Kate's ITP Blog

As I step back to reflect on the topics we've discussed this semester, and the objects I've created in response to them, it becomes clear that a large theme we're exploring here is interconnection. We've been investigating the different ways in which the designed objects and virtual spaces in our lives—whether art, tools, websites, gadgets, etc.—have the capacity to interconnect with each other as modules, with ourselves as users or viewers, with the planet (to positive or negative effect)...or to interconnect us with others:

• The first assignment, as described above, encouraged us to create an object with personal significance; in presenting it to the class, we started to form connections with each other by revealing something meaningful about ourselves, our interests, and our process. On a more granualar level, the design of my Soft/Snug wrist guard is focused largely on the connector (velcro) in the object, and the comfort that can be gained through the creation of a tight connection.
• In the modular assignment, we explored how objects can have a different meaning or impact when they are interconnected and/or replicated, and how modularity often offers the freedom of reconfigurability, allowing for the customization of interconnections and impact. Though crude, my piece for this assignment, a modular, reconfigurable sculpture, was designed to reflect this adaptability—allowing the user to play until they have a form they connect with.
• The theme of interconnection is perhaps most apparent in the connectivity and network assignments—in both, the intended results are reaped only when a successful interconnection is made. In my curtain project, the intended result being a soothingly lit, private space in which to connect with another person, and in the network project, a modular, reconfigurable network of sound, interconnected in the ways that the participants of the network prefer—a device which literally enables new forms of interconnection.
• In the energy assignment, we were encouraged to think about the way we as humans and our creations connect with and impact the earth—perhaps the most basic of connections, and one which is it far too easy to take for granted. It is always useful to be reminded of the fact that we are all a part of a larger network, and that our actions and choices will inevitably have a positive or negative effect on that system. Coincidentally, my project for this assignment, a modified cell phone charger, is a literal manifestation of this connection that aims at minimizing negative impact.
• Finally, in our readings about open source culture, the theme of interconnection manifests through the ways in which people form ad hoc communities to generate results that would not be possible through individual effort. Or, in the case of post-modernist theory and hacking culture, through the ways in which individuals have the freedom to create and recreate their own connections, and therefore meanings, in works, separate from any the original creator may have intended.