Transience and Durability in Design

I design and make functional objects, aiming to foster engagement with the user whileminimizing damage to living systems. I approach design research through designing, and utilise dualities such as durability and ephemerality to help structure and align the practical with the theoretical. My practice is driven by 'an inherent recognition of the tension that lies between the need to enrich the experience of living with objects, and a simultaneous desire to reduce the environmental impact of an accelerating cycle of overproduction'. My research is particularly informed by the work of two writers; Jonathan Chapman, who explores emotional durability and empathy with objects; and Stuart Walker who investigates the potential of a sustainable aesthetic through his propositional designs, interrogating the accepted division between aesthetics and ethics.As Stuart Walker says, 'sustainability will be about achieving a complex and fragile balance between tradition and innovation'. The urgency for change is producing both innovation and inspiration, in the development of alternative, less damaging and more sustaining ways to live. In my paper I will be illustrating the progress of my research, and the development of ideas, through recent projects including designing, curating, undertaking residencies, completing an MFA and now teaching. It is this new area, of research progressing into teaching, that most engages me at present and of which I aim to discuss.