Rooms on view : home and design exhibition

The expression of a narrative realized through a constructed interior environment provides a significant and engaging response that falls between the realms of design and theatre in which the space itself provides the role of actor.

Bouncing back : Resilient design for Brisbane - Exhibition

"Bouncing Back: Resilient Design for Brisbane" was an opportunity for QUT students to communicate their inspiring design responses to adversity, to the larger Brisbane community. The exhibition demonstrates new and innovative ways of thinking about our cities, and how they are built to be resilient and to suit extreme environmental conditions. The challenge for architecture students is to address the state of architecture as a reflection of today's world and to consider how design fits into the 21st century. Students have explored notions of 'Urban Resilience' from multiple perspectives, including emergency design while facing flooding, flood proof housing and urban designs.

Couture Academy Exhibition : a curation of the story behind a couture design

Research background: The general public is predominantly unaware of the complexities and skills involved in the fashion supply chain (design, manufacture and retail) of couture/bespoke garments. As cited in McMahon and Morley (2011) “While a high price tag is widely accepted as a necessary element of luxury products (Fionda &Moore, 2009) this must be accompanied by a story that gives the items intrinsic as well as extrinsic value (Keller, 2009). Research question: Is it possible to simulate a fashion couture studio environment in a non-traditional public space in order to produce and promote the processes involved in couture designs; each with their own story and aligned to the aesthetic of six collaborating high profile couture fashion retailers? Research contribution: The Couture Academy project allowed the team to curate the story behind the couture design and supply chain process. It was an experimental, curated, ‘hot-house’ fashion design project undertaken in real time to create one-off couture garments, inspired by key seasonal fashion trends as determined by leading Westfield retailers. The project was industry based, with Westfield Chermside as the launch pad for six QUT fashion students to experiment with design nuances aligned to renowned national fashion industry retailers; Cue, Dissh, Kitten D'Amour, Mombasa and Pink Mint. Industry mentors were assigned to each student designer, in order to heighten the design challenge. The exhibition consisted of a pop-up couture workshop based at Westfield Chermside. A complete fashion studio (sewing machines, pattern-cutting tables and mannequins) was set up for a seven day period in the foyer of the shopping centre with the public watching as the design process unfolded in real-time. The final design outcomes were paraded at the Southbank Precinct to a prominent industry and media panel, with the winner receiving a $2000 prize to fund a research trip to an international fashion capital of their choice. Research significance: This curated fashion project was funded by Westfield Group Australia. "It was the most successful season launch Westfield Chermside has ever had from both an average volume for exposure perspective, and in terms of the level of engagement with retailers and shoppers," said Laura Walls, Westfield Public Relations Consultant. Significant media coverage was generated; including three full pages of editorial in Brisbane’s Sunday Mail, with an estimated publicity value of $95,000. And public exposure through the live project/exhibition was estimated at 7,000 people over the 7 days.

Intellectual property : designing 4 success. Safeguarding your innovations - rights, obligations and opportunities in creating intellectual property by design

Design talks LOUDLY!!! Is a series of interactive presentations exploring issues and opportunities involving professional design. --------------- These seminars are organised by the Industrial Design Network Queensland (IDnetQLD) in coordination with the Design Institute of Australia (DIA). This event was held at the State Library of Queensland (SLQ) with invited public presentations by a panel of industry experts from the Australian Government – IP Australia. --------------- The first seminar "Intellectual Property : designing 4 success" highlighted to design professionals how the various forms of Intellectual Property interact, what protections and pitfalls exist, and how these impact upon the work and responsibilities of designers. The overlaps, gaps and in congruencies in the various IP protection systems were highlighted by the expert line-up of speakers. --------------- The underlying message is that a clear understanding of all IP types is necessary in order to gain the best advantage from IP protection and therefore eliminate potential IP ownership issues before they become a problem.

Unleashed : roadshow finale 2010 exhibition

This exhibition, as part of the Queensland Government Unlimited: Designing for the Asia Pacific Program, showcased the unleashed: queensland design on tour 2010 Exhibition and outcomes from the aligned goDesign Travelling Workshop Program for Regional Secondary School Students, delivered concurrently by the Design Institute of Australia Queensland Branch and QUT, between February and September 2010 in the six regional Queensland towns of Chinchilla, Mt Isa, Quilpie, Emerald, Gladstone and Bundaberg. Mirroring the delivery of the exhibition opening in the local gallery of each regional town, student design work produced during the workshop program was displayed alongside the award winning work of professional visual communication, interior and product designers and design students from the DIA qdos Awards Program of 2008 and 2009. The resulting linkages and connections made possible by the aligned programs, and the students’ creative product, based on their own interpretation of the local culture, environment, economy and politics of their town developed through a design process, were the subject of the exhibition, captured through photos and dialogues (digital and print format) and sketchbooks. The two programs and resulting final ‘retrospective’ exhibition, addressed the key objectives outlined in the Queensland Government Arts Queensland Design Strategy 2020 (2008-2012 Action plan), which focuses on the promotion of a better understanding of the value of good design across all of the state, by enhancing the collaboration between industry, the professional body for design, the government and the education sectors, and by providing opportunities for young people to engage in design. The exhibition highlighted the benefits for regional communities in being exposed to design exhibitions, and linking with tertiary educators and design practitioners to participate in design-based learning activities which broaden student understanding of their learning and subsequent career opportunities, by establishing a meaningful connection with real world issues of place, identity and sustainability.

Bouncing back : resilient design for Brisbane

"Bouncing Back: Resilient Design for Brisbane" was an opportunity for QUT students to communicate their inspiring design responses to adversity, to the larger Brisbane community. The exhibition demonstrates new and innovative ways of thinking about our cities, and how they are built to be resilient and to suit extreme environmental conditions. The challenge for architecture students is to address the state of architecture as a reflection of today's world and to consider how design fits into the 21st century. Students have explored notions of 'Urban Resilience' from multiple perspectives, including emergency design while facing flooding, flood proof housing and urban designs.

Wear Next exhibition: What's next for wearable technology?

There was a time when 'smart attire' was simply a dress code—a happy medium between formal and informal clothes. But as technological advancements continue to change our lives, the clothes and accessories we wear are increasingly embedded with smart technology. Wearable technology is nothing new, if you cast your mind back to the popular calculator watch of the '80s. But as more advanced products like Apple Watch and FitBit become mainstream, a new exhibition in Brisbane asks what's next for wearable technology.

Wear Next: An Exploration into the Future of Wearable Technology

Technology is increasingly infiltrating all aspects of our lives and the rapid uptake of devices that live near, on or in our bodies are facilitating radical new ways of working, relating and socialising. This distribution of technology into the very fabric of our everyday life creates new possibilities, but also raises questions regarding our future relationship with data and the quantified self. By embedding technology into the fabric of our clothes and accessories, it becomes ‘wearable’. Such ‘wearables’ enable the acquisition of and the connection to vast amounts of data about people and environments in order to provide life-augmenting levels of interactivity. Wearable sensors for example, offer the potential for significant benefits in the future management of our wellbeing. Fitness trackers such as ‘Fitbit’ and ‘Garmen’ provide wearers with the ability to monitor their personal fitness indicators while other wearables provide healthcare professionals with information that improves diagnosis. While the rapid uptake of wearables may offer unique and innovative opportunities, there are also concerns surrounding the high levels of data sharing that come as a consequence of these technologies. As more ‘smart’ devices connect to the Internet, and as technology becomes increasingly available (e.g. via Wi-Fi, Bluetooth), more products, artefacts and things are becoming interconnected. This digital connection of devices is called The ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT). IoT is spreading rapidly, with many traditionally non-online devices becoming increasingly connected; products such as mobile phones, fridges, pedometers, coffee machines, video cameras, cars and clothing. The IoT is growing at a rapid rate with estimates indicating that by 2020 there will be over 25 billion connected things globally. As the number of devices connected to the Internet increases, so too does the amount of data collected and type of information that is stored and potentially shared. The ability to collect massive amounts of data - known as ‘big data’ - can be used to better understand and predict behaviours across all areas of research from societal and economic to environmental and biological. With this kind of information at our disposal, we have a more powerful lens with which to perceive the world, and the resulting insights can be used to design more appropriate products, services and systems. It can however, also be used as a method of surveillance, suppression and coercion by governments or large organisations. This is becoming particularly apparent in advertising that targets audiences based on the individual preferences revealed by the data collected from social media and online devices such as GPS systems or pedometers. This type of technology also provides fertile ground for public debates around future fashion, identity and broader social issues such as culture, politics and the environment. The potential implications of these type of technological interactions via wearables, through and with the IoT, have never been more real or more accessible. But, as highlighted, this interconnectedness also brings with it complex technical, ethical and moral challenges. Data security and the protection of privacy and personal information will become ever more present in current and future ethical and moral debates of the 21st century. This type of technology is also a stepping-stone to a future that includes implantable technology, biotechnologies, interspecies communication and augmented humans (cyborgs). Technologies that live symbiotically and perpetually in our bodies, the built environment and the natural environment are no longer the stuff of science fiction; it is in fact a reality. So, where next?... The works exhibited in Wear Next_ provide a snapshot into the broad spectrum of wearables in design and in development internationally. This exhibition has been curated to serve as a platform for enhanced broader debate around future technology, our mediated future-selves and the evolution of human interactions. As you explore the exhibition, may we ask that you pause and think to yourself, what might we... Wear Next_? WEARNEXT ONLINE LISTINGS AND MEDIA COVERAGE: http://indulgemagazine.net/wear-next/ http://www.weekendnotes.com/wear-next-exhibition-gallery-artisan/ http://concreteplayground.com/brisbane/event/wear-next_/ http://www.nationalcraftinitiative.com.au/news_and_events/event/48/wear-next http://bneart.com/whats-on/wear-next_/ http://creativelysould.tumblr.com/post/124899079611/creative-weekend-art-edition http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/smartly-dressed-the-future-of-wearable-technology/6744374 http://couriermail.newspaperdirect.com/epaper/viewer.aspx RADIO COVERAGE http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/wear-next-exhibition-whats-next-for-wearable-technology/6745986 TELEVISION COVERAGE http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/wear-next-exhibition-whats-next-for-wearable-technology/6745986 https://au.news.yahoo.com/video/watch/29439742/how-you-could-soon-be-wearing-smart-clothes/#page1

"Food For Thought" Selected Design Installation DIA Homegrown 2011 Life In the Slow Lane Exhibition: Little Stanley Street, South Bank, Brisbane

'Homegrown is an initiative of the Design Institute of Australia–Queensland Branch to promote the collaboration and cultivation of local design talent in Queensland and strengthen the connection between design, plate, planet, people and culture.' Homegrown 2011 Exhibition Catalogue Excerpt

Bouncing back : homegrown. Curated exhibition of student work and design workshop

Bouncing Back Architecture Exhibition: This exhibition showcases interpretations of urban resiliency by 2nd and 4th Year undergraduate architecture students who explore the notion of Bouncing Back from the 2011 Queensland floods, in the context of contemporary Brisbane built environment. Design solutions have been expressed in a variety of forms including emergency shelters, flood-proof housing and a range of urban designs, some of which address extreme environmental conditions. Design Process Workshop | Architecture Workshop with Queensland Academy of Creative Industries Students: In collaboration with Homegrown Facilitator Natalie Wright, Lindy Osborne and Glenda Caldwell and some of their architecture students from the QUT School of Design, extended the university design studio experience to 18 Secondary School students, who brainstormed and designed emergency food distribution shelters for those affected by floods. Designs and models created in the workshop were subsequently included in the Bouncing Back Architecture Exhibition.

Pars pro toto: Experimental exhibition design and curatorial paradigms

'Pars pro toto: Experimental Exhibition Design and Curatorial Paradigms' is situated within the ongoing debate over the conflation of art and curating, and the subsequent tension between artistic autonomy and curatorial intervention. This practice-led research project acclimates these polarities using a collaborative and discursive curatorial methodology in the creation of two exhibitions. Both exhibitions, one digital and one primarily physical, investigated how the temporary exhibition can operate as a site for provocation, how the suggested methodology facilitates the relationship between artist and curator within this paradigm, and outlines factors that assist in expanding the definition of the contemporary curatorial role.

The Mid-Century Showroom: Knoll, Herman Miller and the Retail Exhibition of Modern American Design

Although occasionally illustrated and referenced in contemporary histories of modern furniture and design, there is surprisingly little critical discussion or consideration of the role of the showroom in the promotion and dissemination of modern design during the mid-twentieth century. In these years, when the American lifestyle was popularly articulated and forcefully propagandized, the furniture showroom served as a principle site of professional and public indoctrination. Appropriating display techniques from modern exhibition design to showcase the American lifestyle as an abstracted, spatially integrated art form, the showroom provided an unencumbered landscape ideally suited to camera’s lens and the public’s imagination. Leading modern American furniture manufacturers, such as Herman Miller and Knoll Associates collaborated with major cultural institutions as well as department stores and retailers to maximize exposure and consumer demand for their products. Through such integrated marketing and merchandising strategies, showrooms also contributed to the broader social project to educate American consumers about modern design and the advantages of modern living. Related to the many model home programs and “good design” exhibitions of the 1950s, the furniture showroom occupies a unique place within the history and discourse of the postwar era. The peculiarities of the furniture showroom and its position as a point of intersection between the trade and the consumer, the commercial and the cultural, and the aesthetic and the ideological form the focus of this study.

Fashion manufacturing in New Zealand : can design contribute to a sustainable fashion Industry?

In the late 1990s New Zealand fashion gained some international recognition for its dark edginess and intellectual connection due to its colonial past (Molloy, 2004). In the years since, this momentum seems to have dissipated as local fashion companies have followed a global trend towards inexpensive off shore manufacturing. The transfer of the making of garments to overseas workers appears to have resulted in a local fashion scene where many garments look the same in style, colour, cut and fit. The excitement of the past, where the majority of fashion designers established their own individuality through the cut and shape of the garments that they produced, may have been inadvertently lost. Consequently a sustainable New Zealand fashion and manufacturing industry, with design integrity, seems further out of reach. The first question posed by this research project is, ‘can the design and manufacture of a fashion garment, bearing in mind certain economic and practical restrictions at its inception, result in the development of a distinctive ‘look’ or ‘handwriting’?’ Second, through development of a collection of prototypes, can potential garments be created to be sustainably manufactured in New Zealand?

Panel discussion and documentary screening to celebrate World Industrial Design Day (WIDD) 2010

This collaborative event was organised to coincide with International celebrations by the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (ICSID). The panel discussion involved industrial designers from a variety of backgrounds including academics, theorists and practitioners. Each panel member was given time to voice their opinion surrounding the theme of WIDD2010 "Industrial Design: Humane Solutions for a Resilient World". The discussion was then extended to the audience through active question and answer time. The panel included: * Professor Vesna Popovic FDIA - Queensland University of Technology * Adam Doyle, Studio Manager - Infinity Design Development * Scott Cox MDIA, Creative Director - Formwerx * Alexander Lotersztain, Director - Derlot * Philip Whiting FDIA, Design Convenor - QCA * Professor Tony Fry, Director Team D/E/S & QCA After this, the documentary by Gary Hewtsit "Objectified" was then screened (75 min).