This semester the ID department has a new designer in residence, Susana Soares (since our former designer in residence is now a professor). Susana lives in London and it's really great to have her here to gain experience with a different professor and hear her perspective on design.
We were given a short project this month that I really enjoyed. We were asked to design a superhero as well as design FOR the superhero. It was left fairly open ended except we were told to keep in mind issues such as genetic modification and new technologies that will be an integral part of our near future. (Think in terms of movies like Gattaca, Minority Report, The Island, etc.)
The back story for my hero is that, over a hundred years from now, after we as humans have tried to resist climate change with man-made technologies, nature rebells against us and natural disasters such as earthquakes and tsunamis are regular occurances. My hero, Advecta, uses her powers of kinetic sensitivity, weather manipulation, and photographic reflexes to help try and stop disasters as well as aid in disaster relief.
A friend of mine actually posed for the project and I was able to use the images to depict the type of technology she may need in her mission for disaster relief. Here's one image of a flexible, wearable LCD screen that allows her a constant flow of information in terms of internet and images to assess disaster sites and oncoming disasters.
