thinking about things

Nothing like the picture - Zee El Mikatti

Next up is Zee El Mikatti. Zee’s project ‘Nothing like the picture’ was an investigation into the use, mis-use and subversion of instructions. The main reason I’m writing about this project is the idea of interpretation within the design/making process – I’m currently working on a project that explores the leaps of faith, translations and interpretations within design drawing and modelling.

Zee started her project by cutting up instructions, in a Burroughs-esque manner, then following the new instructions she made new objects. The first example of this was origami, she used the frog as an example.

The pictures below show three different shapes remade using cut up instructions. What I like about this is that you can see a faint glimmer of the former animal – unfortunately they have become mutated – they’re freaks!

Zee became interested in how this method could be used as a generative tool for new forms of furniture. She started applying the method to traditionally simple objects (in terms of making processes). My favourite experiment was with the construction of a birdhouse. By reordering the instructions, a fantastic range of objects was produced.

In Zee’s viva she explained that in order to follow the cut-up instructions she had to interpret them within the context of making – some things didn’t make sense, or follow on from the previous step, so she had to make judgments and decisions in order to make the object work. For me, it’s the gap between instruction and object that is fascinating (and the interpretations that are made), mainly because I believe this gap exists in many forms within the design process, I’d even go as far to say that the way in which the gap is crossed is where the real poetry in design lives.

In the move between 2D and 3D (more specifically, between the sketch drawing and the maquette or prototype) a translation occurs, however experienced you are in drawing a 3 dimensional object, the physical reality always behaves differently. But in the move, the journey between dimensions, really exciting things happen.

Drawing leaps of faith - Nadine Jarvis

First up is Nadine Jarvis. Nadine started the year by examining the concept and word ‘zero’. Although zero is essentially an immaterial concept, Nadine wanted to study it from a material basis – I’m guessing that this was to avoid falling into the trap of merely illustrating mathematical and philosophic concepts, but instead letting her design process embody the area of interest.

Nadine went through many material investigations about how materials marched towards nothingness – how they degrade and sublimate. At the early stage she also looked at death and re-birth, which took her to a series of investigations into the semi-mythical 21grms (the mysterious amount of weight lost at the moment of death – i.e. your soul). She then dropped this as a direction.

Nadine continued to experiment with materials that degraded, one of the material focuses for this was sellotape – which degrades under UV light. This is the point were she was most lost in the project; she was experimenting with materials but had no idea what it was she was designing (where it was situated, who is was for, what the material would do).

This is where she started drawing. As many of you know I’m rather obsessed by drawing, I think it’s essential within the design process, not just as a means to represent something, but as a way to think, to create, to ideate. Drawing allows wonderful leaps of thinking that can move a project into new and unknown territories. This is the part of Nadine’s project I’d like to highlight (when she showed me her drawings I got tingles down my spin – yes, I really do get this excited about drawing).

The first drawing shows her trying to find a context that has high levels of UV – i.e. the windowsill in your home, the drawing presents a couple of objects commonly found on a windowsill - a lamp, a photo frame and a vase.

In the next drawing the vase becomes a highbred between vase and urn (due to its shape and position on the windowsill), it also has a split line that runs down the centre of the urn/vase made out of sellotape – with the passage of time the sellotape degrades and the vase/urn splits, becoming useless. It is here that drawing (in the hands of Nadine) does its magic, the ideas that had been influencing and intriguing Nadine came together in a tiny moment, but this was enough to accelerate her project.

Nadine ended up designing three sets of memorials/urns for her final show. The first is closest to the initial drawing, it is called ‘Rest in Pieces’ and is a slip cast porcelain urn that hangs in tree, a thread biodegrades over a 2-3 year period, until the urn falls, smashes and scatters the ashes – leaving a small toggle with the initials of the deceased hanging in the tree.

The second object is similar and is called ‘Bird Feeder’, a proportion of the deceased ashes are mixed with bees wax and cast into mould. Over time birds land on the perch (inscribed with the deceased name) and slowly eats the feeder, completing a rather disturbing (but beautiful) circle of life.

The final object(s) is probably my favourite, because of its connection with drawing (if I die, I want this to happen to me!). ‘Carbon Copies’ is an urn/memorial in the form of a pencil case, the ashes from the body are turned into graphite (in the same way that they are for lifegem) and then made into pencils. An average size body makes approximately 250 pencils. The pencils are housed in an unopenable box that has a window to show the number of pencils left. As the pencils are used and sharpened, the box fills with the sharpenings (retaining all ‘left over’ elements). Nadine resisted designing the place of writing (the notebook, the diary etc.), which on reflection is one of the real strengths of the project, this leaves the act of using the pencils open (what would write or draw with your loved one?), retaining the individuals need to keep mourning personal and individual.

One of the things that most impressed me most is the way that Nadine managed to negotiate a difficult and sensitive issue with grace, humour and poetry.

Goldsmiths Design 2006

Every year I go through the rather stressful phase of helping and supporting final year undergraduate students to put up their degree shows. Only this year have I realised that I don’t ever write about the work. So I’m going to. Primarily for three reasons, firstly, to reflect on their work to see how the course is developing – to examine how the educational programme that we put in place is reflected in the final designed outcomes. Secondly, to highlight interesting ideas, whether the student knows it or not, that comes from the work – larger themes that I believe are either interesting or important to design. And thirdly, to promote people who I believe are some of the countries best design graduates.

DISCLAIMER: Although I have been involved in the marking of these projects, my writing here is on a personal basis, and my interest in the projects doesn’t reflect the marks of these student’s degrees. For any student that reads this and thinks ‘why hasn’t he included my work?’ - my selection is based on some of my primary interests – to name a few: technology, drawing, the construction of urban space and design as research.