The lecture this week by Lisa Creswell was quite interesting and I thought it was very relevant to what we are currently doing in Design Studies. Seeing how Lisa has used lots of different skills since she has graduated has made me realize how necessary Design Studies is in order to help us develop skills such as mind mapping, researching and reading around relevant subjects.
As a result of this lecture I began to see that as a Textile Design student I might never work in my chosen field. I need to be flexible and able to apply the appropriate skills when necessary. I should also be able to communicate effectively with people who I may never of met, and who may have a different background to me. It is likely that I could end up working with people who have very different skills and knowledge to myself but somehow we have to find a way to adapt and work collaboratively. There may also be language barriers to work around.
Within the lecture Lisa described some of the work she has carried out since graduating with a masters degree in illustration. She has been involved with people from other universities and government agencies working on a project to help understand and so design against terrorism. Lisa spoke of spaces such as the London underground, which can make people feel unsafe. A lack of staff presence can make people uncomfortable and wary as in the event of an emergency or even if a member of the public has a query or concern there is often no member of staff situated on the platform for example to help. Surprisingly CCTV can also raise concern as it suggests safety is perhaps a worry, cameras could be more discrete to reduce this? Poor communication can also lead people to feel unsafe, it is a problem in the underground as there is no phone signal and in many cases the signage is unclear.
After the lecture it was suggested that we considered some public spaces and what makes us feel safe or unsafe. Recently I have been making a mental note of things or places that have made me feel slightly unsafe/wary. Places that are unfamiliar, dimly lit, grotty and run down tend to make me feel less safe. I tend to wonder what sort of people I may be confronted by. Will I get mugged? Is it safe to be on my own? I have also started to pay more attention to security cameras, if there was little likelihood of any crime being committed why would there be cameras? This is similar to police presence I can’t really decide if police presence makes me feel safer or less safe. For example I often wonder why police are sometimes at railway stations, just standing watching. What are they watching for? Is something going to happen? Should I be worried? I think it is difficult to get a balance between making people feel safe and making people question their safety so that they are aware of potential dangers without being worried.
After Lisa’s talk Fraser Bruce went on to tell us about one of his projects entitled ‘Rip + Mix’. Students were encouraged to come up with totally new designs, concepts and ideas in a short time period, this meant that a lot of ideas were generated quickly. The ideas were not necessarily feasible or realistic but could be used to inspire future work. For example an etch-a-sketch newspaper was suggested, the idea was to see the next article you would shake the paper!
The second part of Fraser Bruce’s talk I found less interesting, he explained how it was possible to analyse communication and the effectiveness of communication through diagrams. The diagrams could show processes and paths between different people/parts of a company for example. In some cases it was discovered that if one or two people were to be removed from the process the whole system would fall apart and communication would stop.
Both speakers made it clear that skills we are only just developing now could be very useful in the years to come, its also essential that we are able to communicate effectively and be able apply our knowledge and skills where necessary.
