Interaction design professionals lend expertise to student charrette, present public lecture Jan. 19

Tuesday, January 18, 2011, By Erica Blust

Three interaction design professionals are lending their expertise to industrial and interaction students participating in a charrette—a short but intense design project—being held through Friday, Jan. 21, at Syracuse University. The industrial and interaction design program is part of the Department of Design in SU’s College of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA).

Visiting professional interaction designers James Patten, Chris Woebken and Joan Orth will join the industrial and interaction design faculty in working with 16 student teams during the charrette, which is focused on the theme “Lost: An Exploration of Interactive Finding.” The charrette will culminate in a free public presentation by the students on Friday from 4-7 p.m. in the first-floor auditorium of The Warehouse, 350 W. Fayette St.

In addition, Patten and Woebken will give free public presentations on Wednesday, Jan. 19, from 2-4 p.m. at the Everson Museum of Art’s Hosmer Auditorium, 401 Harrison St.

Patten, who is also an inventor and visual artist, works at the intersection of the physical and digital worlds. Much of his work involves creating new ways to visualize, understand and change digital information by using physical objects to represent and control it. His Brooklyn-based design firm, Patten Studio, creates interactive projects related to this theme.

Woebken is also the owner of a studio practice in Brooklyn. He previously worked as a designer at Adobe in Hamburg, Germany, and IDEO in San Francisco. He has been a visiting critic at such design schools as Columbia, School of Visual Arts, NYU, the Pratt Institute and MIT. His work has been shown at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City; Science Gallery in Dublin, Ireland; and the IVAM in Valencia, Spain.

Orth is a senior art director currently working within Digitally Enabled Connecting at Hallmark, based in Kansas City, Mo. Her current projects include those for CVS, Walgreens, Walmart and Facebook. She has also worked on Hallmark Mobile and digital cards, including a USB product for a card launched in conjunction with the film “Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa.”

For more information about the events, contact Donald Carr, associate professor of industrial and interaction design, at 315-443-2455 or dwcarr@syr.edu.