Contemporary Design Issues

You are required to; Choose one topic from the list. Read all the set readings and view the set media (“set” means compulsory here). Refer to them in your discussion. Read some or all of the recommended readings. Research independently, finding your own texts including relevant scholarly journal articles, online sources and books. Refer to some of them in your argument. Find relevant examples of design or media to discuss the topic/answer the question. Structure a coherent argument with an introduction, a discussion referring to your chosen examples and a conclusion. Express your own ideas on the topic. Use APA 6th Edition in-text references to acknowledge the source of ideas and any significant information from your research. The texts must be listed in your reference list (bibliography). Provide illustrations with one to two effective sentences of caption and cite the source in a bracket. Practice good sentence and paragraph construction and use proper punctuation. (Grammarly makes this easier.) Check your article by getting a Turnitin Originality Report to ensure you have referenced all quotes. You can obtain one every 24 hours. Upload your completed Essay Plan for the article in .doc/docx/pdf format by Friday in Week 8 into the ‘Assignment’ area in the left hand menu in Blackboard. Your tutor will provide feedback on your Essay Plan in Blackboard by the end of week 10. You will use this feedback in completing your assignment. Upload your completed article in .doc/docx/pdf format by Friday 4.00PM in Week 12 into the ‘Assignment’ area in the left hand menu in Blackboard. Failing to acknowledge use of copyright material represents failure to realise the brief and will result in a mark of zero. Copying another student’s work or submitting work for a second time if you are repeating this unit is regarded as plagiarism and will result in a mark of zero. QUESTIONS 1. Design with handcrafted elements or the appearance of handcrafting can suggest resourcefulness and thrift, a luxury of time or childhood creativity according to author and social theorist Mel Campbell. She also warns that “[F]etishising handmade things is a tiny protest against the tyrannical consumer cycle of newness and obsolescence. But ultimately it’s a just another kind of consumerism (2009, p.17).” Compare and contrast three examples of contemporary design with genuine handcrafted elements or that give an impression of handcraft. Explain which elements of each design is handcrafted or signifies handcraft and what messages these examples communicate to their target demographic taking into account Campbell’s arguments. [Ensure your examples are design rather than handcraft. If in doubt, ask your tutor.] Set reading & viewing (compulsory) ABC-TV (Australia). (2015, September 3). Rise of the Makers [Television Broadcast, episode 1). In Bespoke. Australia: Australian Broadcasting Corporation. http://edutv.informit.com.au/watch-screen.php?videoID=1030482 ABC-TV (Australia). (2015, September 10). Makers and Markets [Television Broadcast, episode 2). In Bespoke. Australia: Australian Broadcasting Corporation. http://edutv.informit.com.au/watch-screen.php?videoID=1036095 Campbell, M. (2009, May 21). Canvas. The Age, p.17. Hackney, F. (2013) Quiet Activism and the New Amateur: The Power of Home and Hobby Crafts, Design and Culture, 5, 2, 169-194. Metcalf, B. (2008) DIY, Websites and Energy: The New Alternative Crafts [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://www.brucemetcalf.com/pages/essays/contemporary_craft.html Recommended Black, A. & Burisch, N. (2010) Craft Hard, Die Free: Radical curatorial strategies for craftivism in unruly contexts In Glenn Adamson (Ed.) The Craft Reader. Oxford: Berg. Engestrom, U. (2005). Draft Craft Manifesto. Retrieved from http://ullamaaria.typepad.com/hobbyprincess/2005/03/draft_craft_man.html Jackson, A. (2010) Constructing at Home: Understanding the Experience of the Amateur Maker. Design and Culture, 2,1, 5-26. 2. Data visualisation—the gathering, conceptualisation and presentation of data in 2D and 3D formats and more recently, using digital technologies to create interactive interfaces, has the capacity to transform our understanding of an issue. Designer Aaron Koblin even suggests that designers and other creatives have a “responsibility” to transform data to enhance public understanding of important issues. Compare and contrast three outstanding examples of time-based data visualisation that have transformed data into a coherent set of ideas about significant political, economic, social, technological or environmental issues. Explain which of Reas and McWilliams’ (2010) categories of data-visualisation the examples fit, how their design elements contribute to the visual, sonic, spatial and/or tactile representation and how symbolism (colour, shape, form, motifs, etc), have been used by the designers to communicate with their target audiences and generate understanding of data. [Students who choose this topic must research their own examples and not use those shown in the Week 2 screenings. They must be time-based and interactive, not 2D.] Set reading (compulsory) Hohl, M. (2011). From Abstract to actual: art and designer-like enquiries into data visualisation, Kybernetes, 40, 7-8, 1038-1044. Lockton, D., Nicholson, L., Cain, R. & Harrison, D. (2014). ‘Persuasive Technology for Sustainable Workplaces’, Interactions, 21, 1, pp. 58-61. Reas, C. & McWilliams, C. (2010). Form + Code in Design, Art, and Architecture. New York: Princeton Architectural Press. Roberts, L. (2006). Good: Ethics of Graphic Design. Lausanne, Switzerland: AVA Publishing. (Philosophy - an Interview with Anthony Grayling) http://www.ted.com/playlists/56/making_sense_of_too_much_data.html http://www.ted.com/talks/aaron_koblin.html Recommended Tufte, E. (1983). The Visual Display of Quantitative Information. Cheshire, Conn., US: Graphics Press. 3. Like development aid, much design for development has been increasingly criticised for not having real, sufficient, diverse or lasting value for the people it is intended for. Ambitiously, Victor Margolin (2007, p.115) imagines a design-based future for developing countries: "Design for development needs to broaden its brief from an emphasis on poverty alleviation to include the strategic creation of products for export." Ilse Oosterlaken (2009, p.100) equates most designs for development that use a `participatory' process as having a limited, user-centred approach; and suggests instead an approach which she calls ‘capability sensitive design’. Research three recent examples of capability-sensitive design from one or more design disciplines – architecture, urban planning, or industrial, communication, multi-media or digital design – that improves the lives of poor people in developing countries. One design should be sourced by a designer/s from a developing country. Discuss aspects of each example’s potential for real, sufficient, diverse and lasting value for the targeted users and the makers where is it made/built in a developing nation. Set reading (compulsory) Hancock,T. (2001) People, partnerships and human progress: building community capital, Health Promotion International, 16, 275-280. Margolin, V. (2007).Design for Development: towards a history, Design Studies, 28, 111-115. Oosterlaken, I. (2009). Design or Development: A Capability Approach. Design Issues: 25, 4, 91-102. Pilloton, E. (2009). Design Revolution: 100 products that are changing people’s lives. London, UK: Thames & Hudson. Polak, P. (2007) Design for the Other 90%, in C. Smith, (Ed.) (2007). Design for the other 90%. New York, USA: Cooper-Hewitt, Smithsonian, National Design Museum. Robeyns, I. (2011) Capability Approach. Retrieved from: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/capability-approach/ Recommended Murcott, S. (2007). Co-evolutionary design for development: influences shaping engineering design and implementation in Nepal and the global village, Journal of International Development. 19, 123-144 Polak, P. (2008). Out of Poverty: What Works When Traditional Approaches Fail. San Francisco, USA: Berrett-Koehler. Thackara, J. (2011) Africa: Where events are king. Retrieved from http://designobserver.com/feature/africa-where-events-are-king/25028