Critical Practices 2018 Showcase
Critical Practices is a hands-on, studio design course where students work at the intersection of technological innovation and socially engaged art. Students integrate a suite of digital fabrication tools with social design methods to create work that engages in cultural critique. Working with innovative technologies and radical, new art practices, this course explores hybrid art forms, critical design for community engagement, interventions in public spaces, tactical media and disobedient objects, reframing our notions of people, places and participation.
This year, check out the following great projects!
The Destroy the World in a Day Simulator is an interactive arcade game that teaches consumers how their individual decisions affect global sustainability. In contrast with most games that depend on a “player health bar,” the Destroy the World in a Day Simulator uses an “Earth health bar” that ultimately determines the conclusion of each player’s game.
The Marketplace of Gentrification is a retail experience that upsells repackaged “goods” left behind by individuals displaced by gentrification. Using a mobile cart, the store targets tech workers to tell narratives of loss, while also raising funds for the disenfranchised.
HOLLYSHOULD is an interactive promotional pop-up that uses alternative histories and aspirational futures to draw attention to the lack of accurate cultural representation in Hollywood films.
Nostrum, a revolutionary new health and wellness supplement, and a decisive solution for the unoptimized life, takes “mental prosthetics” to a whole new level. Unlike pseudoscientific health campaigns that use false advertising, vague language, and connotations of buyer self-loathing to sell functionless tonics, Nostrum works!
Shower with Me, an Instagrammable bathroom scene, reflects on society’s increasing obsession with carefully curated images of fake-reality by providing users with an environment decidedly closer-to-reality than the photographs commonly shared on social media platforms.
… and much more!
Check out the fantastic final works of from this course at the Jacobs Institute for Design Innovation Winter Showcase, taking place on December 5th and 6th!
Over the course of two days, students will showcase work from more than 20 courses hosted at Jacobs Hall, students club projects, and individual porposals. With ideas spanning robotics, mobility, social impact, and biodesign, the showcase will highlight the diversity of the design ecosystem at Jacobs Hall and Cal. All are welcome to attend — the showcase is free and open to the public.