This year, the MA graduation shows took place as part of the first Goldsmiths Design Festival, between 3 and 9 September. The postgraduate shows were called MA.DE GOLD and displayed the work of students from courses in Critical Practice, Design and Environment, Design Futures and Metadesign, Interaction Design, Fashion, Design Education, as well as the Design pathway of the MA in Cultural and Creative Entrepreneurship.
What did the graduating students think of their time at Goldsmiths Design? Bogyung Kim (MA in Design: Critical Practice) told us that she enjoyed most being able to work amongst people from very varied design backgrounds, different from her own as a product designer. Her display included a piece called Conversation, with stools keeping each other standing (‘because nobody can have a conversation by themselves’) and another titled Balance, with the concept visualised in cushions that balance each other when people are seated.
Cyrielle Andre (MA in Fashion) liked the crowd at Goldsmiths, too, and being surrounded predominantly by designers from different fields than fashion. Cyrielle previously studied art and design in Paris, and her goal is to pursue a career as a fashion editor; she has already acquired some experience in the field collaborating with student magazines, including Goldsmiths’ own ‘smiths’ magazine. Her graduation project, ‘On Body and Clothes’, aimed to analyse the space between clothes and human physicality and was presented as a life-size interactive fashion editorial.
Derin Masha (MA in Design: Critical Practice) was happy with her course, but she wished it had been longer! Just one year was not enough to explore both theory and practice, she felt- and she would have preferred to have it split over two years. Her graduation thesis explored the cultural identity of black women, while the exhibits focused on beauty shops in particular, with items from beauty shops and real promotional quotes displayed together with a garment designed by Derin from Nigerian fabrics.
In addition to the exhibition, some of the student work included a performative aspect. Eunji Han (MA in Design: Critical Practice) held an experimental interaction dining performance, ‘Feast’. At her table, guests could take part in a more unusual dining experience.
On Day 3 of the festival, Design and Environment student Paulina Klapetek offered a live performance exploring sound as material using a trumpet and other objects.
You can see more photos of the MA exhibitions on our Facebook page.
Goldsmiths Design Blog 