Department Blog
Department news, events, and snapshots of student life at SVA in New York City.
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ADAPTIVE DWELLERS launches at Wanted Design NYCxDESIGN 2019
For the seventh annual showcase at Wanted Design, and as part of NYCxDesign 2019, students of SVA’s MFA in Products of Design present Adaptive Dwellers, an interactive installation that explores the role of design in humanity’s adaption in a world devastated by climate change.
TRIAGE: Launches at Wanted Design for NYCxDESIGN 2017!
Students of SVA’s MFA in Products of Design present TRIAGE, an interactive exhibition that reframes contemporary urgencies through the lens of design. The work is part of the city-wide NYCxDesign celebration. We live in uncertain times, faced with a political climate where institutions that offer solutions to complex challenges are under threat, systematically undermined, and dismantled. TRIAGE consists of six roving design interactions that assess the socio-political priorities of visitors to the design festival. At the start of the exhibition, visitors receive a TRIAGE CARD that tracks and gradually compiles their unique profile.
Design And Politics: The 2016 Presidential Election
Tomorrow, the students of the MFA Products of Design will be out on the streets of New York City providing design interventions around politics and citizenship. We'll follow up with pics very shortly, but for now, take a look at the descriptions, locations, and times below, and come on out to see them!
HERE, THERE & ELSEWHERE: A Design Journey Around Travel and Place
Here, There & Elsewhere is a masters thesis project about the experiences of travel and place. Leila Santiago was born and raised in São Paulo, Brazil, one of the largest and most complex cities in the world. There she trained as an architect and urbanist, studying the built environment and the complexities of the urban space. In the midst all of that, Leila also learned that the urban space "is a place for playing."
"ACCESS LTD." Launches at Wanted Design NYCxDESIGN 2016!
As part of NYCxDesign, the students of the MFA in Products of Design at the School of Visual Arts present ACCESS LTD, a set of roving checkpoints that investigates the way access is granted and denied by design—based on where we’re from, what we look like, how we speak, and what we own. Embracing the international theme at the Wanted Design show, the students explore the way our national, cultural, and personal identities determine our opportunities—both locally and globally. Despite global common ground and interdependence, our differences continue to influence what rights and privileges we enjoy. Using the language and tropes of border control, the work invite guests visiting the Wanted Design exhibition to examine the role of design in granting or limiting an individual’s access to place, people, and prosperity.
MASTERS THESIS: Uplift: Happiness & Communication in the Context of Cancer, by Berk Ilhan
Berk Ilhan’s master’s thesis, Uplift, addresses the quality of life of cancer patients—identifying opportunities that cultivate joy and happiness, and strengthening the support group around the patient. Based on his hypothesis that, through design, joy and humor can positively change most experiences—and inspired by the revolutionary physician Hunter Doherty (popularly known as “Patch Adams”), advocate of humor, fun, and love in healthcare—Berk’s work re-imagines hospital and outpatient experiences beyond conventional boundaries.
ENGENDER from MFA Products of Design is Live at NYCxDesign!
As part of NYCxDesign, the students of the MFA in Products of Design at the School of Visual Arts present Engender, a roving and interactive exhibition that explores the role of design in the construction of gender identities. The exhibition’s eight interventions deconstruct simple artifacts and gestures of our gendered world and invite visitors to play along in a performative game of gender mash up and reconstruction.