Fall 2022 Finals (And my Plans for Winter Break)
- Erin Marshall
- Nov 22, 2022
- 3 min read
Fall 2022 Finals (And my Plans for Winter Break)
November 21st, 2022
I made it to the end of my last fall quarter at SCAD! I am already back in Milwaukee and wanted to provide an update on my progress in my senior year. The last five weeks have been some of the most challenging of my college career. And even though I have been pulled in many directions, looking back the amount I accomplished was well worth the stress. (The picture is my welcome home Culvers lunch with my family, I always miss Culvers when I leave the Midwest)
My SCADpro ended on a super high note. I once again cannot talk about the project much because of my NDA, but our final presentation went amazing, and I am so proud of my team and all we accomplished. I was selected as the project lead for this class, which was a surprise considering it was the first SCADpro class. Looking back, many of the successes in this class were also riddled with missteps, but those missteps have now become lessons for the future. I am so grateful for the people I was able to collaborate with for sharing their talents and making my job as project lead so rewarding.
The last five weeks of my senior project have been a whirlwind. At midterms I had just finished my research and was moving into initial concepts. Since then, I have sketched, prototyped, modeled, changed the concept, and changed it again until I have finally arrived at a direction I am super happy with. I am a designer that thrives on feedback and group collaboration, so throughout development, I tried to talk to as many people as possible. These people gave invaluable insights that guided my project to where it is today.
My final senior project, as it stands currently, is creating a piece of furniture that will be utilized in fine art museums. The furniture will encourage socialization and interaction while teaching more about the art. During my research one of the insights that kept showing up was the social aspects of museums, and how fine art museums have no outlet for this socialization. In fact, one of the statistics that I found that was backed up by my observational research was that over 60% of the time spent at a museum is used for socialization. And while this socialization allowed at more interactive museums, the Fine art space still has visitors walking slowly around galleries while thinking independently or talking in hushed tones.
I saw this as an opportunity in the fine art space. I had a lot of ideas for how to solve this problem, but the idea I ended up going forward with , and that ranked the best when shown to potential users, was to take advantage of the seating in galleries. Most seating areas in the galleries are wooden benches or sad couches that usually only host people looking at their phones. But what if these pieces of furniture could create a “hub” of social activity and education for the gallery where it was located? That is the foundation of my project. Creating innovative furniture that would be utilized in fine art environments to encourage socialization and learning while keeping the integrity of the exhibit alive.
Over the break, I am starting the physical development of the different components of the idea. There is a huge component to this concept that requires knowledge of body tracking and programming that I am focused on testing over the break. By the time I start my next quarter I want to have all the components tested and proven so that during my last ten weeks I can focus on refinement.
I am also working on more with the Fable project over the break. I just picked up the fridge that was donated by Everbrite which will serve as our second prototype base. I will be working with mechanical and electrical engineers to test the integration between the fridge internal components and the hydroponic system. (The video is me cleaning all the mold out of the fridge)
While this break has only started, I know it will be over quickly. Staying on track with both my senior project work and Fable will take a majority of my time, but I am so excited about both of these projects that I don’t mind!! I am so excited to see where these concepts take me, and I will make sure to update this blog on the progress I have made on both before the start of my final quarter at SCAD! (Gigi, my dog, demonstrating that the break will be over in a blink of an eye)
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