Design Expo Proposal/Abstract

Eastern Michigan University's Undergraduate Symposium is an annual event that showcases the research and design work that students have worked on throughout the year. The symposium is broken up into different types of presentations. Poster presentations typically consist of large posters containing all the data and information about the project and its findings, people are welcome to walk around and peruse the posters while student presenters are welcome to share more information on the posters and talk to people as they go by. Another presentation type for this event is the Oral Presentations. This category consists of student presenters giving a brief lecture or overview to anyone who attends the lecture at that time. The last presentation category is the Design Expo which is a gallery type of set up that allows attendees to wander around and examine different pieces and projects ranging from interior design, projection mapping, ceramics, metals, paintings, costuming, theatrical design, and more. The Design Expo is where I plan to present The Journey of Sonder. 

Below is the abstract and description that I sent in my application for the Undergraduate Symposium Design Expo. Attached below is the link to the Undergraduate Symposium website if you would like to learn more. 

Eastern Michigan Undergraduate Symposium

The Journey of Sonder

Hannah Burke

Faculty Mentor: Elena SV Flys

Crossing Lines Design Expo

Sonder is defined as “the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own--populated with their own ambitions, friends, routines, worries, and inherited craziness” (Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows). This exhibit will present the data collected during this past semester from people stopping, thinking, and answering varied prompts. Prompts were asked via interactive displays in frequently visited locations. My hope is that in interacting with this project, passersby will recognize the similarities and differences amongst strangers and open their eyes to the complexity of the lives around them.

Materials: I will have 2 life size cut out silhouettes of people that are flat aside from the base that keeps them standing (single person silhouette is about 6' tall and 2' wide, the mother and child silhouette will be about 4' wide and 5'6" tall), a small table to set collected items on (about the size of a tv tray) no larger than 2ft x 1.5ft, an area map/poster with demographic information and photographs hung on a display board behind small table

Description of display: One small table with a book to flip through/items collected sits in front of the display board on which hangs an area map with photographs from locations and demographic information. On either side of the table is a flat, freestanding life-size silhouette. One silhouette (mother and child) will be covered in people's responses, drawings, pictures, and images while the other (man) will be covered in definitions, data, and information.