May 12, 2014
ArtCenter College of Design Chosen for Intel Design School Network
Names first-ever Technologist-in-Residence to focus on wearable tech innovation
(Pasadena, Calif.) May 12, 2014 – ArtCenter College of Design was recently chosen to join the Intel® Design School Network, a consortium of leading art and design schools around the world. As part of the initiative, ArtCenter has named Syuzi Pakhchyan as the first Technologist-in-Residence in the Graduate Media Design Practices Department, who will develop symposia and curricula around wearable tech innovation.
“ArtCenter is recognized as one of the top design schools worldwide, and we are excited to have them be a part of the Intel® Design School Network,” said John Somoza, Higher Education Program Manager at Intel® Corporation. “We look forward to collaborating with Art Center to encourage the next generation of designers to look at technology in new and innovative ways – especially in the area of wearables.”
“As wearable tech explodes among consumers, we’re imagining how a wearables-saturated world will change our behavior as human beings,” said Anne Burdick, chair of ArtCenter’s Graduate Media Design Practices Department. “We’re happy to be a part of this industry partnership since ArtCenter has always been where new technologies are brought to life and design brings both a social agenda and innovation to this new domain.”
ArtCenter is one of five international institutions asked to join Intel’s inaugural Design School Network—a group that also includes California College of the Arts in San Francisco, Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design and the Royal College of Art in London.
Intel’s goal in partnering with ArtCenter—along with all of the schools in its design school network—is to enhance students’ learning environment by promoting creative thinking in areas where technology and user experiences collide.
The partnership creates a truly symbiotic relationship—students and faculty benefit by gaining access to Intel’s latest technological innovations; Intel® benefits by gaining access to the creative and unconventional thinking of the graduate students and the design expertise of the faculty.
The partnership is also part of Intel’s larger “Make it Wearable” global initiative to inspire ideas and fuel innovation that will evolve personal computing in new ways.
As Technologist-in-Residence, Pakhchyan, an alumnus of the Media Design Practices Department who runs the influential couture and circuits mashup blog Fashioning Technology and consults with consumer electronics companies, is spearheading a series of dialogues exploring wearable technology.
The first in the series was a symposium titled Connected Bodies: Imagining New Wearables that took place in February in conjunction with a four-week Intel-sponsored studio called Wearable Ecologies in which students came up with prototypes for human applications of technologies that can lead to expressive wearables. The class examined what it would mean for society if all the connected devices were talking to one another, in what experts call “The Internet of Things.”
The course, co-taught by Media Design Practices Professor Philip van Allen and Associate Professor Ben Hooker, was designed to explore intriguing issues surrounding the complex nature of autonomous digital transactions (e.g., paying for a fast food meal versus a wedding dinner), the ability of wearables to adapt to different contexts (e.g., sharing medical records with a doctor’s office versus an insurance agency) and how this new wave of interactions should behave aesthetically (e.g., visual cues, emitted sounds).
Pakhchyan is now working on plans for a Wearable Tech Designathon coming up in June where designers compete for a chance to present their work to the industry at the L.A. Wearable Tech conference at the Pasadena Convention Center.
About Syuzi Pakhchyan:
An experience designer, Pakhchyan investigates the intersection between code, cloth and culture. Her design and research interests include wearable technologies, physical and soft computing, and interactive textile design. Her book "Fashioning Technology: A DIY Intro to Smart Crafting" explores the emerging creative practice of soft circuits and soft technologies. Her projects have been exhibited at Eyebeam Art + Technology Center in New York, the Fashion Future Event in Pisa, SXSW Festival, Maker Faire and Emerging Technologies Conference. She received her BFA from the University of California, Berkeley in literature and her MFA in media design from ArtCenter College of Design.
About Media Design Practices:
Media Design Practices at ArtCenter College of Design offers an interdisciplinary design MFA grounded in media and technology through a curriculum that features two intentionally divergent tracks. Each track—Lab and Field—prepares students to work in emerging roles and contexts for design. Lab students explore the cultural impact and possible futures of new ideas from technology, science and culture. Field students mix ethnography, design and technology to address social issues in a developing world context. More at mediadesignpractices.net.
About ArtCenter College of Design:
Founded in 1930 and located in Pasadena, California, ArtCenter College of Design is a global leader in art and design education. ArtCenter offers 11 undergraduate and six graduate degrees in a wide variety of visual and applied arts as well as industrial design disciplines. In addition to its top-ranked academic programs, the College also serves members of the Greater Los Angeles region through a highly regarded series of year-round educational programs for all ages and levels of experience. Renowned for both its ties to industry and social impact initiatives, ArtCenter is the first design school to receive the United Nations’ Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) status. Throughout the College's long and storied history, ArtCenter alumni have had a profound impact on popular culture, the way we live and important issues in our society.
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Images:
Images are available for download from this online press kit.
Contact:
Teri Bond, Art Center College of Design
626.396.2385 office
310.738.2077 mobile
teri.bond@artcenter.edu