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Home » News » IA&D Well Represented at 2021 Interior Design Educators Council Annual Conference

IA&D Well Represented at 2021 Interior Design Educators Council Annual Conference

Published March 19, 2021

FSU’s Interior Architecture and Design department had a strong presence at the 2021 Interior Design Educator’s Council’s (IDEC) annual conference held remotely between March 1st-5th. IDEC strives to advance interior design education, scholarship, and service on the national level. Each year, IDEC conference attendees meet to present innovative teaching ideas and strategies to strengthen educational skills and disseminate research that examines the role of the built environment in the lives of people and similar topics. Notes Jill Pable, chair of the IA&D Department, “the Interior Design Educators Council is the premier scholarly organization in addressing interior design scholarship in North America. FSU faculty and graduate students have long been very well represented at IDEC’s national conference, and this year was no different. This conference is selective in its peer-review process, and to share one’s research and creative work at this level is a distinct achievement.”

This year Assistant Professors Stephanie Sickler and Meghan Mick as well as Associate Professors Steven Webber and Dr. Marlo Ransdell offered peer-reviewed presentations on various topics. Notably, a number of MFA graduate student candidates also offered their research and creative scholarship including Corrie Ostrander, Kailey Carter, Olivia Perron, and Chasen Bloch. The acceptance of these students in a national scholarly venue is evidence of the effective guidance that faculty provide in the development of their MFA theses.

 

 

(MFA candidates Chasen Bloch (left), Olivia Perron (middle) and Kailey Carter (right) presented posters at this year’s IDEC conference. 

 

The list of presented research and creative scholarship topics shows the breadth of IA&D faculty and student research, creative scholarship, and teaching inquiry:

Assistant Professor Stephanie Sickler

  • Materials in a Box: Hands-On Teaching Resources for Virtual Learning Experiences
  • Unraveling Code for Appreciation by All: On the Beauty of Textiles Translated to Music

Associate Professor Amy Huber

  • The State of Mentorship in the Design Industry from the Mentor’s Perspective

Assistant Professor Meghan Mick

  • Contextures: Context and Meaning in Materials

Associate Professor Steven Webber

  • Systemizing and Empathizing: Fundamental Traits of the Designer

Associate Professor Dr. Marlo Ransdell        

  • Long-Distance Relationship: The Virtual Studio and the Remote Maker Space

MFA Candidate Corrie Ostrander

  • Interior Design in State Mental Health Facilities: How Interior Design Elements Can Impact Patient Wellbeing

MFA Candidate Kailey Carter

  • Designing Supportive Spaces for Mothers with Children in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

MFA Candidate Olivia Perron

  • Personality and Personalization: Informing Desk Accessory Design in the Open Office

MFA Candidate Chasen Bloch

  • The Enhanced Travel Experience: Transformative Spaces in the Hospitality Environment

 

The opportunity to share one’s work with others leverages the knowledge and understanding of people across the nation, sometimes debuting processes that leverage technology in new ways. Remarking on a joint presentation with MFA student Chasen Bloch, Dr. Marlo Ransdell described that “our presentation focused on how virtual studio communication can be translated to the maker space for remote prototyping and anywhere learning. Our team presented from multiple locations across the country and within Studio D by securing cameras on all of the machines. This highlighted the production process in real-time streaming video for participants.”

As graduate students, IA&D MFA candidates used their IDEC presentation as an opportunity to gather insights from others about their ideas.  Noted Corrie Ostrander, “the IDEC virtual conference was an incredibly informative and thought-provoking experience overall. I presented my research, Interior Design in State Mental Health Facilities: How Interior Design Elements Can Impact Patient Wellbeing, and was able to get some really helpful feedbackWith my presentation, I hoped to share my research and improve awareness on this important design research topic.” Other graduate students began building networks with researchers engaged in similar topics. Student Olivia Perron presented her original research in a presentation titled Personality and Personalization: Informing Desk Accessory Design in the Open Office. Notes Perron, “the goal of my presentation was to share my research methodology and preliminary findings with an audience who was unfamiliar with my topic area. IDEC was a great opportunity to listen to presentations by educators and researchers at other universities. I was able to connect with a couple of professors who were researching similar topic areas – they were more than happy to share resources that they had and were excited to know that someone else was interested/researching in the same design topic area.”

The 2021 IDEC conference afforded IA&D faculty and graduate students a vibrant opportunity to showcase their strengths, creativity, and ideas to a global audience. In doing so, they receive feedback in return as they contribute to a body of knowledge in design that helps advance society in a variety of ways. Coming full circle, this refreshes and enriches the internal IA&D learning community dialogue helping ensure relevance and innovation for the future.