Awakening takes place within: a practice-led research through texture and embodiment

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This article presents a practice-led design project that asks how the effects of the lockdown can be articulated through illustration and poetry to narrate a personal story using an autoethnographic approach to retail high levels of dignity and originality? The research project aims to create a visual narrative, advanced through illustrations and poetry, that reflects the researcher’s experience of lockdowns imposed by COVID-19. The narrative adopts the form of an illustrated storybook to tell the story of the researcher herself, who faced restrictive experiences while being locked down in China during a homeland visit. As a result, the researcher was unable to return to New Zealand due to travel restrictions. During the time the researcher had to wait in China to be able to return to complete her study in New Zealand, the lockdown produced feelings of isolation, distancing, anxiety and other emotions. This design project is aimed to express these feelings, responding to their pressures using creatively illustrations and poems, created in a way to articulate the psychological pressures one can go through during this unprecedented time. The illustrations and poems encapsulate an artistic response to a historical moment, drawn into being through poetic writing and imagery. The project is a historical document of an era where all that is certain becomes uncertain. Illustrations are used through an autoethnographic approach to give voice to personal experiences through design. The research contributes to the exploration of poetic writing and illustration to document, understand and express a moment of crisis in human history.

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Memories from COVID-19 A practice-led research about the effects of the lockdown through the perspective of a Chinese student

Steagall

2023

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“…The project is conducted as practice-led research, where making and sensing precede thinking or theory in an iterative creative and rationalising process that fuses mode and substance in perceptive experience. As practice-led visual artistic design research, the study seeks to respond to a research question through creative practice in the field of Visual Communication Design (Ardern & Mortensen Steagall, 2023;Chambers & Mortensen Steagall, 2023;Falconer & Mortensen Steagall, 2023;Lewis & Mortensen Steagall, 2023;Li & Mortensen Steagall, 2023;Lum & Mortensen Steagall, 2023;Shan & Mortensen Steagall, 2023;Michie & Mortensen Steagall, 2021;Mpofu & Mortensen Steagall, 2021;Van Vliet & Mortensen Steagall, 2020).…”

Section: Research Paradigm and Methodologiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Painting the Kitchen Tables: Exploring women's domestic creative spaces through publication design

Brown¹,

Steagall²

2023

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The spaces women take up in society have been shrouded in shame, disenfranchisement, and contention, with the kitchen as a focal point of this argument. This article aims to suggest ways in which women can take up space in the kitchen, this integral pillar of society that upholds connection and creativity as an art form. Adjacent to this subversive shift of connotation is the shifts within feminism, as feminist perspectives on women within kitchens develop alongside the historical movement. In this project, the researcher has utilised a post-positivist paradigm under an auto-ethnographic methodology to document, analyse, and celebrate the variations within feminist perspectives on creativity within domestic spaces through textile and publication design. In order to shift perspectives on these domestic spaces, the design outcomes paid tribute to feminist artists who made the kitchen their studio and others who captured the kitchen as an artistic contribution to the feminist perspectives on these spaces. Through heuristic methods of testing, experimentation, and physical outputs, the researcher curated a series of design artefacts that distil the visceral experiences of how women take up space in kitchens. Through publication design, there is a documentation of the shifting feminist perspectives on women's domestic spaces through contrast and analysis of articles, poems, recipes, and artist insights. These contexts are supported by the tactility of the physical design outcome made using textile, pottery, and printed matter. The research distils and provides a destination for the celebration of ways in which women take up space within the kitchen and the integral artistic creations within those spaces.

“…The study is framed as practice-led research within the larger field of Visual Communication Design. There are many examples of graphic design practitioners developing practice-led research that then inform actual artefact -a process which points to practice as a method of research and outcome (Ardern & Mortensen Steagall, 2023;Brown & Mortensen Steagall, 2023;Chambers & Mortensen Steagall, 2023;Falconer & Mortensen Steagall, 2023;Li & Mortensen Steagall, 2023;Lum & Mortensen Steagall, 2023;Shan & Mortensen Steagall, 2023;Michie & Mortensen Steagall, 2021;Mpofu & Mortensen Steagall, 2021;Van Vliet & Mortensen Steagall, 2020).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…O estudo é enquadrado como pesquisa conduzida pela prática dentro do campo mais amplo de Design de Comunicação Visual. Existem muitos exemplos de profissionais de design gráfico desenvolvendo pesquisas práticas que então informam artefatos reais -um processo que aponta para a prática como um método de pesquisa e resultado (Ardern & Mortensen Steagall, 2023;Chambers & Mortensen Steagall, 2023;Li & Mortensen Steagall, 2023;Lum & Mortensen Steagall, 2023); Shan & Mortensen Steagall, 2023).…”

Section: Metodologiaunclassified

Less than 5mm — The unseen threat: A practice-led investigation into micro-plastics effects on coral reefs

Lewis

Steagall

2023

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This article presents an artistic practice-led research project that asks: How can communication design be used to raise awareness about the effect of microplastics on coral reefs, encouraging a shift in the mentality of single-use plastic? The study highlights the scale of the issue of micro-plastics, where environmental pollution stemmed from the throw-away society, intending to ignite action – from micro-plastics to micro-changes. An opportunity arose to visually communicate how such a desirable product, the micro plastic, is destroying ecosystems. The project employs a reflective inquiry methodology supported by a heuristic approach, surfacing the tacit and the experiential to heighten self-awareness within the researchers' practice. This approach enables the researcher to draw connections between the subconscious and unconscious mentality, challenging the stigma and pre-existing assumptions. The project explores risograph printing, a digital screenprinting method, complimented with the use of laser cutting to encourage the reader to engage with the artefact and shift the mindset from unconscious buying patterns to become a conscious consumer. In exploring these methods, the project draws on visual inspiration through contextual knowledge. Gathering information and understanding the scale of the issue contributed to the originality and the essence of artefact. The design artefact takes the form of a risograph publication design, embracing the tactility and sustainable practices of the risograph printer in responding the research question. The artefact encompasses the essence of microplastics, uncovering the truth that lies within its aesthetic appearance. Significantly, the project is a conscious, self-reflective inquiry that contributes to the field of knowledge surrounding designing for good, and to giving the ocean personhood. It contributes to discourse about practice-led research in graphic design to engage the reader in behaviour change.