Alabama Contemporary Art Center: FretHaus 2021

Curated by Professor Rich Britnell, IDSA
Guitar Technical Director: AU Professor of Practice Keith Medley
Mobile Futures Program Director: Professor Randall Bartlett, IDSA
Director of Shop Operations: David Gowan
GTA’s: Andrew Vincent ‘19, Yu Li ‘20 and August Lin ‘21

Industrial Design (ID) is the professional practice of designing products, devices, objects and services used by millions of people around the world every day.

Industrial designers typically focus on the physical appearance, functionality and manufacturability of a product, though they are often involved in far more during a development cycle. All of this ultimately extends to the overall lasting value and experience a product or service provides for end-users.

FretHaus combines fret, a common guitar component, with the German word Haus that was used in the name of the famous design school in Germany Bauhaus. Auburn’s nationally ranked Industrial Design Program has its roots in the Bauhaus lineage as the program was founded by students of original Bauhaus faculty.

This FretHaus exhibition includes work from ID thesis students from 2019, 2020 and 2021. Due to Covid-19, the 2020 cohort was unable to finish their physical guitars and are represented by their 2D work in this show.

AU Mobile Futures Studio 3rd year students worked closely with the FretHaus team on the design and fabrication of the custom mounts that display the guitars in the gallery. Special thanks to Professor Randy Bartlett and his team: Brian Kuo, Roshani Trivedi, Xijian Li, Rylie Gulledge, Changyu Li, Blake Allen Evans, Brenner Oakes, and Zhaoheng Ningand.

Additional support was provided by Dean Vini Nathan and the AU College of Architecture, Design and Construction along with the AU School of Industrial and Graphic Design Head Clark Lundell.

FretHaus 2021 opens to the public April 24, 2021 and will run through May 29, 2021.