The Seattle Design Festival Block Party took place on August 24 and 25. Numerous installations in Lake Union Park addressed issues related to BALANCE, this year's festival theme. Three projects listed below involved School-affiliated people.
Two additional Block Party projects may have included School students since they were created by UW student groups. They were "Death with Perpetual Life: Human Decomposition Revealed" by Think Outside the Park and "Tipped" by Design for America at University of Washington. We will update the news post if we learn more about these.
Featured throughout the Seattle Design Festival was Design with the 90%, an exhibition at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Discovery Center. The exhibition was organized by Cooper Hewitt, the Smithsonian Design Museum, and designed by Studio Matthews, led by Visual Communication Design Associate Professor Kristine Matthews. The exhibition closed at the end of August 2019.
Looking Forward
Current Master of Design student Cal Dobrzynski developed this project. It addressed perceptions of dementia and encouraged visitors to learn about how to make Seattle a dementia-friendly city. There were hands-on activities presented by Elderwise. Dobrzynski successfully raised funds for this installation through a Kickstarter campaign.
RepairCycle
Coreen Callister (MDes 2019), David Duyker (BDes 2019), and current student Logan Windish collaborated on this project, which provided mobile clothing repair and helped to create community. To support their work and attendance at multiple events, they have received a Resilience and Compassion Seed Grant from the UW Resilience Lab and Campus Sustainability Fund, and they were awarded the 2019 Macktez Summer Stipend. They were also in attendance at the Upcycle Bazaar that was part of King County CHOMP on August 17.
To Live Or To Survive
Yuansi Li, a student in Industrial Design, was one of the creators of this project. She partnered with three Architectural Design majors — Elijah Hansen-Lints, Ganesh Shrestha, Tracy Law — and Austin Rogers, a Psychology and Sociology major. Since their initial proposal, they further developed their project concept. One thing they showcased is the two sides of luxury goods: consumed by some without a second thought while produced by others who work hard but are never able to use the goods themselves. The organizing group, self-named as GEATY, also included at least one interactive element in their installation.