Go Fly a Kite

The School of Design and its predecessor institutions (Faculty of Built Environment, School of Architecture, Interior and Industrial Design, etc.) long had a tradition of “Project Week” where for one week each semester all other classes would be suspended in favour of a one week design exercise. In the early 90s as the First Year Industrial Design lecturer I ran a variety of projects with my class. A favourite was Egg Drop and another was the Kite Project. The most successful kites were distant specs in the sky, almost always flying inland. I recall a couple of kites breaking strings and falling to earth, one on the road behind the beach, another far inland never to be recovered. No one died (as far as we know!) One year the wind was blowing out to sea and a magnificent Cody War Kite broke its line to crash into the surf. It looked equally at home in the breakers as it did in the sky. Its owners eventually swam out and retrieved it. No one drowned.

Occasionally students would tell me that the kite was their favourite design project of the year which always made me feel a little ambivalent. Still, who wouldn’t want to go fly a kite?