Welcome to my brain space¶
This is the beginning of our journey; a map of my experience and I look forward to sharing it with you.
As an intro to my thinking I've visualized how I operate within a design space
Using breath as a methphore for exploratory development facilitating parallel verticals of expertise for collaborative creation Articulating elasticity of peripheral boundaries, creating a flexible innovation space Guiding a range of objects/actors within the same elastic system of rules of play
I like playing in the empty spaces between
My favorite is collaborating with those or that which is ignored
Many of my favorite projects work in a peripheral space, things that happen but largely go unnoticed. I'd like to develop as far out into the periphery and towards the void of true experience and I'm hoping my time at Fabricademy will launch me back into this direction.
Self: Where am I coming from?¶
Since I was a little girl my mantra has been that everything is possible and nothing is for certain and this rings true for how I will approach my experience here at the Basque Bio Design Center in Bilbao. Currently I work at a product development research centre as an Industrial Design Researcher on a multidisciplinary team of Scientists and trade researchers. My work there is largely focused on the design of medical technologies and assistive devices for people with spinal chord injury. This work is practical, and is often guided largely engineer led and so I would like to use my time here to build a research direction of my own such that I can apply for grants to work in this space of textiles + biology + technology.
Non-sequiter is my inherent nature and thereby embedded in the cartography of my progression through life. Some ares that inspire me that I carry through with me in many of my explorations are described below, however many of them are more sketches of a direction and yet to be resolved... always more interesting....
Listening to Nature¶
Quake Collar¶
What would happen if we listened and responded to nature instead of trying to re-create it?
Quake collar is a system of smart collars distrubuted through the local dog licencing system that allows and aggregate pet response to predict earthquakes. I made this project in collaboration with my Norwei-gem, Karen Byskov.
sustainabile Fashion¶
Craft of Use/cloThing(s) as converation¶
This project provides processes and prompts for people to explore everyday objects in their home and manipulating parts of garments usually requiring interfacing. The intended result was to create an open source site for people to share differnt modalities of textile re-use using rice paper as a structural element.
Ricelam was a project presented at the UAL Craft of Use symposium under Kate Fletcher, Reader in Sustainable Fashion and printed in a book of the same name.
This work co-incides with research I created with CloThing(s) as Conversation which involved experimentation in to zero cut wast fashion and applications of wearable technology.
Social Impact¶
Culture of Care¶
As Manager of the Health Design research lab at Emily Carr University of Art+Design I lead a series of design research projects which centered around pariticpatory design research methods supporting equity seeking people in health contexts.
In the culture of care we designed a series of interactions with over 50 Long Term Care homes in Vancouver BC that were intended to shift the culture of these institutions from a institutionalized hospital based system to a person directed social model of care. In this new world residents living in care have influence and support the direction of their care home.
This video is one of the project outputs, illustrated and animateed by Research Assistants at the Health Design Lab at Emily Carr University of Art + Design narrated stories are of and by the people living in long term care.
Disability Alliance of BC¶
I developed a course with Colleague Eugenie Cheon that facilitated people from the disability community to influence the design of their future support office. This class was about giving power to equity seeking groups while traning young designers facilitate their inclusion in the process of design.
Industrial Design¶
In my work as a design researcher at BCIT, we support people in our province in creating the first proof of concept of their ideas. Here's a little video that describes my work there:
Some projects I've supported include: The Baby Calmer is a simple robot designed to fit into the incubator in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Designed for researcher, Liisa Holsi, the table is designed with a variable rate of motion up and down emulating a mother breathing. The robot also has a variable volume and cadance of sound mimicing the mother's heart rate. The table itself needed to be cleanable, without risk of liquid ingress and had a surface designed to feel similar to the skin of the mother.
The Dog Wheelchair project designed for local business owner Ann-Marie Flemming with Dog Quality company. First of it's kind this wheelchair is designed with a adjustable exoskeleton and a soft body harness.
Working with the the Rehabilitation Enginieering Design Lab, I've being creating soft product and providing usability research in the sapce of Adaptive Rowing and Ski Ergs for people living with a disablity.
Periphery: Hints in direction¶
i'm going to allow the application of my learning with fabicademy lead my direction however past work and forever musings do hint at a field of interest.
Voronoi Modeling in Natual Sciences¶
I often reference voroni modeling which is a manner of diagramming mathematics. What I like about this model is it's emergent and realtional nature between elements.
By <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Jahobr" title="User:Jahobr">Jahobr</a> - <span class="int-own-work" lang="en">Own work</span>, CC0, Link
Swarm Theory and Natural Emergence¶
I'm curious about swarms; murmerations within the natural world; the idea of following momentary queues to operate as a very present collective. This theory was borne out of computer science] and has broad applications within AI however my interest is more connected to IOT as it applies to swarm.
swarm sketch by me
Also as a model and approach influencing my work is [Emergent Strategy] a book written by Adrienne Maree Brown.
Time¶
If you have not listened to Bennedict Cumberbatch narrate Carlo Rovelli's The Order of Time you're doing yourself an incredible disservice. Our relation, experience and construction of time is and always will be an incredible inspiration to me.
void: motivation for joining fabricademy¶
I've moved in many directions and now it's time for them to resolve into a personal vision, a direction of my own. Fabricademy touches on many areas I've dipped my toe into over the years. In brinigng these skills back to life, offering myself space to play out in the expansive space of everything and nothing - I hope to find the northstar inside of myself.