Faculty News: Dominic Muren

Design Lecturer Dominic Muren last summer presented a paper titled “Education for an Open World: A new Toolbox for Design Students” at the Industrial Design Society of America (IDSA) Annual International Conference in Portland, Oregon. He received a 2010 aLIVe grant from 4Culture and used the funds to support his pedal-powered sewing machine. He visited farmer’s markets and sewed shopping bags. As featured in the Autumn 2010 School of Art eBlast newsletter, Muren was a TED Global Fellow. The video of his talk at that conference is now available online. That experience led to him being an invited speaker at TEDxRainier in October 2010. His presentation there is also available in an online video. In late September 2010, he participated in two New York gatherings: the first Open Hardware Summit and Maker Faire, where he gave a presentation on the main stage. Muren recently was invited to talk at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). Because of collaborative work he has done with Inna Alesina, an adjunct faculty member at MICA, they have both been invited to display work created by their students at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair in May 2011.