A Different Expression of Order: A Design Process Inspired by African American Art & Culture
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Date
2018-08-25
Authors
Spencer, Rachel
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Abstract
In seeking to develop a design approach inspired by African American culture,
jazz emerged as a deep source of creativity in art and design. This project looks
at the invariable features of jazz—improvisation, syncopation, call-and-response,
harmonic structure, and kinetic orality— in relation to the sister disciplines of the
visual artwork of Gee’s Bend and the spatial practices of African Americans in the
Southern United States. Drawing connections between the media resulted in an
interpretation of their commonalities leading to a set of operating and underlying
principles that explained the occurring phenomena. These principles were then
tested in a research by design experiment with a determined context, at a site
choosen for its historical relevance to the African American community in the
Lower Albina neighborhood in Portland, Oregon. The objective of the design sought
to reestablish the urban fabric that was severed by the elevated transportation
infrastructure of the interstate highways. The resulting new approach was
discovered through an iterative process of design and reflection that tested the
interpretation of constructed principles inspired by African American cultural
expression. This new approach consists of a set of guidelines that is transferrable
to other sites and is an opportunity for future research.
Description
Examining committee chair: Mark Eischeid