Ying Gao

YING GAO

It is not possible for us to stay away from fashion as clothing stay so close to our daily life. There is a close relationship between clothes and our own body as well as building up our own image. We are so close to “clothing” but how many of us know what it is. The definition of fashion changes constantly. Technology also affects the fashion industry and gives new idea to fashion designer. By thinking “clothing” as individual, somehow it also interacts with the environment.

With her interest in fashion and interactive technology, she is pushing the boundaries of what a garment could be. She covers a lot of her works which are more like statements than garments. “Walking city” is one of the best examples. The garments and sculpture, origami and draping interact with the environment by adding technology. The garment looks like it is breathing as human does. It seems like there is a human behind the beautiful form and structure of contemporary clothing. Besides showing videos of the apparel, she also shows the mechanism under the pieces while we are thinking how magical it is. The magical moment breaks when we heard the sound made by the mechanism. Ying Gao tells the students in the Design Academy, “I love the sound made by the mechanical movement that make the pieces more real.” Compare to the similar art projects by fashion designer Hussein Chalayan, Ying Gao’s seems more interested in the technical elements and see the pieces as sculptures.

Through her works, it is not hard to see that she is more into the technology than the human body. By looking at her way of presenting the garments, most of them do not use models. She mentioned how fashion design always deal with “body” so she tends not to mention human body in her works. “My work is more static.” She said, “I want to put art into fashion.”

Ying Gao believes fashion is a sociological and cultural phenomenon. By looking at the “copy” in fashion industry, she makes a move to copy her own design and make a cheaper version with different material. Though she talked briefly about this issue, but it is obvious that the “copy” problem happens in all design fields in different ways.

Ying Gao is now living and teaching in Montreal, Canada. She enjoys the freedom of being a teacher than a fashion designer that needs to meet the deadline of manufacturer. She found the best of teaching is having the interaction with students and learn from each other. She also let her students participate in her projects and she enjoys working with them.

When we set too much boundaries, we will lost our creativity. Ying Gao reminds us to be creative and avoid making gadgets. No matter she is being a fashion designer, an artist or teacher, her main role is to make people dream and think more.

By Rony Chan

ying gao

It is not possible for us to stay away from fashion as clothing stay so close to our daily life. There is a close relationship between clothes and our own body as well as building up our own image. We are so close to “clothing” but how many of us know what it is. The definition of fashion changes constantly. Technology also affects the fashion industry and gives new idea to fashion designer. By thinking “clothing” as individual, somehow it also interacts with the environment.

With her interest in fashion and interactive technology, she is pushing the boundaries of what a garment could be. She covers a lot of her works which are more like statements than garments. “Walking city” is one of the best examples. The garments and sculpture, origami and draping interact with the environment by adding technology. The garment looks like it is breathing as human does. It seems like there is a human behind the beautiful form and structure of contemporary clothing. Besides showing videos of the apparel, she also shows the mechanism under the pieces while we are thinking how magical it is. The magical moment breaks when we heard the sound made by the mechanism. Ying Gao tells the students in the Design Academy, “I love the sound made by the mechanical movement that make the pieces more real.” Compare to the similar art projects by fashion designer Hussein Chalayan, Ying Gao’s seems more interested in the technical elements and see the pieces as sculptures.

Through her works, it is not hard to see that she is more into the technology than the human body. By looking at her way of presenting the garments, most of them do not use models. She mentioned how fashion design always deal with “body” so she tends not to mention human body in her works. “My work is more static.” She said, “I want to put art into fashion.”

Ying Gao believes fashion is a sociological and cultural phenomenon. By looking at the “copy” in fashion industry, she makes a move to copy her own design and make a cheaper version with different material. Though she talked briefly about this issue, but it is obvious that the “copy” problem happens in all design fields in different ways.

Ying Gao is now living and teaching in Montreal, Canada. She enjoys the freedom of being a teacher than a fashion designer that needs to meet the deadline of manufacturer. She found the best of teaching is having the interaction with students and learn from each other. She also let her students participate in her projects and she enjoys working with them.

When we set too much boundaries, we will lost our creativity. Ying Gao reminds us to be creative and avoid making gadgets. No matter she is being a fashion designer, an artist or teacher, her main role is to make people dream and think more.

Alberto Meda - Workshop and Lecture

VLAG Group
Rony Chan - video editing, lecture photos
Mie Frey Damgaard - graphics
Nichon Glerum - interviewer, lecture images
Luke Jenkins - essays, workshop images
Kitikoon Worrasorratorn - video editing

Date
Workshop February 9-11, Lecture and Interview February 11

Workshop Images




Reportage

There are generally two rules for those who are invited to give Source lectures at the Design Academy: they must either be young, upcoming, and quickly rising, or a bit more mature and non-mainstream. Either way, the presenters do not have a long-standing fame to speak of. Perhaps between the lines the Academy may not be able to afford to pay for long-standing fame. So it came as a surprise when I found that I was to write a reportage on Alberto Meda, an Italian engineer-turned designer who many regard as a design idol.

Meda visited the Design Academy to run a three day workshop for the Man + Humanity students, which culminated in a general lecture on his work. Although his workshop built off of his most recent design, the humanitarian Solar Bottle, the designs which gave him most fame over the years were central to his lecture. These are artifacts of the post-industrial Italian design boom from the 1980’s and 1990’s, a time in which established production companies such as Kartell, Luceplan, Alessi, Olivetti, and Alfa Romeo Auto began to produce more “sophisticated” objects that focused on technical innovation rather than affordability. Meda, incidentally, worked with or for these companies, and many more, during this period. His work has become a paradigm for Italian design from those decades.

For instance, Meda presented Mix, a reading lamp produced by Luceplan in 2005, uses LED’s as a more energy efficient light source. Although this technology normally compromises the color balance of the light emitted, Meda and Luceplan were able to recreate pure white light, overcoming the given limits of this technology. It was subsequently awarded the “Light of the Future” and “Design Plus” awards in 2006. Four years later, Mix retails for €369, which, at least for me, is more expensive than the furniture I sit on while reading. It is indicative of the slim, minimal design coming out of Italy, which claims that the products that people surround themselves with should not visually or mentally interfere with one’s daily activities, give support when in use, and calmly disappear into the background when not needed.

Light Light, designed in 1984 and produced by Alias, was one of the pieces that helped Meda enter a design career from his background in engineering. It is a wonder of composite materials, utilizing the strengths of each material as reinforcement against the vulnerabilities of the other materials. Drawing from lightweight processes in the aerospace and racing industries, a honeycomb core of Nomex is sandwiched between layers of carbon fiber fabric. The result was the lightest traditional chair that had ever been industrially produced. Through economy of material and implementation of new materials, Meda was able to make this chair successful in 1984. However, in a contemporary context the worth of the piece may be more questionable. It does not address issues regarding the reuse of the chair, recyclability if it can’t be reused, or ethics/ecology of production methods.

Although it did not win Meda additional fame or awards, Partner, designed in 2000 for Kartell (and also designed with Paolo Rizzatto), suffers from a lack of ecological considerations before and after use. In this bookcase, two sheets of aluminum are used to rigidify a transparent plastic honeycomb structure. A special robot was designed to affix the sheets to the structure, using 80 plastic tacks for each shelf of the bookcase. Although this piece was produced in our current century, the hi-tech fabrication process has totally negated any chance at easily recycling the piece after it has reached its end of use. Tremendously stable (and relatively expensive), the object itself can be considered one that will be around for quite some time; most likely until the next time one redecorates, which is only a few years for the high-class establishments who purchase Kartell designs. The three designs mentioned above were all included in his lecture, as they were technological achievements. While they are very interesting from a design history perspective, I had hoped that he would show us more of a build-up to his groundbreaking (at least for his portfolio) Solar Bottle, which has been designed to purify water using only solar energy. Meda hopes that it will be sold for €1.50 when it is put into production in developing nations. When researching his design work, I found several pieces that won little acclaim, but that, like the Solar Bottle, were ethically sensitive.

Water, designed in 2001 for Arabia Finland, is a carafe meant to celebrate the use of tap water for those in developed countries. Drinking from the tap will reduce the amount of plastic bottles and other disposable storage vessels from entering the waste cycle. Kalura, a project for Alessi, combines hi-tech ceramics with an antiquated object: a food warmer. Made almost at the same time as Water, this piece re-presents a technology used by peasants to conserve the use of cooking fuel. As the ceramic stores heat very well, it can be used to keep food warm well after it has been cooked.

Water and Kalura, like the Solar Bottle, both question the dependence the “Western” world has on technological advancement over other environmental concerns and social sustainability. They are much more thoughtful of the user, and how the user can be ethically influenced by design products, than much of his other work. Although they share the same visual sensibilities of his other work, these pieces are not minimal in the sense that they mentally interfere with the daily activities of the user. These products may work towards maturing technological processes, but they exist as objects that respectfully take the user into consideration, and are hence more humanitarian in concept.

While I would like to think that the Solar Bottle is the turning point in the career of this highly respected designer, the work that he showed in his lecture mainly epitomizes the mark of a great designer married to the industry which he has spent his whole profession supporting. However, when I consider some of his other work, I feel encouraged by his statement nearing the end of his lecture, that the designer has an “ethical responsibility to educate.” Hopefully, we will see him produce more work that demonstrates interactive education, rather than products which blend into the commercial or domestic landscape as design camouflage, essentially forgotten both in and out of use.


Lecture Images




Editorial

2005 was a great year for hurricane lovers. Hurricane Wilma was the fourth storm to develop into a Cat 5, which is the highest strength. After it hit Cuba, and destroyed the tourist town of Cancún, Mexico, it brutalized southern Florida - it was one of the most destructive hurricanes to ever hit the Florida shores. All utility supply grids were damaged; most of South Florida had no electricity for weeks, and no running water for one week. Stores were closed, as there wasn’t electricity to keep them operating. The only water that my household had was the bathtub that we had half-heartedly filled in anticipation of a very weak storm. Rationing that water became a very important consideration, especially because we had no idea when running water would return to our area.

Cleaning, cooking, and drinking ceased to support one another, becoming adversaries all vying for attention. Finally, after almost one week, the bath was empty. The only option was to find a natural source of water, which, in the city of Fort Lauderdale, was the manmade canals used by yachts and other large vessels. Carrying a 20L bucket full of slimy, less than transparent water back to the apartment forced me to consider what modern infrastructure has gifted us with: the opportunity to worry about other things. When we returned to the apartment, it was time to boil the water down, to kill bacteria and hopefully boil off any petroleum. Luckily, the stovetop was heated with natural gas, so the water could be boiled without making a wood fire. Although I was doubtful that boiling the water would remove all impurities, it would most likely not make us sick. Giving one last twist to the water faucet, I was surprised to hear groans and spurts from the water pipes. Running water had been restored while we were on our water retrieval adventure. Relief.

Fast forward four years - I am a student at the Design Academy. When I learned that I would be attending a three day design workshop on water use and sanitation, I was intrigued. Organized for the Man + Humanity Department, the design charrette was fronted by Alberto Meda. Not knowing much about him, I went online to find out more. The results of my research made me quite skeptical of his value to a program based in humanitarian design. He is something of a design giant in Italy and a known name in the rest of the world for pieces which are minimal, elegant, and expensive. This type of design is precisely what many of us in the program intend to avoid designing.

It seemed that the Solar Bottle, designed by himself and Francisco Gomez Paz, was the only object that he had designed that took people’s basic survival needs into consideration. Much of the rest was office furniture that was more about pushing technology and materials and less about rethinking how normal people use these objects. So I looked further into this piece. It seemed to be very well thought out, and was intended for those in developing nations. It followed his minimal design aesthetic. It checked all of the right places on the solar water disinfection checklist. It won several international design awards, such as the Index Award in 2007. And the product is still only at the level of nonfunctional prototype, as Meda and Paz continue their search for producers who can meet the €1.50 retail goal. In the field of hardcore industrial design that Meda is grafted to, it is surprising to see a mere prototype gain such recognition, especially one that does not function.

Perhaps Meda, a father figure to a younger generation of designers, was given the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps everyone agreed with the implications of distributing the Solar Bottle. Perhaps critics foresaw a reformation of a design giant who is known for his material and process-based products, into one whose products are more user-centric. Perhaps, at the end of the day, those who praised this design did so because they were able to envision a life without access to drinkable water. Back in Florida, life without utilities was like being on vacation. Then the bathtub was dry, and life gained an essential sense of seriousness. Had I been confronted with this reality for my entire life, how would a Solar Bottle change my life? In this context, it is easy to support this project on many levels, as well as easy to support Meda. When you meet him, it is easy to see that his care is genuine. Although he presents himself as a simple man and a simple designer, and, when confronted with complex systems in design ethics, replies, “that’s for your generation to figure out,” his generous gift to the design world is evident in a simple object that fuses mass-production materials and technology with an authentic concern for the user.


Interview Images

Extra: Video Interview Satyendra Pakhale online

On the 22nd of October of 2008, Satyendra Pakhalé gave two lectures to both bachelor and master students at the Design Academy Eindhoven and accorded us a private interview.

This video interview has been published on Google Video, so it's there to watch!

Lecture Simone De Waart + Ton Teerling

Materials & experience, a Sense of touch and smell

January 28 2008

Vlag team :

Seo Jeonghwa
Riviere Aurelien
Ito Fumiko
Chiang Ping Fan
Cadamuro Alessia

As students of design, in training to become masters of the profession, one would imagine a lecture from a fellow designer, an expert in materials, would bare more weight and raise more response then a food and taste psychologist working in a seed company, who came to lecture about the nose. But when Ton Teerling had finished his presentation, he was flooded by questions from eager students. Why?

Simone de Waart, an industrial designer, a material expert and an educator, had come to lecture about her expertise - materials. In 45 minutes, she had shared her view on the design process as one that should consider it’s materiality from the beginning, discussed the link between materials and experience, and presented a few of the projects she was involved with, most recently with the NS trains in Holland. It had been quite informative, and it had a point, and the audience was lost.

At first it seemed lost because of a few rules of design lectures broken: not enough pictures of products, not a lot of discussion about “real projects” (she couldn't share much on those), not enough controversial statements. It was a nice, safe, informative lecture in a quiet, self-assured voice. But when Ton Teerling took the stage he seemed to have broken most of the same rules, and still he kept his crowd fascinated.

Wearing a suit, Talking in a field much different from design, with a presentation so un-esthetic that even an accountant might suggest some font and color considerations, maybe even a picture or two, Ton had grabbed his audience from the get-go. Talking about the awesome power of recognition over our minds, and the way smell could be used to channel it (among other things), he jumped from side to side, talking fast and enthusiastically, keeping all eyes and ears on him. He even concluded his lecture with a list of reasons why designers shouldn't use smell in their objects, like he was trying to convince us his lecture was not really useful. Yet, the moment he finished speaking, the audience was shooting questions one at a time, eager to learn more about scent and recognition.

What was it that made his lecture so memorable and Simone’s so forgettable? At first, one might say its charisma. Ton seems like the kind of man who could convince an Eskimo to by sun tan lotion. His enthusiastic way of speaking and the genuine curiosity he beams (and of course his knowledge of human psychology), creates a man who makes most of what he says interesting enough to listen to.

But eventually, I think the real issue is that the designers where refreshed by the “unrelated topic”. It sometimes seems that lectures by designers on design have little to learn from. The information is circling between students, and most of them keep informed on-line. The designers sometimes get tired with hearing about design. Yet when introducing them with a new field, the wheels begin to turn. It is a profession in search of new, unpredictable influences, with an eagerness to know at least a little about a lot.
Ton’s lecture seemed to do so well simply because it wasn’t design. It was fresh, like a sip of water on a warm day.

Arie van Rangelrooy Lecture

Source 04-02-2009

Arie van Rangelrooy confesses: he is not a hippie. When he leaves for Mali in the seventies, it is not to follow some spiritual or mystical path...
A year before graduating, the practical student is indeed advised to go to Djenné for a "spotting" mission by a teacher seeking for volunteers (mission that was to become his graduation project).

Djenne, it is a historically important small city in the Niger Inland Delta of central Mali. It is one of the oldest known cities in sub-Saharan Africa and its historic city center was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1988.

This happened some years after Arie van Rangelrooy went to this place, where he was researching the city, the architecture, the urban planning, the living spaces, …

He traveled to another continent to stay there one year. During this year he was productive in measuring, drawing and archiving the cities architecture. This work lead to the protection of the city by UNESCO.

During the stay he connected to the people, their way of living and the culture. "We all know about misery and the huge differences between both lifestyles, but when it comes to seeing it, to experiencing it for real, you realize how hard their life can be and how lucky and disconnected we are" he says, still touched.
At this point, his African experience became all about exchange. Exchanging techniques, skills. Collaborating with local maçons, contributing to increase their efficiency, to facilitate their practice, yet not spoiling their ancestral building protocol. A humble observation and dialogue, he expected to have a proper social purpose.

He would go outdoors during the day, measure the streets, houses and rooms, while in the evening he would put all of this into plans. As there was no electricity and minimal contact with the outside world he would archive even the smallest ornamental decoration.

During the lecture he was talking passionately about the city and it’s architecture. And it is just the kind of architecture that makes the city interesting. Architecture of mud.

Why? Being close to the Sahara desert, the area lacked building materials such as wood and stone. People learnt to build houses with the mud from the Niger River. When the mud is mixed with rice husks and straw and fermented for a month, it becomes very tough, thick and rain resistant. To build a house, local people first lay sun-dried mud bricks. The brick walls are covered in mud plaster. This protects the inside of the house from the heat.

He talked about this, showing related pictures. Also reminding us of how this tradition was preserved. As the centuries passed by, the inhabits would restore their houses during the dry season. Although when Arie arrived this tradition went lost, as he arrived in a bad economic situation, where you have other priorities.

After the work of Arie and the protection of the site, the city was restored and now even grows again. Arie regularly goes back, and works together with master mud builder Boubacar Kouroumanssé. Together their busy with building an museum and school, using century old techniques. The changes with what Arie archived 20 years ago, is the fact that they now include electricity and running water into the building process. Also the “making a plan and reading the plan” is introduced in the process.

During the talk we had after the lecture, van Rangelrooy emphasized on the importance of social commitment in the practice of applied arts.
We also mentioned the difficulty to commit oneself in projects that make sense still making a living... According to Arie van Rangelrooy, this balance between ideals and survival is to be achieved once one has "showed its mettle".

Wise Arie first made a nice career in the Netherlands before recently going back to Mali.
He finally reached freedom of creation through social commitment because he was wise. Wise enough to wait. Wise enough to grow.

Daijiro Mizuno PhD (RCA) -Fashion Research and Design-

“By looking at the space in between clothing and a body, both theoretically and practically, I aim to explore the fundamental aesthetics of fashion design in which the clothing and the body are harmonised.”



by Carolina dos Santos Reis
Although he was born in Tokyo in 1979, Daijiro Mizuno acquired all his university education in the UK. He completed an MA in Fashion Design in womenswear at the Royal College of Art and a BA in Fashion Design at the University of East London after having started studies in architecture. Then, he proceeded to investigate the non-verbal dimensions of fashion through its cultural characteristics for his PhD thesis while working for Shelley Fox as a part-time design assistant.
He has been teaching in Japan since 2006 at Kyoto University of Art and Design and at the Seian University of Art and Design, and also acting as a director at Critical Design Lab, a part of Kyoto University. Furthermore, he exhibited at the Royal College of Art and at the Dojidai Gallery, Kyoto.

In order to explain his projects, I will mainly cite his own words, not simply because it was the only information we received, but also in an attempt to provide the most accurate description of his work.
His previous project was entitled paperbag! girls, where he researched “on young girls reusing ‘brand’ shopping bags not in the context of recycling but in the context of consumption and (re)production of image”.
Also, he is currently working on two projects. The first is a joint project with the STBY and is entitled “Belonging and Belongings, investigating the relationship between virtual / real identity through the objects people carry”. The second one is “Universal Fashion, exploring the critical view on fashion design in the context of universal design”. Moreover, he explores “issues such as functionality, aesthetics, semiotics and commerciality in the cross-disciplinary manner”.

Focusing on such immaterial considerations in his practice, Daijiro Mizuno demonstrates the deep potential of the discipline and its link to a very wide range of social and individual considerations.
Despite the lack of data available on him, it can be said that his career has been oriented in a mostly theoretical manner, and that he seems to link his research into his creative work. The trajectory of his path is clear evidence of how his interest and passion directed his career into research, but it doesn’t reveal much about his personal motivation. All in all, Daijiro Mizuno appears to be a rather enigmatic character, who will definitely have much to share - especially from an academic point of view - when he visits the Design Academy on Friday, 27 February, 2009. Personally, I have a lot of expectations and I am looking forward to discovering Daijiro Mizuno.

Links:
Daijiro Mizuno PhD
STBY
Shelley Fox