Continuation from the dancing sperm :P
Okay so now we get onto the student works and these are mostly award winning, internationally recognized thesis's and student projects, i didnt take many notes on them they were mostly products so i'll try attach the links for you to check them out.
The first guys name was Joshua Brunn from Switzerland and he likes human-centered products and i honestly cant remember what his thesis was based on, but he's focusing on designing a Rocket Bean bag which can be used as a couch and then can stand up straight too.. he says "my friend said it could be a possible space saving benefit that the couch will stand, but I just think it's cool to have a rocket in your living room" .. Interesting character. I couldnt find an image of the rocket but its pretty literal. He also designed this light called Lampe Petit Central (bellow), that small black bar turns and you can face the light wherever you want, it was inspired by a concrete drill.
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next was Howard Chambers and another guy i didnt get his name (sorry dude) but they designed a product called Softwalks. This is a system of seating, counters, planters and other street furniture which fits onto scaffolding. It was inspired by the scaffolding in New York which is said to create a dead area where people don't want to be, so they created this and now there are multiple uses for the scaffolding and it helps enhance the city. Check out their website http://citysoftwalks.com/ heres a visual below of the seat.
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Next was Michael Grigoriev, and i'm genuine when i say no one understood what he presented. We had a tea break right after he spoke and this one guy walking infront of me asked his friend what that was about and he was also unsure.. He was strange though, he seemed like more of a market annalist than anything else. He spoke about his belief in how collective intelligence and a group based solution is more successful. So 2 heads are better than 1, in other words. And then he spoke about some project in Canada about how the aboriginal people in Canada are talking their issues into their own hands.... this is honestly all i understood.
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but after this not so great presentation came a totally weird presentation. Marguerite Humeau (click her name to go to her website). This girl is very um.. unique, and shes been working on this trilogy for her thesis based on prehistoric sounds. So she looked at 3 extinct animals and tried to develop models of their larynx and simulate what they might have sounded like. But her process and how she went about all this was incredible, she found fossils and looked at decedents of these creatures trying to figure it out.. oh and if that wasnt strange enough she leaves us with the next project shes working on which is some communication device that will speak to aliens and extraterritorial life.. my mouth was probably open the entire time she spoke... BIG "wat the..." expression. best is to check her website
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Next is Pieter-Jan Pieters (his parents like the name Pieter), he based his thesis on music and instruments that work with natural kinetics and body movements that occur when we listen to music, so like finger and foot tapping, waving etc, and he designed 5 instruments that connect or feed off of these movements to make the sound. The instruments are named WOB (which is the wave movement), Finger (finger tapping), kick (pretend kick drum), hart (tracks your heartbeat) and lastly draw(where you draw dots or lines and you scan that to pick up sound)... watch the video after the pics :)
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Then there was Wael Morcos and he focused on more graphics again and typography. He was from Lebonon and he says there are so many Arabic handwritings and symbols that look similar you can give someone a word and someone else the same word and they'll both read different things but they'll both be right depending on their dialect.. I was tired at this point and couldnt grasp this too much, Arabic font is not really my interest at 4pm.
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Then there was Leanie van der Vyver, who entitled her thesis 'scary beautiful' which is a play on how fashion can so easily brainwash people. She used the example of heels and how they have benefits for woman like correcting posture and create a sensualness to the body. She then investigates and questions our ideals of beauty and how this changes our view of our bodies. In her better words
"The conclusion of my thesis investigation was that people are not satisfied with what they look like and that perfection according to beauty and fashion standards has reached a climax. Humans are playing God by physically and metaphorically perfecting themselves. Beauty is currently at an all time climax, allowing this project to explore what lies beyond perfection. Scary Beautiful challenges current beauty ideals by inflicting unexpected new beauty standards."
“Just being human is not good enough anymore nor has it ever been. What is very clear is that people are not satisfied with what they were naturally born with. Neither the prehistoric cave dweller nor modern man has ever considered the human body aesthetically satisfactory."
watch the vid below, she explains much better! But she makes an impact, i know Lady Gaga used these in one of her music videos, very cool
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Ok so the student thesis works are done :) I'm glad our lecturers dont push us into these hectic ways in our thesis year :) dont get any ideas..
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Oscar Diaz was the is a kief product designer.
He is best known for designing the ink calender where over time the ink absorbs into the calender to tell you what day of the month it is.
But just in general a really cool guy that believes small changes to existing products can make an improvement to the product and the user of the product. no matter how small the improvement is its always better. check his webiste http://www.oscar-diaz.net/ and his simple products.
He did a challenge where he redesigned or 'fixed' 10 objects in 10 days.. so he went into 1pound shops to look for these products and fix them, things like an orange juicer, torch and door lock and rubbish bin were taken to look at.
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Then lastly for day one they had a really important and inspirational guy named John Maeda. He knows his stuff, but in a nutshell his whole talk was about leadership and the difference between creative leaders and ordinary leaders (obviously creative leaders were better) and in and out this lecture he used really cool examples and theories.
He said Design and Data is important, without data, design would simply be art.
His one theory was based on glue where creative people are spray glue (quick and new and can solve temporarily for the latest problem but not long lasting) and ordinary people are wood glue (which is slow and painful and frustrating but hard to pull apart) so basically both have good and bad. Spray glue peels which is a representation of our ability to solve problems easily but it isnt going to work forever because we solve the problem with the data given to us now. Ordinary people look at the long term and take a really long time to make decisions and act on those decisions. Creative people are better tho because the world and its problems will always be developing with whats happening in the now..
Another good example he used was the Octopus Concept. The octopus obviously has a brain but what many people dont know is that an octopuses tenticles or 8 legs have an ability to think or act upon their own choices but these choices generally benefit the octopus as a whole. So imagine we have a creative leader as the brain and the tenticles would act as the different parts that make up a group of leaders and are always helping the unit as a whole. He says this is the ideal democratic situation. It doesnt always work out though unfortunately as we all know. But ja there was much more to his talk its just difficult to explain it, best is to google him and his books :) He's been around for a while so could be hectic :)
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Anyways Thanks for reading :)
I'll post day 2 and day 3 tomorrow after day 3 is complete
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