Shenkar Design faculty students participated in the TASA-ICod International Design Education Lab (Edu-Lab), in Qingdao, China
8 industrial Design students of Shenkar Design faculty, under the guidance of faculty, Nimrod Eliezer, were chosen to participate in a summer course at the TASA-ICod International Design Education Lab (Edu-Lab) in Qingdao, China. Shenkar took part at the five-week laboratory alongside other academies from India, United Kingdom, South Korea and four leading academies in China.
Edu-Lab is a collaboration between Tsinghua University and ICoD, the International Council of Design. Mr. David Grossman, former president of ICoD, serves as co-director of Edu-Lab. It is based on an innovative concept that combines speculative approaches to design studies while collaborating between diverse cultures.
As part of the activity, mixed teams from different international schools worked on briefs based on alternative future scenarios: One scenario reflected the catastrophic consequences of contemporary concepts of consumption, economy, society and environment. The second scenario reflected the potential for immediate change following the creation of more rational formats for consumption and design. The students created futuristic scenarios emphasized on identifying health challenges, while focusing on one problem to which they suggested a solution – a product that aims to describe the life in the futuristic world it comes from. Later on, each team presented the issue and the solution with the help of sketches and models. In the last step, they developed and refined the products down to the last detail and presented the final presentations to various parties from the university, the Qingdao region, media people and the Chinese government.
The weeks in which the students stayed and worked in the laboratory were full of intense work that merged with great pleasure. The students worked from morning to evening, even after formal activity hours, in the open studio space on campus. On the weekends they toured the area with the Israeli group and with their new friends from other schools and cultures. The students won twice -professionally, they experienced intensive, meaningful design work and created an important social network, in an international environment. Personally, they had a diverse fascinating cultural experience. Internationality and social networking are cornerstones in the contemporary professional world.
Acknowledgments: To Mr. David Grossman, former president of ICoD, co-director of EduLab; To Michal Pauzner, Head of the Center for Excellence in Education, senior faculty in the School of Visual Communication and co-manager of PADLab, the project leader and operator on behalf of Shenkar; To the Shenkar International Center and Anat Yaari, the Center’s director, for support and co-operation of the project; To Prof. Terry Schreuer, Dean of the Faculty of Design, Meirav Perez, head of the Industrial Design Department and Prof. Yanai Toister, (former) Dean of the International school, for their part in driving the project and the process of selecting students for the participating group.
