pressJanuary 18th - February 17th

2013

the exhibition

Held in conjunction with the 2013 North American International Auto Show in Detroit, MI, STALATM Universe will be a new take on lighting-art exhibitions. In partnership with the Kunsthalle Detroit Museum, Quality Metalcraft, and Design Think Tank Group, STALATM Universe will bring together video, light and music to embody the art of industrial design and showcase the capabilities of Detroit. Our goal is to urge as many business-es and individuals as possible to become a part of a new story and support the beginning of a new wave of innovation in the city.

Kunsthalle Detroit was born, just like STALATM, from an idea. Kunsthalle’s founders came to Detroit in 2009 and established a non-profit art initiative in the neighborhoods of Core City/Woodbridge. Convinced that advance-ment of the arts, increased tourism, deeper community participation, and regional economic redevelopment are all co-dependent and inevitably connected, their goal was to leverage the arts as a mechanism for com-munity revitalization. The museum aspires to create a sense of community through the contemplation and discussion of multimedia installations, film, video, urban and light sculpture, and design. Since its opening in 2010, Kunsthalle Detroit has exhibited works by both well-known and emerging artists, focusing on large-scale and complex installations.

Middlecottdesign

STALATM, like Kunsthalle Detroit, first began with an idea—to utilize Detroit’s automotive-production capacity in an innovative way: to deliver to market a non-automotive product that could set an example for future product design, fabrication, and delivery. Our approach would utilize common methods in vehicle production, allowing us to maximize cost-effectiveness and the po-tential to improve our product.

The opportunity came from a simple neighborhood need and vision in North Corktown: to light existing homes and new homes under construction. A Detroit neighborhood that had seen decades of deterioration, Corktown was already fast becoming a hub of contrarian methods of re-urbanization. We sought to fill this need for lighting with a custom fixture that would eclipse existing products on the market in terms of function and design, yet still be cost-effective.

Trough a partnership with the Greater Corktown Development Corporation and a small contract grant through MSHDA, we were able to fund the de-velopment of a unique lighting product for new and existing residents in the North Corktown neighborhood.

Inspired by the resurgence and rebirth of Corktown, STALA’sTM design is intended to symbolize a stalagmite rising from the ground. Fabrication was possible by partnering with Quality Metalcraft Inc. (QMC) and utilizing their ca-pacity to deliver a custom, low-volume finished product quickly and efficiently.

Delivery was made possible through teamwork and orchestration with the neighborhood, its residents, and a master plan that still continues to unfold into 2013. As the new year begins, STALATM will help forward the rebirth of a neighborhood and the strength of new ideas, built on Detroit’s production-community backbone, where the abilities of suppliers like QMC continue to transcend those of larger industries.

STALATM is a product driven by DTT Group :: Design Think Tank.

the story

Middlecottdesign

Middlecott sketchbattle

experiMent

The Middlecott Sketchbattle Experiment is Detroit’s first-ever automotive light sketching competition and creative community event, where today’s and tomorrow’s motor industry elite will battle for recognition as the Middlecott Sketchbattle champion and a herald of the future for Detroit and auto design. Held annually in conjunction with the North American Interna-tional Auto Show, the Sketchbattle will feature an epic pool of design talent from the auto-industry convergence on Detroit.

The Sketch Battle Experiment will take place during the VIP party on January 18th, 2013, and will be an exclusive peek into how designers’ minds work. The event will be a combination design contest, art commu-nity/industry party, and music show, appealing to a broad crowd of auto enthusiasts, artists, designers, musicians, Detroit locals, and industry vets. Designers from companies like Audi, Chrysler, Volvo, Ferrari, GM, Johnson Controls, Pininfarina, BMW and Ford, as well as student-designers from the Royal College of Art, Pforzheim, Art Center, and CCS, will converge at the Sketchbattle, bringing with them their creative drive and desire to prove who has the best.

The partnership between the Middlecott Sketchbattle Experiment and the STALATM Universe exhibition will open the platform for discussion on how the two fields of art and design can come together to form new modes of communication. This unique fusion will culminate in an exhibition and event at the Kunsthalle Detroit museum, illuminating the future of the city as designers use light for inspiration for their artwork.

The automotive-production technology used to design STALATM ties into the engines that drive our creative force. At this event, a dozen hands’ creative flow will spill onto paper in pursuit of a concrete representation of light, all the while surrounded by STALATM designs recalling the titanic his-tory of the car industry. Having the battle take place within the exhibition will further highlight the power of the automotive industry to illuminate and revitalize the colossal action Detroit is capable of.

Middlecottdesign