"Make Room" was an interventional space part of CUTMR, an annual interactive art exhibition. It was an interactive, light-hearted satirical space, addressing issues around the act of designing and making. The name is a play on the fact that it is a chaotic room for mass making, and a commentary on what we should move aside and what we should make room for.At first glance, it is the ultimate arts and crafts room gone wild. Crafting materials are provided within a blank cardboard canvas room lined with empty shelves and hanging hooks, so visitors could become artists of the exhibition themselves, creating and displaying their work.Rapid advancements in new technology are changing the way we design. With new materials, digital fabrication machines, and an infinite online knowledge base becoming more and more accessible every day, designers are using our plentiful resources to create consumable objects in vast quantities. With so many people aggressively adopting the occupation of "maker" and entering into the realm of design under the “DIY” label, the disparity between the quality and quantity of made objects is becoming increasingly worrisome. Consideration towards the intention for designing is being displaced with a tacitly undesirable need of the masses to make, consume, discard, and repeat.The installation was created with The Design Fabrication Zone (DFZ) at Ryerson, an incubator that cultivates and supports experimental design/fabrication project work, and design-based entrepreneurial ventures.Amongst the crafts, a collection projects produced by members of the DFZ were displayed around the room, with descriptions of “Who”, “What”, “Where”, “When”, and “How” they were created. They serve as exemplifiers of purposeful design, and serve as motivators to guide users to question and answer the most important factor: “Why”.After making their works of "art", we invited the users to start asking the basic questions about making, hopefully leading to more responsible and honest intentions for the future of design.
2019
Gladstone Hotel, Toronto
built with support from friends and volunteers from TMU’s Design Fabrication Zone
Photos & Videos
Gladstone Hotel
Dominik Haake
Andrew Davy
Lily Jeon