Cars

Since 2009, the Seine-Saint-Denis County Council has been backing “la Culture et l’Art au Collège (CAC)”. This project is based to a large extent on the presence in class for several weeks (40h) of an artist or scientist whose mission is to engage the students in a process of research and creation. 

Tutors: Gaëtan Barbé, JÉRÉMY GAUDIBERT, JULIETTE GELLI/ designers

Project manager: Anna Mezey

Objectives:
Designers know that during their working lives, they will alternate between their own, personal projects and unavoidable rites of passage. They are often apprehensive about the latter, as they test the designer’s creativity: chairs, tables, lamps, but also and above all, cars. 

Workshops:
Three Questions
To launch the project, the designer asks the students to keep three questions in mind: what is the car for? Who uses it? What do they want to do with it? Together, they then study automobile magazines, specialist reviews and adverts; they also observe the cars in the city or in the school car park. They classify them by type: classic car, coupé, MPV, delivery tricycle, Google car or even prototypes for open mobile objects. At the end of this phase, the students choose their favourite cars, the ones they hate and the ones they dream of driving.

Automobile Lab
The class has to draw up its own specifications. The designer points out the restrictions that define the designing of modern cars. In some cases, it involves seeing how this means of transport is part of today’s society, taking into consideration economic and ecological issues. The students start describing their different cars: “MOHK” uses biomass and solar energy; to make sure that nothing is wasted, fruit peel can be put in small holes in the wheels. The “Panel Transporter” is a one-person car for short trips (e.g. from home to the office), which runs on renewable energy. Then there’s the “BMWH 700”, a wind-powered car that takes in and then compresses the surrounding air. It is driven using a joystick or remotely voice-activated via wifi.

Thinking like a manufacturer
The next stage involves sketching the vehicles and then translating the sketches into technical plans and assemblages so that the students can make 1/16-scale models. To show the cars in action, the contributor proposes a photo capture featuring the cars. The photos are then integrated in stop motion animation. 

Outcome:
From 30th May to 9th June 2017, the National School of Industrial Design (l’École nationale supérieure de la création industrielle) hosted an exhibition showing the different projects for vehicles designed by the students and their contributor. More than 600 visitors came to see the texts, drawings and a stop motion video showing the cars in action.  

Acknowledgements: 
Yann Fabes, Head of ENSCI- les Ateliers; Margot Casimir, “Design & Diversity” project coordinator, ENSCI- les Ateliers.

Outings (selection) :
- "En Carosse ! " exhibition with Paul Arzens, Musée des Arts et Métiers (industrial design museum)
- Studio Superface and Numéro Design (creative workshop focusing on colours, materials and digital modelling), Guyancourt
- Conservatoire André Citroën, Aulnay-sous-Bois. Guided tour of the collection. 

Participating schools: 
- class 3è 3, collège PAUL LANGEVIN, DRANCY
- class 5è 7, COLLÈGE JEAN-BAPTISTE COROT, LE RAINCY
- class 5è A, COLLÈGE JEAN VILAR, VILLETANEUSE

Photos: PIERRE ANTOINE