The Graduate Media Design Program is proud to announce that London-based designer Ilona Gaynor–currently Ridley Scott’s artist-in-residence–will be our 2012 Summer Research Resident. Gaynor will spend seven weeks in GradMediaDesign’s Wind Tunnel studio at Art Center’s South Campus, working with a team of MDP student research interns to develop Under Red Carpets, To Snatch Solid Golden Cages, part of her ongoing research into “the idea of ‘design’ as a role to plot, to hunt, to scheme, to concoct, using craft to be crafty and to simulate.”

Under Red Carpets was selected by a jury that included author McKenzie Wark, designer, writer and activist Rosten Woo, architect and MDP core faculty Tim Durfee, and critic, historian, and MDP thesis advisor Molly Wright Steenson.

Each summer, the Media Design Projects track hosts a variety of research projects by faculty, guest researchers, and post-graduate fellows. The results for 2012 will be presented at an event on Wednesday, August 15.

The residency theme for 2012 is Public Display, a look at how social media, ubiquitous computing and satellite mapping are redefining public and private space. MDP’s AMP Studio, headed by Tim Durfee, will create an exhibition, symposium, and publication on this theme in 2012-13.

Under Red Carpets, To Snatch Solid Golden Cages

A plot to rob a casino. Using actuary methods, architectural conjecture and cinematic speculation.

The project I am proposing is a meticulously calculated casino heist. Exploring the use of space in which the architectural context is the obstacle between you and what you’re looking for. Through utilisation and maniplation of the surrounding public space and it’s occupants to surreptitiously co-assist in this plot.

“…satellite mapping [is] redefining public and private space”

I ask: What if social media tools could assist in one the biggest heists in history. Could the future of criminality be invisibly crowdsourced? Could a cartographic intentional digital error be used as a ruse or distraction to occupy civilian or police attention?

—Ilona Gaynor