Unit X launch - Blue Sky Thinking

Reinterpret, Reinvent, Reimagine - Rooftops

Today was the launch of our final unit of second year. For this years Unit X I have chosen the Blue Sky Thinking - Reinterpret, Reinvent, Reimagine: Rooftops project. When I chose this a couple of weeks ago I was initially excited about challenging myself with something I'm not familiar with and outside my comfort zone. In the past some of my work has involved industrial materials, although I have never used these to create something functional, or that would be used to transform a specific space.

Initially we were split into groups with a couple of people from different courses in each. We were asked to define 'what is design?' My group came up with a list of words that we thought answered this question; looking at the key themes of:

• Everyday
• Sustainability
• Imagination/Creativity

'What is design?'

Other groups focused on the ideas of:

• Creating Sensations - design that makes you feel something
• Futuristic Design - things that haven't been seen before
• Product as the Design - looking at purpose before the aesthetics/challenging the development of everyday objects.

This unconference enabled us to start thinking about potential ideas for this unit. This way of working is very different to the way I am used to on the Textiles course, however I found it refreshing not being introduced to the materials in the early stages of the unit. It is a method of working I would potentially like to refer to in the future.