Some notes on “Design 101” MOOC for Iversity

Stefano MirtiDesign Transfer, UDKBerlin, April 25 2014

design brief received from Berlin:

try to explain “Design 101” MOOC with a spatial metaphor

constraints:

we have to fill Design Transfer space at UDK

something that

has to be ambitioushas to be extremely fascinatinghas to cost nothing (or proxy to nothing)has to be smarthas to engage a lot of different peoplehas to be fun and interesting for them to work athas to be roughhas to be imprecisehas to look as a perfect system (but it is not)has to (potentially) grow endlesslyhas to engage visitors to play with ushas to look as work-in-progresshas actually no meaning or explicit value

implies a lot work done by different peopleat the end we are all of very proud of it

in Milan, we started to make a rough prototypeworking with straws and strings:

how to make a 3d endless structure

here our first tests

we started to play and fiddle with strawsthat was interesting a fun

we felt we were on the right track...

imagine we fill the space with a flying structurevery light, very fascinating

something easy that everyone can work at...

from straws,we moved into newspaper.

.

even cheaper than the straws.newspaper, strings and some masking tape...

.

first challenge: how to make the stick. not easy, but not impossible

.once we learned the basics,we knew we were on the right track....

this became our basic element.

a paper cylinder with a string inside.

the string is necessary to make our life easy when we have to joint the different pieces

from a structural point of view, the strings get the system tense,while the paper cylinder get the system strong.

also,working on different newspaper,we generate sticks with different lengths.this looks like a problem, but it is actually very good...

Very important!The edges

They have to be done in a very proper way

As Mies said: God is in the detail...

.a lot of manual work.

this is nice, very nice…a lot of details and little things...

finally we would have a lot of peopleworking hard, doing all kind of various activities

the final result is generated by the common effort

...exactly like Design 101

once again we start to prototype...

the three dimensional versionit looks very nice and promisingwe are there...

the thing grows.fascinating, rough, imprecise.

easy to get people into it...

now the work can start

a lot of peoplea lot of chitchata lot of fun…

learning by doing!

here we go!

the whole set, works pretty well!

the geometry is not regular.this is good because the non-linear system

a) well represents Design 101b) can easily accepts mistakes and imprecision

connections.unexpected.links, relations, network.

this is Design 101

a lot of content too!once we have the structure, we can fill it with a lot of things.

our letters, homeworks, images, thoughts...

thank you for being here tonightit has been a great journey

thanxthanxthanx to everyone!

stefano mirti, berlin, 25 april 2014

keep tuned for more!