Student Design Awards winners: For the long time
Brief 7: How might we encourage people and community to think and act for the long term?
Winners:
- Granted - Liana O'Cleirigh and Renata Dima, National College of Art and Design, Ireland
- The Futures of Food - Sarah Heffernan, National College of Art and Design, Ireland
- Community Couture - Aniela Fidler Wieruszewska, University of the Arts London, England
- Solastalgia - Poppy Howell, Nottingham Trent University, England
Migrant organisations play an important role in supporting their community members to navigate society and giving them a collective voice, however many of these organisations struggle with longevity and are at high risk of closing down when key leaders exit. Granted is a digital platform that supports these organisations to access necessary grant funding to sustain their work, but also track their activity and celebrate milestones. The platform provides the organisations with greater stability so they can plan further into the future and, when the time comes for a transition of leadership, the synthesised record of activity allows organisations to more seamlessly handover to the next generation of leaders.
Liana O'Cleirigh and Renata Dima
National College of Art and Design, Dublin, Ireland
The Long Time Project award of £500
Food production in Ireland has increasingly shifted off the island and many of the traditional communal agricultural practices are being lost. The Future of Food focuses on the restaurant industry specifically and how to encourage respect for the restorative traditions of our past food systems and care for the needs of future generations. Using speculative storytelling, through a pseudo-documentary, website, and ‘official’ government letters, participants are able to understand how their actions now have consequences in the future. Once the problems are clearly shown, an alternate restaurant business model is proposed that incorporates sustainable practices and promotes food sovereignty and security for all.
Sarah Heffernan
National College of Art and Design, Dublin, Ireland
The Long Time Project award of £500
To reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emissions produced by the global fashion industry, consumers are increasingly encouraged to buy fewer items that they value more and explore alternative models of fashion sharing. Community Couture combines bespoke slow fashion principles with traditions of storytelling through textile. Taking 600 hours to complete, the handcrafted jacket is made of discarded fabric from a t-shirt factory, painstakingly applied to a pattern to avoid any waste. The visual design for the garment itself is unique, a tapestry representing 37 community responses to the question “How does the world look or feel to you right now?”. The garment, available to rent, serves as a visual, collaborative legacy of those who contributed and the stories they wanted to preserve for future generations.
Aniela Fidler Wieruszewska
University of the Arts London, England
Natracare award of £500
Solastalgia (Albrecht 2007) is a term that refers to the specific distress humans feel related to climate and environmental change. One such change is the rising sea levels that puts many people’s homes and lives at risk, particularly in coastal areas. Hull is one city that is predicted to have annual flooding, with potential for some areas to be permanently underwater by 2050 unless action is taken now. Solastalgia is a fashion exhibition that traces Hull’s marine heritage and encourages a conversation about the urgent action needed to address the climate crisis. The garments are designed to be environmentally friendly while referencing the specific local culture, history and challenges facing the region.
