Angeladione
Oct 25, 2018
Graduate / MFA in Design in Child Culture - needing assistance on the methods and process section. [2]
I am applying for a MFA program at HDK in Gothenberg, but because I do not have a BFA, I need to rely on my BA and experience in the artistic community over the last 10 years. I have included what required questions I have answers thus far to give some background, and I am stuck on the third question, which I have also highlighted in red. Thank you so much in advance.
· the subject area in design you have investigated or want to investigate
In present day, children take on a dual role within society. Children are viewed as dependents of adults and therefore in need of protection and guiding principles. However, children are also seen as autonomous individuals with there own needs, thoughts and independence. This dual role activated during the process of emotional and intellectual growth gives active meaning to the environments that children find themselves placed in. I aim to investigate the collective public environments that contains these interactions. Too often, these spaces created for children act as a barrier and boundary within the larger context. Instead of fostering a symbiotic relationship with adults within these environments, there is a dichotomy created between these intergenerational relationships.
The design of these spaces does not stop at the environment itself. This failure in design continues further into the objects and furniture within these spaces. The objects that children often interact with, because of their poor material construction and lack in dimensionality, act as a barrier to the interactions between adult and child. Designs are often created to have short-term appeal solely to the child or to the adult exclusively without consideration given to longer-term interactions that these designs could cultivate. Within this context, we lose the ability to create for both child and adult simultaneously, therefore losing the opportunity for harmonious and inspiring design.
· what question(s) your project is concerned with
How can I, through design, integrate a symbiotic relationship between adult and child? How can I, through active child and adult participatory approach, design objects and spaces that foster the elements of play, inclusion and empathetic value? According to Eva Gulløv, a senior lecturer at the Danish University of Education Copenhagen "...the kinds of places that society allows to children will, to a great extent, influence their ability to develop new social and cultural contexts of life that do not just reflect the existing social order of which they are part, but rather carry the potential to modify this order." Therefore, not only does this practice determine the current status of relationship and experience, this strength in design has the ability to influence future context.
By questioning the elements and intention of design within child culture, I open up further questioning around the placement of children as citizens within the adult-centric societal context. How can I activate the social participation of child and adult in these designs? What other stakeholders can be involved in this process? How can I responsibly build on the contemporary concept of child citizenship through these designs?
MFA program application
I am applying for a MFA program at HDK in Gothenberg, but because I do not have a BFA, I need to rely on my BA and experience in the artistic community over the last 10 years. I have included what required questions I have answers thus far to give some background, and I am stuck on the third question, which I have also highlighted in red. Thank you so much in advance.
· the subject area in design you have investigated or want to investigate
In present day, children take on a dual role within society. Children are viewed as dependents of adults and therefore in need of protection and guiding principles. However, children are also seen as autonomous individuals with there own needs, thoughts and independence. This dual role activated during the process of emotional and intellectual growth gives active meaning to the environments that children find themselves placed in. I aim to investigate the collective public environments that contains these interactions. Too often, these spaces created for children act as a barrier and boundary within the larger context. Instead of fostering a symbiotic relationship with adults within these environments, there is a dichotomy created between these intergenerational relationships.
The design of these spaces does not stop at the environment itself. This failure in design continues further into the objects and furniture within these spaces. The objects that children often interact with, because of their poor material construction and lack in dimensionality, act as a barrier to the interactions between adult and child. Designs are often created to have short-term appeal solely to the child or to the adult exclusively without consideration given to longer-term interactions that these designs could cultivate. Within this context, we lose the ability to create for both child and adult simultaneously, therefore losing the opportunity for harmonious and inspiring design.
· what question(s) your project is concerned with
How can I, through design, integrate a symbiotic relationship between adult and child? How can I, through active child and adult participatory approach, design objects and spaces that foster the elements of play, inclusion and empathetic value? According to Eva Gulløv, a senior lecturer at the Danish University of Education Copenhagen "...the kinds of places that society allows to children will, to a great extent, influence their ability to develop new social and cultural contexts of life that do not just reflect the existing social order of which they are part, but rather carry the potential to modify this order." Therefore, not only does this practice determine the current status of relationship and experience, this strength in design has the ability to influence future context.
By questioning the elements and intention of design within child culture, I open up further questioning around the placement of children as citizens within the adult-centric societal context. How can I activate the social participation of child and adult in these designs? What other stakeholders can be involved in this process? How can I responsibly build on the contemporary concept of child citizenship through these designs?
