Striking installations on campus show how Goldsmiths research is making a difference
Design, Media, Communications and Cultural Studies, Music, Sociology
Article
Written byWill Cenci
Published on
Students from our MA Design Interaction have worked with academics to develop installations that connect visitors to our campus with some of Goldsmiths’ most ground-breaking and relevant research.
A replica 'Frackbox' from Goldsmiths Citizen Sense project installed on the college green.
The three striking pieces aim to bring research to life and fire the curiosity of visitors to our campus, linking directly to online content through their phones.
Alicia Fernandez, Thomas Hoare and Andrea Petrucci answered a call to students on the MA Interaction Design to take part in the project, which also contributed towards the placement aspect of their course.
The student designers met with researchers from three projects from Goldsmiths’ Departments of Media & Communications, Music, and Sociology to come up with engaging interventions that creatively illustrate research that is having a real impact in the world.
The project brought together a range of expertise from across Goldsmiths with Interaction Research Studio member Dr Tobie Kerridge from the Department of Design working closely with the student designers.
Next year, there are plans to take the concept into the local community and work with local partners to develop new installations that creatively respond to spaces in the local area.
Big Journeys
Every year around 1,300 children and young people come to the UK alone seeking asylum from countries like Iraq and Afghanistan. As minors they’re protected by UK law, but when they turn 18 they can be detained and deported unless they can win a difficult legal appeal. Professor Sue Clayton works with these young people to tell their stories through photographs, film and prose as part of her Big Journeys project.
The student designers created graphical silhouettes of young asylum seekers that are accompanied by quotes from young people who have been deported.
Dr Jennifer Gabrys from Goldsmiths’ Citizen Sense project is working with communities in the US to monitor the environmental impact of fracking. Low-cost sensing equipment disguised as US mailboxes has been installed near fracking sites to monitor its environmental impact. The ‘Frackbox’ typifies the project’s approach to using affordable yet complex technology to empower communities.
Student designers installed a replica of the Frackbox on the college green together with a plaque introducing the project and a NFC tag to remotely connect visitors to content online.
Super-fast hand dryers have become commonplace in public toilets, resulting in a reduction in environmental impacts and the customary drying of hands on clothing. But they also produce significantly more noise than older models. Professor John Drever set out to investigate how this increase in noise affects vulnerable people.
Student designers visualised the sonic impact of super-fast hand dryers using a graphical vinyl motif that snakes across the walls of the men’s and women’s toilets in the Richard Hoggart Building.
