Design Revolution Road Show

February 20th, 2010

Recap: University of Louisiana, Lafayette – Feb. 18th

On Thursday, we pulled up to the art, design, and architecture departments’ Fletcher Hall building at the University of Louisiana, Lafayette. Our arrival came two days after Mardi Gras, and the school had just returned from a brief Mardi Gras break (public schools get the whole week off!).

As we pulled onto the gravel driveway, we were greeted with enthusiastic waves from about eight students standing on the porch of the adjacent Beausoleil house (the architecture department’s Solar Decathlon home). The second we turned off the engine, we were approached by two students, Alan and James, who welcomed us and asked if we needed help setting up.

The entire day followed suit with warm welcomes, a review of the exhibition and discussion of its implications within our practices as industrial designers, and semi-unrelated topics ranging from the city plan for Baton Rouge to the best annual events in Lafayette (we heard Lafayette described as “the Austin of Louisiana” and “rife with Cajun pride”).

The industrial design department at UL has only about 75-80 students, the majority of which are male, so we got to know a good chunk of the students on a personal level throughout the course of the day. It seemed, too, that the ID department often gets overshadowed by the architecture department, so we were happy to have brought a project to the “underdog” department. Alan and James gave us a tour of the shop space, which is outfitted with a CNC machine, steel lathe, spray booth, and more, and their studio space, in which all four classes (freshman-senior) share the same room. We were warned that the space was “a mess,” and yet it looked much tidier than what I remember of my undergraduate design studios. A sign on the wall read “Clean up your desk for Project H!”

Owen Foster, who teaches us in the department, was there along with a few other professors and the head of the department. Classes stopped by throughout the day to check out the exhibition, and at about 12:30 pm, instead of an indoor lecture, we gathered around the trailer for a discussion. We heard about a studio project called “Civility in Design” that some students had worked on last year, in which students were asked to address a local environmental or social issue through research and partnership. We heard from Alan about his project, in which he worked with a computer “recycling” facility in Baton Rouge to conceive of a program for disassembly and reuse of usable parts. James was working on the design of a new sport in which physically impaired and non-impaired individuals could compete on a level playing field (pun intended). An idea came up for a collaboration between Project H and the department in which we collaborated on a 1-year studio-based project that combined community outreach with a design thinking process. The entire discussion was comfortable yet thought-provoking, and for perhaps the first time on the trip, Matt and I felt as if we were among peers rather than “audience members” or “visitors.”

A group from New Orleans drove up for the day as well, along with the local TV station, who came to campus to film the Beausoleil home, and ended up being drawn to the shiny Airstream and the surrounding crowd (we were apparently included in the local nightly news segment on Thursday night!).

After our discussion and exhibition viewing time, we walked across the street where the local IDSA chapter was hosting a burger barbecue in our honor (YUM!). We can’t quite put our finger on why the day at UL was so fantastic, but I’m pretty sure it was the students themselves. While the school stops in California were invigorating in their own way, there was something about being in the South, at a school that maybe doesn’t have quite as much access to this kind of programming, with a small group of students who works hard and doesn’t get caught up in a lot of the design-hype-bulls@&t, that made our time there really special. I do wish we had had more time to sit in on some lectures and studio critiques, and to hear more about what students were working on (we’ll just have to go back!).

Thanks to all the students who made the day a huge success, and for inspiring us to continue this adventure with energy and excitement.

February 19th, 2010

Daily Postcard: February 19th

Amazing diagram of an M-14 rifle’s construction in the UL Lafayette shop

November 8th, 2009

Individual School Pages: Check for Updates

We’ve confirmed 25 different high schools and colleges as official stops on our tour! Each school has its own informational page, which can be accessed from the list on the Itinerary page here. Please check back regularly for updates on each school page- we will be adding specific schedule and location info for where the Airstream will be parked at each stop, along with when and where the lecture will be held as soon as we have confirmed details with each school.

November 1st, 2009

List of Confirmed Schools

As of November 1, 2009, the following schools have been confirmed (see the Itinerary page for the full route and more information):

• February 1: Redwood High School, Larkspur, CA
• February 2: Kick-Off Event with Adobe, San Francisco, CA
• February 3: California College of the Arts, San Francisco, CA
• February 4: Academy of Art University, San Francisco, CA
• February 5: San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA
• February 8: Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA
• February 9: The Design High School, Los Angeles, CA
• February 15: University of Texas, Austin, TX
• February 18: University of Louisiana, Lafayette, LA
• February 22-23: Auburn University, Auburn, AL
• February 24-26: Hale County Workshop (Learning Landscape build), Greensboro, AL
• March 1-2: North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC
• March 4-5: Bertie County School District, Windsor, NC
• March 11: Maryland Institute College of Arts, Baltimore, MD
• March 12: The Park School, Baltimore, MD
• March 15: Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA
• March 22: Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY
• March 23: Brooklyn Community Arts & Media High School (BCAM), Brooklyn, NY
• March 25: Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY
• March 29: Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland, OH
• March 30: Design Lab High School, Cleveland, OH
• April 1: College for Creative Studies, Detroit, MI
• April 2: Cranbrook Academy of Art and High School, Detroit, MI
• April 5-9: School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
• April 12-13: University of Wisconsin Stevens Point, Stevens Point, WI
• April 15: University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH
• April 16: Wilmington High School, Wilmington, OH