Sehr authentisch erzählt. Auch wenn weder Communication Design noch Selbständigkeit meine Themen sind, kann ich mich persönlich sehr stark damit identifizieren. Ich finde die AbsolventInnen Lectures deshalb so gut, weil sie sehr gut illustrieren wie unterschiedlich die Werdegänge in der Kreativbranche verlaufen. Wie wegweisend Praktika sein können und wie wichtig Netzwerke in unserem Bereich sind. Ich finde gut, dass Saskia Schmidt viele eigene Arbeiten nicht nur vorstellt, sondern detailliert darüber erzählt. Am Ende nur ein Seitenkommentar darüber, was ich besonders lustig finde: Wie aufreibend der Programmier-Teil in unserem Studiengang auch ist, schlussendlich ist jeder irgendwie froh es gelernt zu haben, weil man wird’s einfach niemals los.
Month: June 2020
Guest-lectures – Kommentare
Sustainablility from interior design perspective (B.C. ARABACIOGLU)
Mir war bisher nicht bewusst, dass der Anteil des Bauwesens und der Gebäude am Klimawandel so groß ist, wie es in diesem Vortrag erklärt wird. An diesem Vortrag ist besonders interessant, wie der Vortragende die Rolle von DesignerInnen im Kontext von Innovation bzgl. einer nachhaltigen Zukunft des Bauwesens sieht. So scheint es weder genug zu sein, komplizierte Kriterien dafür zu entwickeln, wie nachhaltige Gebäudeplanung aussehen muss, noch macht es Sinn alles auf den End-User und seine Verantwortung abzuwälzen. Da DesignerInnen Expertise in innovativen Lösungen besitzen und gleichzeitig kommunikative Stärken besitzen, gilt es, so der Vortragende, die bestehenden Bestimmungen für Nachhaltigkeit in einfache, clevere Produkte zu verpacken, die der End-User versteht und zu schätzen lernt, sodass letztlich jeder Einzelne beginnt diese vereinfachten Nachhaltigkeitsideen in sein Umfeld zu integrieren.
Questioning our material culture (S. ULICKA)
Dieser Vortrag war für mich bisher mitunter einer der interessantesten. Der massive negative Einfluss, den der Mensch auf die Natur und seine Artgenossen hat, beschäftigt mich schon lange. Deshalb finde ich es aufmunternd, dass es subversive Strömungen gibt, wie Discursive Design, die die Leute wachrütteln und zum Nachdenken anregen. Auch der Ansatz, die Wirtschaft nicht mehr als unmittelbares, gleichberechtigtes Ziel neben sozialen und ökologischen Notwendigkeiten zu positionieren, scheint mir sinnvoll. Die Vergangenheit hat ja bereits oft gezeigt, dass wirtschaftliche Interessen viel zu oft alle Errungenschaften in den 2 anderen Gebieten massiv relativieren und überschatten.
Relating systems, thinking & design (U. TISCHNER)
Auch hier finde ich besonders den Einblick in die Disziplin des Ecodesigns interessant. Gleichzeitig finde ich den Ansatz der Open Innovation mit Hilfe von Crowd-basiertem Design sehr spannend: durch das Ins-Zentrum-Rücken des Users schon während der Ideenfindung und Problemidentifikation, sowie durch die Zusammenarbeit von Vielen im größeren Maßstab, lassen sich komplexe Themen von mehr Seiten beleuchten, und es wird so wahrscheinlicher, wirklich sinnvolle Lösungen zu finden. Im Software-Bereich hat Open-Source ja schon einige der zuverlässigsten Programme hervorgebracht (Firefox, VLC…). Das im Vortrag auch genannte andere Beispiel einer Plattform für die Findung von nachhaltigen Design-Ideen (nicht die der Vortragenden), die von VW gesponsert war, hat, finde ich, in der Retrospektive einen etwas faden Beigeschmack, bedenkt man den Abgasskandal der Firma.
Klanglicht-Lecture (INNOCAD, Studio13&9)
Der Vortrag von Innocad und Studio 13&9 war besonders interessant für mich, da viel Sound Design in den Arbeiten verwendet wurde. Aber auch das Übertragen von Gestaltungsprinzipien von einer Disziplin in die andere, hier von Architektur in Fashion Design ist ein spannendes Konzept. Am besten hat mir das Projekt “Solar Innovation Center” in Dubai gefallen. Hier ist es wirklich bemerkenswert, wie schön Licht & Klang miteinander verknüpfbar sind, da es ja direkte Entsprechungen zwischen beiden Reizdimensionen gibt: Die Frequenz einer Lichtfarbe kann (skaliert) direkt in Sound umgesetzt werden. Das Ganze dann in Form von gebrochenen Lichtsprektren und Klangsensoren innerhalb der Architektur sowohl klanglich als auch visuell zu einer dynamischen Installation zu gestalten ist äußerst spannend, und wäre sicher fast eine Reise wert, nur um es mal mit eigenen Augen & Ohren zu erleben.
Is it art or can we toss it (F. DOPPEL-PRIX)
In diesem Vortrag wurden stichprobenartige Eindrücke von der Arbeit des Teams/des Kreises um Doppel-Prix gegeben. Fokus ist dabei das Ausstellungsdesign, aber auch andere Gebiete werden angeschnitten. Interessant finde ich den Ausspruch des Vortragenden, eine Ausstellung zu planen sei ein bisschen wie “tidying up art”/Aufräumen von Kunst. Merken sollte ich mir auch die 40/40/20-Regel des Vortragenden: mir vor Augen zu halten, dass technisches Wissen nur 40% der Voraussetzungen für ein gelungenes Projekt ausmacht und die restlichen 60% von Allgemeinwissen/Hausverstand und Glück geprägt sind, würde mir sicher helfen, mich in meinem eigenen Tun nicht so sehr in kleinen technischen Detailfragen zu verstricken.
Radio Work (W. SCHLAG)
Schlag gibt in seinem Vortrag zunächst einen Überblick über die Entwicklung des Mediums Radio in Amerika & Europa. Wichtiger Fixpunkt ist für ihn die Tatsache, dass Radio von Anfang an ein politisch hoch relevantes Medium war. Nicht umsonst haben rechte Strömungen in Österreich schon mehrmals Radiosender übernommen, um Kontrolle über das Land ausüben zu können. Besonders interessant fand ich Schlags Ausführungen dazu, warum das Radio als Medium überleben wird: So ist man in der Gestaltung von Programmen theoretisch freier als wenn man für Film oder Fernsehen arbeitet. Außerdem ist die technische Hürde sehr viel geringer: Im Prinzip kann jeder mit einem Mikrofon und einem Laptop mit Internetzugang heutzutage senden (so geschehen während der Corona-Zeit bei Ö1, als Mitarbeiter ihre Sendungen im Home-Office produzierten). Dieser Vortrag hat mir, als von vornherein an Radio-Arbeit interessierten Menschen, richtig Lust gemacht selbst ein Internet-Radio zu gründen und einfach mit verschiedenen Klang-, und Wortinhalten zu experimentieren.
Guest-lectures – Reflexionen
REFLEXION I: Collaborating (A. KURY)
Der Vortrag von Frau Kury befasst sich mit dem Thema Zusammenarbeit im kulturellen Bereich und Kreativsektor. Hierbei liegt der Fokus darauf die Vorteile eines kollaborativen Workflows aufzuzeigen: wenn Leute aus verschiedenen Richtungen zusammenarbeiten, beispielsweise Wissenschaftler mit Künstlern, Designern, Kulturvermittlern und dem Publikum eines bestimmten Projektes, kommt es durch die verschiedenen Blickwinkel auf das bearbeitete Thema schnell zu einem Wissenstransfer, gegenseitige Bereicherung und zu Synergieeffekten. Die Vortragende hat diese Vorteile sehr schön dargestellt, indem sie verschiedene kollaborative Projekte vorgestellt hat. Besonders haben mir Projekte imponiert, die soziale Randgruppen oder das Publikum im Allgemeinen eingebunden haben.
Missing Comments
Since I watched three lectures and wrote the longer essays about them quite a while a go I managed to watched all the others in the mean time.
So here are my short comments on the missing ones:
Burçin Cem Arabacıoglu
Burçin talked about architecture and urban planning and why sustainability is a crucial aspect concerning it. I liked his idea of designers educating common people about sustainibility.
Florian Doppel-Prix
Florian talked a lot about the importance of concepts. What was quite memorizable for me was his saying that nothing is easy, but everything is manageable.
Astrid Kury
Astrid talked about the importance of collaborations between different creatives and I liked her thought of sharing ideas rather than keeping them secret. Together it is easier to make progress than it is all alone.
Andrey Sudarikov
Andrey is a Russian interaction designer who talked about three of his projects. I liked the third one the most, because the idea of engaging (young) people to join exhibitions is something that is really significant in my opinion.
Ursula Tischner
Ms. Tischner was speaking about the importance of the acceptance of sustainable design by the users. She also adressed all the designers to make sustainable solutions attractive options for them.
Thanks for reading,
Julian 🙂
#01 PLAYDISPLAY an AR support for reality by Andrey Sudarikov
Andrey Sudarikov who is an Installation artist told in his lecture about the use of AR technology in installations.
He began his lecture with the idea of an installation of an Augmented Reality where you could colour your own plane. In the installation you can then see you plane flying from an airport. In several different places he made this installation and even improved it. The basics for this installation were a short film were he had kids that drew on a car and in several games the design then came alive. So his focus was to get information of a real environment and to bring them in a transformed way virtual in a living form. Another thing that he made was an interactive jump game that they presented on several ferry’s and even at shopping malls. To realice these projects one very important point he mentions is to make some drawings and a prototype that is presentable that a client could get a vision and invest in it. That is even a thing that might be one of the secrets of his success. In the end he thinks about how he could realize the projects and how the technical standards in the time he realizes the project supports his projects. Another thing that he mentions is that his personal contacts with important people is important to realize projects. He mentions that his friendship with several ministers or the leader of the airport helped him to realize the project and that it is a good way to present a vision and to make others trust in your ideas.
Another project that he mentioned was the historical project in a museum that brought back some part of the history and showed the buildings around the museum before world war two and after the damage that was done and even a scenario where a viewer could get to the process of war. In this project one of the difficulties was that they had to rebuild everything like it was and not how they wanted. After the bombing in the second world war it was really hard to recreate how every street and house looked like and they always had to ask the clients. The priorities in this project was for Andrey to make something historical cool but for his clients to rebuild and to save the memory like it was before.
To sum everything up in a project you need a good plan and a good prototype in the beginning. With a good concept you can convince clients of you that they even search after you. Another thing that is important is personal contact. With the right relations everything is possible.
#06 Sylwia Ulicka from Puebla: Questioning Material Culture
An human-made artefact is symbolic of the world view held by the society in which it is created S. WALKER
#05 Burcin Cem Arabacioglu from Istanbul: Sustainability from interior design perspective
In his lecture, Burcin Cem Arabacioglu, talks about the importance of sustainability in matters of architecture and infrastructural growth. He gives a very detailed overview about historical facts concerning sustainability, examples of former populations and give a great insight into excising organisations, practices and certificates which are used today.
#01 von Andrey Sudarikov zum Thema “Playdisplay
Andrey Sudarikov is an interaction designer form Moscow. He his founder and creative director of a design studio called PlayDisplay. In his lecture he gives a detailed insight into three of his projects and talks not only about the production phase but also about how he’ve got these projects and how he would do things different today. All of these projects are interactive installations and using as well sensor-, virtually realty- or mixed reality- solutions.
International Design Discourse: Final Summary
To start off, I’d like to say that I loved the diversity of lectures, and also the applicability of the chosen topics.
International Design Discourse 1
Here is an overview of all the lectures from the International Design Discourse 1.
01 Design Lecture – Andrey Sudarikov
Andrey Sudarikov is a Russian designer and the founder of the design studio PlayDisplay. He works mainly in the field of interaction, AR and game design. In his lecture he will present some of his very impressive projects. For someone like me, who can do almost nothing in 3D, it is always fascinating to see what is possible. Especially the project at the airport in Singapore stuck in my mind
02 AbsolventInnen Lecture – Saskia Schmidt
The most interesting lecture for me was definitely that of Saskia Schmidt. The first impression of the video was an extremely positive surprise for me, because she built, visualized and structured the lecture very well. It was really pleasant to listen to her talk about what her path from study to independence looked like.
When things didn’t work out for her in Germany and Holland, she decided to come to Austria and became part of the IND11 course at the FH. But after she failed in programming, Saskia was allowed to do a lap of honor. But this gave her the opportunity to start an internship at En Garde. During this time she could learn a lot and took a lot with her. You can also see that in the projects she shows. At En Garde she designed invitations, brandings like for the Rostfest and a brochure for the children’s program of the playhouse).
Afterwards, Saskia Schmidt had the opportunity to do an internship at Studio Grau in Berlin. Studio Grau works in the field of packaging, branding, book design, etc. What she emphasized as particularly positive – Because Studio Grau is not a big design agency, she quickly got more responsibility and was allowed to realize projects for big clients as an intern. During her time in Berlin she also wrote her bachelor thesis “Museum Friedland”.
After finishing her Bachelor Saskia looked for a job. However, she soon left the agency where she could take over the art direction, because the cooperation just didn’t fit. She reduced her hours at the agency and started to work fluently at another agency (Von K Design), where her tasks included high fashion and branding.
However, the desire for independence did not let her go and she decided to leave her job and take the step into the unknown. But then, very surprisingly, a three-month project with En Garde came up.
After completing the project, which Saskia also presented in the lecture and which I particularly liked because of the Wes Anderson style, she finally wanted to start as a freelance designer. But then Saskia received a call from Berlin and was given the opportunity to represent her then boss at Studio Grau for four months, who was looking for a replacement due to her pregnancy. Saskia suddenly found herself in a different situation – she was not only supposed to design, but also had to take care of customers, employees, organizational matters, etc.
Afterwards she finally managed to become self-employed and Saskia became a freelancer in Graz. When she talks about it, she emphasizes how important the network she had built up was and that this laid the foundation for her self-employment. In addition, she also presents some of her projects and shows various designs (wine bottles, beer mats, a hairdresser redesign, etc.)
Finally she talks about the fact that the most beautiful network of friends is made up of friends – where I can only fully agree with her.
To sum up, I enjoyed the lecture very much, because it is always very interesting for me which path graduates of the FH take.
03 Design Lecture – Astrid Kury
Astrid Kury begins her presentation by asking what constitutes a collective interdisciplinary environment within which one is motivated to actively participate, and she concludes that working with others in a democratic society leads more quickly to unique ideas and the perfect balance between form and content, and also provides social cohesion and equal access.
As a cultural studies scholar and director of the Academy of Graz, she has always been confronted with the challenges of interdisciplinary work in the course of her career – it took some time for everyone to understand what someone from a particular discipline meant. It was difficult to find a generally understandable way of expressing herself, as everyone had an understanding of the respective subject area within the framework of her or his discipline and on the basis of her or his own previous knowledge. This is where the example of modernity came in. After this hurdle was overcome, the collaborative work developed into a self-runner, many new insights were gained through the networking of the different disciplines and the process offered more and more room for creativity.
The question of whether we want to enter into a dialogue and work together with experts from other disciplines is the same as the question of which world we would rather live in – a selfish, competitive one or a generous one, in which sharing ideas leads in the best case to joint success and a good cause. I agree with her, but with the reservation that it can of course also lead to conflicts, especially since interpersonal friction can often arise when many different people with different educational backgrounds meet, especially since these encounters are not organic.
What I find very exciting about her collaborative approach is that projects can be implemented that would be extremely time-consuming and challenging for a single person. Different approaches to a particular topic can paint a more coherent picture, just as collected data, as it increases, comes closer and closer to a normal distribution.
What also appeals to me personally is Astrid’s attitude to the fact that everyone can make a creative contribution to something. She encourages people to become aware of this and to contribute generously. She believes it is easier to generate innovative ideas when several brains are involved in their development. The advantage of collaboration is therefore that there is mutual exchange, it brings coherence to complexity and it benefits from sharing ideas and knowledge.
04 Design Lecture – Florian Doppel-Prix
In his lecture “Is it art or can we toss it?” Florian Doppel-Prix will talk about projects in the field of exhibition design. His various works gave a good insight into the world of exhibition installations. Since exhibition design is not something I deal with intensively, it was very interesting for me to learn more about this field and the work in it.
05 Designmonat Graz – Burcin Cem Arabacioglu
In his talk about sustainability in life and design, Burcin Cem Arabacioglu hits the nail on the head for me. He talks about how sustainable design can influence a sustainable life and that it is a responsibility of designers to bring sustainability to people. I think it’s a pity that it was difficult to follow the lecture because the tone was not ideal.
06 Designmonat Graz – Sylwia Ulicka
The topic of sustainability is also taken up in the lecture by Sylwia Ulicka. She will once again address another aspect of this topic – our consumer behaviour. The researcher, designer and professor from Mexico presents her views in a very understandable way and I agree with her on many points.
07 Designmonat Graz – Ursula Tischner
Ursula Tischner also talks about the importance of sustainability. She also addresses the lifespan of products that clearly contribute to our consumer behaviour. In her talk it becomes clear that the consumption of all these people contributes enormously to the consumption of resources.
08 Klanglicht Lecture – INNOCAD/13&9
In their lecture, Anastasia and Martin Lesjak will present their product design studio (13&9) and their architectural office (Innocad). What particularly impressed me is the office they designed and planned themselves, which is divided into different working areas (architecture/research/product design/sound design).
In their presentation, they present two projects that I would like to go into more detail about.
1 Solar Innovation Center
The Solar Innovation Center is a solar power plant in Dubai. The architecture of this building fascinates me and the interplay of light and color moods is incredible. For example, different architectural ideas and the use of mirrors and foils create different color spectra depending on the position of the sun (thus depending on the angle of incidence of the light and the time of day). As a result, the interior of the building shines in different subtle colours at any time of the day. The decision to keep the interior design and the walls of the Solar Innovation Center mostly plain white was a very good idea, as this makes the colour spectacle even more effective.
Another “feature” of the solar power plant is the sound system. Special sensors are used to create sound compositions to match the individual colors.
2 Architectural Fashion
For an exhibition in Berlin, Anastasia and Martin Lesjak have newly realized and interpreted three of their projects. The theme was the transformation of product design and architecture into fashion. Thus they presented the above-mentioned projects as pieces of clothing, or more precisely, dresses. They work with the different textures of materials and use haptics to turn their projects into unique pieces of clothing.
The lecture by Anastasia and Martin Lesjak was very interesting for me.
09 Design Lecture – Wolfgang Schlag
In his lecture “Radio Work” Wolfgang Schlag talks about the emergence of radio and how radio was able to establish itself as a mass medium. He also gives an insight into his experiences as a radio journalist.
The history of radio begins on November 2, 1920, the day on which the first radio program ever was broadcast in Pittsburgh. In the beginning, about 40,000 people listened to the radio. But within two years, this figure rose to 500,000 people.
In Austria, the career of radio began in 1924, when the first RAVAG programme was broadcast. National Socialists used the radio for propaganda purposes during the Second World War.
In 1967 another form of radio finally started in Austria. The radio stations Ö1 and Ö3, which we still know today, started. In this year, Woodstock was one of the events held. Ö3 focused at that time on playing different genres and jazz, for example, was spread throughout the country via the radio station. One program called “Music Box” was very special – provocative and radical – as Wolfgang Schlag, who himself became a member of Music Box in 1986, describes it. A special feature of the format was, for example, playing a record for a whole hour.
In his lecture, Wolfgang Schlag gives an insight into his time at Music Box and talks about his tasks and experiences as a radio journalist.
In 1990 Ö3 and Ö1 developed into the radio stations we know today. It was decided to dedicate Ö3 to modern pop music and to fill Ö1 with world music and socially critical and political topics.
For me it was especially exciting when Wolfgang Schlag spoke about his own experiences, for example during the time of Corona, and shared his own opinions about the “radio of the future”. I can only agree with his opinion that radio will not die out. Personally, I cannot imagine being without radio, something I only became aware of in the course of this lecture. I also believe that research work, summarizing the essence of information and journalism are pillars of our society, even if we are often not so aware of it.