Ideas Day

A few weeks ago, saw this years annual Ideas Day in the Dundee Product Design department, and it proved to be just as good as the previous years.

Each year, the fourth year Product Design students are lucky enough to be visited by some of the top designers and design academics in the UK, to discuss their ideas and pick their brains with some probing questions. The ideas session is followed by a Q&A session open to all years.

This year saw an especially interesting line-up even though a few people could not make the event. The guests this year were:




Richard Banks - Microsoft Research Cambridge

Professor Andrew Shoben - Greyworld and Goldsmiths University

Daljit Singh - Digit London

Professor Bill Gaver - Goldsmiths University

Dr Tim Regan - Microsoft Research Cambridge


The Q&A session lasted an hour, with eight questions posed to the panel, causing intriguing responses and often lively debate.

The first question asked was "Where is the place to be for design right now?". This opened up debate about physical and virtual space, and the issues associated with both. Andrew Shoben started off by saying that online was where it was at, rather than a physical or geological location. Richard Banks corroborated this, saying that he was an avid promoter of networked, distance working, as he himself divides his time between the Cambridge studio and home.

Tim Regan, however, strongly opposed these ideas, instead suggesting the 'water cooler effect' of face-to-face human interactions, and ability to infect others with your ethos was a vital part of effective design. Tim, who works with Richard, also said that Richards lack of physical presence was often detrimental to their projects.

Bill Gaver voiced his opinions on the matter too. Talking from his personal experience, he felt that it was often nice not to be in an absolute hub of design, where there is a risk of saturation and becoming homogenised. He challenged us to think about what a "Dundee style of design" might be, and said that embracing your current situation and finding the perculiarities in it could create interesting results.

Another interseting point of discussion was what they look for when offering positions, and core skills they feel are important. Accross the board, the panal felt that the grade was less important than the work in the portfolio or your enthusiasm. Daljit Singh thought one of the most imporant abilities to show was communication and creativity. He identified the point that as design student we are creative in our work, but when it comes to applications and jobs alot of people forget this (not advocating gimmicks though)! He also emphasised the point of reasearching the organisation you are approaching.

Andrew brought up the idea of being a generalist and not a specialist, but not in a negative way. He said that at Greyworld, they valued open mindedness and wide thinking as the range of products they undertake can be so huge.


To find more information on the guest speakers follow the links below:

http://www.richardbanks.com/

http://www.greyworld.org/

http://digitlondon.com

http://www.gold.ac.uk/interaction/

http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/people/timregan/


P

Music + Design = ?

Whilst listening to some music on Spotify the other day, I was bombarded with Becks promoting their new labeling for their bottles. Over the past 22 years, they have used their labels as a blank canvas for some of the largest names in contemporary art, generating a gallery of 25 designs. Now that's pretty cool, but nothing special to be honest. It was their newest direction that really caught my eye.

They have, over recent years, added music to their area of advertising and marketing. Now, in 2009, they have decided to combine the two together in their latest promotion, 'Music Inspired Art Labels'. This allows selected artists, this year's being Hard-Fi and Ladyhawke, to design the labels inspired by them and their music.

http://www.becks.co.uk/archive/main.html

This made me think about how effective music and art has been used as a tool for promotion and advertising in the past, and how music and design could be used together, to enhance areas and issues in design that are normally overlooked.

Anyhow, it's just some food for thought [and me getting my foot back on the blogging ladder!]

Peace.

*_*

Visualising Data/Sustainability

Perusing the blogs, I found this recent live sculpture come data visualisation I thought was really cool. A thousand miniature people have slowly melted away in a Berlin square in an effort by the World Wildlife Fund to draw attention to melting ice caps in Greenland and Antarctica. Nice work.

P

Biotechnology - So when can I grow my own iPod?

Its been a while since our last "proper post" on the Unbox blog, so I thought it was probably about time I fired something up into the ether.

In c.1947 the transistor(as we know it today) was invented and developed. It's the electrical component that has made possible all of today's modern electrical devices, from the digital clock to the laptop I'm using the write this post, and has meant the world of electronics and digital products has evolved and grown into the colossus it is today. Almost every aspect of our technologically saturated lives has been touched by the electrically charged fingers of electronic engineers, product designers and software programmers.

This evolution is probably best illustrated in Moore's Law, which states that the number of transistors on a chip will grow exponentially about every two years. Moore predicted this in 1965, and has seen the validity of this law repeatedly proven ever since. With the flourishion of Moore's Law, it led to smaller and smaller complex products being produced. However, according to a recent Guardian article on the 29th July, this could soon be coming to an end. Not because of a plateau in technological advancements, but because of growing economical pressures. But if the last 40 years have been the age of "nano" and "miniaturization", then I think the next 50 years could well be the era of BioTechnology.

What is Biotechnology? A really simplified explanation might be to say that its using and engineering living biological organisms, in conjunction with modern techniques and technology to create a fusion of both.

Biotech isn't really all that new, and has been used extensively in the medical world, developing new cures, synthetic organs and mentally controlled false limbs, as well as in the area of biological research, helping to map the human genome. But now, as with early electronics, biotech has grown, and is starting to present some of it's true potential to a wider audience.

In the last few years, there have been some really exciting and innovative developments made in the area. We now have a biological computer/processor capable of performing simple operations significantly quicker than standard computers. The biological computer can perform calculations simultaneously, and whats more, will actually get faster over time. We can now code with DNA similarly to how computer programmers might write in Java or C++. A sort of "bacteria photoshop" has been made, where individual cells colour themselves, all instantaneously, producing a sort of bacterial photo of an image. And as its all done simultaneously, is super quick compared to complex computer algorithms used currently. In a slightly less mind-boggling example, researchers have made a yoghurt who's flavour can be engineered on consumption. This is better than it sounds. I don't simply mean a yoghurt which you can add a bit of food flavouring or extract to, oh no! This yoghurt, when sprinkled with some strawberry genetic particles, actually becomes a strawberry yoghurt, not just a strawberry flavoured yoghurt.

OK you say, pretty cool, but not really something to change the world of product design? Maybe not at first sight. Last year, three members of Unbox presented a couple of talks at a Sustainability forum, my subject being Biomimicry. One of the most interesting aspects of biomimicry is looking at how nature structures and builds its "products and materials" such as coral, natural plastics, fibre optics etc. What if we could combine the two disciplines, and engineer the growth of, for example coral, then we could grow our own procelain products! And what about using our biological processors to grow consumer electronic components? I love the idea of iPods, cameras, phones being grown in petri dishes and test tubes! OK, maybe a bit far fetched, but maybe not the completely wrong direction.

But there are other benefits of biotech. A group of students have developed a product to test for water pollution and harmful pathogens in third world countries. It's a bacteria engineered to turn bright green if it detects harmful substances in the water. But better than this, once added to the water stream, it evolves and can actually help eradicate the waste and of course constantly measures the toxicity of the water.

Aside from the brilliant potential for this new field, the exciting part of this is its growing availability. A type of prototyping kit for biotechnology has been developed, which could make it as accessible as the arduino has for amateur or electrical hobbiests and hackers! This has the potential, in years to come, to radically change the face of what a "product designer" is. It could also have a larger social implication, with a ripple effect as biotechnically designed products enter the home. How will people's relationships and reactions to products change if they are, in a sense, "alive"? And if there is a rise in amateur biotechnicians, developing products for real use, what will happen when things don't go according to plan? I'm sure certain papers and media will oppose this new technology, raising questions of safety and possible epidemics and outbreaks of new bacteria!

So can you expect to see Product Designers in white lab coats, test tube in one hand, sketchbook in the other? Will you now need an A-level in biology as well as Design Technology to get on the course? Will prototyping be on E.Coli and blue foam? I doubt it. But in the next fifty years, I feel that this will be an area of real innovation and growth that product designers will be at the forefront. Watch this space.


P

Photos!

After recently splashing out and buying a Canon EOS450d DSLR, I've been spending the last week snapping everything in sight! Here are a few of my first efforts, but to see a larger selection, search for "Paddy Stevenson-Keating" on flickr. Any comments are very welcome!

Follow us...

Follow the Unbox Team on Twitter;

http://www.twitter.com/charlieadam

http://www.twitter.com/joshlegend

http://www.twitter.com/paddystevenson

http://www.twitter.com/timmmpryde

That is all.

*_*

Picturing Dundee

After being honored to have been selected to exhibit one of my photographs for the "Picturing Dundee" competition, I was thrilled to travel over to Dundee for the opening night. The event was brilliantly attended, with a couple of hundred people making the time during their summer holidays to come see the 16 selected works on show. The evening was crowned with a hugely inspiring and interesting talk by landscape photographer Colin Prior. Prior included some of his own personal favorite shots of his own which where truly captivating.

Although I did not win the overall top prize, I was delighted to receive a Highly Commended, and to have been chosen from almost 500 entries. I look forward to the event again next year, and hope to go one further and win the competition.

P

Paddy Also Loves Photography

After recently entering the Dundee University Photography Competition, I was ecstatic to receive a phone call to tell me that I had been chosen to be one of the exhibitors. The exhibit runs from the 23th-30th of June in the Dalhousie Building, so please come along and have a look if your anywhere near.

P

Adam Loves Photography

Andy Mueller is just awesome.

Does anyone else think that photography can be pretty easy?

Protecting and Sharing - Mutually Exclusive?

After a long and really interesting discussion with a friend of mine we were discussing how I as a designer, and the other designers in my course protect our ideas, and have sense of collaboration and helping each other out, even when working on different projects. I was arguing the point when ideas, knowledge, experiences etc. are shared, this is when you get the most interesting, exciting and innovative ideas. By working alone, or being too precious or secretive about your thoughts this can surely only be a bad thing - for both the well being of the designer, and the quality of the design solution. The most creative designs come from the intersections of disciplines and the sharing of extreme ideas. I think these ideas can be really seen in real world applications in front of us in our own course where there is a huge emphasis on getting input from many different sources, advising others and sharing information (just look at our insights wall for the current Microsoft project).

My friend was questioning where do you draw the line with this? How do you protect your ideas, and prevent your big break through from being stolen by someone else? Is my notion idealistic and naive? How would you feel is someone made a big break off something you had told them?

Its a really hard line to tread, and obviously there needs to be some degree of caution, but how do you judge this? What are your thoughts on the matter, we would be really interested to hear them (if your willing to share them that is!)

P

Content! Content! Content!

We're looking for YOUR content. Anything from comments on what you enjoy, to what shows get your gears churning, to what presenters say things that you actually like? Tell us what you enjoy or don't!

Comments will be much appreciated.

Cheeeers.

*_*

Sustainable Design Forum

This Friday the 27th, the DCA will host the Sustainable Design Forum. Unbox along with five other speakers will be contributing to the discussions. It would be really great to see as many of you there as possible, and it should be a very interesting night.

P

Welcome Unbox's New Member...

...Timothy Pryde!

Due to his outstanding contribution over the duration of the Microsoft brief, and how well he's gelled into Unbox, we're delighted to announce that Timmy will working with us on a more permanent basis. Congrats dude! Looking forward to having you on board.

More of Tim at http://www.timpryde.blogspot.com

Cheeers.

*_*

World Clock

I recently listened to Tim Brown, CEO of Ideo, give a talk on Design Thinking. He briefly explained something called "WorldClock", so I gave it a look.

Give it a look.

WorldClock

Also, give EarthClock a look.

EarthClock

Questions and comments welcome.

Wake Up, Freak Out – then Get a Grip

Last Tuesday, Unbox attended a workshop ran by Hamid van Koten, entitled, "Sustainability: What Students Want?". The workshop was brought on by the Teaching and Learning forum that was held last month, and consisted of some awareness activities, feedback on what we as students actually wanted, and some free food courtesy of O'Brien's sandwich bar! Unfortunately, this isn't what I'm blogging today. For a really good write up on what went on on Tuesday, check out Struan Pendrich's blog post at http://resigndesign.blogspot.com, where he goes over everything that went on that day. Yes, he even includes the results of Hamid's heavily anticipated 'Eco Race'.

Today, I'm posting the video that Hamid decided to kick this workshop off with, Leo Murray - a graduate of RCA's, "Wake Up, Freak Out - then Get a Grip". His vivid interpretation of the messy situation we find ourselves in is not only eye-opening, but is also extremely hard hitting and relevant to designers, tutors, and everyone else charged with the crimes of destroying our planet. Opening up with the line, "This really isn’t about polar bears any more. At this very moment, the fate of civilization itself hangs in the balance", it is clear to see Murray's intentions, and throughout the animation, you find yourself torn between the despair of "these extraordinary times", and the excitement of being part of the solution.

"Wake Up, Freak Out - the Get a Grip" is an excellent depiction of climate change and the times that we live in. Obviously, with everything you read and watch, you should take it with a pinch of salt, as he does push the theory on a little, but i'll let you see that for yourself.

A PDF of the script with other useful links, etc, can be found here - http://wakeupfreakout.org/script.pdf and for some more general information on the project itself, check out http://wakeupfreakout.org.

Enjoy!

Wake Up, Freak Out - then Get a Grip

*_*

Sustainability, Opinion, Apology,

Recently, there's been a noticeable increase in the interest of sustainability (within my peers). This could be due to a combination of a number of things, the fact that in our Design Studies classes we are discussing the book Cradle to Cradle, or that last semester our fellow student Chris McNichol created the quite outstanding "Cardboard Radio", which seemed to get people thinking about how their products could be sustainable.

Anyway this is drifting from my point, it being that with this added interest in going green, it seems to have caused a slight rift in the harmony of the class.

This came to my attention on Thursday, after we had been given a pretty damn interesting talk from 4th year Product Designers Fergus, Matthew and Tom. Within it, I felt there was a really valid and critical point made by Tom. He simply stated that sustainability is currently a fashion statement.

Personally, I couldn't agree more with this, but don't get me wrong, I am all for sustainable living and thinking, I just think some people are going about it in the completely wrong way. Currently we seem to have a really critical system in place, where everything is valued on economical viability. Now some people agree with this, and state that without thinking this way, how else are we going to save the planet? Others think this over-analyzation is ridiculous. It doesn't take a genius to see that these views conflict.

My personal opinion? I agree that we need to think about sustainability, it's an exciting area and holds so many amazing possibilities; especially biomimicry. However, I feel I need to stress that I think people are jumping on this sustainability bandwagon, and forcing it upon themselves. It feels like it's the flavour of the month and people are simply talking about it because it's popular.

Which brings me to my next point, in our presentation a couple of Mondays ago, we mentioned sustainability. We at Unbox know this didn't go smoothly with our presentation, and know it looked like a rush job added in at the last minute. I found out a couple of days ago, that presentation seemed to have dented our popularity amongst our peers, for the very reason I just mentioned. The "flavour of the month" thought, coupled with the less-than-smooth addition to our presentation led people to believe it was a crude addition in order to gain a little extra credit. All I can say is that it wasn't, but we apologise if it appeared that way.

We'd love to hear your thoughts on what's been written here.

PS. This was not a dig at sustainability thinking, just the way it's portrayed. I would like to get that point across!

ah.

Sustainability Direct Mail & Invite.

Over the last few weeks, I've been looking around our college for students who are pushing sustainability in their own projects. Either through the university set briefs or just in their own personal time. I stumbled upon a 2nd Year Graphics student, Callin Mackintosh's, project on sustainability. He was creating an invite, which was inviting designers to a sustainability conference. I really liked the simple idea and aesthetics of his invite. Take a look.

*_*

P.S. Sorry it's been so long folks.

The Age Of Stupid

The Age Of Stupid is a 90-minute film about climate change, set in the future. Oscar-nominated Pete Postlethwaite stars as a man living alone in the devastated world of 2055, looking back at Earth wondering why we didn't stop it whilst we had the chance.

I found this trailer for the film, to be released on March 20th 09, on Kate Andrews blog. The trailer looks like it could be a good film, but is it simply that, just a film? I totally agree that the issue of climate change must be brought to the attention of the public, but who today in the Westernised world, where this film will surely be targeting, does not know already. I applaud the director and Spanner Films for attempting to use such a popular, diverse media medium of the cinema to reach the public, but is this really the most effective way? Is this even the right content? I fear that the message in "The Age Of Stupid" could be shelved away in the viewers minds never to be seen again once they leave the cinema. Will it become another interesting, enjoyable film such as "The Day After Tomorrow" and the long list of TV programs along the same lines. Is it all too easy to separate what we see on TV and cinema as being a show or performance, people feel like these are just films like Star Wars or Batman and have no connotations in the real world.

I hope this is not the case, and I suppose even the making of the film shows Sustainability's transition into mainstream culture, but lets not think that telling people how bad things will be over and over will be an effective way of changing how we currently live.

P

Creating Concepts and Connections

First thing is to find inspiration from field to cultures other than your own and I mean by design and effortful, purposeful search of inspirations from other fields of cultures and then to dare to explore the connections that you find when you do that. Some of the ideas that you come up with are going to seem a bit crazy or at least weird. Don’t kick them out of your head just yet. Let them sit there for a while and then get rid of them but let them sit there for a while. Just allow yourself to explore the connection a little bit further than you normally would have. That way you might come up with something that sticks and that could create something that’s groundbreaking.

-Frans Johansson

This quote is taken from Frans Johansson's presentation at InterSections 07, 'Innovation at the Intersection of Discipline and Culture'.

It reminded me of how we created concept ideas at early stages of this Microsoft project. After a long time deliberating and creating what resulted in very few ideas, we came up with the idea of creating a 'Wouldn't It Be Cool If...' board. On this board we noted down not concepts but ideas that we thought would be 'cool' in relation to the project. Ideas included:

• wouldn't if be cool if my Grandpa could still fly a plane
• wouldn't if be cool if people learnt from my Granny instead of telling her what to do
• wouldn't if be cool if my Granddad and i shared similar interests
• wouldn't if be cool if my Grandpa could beat me at computer games
• wouldn't if be cool if i could understand what it was like to live untill i was 78
  
• wouldn't if be cool if my Gran could meet new people all over the world
• wouldn't if be cool if i knew what it was like to raise my parents

We put this list up on the wall and got other people to contribute to it including people from other disciplines, groups in our class and lecturers. We found it really helpfull to come up with these new ideas because it allowed us to step away from the confines of the brief and just have fun exploring what could be done. Some ideas were a bit less sensible than other but were included them nonetheless into our list of concepts.

The real task came when we had to tie our ideas back to the brief. This was an interesting process because through making connections with the brief we saw ways that the more quirky ideas could be adapted and changed to suit it. Some of our more sensible ideas were lost and so on untill we ended up with our final concept.

Even now it has changed so much from what it was (a sort of social service park bench) to what it has become (Molly and Gerry). I am really looking forward to seeing how we can expand our current prototype by combining our ideas with that of the Interactive Media Design Students we are now working with.

Ultimately though it still a working progress though so if you want to see what happens next then watch this space!

-Tim

50 ways to save the planet

At Unbox we believe that sustainability should be as fundamental to design as the function or aesthetics. We brought this point up during our presentation of 'Molly and Gerry' on Monday as part of our ongoing brief for Microsoft.

A number of students mentioned afterwards that it seemed a bit random or even irrelevant to mention it during our presentation and we agreed that it is something that should not need to be mentioned. Unfortunately it is not something as widely considered as it should be in today's industry and economy which is why we felt it necessary to include it.
For our project we hope to keep the issue of sustainability at the forefront thought the development from concept to reality of both Molly and Gerry.

wireandtwine.com have presented a really clear list of 50 examples of ways in which you can save the planet. Many of these methods are not only eco-friendly but also wallet friendly meaning you can save money. This only makes it seem more like common sense to understand sustainability!

-tim

Is Privacy Dead In The Age Of Digital?

As part of the wonderful Saturday night lecture series, Anne Anderson came to talk on the topic of privacy in today's digital environment. It was a really gripping talk that followed on wonderfully from the Unbound talk given by Lauren Currie and Kate Andrews (see previous post).

Anne began her talk with some of her views on how she saw the notion of privacy changing. There is a fine line between privacy and secrecy, and in order for people to feel safe yet free, the right balance must be struck. The UK has the highest number of CCTV cameras in the world, does this make it the most safe? This is a interesting issue. Why are we, as members of this surveillance society, so unconcerned about the number of pervasive ways of gathering information about our lives? Why do we not question what happens to all of the data collected about us each day? Do CCTV cameras really help prevent crime at all? In some instances it has been shown that they do, such as in car thefts in private car parks, but it has been also shown that they do little in the prevention of street crime. In fact, additional street lights have been shown to be more effective against this crime. The benefits of using such technology must be justified in relation to the costs.

Other types of new technology are also playing a part in altering the current view of privacy in society. With the emergence of more and more social networking websites and applications with our data, information about us and our lives is becoming available to a huge number of people, in the private and public domain. Anne commented on the generally poor “privacy policies” these sites often have. They are apparently often updated with new policies without he users consent. People do not often appreciate the true publicity of the content they post on their personal sites. Drunken photos or inappropriate content is clearly visible to anyone, not just the originally intended viewers. This raises a new ethical issue that prospective employers, teachers etc. must face. Should the actions of a person illustrated on their facebook account impact on their chances of getting a job or university place? Anne was unsure if it was morally right to do so, but a member of the audience questioned this by saying that surely these websites were an extension of the public domain, and asked whether Anne would ignore such acts if she saw them in reality in front of her? A very intriguing point.

New technology of course has always been seen as a possible way of invading people's privacy. With the invention of the first cameras, there was public outcry that they would be far too invasive and should be banned immediately. I feel that we are often in too much of a rush to exploit or develop new “cutting edge” technology without fully understanding the implications, or using the current technology really effectively.

Society always dictates how technology is used and its meaning. This can be seen in the invention of MSN Messenger, Text messages and camera phones. Anne talked about the

introduction of the “click” sound on camera phones to try to prevent inappropriate photos being taken. The social view on privacy has radically changed. In 1984, the term Big Brother was seen as suppressive, today people actually want to be watched 24/7 by millions of people! The topic of “sousveilance” was mentioned in line with this. The position of the watcher is now shifting from “The Man” to joe public as there is a greater popularity of public media broadcasting such as YouTube and Wikipedia. Timmothy Pryde asked the question about privacy when people openly post their thoughts etc. on sites such as Twitter. A difficult question to answer, but Anne was interested in this also, and suggested that possibly this was a form of people invading their own privacy, and said that the implications were still unknown.

Anne Anderson concluded her presentation with her personal privacy principles:

1. My default is private

2. No more that what is needed

3. Real penalties for data spillages

4. Informed consent

5. Expectations governed by strict rules

I feel these are some good points to follow to help keep our privacy. If you have any of your own please post them up (if you want to disclose them of course!)

So how do we design for privacy? What are the solutions? I feel that this is a really exciting new niche in design that is yet to be fully explored, and it is our responsibility to consider it.

P

Molly and Gerry Prototype

On Monday, Unbox presented our first fully working embedded prototype for our design concept in response to the Microsoft Brief. They were really useful tools in demonstrating the user interaction and experience. Below shows some images of the stages involved in the production of the prototype. We were all really pleased with the final outcome, and hope to further develop the concept and experience.

Making the card model

The breadboard circuit


Working PCB


Final Prototypes

More photos and a video of the interaction will be available soon on www.unboxdesign.co.uk

Company Merger

As part of the Microsoft project we are currently undertaking, Unbox Design will be merging with Listen Inc. to develop our idea of new ways of working for my granny. We are all really looking forward to working with IMD and having the skills they can bring to the project.

P

The Studio Unbound: Social Networking and Design Education

Dundee Masters of Design Student Lauren Currie and design writer Kate Andrews gave a really interesting presentation on the power of social networking and what its role in society and education was today.

Lauren and Kate are both extremely savvy social networkers and have been exploiting the tools available to them to generate a global reputation in the design world. Please check out both of their blogs to get some really interesting posts.


The presentation was well attended by both tutors and pupils (Unbox Design of course being present) showing the interest that this topic is currently provoking in the design society.

The talk opened with the quote, “For the designer to become a producer, she must have the skills to begin directing content, by critically navigating the social, aesthetic, and technological systems across which communications flow.” (Ellen Lupton, 1998). This set the scene and led on to the really interesting and thought provoking talk. An example of digital social networking was even incorporated live into the presentation, with Kate commenting live from London via video conferencing, and Jonathan Baldwin regularly updating Twitter with key points.

I found it really interesting how both of the presenters had met online before ever working with each other, and both had many contacts that they regularly talked to online, but who had never, and probably would never meet. Indeed, although Lauren graduated from Product Design last year, I had never met her before other than on her blog. Not really sure what this means, but interesting.

In the talk, it was shown how the computer is no longer just a production tool for the designer, but is providing a crucial new way of fulfilling the necessity of communication we have to perform. Communication with other designers, clients, other disciplines etc. The role and perception of the designer is radically changing. There has been a move away from the traditional idea of the "eureka moment" experienced and more emphasis put on the design process, and realisation of the importance of co-creation and interdisciplinary working.

Another key issue raised was questioning how these social networking tools can be used for education and learning? I personally feel that the structure of education system needs to be altered to be less top down teaching, and increased peer and bottom up learning. Can these tools aid a teacher, or even replace one? Someone once said that if a teacher is able to be replaced by a machine then perhaps they should! This of course commenting on the skills and requirements needed to be a good educator rather than the benefits of computers. Even if these tools can help teachers, surely it hugely depends on the personality and enthusiasm of the teacher and the context. There is a brilliant TED Talk on this topic by Sugata Mitra.

The most interesting point I took from this though was the different generational views not just on the technology used, but on the content. Members of staff who had experienced life in the pre-digital where concerned about the lack of privacy and anonymity that is available. Whereas students felt this to be less of a concern. Once we put something up on the Internet, it becomes available for all to see, and therefore we become available to be judged and scrutinised on our personal lives and thoughts possibly intended only to be seen by certain people. It is a strange thought to be being viewed in other people's photos, or our comments herd by complete strangers. This is surely an area that needs to be developed. Professor Mike Press talked of the need for Grown Up Digital, and the cultural and political differences that made this form of communication unsuitable for some.

In conclusion, a really inspiring talk, and great to see young graduates doing so well-gives us something to aim for!

If you have any thoughts on the use of social networking in society please leave a comment.

To watch the presentation go to http://vimeo.com/3363097 look out for a brief appearance from Unbox at the end.

P

One Question...

Came across this video tonight through Kate Andrews' blog. I hate to use the word "lovely", but I think this qualifies as "lovely".



Simple premise, ask one question to fifty different people on the streets of Brooklyn and record the answers they give. I took it as a social research experiment designed to see where one pretty obscure question can lead to.

I'm really starting to look at these experiments with a focused view now, before I used to pan them off as nonsensical and pointless, believing that there was no use in the findings.

I'm struggling to explain why my opinion has changed, I can't seem to put my finger on the reason. Feel free to suggest a reason.

Anyway with my view changed I look at these social research experiments and find them really interesting. In the case of this one, it shows you how diverse peoples' answers can be (ranging from "my bed" to "my fathers tombstone") stemming from one simple question.

It makes me think, if the question was deeper and more omminous, e.g "How can people prevent climate change and pass on sustainability knowledge?" then would the answers be more restricted and almost forced?

I love the simplicity of the question in this video, and the depth in which people go into with their answers, is this what design should be like? Simple but provoking?

Answers on a postcard.

My 8 Sustainability Issues

Following Josh's attendance at the recent Sustainability forum, and his last post on the forum, Unbox had an extremely interesting meeting with Professor Seaton Baxtor, Hamid Von Koten and graphic design pupil Struan. Here we discussed what the next step would be to implementing some of the ideas, and tackling some of the problems that had been raised during the forum. To get a better understanding of the all of the issues felt to be important to those involved, Professor Baxtor suggested sending him a list of no more than 10 key issues which you felt needed to be addressed. The issues I feel need mentioning are below.

1. The language of sustainability needs to change to be more inclusive for all people, regardless of their depth of understanding of the subject. The language should be appropriate for the context.

2. we must learn FROM, not just ABOUT nature. (Bio Mimicry)

3. The education system should change so that sustainability is as integral as learning to read, write and add at primary school.

4. To live sustainably needs to be as easy as the non-sustainable way we are currently living (if not easier!)

5. The topic should be addressed on micro (bio mimicry) and macro (large global systems and cultures eg. production techniques) level systems.

6. A bottom up approach needs to be met with a top down approach. Leaders need to be working in conjunction and towards the same goals as the common people.

7. A larger emphasis should be put on Service Design to promote a "use not consume" culture. Where is the ISD (Innovative Service Design) course? Or else, could it be better incorporated into all disciplines?

8. Sustainability should be included in all projects, not just in the design school, to show its practical use and real world implications, rather than having "sustainable projects" just done by "arty people" as some people see it.

These of course are just my personal views. If you have an opinion on them, please comment, or if you have aset of your own, email: s.z.baxtor@dundee.ac.uk

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Grandpa Interviews

It's taken me a while to get onto this blog but here I am, 25%Unbox.
These videos are interviews that I filmed in January as initial research for this project. They brought about a number of very useful insights as they conflicted with the usual stereotype of an 'old person'. Something my grandpa is adamant not to be!

Food Is Fun.

Yes, I do feel bad for stopping the more serious posts, but I just had to show this off.


It's Alphabites and fishcakes. With tomato sauce.

Good Design? Bad Design?

Recently I had to visit my local GP surgery (don't worry, nothing serious!). I was waiting in the reception area, enduring the usual poor service design that is associated with this type of experience, when I saw these flyers about prostate and bowel cancer.

These are of course very important issues to be aware of, and I was glad to see that they were being advertised and commented about. However, looking at the flyers, I was puzzled as to the correlation between apples and bowel cancer, and oak leaves and prostate cancer? Does eating too many/not enough apples give you bowel cancer? Can oak leaves provide some clue towards prostate cancer?

After wonder about all the possible links between these seemingly unconnected things, I remembered a lecture given by Jonathan Baldwin last year. In it Jonathan Baldwin used the example of pizza flyers to provoke mixed opinions on its graphical design merrit. Most people in the audience (especially the graphic design students) saw the overly intense colours, loud busy text, unclear font and haphazard layout and where in no doubt that these were examples of the worst graphic design they had seen!

In response to this, Jonathan argued that they were actually example of excellent graphic design. Through their overly intense colours, loud busy text, unclear font and haphazard layout, they successfully communicate exactly the type of experience and product you will get. The pizza will most likely by quick, cheap, unhealthy, greasy and delicious! Would the same message be communicated if the flyers where professionally designed and slickly produced? I doubt it! Meaning is determined by situation and buy the end user.

How does this relate to my medical flyers? I'm not really sure yet. The colours are certainly soothing, but I'm still not sure about the images. I will continue to ponder, but if any of you have any thoughts on the topic, please let us know!

To read Jonathan Baldwin's great article on pizza flyers go to : http://www.underconsideration.com/speakup/archives/002462.html

Also turns out its top of the list on google!


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Students + Sustainablity = NOW!

Tuesday 10th Feburary 2009, spelled the day of Josh Liandu's awakening to the importance of sustainability in design, and in the shaping of our future. The discussion took place over a lunchtime, and was heavily attended by students and tutors alike, over a wide spread of the design disciplines. I'm not going to lie, walking into a room full of the likes of Mike Press, Seaton Baxter and Jonathan Baldwin, is fairly daunting. Especially when you know that they're now not lecturing you, but are there on a level par to listen to and comment on YOUR views.
Orchestrating this all was young Graphic Design student, Struan Pendriech, currently a 2nd year at our very own Duncan of Jordanstone. It was some-what inspiring to see someone my age so passionate about the issues surrounding sustainability - but I'll spiel more about that later.

Basically, the discussion was a student led workshop on the subject of embedding sustainability in the curriculum. Advertised as a real opportunity for students and staff to listen and talk with other students in a cross disciplinary setting, about how our briefs, workshops, teaching and such, might be improved or even radicalized, in order to meet student expectations and ethical issues.

Here's what I took from it...

The main issue in connection with sustainability, being addressed, was 'How do we make our students more receptive to sustainability?'. Struan began by bringing a figure, that Jonathan Baldwin had pointed out to him from a section in The Higher Education Academy's 'Networks magazine'. The figure [shown above] points out the pro-sustainability influences on a student, whilst they're at college or university. I found the diagram useful as it began to provoke thoughts in my mind that I hadn't tackled before, it also opened up the floor of the discussion and got the ball rolling.

The briefs were one of the first factors that were brought to the table. Issues raised were that we've successfully managed to get sustainability and force it into a box that we can neatly tag on the end of a brief, but that we need to make sustainability the main issue that the briefs are based on. People talked about maybe looking into the materials we get to use as students, whilst others complained about the time scales we are given. I agreed with what was said about looking at making the briefs about sustainability rather than just trying to incorporate it into them. This was also touched on a little later on in the workshop, by Seaton Baxter, an honorary Professor in Duncan of Jordanstone's School of Design. He said that because of our changing world, the new briefs for our projects should be coming from the "real world", and should be integral to how we as students are taught. All these points were good, but they didn't REALLY answer the question for me. He also said that the magnitude of the problem is great, and that it's how we really UNDERSTAND the problem that's going to start making a difference.

Someone who I was surprised to see at this discussion, was Grant Payne, a 1st year Product Design student at the university. He was sat on the main table, and had a few good things to say on the issue. One of those being that we need to, "Set a date for change.", I believe is how he worded it - reminding me a lot of something President Obama would have said on his historical road to the White House! This statement was well received and led to many of the points raised. Good job kid.
I think it was Jonathan Baldwin who raised the point which dwells in the back of all designers minds, that primarily, a lot of the problems with the environment today have been brought about by POOR design and a shear lack of forward planning from designers. This was a good point, as it reminds us that we can look back at the mistakes that have been made, and make sure that we learn from them and aim to design for a more sustainable world.

Mike Press, the university's 'Chair of Design Policy', was also attending the discussion and acted as the physical representation of college management, and this meant he had to field many of the somewhat "awkward" questions directed at the board. Nevertheless, he shared many useful insights, and put across loads of good points. One of the questions put to him, was querying the aims of the University in the re-design of Duncan of Jordanstone College, to make it more ecologically sound. His reply referred to the recently erected Queen Mother Building on the Dundee University campus, and it's good example of ecological architecture.
He spoke on sustainability not just being an attitude change, but also being a 'lifestyle' change, and believed that many designers' ethics would be continually challenged over the course of their careers. An example of this that I have encountered, was when Visiting Professor at Dundee University, Colin Burns, came to speak to our 2nd year Product Design class last semester. He shared with us his run in with a major superstore retailer [that will remain unnamed], that he said he'd never work for, then was offered a project by them that paid extremely well, and was put into this complex situation.
A couple of other key things he said were that when you need something to change, and just looking at ideas in general, things from the top down never work. I felt this was an interesting statement, obviously fairly generalised, but an interesting statement none the less. And also, he really believed that the key engine of radical and revolutionary change had arrived, and that we should strike while the iron is hot.

Because of the open floor, this discussion allowed for many interesting and radical views. A young foreign student, who I thinks name was Gonzalez, brought one of these such views. He said that sustainability was about how we lived today, and that it was based on what our ethics were. this was all based around his 'Concept of Human Conversation', and it's importance to everything. I liked how he said that how we're going to live tomorrow, all revolves around how we live today. working together, we should aim to say that EVERYTHING we design WILL be sustainable and therefore, inevitably take full responsibility for our own actions if they're not.

I, Josh Liandu, am speaking as "the Converted". I began my University career a year and a half ago with the notion that recycling and sustainability, and such like issues, were "not cool" and, at most, lurking in the background of design today. Over the past 18 months, I have soaked up a fresh set of ethics and views from my projects, lectures and chats with my tutors, etc. Sometimes it's felt like the media are creating a panic or a "media-frenzy", and it's that factor that has put me off worrying about sustainability in the past. I believe that sustainability is not a matter of us trying to preserve the earth, as it's been around for billions of years and will easily be able to rectify itself. I feel it's a lot more selfish than that, and that it's all about looking after ourselves, as humans, and preserving our descendants. And as far as the issue of sustainability in the curriculum, I agree that the briefs need to be based ON designing for sustainability, and not just trying to work it in at the end, even making it a pass parameter in every brief..I'm not sure. What do YOU think?
This workshop or discussion, or whatever you want to call it, was a huge learning experience for me. It allowed me to absorb heaps useful information and lots of views [some I agreed with and some I didn't], but most importantly, it raised my awareness surrounding the issue of sustainability in design an in the world we live in today. And this I feel deemed this event a success.

The next meeting was arranged for 27th March 2009, and is aimed to bring together not only the people who met up this week, but also a whole load more people, and hopefully, Unbox's involvement will help to bring this issue to the forefront. Also look out for the 'Sustainability Forum', that Jackie Malcolm heads up. More information on - https://secure.dundee.ac.uk/design/TLforum.php.
Hit us back with your views and tell me what you think should be done about this issue of making our students more receptive to sustainability, and how it should come about.
Would love to see you all in the Reception Room [above the library] on the 27th March. Things will kick off around 12.30.


Cheeers.


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"A Law Without Logic - Redjotter"

After searching the blogsphere I recently came across a really interesting and relevant post by Redjotter called "A Law Without Logic". It is concerning a Dispatches program called "Too old to work." I am gutted I missed this program as it would have given another really useful insight into the social aspect of older people staying on in a formal sense of work.

One of the quotes taken from the program by Redjotter says, "I want to use my brain." This struck a cord with me, as my Granny is extremely clever, but is quite inactive in a physical sense. Is extending working ages going to get over this feeling of wasted mental capital? I feel that the thing coming from this is that older people need mental stimulation in any form, perhaps over the structure of formal work. How can we "upcycle" our grandparents knowledge and skills instead of them being wasted and put into the "landfill" of a retirement home?

PS. check out Redjotter's blog redjotter.wordpress.com, some really interesting and fun stuff.


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First Contact With Richard Banks

Yesterday, Richard Banks from Microsoft's offices in Cambridge braced the cold and flew up to Dundee to host a workshop with us and talk about how we were advancing with the project.

I found Richard's input really positive, and it was really helpful to get a totally fresh and new perspective on how we were progressing. One of the things Richard talked about was how he thought the "Work" aspect of the brief could be interpreted. From this, I was able to see how this constraint could be more easily fitted in. A large part of something to be classed as work, is determining whether or not it has any public relevance and is of any value to the public. This is of course not saying that walking the family dog, or looking after the grand kids is not work. Personal family stories are really great and should be cherished and passed down through the family, but what broader social value do they have? How else gives a damn that this is where you found your old kitchen table? Should people care? I don't know. I feel that for this project, with its definite WORK theme, we must be able to give work some sort of definition without being callus and brutish.

What are your thoughts on the issue of what is work? When is enough enough, and older people should be allowed/encouraged to move out of the workplace? Should they be?

Let us know.

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The brand new "Wrist-pod"?

You thought the iPhone was revolutionary...well, check this futuristic piece of design out.

Mr. Mac Funamizu has returned to the design scene with another one of his epic-ly futuristic designs. This concept is nothing other than mind blowing. A transparent music player that slaps round your wrist. Boom. But get this, it's fully customisable, so if you don't want it clear then it allows you to upload your own image or colour graphic, and it can double up as a sweet-ass wrist accessory!

All this united with earphones that bring a "concert performance" to your ears; a microphone that recognizes, locates, then plays tunes from your library that are hummed into it; a heartbeat regulator; and to top it off, it's all mobile compatible.

Unfortunately, we're all just going to wait and see if this actually materialises into anything, or if it's just going to be another one of Mac's unique, yet improbable designs.

PS. Good spot from Jack of 'breadandbutterdesign.blogspot.com'. check them out.

*_*

Soup Roulette.

Just a quick note to say that as of today, whenever I buy soup I'm gonna take the labels off every can of soup I buy, thus creating soup roulette.

An idea created through the medium of Josh.

Hopefully this simple process brings some excitement back into soup.


So I would like to encourage you all to join me. Or you can comment me back and call me and idiot.

PS, I apologise for the crappy istock photo.

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"Drugs Can Be Puzzling."

A huge congratulations must go to the group Product Design students at Dundee University who came up with the "Drugs Can Be Puzzling" campaign in response to a service design breif to improve the area of Lochee. Their witty yet thought provoking campaign to get more information to the friends and families of drug users has been chosen to be taken forward by the Dundee City Council. More information will be posted as the project develops.

Good work guys!


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justhearit.com

Credit goes to Blair from Flamingo for this spot, absolutely genius website that will no doubt get hacked and provide the world with any song they desire.

It doesn't need anymore explanation, just go and have a play with it.

With websites like this, is it becoming more and more easy to rip the music industry off?

www.justhearit.com

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Undox Design

I'm now proud to announce that www.unboxdesign.co.uk is now online at long last!


Please check it out and let us know what you think.

We're always open to comments.
(the "Projects" page is currently being updated so looks rather blank to say the least.)