用藝術和設計去推動公眾教育

香港理工大學美術及設計教育榮譽文學士學位課程

美術設計教育是甚麼?在課室裡教授美術史、在電腦室學習製圖軟件嗎?還是在視藝室繪畫油畫、創作陶瓷?不!美術設計教育不單局限於課堂、教室裡的知識傳授,也不限於美術室內的創意培訓;美術和設計本身就可以是公眾教育的一種方式。例如宣傳設計、展覽策劃等,就是以不同的美術設計方式,傳授訊息、內容,以至知識的手法。

抱持這樣的想法,理大美術及設計教育文學士學位課程為在職設計師和藝術教育工作者提供兼讀進修的途徑。入讀課程的學生須具備美術/設計/教育相關的文憑或以上學歷,和相關工作經驗。這代表了他們在美術、教育或設計工作方面已有初步的專業認識,課程從而可更集中於研習藝術設計的理念和其社會應用。課程包括藝術設計的文化理論教學實踐兩方面:

I) 藝術設計文化理論:

探討當代繁雜的藝術、設計文化觀,培養學生從整體文化脈絡去思考及分析藝術設計與文化教育的關係,洞悉背後的社會功能、影響和權力架構等。例如有同學就曾分析香港警隊的招聘海報,了解到海報如何以圖像方式來塑造男女警的英勇形象和角色,同時亦看到設計如何強化性別定型。(圖1)

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圖1 (按圖放大):我們每天都看到琳瑯滿目的海報,可有想過海報與社會文化的關係?像圖中的警隊招聘海報,就為我們劃分了男、女警察的特定角色和形象。(Courtesy: Tang Man Sung)

II) 藝術設計教學實踐:

把藝術教育視為一個不斷變革的教育體系,探討藝術設計在教育中的角色、社會功能和位置;並要求學生在課程中構想自己的教育實踐方案、然後以一連串的教學實驗來驗証成效。基於學生的工作背景和個人興趣,他們的「實踐方案」範疇廣泛,有在校園裡實踐課外活動的計劃,有嶄新的成人興趣班教程,亦有與非牟利組織合作的社區計劃。甚至有同學以創立社會企業作為功課,回應他們對本港教育的觀察,以至社會問題!

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(圖2)圖2a,b (按圖放大):同學們走到劏車房去了解廢棄汽車問題,發現不少汽車零件都堅硬而精美,卻只被當成爛鐵。他們就決心利用這些廢棄汽車零件來升級再造成精巧的訂製家具,畢業後更延續計劃,成立公司,既救回汽車零件,亦推廣環保,獲社會企業獎。(Courtesy: ATB Auto Art)

除此之外,課程亦不乏創作面向。藝術設計創作是以專題主導的方式啓導創作,如 Ways of Seeing一科,同學們除了學習觀察、記錄和分析本地「視覺文化」外,作品更須用個人的創意方式來表達發揮,不限媒介。(圖3)創作科目亦包括「資訊設計」課,研習如何運用簡明扼要的設計手法來傳遞訊息、做 (公眾) 教育的工作。例如年前的「青苗上河圖」展覽及出版計劃,就是資訊設計課的作業。作為有社會承擔的公眾教育工作者,需要探討和了解事情始末才去傳播知識。因此學生們首先親身做考察、訪問和研究,再透過他們熟悉的視覺手法,以圖像來呈現他們在菜園村所搜集的故事和資料,最後透過舉辦公眾展覽來探討菜園村遷拆及本土農業發展的議題。(圖4)

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圖3 (按圖放大):在課程裡,同學們重新學習「看」:通過仔細的觀察和記錄,以視覺重新發現我們身邊的文化。沒有這樣仔細的記錄和展示,大槪沒有想過,原來街邊的小小報檔竟然可以擺放多達四百款貨品,而且報紙只佔了一小部份。(Group project, graphic by Cynthia Shing)

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圖4 (按圖放大):這並不是一幅寫生;同學們須實地考察、訪問和搜集資料,再依資料仔細繪畫和以電腦拼製。三十多位同學經歷多番討論和改動,協力呈現出菜園村的風貌和生活故事,讓觀眾在看畫之餘,更能了解香港鮮活的農業生活。 (Group project)

綜合理論及創作,本課程嘗試運用藝術和設計去介入的,不單是課堂教學,更是社會議題。同學們的畢業習作,就是把各個範疇學到的東西,配合自己的工作或生活經驗,加以整合和實踐,從而編製出一個教育自己、以至影響他人的「教程」。期望畢業生們都學以致用,把自己在藝術和設計方面的所長,運用到本土的 (公眾) 教育層面上。

撰文:呂文珊 (香港理工大學設計學院美術及設計教育文學士學位課程項目統籌)
顧問:蕭競聰 (香港理工大學設計學院美術及設計教育文學士學位課程主任)

Include Asia 2013 Conference

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KODW 2013 started off with the Include Asia Conference, a 2-day program focused on inclusive design. The biennial conference debuts in Hong Kong since its launch in 2001 in London, partnering The Hong Kong Polytechnic University School of Design (PolyU Design), the Royal College of Art (RCA) and Hong Kong Design Centre (HKDC) for the first time. This year’s theme ‘Global Challenges and Local Solutions in Inclusive Design’ spurs participants to explore and respond to concerns such as ageing population, climate change and rapid urbanisation for individuals and communities.

Held at Hotel ICON, the program welcomed keynote speaker, Kathryn Firth, Chief of Design at London Legacy Development Corporation. Also speaking at the conference was Paul Thompson of RCA, Keiji Kawahara of International Association for Universal Design, and Dan Formosa of Smart Design, who also held workshops.

As tradition, the Include Conference committee recognises members of the inclusive design field for their contributions to the community. This year’s recipients of the Champion of Inclusive Design were Yasuyuki Hirai (Kyushu University, Japan), Joseph Kwan (UDA Consultants Ltd.), and our very own, Michael Siu Kin Wai (PolyU Design). We would also like to congratulate Susan Barnwell and Jasmien Herssens on winning the Best Paper Awards.

Pioneering Research in Asian Consumer Products Earns Roger Ball One of PolyU’s First-ever Endowed Professorships

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With immense pride, the School of Design of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU Design) – Asia’s best among the world’s top 25 design schools – is thrilled to announce that Professor Roger Ball has been named one of only eight recipients of an endowed professorship in PolyU’s first-ever Endowed Professorship Scheme.

At a special inauguration ceremony held on 29 May at the PolyU campus, Professor Ball was singled out for his outstanding academic and research achievements and officially awarded the Eric C. Yim Professorship in Asian Ergonomics. Mr. Eric Yim, who founded the highly successful design firm POSH Office Systems and serves as its Chairman and CEO, generously underwrote the professorship.

Professor Ball has won international recognition for his trailblazing work at SD’s Asian Ergonomic Lab, founded in 2003 and soon after awarded a multimillion dollar grant for its first major project, SizeChina. An innovative 3D survey of Chinese heads and faces, SizeChina helps designers make consumer products that properly fit Asian body sizes. 90% of all consumer products are based on body shape data from Western people.

Professor Ball’s work has resulted in significant funding awards, consultancy projects with leading corporations, and most recently this prestigious endowment. Professor Ball and his team at the Asian Ergonomic Lab have boosted PolyU’s rising reputation as an influential world-class research institution.

Professor Ball’s primary research is to collect through digital scanning the full range of sizes and shapes of the Chinese population, such as their hands, feet and ears. The data from SizeChina is already poised to be used by diverse faculties within PolyU, including Health and Social Sciences, Engineering, Applied Science and Textiles, and Nursing.

Whether designing new respiratory protection products or paving the way for better-fitting eyewear, shoes and automobiles, Professor Ball has tremendously contributed to both academic and industry interests. The SizeChina Project led to the first-ever digital database of Asian head and face sizes for extensive use by manufacturers and designers.

SizeChina is training the next generation of designers with cutting-edge technologies. PolyU Design as a whole has developed practical workshops, curricula and textbooks, positioning its graduates and partners in Hong Kong and across the globe to create truly revolutionary applications in popular industries such as electronics, fashion, transportation, furniture, and medical devices, to name just a few exciting possibilities.

The School of Design joins everyone at PolyU in extending heartfelt congratulations to Professor Ball and his pioneering team at the Asian Ergonomic Lab. Their fascinating work is inspiring and meaningfully changing our everyday life for the better.

PolyU students win Best Design Team at Tsinghua University Art & Design Month

With their innovative concept for designing a smart kitchen, four students of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University’s School of Design (PolyU Design) have recently won the Best Design Team Award at the Collaborative Innovation Design Workshop held during the fourth International Art & Design Academic Month organized by Tsinghua University.

The PolyU Design team competed against six other teams, which came from Academy of Arts and Design of Tsinghua University, School of Design of National Yunlin University of Science and Technology of Taiwan, Department of Industrial Product Design of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, and other three universities in China.

The workshop brief was to design an integrated concept for family kitchen which caters for Chinese lifestyle. The PolyU Design team designed “A Smart Kitchen On-demand”, which is set up to cater for the needs of modern Chinese cooking and dining behaviors. It is designed to enhance the value of the kitchen in a family, providing a platform to communicate, share and show caring. The design provides a solution making kitchen no longer a fixed space at home but part of the living room.

The PolyU Design team, consisted of four year three students of Industrial & Product Design, won the award for their outstanding performance of teamwork and design concept. “We are very excited and surprised to win the award from this large-scale design workshop, where other teams were highly professional and some of them were formed by master’s students,” Jack Chun Yueng -chiu, one of the members of the PolyU Design team said. The team was led by Mr Fred Han, Assistant Professor of PolyU Design, other team members included Yan Hei Ho, Tung Ting Kan and Bao Bo.

“We noticed that most people do not enjoy cooking at all,” Jack Chun explained. “We hope to design an environmentally friendly kitchen system, which could turn cooking into a joyful experience and at the same time, act as health consultant and cooking process assistant.”

The workshop and the fourth International Art & Design Academic Month was held from 10 to 14 December 2012 in Guangzhou, China.

More about the project>>

Professor Wang Min appointed as Chair Professor of Communication Design

PolyU School of Design is pleased to announce the appointment of Professor Wang Min to the post of Chair Professor of Communication Design effective from 2 January 2013.

Professor Wang received his Bachelor of Arts in Graphic Art from the China Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA), Hangzhou, China in 1982. He obtained a Master degree in Fine Art from the Yale University School of Art, New Haven, USA in 1988.

Professor Wang has a good mix of academic and industrial experience. He started his academic career in 1982 as Lecturer at the CAFA in Hangzhou, China. Professor Wang has been Visiting Fellow in Germany at the Akademe der Bildenden Künste, Munich and the Hochschule der Künste, Berlin during 1983 to 1986. He then joined the Yale University School of Art in 1989 as Lecturer. In 1990, Professor Wang worked as Senior Graphic Designer, Senior Art Director and Design Manager at Adobe Systems in USA for eight years. During 1998 to 2003, Professor Wang worked as Design Director at Square Two Design in San Francisco with clients including Adobe, IBM, Intel, Netscape and Standford University. Since July 2003, he has been the Dean of the School of Design at the CAFA in Beijing.

In 2004, Professor Wang was appointed as the Design Director in the Art Research Centre for the Olympic Games (ARCOG) at the CAFA and created a unique working group. Under Professor Wang’s leadership, the ARCOG design teams, including CAFA students, have developed a comprehensive design system for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games including the design of medals, pictograms, colour system, image and identity guidelines. During October 2006 to October 2008, Professor Wang was appointed as the Design Director for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games Committee. In 2007, Professor Wang has been elected as the Vice President of the International Council of Graphic Design Associations (ICOGRADA) and he was the Academic Director of the ICOGRADA World Design Congress 2009 which has been the most significant and largest-scale design event in China.

Professor Wang has been giving talks in USA, China, Hong Kong and Malaysia, and invited as judge for design competitions. Professor Wang’s work has been exhibited internationally in showcases such as the Biennial of Graphic Design in Brno, Czech Republic; Graphic Design Show in Beijing, China; Type Directors Club Exhibition in New York; Print Annual; and the International Poster Biennial in Lahti, Finland and in the collection of Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe in Hamburg, Germany, Museum für Gestaltung Zurich Kunstgewerbemuseum in Switzerland.

Professor Wang was awarded the Chang Jiang Professorship in 2007 by the Ministry of Education and he is the only recipient of this award in the field of Art in China.

Photo captions:
(From top to bottom, left to right)– Portrait of Prof Wang Min
– Poster design for Beijing 2008 Olympic Games
– Book design
– Poster design on anti-smoking campaign

BrailleWise as top selection of 2012 Successful Design Awards – China

Prof Michael Siu and the Public Design Lab brought us good news from Shanghai last week. The Ceremony of the 2012 Successful Design Awards – China was held on 4 November where BrailleWise (飛機共融衛生間) won the Diamond Award, the highest among the Top 16 Selections. Smart Electrical Vehicle Charging Station (SEVCS), a collaborative project with EE, IC and FMO of PolyU, impressed the judges with its highly innovative and user-friendly design for empowering electrical cars. It was selected as one of the China’s Successful Design Award winners.

“The awards honor entries with excellent design strategy, process and outcomes. They are expected to bring creative and meaningful contributions to the society and industry. BrailleWise has done a good job on all these,” Prof Michael Siu told us. “It is encouraging to receive one of the judges’ compliment that our design did not only overcome a difficult problem with long history, but also provided an inclusive practical solution.”

Conferred by the Shanghai Industrial Design Association and Shanghai Creative industry Center, the 2012 Successful Design Awards, one of the most privileged award presenters in China, granted prizes to 124 distinguished designs out of 454 entries. Other Top Selections are ROBAM-810 sterilizer, Philips Soundbar Home Cinema Speakers, interior design for Mong Kok Post Office, Haier WSGIG refrigerator, Nokia Lumia 800 and then some. Members of jury panel included David Carson, Kevin Mc Cullagh, Shiz Kobara, Ali Grehan, Robbert Van Nouhuys, Bryan.e.nesbitt, Sotamaa Yrjo, George M Beylerian and Cathy Huang from all over the world.

Earlier in March, BrailleWise was given the Runner-Up Award for the Industrial Design & Technical Concepts category of the Crystal Cabin Award, the only international award for excellence in aircraft interior innovation, held in Hamburg. SEVCS was the Bronze Award winner of the 2011/12 Spark Concept Award in New York.


BrailleWise assists the visually impaired to access aircraft lavatories easily and independently.


SEVCS is a smart charging station for electrical vehicles

Read more:
BrailleWise
SEVCS
The 2012 Successful Design Awards

Facefinder – new online anthropometric data tool

Are you designing a hat, mask, or glasses for the Chinese market? Then you need reliable information about the precise size of the Chinese head and face and now you can get that data, instantly, with the new online anthropometric tool, Facefinder, brought to you by SizeChina for free.

Now on the SizeChina site, the Facefinder home page offers a simple, user-friendly interface that gives instant access to a complete database of Chinese head measurements. Ten different dimensions can be searched for male or female subjects, aged 18 to 51+, and 1%-ile to 99%-ile in size. Facefinder will print out instant reference charts of search results, ready to guide projects of any size, from student work to industrial development.

SizeChina anthropometric data meets the highest international standards for statistical accuracy. Based on the analysis of 3D results from laser scans of 1600 subjects on mainland China, the data is available in a range of commercial products, including physical and digital headforms, software plug-ins, and individual data clouds. Now our first freemium product, Facefinder offers access to the same data in chart form — free of charge, and on-line. Now there is no need to visit the library and search through out-of-date books to try to find the dimensions you need. Ask Facefinder, and it will tell you what you need to know instantly.

Do you want to design headphones for a Chinese male teenager? Ask Facefinder for the 98%ile male teenage head-width dimension to make sure the headband is wide enough.

Are you creating sunglasses for a fashionable 40-year-old Chinese woman? Ask Facefinder for the dimension between the center of the pupils of the eyes for 50%-ile females aged 31-50.

Do you need to make surgical facemasks for 70 year old Chinese visitors to a hospital? Ask Facefinder for a full range of the variation in the dimension measured from the tip of the nose to the point between the eyes, for both genders.

Visit www.sizechina.com today, and discover the power of Facefinder.

Facefinder development team

  • Project Leader – Mr. Eric Chow
  • User Interface – Lead developer – Mr. Eric Chow
  • Lead Scientist and statistics – Dr Tina Luximon
  • SizeChina Director – Dr Roger Ball
  • External consultant – Dr Johan Molenbroek
  • Facefinder © 2011

    SizeChina: a New 3D Design Tool

    SizeChina is developing a 3D design tool that aims to provide designers access to 3D head shape model of Chinese population during the product design process. Its intended users are engineers, designers, scientists and students studying in those fields.

    Typical design applications would include: optical products and eyewear, sports and protective helmets, surgical facemasks, oxygen masks and headphones. The software creates a 3D underlay or layer on top of which any product can be designed.

    YouTube Preview Image

    Visit our Youtube page and tell us what you think about our new 3D design tool!

    SizeChina: Integrating 3D head scan into product design

    These screenshots are taken from our experiment in creating a realistic rendering of a glass frame fitted onto a 3D head model. The head model was scanned at our very own SizeChina lab. We have created a video that demonstrates the product-and-head assembling and rendering process in Rhino3D and Hypershot.

    When you design a product that fits on the human body, how do you take product fitting into consideration? What software would you use? How do you achieve a realistic look for others to evaluate your design?

    Let us know your thoughts!

    亞洲週刊 Interview

    Following SD’s recent Annual Show, I gave an interview to 亞洲週刊 (Asia Weekly), a Chinese language international affairs newsweekly. I want to share its original English version here.

    亞洲週刊 Interview

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