GDE730 W9 | Lecture Review
Fieldwork Facility asked ‘how might we combat the awful effect air pollution has on our health?’. In our research we were shocked to discover how air pollution degenerates our cognitive ability. Brainteasers is a project to counter the effects of air pollution — by keeping local minds stimulated. Each maze and riddle was designed and tested so that it couldn’t be solved in the time it takes to pass by — our aim was to keep local minds engaged as they travel under the Flyover every day.
Core Characteristics, Ethics and Theory
This week’s lecture included a conversation with Robin Howie who is the founder and creative director of Fieldwork Facility, Sinx, or John Sinclair, who is one of the founders of ustwo, as well as Sophie Hawkins who is the founder of S. Hawkins Co. fashion design.
ROBBIE HOWIE | FIELDWORK FACILITY
Hefin Jones began his service design career in university. He enjoyed the collaborative nature and immersion possibilities when working with people in their communities. He used his project Cosmic Colliery to engage a community in Wales around the fictional notion of reimagining a closed-down coal mine into an astronaut training facility. His work immersed him into this community, spending long periods of time in conversations with young people, former coal miners, families, youth center directors and operators, local governments.
JOHN SINCLAIR | USTWO
By using fiction, Jones hope was to allow for deeper, more meaningful conversations around how the community could think differently about its culture, history, networks, relationships, and practices. What made this project most successful was Jones’ willingness to allow for space for long and meandering conversations to take place. To provide room for people to imagine and engage in dialogue. He expressed the necessity to listen, and not bring your own biases about the project into the foreground.
SOPHIE HAWKINS | S. HAWKINS CO. & 108 BOILERSUITS
A take away for Jones was the projects opportunity to engage the marginal voices, in this case, the youth of the community — unable to vote — and finding ways to create agency and advocacy on their behalf.
His advice for service designers starting out is to prioritize listening, leaving bias out as much as possible, having a responsibility to the subjects and subject community and to be willing to allow for variances and evolution to take place within and beyond the project.
REFERENCE:
Falmouth University (2019). Core Characteristics, Ethics and Theory | Lecture. Studio and Entrepreneurship GDE730 19/20 Part-Time Study Block S2 (Falmouth, UK: Falmouth University)
Entrepreneur Europe [online] https://www.entrepreneur.com/
Lecture in Progress https://lectureinprogress.com/
Courier [online] https://couriermedia.co/
Offscreen[online] https://www.offscreenmag.com/
Intern [online] https://intern-mag.com/
Backstage Talks [online] https://backstagetalks.com/
Artsy Magazine [online] https://www.artsymagazine.com/
Ethos [online] https://ethos-magazine.com/
Wired, Jessica Alter,(2013) Designers make great entrepreneurs, they just don’t know it yet
Frederick Harry Pitts https://www.frederickharrypitts.com/
Futures of Work https://futuresofwork.co.uk/
Congdon, L., Ilasco, M. M., & Fields, J. (2014). Art, Inc.: The essential guide for building your career as an artist. San Francisco: Chronicle Books.
Congdon, L. (2019). Find your artistic voice: The essential guide to working your creative magic. San Francisco, CA: Chronicle Books.
ATAVAR, M. (2019). BEING CREATIVE: Be inspired. unlock your originality. Place of publication not identified: AURUM Press.