Designing Public Interventions with Sigi Moeslinger and Masamich Udagawa of Antenna Design
Our first-year students wrapped up the first intensive course of the spring semester: Intervention Interaction, taught by Sigi Moeslinger and Masamichi Udagawa of Antenna Design. In just 5 weeks, students designed and constructed public interventions that aimed to spark interactions between members of community around SVA campus— with each team of 3 to 4 students optimizing their designs for a particular outcome.
Take a look at the final products of this 5-week sprint below!
FOLDABLE GALLERY BENCH by Carmel Berg, Sige Zheng, Ta-shea Brown
The Foldable Gallery Bench serves as a dynamic platform for showcasing student artwork from the School of Visual Arts in public places, transforming outdoor settings and events into interactive art experiences. The bench features 8 double-sided panels, each displaying a unique piece of student artwork and a QR code for viewers to scan and explore the artist’s complete body of work. The accordion-style seat also adds an element of play and interaction, as the movement of the bench shifts when someone sits on either side, prompting the users to engage with one another. This motion invites a shared sense of connection and evokes a spontaneous interaction between viewers.
HOW ARE WE FEELING by Sophia Haase, Gudrun Torfadottir, Lauren Palazzi, Ana Jay
How Are We Feeling is a public art installation featuring a wooden tree structure where community members can tie colored ribbons representing different emotions. As more people participate, the tree will fill with color, creating a visual representation of how people in the neighborhood are feeling.
Users can choose from the emotions HAPPY, SAD, ANGRY, EXCITED, ANXIETY, AFRAID, or LOVE to put on the tree using the ribbons from the matching birdhouses. Each emotion has a corresponding color so the feeling of any area can be easily gauged by passersby.
The installation encourages interaction between neighbors and provides an engaging way to share and express emotions in public spaces. Through social media, people can follow how their neighborhood tree develops an compare it to other areas, creating an informal map of community feelings across NYC.
TURNING VERSES by Rida Zeng, Qianyue Zhou, Sofia Grytsenko
Experience Turning Verses: an interactive exhibit where your worlds shape the story. Spin cubes, follow prompts, and craft unique three-word responses to intriguing questions. Designed for both introspective thinkers and expressive storytellers, this hands-on experience invites you to explore language and relieve stress together.
In a mad-libs-eque style game, users are invited to write nouns and adjectives on rotating cubes with erasable markers, in response to pre-programmed prompts. Cubes can be spun to allow users to collaboratively mix and match their answers with others who may have played previously. The double-sided design creates opportunities for humor, as answers to one question can be applied to a second, different question, creating nonsensical and charming poems.
SUMMIT by Qi Guan, Haosen Zhang, Tong Zhao, Rongfengyan Mo
Inspired by mountain ranges, this public bench features mountain-shaped dividers, creating a harmonious blend of nature and functionality. The Summit Bench is thoughtfully designed public seating installation that aims to foster community interaction and connection with nature. Seats of different heights accommodate sitters of all ages, and the varying angles of the bench create opportunities for more intimate conversations, or for sitting alone in reflection. Inspired by serene landscapes, mountains on a horizon line, and a gently flowing river, this bench warmly invites people to gather and engage.
WOBBLE MAZE by Shiyu Zhang, Qian Wang, Ben Hone, Monty Preston
The Wobble Maze is designed to get you moving! The installation users eye-catching color and the shape of the SVA logo to attract passerby. Accommodating up to 4 players, the Wobble Maze creates an opportunity to connect with fellow students and members of the SVA community, while exercising physical coordination and strategy skills. The goal of “get the ball in the hole” is made more challenging (and rewarding!) as the Wobble Maze is suspended on springs, creating an unstable surface that has to be manipulated in cooperation with other players. Come and wobble with us!
