cardboard creations...

'Creativity in Context'...what does it mean to me? In terms of my Spatial project, I am intersested in the use of sustainable materials within my design project for the exterior and interior shells. Presently I have not done much research into such materials, however my previous post has sparked something within me, so I decided to do some further research into cardboard...

I have become interested in the use of cardboard for the interior shell...cardboard is a easily mailable material that can be used in a variety of situations. Cardboard had been previously used for a wide range of uses including an office space for the company 'Nothing' in Amsterdam;
The concept, designed by Alrik Koudenburg and Joost van Bleiswijk, uses cardboard pieces slotted together and constructed without the use of glue or nails. I particularly like how the cardboard has been used to create the beams for the construction of the space, as well as the more refined details such as tables and bookshelves. I was also very impressed with how much the cardboard has been used for within the office, the only extras are the soft furnishings, IT equipment and design materials.

I have also come across a cafe constructed from small cardboard boxes... These boxes were glued together to form walls, seats, tables and a counter from where drinks were sold. Made from 8000 boxes edged with fluorescent orange, the Cardboard Cafe combines minimal design with the notion of recycling and reusing.

I like the temporary-ness of this project and it's impact on the environment. I would be interested to learn what happened to the cardboard boxes following the end of the project, as to whether they were utilised in another project by the designers; B3 Designers.

It was interesting to find that Universities are encouraging the use of cardboard within design concepts... http://www.dsgnwrld.com/finalists-of-cardboard-chair-design-student-competition-unveiled-4652/ Finalists of the Cardboard chair competition are featured, showing the range of designs that cardboard can be used for. My personal favourite is the chair designed in the shape of a doughnut as I like how the cardboard seems to have been woven and intertwined.

sustainable materials...

The final presentation about recycling cardboard has got me thinking about other projects similar to this I have come across during my Exploration in Practice research and previous design projects.

The first is David Stark's use of cardboard boxes to create items of furniture to sell alongside other items within a store. The second was the use of cardboard to create the interior of the Magma Bookstore in London, the cardboard was used for shelving, counters and display stands.

I am quite keen to use recycled materials within my design project and cardboard may be a very useful material for the interior of the installation piece as it is easy to mould and shape and can be replaced cheaply if it gets damaged.

presentation time...

Its been about 2 weeks now since the presentations of the group projects...they seemed to go very well and there was a real mixture of projects, which was extremely interesting.

Presentation 1 - Psychotherapy Consultation Room
The group researched into cognitive therapy rooms for the NHS and their requirements, however following this research the group found the NHS to limiting so looked into designing for the private sector with scope to develop the design in the future for the NHS. Throughout the presentation, the group's focus for the space was the user; the client. The design for the consultation room would evoke a homely/cosy feel, to put the client at ease. The design features a SMART window, which can alter the atmosphere of the room, a back-lit floral patterned wall and hidden storage behind the wall panels to create a clutter free environment. A creative but not intrusive design that fitted the needs of the client and the psychotherapist.

As a group, I felt they researched and presented their design and findings really well however I did feel the verbal presentation did let them down, which could have been easily resolved through practice. This was mentioned during post-presentation discussions and the group did admit that rehearsals of the presentation did not happen. Overall, I enjoyed the presentation and thought that the group used their individual design strengths to great effect.

Presentation 2 - Audi Car Seat
This was a very well researched and sleek presentation with the group discovering a possible gap in the market for the expansion of the Audi car seat. By creating a agency name, the group presented a concept for a new brand of Audi car seats that would be aimed towards buyers of the Audi TT, specifically young professionals. The concept would be to take the work of prolific artists and create bespoke/customized car seats in a complementary material. The idea would offer a further sense of exclusivity to an already exclusive brand. During the presentation the group covered all the areas required by a company, in terms of marketing strategy, design concept and legal concerns.

It was an extremely impressive presentation, which had been clearly well researched and thought out. The use of the group's individual strengths was evident throughout as each group member had been allocated a specific area within the project to work on.

Presentation 3 - Willow Dome Project
This was a different style of presentation to the previous ones...This group were proposing a Public Art workshop session and had researched into how this might be put into practice. As a result the presentation focused on the different areas of a project that needed to be completed in the lead up to running the workshop including where to apply for funding, the design of the workshop and how it would work, where the workshop would take place, liaisons with local schools and the community and deciding on a date for the workshop.

The project itself sounded really exciting as it involved using space within Huddersfield Town Centre normally left vacant to create an event where children and the local community could participate in learning new skills and arts. I found it very encouraging that the group are actually planning to follow this project through providing they obtain funding as it shows that student projects can benefit a wider audience and are not just for university purposes.

Presentation 4 - Public Art Installation "Public Art is Worthless..."
Well this was our group presentation on our project. As a group we had decided to compose a video of the day when we undertook the public art installation as we felt it best described the day and the type of feedback we received from the general public. We also had our completed sculpture in which we had permanently written the comments from the day onto it.

We chose to describe the project to the group before showing the video, outlining our design process and thoughts, management tools and conclusions from the project, however with hindsight I do think we perhaps should have used visuals to support our commentary as it may have been hard for those watching the presentation to understand the project.

We did receive good feedback following the video, with a few asking if we would be carrying out the project as originally planned. At the moment, there is no plan to, however the foundations are there if any of the group do decide to take the project on in the future.

Presentation 5 - Recycling Cardboard
This group were very concerned with the amount of cardboard that was being wasted each year, especially by large corporate companies who use cardboard as a packaging material. The had researched into the various uses of cardboard already in circulation and were amazed by what had already been achieved...cardboard has already been used to construct cars, children's toys, wardrobes and chairs. Among these they featured a flexible chair made from layers of cardboard of the same shape, pulled out in a concertina fashion to create seating. It also was interesting to learn that cardboard can be recycled up to 5 times before the fibres completely disintegrate which suggests more needs to be done to re-use the recycled cardboard already circulation.

The specific group proposal was aimed towards Ikea boxes, in which their flat packed products are transported. The group came up with an idea to use the cardboard boxes to create extra furniture for the buyer; "Buy a chair and get a free table". The free gifts would be related toward the item of bought furniture and would depend on the size of the cardboard box. In theory it seems like an very exciting idea, one which I could see Ikea being interested in, however the logistics of convincing consumers to create these items from the boxes would have to be considered. This was discussed during the presentation, and perforated outlines of the free items was suggested.

regarding the pain of others...

Lecture 2 of 2

On the 1st April, Steve Swindells came to give the second half of his lecture series. This lecture was called 'Regarding the pain of others' which related to the transcript of Susan Sontag's book of the same name. Steve discussed the moral duty and ethical awareness of photographs, specifically photographs of torture and victims of war. Throughout the presentation, no images were shown however at the end we were then asked if we should see the images related to the presentation, this produced a very heated discussion;

- Gender division: Boys are more open to images of violence (video games and films).

- Selfish: we may be traumatised by the images.

- Censorship: we have a right to decided what we should see, our choice.

- Are galleries the right place to for the display of these images?

- Death: fundamental part of life - should be open to images of it.

- The images are a part of our history - we need to be aware of what has happened in the past in order to prevent it in the future.

- Whether we view the images may depend on who is the victim, perpetrator and audience.

- Are we 'innocent'? Is innocence merely distancing ourselves from the truth?

- Everyone is capable of killing if forced...

During the afternoon session, we were asked to respond, in groups, to the discussions from the morning. Can the suffering of others be portrayed in a manner that respects and maintains the human dignity of the victim(s)? How can we best show our creativity when responding to acts of violence without undermining our humanity?

As a group; myself, Emma, Nicola and Dominic decided that we wanted to produce a piece that represented the violence act but without any reference to a specific event and person, to retain the victims dignity. We reponded by preforming a violent act; we slashed the top layer of paper, and then on the underneath layer used red to represent the blood shed, over the top we then wrote some titles from Goya's etchings in spanish. We chose to write the text in spanish to remove/distance the viewer from the act; censoring the piece of art. However at the same time, we also allowed the opportunity for people to take the initiative and investigate further into the topic. Some of the titles used in the piece were; 'Swallow it, dog', 'One can't look', 'And they are like wild beasts' and 'That's tough'.

Yet again, I really enjoyed this lecture and drawing session. I felt I absorbed more from the lecture and the drawing session allowed me to express my thoughts and feelings. The group situation also provoked further discussions on the topic as we had to combine our thoughts to produced a collective piece of work. Overall I was pleased with the result, and after further thought I realised the piece was similar to the work of Lucio Fontana, despite being created for different reasons.

it's been a while...

So its been a few days since the end of creativity in context... we've had a variety of lectures during the module, here's a review of them;

18th March - David Swann 'NHS @ Home'

David presented his PhD research project to the group; it focuses on how design and technology can shape the way health care is delivered, experienced and expected. It was an extremely interesting lecture, as David showed us some of the tools he uses during his day-to-day research which may be of some help to during our individual research projects;

- Phases of research: Knowledge (volume, breadth, complexity), Produce a timeline showing economical, social and technological change in the past and predict for the future, Government sources (Statistics, Cabinet office).
- Engagement: Testing knowledge, Gap analysis, Creating and Expanding Networks, Staking Ownership.
- Theories related to research topics: Gleicher's change formula, Lewin's force-field analysis, Schumpeter's creative destruction theory.
- Methodology: Systematic not reductive, Etic or Emic, Ethnography, Case studies/Delphi studies/Interviews.
- Can you validate your work? Try to engage sponsors/partners from companies who may be interested.

I enjoyed the lecture as it was useful to see how to approach a research topic and the amount of work that needs to be undertaken.

18th March - Mark O'Brien 'Brain-storming'

Mark introduced us to Palojono, a blog dedicated to design research. Its an interesting and up to date blog with useful information on the creative process, research tips, design thinking, and self-centred design. He also talked about the creative process taken from the Design Council's website 'Discover, Drive, Develop, Deliver': It has proved a useful tool for my design research as it helped me to widen the scope of my research before narrowing it down to produce my visual statement.

We also discussed as a group what you would need to establish when taking on a new project, here's what we came up with;

- Competition, History, Features, Form, Stakeholders, Problem in market, Testing, Customers/Users (Surveys, Questionnaires, Interviews, Observations, Current statistics and trends).

RULES for 'Brainstorming'

- Group activity.
- Intensive (Solve problems, Generate ideas, No idea is stupid, Meant to be fun, Anything goes, Don't filter ideas, Number ideas).
- Try to hit a target (60 ideas in 20 minutes?)
- No hierarchy.
- No inhibitions.
- Consider definition of topic.

The lecture was very thought provoking, especially after watching a video about investment in female education in Africa - TheGirlEffect

25th March - Catherine Bradley 'Orlando'

Catherine showed the group the film 'Orlando' (1992), directed by Sally Potter and based on the book by Virginia Wolf. After watching the film, we were asked to read and consider a contextual review of the film.

It was an unusual film that addressed issues of gender and feminism from 1600 to the present day. The film tackles this by using a sexually confused main character; Orlando begins the film as a man and deals with issues related to Death, Love, Poetry and Politics. Orlando then becomes a woman and takes on Society, Sex and Birth.

It was a confusing film to watch for the first time as you soon realise that Orlando is immortal, however it was beneficial to learn about a different form of research and how it may benefit our individual project.

Summary

The three lectures discussed were all valuable in their own way as they helped to broaden my mind, and show how far my research project could expand. It has been extremely useful to receive lectures from guest lecturers as they bring new knowledge and ideas to the group.

our public art installation...

Today was the day for our public art installation... The sculpture has been made, the post-it notes and pens bought, and a space reserved in the university atrium outside the library!

It actually went really well... We spent two and half hours asking passersby to comment on the statement "Public Art is worthless...". We had over 40 people leave comments on our Public Art installation; below are some of the comments left by people on the post-it notes to our statement;

• “It’s good, lovely, gorgeous, and brilliant! Well done.”
• “Public Art is very good for everyone.”
• “...unless it makes a difference!"
• “It depends what it is and where it is – the content and the context.”
• “It depends on where it is placed; if it relates to its surroundings and has a reason to exist then clearly it is not. If it is random then I would think it could be seen as worthless.”
• “Public Art brings culture and expression together in today’s world.”
• “Public Art is not only a waste of taxpayer’s money; it is also a waste of space where other facilities could be placed.”
• “Public Art give you the chance to say it’s worthless.”

We were particulary pleased to have several positive comments from people who disagreed with our statement, as it provides the project with more scope for discussion. During the project, we found many people were hesitant to engage with the project. This reflects some of the statements we came across during our research, that many of us do not interact with art work in our daily life and therefore we assume it to be complicated and are hesitant to engage with it.

Our piece of installation art work with all the participants’ thoughts written on to it will be available for use within the University, as it is a piece of art created by the students of Huddersfield University. Overall it was a positive experience and I felt as a group we worked well in the build up to this day to ensure everything was ready. Today we bonded well as a team, and I thoroughly enjoyed the project. It will also help towards my individual project where I wish to engage the public into communicating their thoughts on a specific topic.

statements on Public Art...

The aim of our Public Art installation is to engage the public by asking them to react/comment to a statement prepared by ourselves. As a group we wanted the statement to reflect public art and its value... We decided to generate three statements each and pick our favourite from the selection;

Emma

• Public Art is worthless.
• Public Art is a waste of government money.
• I wish Public Art was more interactive.

Preete

• Use your imagination and describe an artwork that you would like to see in
  your community.
• Public Art - I think its a fantastic way to showcase art but it should be accessible to all, at
  all times and free!
• Is public art a waste of space?

Toju

• Public Art is intrusive!
• Public Art is just so fantastic, I think the world would be boring without it.
• Public Art is something I really don't care about.

Adarsh

• Public Art is complex.
• Public Art is boring for me.
• I would like to see more Public Art work around me.

(Sadly Dawn is no longer in our group, as she has chosen to change her Masters course)

Personally I feel that the final statement we decide upon needs to be quite short and blunt this will cause the most reaction amongst the general public.

Thoughts on the team project so far... We seem to have bonded very well as a group despite the language barriers. There seems to be no problems communicating ideas and thoughts within group discussions, and I do not feel that anyone has been ignored or their input have been automatically dismissed. I am also pleased that we are maximising the strengths of each team members for the tasks needed to complete the project.