2×2: 2013 Design MFA Exhibition

2×2 includes selected work by students graduating with master degrees from the Design division of the Department of Art and Art History during the 2012–2013 school year. The exhibition presents multiplicities in the individual processes and work of Design MFA students. Personal investigations articulate iterative methodologies that are combined with cross-disciplinary research to arrive at a set of work situated at the intersection of design and:

Image Culture ↳ James Barela co-opts the techniques that create our visual culture and re-appropriates them for a critical production by embracing collage, copies, and tropes in image communication. His use of rhetorical framings provides a multitude of re-imagined possibilities in the use of imagery.

Behavior ⇢ Hamed Samadi employs morphological charts for industrial design to facilitate human-computer interaction of emotional depth. His morphologies provide innumerable combinations between function and human qualities that ultimately seek a more humanist practice.

Pop Culture ⇨ Alice Willett devises generative rule systems to analyze and reframe visual culture. These graphic design systems yield almost infinite ways to reinterpret and transform visual content, providing opportunities for critical interventions through a multiplicity of expressions.

Education ⇉ Saki Rizwana uses graphic design to illuminate multiple entry points into a text with the goal of engaging readers in the story. Typographic form and layout become tools for expanding accessibility of content to middle and high school students.

For these graduate students, design is informed by the attitudes, methods, and values imbued within the work by the maker. Multiplicities and iterative thinking methods are integral to this practice of design, and define these designers’ position within the discipline. 2×2 highlights the crossovers between each designer’s work and reveals threads from larger and ongoing conversations and investigations.