Innovation Newsletter Issue 31: Spring 2019

Shaping our world: Change by design

Message from the Vice-President, Research & Innovation

The sensory stimulation offered by colour, texture and structure shape how we interpret the world and how we interact with it. In response to real-world challenges, our researchers are looking at ways in which we can improve that interaction. They are taking creative ideas and employing a wide range of design strategies to catalyze these ideas into tangible solutions. From virtual reality and machine learning to fashion, architecture, economics, urban planning and photography, our scholars are boldly demonstrating design and creativity's intrinsic connection to sustainability, society and inclusive communities.

The stories featured in Innovation are just a few examples of the vital ways that design and creativity can create impact in the world around us, as well as stimulate novel collaborations across different disciplines.

This publication is made possible, in part, with the support of the Research Support Fund.

Intersection

Growing glitch aesthetics

In this world of digital technology and the opportunity for visual perfection it offers, the seeming mistakes are more likely deliberate. They’re glitch art.

Documenting atomic legacies in Japan

The after effects of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are still present in the two Japanese cities nearly 75 years later.

Street beat style

Community police officers who patrol on foot or bicycles have unique uniform needs.

Creativity for everyone by everyone

The idea that creativity is for everyone is at the centre of professor David Gauntlett's work with his new lab, "Creativity Everything."

Partner to Innovate

A database full of emotion

The largest validated multimodal database of emotional speech and song in the world was created at Ryerson and first published in spring 2018.

In Our Community

Designing homes together

A Ryerson professor and her team are spearheading collaboration efforts with several First Nations to create housing that is based on the community's needs.

360 Degrees

Trade by design

New international trade agreements could be designed to include circular economy concepts, helping spark efforts to move towards greater sustainability in the global economy.

Building for a circular future

What if, when it's time to tear a building down, the building has been designed by the architect to be easy to take apart so that the materials can be reused in another project?

Circular fashion design

It's not a question of "if" the fashion industry incorporates a circular economy mindset into its design practices, but of "when."

Policy & Perspective

Where the wild things cross

There's a solution to help wildlife and humans traverse safely across roadways in both forested wilds and urban settings, helping them avoid deadly vehicle collisions.

Meet the Expert

A model mathematician

What if, when planning a new road or bridge to relieve traffic congestion, its effectiveness could be tested before it was built?

Student Feature

Aiming high

With their eyes firmly on the sky, Ryerson students have formed a team called Ryerson Helium and are working to design a functioning personal flying device.

On the Cover

Vaisseau (2018/19)

Professor Jonathon Anderson, Interior Design Director, Faculty of Communication and Design’s Creative Technology Lab

This work is comprised of more than 30 vessels that were 3D printed in PLA plastic using a customized Kuka robotic arm. Created in the FCAD Creative Technology Lab, these vessels are part of a project that explores robotic fabrication. There is an increasing amount of research investigating integrated design and robotic control methods for application in the realm of digital fabrication, reimagining the possibilities of interiors, architecture and design.