The season of mists and mellow fruitfulness is upon us, with an opportunity to reflect and anticipate
Next month we are hosting Solid/Liquid/Gas, our second gathering at High Meadow Education Complex, in the spectacular surroundings of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater and Bear Run Nature Reserve in Mill Run, Pennsylvania, 14–21 November 2024. A few places are still available: the event includes accommodation, meals and studio space to collectively explore the interplay between states in our environment, and our creative practices and outlets. Apply here before 31 October 2024.
Looking back, our Summer Inquiries were varied and fruitful.
DI Vinalhaven: Living a Making (June 23 – 29, 2024) brought together 12 participants at the Poor Farm to reimagine the tools we have available and investigate ways of exchanging them and rebuilding our making processes.
DI Warsaw: Repair/Podreperować (July 28 - August 2, 2024) assembled 25 participants at the Institute of Architecture and Urban Planning and School of Form to investigate repair as a regenerative practice that remains curiously unnoticed in design discourse. Aside from visiting highlights of Warsaw including the house and studio of Polish poster design legend Henryk Tomaszweski and the pizza stand underneath the imposing Palace of Culture aka Stalin’s Gift, participants embarked on a frenzy of collaborative mini film-making led by Ben Van Dyke at the NIAU and flurry of screen printing at of the School of Form under the guidance of Estera Mrówka. A walking library excursion from Josh Plough’s Potato Library and a final exhibition at the NIAU helped propel discussion and reflection on the aesthetics, ethics and collective potential of repair. Special thanks to Noviki for their generosity and superlative networking and fixing abilities.
DesignInquiry’s 2023-4 Fellows: Lindsay Buchman, Wylie Kasai, Maya Rae Oppenheimer, and Sarah Woodward met across four days in June in Tiohtià:ke/ Montreal at 4th Space at Concordia University. They held open studio sessions with visitors engaging in conversations and participatory gestures of making with clay, sound, paper pulp and conversation. A finissage of “The Clock Reads, the Sun Hangs” was held on Friday June 28 incorporating all the moments gathered during the open studio sessions across the week. The event was live-streamed as an invitation to the wider world. The Fellows have also planted a digital garden: wander over for an overview of the creative projects and gatherings of the DesignInquiry Fellows.
