Department Blog
Department news, events, and snapshots of student life at SVA in New York City.
Zoom Info Sessions on December 11th!
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Zoom Info Sessions on December 11th! 〰️
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Announcing the Fall 2020 Lecture Series!
We are delighted to announce our Visiting Lecture Series lineup for the Fall 2020 season. Read more below about Dori Tunstall, Paola Antonelli, Timothy Bardlavens, Mariana Prieto, and Danny Alexander below! And if you want to attend one of these events, just reach out!
Orientation 2020: Our First Virtual Futuring Workshop!
Last night wrapped up our 2020 New Student Orientation for the Class of 2022, and it was an amazing finish. Facitlitated by Products of Design alumni Steve Hamilton, Manaka Tamura, and Lucy Knops, students took to the 24 hour hackathon with extraordinary commitment and enthusiasm. The “reveal” of the work—typically students take the streets of New York City—rather took place on Zoom, with each participant inviting “friends of friends” to keep close with the intention that responses to the work are from people not in the field of design.
Announcing New Faculty for 2020-2021!
We are thrilled to welcome five amazing new faculty to Products of Design for the 2020-2021 year. Meet them below!
BIRTH REBORN: Using Design to Address Barriers to Equitable Maternal Care for Black Women
At a time when the maternal mortality rate in the US is soaring, Victoria Ayo's thesis, Birth Reborn: Using Design to Address Barriers to Equitable Maternal Care for Black Women, aims to give voice and power back to black women and mothers. Her project explores how design can build more awareness, facilitate the integration of ancestral knowledge, leverage the community, and help eliminate barriers to equitable birth outcomes. Victoria proposes new realities for collective care, bringing the wellbeing of mothers out of isolation and into solidarity.
Guest Lecture: Cameron Tonkinwise
On April 17th, Products of Design was pleased to host an annual lecture by Cameron Tonkinwise, celebrated design studies scholar and Professor of Interdisciplinary Design at the University of Technology Sydney. Widely regarded as one of speculative and critical design’s fiercest and most insightful critics, Cameron’s fifth talk at SVA is a philosophical inquiry into what he calls “Sacrificing Design” and in the sacrifice in saying no.
PoD Racial Justice Resource List
From protest toolkits, to resources for unlearning racism, an ongoing, edited list of resources for our community and yours.
Grandma’s Teeth: An Exploration of Feminine Voice, Power, and Reclamation
Stephanie Gamble’s thesis, Grandma’s Teeth: An Exploration of Feminine Voice, Power and Reclamation, is an in-depth examination of the physical, verbal, and emotional enforcement mechanisms of misogyny. Drawing from her own grandmother’s experience with the violence of misogyny, Stephanie designed a provocative body of work that interrogates and makes tangible how the enforcement mechanisms of misogyny are used to control and silence women. This thesis work proposes solutions that invert current power dynamics and challenge cultural values as a way to incite dialogue, ignite anger and impress upon men the substantial toll these experiences have on the daily lives of women.
2020 Core77 Design Awards: Stephanie Gamble Wins Speculative Design Runner Up
This year’s Core77 Design Awards were just announced, and recently-graduated Stephanie Gamble was recognized for Upbraid—one of the platforms she designed as part of her thesis work project. Congratulations Stephanie!
The Lockdown Playbook: Download, Color, and Donate
This year, Wanted Design (along with all of the NYCxDESIGN celebration) was cancelled, and quarantined at home, the students researched and contemplate what “design performances” they could inspire. Putting together a huge collection in what they branded The Lockdown PlayBook—the result is a set of strategies and activities to give us hope, and help us triumph over the everyday challenges of the current quarantine.