Masters degree graduation ceremony

Myself and my dear friend Katie Coleman

I formally graduated today from my MA in Design Writing Criticism at University of the Arts London. It was a while to wait given that I completed the degree in September 2010, but it was worth it to celebrate with my family and my dear friend and fellow graduate Katie, who was a soul mate and support to me while on the course, congratulations to her, we both worked hard and achieved distinctions.

The Royal Festival Hall on the South Bank, (commissioned for the 1951 Festival of Britain by Festival architect Hugh Casson and designed by architects Leslie Martin, Peter Moro and Robert Matthew) was a perfect venue for the ceremony, afterwards drinks were had on the fifth floor balcony overlooking the Thames.

A proud day that made all the hard work and commitment over two years worthwhile.

Filed under: Education

Almost: From presumptions of design to products of design

Allan Chochinov's ten steps for sustainable design, image courtesy of Treehugger

Tonight I attended a ‘Ravensbourne Late – ‘a new series of industry events exploring future digital media technology development and the importance of innovation and entrepreneurship in all business sectors’ (Ravensbourne) – tonights talk was by Allan Chochinov.

‘Allan Chochinov from Core 77 will be speaking about the role of the designer, education and design paradoxes. He will also be discussing Autism Connects, a competition run in partnership between Core 77 and Autism Speaks encouraging design students to produce innovative technology solutions for people with autism. From myriad near-misses in intent, execution, and promised value, to an examination of the new imperatives of the outputs of design, this talk will offer an alternative in how we view the practice and the pedagogy of design and artifacts’ (Ravensbourne).

This was a fascinating lecture about ‘Products of Design’ (coincidentally this is the name for ‘a new graduate design MFA program in Products of Design at the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York City, focusing on the purposeful, systemic role of artefacts and design offerings in multidisciplinary contexts’ Ravensbourne. The programme is due to launch in Autumn 2012.). However, as I look back through my notes I don’t appear to have written the word autism once (maybe his synopsis to Ravensbourne was an earlier draft), but that grumble aside, intellectually it was a challenging and perceptive navigation through the world of design pedagogy.

Chochinov’s thoughts on ‘what happens if we get it right’ (as opposed to how much designers are told we are getting it wrong (note Victor Papaneck’s Design For The Real World), reminded me of John Thackara’s In The Bubble ‘if we can design our way into difficulty, then we can design our way out’.

Chochinov is a tour de force in discussions of design strategy and innovation, (Ravensbourne are keen to have his input no doubt). With the spotlight on A C Grayling’s New College of the Humanities mission to usurp the coalition government’s funding dearth for the humanities, (Grayling wants to promote the importance of critical thinking and the value of training minds), the SVA has pulled a master stroke in becoming the provider for Chochinov’s new programme.

Chochinov’s ten steps for sustainable design can be found on Treehugger.

Filed under: Education

Can we entangle design and social science? Thoughts from a one-day conference

Still from The Girl Effect video

‘Designers evolve the world bit by bit’

On 24 September 2010, Goldsmiths, University of London held a conference Making and Opening: entangling design and social science. It asked the following questions: How might design and social science speak to each other’s practices? How might social science and design remake one another’s objects?

The conference and its two questions were timely. I had just completed a Master’s degree in Design Writing Criticism where I created an academic zine titledThe Everyday Experiment: Sampling the design, the queer and the politics in the everyday. It is a space where alternative voices – gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered and women – can write about and critique design.

The sociologist Anthony Giddens’ theory of everyday experiments gave a name to, and a theoretical framework for the zine. Giddens wrote in TheTransformation of Intimacy: ‘Everyday experiments are where interpersonal existence is being thoroughly transfigured, involving us all in what I shall call everyday social experiments, with which wider social changes more or less oblige us to engage’. In later writings Giddens argues that the changing role of tradition is because of the individual’s increasing self-reflexivity. He suggests that the experiments we are making everyday are in part influenced by abstract systems on a global level, in areas of material technology and specialized social expertise.

The enchanting and humourous Harvey Molotch, Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis at New York University told delegates that ‘designers evolve the world bit by bit’. The everyday experiments that designers are engaged with in their working lives, have an impact that transcends the immediate. Change happens over time, with tradition playing a fundamental role in shaping how design evolves.

Writing originating from social science, in combination with writing about design, shaped The Everyday Experiment‘s content and form. Through the process of entangling design and social science, I agree with Professor Lucy Suchman of Lancaster University. In her closing comments at the conference Suchman suggested writing provides a bridge between the practice of design and the more linear academic discipline of social science. Earlier in the day, Dr Nina Wakeford, director of INCITE (INcubator for Critical Inquiry into Technology and Ethnography) based at Goldsmith’s, gave delegates a light-hearted, but thought-provoking soundbite: ‘designers pitch and sociologists submit’ reinforcing the practical/academic binary of the disciplines.

Writing can combine both pitching and submitting. Writing’s ability to transcend and breakdown the preconceptions of the disciplines, is a pre-requisite for entanglement. This is illustrated in the animated film that promotes the Girl Effect campaign (see girleffect.org) that Michelle Murphy, Associate Professor, Women and Gender Studies Institute at the University of Toronto used to begin presenting her paper. The strength of the three minute film is the powerful sense of urgency and clarity in the writing, combined with a bold, arresting typographic animation. On first viewing the film’s message is inspiring, invest in an adolescent girl in a developing country and not only she, but her family, village, country and ultimately the whole world benefits. However, when Murphy revealed that the Nike Foundation created the campaign, she expressed what most of us were thinking, ‘hope had become a non-innocent proposition’. Nike had a precarious history concerning child labour and the gender divide was poignant, Murphy says, ‘Brown boys offer a lower rate of return, the girl is a better investment as she is already undervalued’. As a case study, the Girl Effect film is polemical. Set aside the ethical issue and Nike has managed to entangle a social issue with design resulting in a tremendously powerful outcome.

If writing is the conduit through which design and social science can be entangled, then  courses like MA Design Writing Criticism can facilitate opportunities for students to employ methodologies that – are both practical and academic – to make entanglement a reality.

This article was written for the London Design Festival Blog

Filed under: Education