Mr Izzettin Fazil Akin BID, MA, MSc, CAS

Personal Statement

I am a lecturer in Industrial Design at the University of Liverpool, School of Engineering. I have a Bachelor of Industrial Design and Master of Science in Product Design from Middle East Technical University (Turkey), a Master of Arts in Product Design and Management from Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (Switzerland), and a Certificate of Advanced Studies in Interaction Design from the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland. I am pursuing my Ph.D. studies in the field of design and philosophy of technology at Hessen State University of Art and Design (Germany).

As an industrial designer, I have worked in the fields of rapid prototyping, educational materials and education environments, brand design, and interactive vending machines. My design approach can be summarised as simple and meaningful interactions with explorative forms. With such an approach I have designed a Weather Cuckoo Clock: An IoT version of a traditional Blackforest Clock (supervised by: Massimo Banzi & Giorgio Olivero), Table Talk: An Info Kit for Parents and Kids to Learn about Global Food Issues (supervised by: Christoph Zellweger & Stijn Ossevoort), Coffins for Electronic Devices: A Second-Use Strategy for Obsolete Devices (supervised by: Prof. Peter Eckart).

As a researcher, I have prepared theses titled Research and Design for a Material Sample Information System Appropriate to Industrial Design Students (supervised by: Prof.Dr. Owain Pedgley), Future Scenarios as an Appropriate Way for Designers to Anticipate the Future (supervised by: Dr. Axel Vogelsang and Dr. Andy Polaine). Currently, I am working on my Ph.D. dissertation concerning human-world relations through the objects looking to writing tools-devices-algorithms (supervised by: Prof. Dr. Martin Gessmann). I have published several academic works in the field of material education, critical design, design for experience, design education, and products as mediators.

As a design educator, I have worked in several universities in Turkey as a research & teaching assistant, lecturer, and visiting lecturer. A short list of the courses and workshops I have (co)developed and conducted are as follows:

. An Introduction to Design
. Materialising Ideas
. New Experiences through Materials
. Experience Design for the Digital Space (with Dr. Saniye Fışgın Korkmaz)
. Design for Experiences
. Apprenticeship in Design (with Aslı K. İngin, Dr. Simge Göksoy, Ayşenaz Toker)
. Resistant Design Practices for Cities (with İzzet İlgün)
. Design Fiction (with Dr. Avşar Gürpınar, Billur Turan, Nur Horsanalı)
. Critical Design Supermarket
. Critical Design
. Basic Design: Designing Imaginative Atmospheres (with Dilek Avsan)
. Designing Deliriously Happy Making Objects (with Cemre Fidan Tüzün)
. Designing Theoretical Gifts (with Dr. Merve Sarışın Coşkun, Milad Hadjiamiri)
. Design with a Theory in Mind

Courses were aimed at students of architecture, city and regional planning, industrial design, interior design, and industrial engineering; workshops were open to all. I can summarise my 'learning through designing' teaching approach as:

- Experimental & Critical Materialisation: Despite the vast advancements in digital technology, we still live in a physical world where things matter, such things need to be created by intellectuals concerning the many challenges we are/will be confronted with. University studies need to encourage such kind of production and take the responsibility of providing a space for experimentation.

- Medium Aware Designing: As a design educator, I am aware that each participant in the courses/workshops has a medium where they/she/he can express themselves the best. Designed things are a medium where the designer can create an entity to convey meanings, experiences, or feeling to an audience (such as users, customers, non-humans ...). Participants of the courses are highly encouraged to exhibit the outcomes of the process in order to create a space of self-expression.

- Designing with Theory: In an affluent society, we are a part of, it is very difficult to create things that create value / behave differently / question the norm. Theories give us the necessary intellectual background to think differently, to think wider, or to think beyond society's normative understanding. Therefore being at a university encourages all to take the necessary time and resources to use theories and develop new ones before creating material entities.

- Designing as a Learning Tool: One of the abilities of humans is to design. We as educators can use this universal practise to combine bodily engagement with our world through conscious thoughts in order to explore new fields and gain new knowledge. Through designing, we can process theoretical materials and turn them into material objects where we experience analytical and synthetical steps.