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Summary
Our final concept now encompasses a monthly thematic exhibition on e-waste, paired with a year-long campaign stationed at bus stops. This year-long initiative is served as a channel enabling user interaction with TSG's archives, facilitating not just a delve into past archives, but also an opportunity for users to contribute to living archives alongside TSG.
This innovative approach not only fosters a deeper engagement with the archival materials but also encourages an active participation in envisioning and shaping sustainable futures through a shared platform.
Topic
Futuring Interactive Archives: Activating the histories and possiblefutures of the gallery
Client & Design Brief
Tin Sheds Gallery
As a group, you will research, design and prototype a concept that invites audiences to engage with the past, present and futures of the Tin Sheds Gallery.
Your concept should be interactive and may consider in-person audiences or remote or both, and should connect the audience with the gallery, and also to one another. By engaging with the gallery the audience becomes a part of the fabric of the ongoing story, not a passive consumer or anonymous ‘user’ of a system. Your group research into existing designs and artworks should engage with archives, data visualisations, online collections, interactive timelines, and provocations to consider alternative connections and futures.
Reflection
Situation:
In my second semester of the Master's program (IDEA9202), our team was tasked by Tin Sheds Gallery to develop a concept that encourages audience engagement with the past, present, and future of the gallery. Our final concept, "Echoes of Eco," encompasses a monthly thematic exhibition on e-waste paired with a year-long interactive campaign at bus stops.
Task:
I was responsible for conducting site analysis, ideation, prototyping and testing, building models & rendering, as well as producing mockups.
Action:
· Conducted UX research to understand audience interaction with archival materials.
· Designed interactive elements to facilitate deeper engagement and user contributions to living archives.
· Created prototypes, tested designs, and iterated based on user feedback.
· Developed detailed 3D models and rendered to support the campaign visualizations.
· Produced high-fidelity mockups to communicate the final design effectively.
Result:
The "Echoes of Eco" campaign received high marks for its innovative approach, fostering active user participation and envisioning sustainable futures. This experience further honed my skills in UX design, 3D modeling, and user research while emphasizing the significance of interactive and sustainable design solutions. However, the final concept video was not ideal due to inappropriate time management.
"How can speculative design and futuring help us to engage with the archives and possible futures of galleries?"
Since its inception in 1969, Tin Sheds Gallery has been a dynamic and adaptive exhibition space influenced by social factors, technology, and cultural trends. Originally an independent hub for radical social and political activism, the gallery fostered significant historical movements in Australian art, such as the Earthworks Poster Collective, which produced political posters advocating for marginalized groups. Officially integrated into the University of Sydney in 1989, Tin Sheds Gallery has since focused more on education and academic research. This shift has transformed its audience from social and political activists to a more academically inclined crowd, including faculty and students. Today, the gallery hosts numerous annual exhibitions, primarily featuring student artwork, and is working on digitizing its historical archives.
Current
Tin Sheds Gallery embraces a diverse audience without specific labels, promoting an open and inclusive environment. Nevertheless, due to its close association with the University of Sydney and its non-profit operational model, the gallery's primary audience mainly comprises university students, faculty, artists, and individuals with specific interests in the exhibition themes.
Future
Tin Sheds Gallery aims to broaden its audience and engagement through digital archives, modern interactive technologies, and a focus on sustainable development. It seeks to attract university students and staff, an online audience, educational visitors, local community members, and environmental activists by providing a rich, multi-dimensional learning and exploration platform.
Our team employed the double variable method to pinpoint our specific future as a "sustainable city", envisioning a harmonious coexistence of environmental responsibility and economic growth.
The STEPPLE analysis served as a vital tool, helping us evaluate external factors likely to influence our design decisions. Initially, our focus was chiefly on an exhibition themed around "E-waste".
Trend analysis reveals two significant developments shaping the contemporary art world: the integration of technology and the rise of sustainability in design trends. Technology has evolved from a supplementary tool to an artistic medium, enabling artists to create immersive and interactive digital works that push the boundaries of artistic expression. This transformation has democratized art access, fostering deeper engagement and expanding creative potential. Simultaneously, sustainability has emerged as a dominant trend, with consumers increasingly making environmentally responsible choices. This shift reflects a growing awareness of the ecological impact of consumption, driving a preference for ethical and sustainable products. Recognizing these trends provides Tin Sheds Gallery with the insights needed to adapt and innovate, ensuring that its exhibitions resonate with future consumer demands and continue to expand the breadth and depth of human expression.
In our initial concept, we chose electronic waste as the exhibition's focus. This show looks back at how archives tackled past environmental issues and warns about the future, urging action on e-waste. It covers the past, present, and future.This design concept encompasses three parts. The first allows visitors interact with historic archives using their mobiles, offering an insight into environmental past. The second part uses the power of algae and solar, spotlighting the potential of sustainable energy. The third promotes e-waste recycling and repurposing, championing visitors to embrace eco-conscious initiatives for a robust sustainable future.
We have fine-tuned the exhibition concept, segmenting the visitor experience into two primary areas.
In the first area, visitors are introduced to electronic waste recycling and then engage with historical records through an intuitive gesture-controlled interactive wall, using Leap Motion technology and repurposed screens.
In the second area of the exhibition, we will host an electronic waste decomposition workshop to enhance interaction between the exhibition and visitors, eliciting resonance from the audience.
Improvement
- The archive installation in the exhibition could result in resource wastage.
- Introducing virtual interactive features can captivate online users, boosting participation and broadening accessibility.
- Concerning the overall layout, streamlining pathways is essential. Distinct signage and clear guidance will aid visitors, guaranteeing a smooth exhibition journey.
- Emphasizing collaborative creation and increasing participant slots in the workshops encourages creative exchange.
The design process demonstrates the adjustments we have made in response to the insight obtained from formal user testing. However, we will only emphasize the changes that have been implemented since then.
Our team has launched this campaign in an effort to increase engagement with archives-related content.
By taking advantage on the daily routines of possible visitors, the TSG can integrate its historical collections and exhibitions into a part of the local community's existence.It serves as a bridge between the daily routines of individuals and the cultural, historical, and educational experiences offered by the gallery.
A campaign plan is crucial to begin with. Roe (n.d.) indicates that the importance of campaign planning lies in its ability to chart a strategic course towards the campaign's objectives.
Drawing from Chaffey (2023), we craft a straightforward plan as a preliminary step to initiate our campaign efforts.
DESIGNED AND CODED WITH CREATIVITY BY IRIS LIN
