Hasta La Ideas

domekit, by EFFALO

Our next Hand-Eye Supply Curiosity Club, is right around the corner so we sat down with our speaker, Michael Felix, to give you a little preview of his presentation next week! Felix is a design scientist concerned with the subtle interactions that occur between humans, nature, and technology. His work at EFFALO is grounded in the idea: Think hyperglobally, act microlocally. Michael will be speaking next Tuesday, March 22nd at the Hand-Eye Supply store in Portland at 6PM.

Curiosity Club: What is a design scientist? How does it differ from being strictly a Designer or Scientist?

Michael Felix: A design scientist is more concerned with the process over the aesthetic outcome. If the process of design is beautiful, then so will the end result. This requires the designer to think in wholes and approach problems empirically, focusing on just one thing at a time. Contrast this with conventional product design, where the emphasis is usually upon rapidly-designed, massively-produced, shiny objects.

Your work focuses on systems and processes, what tools (physical or otherwise) do you find yourself using repeatedly?

I try to document everything as it happens using blogging tools like tumblr or wordpress. I take pictures, record sounds and journal thoughts in the attempt to create an emerging narrative that reflects my process. More often than not, the intended audience for this documentation is myself and I refer to it regularly.

Mental tools are just as important. Maintaining a healthy tolerance for ambiguity will allow things to unfold in a natural way. Embracing both failure and success makes every experiment a worthwhile endeavor. I always aim to pay attention to wholeness and work iteratively, continually moving forward step-by-step.

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