Editor's note

Yu Tianyu, enrolled at Xinya College in 2016, was one of the first graduates in Creative Design and Intelligent Engineering (CDIE). Yu is studying for a master's degree at the Department of Information Art & Design in the Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University, and serves as a student counselor at Xinya College. The exhibited work Cheng (an onomatopoeic word) was the graduation project of Yu Tianyu.

Under the guidance of China Association of Higher Education, the third Zijin Award College Student Design Exhibition (Nanjing) China was co-sponsored by the Publicity Department of the CPC Jiangsu Provincial Committee, Jiangsu Provincial Department of Education, Taiwan Affairs Office of Jiangsu Provincial People's Government, and Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of Jiangsu Provincial People's Government, and was organized by Jiangsu Broadcasting Corporation.

Forest, a work from the Academy of Arts & Design, was nominated by the judges. Give Life to Years, Rebirth, and Cheng won the second prize, the third prize and the excellence award of the Best Exhibit respectively. The Academy was rated as the Best Organizer.

This session of the Exhibition, with the annual keyword "Beauty & Nature Coexist", collected more than 28,000 entries, the largest number compared with the previous sessions. For the first time, an international joint design work camp was opened, gathering over 250 students from more than 30 universities. They take design as a means to better serve economic and social development and meet the expectation of the people for a better life.

-Nominee Award-

Forest — Collision of life and death

Creator: Wang Haoyang

The design was inspired by the deteriorating natural environment. The chess pieces of two different colors represent the forest and the desert respectively, and the chessboard has the features of the earth's surface. The game symbolizes the confrontation between the forest and the desert. This work was designed to raise people's awareness of nature conservation.

-Best Exhibit Award-

Give Life to Years — What is the value of life

Creator: Li Yuexuan

In an environment flooded with products and information, people as individuals often fail to extricate themselves from the "torrent". How can life be continuously given value in such circumstances? Everyone needs to ponder over it. The differences in the image of the work's different parts and the messy combination of dots and lines represent the creator's thinking and reasoning about life. What is life? What is the value? They are the questions that humans are thinking about.

Rebirth — Interlacing of changing and constancy

Creator: Li Qiujiang

The design of the work Rebirth was inspired by a process of glass firing, in which shattered glass was permeating around a work, making the form of that work full of variation and uncertainties. After in-depth research on its shape, the creator created the work Rebirth by taking advantage of the uncertainties about the contraction of glass. This work broke through the conventional expression form of work fired in a kiln and was created based on the past experience, hence the name "Rebirth".

Cheng — Intelligent musical toy with traditional pentatonic scale

Creator: Yu Tianyu

The work Cheng is an interactive musical chess. It was designed based on the music theory of China's traditional pentatonic scale and allows players to produce or perform music through placing chess pieces. "Cheng" means a clash of jade ware in Chinese. In terms of the design of its shape and interaction modes, the work adopts the style of meditation. The melodious sound of this work is like that of guqin, a seven-string Chinese plucked instrument, while the shape conveys a sense of nature. The work has four different interaction modes, namely recording music, doing a jigsaw, circulation, and meditation". The interactive device is made through the development of intelligent hardware. The creator hopes to offer players a music creation experience that is interesting and relaxing.

Source | WeChat official account of the Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University