#01 Weekly Progress Report

Aug 28

Monday, Aug 24rd - Friday Aug 28th

First day of the semester - Monday, August 24th - I was asked to write an abstract for my upcoming thesis. Before I can even begin to conceptualize an abstract, I will need to collect my thoughts:

Coming into the master’s program, I was extremely focused on furniture and furniture design. In the begining it didn't matter what the ending looked like as long as furniture design was the main focus. 2 years, and I have no idea how many projects later, I still want furniture to be incorporated in the thesis, but that is no longer where the focus lies.

I researched the health benefits of floor sitting, the effects furniture has on the human body, and how different cultures approach sitting. People’s relationships with low-set furniture and reactions to the ground - All topics I was trying to solve by creating more furniture [specifically chairs], whether a piece designed to help train individuals who are no longer able to sit on the ground and get back up again comfortably regain the ability: E.LY.SIAN - or by simply designing a chair meant to make a statement: FURNITURE FORM

I felt the need to create a solution, not a campaign against furniture. It wasn’t until the final project of last semester: REFRAIMED that I began to let go of the idea of solving the issues I had been seeing about furniture and chairs using chairs.

Somewhere within that equation, process, and end-of-semester phase, the ideas and focus began to shift - a big portion of that was beacuse of one of our core graphic design classes - Critical Media [Project will be linked]. This solidified and fueled the community-oriented direction as well as the interactive and experiential portion of the thesis.

The Presentation below introduces the steps, projects, rationale, solutions, thought process, and more. A secondary purpose of this Presentation was to let me test a narrowed-down topic - “The Interdisciplinary Nature of Community-Oriented Design, Installations, and Experiential Design" and consider a new direction that could encompass the multidisciplinary projects I had been working on up to this point.

*Photo of the week

Inspiration column

Interactive Instillation

By: Ryan Maiers
Title: ZZZ.VISION_01
“CRT TELEVISION, WEBCAM, CUSTOM REAL TIME VIDEO SOFTWARE, ANALOG VIDEO SIGNAL, PLAYBACK COMPUTER”
2026
MainFrame Studios, Des Moines, IA

Thesis Introduction & Progress Presentation

Wednesday, Aug 26th -

*Click to view:

Notes from/after the presentation

The community of people experiencing the exhibition and the interactive installations makes the work what it is - the work is not being designed for a hyper-specific community; the work is designed to be experienced by, changed, incorporated, explored, and pushed by people. The goal is undirected human interactions that change based on the people in the space.

The direction the projects I have worked on have evolved into is work that functions when an individual interacts with the project, and continues to function, react, and respond in different and varied ways as more people are added to the equation/experience it at the same time. This slow evolution in the work has happened while I have had the goal of finding ways to provoke people to communicate with strangers, ask someone in the room to try something with them, or accidentally discover that the work they are walking past is being used by someone else, who can also experience it at the same time.

Links shared by a classmate after watching my presentation:

https://www.inmabermudez.com/project/valentina/

https://www.inmabermudez.com/project/albertina/

Two projects by Inma Bermúdez

After the presentation, I was asked about how ceramics fit into the thesis project: 1. More interactive options, especially for people who are unable or simply unwilling to sit on the ground. 2. A more interactive and exploratory experience since the ceramics will (the goal is for them to) interact and react to more than one piece in the exhibition.

This discussion ended with the classmate who shared the tiles (Thanks, Dan!) assuming the ceramics would be tiles, mimicking the designs found on the rug. A small comment that has changed the trajectory of the ceramic incorporation!

NADIS| ALBERTINA

Inma Bermúdez & NADIS

2021

Readings, Podcasts, Media, Mood boards & More

Thursday, Aug 27th -

Article(s):

Warning: May Contain Non-Design Content

“Not everything is design. But design is about everything. So do yourself a favor: be ready for anything.”

- Michael Bierut, Mar 18, 2006

Monday, Aug 24th -

Furniture/Woodworking:

Created to communicate thoughts and ideas to outside committee member Peter Schidet:

I presented and discussed the mood board with Peter at our weekly standing committee member meetings every Monday - here are some notes, decisions, realizations, and the current plan.

The proposal and intended design/plan for the system would include these chairs, plus pressure sensors that respond to human interaction and create both visual and auditory responses. These responses would shift and change as the number of people involved increases. This leads to a question about why the seating solutions are individual, only connected by wires and output - why not one connected solution that would encourage closer interactions and more intimate experiences?

Some images of chairs being carried were brought to the meeting, sparking conversation and curiosity about the added level of interaction if the objects were not meant to be stationary. Keeping wires and necessary equipment in mind, the idea of creating a movable, community-oriented, inviting, shareable, and interactive experience began to take shape.

Below is a moodboard of the direction the design inspiration began to go:

This all led me to look through my hard drive - my archived work to find a project that I ultimately added to the Thesis Introduction & Progress Presentation discussed above!

This project was never realized beyond sketching, ideation, and 3D modeling. In April 2025, the project explored themes of community-oriented design and furniture design. It is an ideation for a large-scale work that requires people to be present and is designed to accommodate large groups.

There were several subprojects within the slide since “Self-directed” focused on 3D modeling and building, but the project below is what I plan to build on moving forward:

High-priority to-do list items

‍ ‍Reassemble tufting frame [currently in garage] - Taking inventory of what supplies I have left over from the last rug project - Reframed.

Community-oriented Furniture design - Sketch, ideate, 3D model, and present a more finalized idea inspired by the content above.
Research ceramic artists - write a project proposal report! Present to the ceramics professor.

Sunday Aug 30th

Monday Aug 31st

+MORE ON EVERYTHING NEXT WEEK!

Thank you :)

Nadine Khoury