"How does it feel to squeeze sound? Twist a tone? Lift a volume? During this residency, I plan to look at these questions as I embark on a journey of design, tinkering and electronic mischief. Using product design methods and popular electronic sensor prototyping systems, I'll go through a series of hands-on experiments to create interactive, hand-held objects. The process will allow me to “sketch” in hardware and share discoveries made along the way."
Carla Diana enjoys living as close to the near future as possible. As senior designer at Smart Design (http://www.smartdesignworldwide.com), her projects include domestic robots, mobile communication devices and sentient kitchen appliances. In her practice, she combines experience in industrial and interaction design to create solutions that bridge the gap between the physical and the digital. Her work includes a line of digitally distributed furniture, a series of sound-based sculptural installations and a selection of pieces that are best described as dynamic "virtual objects". She is the Creative Director for the shell of the iconic humanoid robot, Simon, currently under development at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Carla has taught and lectured internationally, most recently at New York's School of Visual Arts. In 2008, she was Visiting Assistant Professor of Industrial Design at the Georgia Institute of Technology, and from 2002 to 2007 she was Professor at the Savannah College of Art and Design, where she co-wrote the curriculum for the College's first Interactive Design program. Carla holds a Bachelor in Mechanical Engineering from The Cooper Union and an MFA in 3D Design from Cranbrook Academy of Art.
In 2001 Carla was named an Art Director's Club "Young Gun". Recent awards include the Museum of Fine Arts Houston Brown Foundation Fellowship in 2008, several ADC Distinctive Merit Awards, PRINT Interaction 2004 Award, and the Flash Forward Film Festival 2004 Experimental Award.
She maintains a website of her projects at http://www.carladiana.com
