Cultural Collage Project

I am one of a goup of UK designers working on the recently launched international collaborative design project Cultural Collage. The project is led by TED's Professor Kay Politowicz and Visiting Professor Marie O'Mahony and involves designers and design students from the University of Sydney in Australia, Pacifico University in Santiago, Chile along with those from the UK.

Working around the central themes of recycling, mutli-disciplinary practice and cultural collaboration, the designers will be asked to choose a second-hand plastic object and this will then be sent to the group of designers in the next country to be worked on or transformed, while always maintaining its functionality. The reworked object will then be sent to the next group of designers to be worked on for a final time.  Participants will also be asked to keep a 'passport' of their ideas, a sketchbook which records their drawings and thoughts which will be sent on with the accompanying object.

TED recently hosted an introductory workshop with presentations from Marie OMahony, Emma Neuberg, and Prof. Kay Politowicz.  The final pieces will be exhibited as part of PassionTour, a design festival in Santiago in September 2009.