Use and reuse

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: Solène Borrat, Élodie Cardinaud, Aude Messager, Julie Meunier, Margot Pons/ designers

Project manager: Anna Mezey

Objectives:
The pupils find themselves in the midst of an astonishing jumble already familiar to designers: a mix of techniques, do-it-yourself and observation. Making clever use of deviation, displacement and adaptation, the classes have to think of new functionalities for a series of existing objects.
The workshop was divided into several sessions enabling the pupils and their tutor to carry out documentary research, experiment with materials and make models.

Workshops:
The user’s role
The pupils were encouraged to observe how familiar, commonplace objects are used in ways quite unlike what the designer imagined. At home, the pupils question their family and friends to find out how they relate to these objects.

Putting objects to new uses
Working in pairs, the pupils tried to imagine new uses for a particular object. They reported on their experiments with photos, drawings and texts. To push their experiments further, the tutor asked them to pick an object and an action at random (for example “tennis ball/sits down”) and to make new proposals.

Production, transformation and change
Each pair had to draw up “specifications” for the object (identity, properties of the materials, the new uses envisaged, target users, price, etc.). Under the tutor's guidance, they designed and made their object. In the last phase they also prepared a "user's manual" for future buyers.

Outcome:
At the end of the project each class selected two or three objects it had designed to go into a collective work. With the text giving instructions for new uses, the objects were photographed and collected a set of 14 black-and-white cards tied together through a metal eyelet. 200 copies were printed and distributed in the participating schools.

Outings (selection):
- "DESIGN OBSERVATORY 2014” AT THE CITÉ DES SCIENCES ET DE L’INDUSTRIE.
- "EVERYDAY OBJECTS”, GUIDED VISIT TO THE MUSÉE DES ARTS DÉCORATIFS.

Participating schools:
- Class (4th SEGPA) Collège Victor-Hugo, Aulnay-sous-Bois
- Class (4th SEGPA) Collège Jean-Zay, Bondy
- Class (4th SEGPA) Collège George-Politzer, La Courneuve
- Class (3rd) Collège Jean-Baptiste-Corot, Le Raincy
- Class (4th SEGPA) Collège Léon-Jouhaux, Livry-Gargan

Photo: GUILLAUME LEBRUN
Graphisme: BIBLIS DUROUX