Stirring appetites

by Christian Tietz
25 September - 17 October 2008
Industrial Design

For German designer Christian Tietz, the life expectancy for Indigenous Australians was one discovery he didn't expect to find when he came to Australia over twenty years ago.

Now, a Master of Design (Research) student at the University of Technology, Sydney as well as Director of Designlab Oceania, Tietz has responded with Stirring Appetites - the next exhibition to pay a visit to the DAB LAB Research Gallery.

Through a series of photographs and data, Christian highlights how Australian designers, can respond to the 17-year gap between the average Australian and Indigenous Australian's life expectancy by producing products that fulfil the needs of specific cultural groups.

"To improve a person's nutrition and health, strategies for healthy eating are not only required, but also the 'hardware' to cook and prepare food," says Tietz.

"My research uncovered that for Indigenous Australians in remote communities, the common stove top and oven is used differently to how it is used in an urban environment.

"With acute overcrowding in remote community homes, a stove and oven is being used for up to six hours a day, when it is designed to be used for only five hours a week.

"While people are attempting to cook healthy meals for the family, their equipment is letting them down by lasting only a very short period of time before it must be replaced - with a new purchase or with a less nutritious solution such as fast food," says Tietz.

Stirring Appetites brings to light Tietz's design observations towards this social concern, that a product must respond to the user's needs, not the reverse.

View Christian's catalogue of works.

Material Thinking

by Todd Robinson
28 August - 19 September 2008
Textile Design

In the field of fashion and textiles, frameworks tend to focus on fashion and dress as cultural or functional activity, media image or commodity. Alternatively, as a product of techniques, processes and materials. Less focus is dedicated to fashion and textile outcomes as part of embodied experience, the phenomenal and sensible. Material thinking reflects on how the tactile and material presence of fashion and textile products orient corporeal understanding in particular ways.

Material thinking presents a series of samples, completed works and conceptual pieces. These pieces are the outcomes of a studio-based inquiry into how particular material forms presence the body. They possess provocative, seductive surfaces or ambiguous material qualities that serve to undermine and challenge our understandings of material certitude.

The exhibition aims to encourage discourse regarding the role of materiality in design and to re-evaluate the role of the body in design thinking. The exhibition also seeks to explore studio-based research approaches responding to emerging questions regarding the role of materiality in human - thing relations.

Bad Dogs

by Timo Rissanen
31 July - 22 August 2008

The fashionable crowd are a fickle bunch, with many unspoken dress rules sorting the fashionably elite to the fashionably obsolete.

The exhibition Bad Dogs, is all about breaking these codes of conduct in the fashion world and poking fun at the oh so important standards to remember when one is keeping up appearances.

"Some people have set ideas about the way fashion should be," says the exhibition's designer Timo Rissanen.

"Certain conventions and habits exist that regulate the way we dress and assess one another. Bad Dogs flaunts a bit of rule breaking by deliberately not doing what the fashion world advises you to do with clothing," he says.

If the collection misbehaves when it comes to the fashion rulebook, it does not do so when it comes to sustainability.

"In the industry, the average clothes made waste about 15% of the fabric used in its production, says Rissanen.

"All clothes in Bad Dogs have been created without wasting fabric and the fabric used as been consciously chosen because of its environmental impact.

"Some hemp, organic cotton, vintage material and even textile waste has been used in order to do so," he says.

Bad Dogs will open at the DAB Lab Gallery on July 31 from 5.30pm - 7.30pm and closes August 22. The DAB Lab is located on Level 4 courtyard 702 Harris St Ultimo.

View Timo's catalogue of works.

Worldviews

by Jacqueline Gothe
15 May - 13 June 2008

These days we all share a global concern for the world in which we live, but have many different views on how exactly it is we should be living within it.

Jacqueline Gothe's exhibition Worldviews explores visual representations of such varying understandings and perception.

Through drawings, prints and painting, Gothe, Senior Lecturer of Visual Communication at the University of Technology, Sydney, attempts to create an imaginative re-interpretation of a world view that values place, connection and the relational.

"This exhibition is a creative and experimental process of visually representing a worldview for our time," says Gothe.

The inspiration for the exhibition stems from Gothe's involvement in two separate projects in the community surrounding people, culture and the environment.

One of these projects is the partnership between UTS and Traditional Knowledge Revival Pathways (TKRP) where video, database, web and communication designers such as herself work with elders and communities in Cape York, Chatham Island (NZ) and USA to support the communication of indigenous understandings of country in land management decisions, particularly in relation to water and fire management.

Gothe is also involved in a cross-university project that partnerships with the Corangamite Catchment Management Authority (VIC) and the Hawkesbury Nepean Catchment Management Authority (NSW) investigating approaches to trans-disciplinary decision making that support integration and social resilience.

Gothe explains, "In this exhibition I am asking the question - is it possible to construct a visual language that positions itself between scientific and spiritual systems of representation?"

View Jacquelie's catalogue of works.

 

Fragments: Methodologies of Making Fashion

by Alison Gwilt and Alana Clifton-Cunningham
10 April - 9 May 2008

Everyday fashion components and elements such as the pocket, the sleeve or the seam become often eclipsed by the theatrics of the fashion spectacle.

Fragments - Methodologies of Making Fashion gives stage to the bits and pieces that make up fashion.

The exhibition stems from research carried out by The University of Technology, Sydney's Fashion & Textiles Lecturer Alana Clifton-Cunningham and Course Director Alison Gwilt.

"Since modern living has encouraged us to buy mass-produced clothing that is inexpensive and of inferior quality, this exhibition aims to examine the potential in creating high quality, individual or limited edition garments through an exploration of the specialised techniques applied in high fashion," says Gwilt.

In particular this exhibition suggests that through this method of specialisation the lifecycle of a fashion garment may be extended.

As society focuses increasingly on environmental and social issues, both academics suggest in Fragments, the fashion industry too is responsible for the proactive prevention of thousands of tonnes of 'fast fashion' dumped in landfill every year.

By presenting a range of creative responses, both Clifton and Gwilt hope to engage and inspire other fashion designers to devise new creative interplays between contemporary fashion practice and sustainable methods.

View Alana's and Alison's catalogue of works.

 

SUNDAYS

7 March 2008- 28 March 2008
Interview with Zoë Sadokierski

A bit of reading on a lazy Sunday is a favourite past time for many, which is why Zoë Sadokierski's exhibition Sundays will attract a few admirers.

Opening the University of Technology, Sydney's DAB Lab to the New Year, the exhibition presents the quaint, short story of a girl named Heroine whose quest it is to make every day a Sunday.

Using three separate versions of the same story, Sadokierski examines the developing literary phenomenon of integrating non-linguistic elements in prose fiction.

"I've taken one short story, composed particularly for this project by writer Katherine Danks and 'designed' it in three different ways through typography, illustration and with photographs," says Sadokierski.

These are not illustrated books in the tradition of children's books or special illustrated editions of the classics, but stories with typo/graphic elements integrated into the fabric of the narrative.

"The typo/graphic elements enhance, elaborate and extend the narrative beyond the written word giving each a new representation," says Sadokierski.

Zoë Sadokierski is already a name well regarded in the design industry. As a graphic designer, illustrator and writer, she established her own practice in 2002, after completing a Bachelor of Design in Visual Communications at the University of Technology, Sydney. She has designed almost 200 books, and was awarded an Australian Publisher's Association design award in 2005 and was short-listed again in 2007.

Sundays is a presentation of Zoë's current work while studying for her PhD in the School of Design.

View Zoë's catalogue of works.

 

LACE

1 November 2007- 22 February 2008
Cecilia Heffer's profile

Lace is alive and well in the 21st century, and is being referenced in many varied and intriguing ways, providing an extraordinary source of information for contemporary design in many disciplines.

Cecilia Heffer will be exhibiting contemporary lace works at the University of Technology, Sydney's DAB Lab Gallery, from 1 November 2007. The exhibition runs until 22 February 2008, and supports Cecilia's new book Lace: Contemporary Textiles, Exhibition and Other Works.

"The lace works featured in the exhibition explore the integration of current technologies with existing traditional craft practice," said Cecilia, who was recently commissioned to design a lace curtain the State Rooms at Government House Sydney.

According to Cecilia, the pre-occupation behind the textiles is the translation of an historical lace artefact into contemporary textile works.

"The lace pieces that are a result of this translation evoke memory through the physicality of new materials and traditional techniques.

"The work explores the notion of linking people to historic ties through the integration of memory, pattern and technology. Encoded in the process is the tradition of a textile history that is continually responding to creative technologies evolving within each age.

Cecilia's Government House commission will feature in the exhibition and catalogue. The project was part of the Historic Houses Trust To Furnish a Future Program. The lace curtain has been designed to drape behind the original crimson damask provided by Lyon, Cottier & Co in 1879. The lace has been woven as Nottingham Lace by the company Morton Young & Borland, Textiles Group, Scotland on a hundred year old loom, the only one of its kind worldwide.

"Linked to a CAD system it is a wonderful living example of the integration of technology, tradition and history," she said.

Cecilia Heffer is a lecturer and the Co-ordinator for Textiles within the Fashion and Textiles program at UTS where she combines her teaching with research development and design practice. She has a Masters in Textiles from London's Central Saint Martins and worked in leading textile studios in London and New York. She now focuses on research and exhibition work, including innovative textile concepts and commissions that explore the integration of traditional textile practice with emerging technologies. She has received a number research grants for the development of her work from the Visual Arts/Craft Board of the Australia Council of the Arts.

Cuts and Scores

4 October - 26 October 2007
Dr Sandra Kaji-O'Grady's profile

New compositions that explore the relationships between musical systems, spatial order and chromatics through strips of colour meticulously interwoven with old pianola rolls is on display at DAB Lab from 4 - 26 October 2007.

The works in Cuts and Scores, by Dr Sandra Kaji-O'Grady can, in turn, be read as architectural, choreographic or musical scores.

Kaji-O'Grady said: "My fascination with pianola rolls developed out of an interest in the work of Conlon Nancarrow, an American experimental composer of the 1950s who resorted to the pianola when exiled in Mexico as a suspected communist.

"Left without access to orchestras, he quickly found the player piano allowed him densities and configurations of notes impossible for musicians to perform. By hand he cut patterns so complex that the aural results surprised even him.

"My work builds on his explorations into the relationship between notations for sound and visual patterns."

The pianola system was first used in 1919 and uses holes in scrolls to mechanically convey notes, durations and volumes. It is analogous to a computer programming language.

Unlike conventional forms of musical notation, the pianola roll was never intended to be read or interpreted, as it has been here.

With the closure of the Master Touch Piano Roll Company in Sydney in 2005, one of only two companies in the world that continued to make the rolls, the technology is close to extinction.

The pianola rolls are brought together in this project with a second superceded technology, the ICI Dulux Master Palette Atlas of 1992.

"I've carried the weighty two-volume Master Palette Atlas through fifteen house moves and have never tired of looking at it. With over 3000 entries, it is a masterpiece of optical science, chemistry and printing technologies.

"It is also a study in the cultural meanings given to colour, with each pigment formulation given a romantic name such as 'Veronica's Sash', 'Funny Valentine', 'Hula Hoop Green' and 'Dark Secret'.

"Cutting it up is violent, but at the same time reverently gives individual colours new life in unexpected combinations," she said.

The pianola series continues earlier experiments in the reworking of existing objects and surfaces, that has previously seen the embroidery of photographs and the over painting of timber grain. Eschewing the blank canvas, and with it the notion of authorship, this work explores inter-textuality and misreading.

Trainflow: an interactivated video environment

6 September - 28 September 2007
Dr Bert Bongers' profile

Captured flows of patterns, layers and motions as observed when moving, presented in collages which can be influenced by the audience and the environment are to be exhibited at the University of Technology, Sydney's DAB Lab gallery, from 6 to 28 September 2007.

Trainflow, an installation by Dr Bert Bongers, is a moving collage of simultaneously playing short clips from various journeys - by train, bicycle, monorail, car - which can be modified through input from the viewer.

"The audience can influence this installation by having an impact on the speed, sound and direction of the video clips. This creates a dynamic environment that is engaging for people to explore, interact with, play with, discover.

"The movement of the audience and their proximity to the screens controls these moving collages so that they evolve over time under the influence of the viewers," explains Bert Bongers, Associate Professor of Design at UTS.

Over the last three years, Dr Bongers has recorded more than 100 small video clips, each with its own character and flow, and they will be presented to the audience in such a way that they can influence the presentation of the material.

Dr Bongers has a professional and personal interest in technological systems and how they interact with people, or how they fail to in some circumstances. Trainflow draws on this interest and his current research into interactivity.

He will be establishing the Interactivation Studio at UTS's Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building to lead research into interactivity and design later in 2007.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Bert Bongers has a mixed academic and practice background in technology (BSc EE), human sciences (MSc Erg. UCL London). In his recently completed PhD (VU Amsterdam) he combines insights and experiences gained from musical instrument design, interactive architecture, video performances, and interface development for multimedia systems to establish frameworks and an ecological approach to the design for the interaction between people and technology. He has set up new media labs in Amsterdam, Barcelona and Maastricht, lectured in workshops and newly developed courses on interaction at various universities and schools.

For more information about Dr Bongers, visit www.bertbongers.com.

Graphitecture: an exhibition of abstracts inspired by urban interactions

9 August - 31 August 2007
Niall Durney's profile

An exhibition which explores urban character and the potential of new digital technologies to transform our experience and representations of cities will be held at the University of Technology, Sydney's DAB Lab gallery, from 9 to 31 August 2007.

Graphitecture uses traditional mapping techniques, qualitative observations and personal experience as the starting point for abstract graphic representations, developed by architect and lecturer Niall Durney.

"The maps are not traditional maps, but interpretations of my own interaction with the city, based on things such as journeys taken by public transport or on foot, the position of landmarks and particular architectural elements.

"From these maps, I create three-dimensional representations, using architectural software," said Durney.

Durney's innovative process finishes with the presentation of a fictional, virtual cityscape and a series of images generated to represent the city or its specific area.

"While these are not photographic images of the city, nor is realism an ambition, the differences between the images produce an intuitive and fresh understanding of urban space and mobility within the metropolitan city," he said.

Works exhibited include abstracted images inspired by Sydney (CBD and Paddington), Amsterdam and Madrid. The exhibition also features interactive elements in conjunction with designer Bert Bongers.

Niall was born in Dublin and studied architecture in Hull and Manchester. During his studies he became intrigued with adapting architectural software for artistic purposes and developing a new graphic art form true to its technical origins. In his works he explores movement together with architectural form and imagery in a dramatic and dynamic manner. Niall has worked for a large commercial practice in the UK and as an Associate Lecturer at the Manchester School of Architecture. After several successful exhibitions across the UK and Ireland, Niall is continuing his research into digital graphics and urban mapping at UTS.

Light Relief (Part 1): user-generated exhibition reinterprets reality

14 June - 6 August 2007
Mark Roxburgh's profile

Interpretations of reality will be explored in Light Relief (Part 1), an exhibition of photographs by Mark Roxburgh and curated collectively by the staff of the University of Technology, Sydney's Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building.

Opening at 5.30pm on 14 June and running until 6 August at DAB Lab, Light Relief (Part 1) takes the concept of user-generated content to a new level by turning the process of creating an exhibition over to an audience.

Images to be exhibited were selected by staff, who have effectively selected a 'most wanted' selection which can be used as computer screen savers.

"In involving others in the exhibition, I am not dictating what I think is the best images to be shown. It is their interpretation of the reality shown in the images," says Roxburgh.

Indeed, the notion of "interpretation of reality" is the key focus of the exhibition, punning aside, as Roxburgh's photographs explore the line between the recognisable and the unrecognisable with landscapes that verge on the abstract.

Roxburgh explains: "Photography has a long history of realism - it shows us reality, however this is a misinformed understanding.

"Photos can be considered as a representation of someone's interpretation of reality, therefore my work is my own interpretation of reality. It's not necessarily a reality you can see, but it is one you can experience."

Light Relief (1) will be exhibited on both computer screens and as photographic prints, with selected computers within the Faculty using the images as screen savers during the exhibition.

You can download screen savers from the exhibition for personal use (Mac only).

CRM by Berto Pandolfo

9 May - 4 June 2007
Berto Pandolfo's profile

Furniture concepts designed from that basic building material - sheet metal - will be displayed at DAB Lab, from 9 May to 4 June.

'Crumple', designed by internationally recognised designer and UTS lecturer in Industrial Design Berto Pandolfo, is the result of a mutli-faceted investigation into a material, process and form, and a creative desire to return to richness in form and detail in object design.

Crumple furthers this provocative by using such a basic material. The sheet metal adds to the rawness of the emotions as there is no high-tech process or high performance engineering material, just methods and materials have been tried and tested over hundreds of years.

Crumple will be opened at 6.00pm on 9 May, when the limited edition book Safety Catch will also be launched.

The Safety Catch project invited a group of Australian designers to respond to the issue of safety and security. Their reactions were delivered through product designs, which were exhibited at the UTS Gallery in August 2006 as part of Sydney Design 06.

Only 100 copies have been printed, and will be signed by Pandolfo and other artists in the exhibition: Korban Flaubert, Bernabei Freeman, Robert Foster, Ruth McDermott, Stefan Lie, Adam Goodrum and Schamburg Alvisse.

ABSTRACT Nos. 1-11 - Dr. Michael Hill

15 March - 5 April 2007

Exhibition to be opened by Assoc. Professor Mirabel FitzGerald, former Head of Printmedia, Sydney College of the Arts.

You can also download the official flyer for this event (pdf, 108kb).

The Water We Know - Communicating Shared Traditional Knowledge Recording Project

29 November 2006

For more information about this event, please download the official flyer (pdf, 84kb).

You can also view the official press release to this event (pdf, 52kb).

Launch of the interchangeable "Big Issue" bag

22 November 2006

For more information about this event, please download the official flyer (pdf, 2mb).

A Collage of Light - A sound and light installation by Mary-Anne Kyriakou

16 November 2006

For more information about this event, please download the official flyer (pdf, 2mb).

You can also view the official press release to this event (pdf, 64kb).