The University of Technology, Sydney is set to hold a curated student exhibition as an end-of-year design show, showcasing the diversity of creative engagements and across all years from first year to postgraduate level.

Initiated by Lawrence Wallen, head of the UTS Design School, Material Culture opens at the UTS Tower on Tuesday 6 December and centres on the conceptual dialogue between the material object and an increasingly networked and immaterial culture.

UTS Design students working on exhibition spatial design for Material Culture

Evert Ypma, exhibition director and visiting fellow to the UTS School of Design said “The inspiration of Material Culture stems from the current shift that is occurring globally in design culture from a technological and consumption driven focus, to one where technology has become a social tool.

“Today, design processes are increasingly focused on responding to social and cultural issues such as sustainability.

“Finding solutions to increasingly complex problems also means that collaborative processes in design have become commonplace.”

Exemplifying this collaborative process, an interdisciplinary group of third year design students is working together with academics and industry experts to conceptualise and realise the exhibition design and visual communication material for the exhibition.

Says UTS Interior and Spatial Design student Dennis Choi, “rather than designating each discipline a separate space, we wanted to use the exhibition to focus on the connections across the range of design school student works.”

“To do this we have developed a design that incorporates nylon strings — the idea being to subtly thread connections and narratives throughout the exhibition without taking the emphasis from the individual projects.”

The students are receiving professional guidance from UTS Design lecturer and interior lighting designer Mike Day, and Dan Potra, a professional scenographer who has designed sets for Opera Australia, The 1996 Melbourne Commonwealth Games and the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

Material Culture will showcase outputs from Interior and Spatial Design, Photography and Situated Media, Animation Design, Visual Communication, Fashion and Textile Design, Industrial Design, Interdisciplinary Design, Interaction Design, PhD program and Designing Out Crime.

Material Culture is supported by industry partner Telstra, who are passionate about design and supporting emerging talent.

Material Culture takes place at the University of Technology, Sydney’s Tower Building. The exhibition opens on Tuesday 6 December at 5:30pm and continues daily from 10am-5pm daily to Sunday 13 December. Admission is free. www.utsdesign.net

Architecture & Design Team

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