The Omnium™ Research Group (Australia) at the College of Fine Arts (UNSW) is pleased to announce ‘The COLLABOR8 Project’ (C8). COLLABOR8 is an eight-week long fully online education non-profit initiative that aims to establish a basis for collaborative online art and design projects between universities in Australia and China.
COLLABOR8 is about creating awareness about the importance of cross cultural design practice and sustainability in design. It will do this by challenging students to work together to design graphics for contemporary, environmentally friendly and sustainable ceramics, textiles, products and environments.
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.
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).
* The first Creative Waves project took place over a ten-week period during 2005, linking over one hundred photomedia and graphic design students and their teachers from 35 colleges in 22 countries around the world. Participants interacted in small design teams (where no team member was in the same geographic location) to challenge and respond to an unfolding and conceptual design brief.
http://creativewaves.omnium.net.au/030405/outline/
* The first COLLABOR8 Projects took place in 2003 and 2004 between design students in Australia and China. Students interacted in small groups online to explore how simple web technologies might platy a role in collaborative design practice across cultural boundaries. The images on this page are works generated in the first two COLLABOR8 projects.
Creative Waves and COLLABOR8 are non-profit online projects run free for students. If you are involved in the media and interested in using your resources to help promote the COLLABOR8 project, please click on the button below to access a Media Kit, or contact Omnium founder and director Rick Bennett or COLLABOR8 Project Director Ian McArthur.
The College of Fine Arts The University of New South Wales Sydney, Australia
The College of Fine Arts The University of New South Wales Sydney, Australia
