dimensions, through time passing. Here, human thought and behaviour are gradually changing, and sometimes these shift away from original intentions. Yet, we still are living within previous conventions. Due to several factors, industrialisation standards, information explosion, overconsumption, binary standards and multiple cultures colliding in current dilemmas; consequently, contradictions and conflicts occur, like in a myth. The concept of organic is also struggling in dilemmas, earthiness versus cleanliness, intervened with versus untouched, and the uncertainty of its benefits. Yet rules were made to differentiate
Chun-Ling Wu
ilushin35@gmail.com www.ilushin.com
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organic food from conventional one. Through myth, a depoliticised language, this project aims to show the pristine nature of the two extreme opposites. It aims to explore the head falling between our behaviours and reality, by presenting conflicts to reflect on our decision making, hence drawing awareness to re-evaluating our conventions.
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June 2013
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Food Guard Exploring responsibility for food safety and consumer protection, by rebuilding trust in the food industry. The project takes China as research context – a fast developing country going through a food trust crisis, thus attaching great importance to food safety issues. Food Guard is targeted at middleaged family members and young parents.
Cai Jun Yang
Food Guard is a household food safety service. It contains 4 units: (1) meat source tracking and bacteria detecting; (2) compensation and legal aid; (3) case reports; and (4) food safety knowledge popularisation. Food Guard is run by a company supervised by the Chinese government and is supported technically by a local control and quarantine institution. It protects people from the financial and physical consequences of the purchase or consumption of poor quality food. The service includes three main products: a bacteria and meat source detector, a website,
ycjdesign@hotmail.com www.ycjdesign.com
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and kitchenware. The detector allows consumers to check what they eat. Through the website, the legal team helps consumers to get a financial compensation. Food poisoning cases and food scandals can be reported online, to ensure the wellbeing of the whole community and attract more participants. The official supervision department can then reference Food Guard reports for hygiene inspection on food production sites. Progressively, the reports generate a network of safe brands and retailers, fostering benign competition in the food industry. The kitchenware can be purchased on the Food Guard website, educating users to food safety, encouraging people to pay more attention to food hygiene and commit in the maintaining of a healthy food environment.
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June 2013
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Poet-o-therapy Activate your right brain! Take a break!
Duo Zhang
jellicoezhang@gmail.com www.studioduoe.com
Poet-o-therapy is a speculative design which attempts to alleviate the stressful and pressurized feelings of urban people caused by their overuse of the functions of the left brain (reasoning and logical thinking). By activating and re-programming their right brain, rebalancing the body and mentality through a series of poetic designs, the work explores the relationship between the right brain and the mental well-being and the body-mind connection. Poet-o-therapy includes three parts: the poetic instructive words, the poetic objects and the balance helmet, directing a ceremonial ritual as building their utopian and imaginary realm, and allowing them to merge themselves into a poetic and imaginary scenario through the poetic objects and the helmet, encouraging an adult to take a break from their over-logical daily routine and activate their right brain functions. Thus, the design will help make their life more poetic to counter-act the negative effects caused by this over
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logical and complex world. Then, they will achieve the balance between the left and right parts of their brain and the balance between reality and imagination. Poet-o-therapy is designed for urban-based adults who are good at logical thinking and intelligence but weak in imagination and cannot express their emotions freely. It is for people tired of their tedious daily work and who have no other exceptions in their life. It is for people tortured by their unhappy feelings and low emotions caused by their rigid and stereotypical routines. In this project, I was interested in how creative therapy could help people to overcome their mental issues and thinking design could work as a kind of therapy through its functions and the process of using it to help people to re-examine their living environment and their lifestyle.
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Working together? How physical interactions can help team-building My project uses tangible objects to help people have a better understanding of the different stages of the team building process. The breaking-in period can be shortened and group members can get on with their work sooner. In team building theory, there are four stages: forming, storming, norming and performing.
Yi Zhou
y.zhou@yizhoudesign.com yizhoudesign.com
Forming is the stage of ice-breaking. The team tries to exchange basic information, laying the groundwork for further cooperation. In the storming stage, conflicts and disagreement can occur. As for the norming stage, individual differences are recognized, accepted and tolerated. Performing is the final stage. It is about cohesiveness, mutual support and flexibility. To respond to this theory, I designed four games (or lessons) as teaching tools, allowing individuals to directly experience these stages. I chose to focus on pens and pen accessories as they are a symbol of creativity in many cultures, and represent working places.
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Lesson 1 “Half Half ” consists of two colour ballpoint pens connected with magnets. Two group members need to break the double pen in two. Each member then chooses one pen and gives it to the other. The physical action of breaking the pen matches the disappearing of the boundaries between the two co-workers. Lesson 2 “In The Same Boat” revolves around a two-pen holder with a steel cube on top. When starting to write, people will feel the strength of the other’s movements and try their best to finish their own part. As a result, the simplest drawing in the world turns out to be an impossible mission. Lesson 3 “The Bridge” encourages co-workers to draw things together by using one pen. In order to achieve a common goal, individuals have to figure out how to work together. Lesson 4 “The Playground” gives participants the freedom to create a random painting (combining different colours, line thicknesses, actual lines or dotted lines).
Softpower tools
M/A/I/D
June 2013
back to the first year Design for Difference through Socially Responsive Design
and articulate ’difference’, not just philosophically and politically but also in terms of physical designs, and the design methods embodied within them, that in so doing contribute to socially sustainable communities. Mouffe suggests such activity can play an important role in the hegemonic struggle by subverting the dominant hegemony and by contributing to the construction of new subjectivities.
‘It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognise, accept, and celebrate those differences’. Audrey Lorde Globalisation, technology, commercialisation and individualisation produce constant, complex, rapid and radical global and local societal changes that constitute social challenges. These challenges are typically related to conflict that often takes place over shared resources and services in societal contexts and public space.
Building on developing research into what Thorpe describes as ‘transition tools’, DACRC identified a series of six conflict situations and, working in groups, MAID were asked to design for these conflicting situations choosing one of three methods of address; Empathic Design, Critical Design or Design for Agonistic Pluralism. The purpose of these design approaches was not to resolve the conflict but to challenge hegemony, allowing those involved in the conflict to experience in some measure of intensity the perspective of the other.
Many of these challenges constitute wicked problems, where no single or simple resolution is possible since the requirements of stakeholders are contradictory. In response to these wicked and complex challenges, open, collaborative and participatory creative design approaches have been shown to deliver positive outcomes. Constellations of local, national and international initiatives including Design for Social Innovation and Sustainability (DESIS), the Sustainable Everyday Project (SEP), the Learning Network on Sustainability (LENS), the Partnership for Research and Education on Responsible Living (PERL), the Young Foundation Social Innovation Exchange (SIX) and Social Innovation Europe (SIE) are applying design thinking and design skills to identifying, proposing, prototyping, exchanging and scaling viable solutions to present complex problems (e.g. social cohesion, urban regeneration, healthy food accessibility, water and sustainable energy management) in pursuit of more sustainable ways of living.
Empathy is the ability to project oneself into another realm of experience from which to better understand it. Empathic processes are very important to designers as they are often required to see things from another’s perspective – e.g. that of users or consumers of products or services. These processes enable designers to design with empathy. Design for empathy is concerned with you as a designer undertaking design work that helps others to experience each other’s viewpoint/experience. Critical Design/ Dissonant Design is design that challenges hegemonies and governing mentalities in the design discipline, society and culture at large and Design for Agonistic Pluralism takes on a ‘space’ (or context) in which different, sometimes oppositional, perspectives and powers compete. Design for agonistic space asks the designer to undertake design work that helps others to deliver and accommodate multiple and contradictory outcomes.
However, to assume that viability equates to consensus would be wrong. Wicked design problems deny this opportunity. To paraphrase the poet John Lydgate, as a designer responding to wicked societal challenges, ‘you can’t please all of the people all of the time’ i.e. not everyone will be happy with a given design outcome. The political critic Chantal Mouffe describes the context in which this dissensus occurs as ‘agonistic space’ - that is, a context in which different, sometimes oppositional, perspectives and powers compete. In accepting this reading, society in general functions as an ‘agonistic space’.
This project represents a function for industrial design that moves beyond notions of efficiency and optimisation in service, to industry and fiscal gain and extends the social cultural agency of industrial design. The objects, practices, experiences and networks designed in this project facilitate the construction of publics on and around an issue of conflict so that the conflict might be better understood and expressed. The utility in this form of design comes in the form of discourse and understanding, where opinions are voiced, shared and challenged which might ultimately affect some form of change.
In 2012, MAID worked with the Design Against Crime Research Centre (DACRC) and the Socially Responsive Design and Innovation Hub. Adopting a socially responsive design approach that takes as its primary driver social issues, its main consideration social impact, and its main objective social change, MAID was briefed by DACRC to Design for Difference. The project explored the role of design in relation to ‘agonistic space’, asking the designers not to seek to resolve ‘wicked’ design scenarios but rather to look for ways to facilitate, accommodate
Adam Thorpe and Lorraine Gamman Design Against Crime Research Centre and Socially Responsive Design and Innovation Hub
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Manifesto | Content | Articles | Projects | M/A/I/D Life
Connections
You will be given a number. Number 1 will initiate a chain reaction by creating a mechanism that will trigger a second device created by 2, then 3 and so on until the final member. You should produce your mechanism using materials and processes accessed in the college workshops.
Resource Mapping and Orientation
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Soft Power Tools
M/A/I/D
June 2013
Input!
This project looked at the role and design of artefacts in human/computer interfaces, and the use of research strategies that uncover people’s unexpressed relationships with technology in various contexts. Sponsored and supported by Microsoft, the project focused on the design of input devices - the means by which we put data, information and commands into electronic devices.
Sustainable Luxury You are asked to research and develop positions on these topics, and construct design responses which are relevant to a specific luxury brand: Paul Smith. You will orchestrate your insights to inform design proposals in the category of luggage/travel products or collections thereof. Utilisation
The message can be writtten on the inner bag. The inner bag can be replaced by other colouring bag depends on the usage or emotion to achieve the mischief and lively.
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Student Cooperation with Camper
The Connected Home - Orange Design Contest Share your vision of digital products and services that will change our lives at home, in the next 3 to 5 years. Imagine tomorrow’s connected home in the form of a living scenario that illustrates the everyday benefits for each occupant. Focus on the pattern of living more than the product, but keep an idea of a product or service at the centre of your vision. You can focus on a target market (young people, students, single people, families, house-sharers, seniors, etc.) or on a life moment.
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Soft Power Tools
M/A/I/D
June 2013
Critical Interrogation of Practice
M/A/I/D Life
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