Date of Award
Spring 6-1-2024
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Industrial Design
Department
Industrial Design
First Advisor
Paolo Cardini
Second Advisor
Ben Jurgensen
Third Advisor
Louise Manfredi
Abstract
Designed Impermanence: Transformative Shapeshifting, A Decoded Alchemical Inquiry is a methodological deconstruction of our relationship to the built environment.
Our present existence is governed by craft and material hierarchies, conformed perceptions, and socioeconomic contextual drivers. Recognizing these tendencies, formats, and desires are critical in order to construct proposed introductions to re-envision alternative methods of building future realities. Redesigning new parameters through shifting physical configurations serve as indexes for visual propositions to redefine our existence through perceptions of time, adaptation, and materiality.
This research is centered around four themes: material craft ecology, adaptive alchemical constructions, reactionary behavioral assemblies, and evolving responsive systems. Through experimentation and research, these are synthesized to challenge our sensemaking by building contextual linkages that illuminate how our current methodologies create forces that commingle under invisible tension in our changing environment. Passive indicators of heat, humidity, and time acted as agents metamorphosing the methodologies while maintaining evolving relevance. This strain and agency to formations symbolically provokes shifts in our understanding, and attunement in our perceptions of change by providing space for contemplation.
Recommended Citation
Epstein, Dani, "Designed Impermanence, An Alchemical Inquiry" (2024). Masters Theses. 1343.
https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/masterstheses/1343
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