TRANSFECT DESIGNSYSTEMS!
Product and Fashion designers search for a contemporary expression of the spirit of their own time and as a result are also able to shape the times in which they live and operate. However to what extend can designers shape the workings of their own field, which have huge cultural, environmental, social, political and economic consequences?
Design and the design industry function as a system. A system is a set of interacting or interdependent components forming an integrated whole. This UdK Master program aims to take a closer look at how the design system operates within society at large and asks students to research and dissect an element of the existing system in order to identify flaws, opportunities, and misunderstandings. Informed by their findings students aim to challenge, subvert, create alternatives or commentaries on or for this tightly wound machine.
TRANSFECTION AS A DESIGN METHOD
The term “ transfection “ is borrowed from biology and means; the reclassification of genes; the smuggling of foreign DNA into a cell with the aim to change that cell for time to come. The transfection method can be adopted as method in the design process, but can also be understood as a critical gesture that tries to modify a given system with minimal means. The UdK’s Master program aims to test the method of transfection as a means to create alternatives to and critically reflect on this system through the use of interdisciplinary methods, techniques and debates.
INTERDISCIPLINARY
We have invited students from various creative backgrounds to work on their personal projects within an intensive multidisciplinary environment thereby enabling them to reflect upon different discipline methodologies, processes, outputs and dominant interests within their field, in order to stimulate synergy between different fields, to differentiate and enrich their work.
AIM OF THE COURSE AND FOR THE STUDENTS
The course is specifically aimed at opening up industries’ role, designers’ roles and stimulating the debate about design methodology, societal and field related issues. We expect students to initiate and develop investigative questions and ideas that inform the field and don’t just follow the industry. After graduation, students need to be able to work independently as artists or designers and will be prepared for creative and visionary academic research.
COURSE STRUCTURE
During the first half-year, the 15 participating students carry out research into their field of interest and formulate questions in order to understand the aim and context of their work. The last half-year is spend on finalising the actual work and to find the most suitable way in which to communicate their project and ideas.
Every week, the students receive intensive supervision from their tutors and guest tutors. In addition, external experts are also invited to contribute their knowledge to the program and individual projects during a series of lectures and the master colloquia. These colloquia are partly organised by the students themselves and are used as a platform for exchanging contant and discussion, but is also a means to directly engage with an audience beyond academia.
SPECIFIC AREAS OF INTEREST
Specific areas of interest are: the shifting of economic and social structures though design, the reinterpretation of the typology of objects and space, the possibilities and value of craft and industrial manufacturing in the 21st century, diversifying modes of dissemination of design and manufacturing possibilities in relation to material culture.