LONDON X KYOTO

This is a three week project, with eight design students from University of the Arts London, and eight design student from Kyoto Institute of Technology.

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"When objects are taken out of their cultural context or even the everyday one for which they were created or used, they undergo a form of liberation. Think of museum objects from another era, which no longer have any recognisable purpose......We can examine them quite them quite objectively based on their material or visual qualities and not cultural baggage they drag with them. These can suggest functions which may never have possessed."

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Week 1: Select Forms 

In this week, UAL students will work in London and Kyoto students will work in Japan. We were asked to select 'native' objects which represents their culture. 

These objects will then be shared with Kyoto students alongside with associated imaginery and some contextual research. However, there's no set amount of information we should provide to the Kyoto student, the less we say, the more creative pathways they have to transform an object to an entirely new idea. All the information we collected will be recorded on a piece of large canvas called "Furoshiki"- this is a traditional Japanese wrapping cloth to transport clothes, gifts or other goods. 

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Week 2: Exchange Forms

In the second week, eight design student from Kyoto was scheduled to travel to London. Unfortunately, due to the concern of COVID - 19 spreading, their trip was cancelled, and the alternative was to continue this project through video calling. This week, we will exchange our found forms and guide each other through our contextual research, key words that enables to give direction to innovative ideas, aiming to give the form an unexpected new functions.  

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Week 3: Liberate forms 

In the final week, the students will then finalise ideas, and begin to create their prototypes accordingly to their exchanged forms. Not only reimagining the new function of forms but also the importance of narrative of the new artefact. What's the purposes behind it? Who uses it and why?

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