So I survived my first formal critique of the school year. As an added bonus, Alissia Melka-Teichroew and Jan Habraken were visiting and sat in on the crit (thanks again!). The format for our crit is as follows: A peer sits down with you a few days before the crit day to go over what you plan on showing. You explain the intention behind your work and offer sources of inspiration, etc. They take that info and use it to write up a formal breakdown and assessment of your work. This assessment is presented to everyone at the beginning of the crit. It is read and then everyone but the designer begins to talk about the work. Afterward the designer addresses ideas, issues, etc that come up over the course of the discussion.
I presented a working prototype of the Glass Dome Light as well as a prototype that, unlike the working one, shows all of the actual components and materials that will be used in the final version.
The main motivation behind the lights was to explore new ways of making a light that breaks away from the more traditional use of components (cloth shade, cheap switch, bad cord, etc) and thereby arrive at new forms and material use. I also wanted to explore other ways that a person might be able to turn a light on and off that was fairly intuitive.
The switch for these lights is an aluminum dial that extends beyond the dome profile. It can be rotated in either direction and turn the light on and off repeatedly as it is rotated.
From the crit, I learned that this was not immediately understood. Honestly I found this rather surprising but if the goal was to make this an intuitive switch, it would appear that I came up short. Jan suggested that I accept that people look for and expect certain functionality from an object and to not reinvent the wheel. I am redesigning the switch now to hopefully make it more obvious.
Many of the other comments were subjective in nature. Some thought perhaps that I was trying to make something futuristic and that some of my material choices then were inconsistent. But I was able to single out the information that I think was the most helpful in making the lights more successful. It was interesting- the lights engendered strong reactions. People either seemed to really like them or really not. Not everyone can be pleased. Thanks to everyone for their input.
I’ll post better images of the lights soon.