Materiality in time and context report

Materiality in Time and Context Module DB619 Lecturer Simone de Waart

Marjolein Kors QIying Cheng Svetlana Mironcika

Introduction

The goal of the module was to develop an awareness of materials, how they (unconsiously) influence our perception and can be of value while designing and to the designed object/ product. During the module we analyzed traces of time, use and interaction in materials and reflected on our emotional responses towards, and perception of, various materials. Findings were translated into new material explorations and abstract notions.

The task was to redesign a daily object. The team designed a set of rings which helped to explore the symbolic notion of Preventable and Unpreventable Ageing. This notion was translated into combination of two materials. The first material ages through time (organic material) and second material ages through the interaction with it (durable/ long-lasting material).

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Statement

Experiencing material through our senses (the way material looks, feels, sounds, tasts or smells) gives the user information not only about the material itself but also the object that it’s part of. Traces of time, use and interaction with the material do tell the story of its use. Users interpret these stories and attach meanings to them, therefore subjective as well as objective values of materials change over time.

Moreover experience of materials evoke an emotional response in user and we as designers need to be well aware about it and consider it when designing. We realized that as explained in the paper of Lanura U.Marks the experieces of an object brought by haptic visuality and optical visuality could be totally different. The optical visuality is that what you literally see while haptic visuality is the perception of an object as if you would touch it. Actively using the haptic experience while designing could enrich the experience of the designed object.

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Material Exploration

The team selected five materialized objects and for each of them described the affects experienced when looking at the material, types of observed traces, material characteristics and properties, symbolic notion and personal story related to each of the materialized objects. Results of the mapping is described below.

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Symbolic Notion

Preventable and Unpreventable Ageing Through the material mapping we found that the concept of ageing was represented in all of our materials, however not all on the same way. We noticed that there seemed to be different kinds of ageing. Of which in particular the preventable and unpreventable ageing came to our attention and so became our symbolic notion.

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Unpreventable Ageing The ageing of an organic material, which stands in relation to the “time” and is unpreventable. A type of ageing that we among others saw in the fruit.

Preventable Ageing The ageing of a material through interaction, which relates more to the “use” than the “time” and could be prevented. A type of ageing that we among others saw in the scratches on the wooden floor.

Redesigned Object

The team designed a set of rings that explored the symbolic notion of Preventable and Unpreventable Ageing. We combined these two different types of ageing to increase their effect in our redesigned object: a ring. This was done with the intention to trigger awareness that there are different kinds of ageing in materials as well as to show the beauty of both ageing processes.

Therefore the rings combine two different

materials: an organic material that mainly ages through time (fruit) inside a material that, due to its durability, mainly ages through interaction with it (acrylic).

We froze the ageing of organic material in time, in five stages, to show the beauty of the process and thereby to create the possibility to consciously experience ageing through interaction.

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Redesign Process

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Reflection - Marjolein Kors

Day 1-2 My motivation for the module was especially the wonder of how a material together with its characteristics could be the starting point of a design. This then on a level that’s more than merely inspiration. Creating a design that not only originates from the feeling that a material evokes but also evokes this feeling itself. Within this semester I’ve explored a similar matter only then focused on Poetry and Cooking with Milk, which for both turned out to be an interesting and especially surprising way of designing.

These first two days mainly focused on material mapping. Even while we as a group had our struggles on finding out how to approach and use the mapping technique we eventually development a common and clear thought. We approached it as capturing the perception on the unconscious level (firstness), the perception through our senses aka the underlying reason for the unconscious perception (secondness) and the overarching themes of the unconscious perception (thirdness). Now having finished the mapping I noticed that I’m starting to get inspired

and more and more curious of where this whole material based designing might lead to.

Day 3 The step from Material Mapping to Ideation and the development of an in my perspective already quite promising idea went surprisingly fast and easy. This especially if I look back at the other module, the one which used poetry as a start for design, the struggle of coming to an idea aka making the transition from abstract to concrete was remarkably less present. For the “why?” of this I can now, being still in the middle of the process, merely do a guess. It could be the dynamics of the team or that materials are simply more inspiring (for me), but also just a case of luck. This will be a matter to reflect upon afterwards, when I have both the overview of the process as insights in the experiences of the others.

Speaking of the team dynamics, interesting is the contrast between me and a teammate in the way that we share thoughts and ideas. Lana, on the one side, overthinks everything, plans ahead 7

in here mind and forms a solid argumentation before sharing. While I basically share all the possibly interesting and inspiring thoughts and ideas. I basically make sense of my own thoughts through talking. It’s a contrast which we already noticed in a previous module but of which, even while it stays difficult, we have now through the awareness and open communication kind of found a way to work with.

Another matter is that I find it difficult to keep in close contact with the teammates in Nijmegen.

This due to both the distance, real-life is easier than digital, as the fact that I’m unsure what their abilities and such are aka how they could be of added value for the process, besides than the different perspective feedback. Now I see that we should have asked on Monday how they think they could add to the process. Then we might have had a better view on how and when they could be involved.

Day 4 Overall we used today to concretize and finetune the idea, using also the feedback from the 8

Radboud students, and thereafter to prepare the concept for its presentation on Friday. The explorations which I had done the night before corresponded well with that what we had in mind.

So after we processed the feedback and created a plan we split up, to get everything done within the given time.

While ideating, exploring and thereafter working with materials it came to my attention that I’ve actually already developed quite a rich knowledge in regard to materials, especially compared to the other students. The weirdest thing was that even students from other teams came to me for advice. I guess I just enjoy exploring with materials and to play with their effect and how they are perceived.

I realized that the module triggered a different perspective on materials or actually on the material of any given object. For which especially the detailed photo was very powerful, it removed itself from its context. Resulting that it was experienced as the material itself rather than the association which we (unconsciously) make.

At the beginning of the semester I felt that it was about time to overcome my fear towards the medium of film. A fear which did not only arose from but was also maintained through my lack of experience. I was afraid that I would not be able to bring it all together into a coherent whole, to convey a clear message or to even come to an end result. So I decided to actively engage myself in this medium, to choose modules, as this one, which included the use of film and to involve myself in the filming part of the module. With the result that I today noticed a significant progress in the thrust towards my ability to use film. Both in my doing and thinking I do no longer try to avoid the use of film. I actually start to like it.

Writing a reflection for each day isn’t really something that works for me. Not only do I prefer to first get an overview so that I can discover the relations and case & result patterns of the whole process but also does the act of “writing” aka explaining myself through words ask for quite an effort.

Day 5

I’m amazed, and also kind of jealous, on the speed and efficiency with which the students from Radboud are not only able to reflect on the spot but also immediately convey their thoughts, clear and well supported. In the intermediate contact it already surprised me how to the point their writing was. I wondered how they as non designers were able to understand and follow our, even while we tried to be as clear as possible, still quite abstract thoughts and not always evident process. Referring back to my reflection on day 3, I now realize where my unsureness towards their strength comes from.

For me the ability to reflect is not merely present in the thinking, speaking or writing. It’s included in all that I do. It’s among other things a way to quickly make sense of the world, to adapt to new circumstances, to identify the core and to define what the next step has to be. Meaning that for me there was no difference between on the one hand understanding the lecture (the theory) as on the other applying it in the Material Mapping.

However even while the Radboud teammates were clearly understanding the theory, better 9

than I did at that time, they were unable to apply it aka to reflect upon the task. This contradiction in my idea of “the ability to reflect” resulted thus in at first unsureness towards and thereafter amazement of their ability to reflect.

As to the result I must say that I’m very content with how it all came together. The concept was clear and also made sense to me, hence my ability to present it. Much to my delight it was also perceived as ecstatically pleasing, just as we intended. At the presentation/ exhibition it succeeded to trigger a kind of curiosity, desire to touch and wonder.

The general feedback of a Radboud student made me wonder. Why not increase the value of a design by intendedly including the opening for personalization? Often products are already used differently than intended. They become so to say personalize through interaction, what increases its personal value. Thus why not design for personalization. Providing a bland page on which the user can form its own story with the designed opportunities and openings to connect their own 10

meaning to the design. Increasing the value which you attach to it and so the value of the original design. People like to have a personal tough, to feel as if they have some control and to value it as something that’s really unique and connect to them.

OVERALL REFLECTION The daily reflections already cover quite a lot of interesting realization, findings and thought.

Such as that while ideating, exploring and thereafter working with materials it came to my attention that I’ve already developed quite a rich knowledge in regard to materials. The module also gave the experience of a different perspective on material. What especially came to my attention while using the detailed and decontextualized photos. A perspective from which the material was experienced as the material itself, rather than the associations which we (unconsciously) make. Moreover, I noticed I noticed a significant progress in the thrust towards my ability to use film. Both in my doing and thinking I do no longer try to avoid the use of film and I actually start to like it.

A more practical matter is that even while I struggled quite a lot with the daily reflection they indeed in the end made the creation of the overall reflection a lot easier, and probably also more in-depth. Thus I’ll try to further explore the use of this technique within the upcoming module to discover wherever it might be of value to include in my normal (design) process.

paper. Instead their analysis stayed on an abstract level, existing merely in thought and discussion.

Concluding, the importance of a visual analysis, and the visually processing of findings, is quite clear. Thus even if it looks like a lot of extra work and the analysis in thought might already result in inspiration I should not let myself be deterred from visualizing the analysis before moving on.

The importance of a visual analysis and processing of findings Still I unsure wherever the approach which I took towards the Material Mapping aka the way that I interpreted the Firstness, Secondness and Thirdness was as intended (Day 1-2 reflection).

Nevertheless that doesn’t really matters in the end because it worked for me. Especially the ideation phase went astonishingly smooth. It was the exact opposite from the ideation when designing from poetry (module 1) and from cooking (module 2). Reflecting on the “why?” of this I now realize that even when the other modules followed a similar approach they missed an important step: the actual visualization of the analysis and concretization of the findings on

Perspective of the senses One of the interesting skills that I learned, or actually became aware of, within this week was to change your perspective to, one of, your senses, as was done to describe the Secondness.

Perceiving your surrounding or a certain material in this case through that particular sense provides a whole new view and experience. I find this especially fascinating and inspiring knowing that we, without even realizing it, basically perceive our world through our senses, where after an image is created based on all our unconscious connected assumptions, memories, experiences and such. For which this perspective thus provides the ability to on a more detailed way design for the unconsciousness. Thereby using 11

the idea of the Firstness, Secondness and Thirdness creates a kind of structure that I’ll be able to use considering that designing for the unconsciousness is part of my vision and way of designing.

Design for personalization Another interesting thought to further explore: “Why not increase the value of a design by intendedly including the opening for personalization?”. Often products are already used differently than intended. They become so to say personalize through interaction, what increases their personal value. So why not design for personalization. Providing a blank page on which the user can form its own story through the therefore designed opportunities for connecting their own meaning to the design. Increasing the personal value and so the value of the original design. People simply like to have a personal tough, to feel as if they have some control and to value it as something that’s really unique and connect to them.

The ability to reflect 12

For me the ability to reflect is not merely present in the thinking, speaking or writing. It’s included in all that I do. It’s among other things a way to quickly make sense of the world, to adapt to new circumstances, to identify the core and to define what the next step has to be. There was for thus also no difference in on the one hand understanding the lecture (the theory) and on the other applying it in the Material Mapping.

However even while the Radboud teammates were clearly understanding the theory, better than I did at that time, they were unable to apply it aka to reflect upon the task. This contradiction in my idea of “the ability to reflect” resulted thus in at first unsureness towards and thereafter amazement of their ability to reflect. Reflection being so normal throughout my doings I forget sometimes that that might not be the case for others.

Reflection - Qiying Cheng

Expectation In this module, I would like to develop an awareness of materials, how it unconsciously influence our perception about objects and experience. And then see how it could be used inspirations in design process. Also I expect to understand user experience from the perspective of materiality and try to apply the new insights into user experience design.

Haptic sense could enhance user experience From Friday’s exhibition, I saw a big difference between optical visuality and haptic sense which is mentioned in Laura U.Marks. People got pretty surprised when they touch and feel the objects as it was not as same as what they thought when they use their eyes to perceive the objects. Moreover, it is an obvious phenomenon that people have the unconscious tend to feel the objects by touching. This helped me realised that in user experience design, it is vital to create a chance for users to experience the design through multi senses because it could help them to have a full experience about it. It is same case of Apple’s design. There were a lot

of doubt about iPhone 5 when people only saw the posters before its provision, but those who has query totally changed their mind when they have the chance to touch it, feel it and use it.

Also in digital design, like App design, the optical visuality gives people the vision of the design and haptic visuality has a connection between vision and the design.

Teamwork I would say it was a pleasant time of teamwork for me, although we have confronted some communication frication during the discussion.

I put myself in a right place to balance my team members’ two different kinds of ways of expressing and and information processing. It is a pretty chance for me to practice my skill in a team to reconcile discords and also help make the information clear for both sides.

Design Process I found that the path to our final design and notion is smooth. There was little struggle during the whole process from material mapping to abstract notion, and back to material exploration 13

and design. I noticed that it is a kind of way to see the problem from detailed and abstract leveI , which I could borrow in design process to evoke insights and also to come up with a conclusion.

in the part of redesign part instead of taking it separately. Because keeping an open exploration could be helpful to apply the symbolic notion better to an object.

Methods of Affect Analysis Through the practice of material mapping on Monday and Tuesday, I get more familiar with the theory of firstness, secondness and thirdness to summarize an symbolic notion.. Indeed, there was a while I was struggling about the abstract notion as it is difficult to see if we have the appropriate words in this column. When we looked all the words together in the three aspects for one object, it got more clear to me that an abstract notion means thinking in a more summarised level and coming up with a general concept.

From abstract notion to concrete object The exploration on Wednesday of how we could narrow down the abstract notion of contrast between natural ageing objects and non ageing man-made materials to a redesigned object, is a process for me to rethink about the relation between these two opposite aspects. I came to realise the transition and integration between the total opposite characteristics(long lasting and natural ageing), which seems has litte possibility to me to combine them before. For me, the practice of narrowing down to an object design is an interpretation of the abstract notion in a concrete level. In this way, it brings me back to an object again.

Material Exploration brings new inspirations By groping combing man-made material of gelatine and Acrylic with natural organic materials (fruit) on Thursday, it made the value more clear of showing the two opposite ageing process together. Through this practice, I realised that material exploration could be also continued 14

Communication precisely of abstract notion The feedback from team members in Nijmegen University on Thursday made me to notice the necessity to select a precise and professional

word for one specific notion in an abstract level communication. However it is the most challenging part for me in the practice, because I have been of focusing on concrete designs as a industrial designer. Most of the time, I could feel that all of us three have the same perception but we express it different, which could cause the mis-communication. The biggest difference between the Nijmegen students and me is the way of thinking. How they interpreted their insights on our notion provided me a more philosophical angel to reflect on our symbolic notion.

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Reflection - Svetlana Mironcika

Monday I find that it was an interesting experience to work together with students with a background in cultural studies. Indeed, in our department we rarely address historical and social notions in depth during the design process. Therefore I am fascinated by the opportunities that this module can show me. Although I also realize that cooperation between students is adding extra complexity into the process and may be not used up to its potential due to the concise amount of time.

My first impression from the joined class is that various notions were described at a very abstract level. My first reaction was to translate abstract discussions into more concrete examples. In this case I am able to see how I can translate or apply outcomes of the discussion into the design process. Although I had several classes in philosophy, rhetoric, and logic during my previous education, I find that I prefer not to work at an abstract level for long and feel more comfortable switching to more concrete terms.

Also I was not aware that in cultural studies 16

most of the accent is put on the meaning of the object and not as much on its material properties.

Therefore the overall affect that the material brings to its user is somehow overlooked.

Tuesday On Tuesday I worked in a group on affective material mapping. This workshop helped to look at materials in a very detailed and zoomed-in view, in a way that I was not always consciously looking before. I feel that this exercise adds to my sensitivity towards materials in general and I can use it in designing products.

I find it quite hard to reflect on affects that materials bring to me and abstract those emotional responses to a symbolic notion.

Although I do realize that once the abstraction is made it can be projected on various materials and therefore new meanings for materials can be created.

Usually my projects require a quite concrete approach in solving clear questions. Therefore when it comes to abstractions I do not feel the

ground under my feet and cannot see how it can be useful in my work. Probably it is a transition (rather painful) that I would need to go through in order to be able to work with symbols and be able to add this level of abstraction to my work.

Wednesday On Wednesday together with the team we have presented five chosen materials and symbolic notions that were abstracted during reflection session. Morning feedback session in overall was informative and showed different approaches for the search of symbolic notion that fellow students undertook.

In the afternoon we received feedback from RU Creative Industries students. It was interesting to hear a fresh opinion on the symbolic notion and various angles how we can look at it. Although the feedback was still quite abstract, questions that students asked in order to understand our concept, helped us to refine the concept.

Thursday On Thursday the team was finalizing the notion,

refining the concept for the design and preparing for the presentation. This took us rather long time and very little time was spent for material explorations. More explorations could have been done if there would be more time available for the module. It felt that due to the cooperation with students from Nijmegen the accent was placed on the coherent story for a notion and clear concept, and not as much on exploration with materials.

Friday Since the team needed to make quick decisions on what and how to present, some aspects of symbolic notions were omitted and not presented during the final presentation. I felt pity that the group decided to skip the relation of the symbolic notion to our culture and the way ageing is perceived in our society. Such perspective would have made the notion more easily understood during the presentation.

I enjoyed to see how the rest of the design groups approached the assignment and what the outcomes were. Moreover, the feedback provided 17

pleasantly surprised by the depth of discussions.

At the beginning of the module I was not sure whether abstract notions can lead to concrete results and feed the design process. Right now I see how important it is too look at the design from various cultural and historical perspectives since such approach strengthen the overall concept.

During the module I have experienced difficulty in teamwork. Another team member and I have quite different approaches in information processing. I need to think over what I have heard, while the teammate needed to immediately talk it through. I felt that it required a lot of cognitive load from me to follow the fast verbal thinking process of the colleague. It was frustrating to me since I was not sure whether I should pay attention to everything what she was verbally thinking of or not; and if I did follow, it was exhausting to do it for a long time. Probably the reason for it is my preference for visual and not verbal information. I decided to speak out my problem and we have talked it through within the group. Unfortunately there was not enough time 18

to see whether we could adjust our cooperation, since many tasks needed to be done that day. I still do not have a solution for myself how exactly I should deal with similar situations in the future (since both ways of working have their own positive aspects and should be respected and have a place in the process), but I am glad that this module helped me to realize that such an issue for me exists.