AGNESE PRIEKULE
DESIGN ACTIVIST
This is a provoking prototype a.k.a. provotype of a sleeping bag for a refugee. The main purpose of it is to trigger thoughts and discussions about the complex topic of migration.
The lining of the sleeping bag is screen-printed with a pearl-golden pattern of Gucci while the outer layer is made of a resistant camouflage fabric to hide the person sleeping in it. Even more, to hide successfully in various areas, the sleeper can use a spray glue to stick objects found in the particular surroundings on the sleeping bag, that way becoming even more "invisible". In case of an attack or being found by officials, the spray glue can be used for self defence. In such emergency cases, the strap attached to the sleeping bag allows to gather and grab the sleeping bag in seconds.
CradleNET
Bachelor diploma project
2013-2014
The objective was to create a sustainable solution for social problems experienced in my childhood town Aizkraukle. Combining social, environmental and product design. It was an attempt to encourage the mutual collaboration and communication by acting creatively and using minimal financial aid. The implementation process consisted of developing social and product design part of the project. Several creative workshops took place where local people had a chance to make a hammock and collaborate with each other. Later the hammocks were hanged in the trees of the green area by the river and were publicly available for everyone.
The emphasis is on natural, environmentally safe and disposable materials. Collaboration with local NGO’s, care centre and municipality was developed in order to organize these creative workshops as a programme of sustained events.
An excerpt of a storyboard that tells about the development of the idea
Promiseland is an exhibition about migration and current events taking place in the European and global society. HDK Design Master students have created provotypes that visualize difficult questions, complexities and taboos of the topic. The exhibition is designed with reference to ribbon-guided queue of security check at border controls yet using bold colours that help to designate different topics that the provotypes are urging to think about.
Two entrances - for dreamers and realists - differ in the lenght of the journey through the exhibition.
Hide and Sleep
Provotype
2016
Promiseland
Exhibition design
Teamwork
2016
Food is Friendship
Master diploma project
2016 - 2017
In my master thesis work I was looking for application of design tools, strategies and skills in the activism field. I joined a foodsaver initiative which aims to retrieve the food discarded by businesses and share it among everyone - not only the poor. I explored the multifaceted layers of the issue of food waste and gathered the produced knowledge documented in the blog foodfriendship.org. I took staged photos of the food I found in supermarket dumpsters, ate dumpster-dived food only for one month, learnt about preserving and storage, volunteered in a foodsaver initiative called Solidariskt Kylskåp, created and hosted an event centered around a food table serving as a three-dimensional infographic among its other functions.
The project won Design award of Einar Forseth's fund.
Song festival park
Environmental design
Teamwork
2012
The Song festival park project is linked with the memorial house project. The main task was to create a park dedicated to a song, the Song festival and the local nature in a large, overgrown territory near the lake. We created three different kinds of routes, two workshops where it would be possible to make musical instruments, and an air stage by the lake.
My share of the group work is displayed.
The Maskachka bench
Critical design, environmental design
2012
The Maskachka bench is a project carried out in the end of 2012. The main idea was to emphasize the poor condition of public space in suburbs of Riga, in this case one of the poorest suburbs with the highest crime rates - mostly known under the name Maskachka ( Moscow suburb).
Five chair backs were painted bright red and installed on an old park bench. Some of them were attached at the common place e.g. at the back of the bench, the others were intentionally affixed to be unusable for the park visitors.
After a year, nothing has changed in this park, located right next to the local government buiding. The chair backs are gone though.