#Workshop #Making #Serendipity
Mojave Meltdown
Mojave Meltdown is a transformative workshop series designed to rekindle the spirit of analog creativity among graphic designers. This initiative challenges the pervasive digital saturation in contemporary design practices by encouraging participants to engage directly with physical materials, fostering a space for spontaneity, authenticity, and serendipity.
The initial phase of the workshop was collaboratively designed by Jiho Ahn, Sarah, Vesper, and Helen. The second volume was then further developed by Jiho Ahn and Sarah Chow, enhancing its concepts and goals.
Vol.1
The workshop was first organized at CalArts Desert Trip for M.F.A. Graphic Design in 2023.
Led by four graduate students — Sarah, Jiho, Vesper, and Helen— the group of participants including students and faculty were first guided to choose a sit with eyes closed inside or outside where two speakers are playing two different spatial music playing in harmony. After 10 minutes and another 10 minutes for a chance to change a seat, color papers and scissors were given out to cutout free forms inspired by the music or their free mind. After 15 minutes, participants were asked to experiment with others in how to compose their shapes together. After another 10-15 minutes, participants gathered around a table with their collaborative mini-compositions and composed them into an even larger, total work of everyone's compositions from the workshop. Lastly, participants were invited to draw and write messages on the collage with pastel crayons.
Volume 2
The second volume was organized in a more intimate and specified group of participants — M.F.A. Graphic Design second year students, rigorously working on their thesis — and took place at studio A100 on CalArts campus, where they spent the last year together, yet conceived as an isolated space.
