The second year Creative Design Students at IT Sligo have added a whole new meaning to the concept of the inflatable mattress. When approached by the Model Gallery to design overnight sleeping accommodation for 80 visiting artists and members of the public the students took the idea of temporary sleeping arrangements to a new level by using materials such as cardboard and over 5000 balloons.
The Model’s reopening on 1 May following a two year renovation and building program will host a number of events including Dorm, an opportunity for artists and members of the public to sleepover. The Model approached the students on the Creative Design course last September with the challenge. The students responded by total immersion in the project. They gathered up supplies: cardboard boxes, plastic bags, scrap materials that included wood and pallets and assembled prototypes. Then off they headed to a room in the Models temporary Satellite Gallery on Castle Street to spend the night and test out their prototypes!
The Creative Design course at the IT supports and encourages students to get involved in as many diverse and different projects as possible. Dealing with clients and addressing a brief no matter how unusual is excellent training for the students who are learning the skills necessary to understand and respond to whatever challenges are put before them.
In the first phase of the project, September 09, the students worked in teams to research and develop their ideas, construct finished prototypes and presented them to the staff at the Model.
In Phase 2 (April 2010) the students have taken on the roles of manufactures and project managers. They sourced materials and then utilised the CAD CAM cutting machine in the college’s prototyping lab to cut out the components of the 80 beds. Then the huge task of blowing up balloons and assembling the beds was undertaken. The students organised over 30 volunteers from the Sligo Grammar School and Performing Arts and Design courses at the IT to help.
Their solutions will be called into action on Saturday night when 80 people will take up residence at the model for one night only. The dorm sleepover has had a huge response from both the artists and the general public and is completely booked out.
For further info:
Diarmuid Timmons
Creative Design (Industrial Design)
Tel. 00 353 719155469