Dr Austin Holdsworth was one of the most qualified guest lecturers we have experienced, with an MA, PhD, RCA and a FRSA. Houldsworth explained that he began his academic journey from a Fine Art background yet has drifted towards a graphics/ product style influence on his current set of works. His approach centres around Anthony Dunne’s Speculative Design/ Critical Design term, in which the process is to apply curiosity and speculation to all progression. Looking to the future and wondering what that my look like for the ordinary person or user. Bel Geddes of General Motors is a great example of speculative design in which he presented Futurama at the 1939 New York Worlds Fair. He exhibited a possible model of the world twenty years in the future (around 1960), which was characterized by vast suburbs and automated highways (Geddes, 1940). He also noted that he separates his work into three categories: Work for himself, work for others and work for knowledge. As he explained, speculation is everywhere, particularly in our current culture. 

 

He talked at length about his involvement with The Toaster Project with Thomas Thwaites. The project itself centred around creating a toaster from scratch and illustrating how difficult this can be for the regular person. It also highlighted how prices of regular items are so low, yet if we were to create them ourselves, they would be extremely expensive, and quite inaccessible. This gave a great insight in the capitalism and consumer culture on a whole. We often take for granted the accessibility and ease we must consume countless products. 

 

I really enjoyed Austin’s approach to his work. He seems to take everything in his stride and looks to his process to experiment rather than focus on the end result. Which is something that I feel I need to employ within my own practise as I seem to be overthinking and worrying about what the outcome might be. 

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Reference: 

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Geddes, N., 1940. Magic motorways. [Edited Book] Prelinger Library, 2006-11-10 00:26:32. New York.