About the Exhibiton

This exhibition is organized by the Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art & Design, Interim Director of Exhibitions Nikki Rayburn, and Guest Curators Margo Halverson, Emily Luce, Gabrielle Esperdy, and Denise Gonzales Crisp.

DesignInquiry is a non-profit educational organization that explores pressing issues in design and culture. We are a collective of thinkers and makers devoted to extra-disciplinary exchange. For more than a decade DesignInquiry has spearheaded intensive team-based gatherings and shared the diverse outcomes and publications, influenced design research and teaching methods, and has inspired professional designers to rethink what design can be and can do.

We do our best work when we’re together and everything is a project. These are on page one of DesignInquiry’s operating manual. With invitations to different minds, different practices, and different approaches, DesignInquiry: Futurespective will reveal processes of design with collaborative hands-on and on-site making, curating, and exhibiting of selected work using the topic of currency (understood as value) as a prompt for a myriad of design interpretations throughout the duration of the exhibition.

DesignInquiry: Futurespective is a series of installations that demonstrate how DesignInquiry engages in open-ended extra-disciplinary exchange. On display in the galleries are multi-media installations of objects + projects that present the experience of DesignInquiry as a real-time gathering and explore the process of DesignInquiry as a collective practice of thinking and making.

Futurespective demonstrates how our practices unfold in design and everywhere. These practices are as diverse as the Inquirers themselves: we draw, write, weave, and cook; we discuss, debate, and document. Through these practices, which are conceptual as well as material, we query the way design informs culture and culture informs design.

Events, visiting artists, and designers-in-residence will intersect with MECA&D faculty, students and the Portland community. DesignInquiry: Futurespective is an invitation to witness and participate in an active design lab with the goal to make evident that while a design process may appear unfinished, unplanned, and unknown, the outcomes can surprise in productive ways that reframe initial expectations of success.

Bread Baking Demos

Breaking bread together is a simple act of community; making bread together is a communal act that radiates outward in widening arcs of generosity. At DesignInquiry, bread making has been a daily practice from the beginning, a way of sharing craft and knowledge and tasty carbohydrates.

Join Charles Melcher for weekly Sourdough Bread Making Demos at the Bread Cart located in the ICA, each Thursday at 12PM.

DesignInquiry Participants 2004–2019

The following DesignInquirers have directly and indirectly contributed to DesignInquiry: Futurespective through their participation in DesignInquiry gatherings, explorations, and outcomes since our inception. Their leap of faith has informed what design practice can be.

• Nida Abdullah
• Niccolis Alexander
• Blake Almstead
• Christopher Andreola
• Robert Appleton
• Helen Armstrong
• Stacey Asher
• Leslie Atzmon
• Ladan Bahmani
• Peter Bain
• Krishna Balakrishnan
• Mary Banas
• Stefani Bardin
• Todd Barsanti
• Erin Bassett
• Henry Becker
• Cheryl Beckett
• Beth Belknap Brann
• Tim Belonax
• Audrey Bennett
• Rachel Berger
• Luuk Bertus
• Pamela Beverly
• Garreth Blackwell
• Marty Blake
• Ken Botnick
• Ron Botting
• Steve Bowden
• Michelle Bowers
• Matthew Brigante
• Audra Buck-Coleman
• Anna Buckner
• Ferris Caldwell
• Amery Calvelli
• John Calvelli
• Bobby Campbell
• Amy Campos
• Sean Carnegie
• Rosalind Carnes
• Monica Chau
• Milli Chen
• Lindsay Chenault
• Todd Childers
• Brooke Chornyak
• Jennifer Christian
• Laurie Churchman
• Heidi Cies
• Anita Cooney
• Heather Corcoran
• Kim Counes
• Earlwin Covington
• Liz Craig
• Jenna Crowder
• Lindsey Culpepper
• Karina Cutler-Lake
• Dagmar Dahle
• Joshua Davidson
• Patrico Davila
• Nathan Davis
• John DeGore
• Alfred DePew
• Kristen DeVico
• Bill Drenttel
• Alec Drummond
• Tagny Duff
• Elliott Earls
• Jane Edmundson
• Sarah Elawad
• Leanne Elias
• Eric Eng
• Anne Marie Ennis
• Jori Erdman
• Gabrielle Esperdy
• Mike Essl
• Peter Evonuk
• James Cameron Ewing
• Kim Fabian
• Jan Fairbairn
• Eve Faulks
• Nicole Ferentz
• Amy Fidler
• Rebecca Fischer
• Rachel Fishman
• Ellen Fitzgerald
• Jessica Fleischmann
• Lynn Fleming
• Christopher Fox
• Nicole Marie Gagnon
• Nori Gale
• Anne Galperin
• Benjamin Gaydos
• Alex Gilliam
• Denise Gonzales Crisp
• Giana Pilar Gonzalez
• Patrick Gosnell
• Wesley Gott
• Sondra Graff
• Rick Griffith
• Victoria Grimwood
• John Grizzell
• Jordan Gushwa
• Bruce Hager
• Belinda Haikes
• Deb Hall
• Peter Hall
• Margo Halverson
• Lincoln Hancock
• Erin Hauber
• Anthony Hawley
• Jessica Helfand
• Stuart Henley
• Julie Hertzog
• John Hines
• Lucinda Hitchcock
• Szu-Han Ho
• Maryam Hosseinnia
• Jessica Huddy
• Dana Hutchins
• Soo Hyun Shin
• Teresa Engle Ilnicki
• Kate Iltis
• Natalia Ilyin
• Robb Irrgang
• Amelia Irwin
• Catherine Ishino
• Michelle Jacques
• Pouya Jahanshahi
• Mark Jamra
• Alice Jarry
• Jennifer Jefferis
• Brad Jerger
• Hester Jiskoot
• Bethany Johns
• Kristin Johnson
• Zach Kaiser
• Richard Kegler
• Lauri Kemp
• Rebecca Keyel
• Nicole Killian
• Stacy Kim
• Yoon Kim
• Adam King
• Stephen Klema
• Bill Klingensmith
• Ian Koenig
• Noya Kohavi
• Jenny Lam
• Fabrizio Lamoncha
• Minuette Le
• Alice J Lee
• Christopher Lee
• Angela Lehman
• Tawney Lem
• Karen Lewis
• He Li
• Nick Liadis
• Susan Lindberg
• Janet Lobberecht
• Kimberly Long Loken
• Michael Longford
• Emily Luce
• Ellen Lupton
• Jimmy Luu
• Kate Lydon
• Gwen MacGregor
• Glen MacKinnon
• Lisa Maione
• Michael Mardosa
• Andrea Marks
• Sandie Maxa
• Erin Mayes
• Daniel McCafferty
• Marlene McCarty
• Ann McDonald
• Victoria Mcreylonds
• Kathleen Meaney
• Ryan Meis
• Charles Melcher
• Susan Merritt
• Kelli Miller
• James Minior
• Christopher Moore
• Traci Moore Clay
• George Morrow
• Jeremy Moser
• Alexander Muller-Rakow
• Kindra Murphy
• Jen Nichols
• Lewis Nicholson
• Gary Nickard
• Satoru Nihei
• Mark Norman
• Cat Normoyle
• Jonathan Novak
• Charlie O'Geen
• Lynn Osgood
• Arzu Ozkal
• Rhonda Pagnozzi
• Leo Pando
• Natalie Pangaro
• Kimmie Parker
• Debra Parr
• Neil Patel
• Meghna Pathak
• Sheila Pepe
• Sarah Perrault
• Scott Petrichko
• Jessica Lynn Phillips
• Ronda Phipps
• Michael Pogorzhelskiy
• Susa Pop
• David Powell
• Kirk Pu'uohau-Pummill
• Kelly Anne Rakowski
• Kurt Reed
• Molly Renda
• Jennifer Reut
• Rachele Riley
• Michael Rock
• Bud Rodecker
• Melanie Rodgers
• Rebecca Ross
• Gergana Rupchina
• Jonathon Russell
• Jerry (Michael) Rutledge
• Sunniya Saleem
• Florian Sametinger
• Mark Sanders
• Louise Sandhaus
• Deborah Saucier
• Rod Sayers
• Laura Schlifer
• Christian Marc Schmidt
• Dan Scofield
• Brian Scott
• Douglass Scott
• Virgil Scott
• David Shields
• Sarah Shoemake
• Alexandra Silverthorne
• Miriam Simun
• Joshua Singer
• Nancy Skolos
• Scott Smith
• Matt Soar
• Carol Sogard
• Matthew Spahr
• Kristen Spilman
• Brian Stone
• Bill Sullivan
• Gail Swanlund
• Kevin Sweet
• David Szanto
• Norman Taber
• Libby Taggart
• Assaf Tamir
• Nat Tarbox
• Adam Taylor
• Beth Taylor
• Chris Taylor
• Rebecca Tegtmeyer
• Broo Temple
• Lucille Tenazas
• Amanda Thomas
• Chris Thompson
• Liz Throop
• Aggie Toppins
• Scott Townsend
• Tricia Treacy
• Jenny Tsai
• Maki Tsuchiya
• Andrew Twigg
• Josh Unikel
• Rick Valicenti
• Ben Van Dyke
• Petra Van Noort
• Susan Verba
• Clement Vincent
• Jesse Vogler
• Paula Volent
• Nici Von Alvensleben
• Tim Vyner
• Luke Waller
• Hilary Walrod
• Morgan Walsh
• Daniel Warner
• Al Wasco
• David Wasklewicz
• Monica Welsh
• Christopher Wentworth
• Lorraine Wild
• Sean Wilkinson
• Hillary Williams
• Holly Willis
• M Wright
• Mark Zurolo

Futurespective Exhibition Catalogue(s)

Conceived as a series of separate signatures, the DesignInquiry exhibition catalogue is a collection of printed works in a variety of formats and materials. These independently designed pieces bring to light previously unpublished DesignInquiry writings and findings, re-conceive past topics in light of the present discourse, and commission new perspectives on the future of design. Futurespective publications aim to transcend the bounds of the exhibition space, reaching a longer-term and wider audience through a series of lasting artifacts documenting DesignInquiry’s method and practices, by expert collaborative authors, artists, designers, printers, and broadcasters.