ADELINE DYCK-MCCRARY (she/her)

Design Sophomore / Des 3515 Design Research Studio

Hello! My name is Adeline Dyck-McCrary. I am currently a sophomore in the MDD program. This semester has been quite hectic, but I've enjoyed every minute of it experimenting and getting to know my style. All of my design classes this semester have been filled with so many projects that I've gotten to have so much fun with, but I will focus on the projects I've have gotten to work with in studio.

Studio was focused around research, what it is, who it's for, and why. I've come to understand that there are so many different reasonings for research, and the way we research as designers doesn't just stick to being at a desk!

Throughout studio, field research has become a big part of how I research. By going to the place of research and getting to know the surroundings has opened a new form of research for me! The first places we researched for a land response research project, was Stansbury Island and Maverik...the gas station.

Stansbury Island was the first place my class visited, there was a lot to unpack and at first I really wasn't sure what I was looking for. I kept gravitating towards the movement of the sand and how it interacted with the wind. This got me to thinking about human's impacts on nature. I didn't figure out my research opportunity for this land response soon enough, but I decided to create posters that informed and questioned the human interactions with the natural land.

The second land response was Maverik, this time around I had a better understanding of what I wanted to research, and how I would do it. I was found at a gas station in China when I was an infant...and that was it. I created a few documents that helped further my research. This video along with them.

The last project within our land response projects was to combine the two, and create a whole new response. I had a hard time connecting the two through research, so I went around that issue, and connecting the two literally, by creating a newspaper and writing about the two places in a scholarly way.

Lastly, for the final project, the prompt that was given was, "Play". That was it. I started out pretty confused on what to do for this project, but later I found a connection to play. Optical Illusions. I wanted to understand more on how optical illusions play tricks on the human mind, and further research how people use optical illusions in the real world. The research process for this was fun and at times, quite tedious. Throughout my research I learned about how our brains decipher and interpret illusions, how optical illusions are inherently psychological, and how illusions also help make the world a "safer" place at times.

This course served me with the opportunity to create various and personal projects that have helped me not only grow as a designer, but also a researcher.