Department Blog
Department news, events, and snapshots of student life at SVA in New York City.
RSVP FOR OUR ZOOM INFO SESSION ON NOV 1ST
〰️
RSVP FOR OUR ZOOM INFO SESSION ON NOV 1ST 〰️
Featured Posts
All Blog Posts
CONTEMPORARY SOUNDSCAPES: Design to Prioritize Untapped Aural Potential in the Visual World
"Currently, we live in a world that is a consequence of ignoring sound. We have reached peaks of noise pollution in our physical environments—especially in urban landscapes. This has occurred because the visual has been given priority over the aural, and continuous ignorance has led us to create and use noise abatement measures to reduce the effects of unintentionally designed soundscapes." Through his thesis Contemporary Soundscapes: Design to Prioritize Untapped Aural Potential in the Visual World, Antriksh takes the opportunity to explore the use of untapped audio potential as a medium of experience and product design through which he can engage people with the meaning of sound in its various forms.
ME, MYSELF & A.I.: How I Learned to Love the Machine That Took my Job
As artificial intelligence’s capabilities continue to expand, there’s a growing anxiety that the impending AI Revolution may automate more jobs than it creates—triggering a crisis of worker displacement to rival the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression. In response, Will Crum developed Me, Myself and A.I.: How I Learned to Love the Machine That Took my Job, a thesis of speculative designs that imagine near and distant futures where AI is used to increase individual agency—not diminish it. Crum’s proposals and provocations address access to work and other ways to protect human dignity in an automated age.
GENTLEmen: Challenging Adults to Raise Feminine Boys
In his thesis GENTLEmen: Challenging Adults to Raise Feminine Boys, Andrew Schlesinger explores gender identity, masculinity, stereotyping, parenting, education, and male culture. Andrew has been investigating the restrictive nature placed on men and the necessity for them to conform to a masculine ideal, which is destructive to themselves and those around them. Through the feminist movement, most would acknowledge there has been a significant approach towards teaching girls traditionally masculine traits. This thesis argues we need a similar, foundational shift to teach boys feminine traits.
JUSTICE BY ALL: Revitalizing Civic Engagement in the Judicial System
Julia Lindpaintner’s thesis work was inspired by her own experience of serving on a grand jury in Manhattan during the summer of 2016. It profoundly changed her understanding of the judicial system, and in particular, the way she saw her role in it. “My mental model shifted,” Julia states. She further explains, “Instead of seeing the judicial system as an autonomous force over which I had no influence, I felt viscerally the way in which we, as citizens, are collectively responsible for the system and the outcomes it produces.”
Josh Corn's Multi-ccino Mug in the New York Times!
Florence Fabricant (herself!) wrote up an item in the New York Times about Josh Corn's Multi-ccino Mug in the New York Times this week—one of 6 MFA Products of Design objects that will be celebrated during the month of April in both MoMA retail stores! (The department is also designing the window displays for both the midtown and SoHO stores.) Congratulations Josh!
New MoMA Catalog Devotes Entire Spread to Products of Design!
We are beyond honored to be featured in the brand new MoMA Wholesale Catalog in the form of an entire spread devoted to the projects produced as a result of MoMA's 4-year-long collaboration with SVA's Products of Design program. (Last year one of our students' projects was featured on the cover!)
4 New MoMA Products Will Debut in 2018!
Visual Arts Press has just published a feature on the 5 next products to be manufactured and sold by the Museum of Modern Arts Wholesale Division. Now in its 4th year of the partnership, the MFA Products of Design students design products for inclusion in the museums revered catalog—now 6 in all!—selling all over the world. Enjoy these spreads from VAP! In addition to Products of Design graduates Panisa Khumpresert and Oscar de la Hera Gomez, new products debuting next month have been designed by Class of 2017 Alexa Fourney, Josh Corn, and Oscar Pipson!
A Conversation With Jessica Helfand
Products of Design welcomed Jessica Helfand—co-founder of Design Observer and Yale Lecturer in Design and Management—as a guest speaker this past Thursday. Rather than lecturing from a podium, she gave symposium-style comments on the state of design, followed by an informal and wide ranging question and answer session, as well as a reading from her new book, Design: The Invention of Desire.
New Mythbusters Show Debuts November 15 With Alum Jon Lung!
It's finally here. After a summer of filming in California, the beloved Mythbusters franchise will reboot with two brand new hosts—one of whom is Jon Lung, Class of 2016. Popular Mechanics online has the first trailer for the show. It looks like it's going to be epic.