This briefs aim was to explore the themes of self, identity and communication under the critical lens of ‘Boundary Objects’, a sociological theory. With the challenge of producing a design artefact that would as a boundary object, between myself and my partner (in this case Kristyna), and utilise our common language/understanding to communicate said design artefact.
Me and Kristyna found our common understanding in the type of emotions we experience when we visit art galleries, as opposed to the genre of art we favoured. From this we created ‘disSIMILAR’, an art gallery collaboration project from my favourite modern art gallery in the UK (Tate Modern, London) and Kristyna’s favourite classical art gallery from the Czech Republic (National Portrait Gallery, Prague) which encourages users to find common ground by explore the similarities in how art creates a personal emotional response as opposed to debating different sides on which art genres we favour. The website functions in a similar notion to Pinterest, the user can choose from a range of emotions and explore collective image boards of artworks. From there, the user can click an artwork and end up in the image’s forum where people can discuss the art and how it pushes that certain emotion into the viewer. To allow the artwork colours to be uninterrupted and allow the users to be undistracted from the website design while discussing emotional reactions, we went with an off-white and black colour scheme to provide a simplified platform.
