This and That

I know I haven't posted daily but I've been sort of dallying around in the best sense. I feel like I had been holding onto a lot of preconceived notions about what I'm truly interested in and got sidetracked down a road that was quite tangential to my interests. I'll get to where I am now after these last few days but I thought I'd share the things that got me there. I didn't do one a day but like a little bit over a few days. 

The first thing was trying to figure out what exactly my "design rules" were after Cynthia rightly pointed out not to confuse or elevate observations with rules. I think part of me wasn't sure what to make of design rules in general. But it made me see that what I was talking about wasn't particularly getting at it. I tried to think back to what really inspired me about last semester and I came across the Objectified DVD and watched it again. And what I really took home was that I am interested in the way people interact with their objects and that technology objects were the objects we covet most now. Ok but now I'm back to my observations...

I ended up drafting a set of five questions that I can use when having conversations with people. I realized that I was interested in the narrative that people craft with their technology devices, and in that sense the way that I craft my conversations with tech through design. So I asked my roommate, the quickest person, five questions. Her responses made me see that my questions need a bit of tweaking to give a bit more information. The thing that resonated in me still was that she is a complete luddite and yet she had such a fond memory of her first experience with tech devices. I've attached the transcript as a pic.

Then I realized from that conversation and my last realization about narrative, that I am interested in a broader sense this idea of analogue and digital. That that's the reason why I love the mix of ceramics vs. tech, man's relationship to tech vs. tech devices. I wanted to position this visually so I did some research into different connotations of analogue and digital and how that could be used as motifs. I came up with a column of words that I could pull from when thinking of. 

Then I went and looked through a ton of design magazines to come up with two different mood boards. The first is my thoughts on digital. The second are thoughts of analogue and possible intersections.

So where I'm at now with thesis. My thesis (tentatively called "twentyTen") examines the role tech devices play in our daily lives by creating a series of objects for the home-the place that I argue is really the most impacted by our objects. These objects will be part critical design, part sculpture and made from ceramics. The pieces themselves will be expressed through lusters giving a connotation to each piece, giving either a digital or analogue feel. In this way, the lusters act as a narrative device, while designed with full awareness of that role. By designing these critical design pieces for the home, I hope to engage people with this relationship of the role of our devices. I see it as interacting in our tech world-this is 2010.

Some of the objects I've thought of:

-a series of disappearing or melting tiny devices (iPod nano sized) that disappear into a pool as sculptural triptych. Silver luster. Each piece 2" x2".

-create those commemorative handprint circle tiles but instead do them with tech devices.

-ceramic fridge magnets that have digital conversions instead of bakers conversions.

-tiles for the home based on the owners actual devices. Luster to suit their own relationship.

Those are just a starting point from which to refine, etc. So that's where I'm at after a few days of MIA-ness,

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