Contemporary Design

Experimental Design

The course follows a pre-determined and changing topic that establishes the frame inside which the students work. Each time a different corporate partner is involved determining the characteristics of the introduced course case. The first part of the course is done more collectively, with students generating ideas and materials on which every student can continue their individual work later on the course. All the findings are documented with the aid of varying media. Here students are encouraged towards an experimental approach, re-thinking about the possibilities, processes and materials not forgetting the case in hand. The second part of the course is done individually where each student continues on the earlier findings developing them into novel artefact, let it be an object or a film.
Linda Mandell_Barrier_LJ1A9611
Barrier by Linda Mandell 2018
Lecturer Anna van der Lei

Projects 2021

Case: New Order of Fashion (non-profit organization)

Teaching team: Anna van der Lei (Aalto) & Harm Rensink (NoOF) 

Case assignment:

By analyzing their own behavior students are asked to rethink their consumption and look at new and experimental ways to trigger behavioral change when it comes to fast fashion consumption, local recycling and care for items.

New ways to collect and distribute used cloths locally? Why do we throw away in the first place? Why do we buy so fast something new? What can we learn from our grandparents? New sustainable materials? How to become more aware of the value of clothes we already own.

Keywords:

Consumer behavior, local recycling, identity, care, memories, consumption model, personal empowerment

a rendered image of augmented shoes in use

Augmented Footwear

by Niklas Alenius

Contemporary Design
an organic shaped hairy sculptural object leaning against a table with smaller sculptures on it

Garments Through Sculptures

by Apolline Laforet

Contemporary Design
photo of photos on a wall
Contemporary Design
process photo of a video shoot where clothes are being tested

Two Outfits Tough Day

by Turkka Taipale

Contemporary Design
sheep at farm

Postconsumer Sheep

by Mira Niittymäki

Contemporary Design
Red recycled cellulose used as a pattern on fabric

From Dissolve to Patterns

Dissolving recycled cellulose with ionic liquid to create coloured patterns on fabrics.
by Iines Jakovlev

Contemporary Design
a person dressed in tin foil with black background

I AM WEARING . (2021)

to wear (verb)
weər/wer
by Ena Naito

Contemporary Design

Tomorrow's Archives Exhibition 

Fiskars Collaboration: Iittala and Arabia Projects 2018 

There are different approaches to the design process. Perhaps the most obvious one is to use the design process to solve problems and to create novel concepts for products and services. But what if there is no clear problem to be solved and the target outcome is deliberately left unknown? What if we start from the material (or color) instead of the object and engage in an open-minded dialog with the material itself and start exploring without the fear of making mistakes? What if we trust that freedom to explore is the foundation for new? This is what experimental design is about.

Iittala provided us with hundreds if not thousands of brown Teema plates, as they had been discarded, not because they were broken but because the brown colour did not sell that well. Additionally we were given several kilos of ‘waste’ glass from the Iittala factory in Finland.

In each course the design process was exploratory and probing consisting of a series of experiments. The practiced approach was hands on allowing the students to sketch, communicate and improvise with the material without the use of pen and paper – or computer and software, for that matter. During the run of the course the students conducted studio based research discovering and developing experimental approaches – which they can later implement in their design process – and novel (composite) materials and concepts.

DesignCentreHelsinki_2019_TomorrowsArchives_exhibition_2
Design Centre Helsinki 2019

News

Fiskars partners in design exploration with Aalto University

The cooperation between Fiskars and Aalto University started in 2017 by defining shared interest areas in the long term, and first concrete projects started in 2018.

Aalto experimental glass pattern. Glass bubbles form a map / photo by Eeva Suorlahti

Red Coca-Cola crates pass into history

Design students consider new uses for the plastic from the crates that have been used for decades.

Photo: Anna Berg
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