#SDF2016 Block Party Recap
The Seattle Design Festival Block Party is near and dear to our hearts, not only because it's the annual kickoff to the Festival but also because it was originally conceived by Seattle Design Nerd co-founders Jeremy & Trevor along with Architect Jon Gentry and played a major role in the formation of the Seattle Design Nerds. I've written about how the Block Party (called the Design Block in its early days) originally came about in the past so I won't delve into that here besides saying that it came from a desire to do something, anything in a public space. The Block Party has grown and matured since 2012 into an event with true critical mass, this year's BP had over 25 built installations in addition to a marketplace of design goods.
For this year's Block Party the Design Nerds put together an installation and provided support on another. Our installation, The Dodecatron, represents our own goal of producing an installation that pushed our inflatable skills, experimented with some new interactions, and created a space to relax for a bit. Dodecatron went through several iterations but we ultimately landed on a space full of inflating/deflating elements that the public could blindly push through, hug, and wear themed as an abstract time machine. At it's center we asked visitors to draw us a quick doodle of what they thought Seattle might look like in 2050 knowing that it would result in both utopian and dystopian imagery and avoid the standard "note" wall. The Dodecatron will now undergo a transformation and expansion over the next few weeks before we ship it off to SXSW Eco to be part of the PXD Outdoor Lounge along with the ReFractor. The newly formed "Decatron" will feature 3x the number of inflatable elements along with a central surprise. We'll share more info on Decatron soon.
The Block Party had its most diverse range of installations with the highest quality we've seen.
OKicecube by Olson Kundig
Clockwise: KineticCreations Mural, Adapt by Sparksy Design, Rainsound Experience by Chris Martin, OKiceCube by Olson Kundig, Con[TEXT] by Ankrom Moisan, House of (ex)change by Rolluda Architects.
Tipping Point by SRG Partnership.
One of our favorites, MORPHOS by MAKERS shows you don't always need the enormous budgets some of these installation pieces had.
Clockwise: DoDecatron by Seattle Design Nerds, SeaTopia VR by Weber Thompson, A Shared State of Emergency by Aubree + Richelle, GROVER by UW CBE & NAC Architecture.
Revolution by YenFisherSmith and Cause/Effect by Design Force.
Clockwise: Mobile Co-Design Space by Mobile Participatory Design Research Lab , Changemaker Installation by AIGA Seattle, A Fine Line by NBBJ, IMVisible by IDSA, Metal over Wood by Women of Color Speak Out