Threshold

From the familiar front doorway where we prepare our private selves to enter into the public realm, to the non-places where we stay only for functional purposes - train stations, supermarkets, motorways - we physically move through different spatial thresholds in everyday life. We tend to be nonchalant to these spaces, or as Marc Augé describes, the relative anonymity of being innocent passengers, customers or drivers in these non-places can be a temporary liberation to some of us. The happenings at these spatial thresholds, however banal they look, create dynamism which transits us between different states. Such dynamism in turn transforms a space, a time period, or an object into a threshold, where the urban connects to the suburb, corner becomes retreat zone, the intangible being visualised into the tangible… Threshold contextualises the process of change, and subtly shapes the result. Expanding the concept, ten creative practitioners identify and explore the thresholds in domestic space, everyday life, city experience and their own practices. Using a variety of media, they will lead you through different types of threshold - spatial, visual and material - and question your being and non-being in them.

[mmu-threshold]

Friny Papadopoulou - MA Interior Design

“The Permanent Agony of Not Being Late”

How can a table reflect on the seductive power of everyday rituals? Mapping my journey from home to work on a typical day, from the time I wake up until the time I leave the house, I discovered the key role of the dining table as my main domestic threshold area. On this table I keep a series of coats and jackets, gloves, hats, scarves, bags and keys where my 'metamorphosis' takes place before I leave the house. It is the boundary from my secure indoor world to the perilous world outside. The development of this map is the design of table that equates my ontology and the way I interact with it. The proposal is based on the idea of two horizontal surfaces. One that can be used as before for storing my personal things and a second surface on top of the other, kept neat and empty for any other use (dining, studying, etc.) 

[mmu-threshold]

Gina Nadal - MA Fashion: Fashion Graphics “Looking for a Meaning”

When an object is missing of meaning, its functionality does not exist. The owner does not know what to do with the object. This situation happens with this ceramic pot, it is missing of meaning, therefore, missing of functionality. While the ceramic pot does not have functionality, it can be said that it is in a threshold, in the middle of the places – or in this case, in the middle of functionalities-. With the participation of the visitors, the ceramic pot can get a meaning answering these two questions: Which functionality do you think is the best for this object? Can you draw it? 

[mmu-threshold]

Aina Mohd - MA Interior Design

AVA - Kirigami inspired desk organizer

The design philosophy for this project is exploring the transition between two-dimensional surface into a three-dimensional structure, extracting the idea from a Japanese art, Kirigami. The fold and cut technique is mainly used for card making but in this particular project I do not intend to design a sculptural art, I want it to be functional. 

 Here came the idea of designing AVA, a simple desk organizer for everyday items. The name "AVA" derives from the shape of a folded paper, which is the main element of Kirigami. It is a multi-functional organizer, which can be used for many different types of items; stationaries, makeup or cutleries. 

 It has a flat folded base which is then opened to create the form. It is very playful, but at the same time, very simple to use. Designed for small spaces, it takes up minimal space and can be placed anywhere around the house.

AVA piece is designed with an attention to its function and based on Kirigami design philosophy that also gives it a unique sculptural quality.

[mmu-threshold]

Emma Matley - MA Graphic Design & Art Direction

“Thresholds and Non Spaces”

When we leave our homes to set off on a journey, we pass through a threshold, from one place to another; this space is known as the non-space. The non-space is the moment in time between one threshold and the second one. A space that is seen to be unchanging but allows us to transition between the spaces, a place where there is no apparent personal connection, these spaces are designed to be passed through. I am exploring through a short film how it makes me feel when I am in this transitionary state because although these non-spaces are seen as places we just pass through to get to our intended destination they still conjure up thoughts and feelings. Perhaps these non-spaces act as a place where our thoughts and feelings are heightened, we become distracted from our everyday life and go into another place within our minds, this could be because these non-spaces are nondescript and our minds have to accommodate this constant motion whilst we are transitioning between the spaces. These journeys we have between the thresholds and the transitions are a continual part of our lives.

[mmu-threshold]

Reinold Lim - MA Graphic Design & Art Direction

“A Quiet That Bared”

From the roots of threshold comes transformation into a nature of space. Within observation, the designer recognises the magnitudes of Corners that are floating and neglected in any space. The designer intends to assemble a form; where the formative re-creates a new way of seeing these edges and corners. The patterns of design re-enacts the diffusion of corners and edges' emerging appearances through the "outsides" and "insides" made with the fundamentals of stacked poker cards. Reintroducing with mindful eyes, where the viewer is invited to choose to take a closer look at the mass of corners casted and how we tend to see it in an opposite or alternative surfaces as to what sides are. The traces of Shadows formed by the edges are an invitation through forms drawing concentration to the line of sight and light.

[mmu-threshold]

Emma Ford - MA Textile Practice

“Beauty in the Mundane”

Train stations are distinctively nomadic places. Platforms act as thresholds, symbolising a place of transition and forming the familiar landscape of the daily commute, functioning as checkpoints to a person’s concluding destination. The structure acts as a response to the transitional threshold between the urban and suburban environments, it is intended to be used as fencing at station platforms to create a visual aesthetic that could enhance an individuals wellbeing, whilst also creating the sense of a safer, well lit environment. 

The floral design explores the affinity individuals feel towards nature, and bridges the threshold of the urban. The materiality of the structure is such that it’s adaptable and each engraving can be unique to a platform’s location, reflecting the personality of each town to create a sense of welcoming and ‘arriving home’. This intends to remove the non-place connotations the platform holds and can act as a point of conversation for individuals, bridging the social threshold daily commuters experience with familiar faces. Ultimately the structure intends to create an environment that is not only functional but eloquent and safe.

[mmu-threshold]

Cindy Fentanes - MA Graphic Design & Art Direction

“In search of Illusion: Spaces beyond space”

“Space is the breath of art" — Frank Lloyd Wright Space is a fundamental element in creating any artworks regardless the discipline. In typography, even the smallest space in-between two alphabets that spelled a title is essential. Without it, there would be no balance and the lack of readability is apparent. This notion of space leads the designer to understand threshold as a space where no significant action occurred, but space itself is not meaningless, contrarily, it is needed to support the surrounding environment. Sewing a connecting thread of the thought of threshold and spaces, the designer linked the idea of a corner being the threshold itself and the threshold spaces in letters, as one. Using the idea of pixels, temperature gradient and the understanding of threshold as a non-space, the illusion of gradient formed by the letters create the grids that form a "grey" area that gradually ascends its intensity as it went in to the crease of the corner.

[mmu-threshold]

Crystal Chan Wai-kwan - MFA Design Cultures

“Notebooks with Attitude”

Countless thoughts are generated in human minds everyday, but only a portion are grasped and communicated, or deemed as valuable to be documented. The transition from intangible thoughts to communicable ideas, however elusive, is embedded in the objects which we casually or meticulously write or draw on. I try to posit these objects, which are usually notebooks, sketchbooks, pencils, brushes, etc, as the threshold objects of the intangible state to the tangible state. 

Capturing these fleeting moments is particularly habitual to the creative: to transfer abstract thoughts into language, to make dialogues with oneself, or just to draw intuitively. From a material culture perspective, I home in on the habits of capturing thoughts of the nine students of this Option Unit to investigate the object-subject relationship between them and their note-making objects. Through conversations, observations, listening and writing, I attempt to create textual portraits of these non-verbal relationships as a way to understand how design, as the late material culture scholar Judy Attfield describes, “encompasses the materialisation of the physical world as a human project of creation.”

*Special thanks to the participants of this process (Aina, Amy, Cindy, two Emma’s, Friny, Gina, Leanne and Rei) for their incredible trust and generosity in sharing their thinking process and their notebooks/sketchbooks with me and for display in this exhibition. 

[mmu-threshold]

Leanne Barber - MA Textiles for Fashion

“PLEASE MIND THE SPACE”

The threshold is not meant to be seen; it acts only as a backdrop to the mundane routine. A blurred view from a train window or an unnamed space we choose not to notice on our day to day journeys. The space is void and holds no imaginative life; if we cannot see it, it does not exist. The identity of these non-spaces remains invisible yet mandatory in regards of purpose and use.

The confusion of the threshold is explored, questioning where one space ends and another begins, creating an illusion. Private space spills into the unmapped, unimportant, public space; pushing the boundaries so that it is unclear what is owned and what is not; the transition between inside and outside is disorientated and the cross-over of urban to rural is uncertain.

[mmu-threshold]

Amy Daniels - MA Design Ceramics

“Tipping Point”

I am very interested in the process of change. I am intrigued by an overwhelming presence of the passing of time; deterioration and regrowth, and the impermanence of the world around us. The delicate strength of natural forces is something that I find fascinating and a wonderful source of inspiration for my work. 

 Recently I have been considering this process as a threshold on a much more fundamental level. Through developing a deeper understanding of the mineral make up of clay I have been really excited to discover a way to turn my material from a soft, malleable substance to build with, into brittle, shiny glass within the firing process. This has been such an exciting time, and it is this process that my most recent body of work has come from. 

 I work with a series of controlled tests, each developing from the previous. I am completely addicted to opening the kiln door and discovering how the heat from the firing process has altered the elements within the clay body. I enjoy the playfulness and the concept of allowing fundamental physical laws like the theory of gravity and the process of flow to be an integral part of the work. I enjoy allowing the result to be a shared encounter between myself and the kiln.