Please upgrade your browser

For the best experience, you should upgrade your browser. Visit our accessibility page to view a list of supported browsers along with links to download the latest version.

Student Showcase Archive

Vanessa Harden

MA work

MA work

Can design address the needs of subcultures and individuals with alternative lifestyles? My work addresses those who live on the fringes of society by providing them with tools and systems that enrich their everyday interactions. This body of work investigates two subcultures, The Mouse Fanciers and The Guerrilla Gardeners, by observing interactions within the group and with wider society. Each project identifies an area within a subculture that can be explored through design. Inspired by The Mouse Fanciers, an existing subculture that breeds and shows prize winning mice, the first piece draws on current dating trends that exist today such as internet dating. Mouse Assisted Interplay imagines a dating service where individuals meet and interact via their pet mouse.

Info

Info

  • MA Degree

    School

    School of Design

    Programme

    MA Design Interactions, 2009

  • Can design address the needs of subcultures and individuals with alternative lifestyles? My work addresses those who live on the fringes of society by providing them with tools and systems that enrich their everyday interactions. This body of work investigates two subcultures, The Mouse Fanciers and The Guerrilla Gardeners, by observing interactions within the group and with wider society. Each project identifies an area within a subculture that can be explored through design. Inspired by The Mouse Fanciers, an existing subculture that breeds and shows prize winning mice, the first piece draws on current dating trends that exist today such as internet dating. Mouse Assisted Interplay imagines a dating service where individuals meet and interact via their pet mouse.

  • Degrees

  • Diploma, Advanced Study Program: Media Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA, 2007; BDes Material Art and Design: Jewellery Design, Ontario College of Art, USA, 2005
  • Experience

  • Design Consultant, Experientia Interaction Design Consultancy, Turin, Italy, 2008; Visiting Research Assistant, MIT Media Lab: Computing Culture, Cambridge, USA, 2006–7; Research Assistant, XS Lab: Hexagram, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada, 2006; Research Assistant, BEAL Institute for Strategic Creativity: OCAD, Toronto, Canada, 2005
  • Exhibitions

  • Currents Exhibition, OCAD Gallery, Toronto, Canada, 2007; Collision X, Art Interactive, Cambridge, USA, 2006; Medal Winners Exhibition, OCAD Gallery, Toronto, Canada, 2005; Findings (Joint Exhibition), OCAD & Nova Scotia College of Art & Design, Toronto and Halifax, Canada, 2004
  • Awards

  • Third prize, Valpak Recycle-More Awards, 2008; First prize, OCAD Medal: Jewellery Design and Metalsmithing, 2005; First prize, Excellence in Jewellery Design Award, OCAD, 2005