Last week saw the announcement of the Nova Award winner for 2012. Congratulations to Conall McAteer for his amazing work ‘Crate’ and a fantastic time had by all at the party!
You can find out more about the event at http://www.contagiousmagazine.com/2012/09/nova_award_2.php
Teaser video of the #NovaAward exhibition being prepared for tomorrow’s award ceremony.
Special edition Contagious Magazine covers of the Nova award shortlist.
The homeless vending machine was designed to create an accessible point for the homeless to vend one of three beneficial kits to improve life while sleeping rough.
How it works: A city commuter is presented with a stamp card along with their morning coffee encouraging them to connect with a charitable scheme which results in the receipt of a donatable token and a free hot drink. The public then feel uncompelled to make a token donation to the homeless, this breaking social barriers as pressure to donate money is diminished. The scheme would be promoted through charitable organisations that will ensure a rough sleeper has convenient access to ‘vendable aid kits’ providing warmth, comfort and freshness whilst sleeping rough on the streets.
Shortlisted for the Nova Award.
Caroline Kernick designed and made incredibly intricate pieces of jewellery, crafted entirely from paper and gouache for her BA at Central Saint Martins. Designed to mimic priceless pieces, each item took a painstaking 200 to 300 hours to create, and helped her gain a place on the Nova Award shortlist.
In this piece Erika Renedo Illarregi sets out to find a way to encourage people to accept diversity and overcome judgemental perspectives through design. In her MA, Illarregi linked dreaming and psyhosis as the starting points of products that exemplify frustrations for sufferers of mental illnesess such as schizophrenia.
The result was Empathology, a series of corrupt household objects such as a plate with no base, a bulb with the glass shattered, a a wooden spoon that was curved round, making it’s functionality defunct. Being confronted with these objects forced people to reappraise their everyday interactions.
One of the 13 pieces shortlisted for the Lowe and Partners and Central Saint Martins Nova Award,
Luke Stevens’ work explores the value of the ordinary, the assuming and the overlooked within fashion design.
With a particular focus upon craftsmanship the collection draws inspiration from the most mundane of clothing references and materials, while also highlighting the potential of mistakes and faults as a design tool. Fleece and polyester suiting are mixed with silks, linens and shearling to question the perceived value of materials. Finished garments are over printed with pigment to exaggerated the effects of a stain and care labels, featuring customized washing symbols, replace the designer label, exaggerated, flashy and on show.
We’re hosting the Nova Award in partnership with central Saint Martins and Contagious Magazine. Contagious has produced these fantastic covers of the shortlist to wet our appetite for the big awards show in London next Wednesday. Which one is your favourite?
The Jean Tu project by Stella Lin has definitely got the cuteness factor. She’s thought of everything with this lovable character which has been turned into touch points such as chocolate packaging, comic books and key rings.
One of our 13 pieces shortlisted for the Nova Award. Winners will be announced on the 5th September.
Conall McAteer
The wooden crate was used as a design element in gaming to complicate space and form architecture within a virtual world. In Crate, what has been simulated in the virtual world as a texture covered form is relocated into the world from which it originated.
Its scale (a six-foot cube) encourages viewers to respond to the object, the location and themselves as one. From different heights and distances its illusion (or virtual reality) is granted to lesser and greater extents. Permitting direct viewing of the finished surface of the object as a two-dimensional image, and as a three-dimensional form. The materiality of the object becomes evident on closer inspection.
The temporality of Crate is designed to evoke a sense of mortality. In the virtual world the recurrent textures are immaculate and immutable, they never wear out. Left unpreserved, the hardwood veneers will age: the walnut will silver, the cherry pinken, and the oak darken. The image and form will possess a life cycle.
