Business Proposal

For the next stage of our Design studies, we have been asked to create a business which would appeal to post-consumers, like the one we created for the previous assignment. Our idea was to create a website for hillwalkers, similar to a package holiday website. This website would provide the opportunity for walkers to search for a route, book accommodation and transport, hire equipment and get in touch with other walkers who are of the same experience as them who may want to join them. We found that although there was walking websites available, most of them only provided links to other websites for accommodation and transport, meaning the user would have to book everything separately. Our website would eliminate this and mean that booking a hillwalking trip would be much easier, quicker, and therefore stress-free.

GIDE 2011

Last week our course travelled to Magdeburg for the 2011 GIDE International event. A number of students from the seven participating countries (Scotland, England, Slovenia, Switzerland, Italy, Belgium and Germany) all attended, and we were put into groups with students from these countries.

Our group went to visit "Experimentelle Fabrik" in Magdeburg, which is a development and research centre which tests products for the 'CE' mark.

"The main project of the Experimental Factory integrates several individual projects which research the development, production, experiments and tests of new innovative products in the field of mechanical engineering. "

We were then asked to design and make a game. After mind mapping in our groups, we came to the idea of 'stepping stones'. We split into smaller groups and each created out own 'stepping stone', before linking them all together to create an obstacle course-like game.

The game was created to be played against another person, with each player having a 'jumping board', which they used to jump from one obstacle to another. At each obstacle the player had to complete the task, pick up a cube from the other end, and then go back through the obstacle before moving onto the next one. The player who collects all four cubes first wins.

Post Consumer Profile - Peter Smith

Our second assignment was to create a profile of a post consumer. To take a different view on this task, we decided to make a facebook profile of what we feel a post consumer would be like:

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001952368482

Peter Smith is a middle aged man, who volunteers for charities like Oxfam. His interests include environmentally-friendly things such as hybrid cars, and he is also into locally produced food, and likes growing his own vegetables in an allotment. Peter enjoys outdoor activities such as hillwalking and cycling, which are not only good for the environment but they also keep him healthy.

Personality test

Individually, our group took part in the VARK personality questionnaire. I found that although the questions were good, some of them were vague, and on a number of occasions I found that my answer was not a straight forward agree or disagree, but that it would depend entirely on the situation. In some circumtances I would agree with the statement and others I wouldn't, it would depend on factors such as the project, the group I was working with and the part I was playing in the groupwork.

My results found that I was moderate in both activist and theorist, however after reading the information about each group, I felt that I was most strongly an activist. This was also what one of the members of my group which I have worked closely with and am friends with thought I was.

For the most part, our group found that quite a lot of the results to the test were a bit wrong and did not fall into the group that they thought they would. Our group found we have a fair mixture of people in different groups, with four activists, one theorist, two reflectors and one pragmatist. I feel that this works well in our group, as a mixture of all the personality groups should be.

Technology Addiction (2) GIDE

It was interesting to see that many people said they could live without technology, so we decided to create a timeline of all the major technological discoveries - this ranged from fire to the most recent developments such as 'facetime' on the new iPhone 4 this year.

We then created a wall of images of different types of technology (and not just the obvious things) and we ask again - can you really love without technology?

Are we addicted to technology?

GIDE continued..

We are currently researching into Domestechtopia, and through this, technology addiction. Technology is becoming a more and more prominent part of our everyday lives, and many people will admit that they cannot live without it. Our generation has grown up with technology as part of life, and with more new technologies being discovered all the time, it is hard not to become caught up in it. But has it gone too far? Technology addiction is now being known as a real medical condition, especially in teenagers and young people, and therapy for this addiction is becoming more common. The Capio Nightingale Hospital in London was the first hospital to create a clinic to deal with the addiction of technology in young people. It admits mainly 15-7 year olds, but even children as young as 12 have been accepted. The clinic provides therapy for young people struggling with a continued addiction to technology. Patients are made to go 'cold turkey' from all technology, often causing symptoms typical of addiction, such as restlessness and stress. Individual and group sessions are in place to encourage them to interact with others and to address social issues that people with this addiction often face, like difficulties in social situations with other people.

We carried out a couple of surveys to see how addicted people around the art school were to technology, and what items they could not live without. The questionnaire results were interesting, with some people appearing very addicted to technology, and others not so much. Some students admitted to spending more time on social networking sites than with real people, and checked their emails "far too much", on excess of five times a day. Some pointed out that with the technology of smartphones, their emails get sent directly to their phone so are as available as a text message. Others said they could live without technology, although they wouldn't necessarily want to, and that their idea of utopia would not centre around technology. Some said they spent nothing on technology each month, whereas some said they spent on average of £50 - a lot of money for a student!!

We asked people to write down a piece of technology they could not live without, and the most popular results were laptops, hair straighteners, internet, iPod (or other music devices), and mobile phones - with iPhones appearing to be the most commonly mentioned, but there were many items of technology mentioned:

Whether iPhones seemed to be mentioned most could be for more than one reason: are they the most common type of mobile phone used these days, or are they simply more addictive than others, and people feel they cannot live without them due to the fact that they are useful for more than one thing - they have an integrated iPod, camera, text, phone, email account, internet, and thousands of apps to choose from.

The most visited sites seem to be Facebook and design sites (although the people who filled out the questionnaire were mainly design students), which poses another question - is the internet addictive, or are social networking sites?

Bomb Project

‘The problem is never how to get new, innovative thoughts into your mind, but how to get old ones out. Every mind is a building filled with archaic furniture. Clean out a corner of your mind and creativity will instantly fill it.’ Dee Hock

Over the last 3 days, all four years of IED have taken part in a group project called 'Bomb Project'. The idea was to create "a 3D reinterpretation, or a conceptual ‘portrait’ of a building typology." Each group was given a building typeology, either: care, learn, play, dwell or shop. Our group got dwell.

Through thinking about the word dwell and its meanings, the double meaning of the word was discovered. Dwell - a space or place, and dwell - to think, remember, ponder. Through this, the idea was to create a 'dwelling' in which to 'dwell'.

Our final design was a box which was covered in paper. The paper would be ripped down to release balloons into the air, which symbolised happy thoughts, and the escalation of them when a person's imagination and mind are left to wander.

The balloons had happy words on them, such as happiness, joy, glee and many more. In the centre of the box was a smaller carboard box, inside which was a single balloon with a question mark on it, asking the question: What is your happy thought?