I was attracted and inspired to write about Change through making by Jack Schulze & Timo Arnall because of its focus on design making.

My time in the Media Design Program has shown me the power of integrating making into the creative process, and not waiting until final construction. More making has got me off the computer and has changed the tools I use in the process. The more I sketch by making, building and executing — iterating — the more developed and focussed my work becomes and the more the idea guides the output, rather than the tools I use.

This ideology uses any and all tools appropriate to communicate the idea, whether they are ubiquitous, obscure or homemade. Change through making discusses the shift that design is undergoing, from a vocation to a broad and shared space, where tools and outputs are part of the design process, rather than the product.

Along with a change in tools, the “designer” has shifted as well; from an individual, to a group. Nearly all design is made by collaborating with people of mixed backgrounds and specialties. The advantage of a design team is that it can have an understanding of an idea or context while also being naive to it. This allows for ideas to come from a place outside of itself, while still being relevant in its intended context.

In addition to new ideas in current disciplines, these collaborations can create new spaces for design to exist. As a vocation, design has been neatly organized and its processes refined, but process-guided design is young and raw.

As part of this new breed of maker, I see this as an exciting time to explore where design can exist. Perhaps letting it live in a temporarily undefined space, it can soon define itself outside of vocation-inspired categories.

Playing with audio feedback through computation, this Processing sketch uses the internal microphone to generate graphics as well as effect the sound coming out of the computer. As the sound going in gets louder, the sound being output also get louder. The system is also effected by external sounds being picked up by the internal microphone, like the MP3 playing.

Music: Danger Beach “Apache”

Light Loop is an experiment that plays with the physicality of code and its possible form. A “loop” is a common task for a computer, but sometimes a computer can get caught in the loop. In Light Loop, the sensor (photocell) and effector (LED) are caught in a loop. When the sensor reads that there is no light, it tells the LED to turn on, but the light from the LED is read by the photocell and turns the LED off, again and again…

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Is the concept visible? Does the word “physicality” work? Thoughts?

Art Center Grad Media Design Program
Class: Productive Interaction
Professor: Philip van Allen