Bio design and Aideation
Hello there my lovely reader!
How was your week? If you’re also a fellow student in Ireland I would assume your days also started to get a bit more packed and hectic with the deadlines approaching in bigger and bigger steps. And with those deadlines an end to the next academic year is approaching as well.
But this is not why we are here today are we? No, this week was a week full of thinking through our futures as designers and how we would like to work and function in the world of design after moving towards the next steps on our professional design path. It might feel still a bit removed from your and mine current problems and thoughts but the truth is that the time flies faster year by year and soon enough we are going to wake up and realise it is finally the time to start applying for jobs and internships.
So why not do the necessary research now and reduce the necessity to explore the pages looking for open positions down the line? It is something our lecturer prompted us to do during the Contemporary Design Culture lecture.
And through that deep dive into my dream design position I was able to find myself on a page of one of my favourite designers - Neri Oxman. Neri is an Israeli-American designer that was formerly a professor at MIT and currently is leading her own design practice called OXMAN which fuses design, biology and technology. Her projects spread to so many areas of design, from fashion and wearables design to architecture and work on polymers. I stumbled upon Neri a few years ago while watching some design videos with my mom and was immediately mesmerised with her approach towards design as well as the actual outputs of the combination of science and research with regular design practice. Her designs are out of this world and seemingly provide little to no input into the everyday lives of its users, but they allow for the growth of the design field for its development into new directions that promote sustainable future, sourcing materials from nature and growing them for the purposes of each of the products.
Her collaboration with Iris Van Herpen was something that put Neri back on my design radar. She created growing biodesigned wearables that were shaped to resemble organical structures. Something that fascinates me personally as a designer who’s also interested in medical applications and biological structures. It was a so to say rediscovery of a similarly thinking mind, of a connection to the world of organic through the technology and beauty of fashion.
So during the search for my dream position I put down as a submission the designer across scales position in the atelier of Neri Oxman. I believe there is so much I could possibly learn from her as a designer and the chance to work in her studio would be a dream come true. Especially if that dream would be able to get realised sooner or later after my graduation from the course.
But that wasn’t all that happened over this week, oh no. On friday I was able to join an AIdeation workshop in the design studio with second year architecture students from University of Limerick. It was a really cool opportunity to quickly develop some interesting ideas and learn how to use the AI tools. Especially the AI tools since I wasn't previously familiar with the medium. It kind of allowed me to open myself up to the thought that asking for some inspirations or verbal prompts from the AI is not as bad as it might have previously been in my mind.
And with that thought I leave you and the designer problem of the week: When you only start designing for fun but the product turns out to be a banger so now you feel like you need to give it more proper attention and development.
Cheers,
The one and only Maria K.