Design students from Australia and China will join forces for eight weeks, with project convenors, teachers and special guests worldwide, to work collaboratively within a fully online learning environment. Participants will form valuable connections with colleagues in Australia and China, receiving regular feedback and support from peers, teachers and established professionals, using the Internet as their sole communication tool.
COLLABOR8 will consist of online lectures, discussions and forums for design students to discuss their ideas and produce design concepts and viable design solutions. The students will be placed in teams and their object will be to find new ways of working together online respecting each other’s cultural background and meeting the challenges of working in different geographic locations to create solutions to a design brief.
COLLABOR8 joins the Omnium Research Group to stage the third in a series of free, non-profit, international Creative Waves* projects for students and their teachers.
The title of the COLLABOR8 Project makes reference to 8 being seen as a fortuitous number in Chinese culture. The Chinese title of the project 设 Jì Ba) can be interpreted in a number of ways. "设计" means design and "吧" means "bar" - in this instance a design bar where different people can work together on design projects. In addition, "吧" has exactly the same pronunciation as 8 which is used in COLLABOR8. So there is an extra relationship between the English and Chinese name. The characters can also be interpreted to mean "Let's design!"
"The creative industries are seeing designers increasingly adopt collaborative and cross-disciplinary modes of practice using digital networks. The emergence of global workflows means that designers are working more with others from different cultural backgrounds.
This raises questions such as:
Can eastern and western design educators, students and designers develop mutually beneficial understandings about cross cultural design practice by interacting online?
Are we able to design together effectively without ever meeting face to face?"
COLLABOR8 is produced, directed and funded by The Omnium Research Group at the College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales (Australia). The project was conceived in collaboration with the School of Design East China Normal University, Shanghai (PRChina).
