Lily is a RIBA part 1 graduate whose work is unique and playful. Social commentary and strong conceptual strategy inform her practice. Lily’s recent projects are highly polemical. With a spirit of invention and interrogation, she seeks to create inclusive spaces that will engage with the richness of a site’s community, landscape and history.

Lily’s achievements include Young Creative Awards 2016 for Architecture & Design and multiple ERASMUS scholarships to live and work in Germany, Romania and Slovakia. As well as working on many 1:1 builds, Lily is passionate about craft and heritage and is skilled in a multitude of disciplines including illustration, textiles and jewellery design.

Lily is primarily concerned with the social sustainability of the built environment and creating empathetic and accessible designs that facilitate empowerment.

Emily Ireland is graduating from stage 3, at the Mackintosh school of Architecture. The past three years have allowed her to explore and develop a design ethos that encompasses people. Seeing architecture as a fundamental to life, and as society evolves the space we occupy must do so also.

Sustainable architecture is an approach to design that motivates her greatly. Recognising improved means of design/construction that will reduce the environmental impact architecture can have.

Stephen Brown is graduating stage 3 at the Mackintosh School of Architecture. This exhibit pulls the key representations from a year-long project that addresses sustainability and contextual engagement through the design of a concert hall and a retreat centre that accommodates performers. The proposal is situated in the Trossachs National Park on a narrow strip of land that runs from the town of Balloch to the south shore of Loch Lomond.

The project engages the themes of energy, landscape, and culture, as an exercise in rethinking and expanding ideas around sustainability. The proposal’s environmental strategy goes beyond the sourcing of local and renewable materials, to consider wider criteria including low energy/passive design, prefabricated construction, and longevity in the buildings’ relevance to the cultural context of the locale. In this sense, aesthetics, adaptability and intuitiveness are paramount to the designs, ensuring their sensitivity to their natural surroundings and their capacity to serve the requirements of their users and the wider local community.

A key design challenge was integrating sustainability into the structural fabric of the two buildings. The exhibit is presented in such a way to show how this is achieved through the use of simple volumetric forms, around which hinge modular elements to make up the secondary structure. This approach seeks to establish an equilibrium in spatial arrangement that is both efficient of space and materials, whist being optimal to the scale and movement of the human body.

Currently in my third year of studying architecture I have developed a passion for sustainable and simple living. The brief to design a music retreat including a performance hall and accommodation for SISTEMA Scotland in Balloch was refreshing and challenging. It was important to consider energy, landscape and culture and bring them all together. With the site being so close to home i wanted to capture the feelings and memories i had of visiting the site as a child; taking the train to the last stop in Balloch where ironically the journey only just began, discovering Loch Lomond only a footsteps away. Inspired by my trip around Scotland visiting the Maggie’s Centres’, I further looked into the work of Frank Gehry. The curvature in his architecture and abstract angles led me to creating two very different buildings which were to contrast but also compliment each other.

Stephanie Reid believes that successful design is empathetic. Understanding the people around her and the way they navigate the world is what fuels her growth as a designer.

The project brief was to create a retreat for the charity Sistema, who tackle social inequality using musical education. The response, ‘Elevate’, focuses on empathy towards its context and its inhabitants. It is based in Balloch, in the Loch Lomond National Park. Serenity rules in this place, which is relatively unchanged by the passing of time. Beyond this little town, the influence of time is merciless. The modern world is a clamour of excitement and outrage ceaselessly mingled.

Balloch´s connection to Loch Lomond makes it a perfect home for any institution seeking comfortable quiet without solitude or isolation; a careful balance which a retreat must possess. The site is worth guarding against the ruthless progress of the modern world, but protecting the site does not mean allowing it to stand still. ‘Elevate’ intends to guide Balloch’s evolution toward true sustainability. It aims to utilise the advantages offered by the site, and in return provide the site with a sustainable role to play for benefit of the community.

In summary, the goal is the elevation of the site, and of the experience Sistema is able to offer to its students. Sistema seeks positive social change and uses music as a tool to achieve this goal, making its message to the world of as unending value as the hills and valleys of the National Park.

Hakki Tuna Taylan graduated the Saint Joseph’s French Highschool in Izmir Turkey where he is from. He came to Glasgow at 18 to study architecture. Interested with ancient antiquity sites, history and urban design since childhood he after considering archaeology as a major he understood he didn’t just want to discover the and study the past but was looking for a way to leave a physical mark on the world. Urban design and restoration are the two subjects he is most interested in and would like to further study after his bachelors.

Jordon Lim is a RIBA part 1 graduate born and raised in Singapore, who explores architecture as a medium for social engagement.

Being raised in a rapidly developing country, he acknowledges the disjunction of architecture. He believes that architecture should be thought with inclusiveness, to allow a whole community to thrive.

His works are based on research focused on experiential spaces, to enrich a given context with the opportunity of seeing and learning how environments can tell stories and communicate emotions, create formative moments, and provide a stage for public life.

Part 1 Architecture Student

Sistema Scotland transforms the lives of vulnerable young people through music. My aim was to provide a safe and inspiring environment for these students. The Stage 3 project addresses both the practical and the poetic aspects of placemaking while creating a residential retreat and performance hall. My intention was to link past, present and future by placing my proposal on an old, existing public pier in Balloch, on the shores of Loch Lomond. The buildings needed to be responsive to the local and cultural context of their setting. By using the old pier the buildings are already ingrained within the existing framework of the village and provide continuity, a connection to history and a sense of place. The creation of a ‘retreat’ as a place of rest and nurture was paramount. Incorporating the Maid of the Loch prompted my decision to extend the pier over the Loch in order to take advantage of the spectacular scenery and enhance what already exists. Level changes heighten the sensory experience: the performance hall descends towards the water, adding drama and establishing a visual connection to the outside; the viewing platform ascends, showcasing the landscape. The idea of duality was important to my concept: the need for private and performance spaces; and the natural and built environment co-existing in harmony.

Maeve Corke Butters is a third-year architecture student who enjoys exploring complex forms and communal environments. Her work focuses on the core ethos of empathetic design, sustainability, and fun. This was developed through the exploration of critical theorist Doreen Massey and Jane Jacobs leading to a better understanding of placemaking and the social systems that underpin them. She has developed her projects with careful consideration of client needs and requirements, offering creative solutions through complex spatial structures and communal spaces.

Maeve achieved a commendation from the Glasgow Institute of Architects Student Awards in her first year and is a current regional finalist for the Women in Property Awards.

Maeve is passionate, hard-working, conscientious, and independent. She always works to the best of her ability and strives to create the best result. She enjoys taking on tasks especially those that challenge her. She also enjoys working in an environment where she can work with others to refine and develop creative ideas.

Having completed the BArch programme at the Glasgow School of Art, I will begin establishing myself as an intern in Vienna, Austria.

I hope to learn from the construction methods and materials applied to European projects and expand my knowledge on sustainable building methods.

My name is Sandy, I’m a stage 4 student of Architecture. Below are texts relating to each project from my stage 4 projects.

Urban Housing
The Anisotropic Grid

Today the digital world gives everyone access to a vast network of resources and connectivity. New formations of labour are arising, operating as a ‘gig economy’. This has led to a blurring of labour and domesticity from home to the city. Reordering domestic and labour activities into a spectrum from social to private, a greater flexibility of living and working can coexist. Inhabited walls scale up to form populated blocks punctuated by a series of public and private spaces. Separation between the dwelling and free labour programs is formed by the mass sitting perpendicular creating a series of hierarchical courtyards.

Urban Building

Primarily Labour was a Fordist approach, where workers and resources would arrive at the place of work, and revolve around a rigid framework. New formations of labour are arising such as the ‘gig economy’, where free-lancers, home-workers and temporary jobs are more common. The industrial city was built around places of labour and at the heart of the civic realm.

“Glasgows history is in making, in craftsmanship. Its legacy is in buildings.” Toby Webster

My project attempts to create a new civic building in Merchant City, Glasgow, that accommodates space for creative practices to occupy and adapt. By bringing the act of crafting and creating into the public realm, the process can become the performance itself.

Jackson Deans is a multidisciplinary designer from North Yorkshire. He specialises in architectural design, graphic communication and illustration. With a fondness for bold and brutal forms, his work draws from 20th century Post-Modern, Metabolist, and Brutalist architecture that feeds into all aspects of his work. Whilst studying in Stage 4, Jackson has designed two large-scale architectural projects relating to domesticity and labour in the urban context of Glasgow.

‘Urban Housing’ explores the relationship between not only domesticity and labour, but the broader district in which our site is located, and a masterplan design was established in order to discuss vital social issues within the district. The project is presented from the large scale of the city down to the small scale of an archetypal dwelling, or ‘cell’ that forms the larger build up of the housing complex.

With ‘Urban Building’, Jackson develops a hybrid typology that incorporates contemporary nightclub spaces into the fabric of a traditional Roman bath house. This project addresses issues relating to the LGBTQ+ community and offers spaces that intend to provide different, perhaps contrasting experiences catered to the desire of the user; a meditative spa, an intense techno nightclub, private darkrooms, and virtually any spacial and experiential variance in between.

For this Urban Housing project, the relationship between domesticity and labour is represented as a social space within the city. By sharing a circulation, and therefore a threshold from the public to the private realm, the domestic shares a space with the labour.

Could the intertwined existence of domesticity and labour in the same built environment form a social connexion? The ritualised entrance through the social enterprise is organised with that purpose in mind. Heading up to the circulation, inherent boundaries are formed through more private social spaces.

As a series of thresholds is increasing the privacy of both the domesticity and labour, every space is intended as another filter from the public realm. The boundary is here intended to by physical and not visual, as the spaces gravitated towards the greater social element that is the courtyard.

Indeed, every layer of private space is polarised by a more social space, such as the shared kitchen is facing the circulation, as well as the shared living space is in direct relationship with the kitchen. And, in an opposite manner, the most private bedroom faces the other way.

I have a strong interest in conservation and restoration architecture, having loved my experience in my year in practice, working for a conservation practice, Simpson and Brown.

I am also interested in designing for children and enjoy using my experience working with children, as a Rainbow Guide leader, to influence my work.

During my fourth year, I was part of the editorial team for MSA’s student-run magazine, MacMag and helped produce the 45th issue of the publication.

In my spare time I enjoy singing as part of the Glasgow School of Art choir, climbing and hiking in the Scottish highlands and I am learning German.

The following illustrations have been selected to convey my thesis for the Urban Building project, which explores the hybrid of performance and education.  The design manifests itself as a performing arts venue in Glasgow’s Merchant City, providing an all-encompassing cultural hub accessible to every demographic.

This project is prompted by observations of current performing arts venues in Glasgow, often failing to be inclusive of all in the community and engage a multitude of arts categories in one space.  Supporting spaces within the design are formulated to be utilised by the community for collective and personal development – aiding education and leisure.

The design delivers a venue to experience performing arts in a variety of circumstances.  Permeable in nature, visitors enter from all angles of the building – emphasising its identity as a destination within the city.  Abundant void space in the venue affords the opportunity for sub-division, generating informal performance spaces.  Concrete stairs appear dense and sculptural within the light and open architecture, generated by the steel framed structure, resulting in a visual contrast between solid and void.  This contrast is employed further to convey visual legibility within the design, informing visitors of the function of spaces.  Ascending the building, spaces become increasingly “solid” and introverted for isolated practice to take place.  Polycarbonate curtain walls and glazing portray movement within the building to the streets as animated shadows, engaging the external context of Merchant city.

With boutique stores, galleries, annual festivals celebrating the arts, and many creatives basing themselves there: Merchant City is renowned as the cultural heart of Glasgow.  This venue is synonymous with this context and provides a civic space to cultivate a collective experience of performing arts to inspire personal growth, and collaboration.

Designing small-scale domestic spaces for everyday use in connection to wider public areas has been a primary interest of mine. I feel this typology offers the greatest opportunity to consider modern human needs in detail, whilst still relating to the larger picture of citizen-oriented necessities and allowing opportunity for architectural expression. I find it important to relate my designs to the current urban demands and reflect the deeply-rooted historical traditions from which they stem. I enjoy giving attention to concept, detail, and aesthetics in every project. I aim to produce purpose-orientated, adaptable, and sustainable designs, and am always imagining how these might evolve in the near future. My experience working on corporate projects in China, Belarus, and the UK exposed me to the industry’s unfortunate gravitation towards fast-production and human-neglected builds; my aim coming back to eduction was to avoid these approaches, focusing on how one well-derived, concise project can be multiplied to produce satisfactory urban building.

Somebody would consider Architecture as something fancy. In my opinion, architecture is something that comes from the people, hence well-connected to their daily life. We are both users and designers simultaneously. It would create various kinds of atmosphere after combining different kinds of key elements of space such as the feeling of materials or design of space.

Despite the numerous regulations for architecture, it would not be convincible to propose a ‘correct’ way to create great architecture. Though we can always chase and creating the answer to it. Yet one thing for sure is that great architectures are timeless. It originates from the past, lives in the present, and creates the future.
The course I took during my BA degree at the University of Liverpool, coupled with my practical experience as well as the Diploma of Architecture I’m taking in the Glasgow school of arts has helped me to develop a unique appreciation for the complexities of the subject matter.

During my studies I have been interested in how the context would influences the architecture, hence the dialect relationship between human beings and the habitation instead of people being manipulated by space.

Living in the contemporary world, architects need to consider the relationship between physical and social spaces, which related to subjects of relevance to society and social issues. Combining the critical and pioneering thinking of the city with the elegant design of materials and joints in order to create architecture with great experience and quality is what I aim to do. I do wish to become an architect who is taking part in the design of architecture which takes social responsibility and with well-considered joints and materials.

My focus this year was to investigate, analyse and reflect on the themes of imagination, play and education. I’ve developed an interest in design for play as a form of education and have tried to integrate this passion into all three projects of 4th year. Three projects have been included in my exhibition each studying different techniques of architectural design that enhance socialisation, education and play aimed at a range of ages.

Projects remain unfinished but will be updated on both this page and my instagram as progress continues. @g_reiddesign

I am a fourth year Architecture student at the GSA, recent graduate of the BArch. Hons. Programme. It is a challenge to describe a consistent theme of my architectural work, as I am aiming at being flexible with whatever project brief and site I am given – one could say that adaptability is, in fact, the main objective in my works. But I also want, and strongly believe that, as an architect, no matter the type and size of a project, to come up with a vision and create spaces which are welcoming to everyone, working at a human space; places that feel good and peaceful to be at.

A City must be resilient in order to absorb, recover and prepare for future economic, environmental and other shocks. For a city to be resilient and sustainable, it must strive for self sufficiency in its food demands, feeding into the local and circular economy and placing food ownership in the hands of the consumers. This thesis seeks to address how food production can be integrated into a city’s existing urban fabric, using Antwerp as an example.

We view cities and agriculture as separate things. Food has always shaped our cities. In river cities like Antwerp it came in from the river, was grown in and around the city and walked into the city as livestock. Cities were once busting with activity as a result of the buying and selling of produce as well as managing the waste. While cities still rely on the land for sustenance, this relationship is no longer explicit and the effects of industrial agriculture on the planet are devastating and in many ways unethical. Access to healthy, sustainable and affordable food is made difficult when the majority of food shops are owned by private corporations who put their pockets ahead of the population’s health. Only 5% of all food sold in Belgium comes from independent markets.

Currently half the world’s population lives in cities and consumes 75% of the World’s food and energy resources. By 2050 it is estimated the population in cities will increase to 75% the global population, and with the increasing global population that means effectively double. Where are all these food and energy resources going to come from?

The production, processing and transportation of food is responsible for around a third of our greenhouse gas emissions, and then a third of all food goes to waste with less than 2% of valuable nutrients being looped by cities. This is all before we consider the effect it is having on our wildlife such as the current mass insect extinction which, if it continues at this rate, means the insects global agriculture relies on for pollination will be extinct.

For a city to be sustainable it must strive for self sufficiency in its food demands.

*Please note the thesis is ongoing and will be updated as it develops

Against Aseptic Corporeality.

This thesis investigates our relationship to, and management of, our bodily excretions, using this subject matter to open up a broader societal conversation about the long term consequences and trajectories of our contemporary hyper-individualism.
This move away from the collective is illustrated by the changing relationship with (human) waste. The individual forgets that consumption, which has become a predominant element of all our lives, results in waste. Brought on by the introduction of municipal sanitization and the flushing toilet was the idea that waste can be moved into unconsciousness resulting in today’s ‘flush and forget’ culture where waste is disposed of, for someone else to deal with. Serviced by an invisible infrastructure beneath the ground.
The sewers are the backbone of the modern city. They are inexorably connected to urbanization, sprawl, and consumption. With the introduction of this subterranean urban landscape, connections between distant sources of water and water discharge in remote areas completely changed our concepts of space and time, expanding the city’s limits underground and thus permanently modifying the landscape. We now deal with our waste in the style of a chemical plant located in an industrial estate outside the city, taking all emotion and physical involvement away from the subject. It is no longer visible in our day to day lives and is now encased in anonymous architecture, hidden away from public view, and no longer celebrates the process of extracting its value.
Prior to the 1840s with the introduction of Bazalgette’s sewers in London, human excrement had not been regarded as ‘waste’. It was part of the working agrarian economy, the workers of the land brought their livestock or harvests to sell in the city, then collected the ‘night soil’ from the city’s streets to transport back to the field and use it as fertilizer. This system was broken with the development of sanitary infrastructure and in the process, the boundary between human activity and natural processes becoming fractured.
The thesis proposes a building that reveals this invisible infrastructure, allowing the individual to see their contribution to the collective and to reestablish a physical bodily connection to their natural ‘waste’. Situated in the city center of Antwerp the main building stands as a research facility and wastewater treatment plant, determining new ways to turn our ‘waste’ into a valued commodity. The end structure is a large public toilet situated in a place for leisure – a waste landscape. This landscape is constructed from the nutrient-rich byproducts produced by the treatment plant.

Jackson has attained both his part 1 and part 2 at GSA. Currently, Jackson is employed at PagePark Architects in Glasgow.

The work showcased on this page is a selection of his Stage 5 Diploma, based in Antwerp Belgium. The Project is titled Carve, Craft, Create – An exposition of masonry. It seeks to provide an episodal journey of masonry.

The project hypothesied that a change has been seen in the use/method of craft and masonry in architecture. At one stage masonry was at the heart of a city and craft was at the forefront of architecture. Can certain aspects of craft, craftsmanship, knowledge and skill of building masonry be re-introduced and explored within the city centre, aided by architectural heritage and a place to learn about architectural masonry?

A full synopsis can be read in the attached booklet which contains a selection of research and thinking.

The Library of Babel

[BRIEF] The mythical Antwerp of the ‘golden age’ and the archetype of the library are examined as platforms for the exchange, exploration and intersection of different ideas and cultures to guide the proposal for Antwerp’s central library – a catalyst within the diverse local community of learning and a vehicle for reimaging the city and its myth.

[CONCEPT] The title encompasses the two main objectives of the project: re-exploring the typology of the library in the era of information overload, reviving the ‘myth’ of Antwerp to focus the direction of the positive change currently going on in the city after a period of decline.

“Library of Babel” is a short story by Louis Borges about an infinite fractal library containing all the possible variants of information. The contemporary library becomes an interface for the search of relevant information, rather than the source of otherwise limited access to knowledge and culture. Simultaneously, ‘Tower of Babel’ is a local masterpiece painted by Peter Breughel as an allegory of the 16th century Antwerp and the issues faced by the rapidly expanding and globalized city, which mirror the challenges of the present day.

The project explores the idea of urban mining – as Antwerp expands into the outskirts of the industrial port, the dismantled warehouses and cranes can provide steel in the form of standardized building elements. The port – a historic platform for exchange of knowledge and ideas becomes the framework of the new city library.

Leanne is a Scottish part II architect and artist. She graduated with a Master of Arts in Architecture from University of Edinburgh before attending the Glasgow School of Art. She has an international portfolio, with work in practice from offices in Amsterdam and Taipei, Taiwan. Here she also completed an intermediate course in Mandarin Chinese through attending language classes in the evening at Tai Da University. Previously, through her studies in Scotland, she won first place in The John Byrne Award for the submission of a series of portrait painting and a play. Since then she has always used a combination of art and technical drawing to communicate her projects.

Through her childhood spent in the national parks of America, she has developed a keen curiously in the topology of space, both natural and urban. This is portrayed in her Stage 5 project,

Thomson Lee is a passionate young architect who aspires to continue his architectural journey in the UK, working in the UK and being qualified as an Architect by the RIBA.

I am a Canadian born Hong Kongese, I believe my international background facilitated my sense of design and aesthetics greatly. My design language and architectural interests is a collective blend from my multicultural background. Having worked in various multilingual professional environments, it well equipped me to communicate with colleagues and clients under all circumstances. I strongly believe the combination between my architectural knowledge, ability, and experience allows me to be a productive member in any environment.

Having the opportunity to study in GSA throughout my whole architectural tenure has been nothing but memorable, this school was able to provide me with countless tangible and intangible skills and knowledge.

Architecture has always been my passion and life long dream, and I look forward to continuing my professional journey in the UK. I am a hardworking, self-motivated, and fast learning individual. I strongly believe that providing me with an opportunity to work in the UK would not be a disappointment.

As a response to the expanding city and the large amounts of abandoned industrial warehouse areas, the thesis explores the possibilities of deconstructing abandoned industrial 20th Century buildings for the potential of reusing all their materials and elements to create new buildings for different functions.

Elements and materials from 20th Century warehouses that are considered to be of a low architectural value are taken in use for testing their ability and future as a base for new public buildings. A catalogue of elements can be used to promote the modern production of reuse and remaking, seen as an important and publicly accessible activity, therefore creating a monumental space expressing the importance of remaking in the modern world of consumerism.

I am testing this in the district of Den Dam in the north east of the city centre, where I have identified thirty three warehouses that are abandoned or that lack potential for adaptation for new use. All elements and materials that these buildings are made up of have been catalogued and studied, which has been taken in use when designing the new buildings. The entire masterplan is made up of new buildings, determined by the amount of materials available.

In order to test new expressions with the elements they have been tilted, rotated and combined in different ways, allowing larger spaces to be created and new textures to be explored.

The programme of the building explores the push of remaking, made up of workshops for professional and for public use. The process consists of a waste collection point, going through to workshop spaces, and with remade and fixed objects being sold at the market. Additionally there is a teaching facility for sharing the knowledge of making and remaking, so that it is accessible and available for
everyone.

Thesis Title: ‘The Haptic Storyteller’

In the modern age where there is a decline in belief in metanarratives, people share fewer common beliefs. Research has revealed that folktales can form common ground in this regard as they connect to people’s fundamental experiences, regardless of culture and have the potential to bridge divides between isolated communities.

The thesis building uses rammed earth as its primary construction material. The haptic qualities of rammed earth have a universality and can be understood regardless of cultural or language barriers. Touch can be considered ‘the mother of the senses’ and is our ‘oldest form of communication’. By appealing to the haptic sense an architectural language can be formed which allows for a cross-cultural experience, ideal for the multi-ethnic setting of Amandus-Antheneum, in the north of Antwerp.

This thesis, for a storytelling centre in Antwerp, proposes that rammed earth architecture provides a multi-sensory encounter that allows for a cross-cultural experience and enriches the social interaction of storytelling.

The thesis considers the traditional spaces for storytelling; gathering around the hearth, the darkened room with a single light source. The architecture replicates the character of these spaces using a stereotomic spatial quality paired with the security and comfort gained from the haptic experience of rammed earth and the warmth associated with the material. The building caters for a wide range of ages from children to the elderly. The thesis takes lessons from Herman Hertzberger’s design criteria for educational buildings, avoiding linear corridors in favour of play corridors with breakout spaces for chance encounters and social interaction. The design also incorporates his principles of visual links between spaces and opportunities for immersion in nature.

Ao Tang wa born in Jiangsu, China in 1995.

He studied architecture at University of Liverpool and achieved his BA(Hons) in Architecture at 2017. Before joining Mackintosh School of Architecture for DipArch course, He had year-out experience of working on a wide range of projects including social housing for Hackney London Borough Council and University of Liverpool Masterplan Competition at Lynch Architects, London. He also worked as intern for Gen (亘) Architects and NaturalBuild (直造) in Shanghai, two leading emerging architecture practice in China.

From 2019-20, He gained opportunity to study as exchange student in MArch course at KTH Royal Institute of Architecture, Stockholm where he explored ornament and representation in space which helps him develop his final design thesis at GSA.

An ‘Absolute’ Truth?

Institute of Political Objectivity
Steenplein, Antwerp, Belgium

“If truth is thought of as a goal that can never be attained, those who rather conspicuously do not care about it will seem that much less villainous than they are”
– Simon Blackburn, ‘Truth: A Guide for the Perplexed’

“Public Truths are precious collective achievements arrived at…through slow sifting of alternative interpretations based on careful observation and argument and painstaking deliberation by trustworthy experts”
– Sheila Jasanoff, ‘Back from the Brink: Truth and Trust in the Public Sphere’

In a near and not implausible future where society’s descent into a maelstrom of misinformation has obliterated the boundary between fact and fiction, and populist rhetoric and emotive language become evermore prevalent, an Institute of Political Objectivity is proposed as a global exemplar in Antwerp. The international outcry against King Leopold II’s abhorrent reign over the Congo Free State is the genesis of the proposal’s objectives: the holding of political parties and institutions to account, and the promotion of objectivity within society through didactic teaching, active discourse, and procedural transparency.

Fundamental to the proposal’s programmatic inspiration are the key figures who brought King Leopold II’s atrocities to a global audience through various forms of media, lobbying, and discourse, including Alice Seeley Harris, a photographer; E.D. Morel, a journalist; and Roger Casement, a diplomat. Their actions ultimately exposed Leopold’s intricate web of lies and deceit with damning, irrefutable evidence, holding him to account, and forcing him to cede the Congo Free State to Belgium. Crucial to our knowledge and understanding of Leopold’s reign are the late twentieth-century publications of Jules Marchal, a Belgian diplomat, whose work brought previously unseen archived information to light, ensuring that Belgium’s colonialism was not misremembered or conveniently forgotten. Ultimately, it is this ability to reassess information which gives confidence in institutions and sources of information.

The proposed Institute of Political Objectivity is simultaneously concerned with the synthesis of objective truths regarding current events and topics on a daily basis; and the transparency, openness, and trust generated by the knowledge that its archives can be accessed and evidence revisited at any time. Objectivity and truth are reached not through judgments made by an omnipotent organisation, but through conclusions reached by individuals via a critical analysis of all viewpoints, and a collective reassurance that all information can be revisited should new evidence or arguments materialise.

Spatially, discrete yet intrinsically linked volumes facilitate dialectics, discussion, and the pursuit of objective truth through the examination of all hypotheses, as asserted in Plato’s Analogy of the Divided Line. Galleries and exhibitions; accommodation for visiting experts; and debate spaces of varying formality and scale encourage the formation of theses and antitheses within visitors. In analysing and discussing a multitude of viewpoints, visitors form well-informed opinions. Objectivity is sought through the careful analysis of all relevant information on a given subject or event, in order to prevent the mishandling, misinterpretation, or misrepresentation of said information. A subterranean, digital archive holds a record of all events within the building, accessible by anyone who seeks objective information on a given subject. The archive ensures that the Institute itself can be held to account, and is trusted by society to protect information in a time where public trust in institutions, media outlets, and political figures continues to dwindle at an alarming rate.

Originally from Spain. My background in advertising influences my illustration work. Solving the problem while telling a story is my aim.

For this showcase I selected a movie poster project that I will be updating.

My work, although mainly graphic, is at the intersection between several disciplines, between printed projects, proposals for the public space, for musicians or associations, and more physical work, from material research to exhibition design… A cultural and often contextual graphics work, as a tool for opening up to other disciplines and other worlds.
Often starting from personal proposals, I also work collectively and from commissions. I’m interested in different production/printing techniques and ways of subverting them to explore the connections between my tools and the subject I work on.

I’ve spent the last months of this year working on research-based editorial design. The project Silent Storm is a book investigation on the representations of the Gulf War and the strategic and ideological role of images in a context of war.

Type design and interactivity have been the underlying themes of my practice during my final year at the Glasgow School of Art. Throughout my Third year on my graphic design course i began to learn basic coding skills. This in turn opened up a whole realm of possibilities for my practice. It engaged my interest for the potential that lies between the border of communication design and interactivity.

Thus this drove my final years work. Scene 3.0 is a typeface I have designed which is reactive to the spoken word. It is a three Axes variable typeface. The parameters change in reaction to the sound. Focusing solely on the qualities of the human voice it measures the Volume, Pace and Pitch of the audio that is fed through it. Words are read to be spoken with this in mind i wanted to challenge the perimeters of type design to expand the capabilities of communication in letter form.

In my final year at Glasgow School of Art studying Communication Design specialising in Graphics where I have immersed myself in a wide range of subjects, undertaking independent research projects, answering design briefs and finding creative solutions to problems within tight deadlines.

For most of this year I have been working on a short film on the improvement on mental health and well-being through football — with the focus on physical and emotional well-being and how they are interconnected.

Through mental well-being, I have tackled underlying topics such as anxiety, depression, addictions and how football (particularly the football community) can play a vital role of support for coping with such problems for some individuals. Emphasising that team spirit, and being part of something bigger than yourself, can help people gain confidence and self-worth through community support and the camaraderie of the game itself.

Commissioned by the SFA I have been working with Stenhousemuir Warriors which is part of Stenhousemuir Football Club one of the most community-active professional football clubs in the UK.  Warriors in the Community is the community arm of the football club which aims to have a positive impact on every household in Stenhousemuir and the surrounding areas; either directly through club activity or through the Tryst Community Sports Club partnership. They strive to encourage more boys, girls, men and women to participate in regular physical activity and to be an active part of their local football club and community; regardless of their level of ability.

Due to the current situation I have been unable to finish this project. I plan to upload the finished film in due course.

If you would like to reach out please feel free to get in contact.

Thanks

Mark

✆ +44 7477851832
✉ phoebe.kerr97@gmail.com

I’m a photographer and multidisciplinary artist born in Brighton (1996) and based in Glasgow.

My current projects focus on human intervention, exploring globalisation, public space, British culture, urban environments and social behaviour.

Through contemporary photography I attempt to extract new meanings from within the landscape and materialise ideas, tensions or emotions that are otherwise unseen. Interested in the reciprocal relationship between human and environment; I often manifest my ideas through reoccurring motifs and patterns found in people and objects. My work has become more socially and politically motivated in recent years, a natural response to our current climate. Conveying the human condition through a sense of unfamiliarity, I attempt to reveal new interpretations of ‘truth’.

My current project ‘In Moleca’ documents the events and effects of the ‘Acqua Alta’ (high-water) which transpires annually in the city of Venice, Italy. This tidal activity is a natural occurrence, however in recent decades it has been aggravated by the effects of human activity. Mass-tourism, global warming, urban expansion and industrialisation are damaging factors which have influenced the deterioration of the Venetian lagoon, this has led to the increasing tide and subsidence of the ‘floating city’. Exploring issues caused by human intervention; this series highlights the tender balance between urban inhabitants and the environment. ‘In Moleca’ questions how cities like Venice can harmonise this interdependent relationship and adapt to the age of the Anthropocene in an increasingly globalised world.

This year I worked on a short film commissioned by the Scottish Football Association (SFA). This documents United Glasgow FC, a club who campaign for refugees rights and champion the ideals of inclusivity and accessibility in Scottish football.

In recent years my work has been published by Intern-mag, CNN, Public-Source XYZ and Issues-mag. Please contact me via email for any enquiries, commissions or collaborations!

I’m a multidisciplinary graphic designer, splitting my time between Glasgow and the south coast of England. Integral to my practice is a love of craft, which translates into the work I do – spanning editorial, typography, branding and digital design. I seek to challenge convention by adopting a playful and inquisitive approach to solving design problems, to create work that brings joy to the way we see and interact with the world.

I am Rosa Sawyers, a Graphic Designer, Image Maker and Film Maker based in Brighton/Glasgow.

I’ve recently been exploring my interests in moving image through various animation exercises, focusing on movement and growth within the natural world. My work tends to mix digital and organic processes, creating confusing and surreal imagery with lots of visual pleasure.

Abby Bayani is graphic designer working and living in Glasgow. With an interest in underlying structures, she utilises graphic design as a way to explore and visualise them in new ways.

Working across disciplines, her practice is process-led, experimenting with various methods and materials to develop ideas. She makes use of printmaking, bookbinding, and animation to aid her creative process; and is inherently driven by the possibilities of playful exploration and meticulous making.

Spike is a multi-disciplinary artist, specialising in moving image. Currently based in Glasgow, graduating from Communication Design Photography. Though the beginning of his exploration into film began with screenplay and narrative-based projects, in recent works he has explored the telling of true stories through documentary filmmaking having made pieces for clients such as The Scottish Football Association and Sailor Jerry.

The project showcased is a focus on the town of Saltcoats on the west coast of Scotland. The centre of the project is a documentary about the Saltcoats Labour Social Club and its members. The documentary conveys the mundane experiences that the members of the club value highly at the club. Alongside the documentary, a collection of stationary, photograph-like films of the town of Saltcoats were to be displayed in an exhibition surrounding the Labour Club documentary to give the mundane element context.

Born in Germany, Isabell is a Glasgow based designer and seamstress. After successfully finishing an apprenticeship as a seamstress she moved to Glasgow in 2014 and will graduate with a BA (Hons) in Fashion Design summer 2020. Isabell gained a wide range of knowledge for manufacturing and garment construction, throughout her studies and work in the bridal, costume and performance sector.
Especially through her work for bespoke bridal gowns and creating her own collections at the art school, she developed creative problem solving and pattern cutting skills.
Isabell herself is outside the studio passionate about a wide variety of outdoor activities. Her connection to nature and her creative way of thinking is her drive to push sustainability in the sports industry forward.

I, as a graduating student at the Glasgow School of Art, would like to state my support for the Pause or Pay Campaign.

Exploring the role of place as the cause and outcome of social action, Gibb’s work examines how the multiple and dynamic identities which emerge from and within place impact the past, present and future. Her work primarily comments on the influence of Christianity in the shaping of social relationships, attitudes and outcomes within the context of her native Northern Ireland.

The graduate collection featured, Where There Is No Vision the People Perish, explores the influence of strict Christian morality in our affinities to each other, ourselves, our bodies and our space. Gibb scrutinises the manifestation of creed in the sculpting of societal ideals of sexual virtue in contemporary Northern Ireland and respectfully commemorates the subsequent detriment with the objective of equality. Through the study of changing bodies, posture and psychology, healing and mending Gibb presents this relationship to materiality through the creation of genderless, slow fashion.

As a graduating student of the Glasgow School of Art, I won’t be using this platform to present and promote my practice as an act of solidarity with the Pause or Pay Campaign. If you would like to see my full works please follow this link to my website: gibb.cargo.site

Sophie Marshall is a Womenswear Designer and Pattern Cutter based in Glasgow. Throughout her studies, Sophie has developed a keen interest in tailoring which has become a fundamental component of her graduate collection. Sophie is passionate about the physical aspects of the design process, particularly creative pattern cutting.

Her graduate collection, ‘These Will Be Our Pink Days’ is a womenswear tailoring collection which aims to challenge society’s construction of femininity. By deconstructing sexualised representations of women in the media, it is possible to instead create a flattened sense of sexuality- leaning towards androgyny- which will allow women to exist outside of the confines of their gender. Sophies research consists heavily of female artists whos practices are fuelled by a desire to emancipate women from the patriarchal gaze of our heteronormative society.

Sophie’s practice involves using traditional tailoring found in menswear, alongside silhouettes and fabrication techniques from women’s lingerie. Her design process involves analysing the cultural significance and sartorial power associated with certain items of clothing- namely, traditional tailored pieces-and using these symbolic references to distort and subsequently rewrite society’s idea of how a woman should dress, look and behave.

The aesthetic drive for this collection lies within the highly sexualised and auto-erotic representation of women in 1990’s/early 2000’s advertising and the media in general. Sophie is interested in the individualist portrayal of women in postfeminist imagery, which suggests that women are empowered and in control through consciously conforming to a heteronormative, patriarchal construction of sexiness. This collection has been influenced by feminist theory and an in depth understanding of the need to disturb and breakdown stereotypical representations of women in the media.

Even when worn by a woman, it is difficult to see a suit and not also have an attached idea of that suit belonging to menswear. For this collection, Sophie takes specific elements found in tailoring and uses these in nontraditional ways to grant women the power which belongs to men’s tailoring, without there actually being any notion of gender.

I, as a graduating student at the Glasgow School of Art, would like to state my support for the
Pause or Pay Campaign. To read the full manifesto click here

Zoë Ward is a womenswear designer from Brighton, currently based in Glasgow, Scotland.

She appoaches design and making with a visceral exploration of craft and craft history resulting in textiles and garments rich in detail.

Zoë prioritise’s a slower approach to making – isolating techniques, such as hand smocking and appliqué that would enforce a more mindful and meditative approach. By applying honest, traditional craftsmanship, the garment can be seen as a narrative object; it tells a story of time and care before its even worn. Zoë believe’s considering clothing in this way we come to respect and value our belongings in a deeper sense. Applying this philosophy she hopes to re-address the relationship we have with what we use and what we wear.

Sustainable practice is at the core of what Zoë does. Utilising second hand, up-cycled, found, or in some way repurposed cloths and materials. The resulting textiles and garments reflect this history, the provenance; the landscape they come from and the people who created them.

Zoë hopes her collection honours the communities that have inspired her, that it recognises the traditions and processes of generations of craftsmen, and that it celebrates narrative in the objects we own and treasure.

Melody Uyanga Ramsay is a Scottish-Mongolian fashion designer whose work focuses on heritage, ethics, sustainability and its intersections using fashion.

After gaining invaluable experience in the Concept Design Department at Ralph Lauren, she has honed her own creative vision working between fashion, installation, performance and video.

As you start to figure out her visual language; the process of theoretical and historical research becomes evident as a form of figurative expression, transporting you with tailored British narratives and a homage to Mongolian horse-riding culture. This melting-pot of culture and art forces to overwhelm and define you.

Through her research, she has developed a design process that involves a rich cross-pollination of sources, bringing together literary, material and visual references.

Her 2020 graduate collection is presented as a meditation on cultural narratives, presented within a carefully considered scenography and casting.

Drawing upon the images and textiles of authoritarian dress in a transnational dialogue, she moves across time and space by bringing these references under the lens of a new era in postcolonial critique.

With an enthusiasm for story telling and cultures of the past, Caitlin Fraser is a unisex designer from Glasgow. Whilst studying her BA in Fashion Design, Caitlin has had a keen interest in garments of the past and how they could convey so much information about the person wearing them. This interest has spanned from the tudors of the 1500s to the punks and skinheads of the 1980s.

Caitlin’s current project is about exploring her own heritage and identity by focusing on the city where not only she grew up but also her family generations before her. The main inspiration behind this project comes from old family photographs, poems and film as each garment aims to tell a different story through the cut, silhouette and fabric choice.

I, as a graduating student at the Glasgow School of Art, would like to state my support for the Pause Or Pay campaign. To read the full manifesto click here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MwdvZfLTp1udaASJ1EAmRT9XR-OPQIyU/view

YongWon Choi is an artist based in the Glasgow, United Kingdom and Seoul, South Korea. He is working on various subjects of art and science conflict, reality and virtual, immersive content, brain-computer interface, data visualisation, and user experience based on the question of human essence and humanistic knowledge.

His latest study, “Implementation of Interactive Content in Virtual Garden with Application of Personal Data,” is questioning about “Can future immersive content, such as virtual reality, be used as a form of art?” and “How can we use reactions such as the mind and the emotion of human nature to provide a different experience in art?”

His work is a virtual garden space where you can experience a new form of multisensory (visual, auditory, tactile) as an immersive content, and implements a responsive brain-computer interface based on theoretical backgrounds such as immersive content, simulation, and user experience data. His work consists of a brainwave recording device (EEG) and a virtual reality headset, and that produced in the Unity programme.

The new value presented by his proposal is that the user’s creative response (sensory experience) to virtual reality, emotions and empathy can be interpreted and understood in a new way by integrating into the art in the form of ‘data’, and this value can lead to new forms of creativity that are different from existing art. His work says that the act of seeing in the future will be an active process based on interactive communication, not a passive process that unilaterally accepts transmission from a two-dimensional screen. This change of experience will eventually change the future beyond our conventional and general perceptions and lives.

Light is the primary creative medium of Sean Mallon’s practice and he has been increasingly inspired by the technological use of light in invisible wavelengths for networking and data distribution. He is concerned with using visible light to express the effects of connectivity on the psyche. Seminal texts have been drawn from, such as those by Marshal McLuhan, who famously wrote of the interplay between the development of our brains and the media processed by them or as his contemporary John Culkin said; ‘we make the tools and then in turn the tools help to shape us’ (Culkin 1967). His work aims to express this interplay between technology and human experience and to show that we are at a new intersection of adaptation as we are exposed to networked media.
These ideas are expressed with interactive installation work which aims to draw attention to the body / self. An awareness of oneself is created by mirror images of pixel-like white light, transplanting the body with a digital representation of such. Light follows the movement of the viewer, reaffirming the interplay and our close ties with technology; symbolising the technological human condition we now inhabit.

Inspired by the blurring line between reality and the imagination, Ankita Nagaraj’s work is an experimental exploration into our relationship with the technology we have created. Finding the most interest in the journey of research and development, her work branched from the imagery of machines gaining consciousness, free thought and emotions, shown in the music video ‘The Music Scene’ by Blockhead. Basing her work on this science fiction idea, while pulling reference from the concept of singularity in Eastern culture as discussed by Alan Watts, she uses browser extensions, popups and physical pieces of technology to personify and humanise these machines.

Rebecca Lindsay is a digital artist and designer who in her recent work explores the act of cognitive offloading and the trust we place in technology storing information without error. We often misremember things as our memories change over time and can be altered due to outside influences. As our minds are fallible we take pictures to remember events which we backup to computers and phones under the assumption that this information will remain unaltered. Many of us use memory apps through social media to remind us of events. However, as our devices and apps can be hacked our information can be compromised – could we remember clearly enough to dispute that our information and consequently our memories had been altered?

Inspired by artists such as Zbigniew Rybczyński and Sophie Calle, her recent work uses machine learning and coding as a method of generating imagery. Using personal information uploaded by others and herself ranging from text to images Rebecca’s work explores our relationship and reliance on technology to both save and express aspects of our lives and identities within a non secure digital landscape.

Sally’s practice primarily focuses on ideas and issues related to mental health. From experiencing mental health problems herself, Sally has become passionate about using her personal lived experience and creative practice to open up much needed conversation and challenge existing stigma and ill-informed perceptions of mental health problems. She uses technology to develop interactive and immersive audio and visual experiences that communicate the often hard to explain realities of living with a mental health problem.

Sally often combines her creative practice with her voluntary youth work role at See Me Scotland. In her most recent work Sally has been working closely with other young people from See Me to develop a series of engaging and interactive works that communicate voices, lived experiences, challenges and stigma that young people face in relation to mental health. This work focuses on three key themes; stigma, medication and barriers to accessing support.

Throughout her practice, Ailsa’s work focuses on the subject of identity, which has been explored in several different mediums. Many of the works focused on the face; specifically how history, culture and similarities passed on through the generations help to define us as individuals.

This year Ailsa’s work consists of various studies looking at the gestures that we all use to accompany our dialogue, predominantly centering around hand movement. People often display nuances in their movements, emphasising how gestures are specific to that individual. It is Ailsa’s belief that these subtle differences in gestures can convey as much information and emotion as the spoken words they accompany.

Starting with detailed pencil drawings of hands, Ailsa progressed to several small studies. These included looking at contrasting performing arts and exploring the ways people use hand gestures to express themes and passions. Through a series of interviews, she scrutinised the way in which people’s bodies responded to her prompts and guidance. Experimenting with both digital machine learning and physical plotting devices, Ailsa’s work continues to explore the use of sculptural materials as a means of data visualisation.

Valentine Scherer is a French/Australian interaction designer who is interested in finding and making connections between generative and organic processes, analogue and digital, material and non-material, to discover new lenses on sense-making in a world of chaos & disinformation. Her most recent research and work were initially inspired by some of Richard Sennet’s writings on craft and how we live in the built environment.

Her work interrogates processes in making, production and consumption in the networked digital society. Allusions to the circularity of the economy are made throughout her work as an attempt to make a playful commentary, drawing from a broad range of inspirations such as Dadaism, George Brecht’s instruction art or more contemporary artists and designers like new media artist Philipp Schmitt. Much of her research and work on the ecology of modularity stems from a fascination with the role of craft as a means of sense-making in society.

Much of this work is based on a set of images of hybridised furniture pieces which were produced using Machine Learning algorithms via Runway ML software. This process enabled the generation and computational ‘imagination’ of a new set of furniture designs based on standardised IKEA graphic instruction covers.

Seeking to critique flat pack and modular furniture and the IKEA model which is hyper-dominant for all students and young people worldwide, she uses machine learning, 3D modelling and printing methods to uncover the flawed value system underlying the culture and production ethos. Using a playful and absurdist spirit of inquiry, she developed a way to auto-generate semi-functional modularity which shows just how ridiculous it is, and how it is just creating toxic landfill at an exponential rate, how this culture in itself is a huge driver of economic externalities that can only be eliminated by thorough system change.

Zach Mason’s work investigates the relationship between digital and physical spaces through design research across both spaces. The liminal space created between these environments is experimented with in order to reproduce objects in alternative forms. This subverts their purpose, and reduces their forms to better understand them, and the process of object reproduction.

Hoping to break down the stigmas associated with digital space, he uses 3D modelling and machine learning along with 3D printing to move objects and ideas from one facet of space to another. Using surreal and intangible notions, he aims to break down engrained barriers within the spaces we inhabit, in order to invite users to approach them in a less fragmented manner. He sees mental, physical and digital space as a continuous realm to be explored, made tangible through a symbiotic trifecta which allows for the creation of objects in liminal space.

Charlotte Holland is a creative technologist exploring the intersection of art and technology. Her latest body of work explores our relationship between the real world and the virtual, through the lens of online gaming.

Her work incorporates the “W”, “A”, “S” and “D” keys, which are a common input when playing computer games. Each letter acts like an arrow key, moving the player up, down, left, or right in relation to its position on the keyboard.

Mirroring these controls, she has used each letter to signify a direction. Generative line drawings are created by analysing a text and then plotting each instance of “W”, “A”, “S” and “D”, moving the line in the corresponding direction.

She developed a particular interest in the unique language patterns used in gaming chat logs. Taking gaming conversations out of their original context, she uses chat-log messages as input data to create these generative artworks.

Chat-log language is typically informal, rude, misspelt, and laced with gaming jargon. She found it humorous to create works of art inspired by this which from the outside seem sophisticated and mature. Her work plays with perceptions of what is worthwhile or important in this new digital age, finding beauty in unexpected places.

Callum Blair is a Scottish born creative technologist who is interested in discovering how design and technology can be used to convey movement in sports, particularly in tennis which he has a passion for. By comparing the elegance and beauty of the movement in tennis to an improvised dance he can see the relation to art. The skills required to perform at highest levels allows players to develop shapes and styles while they move on court which Callum transfers into his design practise.

Callum’s work looks at how he can turn this motion into data visualisation, by listening to radio broadcast of past tennis matches he turned the language used in the broadcast and turned it into data. With inspiration from Brian Eno rule based thinking, Callum explores how rule-based patterns could influence his work using them to direct his design choices when using data to create his visuals.

Along with the data visualisations of past matches, Callum experiments with machine learning, feeding a computer algorithm text from radio broadcasts. He taught the machine how to reproduce its own tennis points. By interpreting the points made he would draw the interpretations and create prints and calling it a collaboration between human and machine, drawing the interpretations and creating prints.

Samuel is a graduating designer from Liverpool showcasing a multidisciplinary approach to spatial practice, with a key focus on structural context and materiality leading to an increasing insistence on circular economic principles.

His work emphasises the phenomenology of space to create respectfully adapted and contextually significant spatial environments whilst applying understanding gained from working experience with companies including MADE.com and bluesky.

I took advantage of this last year to tackle the themes that obsess me in my design practice.
The themes of memory, psychogenealogy and synaesthesia of the senses have often surfaced in my work in the past, often unconsciously. With this project, I unearth these motivations, these design impulses, and try to dissect them in order to better understand myself as a designer.
My grandfather left a memoir before he died. I used it to explore the possibility of transforming his memories into emotional spaces. in an exhibition context. Visitors would wander through each space and experience the journey while projecting their own emotions and personal grief.
This project aims to address my own grief, to imagine someone’s life, and to challenge the visitor, who in turn would question his own memories and family.
In order to show my ideas, I like to try various mediums. This allows me to communicate sensations that are difficult to replicate with traditional design limits such as technical drawings and CAD. I love to use animations, sculptures, emotional drawings and textiles to trigger the viewer. This more abstract and conceptual approach to design helps me connect my practice to my personal creative obsessions. Making the process more intense and exciting.

Hi there 👋

I am a designer whose work explores the relationship between the virtual world and online spaces. I am specifically interested in the sociological aspect of the continuously advancing technology and how this impacts our interior environments. Throughout the past 2 years, I have been exploring how digital media, social media, and the internet has affected people, their mental health, and daily lives, through Interior Design and academic writing.

I have designed PLATFORM, a centre striving to support young people’s interactions with the continuously growing virtual world. Enabling the visitors to PLATFORM to feel empowered by the knowledge they have gained, to intelligently navigate social media and other online spaces. The centre offers counselling services and other education spaces where visitors will learn interactively.

PLATFORM tests how wrapping the built environment with a precise material pallet and technology enables questioning the boundaries between the physical and the digital worlds

This project revolves around people from different fields working in one building and occupying shared spaces. The aim was to create a workspace tailored to the needs of a specific profession while simultaneously allowing them to use shared spaces with other workers. This in turn would encourage them to learn, discover and inspire others.
My inspiration came from my personal experience while studying at GSA where I had students from other fields around me. I would also share facilities with them such as various workshops where I got the opportunity to discuss my work.
The biggest challenge I faced while designing was to find the right combination of professionals to occupy the space together and to create small interrupting points where people could take a break from their work and discuss it with others.
The main focus point in my design was the void, which allows light and sound to travel through it as well as providing a subtle peak into the workspaces of other people.
The void allowed me to explore different planning possibilities; on top of that it created an opportunity for me to explore different CAD softwares and Addobe packages to create a visual language for my project.

I am Megan Collins, an Interior Designer from Glasgow. I studied at The Glasgow School of Art for four years whilst maintaining consistent employment throughout. In 2018, I and a group of collaborators designed and produced the school’s Graduate Fashion Week pop-up for that year’s graduates, seeing the development through from a charette based project into a fully realised scheme.

My Graduate Project – “The Waverley Studios”- surrounds the repurposing and restoration of a forgotten community building in Glasgow’s Southside. Originally used as a Cinema, the design aims to showcase several fundamental features that were discarded over time through revealing the barrel-vaulted ceiling and staircase in the building’s main hall. Split into two parts – The Waverley challenges the old and the new. The Entrance Hall acts as a tribute to Victorian Era in which the building was built, whilst adopting contemporary finishes. The Main Hall maintains its element of theatre through the construction of studios on the stairway, creating alien forms which allow glances into the workspaces through slit windows – revealing only moments of what is happening internally. Theatricality is also maintained for the user – with the addition of a louvre roof that when opened allows them to hear the sounds from throughout the building as well as maintain a visual connection with their surroundings.

Overall, The Waverley Studios presents Glasgow’s Southside with a new way in which to gather and celebrate both the Arts and the Local through both the building itself and the Community that inhabits it.

This year I have been working with a local blacksmith to gain a greater understanding of traditional techniques within ironworks. Through my research, I have discovered a wealth of information on the steel & ironworks of Glasgow, specifically the work of Walter Macfarlane. I wanted to explore how iron could be used in Glasgow today. For one of my projects, I chose one of Macfarlane’s structures that was local to me; Kelvinbridge. The current staircase joining the road to the walkway beneath is well-used and worn out. Redesigning the stairway, I wanted to apply what I had learned to a new connecting structure. My proposed design is wood encased in steel, with windows inlaid to give a panoramic view of the Clyde.

I am an Interior Designer from the Highlands. I have studied Interior design at The Glasgow School of Art for the past three years. During my studies, I have researched the history of social housing, with a particular focus on Glasgow and have developed a passion for affordable, sustainable and high-quality design that can improve the quality of peoples lives. For my graduate project, I developed a social housing scheme which I named LYCHEE.

LYCHEE Housing stands for Light, You, Community, Health, Education and Environment. Its main goals are to provide tenants with a high quality of life by focusing on sustainable, affordable living that encourages a community spirit and sociable behaviour.

To provide a sustainable, affordable and high-quality environment, a range of energy-saving products and systems can be installed to achieve this.

Internal insulation, new energy-efficient doors, windows, lighting, and water-saving plumbing will be used to increase the energy efficiency of the building to also keep the cost of living and running the flat to a minimum.

Mechanical Ventilation Heat Recovery can be used to improve air quality and keep heating costs down. An MVHR system removes moist stale air and delivers fresh air to a property, in an energy-efficient way. It works by extracting warm, moist air from around the home, putting it through a heat exchanger to extract the heat and then expelling the cool stale air to the outside.

32.7% of households live in fuel poverty. Tumble drying is the healthier option for drying clothes but this is energy-intensive and indoor drying increases mould spore count in homes and can lead to health problems such as asthma and eczema. With a communal laundry room, this allows homes to have better air quality and also save money on energy bills by using the wastewater from washing machines to heat communal clothes dryers and louvre windows to ventilate the space for air drying clothes.

The communal laundry also acts as an opportunity for tenants to socialise and get to know one another encouraging the idea of community living. The focus of social space is considered throughout the building, dedicating the top floor to entertainment for tenants of all generations, in addition to wider corridors, to accommodate the voids through the centre of the building, which provides the corridors with natural light. This decision has been made to bring the sense of the streets indoors, giving peoples doorways personality and also providing a boundary between public and private space with the use of curved walls doubling up as storage on one side and a light void on the other.

I started my Interior Design journey at the City of Glasgow College where I studied HND 3D Interior Design for two years. I progressed to The Glasgow School of Art to obtain a BA (Hons) Interior Design degree which has allowed me to grow as a young designer through developing my knowledge and pushing boundaries. Alongside my studies I have maintained the same part-time job where I am now a member of the management team after years of progress and determination.

Throughout my studies I have developed an interest in hospitality design, not only aesthetically but operationally and how individuals interact in this environment. That said, I am a willing young designer who is hungry to learn more about the interior design industry. During my 3rd year of GSA, I was a finalist in the Student Awards at the Retail Expo 2019 for my collaboration with Costa Coffee which I am grateful to have been a part of.

My final project – The River Hotel – is a boutique hotel in the heart of Glasgow’s City Centre, reflecting its surrounding picturesque views of the River Clyde. Selecting a location for this project was vital as it had to be easy to access, large enough for my design intent while having a unique edge. Building an interior palette from the surrounding architecture and natural elements allowed me to create a versatile interior which plays with the boundaries of private and public space. Allowing guests to enjoy a luxurious, peaceful or playful stay while being immersed in Scottish culture The River Hotel has a lot to offer.

My chosen site, The Crystal Palace, is currently home to a Wetherspoon pub, however I wish to re-establish it as a hotel celebrating Scottish authors of the 19th century and the building’s historic relationship with the Great Exhibition of 1851. The site was constructed five years after the exhibition’s grand opening as a result of the architect, John Baird’s, appreciation for the cast-iron and glass venue, which showcased the best of British design alongside notable global works. I chose to focus on hotel design as I have been keen to look deeper into the hospitality industry – particularly hotels – as I am fascinated with how one space must meet the needs of many, consequently impacting an individual’s experience in a given environment. Books are a great passion of mine so I was eager to explore the country’s storytelling past, researching Scottish writers’ works to enable an investigation into ways I could intertwine their illustrious imaginations within my hotel concept and design.

“As you grow ready for it, somewhere or other you will find what is needful for you in a book.”

George MacDonald (1824 – 1905) in The Marquis of Lossie

I am a conscientious, self-motivated and driven Interior Design student in my final year of BA (Hons) at The Glasgow School of Art.

I have a great eye for detail which is reflected in my visuals and technical drawing skills. My hand drawing skills were recognised by the National Design Competition Costa Coffee, London, 2019 when I was a shortlisted finalist. Interior Design brings out my creativity and gives me an opportunity to express myself which I have shown in each of my projects.

With each new challenge I increase my personal expectations, go over my limits and work even harder to create the best interiors.

I have a natural talent for art which sums up the type of person I am, energetic, always positive and full of creative ideas, either working alone or as a part of a team. Art allows me to put my feelings into my hand-drawings and designs.

I have developed a strong 3D modelling and model making skills as it helps me to get the feel of the space, explore the potentials as well as a variety of different design solutions. My aim is to enhance interiors by injecting colours, materials and finishes to bring it to life.

Therefore, I believe I have the skills, ability, talent and enthusiasm to lead me to a long successful career as an Interior Designer.

As a student from China, I have had to adapt to many new ways of thinking and learning throughout my studies in the vast and sometimes overwhelming space that is Communication Design. I don’t think of graphic design as merely a form of utilitarian communication, I consider it a powerful platform for authorial practice and self-expression. My work primarily focuses on social issues, like cyber sexual harassment, gender discrimination, and more broadly, the change of women’s rights in the course of social development.

Suzie Cichy is an illustrator and animator based in Glasgow. As an image-maker Suzie explores themes of gender, censorship and the provocative within her practice. For the last few years this has resulted in focussing on the phallus, and how the male gaze informs reactions to her work. At GSA Suzie has been exploring the ever-growing issue of unsolicited dick pics: something that is rarely discussed, yet happens to over 40% of young British women.

After graduating from the Graphic Arts & Design course at Leeds Metropolitan University, Suzie worked as a graphic designer, before going freelance and working as a print technician and co-operative member at Leeds Print Workshop. Alongside her freelance illustration practice, Suzie works at Print Clan, an open-access textile screen printing studio in Glasgow. She has also completed an internship at Risotto Studio. Suzie is particularly interested in facilitating arts access for disadvantaged communities and groups.

Leda Bartolucci is a visual designer and storyteller. In her practice, the narrative comes first, allowing her to work with a variety of medium depending on which is more suitable for the message to come across. Her projects include the use of photography, graphic design, illustration, moving image or a combination of the above.

During her studies at The Glasgow School of Art, she researched and consolidated the relationship between activism and her professional practice. Believing in the role of Citizen Designer, she is interested in applying intersectional work ethics to the fields of photography and design.

In 2019, she spent a year documenting climate strikes in Glasgow, Edinburgh, London and Italy, producing a reportage where pictures are paired with the narration of her intimate take on the events they portray. At the same time, she volunteered as a graphic designer and teamed up with youth strikers to develop environmental campaigns such as the global strikes for climate, both at local and international level.

She was the European winner of the 2019 Wunderman Thompson ‘Helen Lansdowne Resor’ scholarship for female creative students. She is currently working with themes such as the climate crisis, migrants and refugees, human rights and the interdependence of these issues.

Hannah McInally is a Scottish illustrator and ceramic artist, currently working between Stirling and Glasgow. Her practice pushes traditional expectations of illustration by exploring three dimensional forms and spatial occupation. Through an instinctive approach to making and thematic exploration her work aims to inspire visual engagement and interaction with the audience, whilst still being highly emotive. At GSA her work has been guided by loss and creation, opposing states working in tandem, allowing her practice to be informed by emotion in a conducive manner. Hannah’s practice exists in a shifting state, fluctuating between art and design.

Before completing her Masters at GSA, Hannah graduated from the Illustration course at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design in 2018. During her undergraduate studies she undertook a semester abroad at the Alberta College of Art and Design, where she diversified her creative practice and expanded outwards into ceramic sculpture and design.

Apolline de Luca is a graphic designer who focuses on editorial and type design. During her studies at GSA, she experimented with book design and its components such as printing techniques, book binding, and layout design, working both with clients and for her personal research. Her design practice is research based and she finds interest in telling stories through design creating physical or emotional experiences for the user/reader/viewer.
Alongside her graphic design practice, she specialised in type-design. During her final year at GSA, she designed Diaspora (a display font exploring Italian immigration to Scotland) with her class mate Alessandro Prepi. From this collaboration and love for type-design, they are now launching their own type foundry, GoodEggs TypeFoundry, to release Diaspora and future projects: goodeggstypefoundry.com

For her next steps, she is aiming to expand her practice at the intersection of graphic and type design.

Prior to joining the Glasgow School of Art, she graduated in 2018 from ECV Bordeaux with a Bachelor in Graphic Design. Throughout her studies, she completed several internships as a graphic Designer at Bordeaux’s CAPC Museum of Contemporary Art, at Studio Kubik in Bordeaux, and at Glasgow-based studio Cause & Effect. More recently, she was in charge of the design of A New Spirit in Painting, 1981, an art book published in 2020 by Koenig Books, London.

e-mail: apolline.deluca@gmail.com,  hello@goodeggstypefoundry.com
website: apollinedeluca.com, goodeggstypefoundry.com
instagram: apolline.deluca

Having graduated from the Shanghai Institute of Visual Art with a Bachelor’s Degree in Communication & Information Design, Qiaojia Song joined the Masters in Communication Design programme at Glasgow School of Art in 2018.

With interests that range from cyber- and youth culture to pop art and feminism, Song’s current work seeks to explore the impact that emerging communication technologies are having on our identities and relationships with one another.

As an undergraduate student, Song’s final year project received an award for excellence and she has exhibited in China, Japan and the United Kingdom.

“My practice focus on the visual expression of internal feelings, observations of environment and society and the space in which individuals and groups inhabit. I use a range of materials and techniques to explore various visual languages to identify the most exciting approach for the subject, its outcome and myself.

By recording the lives of people around me and their surroundings through daily tasks, exercises and experiments I continue to find a firmer voice and search for a world language through the mediums of drawing, painting, collage and digital techniques.”

Žarko Dumičić is a graphic designer who is exploring and re-imagining ways we communicate by creating more immersive modes of information exchange through a hybrid of design, sculpture and installation art. Influenced by the Radical and Critical design movements, the work developed as part of the GSA Master’s programme is a reaction to the current social and political environment riddled by misinformation and distrust, as evident by the spread of conspiracy theories and anti-science movements online.

Žarko’s GSA design work encompasses research on the impact of physical dimensionality on graphic design, especially within the field of data visualisation. His primary focus is on experiential and emotional aspects of communication that aim to create a conducive environment for critical thinking. As part of his research he developed a series of sculptural graphic design work constructed out of abstract data, statistics, as well as typography. By grounding communication in a three-dimensional physical form that one can interact with and experience in relation to their body, the work aims to slow down the consumption of information and create a tactile reference of the data presented. The resulting tangible objects and multi-sensory environments engage the audience emotionally and invite them to critically examine the information.

Originally from Zagreb (Croatia), Žarko is an alumnus of Parsons School of Design in New York (USA), was a co-founder and co-director of an award-winning and internationally published design studio in Mumbai (India), and has been selected for an exchange to Tokyo University of the Arts (Japan) during his Master’s studies at the Glasgow School of Art (Scotland). As a result of his international experience, he believes in a global outlook and reach of design that strongly influences his practice. For more projects, images and details of the developed work please visit his portfolio website at zzzzarko.com

Alessandro Prepi Sot is a highly motivated Italian graduate of The Glasgow School of Art who is deeply interested in editorial and typographic design. For him, graphic design is not a hobby, job or even a love anymore: it’s an obsession. Designing a project means telling a story where the concept is at its core, with nothing left to chance; all details are meticulously attended to and it is hoped projects are timeless but with a degree of tension.

During his two years on the MDes Communication Design course, he has continued experimentation in the field of publication design and production, deepening an existing understanding of layout, materials, printing techniques and bookbinding. During the second year of the course, and in collaboration with fellow course mate Apolline de Luca, he conducted a deep and rigorous investigation in the field of typography which led to the realisation of the DIASPORA typeface. Through this successful collaboration, Alessandro and Appoline have formed GOODEGGS TYPEFOUNDRY, their own type-foundry to continue releasing type related projects.

Alessandro graduated with honours from UNIRSM DESIGN in the San Marino Republic in 2017. He has worked with ROVAIWEBER DESIGN STUDIO (Florence, 2015) and the photographic collective CESURA (Milan, 2017), with a particular focus towards the independent publishing activity of CESURA PUBLISH on which he continues to contribute.

email: alessandro.prepi@gmail.com
instagram: sir_sot
websites: alessandroprepisot.com, goodeggstypefoundry.com

Zilin Dong is an international student from China, she has studied at the Glasgow School of Art on the MDes Communication Design specializing in graphic design and illustration. During this two year period, her work has covered type and publication design and iconic mask design using a combination of illustration and graphic design. Works always begin with an element of hand-rendering to then be developed and finessed digitally.

Zilin explores the concepts of uncontrollability whilst to reach an outcome combining dreams and three-dimensional book works. Another topic has been identity and personality in contemporary culture—particularly those of political figures—and drawing links to masks used in Peking Opera.

I have had a passion for Product Design from a very young age and the Product Design Engineering course was the perfect opportunity to allow me to develop on this. I have thoroughly enjoyed both the Engineering and Product Design aspects of this course and look forward to applying these new skills and knowledge in a professional setting.

Aside from Product Design, I am also a very keen skier. Having done a lot of backcountry skiing I was aware of the dangers and numerous fatal accidents that occur while partaking in this sport. This formed the basis for my final year project. The focus of this project was to reduce the number of accidents and fatalities in backcountry winter sports caused by avalanches.

Following research with some of the leading backcountry skiing and avalanche experts it became clear that preventing people from triggering avalanches in the first place was the route that my efforts were best focused on. Through this, a design for a device which would allow individuals to quickly and accurately measure a slopes gradient and aspect was created. The majority of people involved in these accidents are well trained in avalanche awareness but had just missed certain warning signs. The device encourages people to stop and take the time to make their assessment due to its simplicity. The information provided by the device, alongside the users own knowledge, allows them to make a better and more informed decision on whether a slope is safe or if it should be avoided.

Aside from my academic work I have also started a few small businesses designing, manufacturing and selling cufflinks and 3D printed products whilst at University. These have been hugely successful and I have over 500 customers to date.

As a design engineer, I am motivated by the challenge of developing solutions to enhance the user experience of a product or system. I approach design problems with an open mind and from a holistic point of view. My work explores the impact of the external environment on our body and mind aiming to bring harmony into our lives. I follow an iterative process, involving empathic mapping and user engagement.

My product WorkLed is the result of my masters project, A Happier and Healthier Workplace, exploring the application of innovative LED technology in tackling the problem of poor lighting conditions within working office environments. Current workplaces have no regulations for sufficient healthy lighting, and existing products demonstrate impracticalities of form and interaction. The Lighting Research Centre highlights the benefits of specific lighting conditions with emphasis on the sleep and wake cycle.

WorkLed is a new desk lamp which provides healthy working light levels and circadian regulation. My product aims to transform stigmatised perceptions of therapy lamps into an engaging and satisfying yet practical experience for the user. I defined three light settings in order to optimize light throughout the working day. The user can personalise their light by choosing between stimulating blue light, task light and smart ambient light.

I have thoroughly enjoyed my time at GSA and learned a lot on the PDE course. Last summer I did an internship with Scottish Power Renewables where I was able to put some of my Mechanical Engineering skills from the University of Glasgow into practice. I spent my final year working on a user centred design project and ultimately created a product to aid mobility in Parkinson’s Disease sufferers. Various research, user engagement and iterative prototyping and testing led me to my final solution and I gained invaluable skills working alongside the end users and key stakeholders throughout the whole process. My final design ‘Cammino’ is an assistive device that predicts and prevents one of the most debilitating symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease known as ‘Freezing of Gait.’

Having spent a number of years working in the specialty coffee industry I’ve come to appreciate the craft involved in creating the perfect milk to accompany espresso. This has lead me to scrutinise the quality of milk produced by consumer products. Many home milk texturing solutions on the market don’t match the quality delivered by a barista.

Through research and testing of how milk responds to the injection of steam in a jug, my design intends to replicate the caliber of milk you would expect in your local speciality coffee shop.

Jonathan Maillie is a creative young student working towards a Bachelor of Engineering in the discipline of Product Design, delivered collectively by the world renowned institutions of the Glasgow School of Art and the University of Glasgow. Jonathan is also from Glasgow, a city synonymous with engineering innovation, and throughout his educational career has consistently taken an interest in the sciences and design. Always keen to understand how products work, on discovering the course in PDE he relished the opportunity to combine the dynamic mediums of engineering and design. Jonathan looks to develop the skills and knowledge he has gained through this course and multiple work experience positions to forge a career in product design. To further expand his skill set he will be embarking on a Design and Marketing postgraduate course in the coming year.

Alongside technology and design, the biggest influence on, and constant in, Jonathan’s life has been sport. From a young age he participated in rugby, hockey and swimming and now is member of the Glasgow University Tigers American Football team. Throughout his studies, the opportunity to influence the fast paced innovation in engineering and design in sports has been a key driver, allowing him to combine his two passions.

Precision Contact

A long list of injuries eventually prevented Jonathan from playing the sports he loved most, namely rugby. This, coupled with a strong desire to remain involved in the sporting world, inspired Precision Contact, a smart sports wearable designed to approach the increasing injury rate in modern rugby and other contact sports, and the response to it.

Precision Contact aims to tackle this problem through accurate visualisation of the impact on athletes in contact sports and create a better informed, streamlined injury recovery/rehabilitation process. It boasts thousands of pressure sensing areas, fitted to a compression style garment, whose data output is powered, collected and transmitted by an unobtrusive hub incorporated into the sports wearable. The product maps the various impacts given and taken by a professional or amateur level player and produces a visually engaging, informative pressure map displaying highly technical insights into the wearer.

As a product designed to address injury at all levels of the game, this could not only make players more injury conscious as they play, but also improve their interaction with team staff and sports researchers as they look to recover and return to play quicker than ever.

Sarisa Leelayouthyotin is a BEng Product Design Engineering graduate. Her final project, Communicare aims to integrate technology into healthcare.

Communicare aims to provide an effective meltdown and shutdown prevention system for autistic children through modular 3-lead ECG monitoring and stress analysis. It connects the ECG wearables to the caregivers’ devices, allowing them to detect the upcoming meltdown and shutdown, in order to provide the right support at the right time.

I’m half Scottish, half German and having grown up in the countryside in both the UK and in France, this was where my love of the outdoors and exploring new places began. Whilst at university this has meant I always prefer to take a hands on approach to solving problems, never underestimating the effect that even a simple prototype can have within the design process.

Although now I enjoy all aspects of design, I have developed a particular passion for closed loop design and considering products as part of a larger service or system for the end user. Finally, I always enjoy the simplest solutions to problems!

Isabella Gonzalez is a Venezuelan final year Product Design Engineering student at GSA and the University of Glasgow. During her degree, she developed interest in sustainable and environmental engineering which led her to follow her studies at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, getting an offer for a Master’s course in Sustainable Energies.

Kinethics is a product designed to provide independence to campers on how they get energy to power their devices. Applying a BLDC generator and a planetary gearbox, this power generator offers a simple and efficient way for users to produce their own electricity. With a detachable and portable power bank, the product becomes versatile for different situations, charging devices safely with the battery as an intermediary between the generator and the user’s devices. The user just needs to extent the crank, slide the power bank into the slot of the generator and start turning the handle. A red LED indicator will let them know the battery is being charged. After 2min of constant turning, the power bank will be charged ~3%, enough to make an emergency call on most smartphones. It comes in a small, lightweight, and ergonomic structure for ease of turning without the need of a surface.

I am a Maltese Product Design Engineering student at the Glasgow School of Art and University of Glasgow. An MEng in Product Design Engineering at the two institutions has been an exciting and challenging journey, which has provided a multitude of opportunities in both engineering and design cultures.

My final year project, flexIV, was an exciting venture into the world of biomedical devices. flexIV is a stabilizing intravenous cannula for comfort and freedom. The device protects against dangerous accidental administration of an intravenous fluid into the subcutaneous tissue. This is known as extravasation, which is mainly caused due to movement and instability of the intravenous cannula. Extravasation causes painful side effects, as well as permanent cosmetic damage, loss of function in limbs, and potentially fatalities.

The flexIV device is an innovative redesign of the intravenous cannula. It introduces flexibility to the device to prevent internal catheter movement. With patient comfort in mind as well as extravasation prevention, the user is free to move comfortably without the worry of the catheter becoming displaced.

This project was an excellent opportunity to execute and improve my research skills, build professional relationships with a multitude of professions, and integrate my work ethic from my summer internship at ExxonMobil.

Competing in ‘The Greener Glasgow’ design competition when I was younger sparked my interest in sustainability. Winning 3rd place, it has ignited my passion for incorporating sustainability with design. Furthermore, by being part of a volunteer group working as a Neighbourhood Improvement Volunteer (NIV) for my local area allows me to see the current environmental problems. This has always been the push for my packaging box design in hopes to change waste consumption in the packaging industry.

Architectural materials, structures and colours, in a predominantly urban setting, represent the starting point of my design process. From these initial observations, of geometric shapes, repetition, pattern and line, I construct experimental, digital schemes for transfer to 3-D model making, first in paper and then in metal. The resulting jewellery designs reflect these architectonic influences, objects of wearable pieces that constitute a human-scale relationship to the urban environment. My work continues to explore these dimensions; how we model our environs and how, in turn, these shape us.

My practice is informed by the natural world. I am particularly interested in the ways in which nature persists in city environments, despite the overwhelming destructive power of pollution, toxic atmospheres and micro-climates. I have established a making practice that focuses on the relationships between materials and sustainability.

For my final year collection, I designed and made jewellery that relates to a classical idea: res in urbe. This describes an environment where nature is as important a feature of urban design as monumental architecture. The phrase seems particularly relevant today as some city planners and architects have realised the health benefits of green spaces in cities. My jewellery in Finding Nature reflects the textures of leaves, grasses, vegetables and other natural produce. The pieces are intended to evoke sensory experiences when worn or touched; to perhaps act as de-stressors in hostile environments.

Designs for this collection derive from my engagement with photography and its particular handling of perspective. Over the course of development in this collection, the different ways in which photographic processes can distort, skew and determine perspective has provided models and sketches that can be transposed into contemporary geometric tableware. For example, the concentration on line and scale is especially useful when working with materials such as Perspex, which is included in many of these objects. Perspex, combined with metal form a highly polished aesthetic, well-suited to designs for dining. The precision with which Perspex can be cut with a laser enables a good deal of artistic and creative freedom, as demonstrated in the presentation of this collection.

Michelle Currie BA(Hons) Silversmithing & Jewellery, The Glasgow School of Art, 2020

My final year show at the Glasgow School of Art, is an exploration of the physical properties of ferromagnetic materials, combining them with the traditions of silversmithing and emerging technologies, exploring the beautiful collision of science and art which takes craft skills and fuses them with scientific enquiry, collaboration and scientific materials. My research includes observations of gravitation experiments at Glasgow University’s Physics and Astronomy Laboratories and exploration of materials used in apparatus for the detection of gravitational waves caused by exploding stars. Combining my interest in physics with my creative process to develop wearable objects using iron particles and iron oxide powder, I document their reactions when subjected to a strong magnetic force. These explosive moments are captured to form miniature static sculptures inspired by the capture of gravitational wave data by scientific apparatus, confirming the warping of spacetime. I employ the use of magnetic forces to warp and manipulate ferromagnetic materials, highlighting the unseen forces acting on our physical experience. These explorations are combined with traditional silversmithing methods such as lost wax casting, 3d printing and granulation to form wearable, interactive objects that aim to encourage conversations around collaboration of scientists and artists engaging in scientific research and discovery. My future aspirations are to continue to collaborate with particle physicists and astronomers in research to promote their work and encourage artistic engagement in the sciences. Ultimately, I would like to undertake a PhD in Silversmithing Techniques and the Engineering of Gravitational Wave Detection Apparatus.

A special thank you to the wonderful engineers, researchers and scientists at the University of Glasgow, Physics and Astronomy Department for their kind assistance with my project research and allowing me access to their amazing labs.