4th Year Project Supervision2006-2014

Soumitri Varadarajan

I will have two kinds of examples in this document

Sustainability &

Car Design

These days - I prefer not focus upon those two areas!!

• My design approach focuses upon proposing a future that contains preferred/ visionary products and services.

• I am excited by design projects that focus on the small and big challenges facing humanity.

• I see design projects as campaigns and so have developed, and therefore teach, the abilities required to prototype design projects within communities.

• I have taught studios from a range of social, aesthetic and material culture perspectives.

• In sustainability I focus upon design activism and upon product service systems.

• I developed my sustainability practice in India where I designed, prototyped and converted my projects into profitable business ventures.

• In vehicle design I focus upon futuristic visions of sustainable transportation.

• My current interest is in innovations in healthcare services, where I focus upon de-medicalising and re-contextualizing normal practices to develop new traditions and artefacts in the areas of mental health, obesity, ageing, death, diabetes, maternal health and hearing loss. 

The project method? Immersion - 6 weeks Exploration - 6 weeksIntervention - 6 weeksDemonstration - 6 weeks

Typical content

SEM1:-------------

IMMERSIONResearch using Social Media: Twitter/TweetDeck, Wordpress, flickr and PinterestDigital Research Tools: MindNode, OmniFocus,  MarsEdit, VooDooPad, KindleDoing Research in the community (PRA, DeepHangingOut)Designing Product Service Systems (Mott, UNEP)Four Stage ieid (c) Design Development Process (Varadarajan, Fennessy)

EXPLORATIONMindmapping to generate categories/ display ecosystemDesigning and making InfographicsCo-creation (Scenarios, Personas, Storyboards, Stakeholder Maps)The 3P model (Provocation-Participation-Proposition) for design Strategy Development

SEM 2: -----------------------------

INTERVENTIONThe Triple A model (Agenda-Approach-Artefact) of Design ActivismService DesignTechniques for problem solvingMethodologies of developing Designs for Impact

DEMONSTRATIONI-Phone App development and prototypingService Prototyping and BluePrintingDigital Product DesignDigital FabricationRapid Prototyping

1 FORM

I get students to see design projects as the location for an exploration of - ‘ways of generating form’.

I often constrain students from drawing - to get them working directly with materials. This captures physical properties of material - properties like tension expressed by bending a hand saw, the catenary generated by a suspended rope.

Form in this way is a significant ‘topic’ of exploration in a design project.

Some call this material thinking - where you use the material as a vehicle for your ruminations. Thats one way.

Another way is to see form as a sensory experience - some of it visual, some tactile.

Since I am Indian, and have worked in Japan (Hitachi) - I lead students into both Indian aesthetic theory (where humour, and anger can be captured in form) and Japanese aestehtics (where objects impart sensory stimulation through texture and sound).

Topics: Japanese aesthetics

Indian Aesthetic (Rasa) theoryEmotion: Humour and anxiety

A student explores Japanese aesthetics - and the notion of ‘shibui’ - astringence - to “whittle” ceramic sticks to compose a fruit bowl.

A student explores using lycra as tents to imagine forms for cars.

2 Ideology

I have engaged with projects that are about designing expensive objects for rich people. I have engaged with ‘first world’ projects. I have asked students to hide thoughts and secrets within their projects. I have asked students to be playful with their projects. I shown students a world that takes itself less seriously.

I have engaged with projects that are about making the world a better place. I have asked students to look upon themselves as agents of change. I have asked my students to see their projects as campaigns. I have asked students to feel an irritation, an anger and a burning desire to seek meaning in helping others.

I have engaged with technologically mediated ways of realizing change. Objects and technologies are the way designers bring to life tools. Tools that ‘activists’ can use to be more effective.

Topics: ProBono Design work

Improving quality of lifeProduct Service Systems

A student engages with ‘behaviour change’ theory to develop a tool that people can use to cut down their water usage in the shower.

3 Health

Topics: ProBono Design work

Improving quality of lifeProduct Service Systems

Design is vehicle for change. A Design Project can be a campaign. In a furiously online world I see student projects as either a first step towards a business venture or a campaign that changes the way people think. Design innovations can change the way we deal with ageing and death. Design projects can change the way the world thinks about issues. Design projects can be about improving the lives of ordinary and marginalised people.

Below are some of the areas I am currently interested in/ excited about:

1. How to die well2. Ways of dealing with obesity 3. Imagining a Future beyond Medicine4. Ways of Journalling Pregnancy5. Design for people with Locked-in syndrome (next page)6. Proposing a Bio-Dome (a personal diagnostic ecosystem)7. Design for living longer

4 Engaged Practice

Topics: ProBono Design work

Improving quality of lifeProduct Service Systems

I teach a studies course where I get students to use twitter to develop their emotional engagement with current issues.

I get students to use social media as a research tool.

I get students to use social media as a campaign tool. In the next page you can see a student project that went viral on the internet before it was examined. (google “audi avatar” and see the result)

I get students to see their work as open source innovation.

Tools for Socially

Engaged Design

Practice