Hyundai y la Escuela de Diseño de Rhode revelan su proyecto sostenible

• El proyecto de investigación examina la relación entre la naturaleza, el arte y el diseño, y explora cómo podemos crear sociedades social y ambientalmente justas
• El profesorado y los estudiantes exploraron cuatro áreas distintas -óptica y vidrio, cerámica digital, robótica y paisajes tecnológicos- en torno al tema "Futuros sostenibles
• La iniciativa forma parte de la colaboración de investigación RISD x Hyundai, creada en 2020

Hyundai Motor Group (el Grupo) y la Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) han revelado hoy la última fase de la RISD x Hyundai Research Collaborative, una asociación plurianual.

El Grupo y la RISD llevan trabajando juntos desde 2020 para estudiar futuros ambientalmente justos. La colaboración refleja el compromiso del Grupo con el fomento de una sociedad sostenible, al tiempo que pone de relieve la experiencia del profesorado del RISD y la creatividad experimental de los estudiantes para concebir realidades futuras sostenibles.

En este tercer año de colaboración, con el tema "Futuros sostenibles", los profesores de la mundialmente conocida escuela de diseño aprovecharon su experiencia para ayudar al Grupo a profundizar en importantes cuestiones de sostenibilidad con el apoyo de tres docenas de estudiantes investigadores.

Cuatro equipos creativos con experiencia en cerámica, medios digitales, vidrio y robótica investigaron formas de construir futuros más sostenibles, aprovechando diferentes perspectivas y tecnologías. En cada uno de estos temas, la naturaleza se concibe como un punto de partida complejo y tecnológicamente mediado para nuevas formas de ver y hacer el mundo.

Digital Ceramics

Faculty lead: Lesley Baker, Ceramics

The Digital Ceramics research studio explored the use of newer technologies to produce forms composed of both traditional and new potential materials, such as salt, sand, sawdust and coffee grounds, with an emphasis on sustainability. Modeling applications, including 3D scanning in collaboration with the Nature Lab, have been used to produce forms that can be fabricated by additive technologies, including paste clay extrusion and the use of experimental sustainable materials. Students worked with an open-source printer to gain a better understanding of how shared technology leads to unexpected connections and new ways of making.

Experiments in Optics

Faculty lead: Jocelyne Prince, Glass

The graduate research studio focused on optics and their role in observing and imaging nature. The research was organized around the theoretical and technological aspects of optics with an emphasis on their relationship to glass, exploring physics, projection, magnification, perception, imaging and their role in media, within both historical and contemporary contexts. Visiting experts brought new and unexpected perspectives to the research, including biologist and Hyundai Research Fellow Felipe Shibuya, who spoke to the class about other animal species’ vision.

Robotics for the Pluriverse

Faculty lead: Paula Gaetano-Adi, Experimental and Foundation Studies

Robotics for the Pluriverse is a Computation, Technology and Culture-affiliated research studio and experimental laboratory for analyzing, studying, imagining, speculating and making robots and other artificially ‘intelligent’ beings.

For this year’s project, the studio interconnected a diverse array of perspectives and disciplines, from state-of-the-art robotic and AI technologies to the cultural work of sci-fi cinema and literature to the pluriversal praxes and methodologies that challenge Western thought and science. In one assignment, students made robots whose main mission is to repair something, opening dialogue about the role of robotics in proposing alternative social, environmental and sustainable futures.

Technological Landscapes

Faculty lead: Shona Kitchen, Digital + Media

Technological Landscapes is an experimental, interdisciplinary research studio focusing on the intersection of place, landscape and technology, with participants who have worked with NASA’s Airborne Sensor Facility, Stanford’s Linear Accelerator, URI’s Inner Space Center and the Naval War College.

Their research investigated new modes of creative inquiry related to place-based practice, including fieldwork and site visits, interdisciplinary collaboration and public art. Participants explored the psychological, social and environmental consequences of technological advancement and failure, speculating about possible near futures where science fiction meets the built reality. Projects functioned as imagined propositions, revealing and subverting the unseen technological forces in the world around us and exposing our shifting role as creators, consumers and unwitting victims of technology.

The Group and RISD’s ‘Sustainable Futures’ joint research project continues to build upon the collaborative research platform created by Strategic Partnerships at RISD, which was designed solely for Hyundai in 2020.

The research was informed by the expertise and methodologies of trained scientists at RISD’s Edna W. Lawrence Nature Lab, working with RISD faculty and students on biodesign topics, including biomimicry, biomaterials and biosystems applications. Hyundai and Kia designers provided necessary input and feedback on projects throughout the process. Additional support in research activities came from expert staff support in Co-Works, RISD’s interdisciplinary research and making lab focused on emerging technologies.

The 2022 research groups reflect 12 RISD degree programs (Architecture, Ceramics, Digital + Media, Film/Animation/Video, Glass, Graphic Design, Industrial Design, Interior Architecture, Photography, Printmaking, Sculpture and Nature-Culture-Sustainability Studies) and the RISD-Brown Master of Arts in Design Engineering (MADE) program.

This summer, 13 students from this cohort will continue to work with the four faculty leads, spending eight weeks of intensive, continued activity on expanding Sustainable Futures research in collaboration with the design teams at Hyundai and Kia. An exhibition at RISD displaying student projects in the form of images, videos and physical prototypes is planned for fall 2022.

Download images, videos and other artifacts on this project
View a short video about the 2021 research collaboration