Ali Gradischer ACD MFA Practicum Spring 2011
Held In Common
My practicum, Held in Common, assembles a method of interior design that shows care for abandoned items through a process that examines object relationships within ordinary environments. My labor is the result of a direct response to generic, schematic, and two-dimensional traditions outlined in the business of interior design. This project breaks down into four main categories that make up a larger method to rethinking commonplace objects. These include: collection, documentation, repair, and re-presentation. I am taking responsibility for a sampling of objects that I have collected from free sources and exploring their potential for a new life. The mission behind Held in Common is to establish the start of my creative practice and to explore different methods of making. Through active hands-on engagement, my work is seeking to correct what I did not learn in my previous design education. Held in Common is also a call to action for us to observe that what we have is already inherently good enough. Through the care of these items I am seeking a personal solution to interior design by embracing the rejection of commercially packaged style, appearance, and taste in an effort to discover something real, genuine, and truthful about abandoned objects.