Design Inspiration

A Postgraduate Experience

A Part Timer's Story When I began the 'Design Futures' Masters course in September 2015, 18 years after graduating with the same title in my undergraduate studies, I had introduced myself with a big bang; sporting a mass of flaming red hair, ranting about the state of the world and how inhumane we've become in our digitally connective world. I had appeared mad as I ranted to what I now regard as mere rhetoric. But equally, I was ferociously passionate in my subject, adamant that I could solve the issues over the course of the Masters. How naive I must have seemed! I had only two months prior undergone a thyroidectomy, a last resort to a genetic disease that myself and my partner had coincidentally suffered from. Graves Disease, a largely unknown hyper-thyroid disorder, had reaped misery and darkness in our life's since our teenage years, and especially during each of my father and mother's passings in my 30's. Having battled through so much, leading up...

Coffin Beds and Penny Sleeps: An Exhibition on Victorian Homelessness

Coffin Beds and Penny Sleeps: An Exhibition on Victorian Homelessness Allison Meier, May 5, 2015 Taken from: http://hyperallergic.com/200035/coffin-beds-and-penny-sleeps-an-exhibition-on-victorian-homelessness/ In 1897, a journalist visiting an East London homeless shelter described a restless night: “Ranged in banks along the floor, narrow passages between each row, and in the gallery were 300 men asleep or half asleep, a few talking. The bunks not unlike coffins and in the dim light the men in them looked like corpses arranged for identification after some great disaster.” Over a century later, the voices of those taking refuge in the tomb-like beds are difficult to resuscitate, their experiences only echoed in the recordings of outsiders. Homes of the Homeless: Seeking Shelter in Victorian London , opened in March at the Geffrye Museum of the Home in London, draws on paintings, photographs, newspaper reports, diaries, and the scarce personal objects left behind to recover th...

Kids and iPads

So I have not long come back from a meeting with my daughter's teachers. She has not been happy and has had problems on-and-off with one girl in particular; a troubled girl who has been projecting her own unhappiness onto Cady. A recent spout in school had continued on iMessage as soon as the girls returned home. Texts in angry CAPS, back and forth. It got so heated and personal that Cady came to me in tears and I was made aware of the situation. I eventually rang the girl's mother; a warm, lovely and hardworking professional. She in turn rang the school to inform them of some concerning issues with the use of social media and text messaging. I hasten to add that our daughters are 9 years old. Yes I am responsible for giving my daughter access to the iPad. I tried to delay it for as long as possible but the majority of peers in her class had their own and I was repeatedly hounded. Initially she used it for games as I refused her an Instagram account until again, peer pressu...

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