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Leveraging biologically inspired design as an effective instructional strategy
Get PDFThe project(s) addressed by this paper have been undertaken by graduate students in the MID program within the School of Industrial Design at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Georgia Tech offers both two and three year graduate programs, the longer program being intended for students without undergraduate training in design. As such, they lack basic design skills or familiarity with the design process. This prerequisite “certificate year” of studies is comprised of two semesters, intended to help students develop the skills and understanding needed for the subsequent two years of study. Most of the initial semester is focused on basic design skill building – specifically form, proportions, spatial relationships, structure, problem definition, user research, basic anthropometry, 2D visualization and model fabrication to name a few. The first opportunity for students to apply these skills to a complete project has traditionally been a lighting-themed design project in which biologically-inspired design (BID) is used as a model for developing design solutions. Since 2013, this BID approach has been applied in 8 of 11 years, to projects undertaken by 72 graduate students, collaborating with professors from Georgia Tech’s Center for Biologically Inspired Design who introduce the concept of biologically inspired design, discuss case studies where the BID process has been particularly effective, and to provide input & feedback throughout the design process to help guide the students as subject matter experts (SME) on BID. Students are given a project brief that details how students must identify a lighting-related problem and a biological inspiration that can be leveraged in solving the problem through design, along with specific project requirements. In an effort to facilitate identification of a biological inspiration, the class typically visits the local zoo or aquarium as a group with a focus on the unique characteristics of different organisms that might be utilized or emulated to innovate effective design solutions. This break from the routine has typically been both motivating and fun for the students who become very engaged in this project. While there are numerous approaches to the design process (i.e. Double Diamond, Circular Design Process, Design Thinking, Engineering Design Process etc.) using BID as a model for introducing the design process to new students has proven to be particularly effective. The final deliverables resulting from this effort frequently are outstanding – despite the fast pace of this project. This paper details how Biologically Inspired Design (BID) has been used successfully as a means of introducing the design process to graduate students
Just like me but not exactly: AI, anthropomorphism & the human-technology gap
Get PDFWhile artificial intelligence (AI) design continues to aspire towards romanticised visions of intelligence and human-likeness, the increasing dichotomy between its technological and social facets has given rise to tangible evidence of surveillance, inequality and discrimination. This evidence emphasises a pressing need for systems more aligned with human expectations and values, but computationally, it remains extremely difficult to embed concepts as fundamentally fluid and situational as value and meaning. Such difficulty has led present-day research to formalise these intricate principles of human behaviour, in all their complexity, through predictive machine learning models built on data extracted from how people behave not in relationship to AI but in the absence of it. This research proposes that the inseparability of the AI social artefact from the Human entails, foremost, an understanding of the interaction between concept (humanlike design) and percept (anthropomorphism). Consequently, the effect of these variables on each other is explored in two stages: first by reviewing whether our mental models of humanlike AI are built on pre-existing knowledge and schemas of other people (Just Like Me), and second, by probing their homogeneity with respect to their corresponding human counterparts (But Not Exactly). Building on the results of these initial investigations, this study demonstrates that the locus of the interaction, in practice, cannot be neatly extracted from manipulating the correlation of these variables, but rather by looking at how it is continuously constituted in the dynamic between the two. With combinations of effects born in the fleeting concept-perception interaction, it is concluded that very few behavioural patterns and mental models can truly be universalised, and for the most part, one context cannot be neatly applied to the next. To address this epistemological limitation, the present study proposes a novel methodological approach – taking influence from cognitive dissonance theory – that requires the designer/researcher to locate themselves in the complexity of this socio-technical world and to reflect on how their interventions impact that which they are observing. In addition to providing a visual method of investigating the interaction, the proposed approach is ultimately intended as a design strategy for addressing the nonlinear and often chaotic dynamics of an emergent field of study: the Human-AI
Maintaining the sacred
No full textMaintaining the Sacred: on April 15, 2022, in the course of an incursion into the Haram al Sharif in Jerusalem, Israeli forces destroyed 30 colored glass windows (qamariyyas) in the Dome of the Rock and Aqsa Mosque. Each window, of hand-carved plaster with individually inset pieces of glass, takes six months to remake. The technique is a dying craft with a few practitioners in Yemen, one in Cairo, and another in Jerusalem. The reconstruction of the windows is currently blocked by the Israeli authorities, but it would take 15 years to repair all of them. This installation is in honor of the history of craft, the worshippers seeking a connection with the spiritual world despite the fragility of the space, and to the bodies protecting our public space
The graphic language of Neville Brody 3
No full textWhat are the current and future roles and functions of graphic design? How did we get here, and where are we heading? If any, what are the responsibilities of graphic design? How can graphic design effect change? How can we open up to different thinking, and simultaneously bridge the gap between commercial and experimental design? This book, the third volume of a series of monographs on the work of graphic designer and art director Neville Brody and authored by Adrian Shaughnessy with Brody, explores these themes in depth over more than 100 design projects and systems primarily created within the previous thirty years. The texts, while explaining the process and precise strategies and reasoning behind the works themselves, also explores and challenges contemporary thinking in the field and proposes new insights relevant to graphic design culture and industry. As such, it represents a summation and oversight of the current status of graphic design, and details its development since 1994, the publication date of the previous volume, through Brody’s work. Divided into five chapters with different subject themes, the book explores a wide gamut of output including experimental publications (FUSE); editorial design; branding; type design and typographic design; identity system-building; and exploratory graphic expression. Demonstrating through a number of examples different ways to approach and explore core challenges and possibilities, the book also includes two transcribed lectures around the broader subject of graphic design and its potential for positive impact within society
Revolutionary enclosures (until the apricots)
No full textRevolutionary Enclosures (Until the Apricots). 2023 Resin apricots, stairwell, wallpaper, framed letter, image transfer on radiator, archival image on lightbox, hand blown glass, patinated copper bus tickets, bathtub with sound and HD video projection Produced by Sharjah Art Foundation Jasbir Puar and Dima Srouji build upon their respective work in architecture, visual art and decolonial theory to produce a collaborative examination of colonial pathologies. Revolutionary Enclosures (Until the Apricots) (2023) is a series of household items that respond to the material conditions of different kinds of lockdown, interweaving the artists’ experiences of COVID-19 quarantine with their memories of the Second Intifada (2000–2005). The work reframes everyday objects emblematic of the trauma of enclosure for Palestinians besieged by air raids as symbols of resilience, community and caregiving and gestures towards the daily remaking of the commons under the constraints of siege and containment
“Please keep on beating”— participation in a creative workshop offers unexpected benefits to women with Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy
Get PDFTakotsubo cardiomyopathy (TCM) or “broken heart syndrome” is a rare condition that is more common in women than men, particularly those who are postmenopausal. It mimics a myocardial infarction and psychological factors have been implicated in its etiology as well as being consequences of its presentation. As part of a public engagement project we brought together 8 women (of 12 invited) previously diagnosed with TCM to facilitate a discussion, through participation in a creative workshop-based process, about their illness experience, how they made sense of it, and the meaning it had for them in their lives, and to identify areas of unmet need. Through a range of creative activities we identified that participants had high levels of unmet need in terms of information and psychosocial support. All participants enjoyed the creative process and meeting other people with a diagnosis of TCM. The workshop overall was perceived as empowering. Exploring patient narratives during artist-facilitated workshops is one approach for providing the first steps to addressing unmet need, although the importance of ensuring psychological safety cannot be over-stated
Identifying and analysing UK fashion micro-clusters: Building regional supply chains that foster sustainable approaches and circular economies
Get PDFThe UK Fashion and Textiles industry contributed almost £20 billion to the UK economy in 2020 and remains a major UK employer with 500,000 jobs supported across design, manufacturing and retail. The covid-19 pandemic and post Brexit landscape exposed the UK industries reliance on long, global supply chains as well as restricting access to skilled workers. In parallel to these events the sector faces further challenges to address sustainability and circular economy agendas and transition to net zero by 2050. The UK sector is dominated by fashion design and manufacture Micro and SME businesses, though more economically vulnerable than larger businesses, they have demonstrated the ability to be more agile in response to external factors causing supply chain disruptions (such as Brexit and Covid), as well as adapt to more sustainable practices. However, accessing UK supply chain networks, at an appropriate scale and quality to support the growth of these businesses is an increasing challenge. This paper outlines findings from qualitative research evaluating the benefits to UK based micro and SME fashion businesses from being co-located within regional micro-clusters. It looks at the regional activities being undertaken by fashion firms working within micro-clusters and the challenges they face in the post Brexit & Covid landscape, as well as specific sustainability challenges. It finds that regional fashion micro-clusters act as localised networks developing and providing access to skills and services for businesses based within them. Recommendations for programme and policy initiatives to support the development of cluster & cross cluster communities to enable wider access to these developing UK supply chain networks are suggested. These include, investment in fashion micro-clusters as innovation hubs as well as supporting the expansion of businesses operating within them into New Markets
Spekyng Rybawdy
No full textSpekyng Rybawdy is the latest and most ambitious incarnation of Melanie Jackson’s ongoing project exploring the transgressive narratives and explicit symbolism of Medieval pilgrim bawdy badges. Through a carnival of colourful, erotically charged characters in an installation of sculpture animation, and drawing, Spekyng Rybawdy encourages us to re-examine not only our ideas about who took part in the production and circulation of imagery in the medieval period – but also how this might enable us to reconsider the origins of dissenting representations, sexual politics and our attitudes and behaviours today. Spekyng Rybawdy parades a multitude of joyfully itinerant and powerfully subversive characters straight out of medieval obscurity and into the flickering light of 21st Century gender politics, sexual diversity, structures of desire, social reproduction, consumption, power and State
A home with a future. Digital domesticity and the vague fictions of Silicon Valley
Get PDFThe last two decades have seen an explosion in the numbers of digital devices that “weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life.” Here we bring to critical attention the material, ethical and spatial consequences of integrating digital devices in physical spaces. We concentrate on the way Silicon Valley constructs a narrative of digital domesticity. Harriet Riches uses the term to describe online magazines that seek to revive hand-made crafts, domestic life, and a yearning for the slower pace of a, ironically, pre-digital life. We reflect on the way that Silicon Valley makes use of vague fictions—narratives that blur the divide between present and future—as a way of presenting us with a vision of domestic life that is at once nostalgic of social forms and accommodating of new technologies
Extended senses: Embodying technology
Get PDFThis Special Issue is a series of articles generated from the Extended Senses Symposium 2022, held at University of Greenwich, 8–9 September 2022, including an exhibition (8–10 September in the Stephen Lawrence Gallery). The main theme of the symposium was to explore ways to extend and expand the body through new and emerging modalities and technologies. Focusing primarily on the body as a site of knowledge production within this field, it highlighted immersion, haptic engagement and evolving body led interfaces to understand and enable the bridge between the analogue and the digital realms. Participants were encouraged to present socially responsible work engaged with issues such as: the climate crisis and environmental sustainability, data ethics, personal data ownership, surveillance and privacy, women’s health and equality and other urgent issues that affect the body. Talks and artwork traversed between the physical and the virtual, including but not limited to, electronic or smart textiles, research exploring multimodal interfaces and human–technology interaction, dance, theatre, music and other performance modes, as well all work that engages with technology to translate different embodied senses and experiential sensations