Abstracting the tangible is the goal of students in April Allen’s
residential furnishings and interiors course.
“The students start with an inspiration – an airplane
propeller, a martini glass, a monster, the Eiffel Tower,”
she explained. “They break that tangible inspiration down
to its simplest elements and use those elements in a design
for a mobile,” explained the assistant professor in the
textiles, merchandising and interiors department of the College
of Family and Consumer Sciences.
“This is one of the first projects in the course and serves
as a way for students to free their minds and begin understanding
the principles and fundamentals of design – lines, space,
balance, rhythm, harmony, emphasis and other elements,”
she said.
The students begin their project by researching the work of
the late Alexander Calder, the artist most credited with developing
mobiles as an art form.
“During the course of the semester, the students will
progress in learning how to take these basic elements of design
and incorporate them into three-dimensional ideas,” Allen
said. “For their final project, they’ll design a
small interior space.”
Currently about 70 students are majoring in furnishings and
interiors in the College of Family and Consumer Sciences, with
another 60 listed as intended majors. This is a high-demand
major with about 40 students admitted each year to the program.
The residential furnishings and interiors course is an introductory
course, but by the time students graduate they will have learned
the intricacies of using furnishings, textiles, color and other
elements to create spaces that enliven and enrich people’s
lives.
The mobiles are currently on display in room 306 of Dawson Hall.
Building
the New Learning Environment
The new learning environment is an academic and intellectual
community on the campus of the University of Georgia humming
with the vibrancy of the true college experience—bright
and talented students working with brilliant faculty formally
in the classroom and informally over a cup of coffee or lounging
in the greenspace which stretches from one end of campus to
the other. It is a place which recognizes that new information
technologies are transforming traditional academic disciplines
and embraces those opportunities. |
Students
learn how to take basic elements of design and incorporate them into
three-dimensional ideas by studying and creating mobiles in April
Allen’s class.
