Student Work
Students in Aesthetics of Design will be posting here about their work all semester. Please read and comment.
Weekly Posts 2019
Upcycle Project Interim Posts
Links
Here we show examples of the intersection of engineering and art that have inspired us.
Material source for upcycling
They have a warehouse in Denver. Would be a good place to browse for an upcycling project. http://www.repurposedmaterialsinc.com/
Great use of Vantablack, light absorbing paint
Asif Khan reveals super-dark Vantablack pavilion for Winter Olympics 2018
Bad Design is Inspiring Too
133 Epic Design Fails That You Will Find Hard To Believe Actually Happened
Love that whiplash curve
http://www.thevintagenews.com/2016/07/20/just-love-collection-art-nouveau-doors-around-2/
Golden ratio sculptures
Spiral sculptures by John Edmark http://www.johnedmark.com/ Trained in computer science and then product design at Stanford.
Artist and Mechanical Engineer: Arthur Ganson
Also see the article in the April 2017 edition of Mechanical Engineering Magazine (for all you ASME members).
Laser cut automaton
I wish I could give better attribution for this! Can anyone read the artist’s name?
Silver Swan Automaton 200 years old!
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/robotic-silver-swan-has-fascinated-fans-nearly-250-years-180962024/ I wish I had any confidence that any of our current technology would still be working in 200 years!
Solidsmack
There are plenty of tech and design blogs out there, but this one seems well-curated, with frequent and interesting posts: Solidsmack
Product Design: 365 Knitting Clock makes time more tactile by making a scarf
Siren Elise Wilhelmsen is a Norwegian product designer based between Bergen and Berlin. She produces objects that challenge the concept of traditional functionality and transform natural materials into intricate mechanical objects. Through her practice she seeks to find ‘a conceptual way to stimulate ideas and discussions around our everyday objects, rituals and culture.’ Source: Product…
Steampunk vision of New York
“The Old New World” (Photo-based animation project) from seccovan on Vimeo. BY Alexey Zakharov
Bathtub to couch
Диван из старой ванны. Афигительно!! Posted by Видео БУМ on Saturday, April 2, 2016
Today’s Influential Designers
Unfortunately I cannot make it to class Wednesday to hear about today’s influential designers, but I thought I might share who’s work I find inspiring. I’d be interested to see who’s currently inspiring you too. I don’t find Martha Stewart terribly inspiring, but what other female designers are influencing product design? Marcel Wanders http://www.marcelwanders.com/ known…
Chairs of China
Since we’re talking about chairs as the classic design case study, I thought you may enjoy my chair book featuring the chairs of China. Some are up-cycled, some are at end of their life, all are rad. Have a seat and enjoy: http://www.blurb.com/b/6437590-have-a-seat
A dress with parking sensors…
Anouk Wipprecht integrates parking sensors and headlights into 3D-printed fashion collection from Dezeen on Vimeo. I wonder how big the battery pack is, how long it lasts and where it is in the dress.
99% Invisible – A Podcast About Design
I’ve been listening to this podcast for a while now, and it has quickly become one of my all-time favorites. If you love podcasts, design, history, interesting stories, or just some strange amalgam of them all, then you’ll love 99% Invisible. Recommended Episodes: – Episode 110: Structural Integrity – Episode 114: Ten Thousand Years –…
Marble Music Machine
I ran across this video and thought it was worth sharing. I think it is an amazing intersection of engineering and art. Enjoy!
Military Surreal
Several students chose military hardware as upcycle source material, and made benign objects from it, like Ethan Gehring’s nutcracker from a grenade casing, Shen Shu’s toy cannon, and Chad Alvarez‘s string of shotgun shell lights. Here is a full scale example from Kris Kuksi, a “post-industrial Rococco master”artist. Many layers of meaning here.
Dynamic tables
“Top 10 Intelligent Wooden Tables”. Fun ways to make the static table into something dynamic.
Yarn from plastic bags
My sister in law crochets grocery bags out of other plastic bags; very robust creations. This woman takes it further and makes fine thread.
Beer can costume
Someone in class mentioned that they had a lot of soda cans that they were thinking of using for the Upcycle Assignment. Here is an example of upcycling that I can’t find the origin of, but it looks like a Brazilian Carnival troupe: I found it shared on Facebook.
Rolling through the bay
Source: Rolling through the bay A wonderful example of upcycled outsider art. Scott Weaver created an elaborate sculpture of San Francisco, made entirely of toothpicks, around 100,000 of them. A ping pong ball rides on tracks through the sculpture, visiting sites of importance to the sculptor. I saw this at the American Visionary Museum in…
Enter the annual DWR Champagne Chair Contest
If you want to get started with a pre-course warm-up project, check out this competition for tiny chairs made from champagne corks and wire cages. Competition closes Friday Jan 8, 2016. Happy New Year!
Course
Everything administrative. Syllabus, lecture notes, assignment requirements, schedule and more.
Schedule
Movie Night
Movie Night Week 6
The film being screened this week is Jacques Tati’s 1958 Mon Oncle. The film takes a look into the juxtaposition of modern France with old France. My work in my BFA was heavily influenced and inspired by the sound design for this film. Tati was always known for informative expository sound design in otherwise silent…
11 Contour Bias vs Cubes
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Today we went over Upcycle Presentation logistics (look for a separate post on that), and then continued with sketching practice, specifically cubes, extending to a blocky chair. In contrast, we…
10 Aesthetics Game
Today the teams played the Aesthetics Game. The names of artifacts and aesthetics were drawn at random from a hat, and teams then sketch versions of the resulting mashup. For…
09 Upcycle Specs and Perspective Sketching
Today we went over the explicit expectations for final documentation of the Upcycle project: presentations and next week’s blog post. Then we went over basic use of vanishing points in…
08 Teams
We listened to my favorite wisdom on teamwork, from This American Life, and then the teams all met for the first time. The TAL episode focused on the work of…
07 Process and Sketching
We talked a bit more about individual design processes, and looked at traditional industrial design sketches; how they vary through the design process. Ended with a bit of sketch practice,…
06 Ideation and Process
Since a good fraction of you are still unsure of your Upcycle project, we practiced a couple of ideation techniques, and then talked about the design process. 06 Ideation and…
04 Aesthetics Tour 2
Today we shared design notebooks and ideas for tonight’s first post on aesthetics. Then we looked at a few specific design aesthetics: Industrial Chic, Biker Culture, Japanese motorcycles, Yakuza tatoos…
03 Aesthetics Tour 1
Today we went over some more administrative stuff (will it never end?) including a demonstration of how to post to this website. There’s an old post on this from last…
02 Definitions of Aesthetics
Today we finished going over the syllabus, and then went through the history of art vs science and the invention of aesthetics. We got partway through the big art theories.…
01 Intro
Today we went over the initial assignments and started on the syllabus, covering goals and learning objectives. Wendesday we’ll finish syllabus stuff, and get into definitions of aesthetics.