In the summer of 1998, bright orange cranes speckled the Berlin skyline. Young Europeans flocked to the streets by the thousands for the dance party called Love Parade and, after dark, they disappeared inside the dark corridors of a club called Tresor, where…
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News: a former Royal College of Art student has been found “technically” guilty of plagiarism and misconduct after a company complained that his graduate design project was similar to its own services.
The RCA found that Yu-Chang Chou, who graduated from the Innovation Design Engineering (IDE) course earlier this summer, had “presented text created elsewhere as his own”, although the college said that this was “absolutely inadvertent”.
The course, which is a double master’s programme run in collaboration with Imperial College London, said it would now review its procedure to prevent similar incidents happening in future.
The RCA ordered an investigation last month after Finnish startup RePack claimed Chou’s graduation project, also called RePack, plagiarised its concept, brand name and descriptive text.
The college has removed the project from its website and ordered Chou to likewise remove the work from his site. However, since Chou had already graduated from the college when the plagiarism claim arose, it will take no further action.
“The investigation found that the student has presented some text created elsewhere as his own work,” the RCA told Dezeen.
“While we accept that this was absolutely inadvertent, it does technically qualify as academic plagiarism and misconduct. As he is an RCA graduate however, ie no longer an RCA student, there will be no further action taken apart from removing his project from the RCA website, which has already been done.”
Chou presented his concept for a reusable postal packaging system at the college’s summer show in June. Finnish company RePack complained after seeing the project published on Dezeen.
“We regard all forms of academic misconduct, which includes academic plagiarism, as a serious offence,” the college said in a statement. “Students sign up to a code of conduct upon enrolment and we expect them to adhere to this.
“Our investigation has shown that, while Yu-Chang Chou’s work is similar to that of the Finnish design company RePack, he developed the product itself independently.”
“However, as he has inadvertently presented text created elsewhere as his own, we have taken steps to ensure that the work is no longer available on the RCA website. In addition we have advised that Yu-Chang Chou removes all references to the work from his own website and he has confirmed that this has now been done.”
“As a result of the internal investigation, IDE is to review its processes and procedures to ensure that this type of incident does not happen in the future.”
The Finnish company said it was expecting a response “along these lines” from the RCA.
“We obviously weren’t too pleased to see our product being directly copied by a design student and claiming originality for our work,” said RePack’s Jonne Hellgren. “However, other designers and students are not our enemies, but disposable packaging is. We and the world would recommend more packaging products based on reusability rather than disposability.”
The post Royal College of Art graduate
“technically” guilty of plagiarism appeared first on Dezeen.
Designer Sammy Jobbins Wells has stretched material made by bacteria over structural frames to create a set of wearable objects (+ slideshow).
Sammy Jobbins Wells’ Skin project involved growing bacterially produced cellulose, started with a culture from a kombucha mushroom that she bought from an internet retailer.
Related story: Forget Me Knot by Sruli Recht
“Acetobacter bacteria spins cellulose – a by product – as it consumes glucose, the reasons for which are unclear but it is thought the material might protect the bacteria colony from external contamination,” Jobbins Wells told Dezeen.
The result is a flexible organic material that contracts and hardens around a physical form as it dries, mimicking skin stretched over bone.
“When wet, the cellulose is incredibly flexible and tensile and it is incredibly difficult to pull material with a thickness of more than two millimetres apart,” said Jobbins Wells.
“When dry, the material maintains a large degree of its strength but has a strange, leathery feel, almost like old human skin.”
To create the material, the bacteria requires specific conditions. A solution of glucose and tea is mixed with water and kept at room temperature for optimum growth.
The tea provides added nutrients for the bacteria and also gives colour to the end material.
“I discovered that regular, white Japanese Sencha tea allowed for the greatest transparency seen in the structure,” said Jobbins Wells.
Starting with a small jar, the designer harvested and transferred larger and larger cultures over a few months until she had sheets of material grown in a reptile terrarium – enough to create the wearable objects.
Jobbins Wells used the Delaunay triangulation algorithm to create the shapes of the laser-cut balsa wood frames, using the Grasshopper plug-in for 3D modelling software Rhino.
“I wanted people to see that this structure had distinctly a digital, rather than an organic, beginning both in its design and generation,” she said.
The cellulose material is able to fuse to itself as it dries, so holds in place when wrapped around the frames, which were influenced by animal-bone corsets from the 17th and 18th century.
This creates a set of pieces that wrap around the waist, up the back and over the head.
The project builds on research undertaken by designer Suzanne Lee, who made jackets and shoes from bacterial cellulose that has similar properties to leather.
“Suzanne Lee’s Biocouture project gave me the initial inspiration and introduced me to the idea of a bacterial colony being put to work to produce a textile material,” Jobbins Wells said.
Although it offers opportunities for textile production, the material is not without its flaws: “Unfortunately, the material in its current form is not waterproof and does eventually return to a wet state upon sustained contact with moisture,” said the designer.
“The wearable object serves to stimulate a conversation, debate and even critique over the future implication of bio-materials in the manufacture of physical objects,” she added.
Jobbins Wells is currently studying at the University of the Arts in Bremen, Germany.
The post Bacteria produces textiles for Skin body
adornments by Sammy Jobbins Wells appeared first on Dezeen.
For all the nutrition, training and bike weight measuring, there’s one thing cyclists everywhere can agree upon after a long hard ride—and it isn’t more energy bars. Aprés beers are a part of bike culture whether you’re…
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Résumant un voyage d’un mois au pays du Soleil Levant, cette superbe vidéo Love Japan réalisée par David Parkinson avec un Canon 5D mkIII offre des images exceptionnelles de la nature et de la vie au quotidien, illustrant avec talent sur le remix de Message to Bears du morceau Holocene de Bon Iver la beauté de villes telles que Kyoto, Nara ou encore Nagano. Plus dans la suite.
There is now only one week left to complete your entry for the Creative Review Photography Annual 2014, with the chance to showcase your best photographic work from the last year and benefit from more exposure than ever before.
So submit your best work from the past year before midnight on Monday 18th August and ensure you are in the running to appear in the CR Photography Annual 2014.
Over the past decade, the CR Photography Annual has showcased the top work work from the world of commercial photography. In particular, it has provided photographers with a brilliant way to get their personal projects in front of our audience of art directors, designers and creative directors. It’s no accident that our most popular category has always been Personal/Non-published.
This year we are shaking things up. This year we are introducing categories to celebrate not just the photographers themselves, but also the art directors and commissioners of photography, including ad agencies, magazines, publishers, stock libraries and fashion brands, with the winning work shown in context of their layouts, pages, covers, and so on.
We are also introducing a category to celebrate the best images commissioned by image libraries to help set standards in this important creative sector.
Details of all the categories here.
Don’t miss out, enter today!
Actor and comedian Robin Williams died earlier today at his home in Tiburon, California, reports..(Read…)
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