A line of sight can be understood as an imaginary line from the eye to a perceived object.
The curators contend that during the years of 2020 and 2021, our Lines of Sight have shifted onto transient, ever-changing trajectories of perception. The uncertainties of the present relegated most of us to a zone of spectatorship. While our near futures appeared unfamiliar, discomforting and distorted, the pandemic also put some things in sharp focus.
As remote learners and teachers we have spent most of the past year as nearsighted beings, living in tele-worlds. The act of seeing becomes more significant than ever. It has to be thought of anew to develop active seeing, active listening, thoughtful reflection and careful action. As designers we are, in fact, learning to see again; by slowing down our processes, taking time to reflect and showing care in our actions.
With Lines of Sight 2021, we sought to dismantle disciplinary boundaries of looking at design in terms of the outcome; instead, we looked at a wider spectrum of design processes and methodologies, and came up with a way of looking at projects and processes in terms of the lines of sights that they collectively traverse. Select an option from the menu below, to explore student work exhibited under each Line of Sight.
🔮 FORESIGHT
futures, SDGs, technology
How do we envision the outcome of our process- the futures it creates, the problems it solves, the structures it builds– and the impact it has on people, the environment, and society?
Intention | Expectation | Brief
🧠 INSIGHT
design research + design practice
How do we make visible the learnings from our projects and processes? How do acts of designing become an epistemic practice?
Research | Learnings | Process
⏳ HINDSIGHT
archives, history, narratives, reframing
What are the ways in which we look at the past to inform the present and build for the future?
Review | Reflection | Introspection | Extrospection
👀 OVERSIGHT
inclusivity, health, wellbeing
How can we look back and engage in retrospective reflection on our positionality as designers and as a species?
What did we overlook, and how did moments of vulnerability shape our processes and outcomes?
Redo | Recontextualise | Redefine
🔭 FAR-SIGHT
restoration, futures, speculation, cosmotechnics
How can we design for the future when our vision is obscured by the uncertainties of the present?
How can seeing become a political process so that as our sight expands so does the ability to see beyond a static mindset and a single reality?
Speculative Design | Future Scope