RMIT projects named as finalists in Premier’s Design Awards

Projects by Dr Jonathan Duckworth, Dr Brad Haylock, Stuart Geddes, Dr Steffen P Walz and the Exertion Games Lab have all been nominated as finalists in the 2015 awards.

Dean of the School of Media and Communication, Professor Martyn Hook, said this was a remarkable achievement from a very strong field of entries and publicly announced the arrival of the RMIT Centre for Games Design Research (CGDR),  in only its first year of operation.

“The exceptional work by CGDR researchers also signals the serious potential of games in the field of health and bio-tech, and builds on the existing strengths for which RMIT is already renowned,” Hook said.

 “All our finalists demonstrate the significant contribution the School of Media and Communication makes to RMIT's formidable reputation for producing excellence in design research.”

The “Elements” rehabilitation project from the Creative interventions, Art and Rehabilitative Technology laboratory (CiART) is a finalist in the Digital Design category.

Led by Dr Jonathan Duckworth, the project developed an interactive tabletop environment designed to support movement assessment and rehabilitation for people with an acquired brain injury.

The Exertion Games Lab has been selected in the category of Service Design for “TastyBeats”.

The fountain-based interactive system creates a fluidic spectacle of mixing sport drinks based on heart rate data during exercise, which the user can later drink to replenish the loss of body fluids due to the physical activity.

Communication design academics Stuart Geddes and Dr Brad Haylock were nominated in the category of Exhibition and Communication Design for their graphics for The Future is Here, a touring exhibition co-curated by RMIT Design Hub with London’s Design Museum, with RMIT’s Dr Roland Snooks (Architecture and Design) and Fleur Watson (Design Hub).

The Exertion Games Lab, Geddes and Haylock are also members of RMIT’s Design Futures Laboratory, an interdisciplinary design research community that investigates issues of technology, culture and communication in design.

In the category of Design Strategy, Dr Steffen P Walz from the Games and Experimental Entertainment Laboratory (GEElab) has been selected for his project “Deck Future Australia”.

A social card game and gameful strategic innovation tool, “Deck Future Australia” lets users invent and play through convergent ideas for a prosperous, prospective Australia, and the world beyond.

The RMIT finalists follow the success of Dr Yoko Akama in both the Good Design Awards and Premier's Design Awards in recent years.

The winners of the 2015 Premier’s Design Awards will be announced on 8 December.

Story: Wendy Little