IN THE SHOES OF A SOCIAL DESIGNER
Elsa Carenzo
It’s not going to design itself! So get up and move!
To understand what social design is, we have to understand what Design is today, where do its roots lie, and how a new kind of design appeared.
BAD DREAM You run as fast as you can, something or someone is chasing you and just when it’s about to catch you, you suddenly wake up; sweating like a pig. What the hell is chasing you? According to “dream experts” it would be your anxiety. We can guess that our anxiety is for sure connected with our day-to-day dilemmas that we keep trying to dodge but not only. We take in tons of images and information through the Internet, in the street, on TV, etc. We are stimulated all the time, no rest possible even during the night.
The world is in a very bad state: crisis, discrimination, poverty, lies, wars, dismissal, buying this or that are words that we are used to hear everyday. Now, our vision of “what is design” has mutated to become a way to satisfy our desire to own material things. This reveals a lack of consideration, care and contact at human level. Why Design took this turn while already in the 30’s the Bauhaus (school) tried to gather art and engineering for human needs’ awareness?.[1] The artist Bruno Munari states facts in his book
Design as Art wrote in 1966, that are still actual. Everybody knows Philippe Starck as the Supreme French Designer slash big star slash phenomenon. But Design should not be reserved for the elite and seen as an unreachable dream. Since then, as technology improves, humans live their
devices and systems so they get along with both human and natural disasters. For instance, in Japan they have created escape hoods in case of fire, nerve-gas attack or toxic leakage - fireproof cushion hood for schoolchildren in case of fire and earthquakes and dry noodle soups to cope
life through it without worrying about its consequences.
all the more with this faster and faster lifestyle.[4] Unfortunately, those solutions are dealing with problems in a backwards way, without questioning the society they live in.
But we should remain positive and never procrastinate. We should be hopeful; otherwise nothing will change for the better welfare of humanity. Today designers and amateurs make objects
Whereas Social design tries to (fore)see the future as an utopia, the actual reality tends to a dystopia way of life. The Pixar animation movie Wall-e illustrates this credible dehumanization to come, engendered by technologies and consumption. [3] Fat guys on
a big armchair moving on digital rails, hologram screens in front of their face so they can work 24 hours a day, having mushy fast food delivered to them and directly eaten with a straw, huge advertising boards, security robots and of course no social interaction no empathy… All this is to be found here. [4] As Munari would define the role of a designer, he has “to re-establish contact between art and the public, because he has the humility and ability to respond to whatever demand is made of him by the society in which he lives(…)”. [1]
Since the seventies, people try to gain more freedom, also showing the desire to be individualist, thus soon to become the almighty principle of our Modern Society. Yet, people are lost in the immensity of their loneliness, with no beliefs to grip/lean on. People already feel the need to take their fate in hand, on their own at first and then together to avoid a path that would lead to a dystopia world.
WAKE UP! Now happiness therapy, laughing workshop, meditation and even yoga are all in one hand seen as odd activities but in another hand are increasingly blossoming up everywhere and have been democratized. People want to refocus on themselves, find their real essence and listen to their true needs. As Thierry Keller Usbek & Rica’s journalist says, “We were Cartesians, positivists and materialists. We became distrustful” .[5] People have no faith in society anymore, they redirect their interest on spiritual, religious and ethical aspirations. By recentering ourselves, we tend to be more aware of our surroundings and conscious of our reality and life decisions. It is genuinely important to
discard the individualistic mindset and realize that we are part of a larger body.
“We were Cartesians, positivists and materialists. We became distrustful” By searching for a new way of living (with ourselves) we want above all else share, meet and discover respectively thoughts, people and places and visualize life as “Being more than Having.” (Michel Lacroix)
To analyze the actual situation, we can tackle the TV programs case in which reality shows we used to like to laugh at, have significantly been reduced, giving way to civilization discoveries, ecologic documentaries,
of behavior and commitment. To achieve a real evolution, designers must undertake the responsibility to change the world and to give relevant responses to true human needs. it was easier for designers to create appealing
House building TV shows for poor or unfortunate people and so on. In short, the empathy is at the forefront. The interest of people has changed, maybe for the better… There is a growing awareness of our surroundings; men are on the right track toward a new form
but insignificant things in order to fulfill men’s desire so far than “the economic, psychological, spiritual, technological, and intellectual needs of human beings (…)” (Victor Papanek) It is still true today, but Social designers have the willpower to satisfy those needs.
Since the sixties technologies’ development have opened the way for two different directions; one would solve specific problems in a pertinent way of doing, the other would and actually do product regardless of the people welfare and environment. The market laws steer our everyday actions and led us to distinguish ourselves by buying a certain kind of goods. Fulfillment feeling in possessing material things shows an underlying miss of personal accomplishment. [6]
The actual western society system keeps some categories apart, with no worry about their future and the consequences of this disdain. But, how could society succeed in every level if it does not consider itself as a community? Why does minorities exist? And how to help them avoid becoming victims of the capitalist system? Even if minorities means poverty, we should not forgot young and elderly people, which are also neglected. “We all need transportation
communication, pr oducts, tools, shelter and clothing.” (V. Papanek) We cannot ignore the fact that we depend on each other. Every continent, country, city, community and person, are connected. Failure to support minorities is like giving the stick to be beaten with. Also designing aid for children is ensuring our future, whether it is from our own country or not. [6] Yes, we are becoming poorer and poorer (vice versa) and our life is dictated by consumption society. You can say: “no it’s not true!” but it is. Your computer, coffee machine, phone, fridge, all this have an expiry date. First because firms have to sell their last version to maintain their presence on the mass-market and enforce their competition. Secondly in the best scenario fir m refresh their products
because of innovative and relevant improvements. Today Design is more about reshaping than finding solutions to dilemmas and wrong ways of thinking. By the way, the collaborative platform Project M, where designers and cheerful character people elaborate social projects, called one of its lab “Think Wrong”. [7] They made for example “The Common hoops project” where six young designers helped children of a poor county to build their own basketball hoop in order to involve a community spirit, give them new skills, foster mentorship and reanimate abandoned areas. [8]
“I can’t understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I’m frightened of the old ones.” -John Cage
So forget and forgive the past to move on.
The Common hoops project
ACT! While Design is in a critical situation, a lot of schools try to follow the Bauhaus example to keep craftsmanship, theory, arts and societal concerns. As would say Walter Gropius, Bauhaus founder, “Our task is
It is now time to change. Design is multi disciplinal and thus can play in several levels “Design can readjust our notion of beauty to embrace a multitude of truths economic, political, social, ecological, ethical, technical, symbolic, institutional, philosophical and cultural”. (A. Fuad-Luke)
“Our task is to make a new kind of artist, a creator capable of understanding every kind of need”
-Walter Gropius
to make a new kind of artist, a creator capable of understanding every kind of need (…)”. [9] Designer’s role has changed. The designer became the king of our successful consumption culture.
Self-proclaimed sustainable designer facilitator Alastair Fuad-Luke sees in Design fields the promise of a better future, more sustainable, virtuous and ethical. [10]
Even if consumers presently don’t care or don’t realize how bad design situation is, on the other (hidden) side, designers rebel against the actual view of Design. They are now design activists, taking action / demonstrate against or for political, environmental or social issues. And they (we?) hope that through their actions, they are going to speed up evolution or at least changes in our society.
Here is some History Even though the questioning of design activism seems to be actual, we should not forgot that the Bauhaus was the first school and though kind of movement in disagreement with the luxury design establishment before and during the 20’s-30’s. We could state that the Bauhaus is the pioneer of design activism. In 1969 the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (ICSID) launched the “Design, Society and the Future” that requested designers to think about the socio-economical and environmental impacts of their way of working and their products. This conference opened the way to larger scale of possibilities for other domains and “rank” of costumers. The nineties led to a desire of change and care about sus-
tainability, especially in the Netherlands where designers of Droog Design involved their concerns in this way. A bit less than twenty years after that, Turin city held the conference Changing the Change where 300 designers met to discuss and share ideas about sustainability issues. Today, this affair is more than ever in the agenda of responsive designers. [10] Furthermore, people do not rest on their laurels and want to make the world system change. Thanks to social networks, people have dared to raise their fist in the street to assert their rights. The Occupy Movement and the Arabic Spring have provided a good example about how Facebook have helped a lot to gather, inspire and gave people the opportunity and will to demonstrate. [11]
A manifesto has been written about what Social Design is. The engaged/dedicated journalist and author of this writing, Max Borka puts into words what should be designers’ objectives and intentions. Above all else, it would be the “wellbeing of populations as a whole” and not intended just to the happy few. [11] The question raised is: Is this possible? Can designers satisfy every single one of us? Or should they instead concentrate on particular problem that certain (groups of) people encounter and work efficiently and accurately on their need, while bearing in mind a responsible approach of them? Designers have to deliver a new image of Design by separating it from “luxury – expensive – gadget – cute – chair – fast car” words and from the actual capitalist system; mass-producing
BIG ARCHITECTS, TOPOTEK1 & SUPERFLEX:SUPERKILEN Denmark / Nørrebro, Copenhagen
– transportation – waste – pollution – exploitation – overuse – crisis etc. Borka launched a Magazine called Mapping the Design World to display all projects and initiatives that designers, urban planners and artists have made to create a harmonic and better world. Social Design is not (just) making objects for the well-being of society, it is also have the dare to create new ideologies, systems, strategies and alliances to change, enhance and/or transform the actual wrong situation. [11]
REACT! Okay, the earth is going down but it give rise to new kinds of design. Social - participatory – protest – slow – sustainable – meta – co – eco design and design criticism are all intra-connected with design activism. Together they have opened the way of a more responsible, sensible and aware approach of our surroundings. [10] The Skateistan project is a god example of this engagement. Two Australians who went to Kabul, expecting to maybe change the “rules” with skateboards, led this initiative. This venture is based on hope and belief. Step by step, the project grew and gathered kids at first (boys, then girls). Thanks to skateboard lessons then, along with grants from several other countries, Skateistan has creat-
ted its own school, which was the first of a kind and finally grew up to reach other cities in Afghanistan and countries as Cambodia and Pakistan. This initiative reached its goal; squashing discrimination between genders and facing scholarship prejudices. [11]
Borka raises the question that maybe you’re asking yourself too: Why is Skateistan categori-
You will certainly hear about Personal Design strategy, which states that design has to
zed as a Social Design project? Borka responds to this that today’s designers see Design as “a tool for living” and not a tool to gratify irrelevant desires. [11] A social designer has to deal with all aspects that compose our society. He/she has to tame it and play with it and always keep in mind to evolve with it, if not before.
be thinking through the human body, more than ever due to new-technologies progresses. Above this ergonomic principle, personal design also considers “wearable technologies” as on the one hand, prosthetics and on the other hand the Hug coat [13]; to finally become a part of our body, a necessity or even an enhancement of the human capacities. As well as Local De-
Design is “a tool for living” -Max Borka Social Design is also about strategies and platforms to share, evolve and to be involved. In this perspective and thanks to The Internet, several opensource platforms have been initiated such as Future Craft or Public Design. [12]
sign, which proposes that techniques and components should be standardized or adjusted at a local – community – scale in order to suit the demand with the supply in a sustainable way. [12] The open-source ecology “Global Village Construction Set” undertook by Marcin Jakubowki, a polish farmer, aimed to share DIY tools and machines
he made, in order to improve the agriculture system and equipment. Thanks to Wikipedia he has spread his knowledge and other farmers around the world have made its machines. “I needed tools that were robust, modular, highly efficiently optimized, low coast, made from local and recycled materials, and that can last”. (Marcin Jakubowki) [14]
Nonetheless, the constant improvement of products quickly makes the previous obsolete with no possibilities of repairrecycle-reuse them. Luckily, NGOs and governments publish resources on actual pro-
blems and concerns- that designers use to be aware of the reality, thus they can accurately deal with ethic, social and environmental matters. [12] Online services have nowadays a lot of advantages because the design or the firm can target their consumers and adjust the production depending on demand.
Even though, products don’t really exist, they can “test the waters” to choose how much they have to produce and what extent. Thus, they can spare money, materials and time.
The Cradle-to-Cradle model (C2C) taken from the book of the same name introduce the idea what you produce must be able to become upcycled i.e. recyclable or reusable. In short, the name tells a lot about its principles. In the sixties – so 30 years before – Alfred Heineken had this bright idea to design (by the Dutch architect John Habraken) its beer plastic bottles in such way that you can you it as interlocking bricks. [15] [16] Turning waste into useful products is logic and responsive approach, but its project was a failure… By the way it’s time to use the toilet.
POOH The social group Sulabh International has installed numerous public toilets throughout India in order to collect population feces and convert it into “Bioenergy”. The Pooh energ y is use for
electricity and cooking so, don’t stop eating, it is useful! The India is not the only one country, which use this kind of raw materials. Tokyo had the innovative idea to create bricks with its sewage, as little as 6$US in 2001. [16]
Nada Sehnaoui toilet exhibit, Beirut / Libanon
TINKER (DIY) For the better or for the worst, the bounds between design as a profession and as leisure become increasingly minimal. Technologies (information, software) are today easily accessible to everyone and have created a Post-professional era called the Do-it-yourself (DIY) movement. Social design anchors in the DIY trend as we satisfy personal needs and flatter egos by our capacity of making things with our hands. [17] Whereas, the essayist and literary critic Roland Barthes states (in the 50’s) that consumers “don’t buy goods for their useful properties but as a social recognition”, it is now clearly noticeable how people try to free themselves from the consumption diktat by doing, crafting and building their own objects, furniture, interiors and there-
fore add meaning to their material goods. This phenomenon induces new morals and values that significantly break gender and class boundaries. A kind of battle is set between professional and unprofessional. When amateurs do not want to be related to professional designers; because they represent “modernity, rationality and scientific progress”; some designers see in amateurs a devaluation of their field. [17]
“It is the users that invented the use” - C. Leadbeaters
We often think that all objects around us have been made by a big company in a particular field to answer to necessities that people have. Improvements of existing objects are most of the time from users. For instance, the BMX has been created be a bikers community. There is no need to be a firm or an organization to accomplish great and innovative projects. The consumer is not passive anymore, design is collaborative and interactive, and it is dealing with the uncertainty. “It is the users that invented the use” (C. Leadbeaters) and they are making things work, happen or fail. [18] DIY activities also have quite innovative approaches while still remaining handmade and, most of the time, utilizing recycled materials to solve problems. For instance, The Barefoot College in India coaches
out-of-school people to become “engineers, architects and teachers” (Vidal, 2009) in order to find solutions to the actual issues encountered by their country. [17]
The Barefoot College in India
Into the bargain, since floods are regular in India or in Bangladesh people have created solution to remain alive during tremendous rainstorms. Climbing up to the roof is the first reflex, but when it begins to fall apart they must leave and so swim. In Pabna, Bangladesh, children are not able to go to school by foot, so the school is settled on a boat (Boat School) with so lar panels on the roof and it is
used as a school bus to pick up pupils.The increasing flood and tsunami disasters are due to the rising sea temperature and are opening the way to DIYTS (Do It Yourself To Survive) objects. Up-lifted motorcycle, plastic stool shoes, rafts made out of Styrofoam and balsa wood or with empty plastic bottles only. To sail efficiently people have added lawnmower motor with a propeller. [19]
Boat School in Bangladesh
HACK Let’s speak about domestic 3D printers that enable people to build (their own) prototypes at home. The open source projects: Fab@home and MakerBot Industries perfectly illustrate this evolution in technology that allows people to build their own prototype machine - “fabber” - thanks to the material list and directions that their website provides.
Can we/you imagine a day when every home will have its own fabber and where technology will radically throw the production-consumption system into disorder as well as the established design profession? [17] As every birth of an idea, project, technology occurs; it is sometimes hard to channel the real objective of a good-willing project. As the US military which is developing its own 3D printer
MakerBot printer
There also is the RepRap, the rapid prototyping machine that reproduces itself and enables you to give them out thus resulting in a smart way to “spread the word”.
for the frontline to quickly and cheaply produce spare parts for their weapons and equipment… but we all have our own opinion about this information. [20] Boat School in Bangladesh
What is certain is we should stay positive with all those hopeful initiatives as the Post Industrial Manufacturing process in which designers and consumers make decisions together. Thereafter, the product is prototyped with a 3D printer to quickly see how it looks like. In this case, professionals as well as users could be lost in the definition of design. In fact, it is hard to determine the real value of an object when both the designer and the user) are involved in the process. This statement is even more relevant regarding the FutureFactories project directed by Dr Atkinson in which the software generates random forms that the user can stop at any time. Printed with a 3D prototyping machine, the consumer has created a unique product that remains “personal�. [17]
Our relationship with computers increasingly growing to reach such a level that now it is difficult to live without. Computers are parts of our every day life and our history; even our way to answer to an email can be interpreted in a wrong way. That is why software as ToneCheck has been created. This program notifies the writer about its uncontrolled or inappropriate writing attitude. Some scientists and thinkers have predicted a very close end of Human era and critical designers promote the idea that designed products can change or at least provoke the actual conditions of society, particularly by hacking new-technologies. They “using conceptual scenarios built around hypothetical objects to comment on the social, political and cultural consequences of new-technologies and behaviors.” (Paola Antonelli)
From Apple’s phones to Nintendo Wii and the Microsoft Kinect technology progresses become closer to the body moves. We also can notice the “breathing” light on Mac laptops…
We are involuntarily more able to adapt our behavior to new technologies, new interfaces and environments; we are more open on new ways of thinking and acting in society. More accurately, persons who born in the 21st century are and will be use to technologic and interacBoat School [21] in Bangladesh tive environments.
An interactive design Kacie Kinzer created, Tweenbots a tiny robot made out of cardboard and battery, with a little flag in which were asked to passerby in the city to point him in any direction. When Tweenbots gets stuck, people readily went to help him find a new way to continue his wander. Kacie Kinzer is really into what are the impacts of technologies
within a narrative approach in our everyday life. Through this project we would expect that pedestrians would crush or throw it away but in reality they have shown empathy and true willingness to care of this URO (Unidentified Rolling Object). [21]
DEATH TO TAMAGOSHI, LONG LIVE TO HUMAN (and cardboard robots) RELATIONSHIPS!!
BE POSITIVE The awareness of human needs has always been the principle of design, nonetheless, human desires quickly prevailed over the years. Social Design is not the first attempt to refocus the real essence of Design, but it is a hope. It is a field, a territory that welcomes different and relevant commitments, initiatives, strategies, associations, open-source platforms and so on. Social Design also embraces Do-it-yourself activities, which had so far escaped from the Design. Those designers, care about the people wherever they come from, whatever their needs. As Paola Antonelli, senior curator in the Department of Architecture and Design at The Museum of Modern Art
(MoMA) would say “design is always about safety, it’s about making people more comfortable, to make things work better and safe.� Let us make it come true! Sleep tight...
Boat School in Bangladesh
“design is always about safety, it’s about making people more comfortable, to make things work better and safe.” - Paola Antonelli
References [1] Design as Art by Bruno Munari (1966) [2] 1000 extra ordinary objects, Colors & Taschen (2001) [3] Http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dystopia [4] Http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1BQPV-iCkU [5] Usbek and Rica magazine, Issue 4 Les Nouveaux Gourous [6] Design for the Real World by Victor Papanek [7] Http://www.bielenberg.com/images/ProjectM2006.pdf [8] Http://www.projectmlab.com/Project-M [9] Design as Art by Bruno Munari (1966) [10] Design Activism by Fuad-Luke Alastair [11] Manifesto by Max Borka [12] Future Craft: How Digital Media is Transforming Product Design [13] Http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2214525/ The-Facebook-jacket-hug-likes-you.html [14] Http://www.trueactivist.com/building-our-own-future-literally [15] Http://inhabitat.com/heineken-wobo-the-brick-that-holds-beer/ [16] 1000 extra ordinary objects, Colors & Taschen [17] Boundaries? What Boundaries? The Crisis of Design in a Post-Professional Era, Paul Atkinson Sheffield Hallam University, UK [18] TEDtalk by Charles Leadbeaters [19] Colors Magazine, Issue #84 Apocalypse [20] Http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20269645 [21] Talk to Me: Design and the Communication Between People and Objects by Paola Antonelli Boat School in Bangladesh