Madison Lyndsey Poon

BIRTHDAY

June 27, 1984

PLACE OF BIRTH

Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND

I am currently attending my fourth year at Simon Fraser University Surrey in the program of Interactive Arts and Technology, Interaction design. I will receive a Bachelor of Science for this program. I also attended the Italia Field School in the summer of 2005 in Italy, where I studied Italian design and innovation. In 1999/2000 I took part in an outdoor education program, which is one of the driving factors of my interest in sustainable design.

WHAT I LEARNED

• I discovered how interconnected the context, people and process are with one another; one cannot exist without the other and they greatly affect one another.
• When you design, you must consider all of these elements in order to be successful. In Italy in particular, I saw how they valued tradition and did not let time constrain their lifestyles or their creativity.
• In terms of my future in the field of design, I would hope to translate these values of strong relationships, quality of process, of slowing down, into my own work.

CAREER GOALS & INTERESTS

Overall, I am interested in design in general, doing creative work and especially in collaborating with interdisciplinary teams. I believe that my individual work and ideas improve exponentially when working in an environment among other intelligent and creative people. Specifically, I am also interested in design ethnography, sustainable design, architecture, and urban interaction design. I am interested in design as a process and how it is involved in and can improve everyday life. In the future, an ideal career would involve working in a creative environment involving any or all of my interests, perhaps designing sustainable urban environments. Any design process that I would be involved in would hopefully involve some form of design ethnography as well, as I believe this is a crucial step in any successful design. Perhaps it sounds cliché or utopian, but ideally I would want to be involved in design that actually makes a difference, as I believe design can change the world.

FAVORITE MOMENTS

• There were so many moments that were amazing during our field study that it is difficult to choose one. Particularly within the study aspect of the trip, however, I would say that our interview with IaN+ was one of my favorite and most memorable. It was so far away and we took forever trying to find the place. We finally got there, only to discover that Luca Galofaro, who we were meant to interview, was still in Naples. So, we went back to the city and then all the way out again later on that day. It was such a long trek, but it was completely worth it. Luca was so interesting and enthusiastic, and the projects he was doing were right along the lines of my personal interests. I remember feeling as though I was floating in the clouds by the time I left that interview. It was well worth the trek. 

FAVORITE QUOTES

• “The thing is that what seems to matter more is people who apply have something to show that they don’t necessarily have to be architects, finished, trained architects, they have to be passionate, to have ideas of their own, don’t know if it’s a sensible thing to say, but you can work as an architect without being one, quite well actually, if you have ideas of your own if your passionate.”
  ( – Metrogramma, 2005 private interview)