Projects
Material Culture:
Collaborative exhibition,
The exhibition Material Culture explored the relationship between material objects and an increasingly networked, immaterial culture. It anticipated a broader shift in design, from technology- and consumption-driven approaches towards design as a social tool. Presented by the University of Technology Sydney, this first curated design exhibition brought together a wide range of creative practices. It reflected the growing role of collaborative design processes in addressing complex social and cultural challenges, including sustainability, digitalisation and shared identity.
In Material Culture a cross section of outputs was displayed from various departments of the UTS School of Design, such as Interior and Spatial Design, Photography and Situated Media, Animation, Visual Communication, Fashion and Textile Design, Industrial Design, Interdisciplinary Design, Interaction Design, History and Theory, PhD graduate program and the Research center Designing out Crime.
Product and interface designs addressed ergonomics, anthropometry and manufacturing contexts in connection with mass production and consumer culture. Other projects were looking at the world through the lens of human memory and questioned the contemporary world that may have lost through its emphasis on speed and technology. Documentary projects examined the state of urban Sydney, highlighting the constant change, development, destruction and reconstruction throughout Sydney’s precincts of Chippendale and Frasers. Students presented creative results of an investigation into cultural identity in New Zealand. While some projects were presented as open-ended concepts to instigate professional and social debate, other projects were shaped as practical solutions to concrete problems.
- Commissioner
School of Design, Faculty of Design and Society, University of Technology, Sydney
- Project type
Curatorial project
Exhibition design
Design management- Field
Design education and research, University
- Location
Sydney, Australia
- Year
2011
- Status
Completed
- Collaborators
Designers and researchers from visual communication, fashion and textile design, industrial design, interior and spatial design, animation design, photography and situated media, interdisciplinary design studies, interaction design, MA design programmes, design history and theory, PhD research programmes, Interactivation research studio, the research centre Designing out Crime, and other collaborators working across adjacent design research fields.