contemporary expressions: design activism, 2000 onwards
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Contemporary Expressions: Design Activism, 2000 Onwards. Brenna Carpenter. “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has.” -Margaret Mead . Brief intro/history lesson…. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Contemporary Expressions: Design Activism, 2000 Onwards
Brenna Carpenter
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has.”
-Margaret Mead
Brief intro/history lesson…• The interest of design activism within the professional design
community is booming. • 1999-2008- new organizations were established with an
activist agenda focusing on social design, slow design, interdisciplinary design, and architecture.
• Utrecht Manifest (2005)• Changing the Change (2008)• Design for the other 90% (2007)• Design approaches are emerging to challenge the
sustainability agenda and look beyond eco-efficiency (co-design, social design, slow design, metadesign)
Thinking about Design Activism• ‘Socially Active Design’- focus of design is society and its
transition and/or transformation to a more sustainable way of living, working, and producing
• “Sustainability is a societal journey, brought about by acquiring new awareness and perceptions, by generating new solutions, activating new behavioral patterns, and, hence, cultural change.”- Ezio Manzini
• “Design activism builds on what already exists, on ‘real-life processes from greening neighborhoods to transforming communities through participatory design action.” –Guy Julier
• Activism is “taking intentional action to instigate change on behalf of a neglected group.” –Ann Thorpe
Target Audiences
Contemporary design activism differs whendealing with the two different audiences- • Over-consumers• Under-consumers
Differences
• Over-consumers– Must adopt eco-efficient and positive behavioral
strategies to reduce overall consumption– Must be educated and aware of the impacts that
their consumption has directly and indirectly on the natural resources of the Earth.
Differences
• Under-consumers– Struggle to meet basic physiological requirements
for life– Need to be educated on the appropriate levels of
consumption that improve their quality of life
Raising Awareness, Changing Perceptions, Changing Behavior (over-consumers)
“Sustainability is learning about living well but consuming (much) less.”
In order to achieve long-term sustainability we must…• Move away from a ‘product-based well-being’• Focus on our needs• Realize the importance of cyclic consumption rather
then linear consumption
Strategy:
First, directly improve the eco-efficiencies of the product or service throughout its life cycle.
Second, deliver eco-efficiencies indirectly by changing behaviors.
It is the designer’s job to invoke new ideas about how to live a better life with reduced consumption.
Communication by Information
• Designers must find ways of engaging people to question their own responsibilities in the way they consume.
• Finding new ways to communicate requires imaginative use of design to penetrate beyond the ‘white noise’ of contemporary life
• Giraffe Innovation’s Changing Habbits project• Worldmapper • Timm Kerkeritz’s Virtual Water poster
Giraffe Innovation’s Changing Habbits project
Worldmapper
Communication by Concept, Prototype, or Artefact
• Deployed to challenge an existing cannon or imagine future possibilities
• Asks the question, “what if?”• MIT Smart Cities project– Fab Tree Hab
Communication by Event, Scenario, or Story
• Thomas Matthew’s event for Friends of the Earth– International Buy Nothing Day– No Shop
Ways of Making and Producing• What trends affect What, Where, and When products are
made?– Rising oil costs- affects ‘distributed’ manufacturing– Growth in green, ethical, “organic” consumer markets– Localization– Easily personalized or customizable products– Internet
Could be a shift in the balance between what is made by manufacturers, designed by professionals, and what is self made.
Half-way Products• Designer/maker/manufacturer only takes the product so far,
leaves space for the user to complete the making• Gives the user a much higher level of personalized/emotional
gratification• Approach attempts to create added layers of meaning for the
user by involving them tangibly in completion of the form giving• An emotional mortar is formed by the user becoming an active
participant in the final creation • Natalie Schaap- An Affair with a Chair• Martin Ruiz de Azua- Tache Naturelle• Kesselskramer ‘Do Hit’ ‘Do Scratch’
“Affair with a Chair”
“Do Hit”
Modular Evolved Products
• The model for mass industrial production generates huge quantities of short-lived stuff.
• A study done by Dutch Eternally Yours Foundation revealed that 20 to 90 per cent of discarded domestic electrical products were still working and offered the original functionality – “If functionality had not broken, then the
relationship between user and product certainly had.”
Ethical Products
• Fair trade labels• Labor Behind the Label• The Clean Clothes Campaign
• Natalie Chanin’s cottage industry– Design led activism
Rise of the Internet
• New visions of manufacturing • RapRep (Replicating Rapid Prototyper)– Open to the public– Opens up more opportunities for manufacturing
• Ponoko– Flat pack designs– Offers online space for co-creation– Make-on demand
Meaningful Production
• Connecting Lines (Judith Van den Boom)– Works hand in hand with her employees– To humanize processes and encourage collective
intelligence to create a ‘smart factory’ where designers and employees co-create, co-design, and co-make
Experiments in Bio- and Techno- cyclicity
• Waste= food• Growing furniture– “Plantware” – create living plants that are functional
household and office objects• Recycling• Sprout Design– Recycled Sony Playstation cases to create a chair
• Herman Miller– Celle chair is 99% recyclable at the end-of-life and includes
33% of its components from recyclate
Eco-efficiency Improvements
• Eco-efficiency products utilize materials with an inherently lower impact (recycled, biological origin materials) and reduce energy during the manufacturing and/or during the use of the product
• Trevor Baylis’s MP3 player• Marti Guixe’s Flamp
Activism Targeting the Under-Consumers
• Under-consumers are focused on survival, striving to meet basic physical needs
• Need to consume MORE• Represent between 1/6th and 1/3rd of the
global human population
Shelter
• Michael Rakowitz– ParaSITE
• Uses the waste of heat/cooling from buildings heating/ventilation/air-conditioning systems by attaching inflatable structures that provide temporary accommodation for the homeless
Water/Food
• Kenya Ceramic Jiko– Portable charcoal stove
• Ceramic water filter
Raising Awareness by Education
• Must have access to resources• Baygen Clockwork Radio– Powered by wind-up generator
• One Laptop per Child project– Nicholas Negroponte
Health Issues
• Life Straw by Vestergaard Frandsen– Personal ceramic filters for obtaining clean water
• Solar Aid by Godisa Technologies– For those with impared hearing– Solar panel battery charger