Spartan Daily, October 6, 1938

Volume 27, Issue 11https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartandaily/2801/thumbnail.jp

Your light and your sight

Good lighting in the home is essential to the comfort and wellbeing of all family members. Though light needs vary for different age groups and tasks, it\u27s important to have the proper lighting for your home

Narratives on clay

The intent of this thesis is to develop a cohesive body of work that makes use of a narrative that is rooted in my personal experience and investigation. The work will reflect a direct relationship with historical references, especially those of the primitive cultures of Africa and Japan. The forms will incorporate personal symbolism, iconography and humor with a sense of animation. The selection of material, form and process will be utilized as appropriate to each piece

Visual preferences in an ageing population : design, theory, practice, education & critical reflection

Formative periods represent early phases in life when we are particularly sensitive to experiences that influence later choices. This investigation hypothesised that the design of products associated with formative periods continues to influence preference throughout life. In design for an ageing population these preferences are important because designers often wrongly assume a decline in interest in design and physical ability. If these assumptions are prioritised there can be a detrimental effect on the visual sensitivity and emotional value products convey. In the United Kingdom a significant proportion of the ageing population is financially independent, physically healthy and resistant to traditionally negative associations of ageing. However, limited interrogation of the design process, or of the products produced, leaves a largely youth orientated design industry ill- equipped to challenge these associations and design for consumers whose experiences differ from their own. This investigation interviewed leading design professionals to test these assumptions and to inform an innovative questionnaire to identify visual preference. The questionnaire incorporated images of domestic products from 1930 to 1990 and asked for rapid responses reflecting intuitive preferences. A fifty five percent , response rate was achieved from 5,000 questionnaires posted to respondents aged fifty to seventy five years. Analysis of the findings identified two associations. Firstly, a statistically small association between age and visual preference, older respondents preferred older products, although the association was marginal and insufficient to support the hypothesis. Secondly, visual analysis revealed a strong preference for the most familiar form of the product, proposed as representing the 'contemporary essence'. These findings challenge assumptions that ageing is accompanied by a decline in design interest. Rather, the economic and social cost of establishing a design environment reduces the flexibility of future choices. These issues are age neutral. To address these issues, a critically reflective design approach is proposed as a positive response to an ageing population in an inclusive society

How can the concept of the souvenir explain heritage production and consumption?

This thesis explores the ways in which objects are constructed as meaningful and thus converted into various forms of 'heritage'. Made objects, termed as made artefacts have formed part of the research, these include tea-pots, military caps and bouncy castles, and they comment on, critique and challenge prevalent conceptions and products of heritage. The notion of the souvenir is used to guide the thesis through the various types of object, with their different functions, markets/audiences and institutional locations. The different functions of the souvenir include the generation of nostalgia, the making of treasured experience and the attempt at innocent or simple memorial and documentary. The made artefacts challenge the notion of the innocent or simply commemorative souvenir, showing in a combination of reasoned argument and humorous or satirical form that and how they are in fact doing some very un-innocent work. That work includes the ideological labour of turning a painful and exploitative history into nature, an attractive marketing opportunity and the construction of an idealised past. The thesis addresses the meaning of the souvenir and how it is positioned in and by the heritage industry. This thesis asks how souvenirs produce meaning and values for individuals and institutions and how they are used by the heritage industry in an attempt to make explicit the hidden processes of meaning making and ideological valorisation. It does so by focusing on three concepts - nostalgia, innocence and the 'treasured experience' - utilising two modes of enquiry: first, exegesis and analysis of key concepts and terms (the souvenir, the object, kitsch) via a theoretical framework largely based on the work of Barthes, Baudrillard and Saussure ( connotation, semiology, cultural analysis) ; secondly, through the analysis and interpretation of a series of 'made artefacts' which augment the main discussion and function as 'catalysts'. Adopting a multi-disciplinary approach, it argues that this is a 'political project' in that it seeks to prove that so-called mass-produced souvenirs are ideologically charged commodities and experiences. As a contribution to original knowledge the research uncovers hidden and less obvious tasks that souvenirs perform. These include activities such as supporting class identity, acting as a vehicle for the demonstration of personal and institutional values, identifying individual and group hierarchy, providing social and political persuasions and defining boundaries in terms of taste, appropriateness and discernment. Through three key concepts; nostalgia, innocence and the treasured experience the thesis provides a critical explanation of the function of souvenirs; providing a metaphoric negotiation of the relation between past, present and future, indicating the significance of the role played by the past and the future in the present

ActuEating: Designing, Studying and Exploring Actuating Decorative Artefacts

Actuating, dynamic materials offer substantial potential to enhance interior designs but there are currently few examples of how they might be utilised or impact user experiences. As part of a design-led exploration, we have prototyped (Wizard-of-Oz) an actuating, dining table runner (ActuEater1), and then developed a fully-interactive fabric version that both changes shape and colour (ActuEater2). Four in-situ deployments of ‘ActuEaters’ in different dinner settings and subsequent ‘design crits’ showed insights into how people perceive, interpret and interact with such slow-technology in interesting (and often unexpected) ways. The results of our ‘ActuEating’ studies provide evidence for how an actuating artefact can be simultaneously a resource for social engagement and an interactive decorative. In response, we explore design opportunities for situating novel interactive materials in everyday settings, taking the leap into a new generation of interactive spaces, and critically considering new aesthetic possibilities

Technology Use: Time-In or Time-Out

This paper investigates evolving technology use by applying the distinction of time-in and time-out usage. This distinction describes how uses of technology within the life-world (i.e. the ordinary, the un-reflected) can be punctuated by time-out use when a user takes out time to consciously use or reflect on a medium. Data was collected through a longitudinal field study involving focus groups, interviews, and surveys from smart phone users during a six-month period. We have adopted a theoretically informed grounded approach to analyze our empirical data and present rich data. The results show how technology use evolves over time and provides theoretical explanation as to why usage changes with time. The time-in/out distinction shows how the value of an “extraordinary device” changes over time, thus accomplishing sensitivity to the artifact by examining the flow of activities. By repurposing the time-in/out distinction from its origin in media- and communications theory, this paper marks a pragmatic move that allows the distinction to be applied to more deeply understand the adoption and appropriation of technology products

Reviews Summer 2020

Marinazzo, A. A Review of William E. Wallace, Michelangelo, God’s Architect: The Story of His Final Years and Greatest Masterpiece. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2019. Vervoort, S. A Review of Matthew Mindrup, The Architectural Model: Histories of the Miniature and the Prototype, the Exemplar and the Muse. Cambridge, MA, and London: The MIT Press, 2019. Allen, M. A Review of Joseph Bedford, ed., Is There an Object-Oriented Architecture? Engaging Graham Harman. London and New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2020. Astengo, G. A Review of Vaughan Hart, Christopher Wren: In Search of Eastern Antiquity. London: Yale University Press, 2020. Smyth-Pinney, J. A Review of Maria Beltramini and Cristina Conti, eds., Antonio da Sangallo il Giovane: Architettura e decorazione da Leone X a Paolo III. Milan: Officina libraria, 2018.ISSN:2050-583

Spartan Daily, October 16, 2001

Volume 117, Issue 33https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartandaily/9738/thumbnail.jp