Take two industrial designers, located near opposite poles of the globe. Have them build an object together, without speaking in-person. What emerges?
Two clearly distinct bowls that "kind of carry on a conversation with each other," said Megan Strickfaden, a professor of material culture and design in the Department of Human Ecology.
Her collaboration with Berto Pandolfo, a design professor from Sydney, Australia, explores several topics that are timely in the world of modern design. Among them, can mass-produced objects reflect both local and global values, and what does digital craftsmanship look like over a long distance?
Answers are on view at the Design Latitudes exhibition in the Fine Arts Building Gallery, in the guise of those two bowls.
Their shape and rows of decorative holes were negotiated by Strickfaden and Pandolfo via email, and CAD files and models. Each designer then printed out a 3D bowl and further manipulated it to reflect their interpretation of north or south.
Strickfaden stitched a wool "jacket" onto her bowl, filled some holes with tufts of wool in colours that suggest the northern lights, others with wood bits. The Australian bowl is airier. Some holes are empty while all others sport one-coloured wood that evokes different-sized grains of sand.
The surprising choice of similar colours and materials reminds us that as mass-producers our objects invariably carry both global and local meaning, said Strickfaden, although they needn't look identical. The ideal design is true to both audiences.
"In general, the Design Latitudes exhibit is about … how can we create stuff that's going to be valued?"
That theme is echoed in the three other exhibits by Human Ecology students.
Nicole Gaudet's film loop, Dementia Care By Design, was made with Strickfaden and videographer Steven Hope after a visit to De Hogeweyk Village in the Netherlands, an alternative approach care site for people with dementia.
Its housing, retail and community spaces are contained within a secure border, allowing residents to engage in social and individual activities, enjoying everyday objects (from kitchen tools to streets) that might be deemed unsafe for them elsewhere.
"It's about how we can design a different kind of dementia care," said Strickfaden, who with master's candidate Gaudet is completing a longer documentary on the village, for release this summer or fall.
With PhD student Adolfo Ruiz, Strickfaden made the film Evolving Lines. Its purpose was to develop a research method by which Ruiz can fully document the rich meaning cultural objects have for a group of Dene people. This film's (non-Dene) participants not only recorded stories about a favourite object, they also drew and wrote text about it.
"So it's getting at a more visceral, multi-sensual breadth of experience," said Strickfaden.
Also aiming for visceral discoveries, Carlos Fiorentino's Biometric Approach to Inform and Inspire Design is a short film loop that introduces viewers to how plants, insects and other life forms in nature develop and use colour. The PhD student's research explores whether mimicking colour manipulations can improve design, said Strickfaden, much the way that Velcro fasteners were developed by mimicking the burrs on certain plants.
The Design Latitude exhibition runs through June 6.
Two clearly distinct bowls that "kind of carry on a conversation with each other," said Megan Strickfaden, a professor of material culture and design in the Department of Human Ecology.
Her collaboration with Berto Pandolfo, a design professor from Sydney, Australia, explores several topics that are timely in the world of modern design. Among them, can mass-produced objects reflect both local and global values, and what does digital craftsmanship look like over a long distance?
Answers are on view at the Design Latitudes exhibition in the Fine Arts Building Gallery, in the guise of those two bowls.
Their shape and rows of decorative holes were negotiated by Strickfaden and Pandolfo via email, and CAD files and models. Each designer then printed out a 3D bowl and further manipulated it to reflect their interpretation of north or south.
Strickfaden stitched a wool "jacket" onto her bowl, filled some holes with tufts of wool in colours that suggest the northern lights, others with wood bits. The Australian bowl is airier. Some holes are empty while all others sport one-coloured wood that evokes different-sized grains of sand.
The surprising choice of similar colours and materials reminds us that as mass-producers our objects invariably carry both global and local meaning, said Strickfaden, although they needn't look identical. The ideal design is true to both audiences.
"In general, the Design Latitudes exhibit is about … how can we create stuff that's going to be valued?"
That theme is echoed in the three other exhibits by Human Ecology students.
Nicole Gaudet's film loop, Dementia Care By Design, was made with Strickfaden and videographer Steven Hope after a visit to De Hogeweyk Village in the Netherlands, an alternative approach care site for people with dementia.
Its housing, retail and community spaces are contained within a secure border, allowing residents to engage in social and individual activities, enjoying everyday objects (from kitchen tools to streets) that might be deemed unsafe for them elsewhere.
"It's about how we can design a different kind of dementia care," said Strickfaden, who with master's candidate Gaudet is completing a longer documentary on the village, for release this summer or fall.
With PhD student Adolfo Ruiz, Strickfaden made the film Evolving Lines. Its purpose was to develop a research method by which Ruiz can fully document the rich meaning cultural objects have for a group of Dene people. This film's (non-Dene) participants not only recorded stories about a favourite object, they also drew and wrote text about it.
"So it's getting at a more visceral, multi-sensual breadth of experience," said Strickfaden.
Also aiming for visceral discoveries, Carlos Fiorentino's Biometric Approach to Inform and Inspire Design is a short film loop that introduces viewers to how plants, insects and other life forms in nature develop and use colour. The PhD student's research explores whether mimicking colour manipulations can improve design, said Strickfaden, much the way that Velcro fasteners were developed by mimicking the burrs on certain plants.
The Design Latitude exhibition runs through June 6.