[“cover”]

Design Division / MFA Exhibition 2010

University of Texas at Austin
Creative Research Laboratory / April 17 - May 1, 2010

[smaller]
Department of Art + Art History
College of Fine Arts
 1

The MFA Design program encourages thinking through making or

“practice as research”*. Based on the idea that knowledge is derived first
through the senses by handling materials, the MFA curriculum allows
students to develop hypotheses in a studio environment, informed by
both design research and interdisciplinary elective study. A methodology
emerges through a body of work, shaped by structured dialogue among
peers and faculty. 

The work produced by this year’s MFA design students reveals a broad
variety of cross-disciplinary thinking and research-practice: Cecilia
Riosvelasco de Peña explores, through industrial design, the limitations
of current life cycle assessment methods and tools. Lisa Willman tests
the ability of handicrafts to help trauma victims process experience and
interact with the world. Jacqueline Abreo develops an exhibition design
methodology for critiquing and reinventing museum displays of art.
Jessica Mullen’s hypothesis is that lifestreaming can open up possibilities
for community empowerment. And Jeanne Lambert is investigating the
capacity of book design to draw our attention to the often-overlooked
magic in the mundane.   

As individuals, these designers have set out to communicate messages

of healing, provocation, sustainability, memory and revelation. It is their
hope with this exhibition that each perspective comes together in a
network, pooling strength to break down the barriers between people.

design faculty  design mfa candidates, 2010

Kate Catterall Jacqueline Abreo
Peter Hall Jeanne Lambert
Gloria Lee Jessica Mullen
Daniel M. Olsen Cecilia Riosvelasco de Peña
David Shields Lisa Willman
Riley Triggs

*(Barrett, 2007)
table of contents
2

Jeane Lambert
Lisa Willman
Jessica Mullen
3
 4

Jacqueline Abreo
Art museums are educational environments where artworks should be
not only displayed but also experienced. By experienced I mean that the
components of an exhibition articulate a clear message to the visitor and
promote a critical discourse about issues relevant to the work. Thus, the
design of an exhibition becomes more about the visitors than the objects
on display.

After studying the work of Francisco Matto in a recent exhibition at

the Blanton Museum of Art, I proposed to redesign the exhibit space
to enhance my philosophies regarding museum experiences. In order to
develop an overarching concept for the exhibition, I carefully analyzed
the artist and his work by reading what others have theorized and
drawing my own conclusions. I was interested in the tension between a
Euro-centric view of art history and Matto’s collection of Pre-Columbian
art. By translating this main idea into architectural, graphic, and spatial
forms, I intended to design an exhibition that is informative yet raises
questions about the artwork and its relationship to broader issues in life.

In the final proposed design I highlighted the dualisms I found in

Matto’s work by categorizing the artwork and dividing the space
accordingly.

The exhibition is set up for visitors to make connections between the

pieces and be able to discuss what they see with other visitors in the
dialogue zone provided.
Jacqueline floor plan 5
Jacqueline everyday / mystic 6
Jacqueline local / universal 7
Jacqueline abstract / realism 8
9
 10

The acknowledgment of environmental degradation as a global issue has

initiated a new discourse within the fields of product design and engineer-
ing. It also challenges designers to search for methodologies that recognize
the environmental impact of their products throughout their life cycle. My
research focuses on defining for new methods that prioritize eco-effective-
ness in the design process, my goal being to make viable and measurable a
design practice that is environmentally conscious and sustainable.

Project: “Inclusion of eco-effective practices”

One of the main issues in the practice of Eco-effectiveness is that of es-

timating and evaluating the environmental performance of a product. To
date, most of the available software to assess these factors focuses on a
post-production analysis and is difficult to integrate from the beginning of
the design process. In addition, the tools available for making this evalua-
tion, such as the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) software, are complicated,
time-consuming and specialized: they are usually used by engineers and
designed to be used after the product has been manufactured. This makes
it more complicated and costly to make design changes to limit ecological
impact of the product before the item is mass-produced and presented for
sale. For these reasons, designers find themselves getting frustrated with an
ineffective, time-consuming method of evaluation and abandon their ef-
forts and simply select a renewable or recyclable material, hope it is greener
than the alternatives and that it can be marketed effectively as a green
product. – ”green-washing”.

However, even with all the interaction faults/challenges of the LCA, it is

still the most comprehensive and objective tool to measuring the environ-
mental performance of products. Therefore, rather than reinvent a measur-
ing method, designers need to integrate the LCA to measure and evaluate
a product’s potential ecological impact, from conceptualization through
to production – and using thist information to inform design decisions
along the way.

This project proposes a procedure with a series of steps for the seamless
integration of Eco-effectiveness into the design process. At each stage the
designer can to follow this flexible process that works in conjunction with
individual creative methods while prioritizing the need for eco-effective-
ness.

The goal of this project is to develop a process which is simple for design-
ers to use everyday and that could at the same time provide a means of
verification that a product is in fact eco-effective, rather than relying upon
informed guesses and good intentions.

Case Study 1: I chose to design a work desk for the residential context, and
for a student or young professional with limited assets to test the process.
In following the steps I was able to choose the best design option based
11
12
13
 14

Lisa Willman
 15

Lisa Willman
My work explores the use of handicrafts in the expression of trauma.
Practitioners of handicrafts strive for perfection by taking control over
their creations, whereas trauma victims often find themselves feeling a
lack of control and seeking mere survival in the wake of their experience.
This intrinsic dichotomy creates a new platform from which to
investigate both categories.

In the wake of traumatic experiences, the human mind and body are
often faced with seemingly insurmountable hurdles. These extraordinary
physical and psychological pressures can change the way trauma victims
perceive their periphery. To see people, events, and objects through the
eyes of a trauma survivor necessitates a shift in how you process the
world around you. As a user group, trauma victims have an extremely
unique set of needs for maintaining their physical and emotional health
as they attempt to regain control over their lives.

Handicrafts come with their own set of stereotypes and associated

imagery. They are generally ssociated with the solitary creation of finely
crafted items– objects perceived as being antiquated in nature, that take
a long time to produce, and that are more valuable than mass-produced
items. In undertaking a craft project, one assumes total control over the
materials and design of the piece at hand.

This work delves into the underbelly of trauma and communicates the
distinct views and experiences of victims through handicrafts. The
handicrafts are used to provide a medium with which to probe the unique
complexities of trauma and trauma victims. When a traumatic event
occurs, the level of quality in a person’s life often comes crashing down.
My work is what takes place amongst the broken shards of perfection.
 16

Lisa Willman
 17

Lisa Willman
 18

Jeane Lambert
 19

Jeane Lambert
“To pay attention is our endless and proper work”
— mary oliver

All of my MFA Design work—image-making studies, books, and land

art installations—stem from my desire to call attention to the beautiful
and thought-provoking qualities in ordinary things. Through my work,
vI strive to provide a place of discovery for others; my methods rely on
play, observation and exploration during the design process itself.

Disrupting preconceptions about objects and images has become an

essential part of my process. For example, my daily practice for one year
involved choosing any object that caught my attention and creating an
image of it using a flatbed scanner or regular camera. After reflecting on
the results of these images, I made another. One image of an object leads
to another, to another… (pg. 19).

While books as everyday objects have served my intentions to expose

the magical in the everyday, they have also become the delivery method
for sharing my work. The book Scan is designed to invite the viewers to
make their own discoveries about how text and image relate. With the
split pages (text on bottom, images on top) the changeable format invites
the viewer to create a playful voice instead of a didactic tone, and to re-
discover possibilities in the mundane (pg. 20 21).
 20

Jeane Lambert
 21

Jeane Lambert
 22

Jeane Lambert
 23

Jessica Mullen
 24

Jessica Mullen
My research investigates the potential of lifestreaming as a subversive act,
and proposes commercial applications using the “Subversive Lifestream”
as a method. Lifestreaming is creating a reverse-chronological archive of
the things you do or share online. Subversive lifestreaming is deliberately
sharing aspects of your life online to help you reach your goals. 

Many systems exist in modern society that control portions of your life:
the government, the economy, large corporations, school systems, the
food industry, healthcare. Media, advertising, and political biases make
it hard to know when these systems are manipulating or misleading you.
Choosing a specific life goal to document, measuring your progress, and
talking about it publicly online can make these barriers and systems overt,
enabling you to pin-point ways in which you can regain control of your
life in an increasingly complex world.

“Subversive Lifestreaming” is one part rigorous self-awareness, one

part community help network and one part regaining control through
behavioral change. The “Subversive Lifestream” gives purpose to what
you do online, allows you to utilize the wisdom of the crowd in a focused
manner, and helps you critically assess issues in order that you might
make well-informed decisions. 


 25

Jessica Mullen