With the exhibition project DESIGN × SCIENCE the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava presents a new platform for dialogue between design research and science. During the Milan Design Week, seven examples of design driven research will be showcased at the BASE Milano experimental laboratory We Will Design 2024.
In the face of an accelerating polycrisis, project featured in the DESIGN × SCIENCE showcase raise questions worth asking:
Which strategies of reuse work best for industrial waste?
How to exploit generative AI in favour of human creativity?
Can we 'design with time'?
Doctoral research projects from STU Bratislava leverage scientific findings and spotlight new positions of design. Vladimír Boroň, František Dorko, Petra Hurai, Vlasta Kubušová, Filip Maukš, Martin Mjartan, Martin Sombathy and Lucia Suchá explore a wide range of topics that are linked by interdisciplinary cooperation and the search for new roles of design.
FEATURED PROJECTS
Vladimír Boroň × Informed Creativity
- research exploring workflows that enable the use of new AI tools in a way that enhances human creativity and authorship
- thesis supervisor assoc. prof. Michala Lipková, research in progress since 2023
Petra Hurai × Experience of Time
- an experimental design thinking toolkit that explores the relational context of subjective time and sensory perceptions through visual cues
- thesis supervisor prof. Peter Paliatka, realization 2016—2023
Vlasta Kubušová × Sensable Biomaterials
- presents latest outputs from research into interactive biomaterials, resulting from cooperation of the crafting plastics! studio with UPenn's DumoLab Research and the MIT’s Label-Free Research Group at the Center For Bits and Atoms
- thesis supervisor assoc. prof. Michala Lipková, research in progress since 2019
Foto Adam Šakový a Petra Hurai.
Filip Maukš × Mixed Reality Workflows
- research focused on ‘phygital’ design process, exploiting the use of mixed reality technologies in the early stages of industrial product design development
- thesis supervisor assoc. prof. Peter Olah, realization 2017 - 2022
Martin Mjartan × Collaborative Craft
- presents a handcrafted glass pieces that are results of experimental corporations, born from overlaps of local craft, collective creativity and community building
- thesis supervisor prof. Peter Paliatka, realization 2018—2021
Foto Petra Hurai a Adam Šakový.
František Dorko & Martin Sombathy × Designing out Waste
- explores the possibilities of applying SymaLITE® - residual materials from the automotive industry from local Slovak manufacturers in the context of interior design
- thesis supervisor prof. Veronika Kotradyová, PhD.,, research in progress since 2022
Lucia Suchá × Phygital materiality
- research exploring innovative approaches to material prototyping in the context of sustainable CMF design strategies
- thesis supervisor assoc. prof. Michala Lipková, research in progress since 2023 
Foto Adam Šakový
Trimtab | Prototyping Change
"The DESIGN × SCIENCE exhibition at the Milan Design Week is a call to action. We believe that scientific research - when amplified by design and applied in practice - can actively contribute to prototyping the change we need to see in the world,” summarizes Michala Lipková, exhibition curator and producer. The aim of the collaborative platform Trimtab (tr1mtab.com), founded and developed since 2018 by Michala Lipková from the FAD STU’s Institute of Design, is to actively seek new industrial partnerships and accelerate technology transfer thanks to design research and multidisciplinary cooperation across and beyond STU’s faculties. The name of the platform is inspired by the metaphor of a "miniature rudder", which was often used by the American architect and inventor Buckminster Fuller to illustrate the multiplier effect of small changes that can affect even the largest systems. 'Prototyping change' in the name of the platform communicates the idea of contributing to positive change thanks to the designer's input into scientific-technological projects, in the spirit of "Fullerian" system thinking and interdisciplinary cooperation.
The project is realized with the support of public funding by Slovak Arts Council.
PRESS PREVIEW: 15. 4. 2024, 10:30 - 19:00
DURATION: 16. — 20. 4. 2024, 10:00 - 20:00, 21. 4. 2024, 10:00 - 18:00
PLACE: We Will Design 2024: Convivial Laboratory, BASE Milano - ground floor, Via Bergognone, 34 — 20144, Milano
ORGANISER: Institute of Design, Faculty of Architecture and Design, Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava, Slovakia
PRESS CONTACT: michala.lipkova@stuba.sk / theshamrockgreen@gmail.com
PRODUCTION: Petra Hurai, Michala Lipková,Trimtab|Prototyping Change, www.tr1mtab.com
CURATOR: Michala Lipková
INSTALLATION: Filip Maukš, Petra Hurai, Michala Lipková
GRAPHIC DESIGN: Petra Hurai, Peter Chmela
DESIGNERS: Mgr. art. Vladimír Boroň, Mgr. art. Petra Hurai, ArtD., Mgr. art. Vlasta Kubušová, MA, Mgr. art. Filip Maukš, ArtD., Mgr. art. Martin Mjartan, ArtD., MID Martin Sombathy, Mgr. art. Lucia Suchá
SUPERVISORS: prof. Veronika Kotradyová, PhD. (Sombathy), assoc. prof. Peter Olah, ArtD. (Maukš), prof. Peter Paliatka (Hurai, Mjartan), assoc. prof. Michala Lipková, ArtD. (Boroň, Kubušová, Suchá)
