The Academy MFA Thesis (Design Research + Speculative Design)
For my MFA thesis at Parsons School of Design (The New School) I decided to study academic publishing and use speculative design making methods to imagine an alternative to academic publishing. My project is addressing specifically the publishing process, and the inaccessibility of published articles. In the end I designed eight speculative artifacts.
I asked specifically how we might play around with the distribution of articles that had already been published, which contained relevant information for a wider audience.
I began with secondary research but quickly moved on to making and prototyping as a form of research. I designed clothing labels as a method to distribute academic articles:
After playing around with some other prototypes I eventually developed a method to the academic artifact madness:
One of the first articles I put through the system was titled The global environmental injustice of fast fashion, and it was chosen because it discusses the negative effects of fast fashion in a concise overview. The article itself serves as a starter for anyone interested in the effects of fast fashion. Although this one specific article was chosen for this shirt, it is possible to “print” other articles, using the clothing model as a way to disseminate important information. On top of this, the shirt plays around with the idea of the usefulness of knowledge; how can we make knowledge more (literally) useful? Clothing is a human need, and using that empty space on clothing only improves the article of clothing, adding another dimension to its use.
Here is the tag I created for the t-shirt, which is sewn into the inner side of the shirt. The multi-page tag contains the abstract of the article, and can quickly be referenced during a conversation. Small details like this add to the artifacts’ usefulness and legitimacy.
Here is an example of how I used this system to develop the shirt and tag:
This next artifact is a speculative trio of academic chocolate bars, presented as a volume of an academic journal. Taking the idea of “bite-size information,” and creating a reading companion for long days in the office or library, this artifact helps consume information. The outside facing side of the wrapper highlights the abstract of the article printed on the inner wrapping. Details, such as the title, author, and kind of chocolate are also displayed on the front. The academic chocolate bar could have multiple issues a year, with each issue being a different article.
Next, we have the artifact of a six-pack of beer, on which the article is printed on the different cans. The purpose of this artifact was to create a setting in which articles could be discussed in a relaxed manner… and which might appeal to a larger audience who simply likes to drink beer.
There was also the coca-cola bottle that demonstrates the opportunity for academics to pair with companies and print articles on their products:
Here we have an artifact that serves as an example of collaboration and co-design. I put out a simple call for papers to the current TD students, and began working with some of them. This artifact came from the undergraduate dissertation work of one of the TD students. First, I’d like to thank this student for taking the time to provide and discuss their article, and for working together through a few long meetings. I read through the dissertation a number of times… During the meetings we discussed the dissertation itself, and reimagined aspects of it. After discussing the importance of the dissertation, the author wanted to highlight two aspects. 1. To communicate the existence and importance of Multi-layered Plastics, which aren’t recyclable and 2. A desire to support craftsmanship that moves away from multi-layered plastic use. Using these two aspects as a goal, we put the article through the system I’ve described above. The final designed output was a roll of paper packaging tape that included an infographic from the article. The infographic is informative, educating readers on what kinds of plastics exists, and providing examples of each of those kinds of plastics. Because the article discusses the unrecyclable nature of different plastics, and packing tape is often made of plastics, we decided to print this infographic on water-activated paper tape, in order to support the alternative craftmsanhsip goals mentioned in the article. Overall, the tape itself is a form of information distribution that seeks to educate consumers on plastics:
There were more bizarre artifacts, such as a vinyl, meat packagind stickers, and public facing printouts:
There are a number of other artifacts that are still being worked on. There isn’t enough space to show them or explain them all here. In conclusion, the project was a great exercise in design research through speculative design. Throughout the process I learned about academic publishing and the ins and outs.