ABOUT

SHOWN IN CONFLUENCE 2019
Graphic Design | Design Process | Design Thinking | Motion Graphics | Publication Design

Compendium focuses on the investigation of ‘tickets’ as a means of exploration of narratives and shared experiences. It explores the interdependency of design and the public in the focused micro-environment of the Transport for London (TfL) system. ​​​​​​​

Compendium is a process of ticket collection and observational narrative creation. This is achieved through exploring parts of the city unknown to me in search of tickets, then picking up discarded and dropped TfL tickets and ticket stubs, and other travel ticket items in the streets and stations of London. The ticket holders are my co-inspirators while the tickets themselves are my co-authors. You, my readers and viewers are my co-respondents as you draw your own inferences from the work and interpret then re-interpret your own experiences through the narratives.

Collecting as an activity is something many travellers find interesting. Collection as a design process involves seeking insight into a particular subject matter or demographic. Through exploring TfL spaces I started to see these discarded tickets. Thus began the collecting of tickets. Writing as a design practice is something I worked to incorporate into my masters studies and into my dissertation work. These are the narratives published with my research, inspired by the collection and the individual tickets.

EXHIBITION STATEMENT: CONFLUENCE 2019

One definition of confluence is the flowing together of two or more streams to become a larger river. There is something beautiful in the paths each stream traces; however, our Public Programme looks at the junction where they all come together.

The work of the 103 students that make up the 2018-2019 MA Design Expanded Practice cohort is certainly worth individual attention, but we put forth that arranging and viewing the work collectively demonstrates the expansion of practice.

With individual hopes, aspirations, and solving for unique problems, expanding practice involves thinking beyond ourselves — thinking of an audience, a reader, a listener; thinking of each other as collaborators, co-creators, co-researchers; recognising our environments as contexts and sites that our work is necessarily situated in; considering the methods we are comfortable with and the ones we challenge ourselves to try; recalling the history of thought that came before us and imagining into the distant future, designing for one thousand years from now.

Organising work by format: object, film, publication, live work, and large-scale, we intentionally let work that engages with different concerns sit together. Navigating our practices this way is not intended to highlight the formats chosen, but to allow for an exhibition experience where concepts crossover and blend — evoking the same experience of being in the MA itself, where the programme allows for the exploration of ideas to wind up where they may.

We now know that expansion turns into contraction. The sprawling thought and action that moves beyond the individual distills into something concentrated; the wild-ranging concepts and methods take new shapes. From an array of present-day contradictions — serendipitous, relational, evolving design forms emerge and converge.