It is only for the committed. Konec tedna se bom udeležil intenzivne trodnevne delavnice/konference katere temeljni namen je mreženje progresivnih mislecev, praktikov, raziskovalcev in pedagogov na področju oblikovanja. Oblikovanje je tukaj razumljeno v širokem smislu. Vključuje vizualno komuniciranje, mrežne komunikaciske pristope, aritekturo itn...Design Futures program, katerega del je tudi ta dogodek, je v svoji filozofski zasnovi trenutno najbolj napreden program študija oblikovanja. Radikalnost misli in ambicija, ki stoji za programom me je pravzaprav osupnila. Kot Slovenca, doma žal vajenega predvsem govoričenja o napredku, družbeni odgovornosti in novih komunikacijskih pristopih, me navdihuje brezkompromisna doslednost v misli, retoriki in delovanju kolegov s katerimi se bom pogovarjal in koval načrte. It's good to be here.

Pred dobrim mesecem sem na Nizozemskem vodil delavnico družbeno odzivnega komuniciranja. Verjetno zame ena najbolj inspirativnih izkušenj. Tale ima potencial, da se ji približa. Še posebej pa mi paše to, da tokrat ne bom mentor, temveč udeleženec. Če prav pomislim, še nikoli nisem bil na delavnici, kjer ne bi bil mentor. Skrajni čas za spremembe!

"Design Action, Leadership & the Future" delavnica, kot tudi "Design Futures" program začne iz iste perspektive kot teorija in praksa družbeno odzivnega komuniciranja. Z določenimi komunikacijskimi (oblikovalskimi) pristopi je namreč možno samorefleksivno prestrukturirati strukturo družbe in lastno vpetost v njej (v smislu habitusa). Res pa je- in to sem se naučil v letih odkar delam Studio Poper, naloga je zelo težka, polna nepredvidenih pasti in vseobsegajoče sposobnosti in predvsem tragikomične potrebe po racionaliziranju in kooptaciji s strani kreativnih delavcev in kreativnih kapitalistov (:)), še posebej v kulturi oglaševanja in komercialnega oblikovanja.

Če koga zanima globji študij prihodnosti oblikovanja in komuniciranja lahko izve več: tukaj, tukaj, tukaj, in tukaj:

www.memefest.org/demonstratingrelevance (ne vem zakaj ne morem hiperlinkat tega url-ja).

Design Action, Leadership & the Future Brisbane HotHouse 22-24 July, 2011 Design practice (in all its disciplines, including architecture) is at a crossroads.

Notwithstanding the introduction of ‘sustainability’ in design education and in commerce, design dominantly still serves the unsustainable. To move toward ‘sustainment’ as project and process, radical and effective action is needed. For this to happen a dynamic, global change community of focused thinkers, activists and leaders has to be created. This intensive ‘HotHouse’ event will go beyond current options. It aims to explore the creation of this community and to be a catalyst for its creation. It is only for the committed. Anyone – educators, design practitioners, writers – can apply. From all the applications 50 people will be selected. The event will be conducted in English. The HotHouse will be led by Professor Tony Fry (Griffith University, QCA, Brisbane) with four team leaders: Professor Cameron Tonkinwise (Parsons/New School, New York); Professor Lisa Norton (School of the Art Institute of Chicago), Mr Duncan Fairfax (Goldsmiths/University of London) and Dr Abby Lopes (University of Western Sydney) with event documentation under the direction of Professor Oliver Feltham (American University, Paris).

The HotHouse is to be hosted by Griffith University, Queensland College of Art. There is no registration fee and food will be provided. Travel and accommodation is at the attendee’s expense.

BACKGROUND

For at least the last fifty years design educators, theorists and practitioners have been thinking, writing about and teaching design against the backdrop of the geopolitical upheavals of the 20th century and the multiple defuturing forces of unsustainability that continue into the 21st century. Positions have swung from high idealism to crass pragmatism. Mostly, the market has ruled. During this period, for instance, design methods, design history, design studies, design anthropology, design thinking all emerged, along with design for need, sustainable design and design-related social innovation. Every one of these developments laid claim to some kind of transformation of the perception or practice of design. But none has had a profound transformative impact. Moreover, notwithstanding the arrival of computing, design software and a plethora of digital technologies, design education and practice have only been marginally touched by the implication of such ‘developments’. Dominantly, design has remained vocational (in spite of design’s induction into the university) and entrenched in disciplinary enclaves. Essentially this means design remains an intellectually underdeveloped practice, bound within a functionalist service provision model, and largely ignored by many domains of knowledge and practice with which it should be critically engaged and in dialogue (like politics, economics, national development, public health, and environmental management).

These remarks sit alongside the fact that in this century, more than at any time in the last 10,000 years, the future of the human species is in the balance. Climate change, population pressure, crises of food and water, inequity and conflict are all converging to constitute an emergent condition for which there is no name. Current political, economic and social structures, ideas and practices show themselves to be inadequate to confront and deal with such a challenge.

For the vast majority of humanity to have a viable future there has to be significant economic, social and political change within and between nations. In large part these changes can only be created by design – not design as it is, but design as it might be. This is not to say that design can solve all the problems we collectively face, but it is to say it can solve many if it significantly changes including many of those problems actually caused by design. For this to happen, design has to break out of its existing condition of limited agency. Design has to transcend its current subaltern economic, socio-cultural and political role and in so doing, designers and design educators need to intellectually develop, learn new practices, and strategic modes of engagement. Design has to take on a political form. It’s time to create a consolidated foundation of new design knowledge. It’s time to generate a new agenda of design education and design practice supported by innovatory means of delivery and new institutional forms.

EVENT ORGANISATION

The 100 people will work on a common process in groups of 25 (which in turn may be subdivided) under the guidance of an event director and appointed group leaders.

The HotHouse will rigorously examine redirective change via thinking, talking, reflecting, planning and acting. This examination will be structured around four strategic and convergent points of entry.

The four groups are: Group Red: Projects driving: politics, ‘things’, practices Group Blue: ‘Things’ driving: projects, practices, politics Group Green: Practices driving: ‘things’, politics, projects Group Black: Politics driving: practices, projects, ‘things’

The objective of this process is for participants to leave with a selection of projects, design actions, new practices and political strategies – informed by their own context – that can form the basis of collaborations formed at the event. The most critical aspect of the HotHouse is not what happens at it but what occurs after it’s over! At its most ambitious, the event aims to create an ‘educational institution without a place’ (an ‘Urmadic Academy’) that can structure and facilitate the exchange of knowledge, projects and research programs.

Ob robu malega lokalnega parka v Berlinu, s še manjšim otroškim igriščem, obvezno betonsko ping - pong mizo in nekaj gredicama vrtnic je skulptura: miza z dvema stoloma, en od njiju je prevrnjen. Vtis je povsem intimen, zdi se kot da je nekdo pravkar zapustil svojo sobo (čeprav je ta le mali pravokotni tloris na tleh tlakovan iz kamnov) in v silni naglici stol prevrnil. Obeležje hrani spomin na židovsko pesnico Nelly Sachs, ki je živela v bližnji hiši, dokler ni bila prisiljena na vrat na nos zbežati iz nacistične Nemčije.

Že dolgo nisem videla tako pretresljivega, nežnega in natančnega »spomenika«, ki se je izognil prikazu osebe, a ujel njen duh, njeno tragedijo in poetiko njenega dela. Človeka, ki gre mimo, nagonsko vleče, da bi stol pobral in ga pristavil nazaj k mizi.

Večkrat sem sama ali z Marušo Krese sedela v parku in opazovala mimoidoče, presenetljivo, koliko ljudi se je ob skulpturi ustavilo, krožilo okrog stolov, šlo že mimo, a se obrnilo, vračalo.

Umetniku je uspelo ustvariti malo - veliko dramo, ki nevsiljivo in neposredno zadeva srca in ohranja spomin. Enkrat sem skulpturo ugledala v dežju, z lužami pod mizo - kaka popolna osamljenost Nelly Sachs in občasno vseh naših življenj.

Zdi se mi, da Maruša Krese, ki se v svojih pesmih izogiba velikih besed, spada na bližnjo klopco.

Zapletena pot do berlinskega Hebbel teatra na oddaljenem robu Kreuzberga je bila vredna truda. Predstava libanonskega medijskega umetnika Walid Raada z naslovom Scratching on things I could disavow – a histrory of art in the Arabic world je osupljiva. Sploh pa ji je težko reči predstava, čeprav to vsekakor pričakuješ, ko greš v gledališče z vstopnico za večerni termin. Že vhod je drugje, skozi stranska vrata v prostor, ki spominja na manjšo galerijo. Tam obiskovalce pričaka Walid Raad in jihl ljubeznivo povabi k ogromnemu miselnemu zemljevidu, histografiji dokumentov ( z obrazi, fotografijami, s stotinami drobno tiskanih imen in s prepletenimi povezavami / nekakšni rizomi po Deleuzu in Guattariju /), kjer kot avtor in kurator razstave razlaga in dekonstruira svet in trg vizualne umetnost. Začne pri navidez nedolžnemu in za umetnike upanja polnem novoustanovljenemu umetniškem pokojninskem skladu in raziskuje, kaj je za njim - sled gre preko ekspertov za finance in za rizične investicije do strokovnjakov za računalniške logoritme in sofisticirano obdelavo podatkov umetnikov, umetnin, kupcev, z ovinki, a vseeno nedvoumno do izraelskih preprodajalcev orožja. Pripoved je naravna, tekoča, intenzivna, osebna in strokovna, popolnoma apdejtana. Z Raadom se lahko čudimo, a hkrati skupaj z njim vemo, da smo vse te povezave že davno slutili, a jih odrivali kot paranoidnosti.

Od histografije nas v nadaljevanju Raad popelje do miniature beirutske hipermoderne nacionalne galerije in nas vplete v intimno in kritično doživljanje lastne dežele, njene umetnosti, umetniškega trga ter vse skupaj umesti v širša konfliktna dogajanja znotraj arabske umetnosti, ki se zgoščeno rmaterializirajo v gradnji megarhitekturnih (tu sodelujejo vsi najbolj znani zahodni arhitekti), megaumetniških institucij v Adis Abebi. Sledijo presenetljiva, skoraj metafizična, a tudi ironična razmišljanja, o posamičnih barvah, oblikah in linijah, ki se danes skrivajo in kamuflirajo v drugi delih. In še.

Enkrat vmes, ko nas Raad popelje k naslednjim delom, se zavemo, da smo v gledališču, saj se prvič znajdemo v dvorani z lepim praznim parterjem in balkonom. Kontekst je presenetljiv - Raad, njegova umetnost, arabska umetnost, mi – vsi smo na odru, vsi del teatra, morda vsi opazovani, z tržnimi algoritmi razčlenjeni.

Po predstavi si Nevenka iz našega Bunkerja na vso moč prizadeva prepričati Raada, da bi čimprej našel termin za Staro elektrarno. Upam, da ji uspe. Je kar nujno. V vmesnem času bo možno Raada videti na Documenti v Kasslu.

Nazaj grede, v poletni še svetli berlinski noči, je pot s kolesom do Prenzlauerberga nerazumljivo kratka in zanimiva.