In 2018 our lack of physical and mental connection to each other is causing real issues to our health and happiness.

A lot of the social interaction today is happening over digital media’s, and when we are finally together physically, often our mental focus will be somewhere else. Which leads to loneliness and a feeling of not being heard and appreciated.

We started the project with a talk about connectivity in 2018, where we touched subjects like FOMO, JOMO, urbanisation, digital nomads, globalisation and loneliness. I will not go into these subjects further in this post.

Our brief was to redesign some part of the public spaces in Dundee. To get a feeling of the city and the options we have, the course group was split, so that we could go to different places, take some pictures, and explain the place to the others.

My group went to Dundee Quay, where we spent some time in the ship that docks by the quay. Where the social spaces in the ship itself led to a few ideas.

On the way back and forth I couldn’t help but be a little inspired by walking on the pavement, which is also a public space, and it is a space we use a lot of time on, with other people, but often without having conversations with them. Either because you cannot hear one another, or because you are wearing a headset and don’t know the people walking by.

So that was the mindset I had before starting my brainstorm.
The main ideas that go through my brainstorming are to be able to talk, I want people to be able to hear one another while walking from place to place. And then I wanted them to come together and gather somewhere beautiful and inspirational to chat and tell stories.

But being aware of the human behaviour, my own included, one of the issues is time. Many do not give themselves time to go to the social gathering or does not take out time to meet up or even call their friends, because they have so many other things happening. So I went for a different approach to encourage connectivity, nudging. I wanted signs on the entrance to every “sound barrier” on the pavement, saying things like:

“Being busy does not make you happy. Being with people you love does” or

“Paradise has never been about places. It exists in moments. In connections. In flashes across time” -Victoria Erickson

Once I had my concept, I started working on form.

At this point, I still didn’t know where I wanted to place my installation, and since I choose the angled version of the sound barrier, I was no longer able to have my quotes on a sign hanging neatly on all entrances.

So I began planning my model and then walked home for the day. Which put me exactly where I was supposed to be, Perth Road, Dundee. An always populated walk, no matter the time of day. It is filled with shops and leads straight by the Uni campus. It was a perfect place to remind pedestrians of the important things in life, each other!

So problem solved, I chose to save my idea of the storyteller to another project. Kill your darlings and all that. And focused on the road that so many people use every day, back and forth to work, uni, for groceries and for a coffee with a friend.

I came in ready to work on my prototype the next day…but honestly couldn’t shake the feeling that my project seemed a little like a jail. So I went to Pinterest for inspiration, where I found an old pin I had saved.

 

I decided I wanted the columns to be made of wood that had been twisted once in the lower half, and once in the angled bit.

The pattern had to be open enough for people not to feel cramped and there would have to be plenty of holes, to be able to cross the road.

I decided to create my prototype with two scales. One a zoomed out version, to show how long I intended it to be, and where I wanted it to be placed. And the other side, a more zoomed in version, to give an impression of what it would feel like to be there.

So to summarise what my thoughts are, and what I hope will influence the thinking and behavioural patterns of the people using the pavement are:

• Nudging to be kind to those around you, and take initiative to talk to them.

• People will be inspired by the plants in the installations and may become more aware of the nature around them in Dundee.

• They will be less likely to cross the road, just because someone is coming towards them on the pavement.

• They will set time off to enjoy the moments they are in, instead of scrolling mindlessly.

As a nice ending to the project, we put our prototypes together, to give it a “map” effect.

 

Part 1:

Group work

Remaking the Tizio Lamp was our first task, we were divided into groups and were handed cardboard, foam board and wooden sticks to complete the task, in addition, we were handed glue guns and tape.

The biggest struggle with the building process was to make joints that could both move and hold the structure in place at once. We achieved that quality by creating tension between the wood (the joint) and the leg itself and then adding a nut to hold it in place. This was done by applying a layer of tape on the wooden piece and forcing the hole, in the leg, over it.

We divided the work and finished before time, this resulted in a few mistakes, like the upper leg not being long enough and the head of the lamp being a little sloppy. But it did mean that we had time to make details like buttons, a fake cord and detail holes on the surface of the lamp.

Part 2:

Individual work

The second task in the project was to redesign the Tizio lamp. It could be anything, as long as it was inspired by the Tizio lamp in one way or another. So the first part of my process was to brainstorm products I might find interesting.

From here I sorted out the, in my opinion, most interesting/challenging ideas. So I took out the bench (Green page 2) and the potholder (Red page 1). But where the bench had challenging joints, that I already knew how I was going to make, the plant holder had a shape and a mechanism that I still hadn’t figured out how to do. So I chose the plant holder in the end.
I then started with the first problem at hand, the shape. To figure it out I made a prototype.

Now that I had a model of the shape, I could go into depth about the technical aspect of the “wires” that should hold and stabilize the pot.
After consulting with our tutor, Jason Nelson, I decided to draw inspiration from Gimbals. And create a prototype to illustrate and understand the principle.

From here on I had enough to start on the more detailed drawings, that I wanted to make, to showcase how I imagine the product to be.

To show the pot and joints of the product I made a detail drawing, that should explain the concept. My aim was to create a potholder, that could be put into a sideways position, without the plant tumbling over.

I then added shadow to the product drawings to give them a finish.