SPECULATED SELF
REPORT LARA MACHADO
B.G. [before goldsmiths] Escaping your own control Sonodeconstructuralism Under the baobab A.G. [after goldsmiths]
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According to Leandro Konder, a Brazilian philosopher, Dialectic was, in ancient Greece, the art of dialogue. Gradually, it became the art of, through dialogue, show a thesis by means of an argument that can clearly define and distinguish the concepts involved in the discussion. In the modern sense, however, dialectic means something else: it is the way we think about the contradictions of reality, how to understand reality as essentially contradictory and constantly changing. For the Marxist dialectic, human activity in general is a process of aggregation, which never reaches a final stage. Working is the activity by which people dominate the natural forces, humanize nature; it is the activity by which people create themselves. Dialectic favours deconstruction, eternal reflection, the mutation of things. Based on these concepts, I approach this report as dialectical process: open to a universe of reflection, allowing the evolution and mutation of things. This is a process based on my vision and the construction of my own identity through my work.
Based upon: Konder, L. What is dialectic? — São Paulo : Brasiliense, 2008.
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///// B.G. [before goldsmiths]
Before coming to Goldsmiths, I was doing Design back in Brazil, with a general approach as well. At least, that was what I thought so, but the approach could not be more different. I was inserted in an environment of industrial and technical approach, learning about history, typography, softwares, anthropology and creating graphics and products that would be able to fit in a box and sold in a store.
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B.G. [before goldsmiths]
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I was familiar with design and its manifestations in that specific reality. Speculative design was just a distant concept and experiments in that sense were very different. It was always thinking more about what the industry wants instead of what the industry might want. I liked connecting different areas of knowledge and hobbies to my practice but I was never forced to think about who I was as a designer, my approach and outputs into the world.
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///// Escaping your own control
Escaping your own control
In the escape project, we choose to escape our own control. We chose to address this after engaging in several discussions about escaping identity, reality and, ultimately, ourselves, and coming to the conclusion that what defines us is the choices we make and its consequences. Once you do not own the power of decision, you remove yourself from responsibility, praise, guilt and sin, becoming almost a tool. I was particularly interested in this idea because of the concepts of identity, what constitutes our identity, pushing human limits and what happens when you let go of yourself for a while. 11
One key reference for us was BDSM, which is a performance of a scene, engaging in activities that include power-exchange, role-playing, fetishes and so on. You create roles (Dominant/Submissive) and work within a scene, a host system that is constantly shifting. This was interesting in the way that we borrowed a wireframe from another world and took into another and it did not necessarily carry a sexual connotation, but the tension present in a submissive act. We became interested in slightly twisting banar behaviour, tackling this as our main structure.
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We engaged in a series of different experiments, having a really interesting and vast process. Actions such as following random directions while moving on the tube, switching routine plans and being dragged on a collar by strangers in Central London. We put ourselves in situations where we would lose control over our lives and feel the fear and excitement and even pain that comes with it. We kept a great energy throughout the project and worked really well as a group, and for me this experimental phase was essential because it was a breaking point from my previous practice and it made me engage with people and the environment in a new and bold way.
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Towards the end, we had spent too much time on research and should have narrowed it down sooner and we had some issues doing that, which made it too broad. As a result, we made a video portraying some of the psychological frame BDSM in a relationship between dominant and submissive while performing a regular task. We tried to show this dominant/submissive relationship while fulfilling a regular task in a precise yet ‘abnormal’ way, but we lacked control on some aspects of the film, such as script and making the task more ordinary. Another struggle was over showing the process on the presentation day, instead of letting the project speak for itself.
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I believe this was the most engaging project for me. I put my practice to test and it definitely changed after that. This project affected me because I am very indecisive and always have a lot on my mind and so abandoning my own control was really liberating and I felt like I had no responsibility anymore for the outcomes, weather they were good or bad. However, that was also dangerous when we had to make decisions for the project and effectively be in control of it.
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Although the outcome was not necessarily what we wanted, the importance of this project to me is what I have learned and the clash of realities, as my first Goldsmiths project, by being inserted in such a speculative and practical environment. I gained a new set of design tools, engaging with the environment and with people in ways that I previously would not relate with design process, such as hacking the city, being tide up and engaging with passers by in the most unexpected way. It provided a new angle for me, where I would not necessarily produce ‘objects’, or make them aesthetically pleasant, but instead create and envision ideas and systems.
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After reflecting on our process and the outcome, I realised that some photos we took portraying dominant/ submissive relationships had potential in representing our concept, especially the one with the tangled hair. In that sense, me and Raoni took more photos, exploring a bit more the idea of showing this interesting relation of loss of control, not necessarily sexual, in some examples of everyday situations, slightly twisting it. We also tackled the pain, mental or physical, that comes with it.
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Regarding our last outcome, I reshot the video, following the feedback given. This time, I made the whole scenario more ordinary and tried to engage in the strangeness of the actions a bit more. Instead of all the walking at Borough Market and buying fancy ingredients, I decided to shoot at my own home, showing a set of actions that you would take at your personal environment, but with a little oddness to it, in order to show the control inflicted at the character.
butter
plate
cheese
knife
bread
ham
I took control of more aspects of the video, making a plan of the environment, the path followed, storyboarding, clear rules to follow and placing of things. I also added more elements to show the domination and intense relation between the characters, like the earplugs as a symbol of the domination, as the submissive was listening the instructions in real time and changing her actions because of that. In addition, I tried to apply a little twist in the way she acts and makes the sandwich to reaffirm to the viewer that it is not a regular task, such as spreading the butter with two fingers instead of the knife right in front of her.
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This project deals with one of the most important aspects of a person’s life: the control over what happens with it. It promises inaction while acting, symbolises not simply a rejection of duty and control, but the very notion of meaning. What would shape our actions and behaviours if we were to fundamentally reject ourselves and the systems we are in, architectures and ideologies of society whilst still choosing to operate within it, following someone else’s decisions? Design opportunities exist in occupying these exchanges of power in a way that challenges the internal logic of them.
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RULES 1. Get up, left foot first. 2. Put your hair up. 3. Put the earplugs on, tighting around the neck. 4. Go slowly to the kitchen. 5. Wash your hands firmly. 6. Open the cupboard in the middle and pick up: knife, plate and bread. (following this order) 7. Open the fridge, pick up: butter, cheese and ham. (following this order) 8. Lay everything at the table. Plate at the center/ butter at the left top corner/ cheese right beneath the butter/ ham right beneath cheese/ two slices of bread on the right, parallel to the butter and cheese/ knife at the right side of bread. 9. Remove the crust with knife. 10. Get the butter and spread it with your index and middle finger together on one slice of bread. 11. Remove one slice of cheese from the plastic. 12. Cut the cheese in stripes and place it in a diagonal way, forming a chess board shape. 13. Remove ham from the package with knife. 14. Get two slices, make rolls and place them on top of the cheese. 15. Close the sandwich. 16. Push the plate ahead of you. 17. Remove earplugs. 18. Twist them around your fingers.
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///// Sonodeconstructuralism
Sonodeconstructuralism
Sonodeconstructuralism is a movement that questions traditional assumptions about certainty, identity of sound and its possibilities. It proposes to be a reaction against a visual scenario, changing the focus to sound by reaffirming its power, enhancing its possibilities and defying pre-established assumptions. Light is considered almost as an enemy. It intends to deconstruct sound by analysing and ‘breaking’ it and, by doing that, challenge its meaning. In addition, use all sorts of sounds as tools to maybe expose and challenge situations. It is a “metaidea”, which means that it explores within the –ism itself new ways to interpret its own concept. Sonodeconstructuralism proposes to be a dynamic movement that can influence people’s perception, emotion and communication.
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Moreover, understanding what sound is and how it can be used gives people more control over their choices. By proposing to value sound, we started some small initiatives that, on a bigger scale, could begin altering the focus of society and build a new culture involving sound perception and production. Sonodeconstructuralism proposes deconstruction of sound to reconstruct its relevant meaning in society. Therefore, the re-signification of sound could transcend its previous concepts and limitations and open it to new possibilities.
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Personally, I choose to address sound in the ism because I tried to connect it with personal interests and beliefs. I have a deep passion and interest for music, sound and how it affects us and I believe in its power as a tool. The importance of other senses is not underrated; it is just a matter of different levels of relevance. All senses coexist for a reason and the combination of them is what makes us humans. However, sound has an invisible force that needs to be reckon with. It is a powerful tool to control perceptions and actions and much more effective to reach more people and provoque quicker responses. Besides, it is relevant to defy the current visual scenario, with an excess of visual references, tablets, iphones, computer screens, among others. Therefore, it made sense to create an ideology around it.
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From the first experiments, we tried to bring Sonodeconstructuralism into a more social and political sphere. Playing with voice in political speeches and changing the perception. The use of sound as a powerful political tool was exposed, because the way that politicians portray themselves influence heavily on our belief in their words. Some of our most successful experiments were engaging with environments and placing sounds that would defy or enhance those places, such as the national gallery experiment, reading the board on the corridor and the ones with the alarm on the cafĂŠ and on the street.
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We got interesting and diverse responses and, usually, the environment did change. We could perceive from those experiments that not only people would be surprised, but also they would engage more with their surroundings and change their previous actions. For example, people were not stopping to look at the posters on the board at the corridor, but then when we placed sound engaging with the passers-by, they would actually stop, be intrigued and receive the message from the poster, much better than visually.
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We experimented a lot and we got some great results from it. Our manifesto, besides being too broad, was also interesting and sounded powerful. In addition, our final presentation was bold, by having no visuals, being situated with speculation for the future and defying the room we were with an unpleasant sound. We had an interesting summary and by placing the presentation in the future, we could speculate an analysis of changes in society after Sonodeconstruturalism. This exercise of speculation was liberating regarding creativity and the conception of many ‘what ifs’, some of them almost nonsensical. For example, envisioning the implementation of hearing control, the amplification of range of detected sound waves, the advent of hyper music, places such as sound galleries becoming commonplace and the use of sound bombs.
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////// Sound is movement; atoms and particles moved by energy. Expansion, contraction. It is the primordial drive, the instinct of the universe to live. Without sound, there is no life. ]]]]]]]] Sound is the negation of a silent, immobile universe and the affirmation of the dynamic, the vital and the energetic. Sound is nowhere and everywhere. () Sound exalts creation and transformation. It breaks the barriers of the language, the social and the cultural since it is primitive and universally comprehensible. Sound is emotion and human soul. It is violent and inevitable.________________________ Sound is music and more than music. It is noise and more than noise. !!!!!!!! We want to challenge the senses and affirm its power! We want to break the paradigms of sound and restore its true nature! Sound is the weapon to wake up society! ///////////////////////////////////////////
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[BUILDERS] You are a builder. Build and construct your tools to push the boundaries of sounds. Provide others with the means to create sounds, to push the possibilities of sound boundaries. [PLAYERS] You are a player / developer. You work with existing tools to arrange and compose sound. You are not concerned with the creation of new sounds- you are only concerned with the creation of new permutations of sounds. [LISTENERS] You are a listener. Approach sound by observing and perceiving it- you actively listen for sounds and appreciate their epheremal quality. You strive to be continually actively listening, rather than being a passive listener and letting sounds slip by. [TRANSLATORS] You are a translator. Re-translate what you hear into something you can see, feel, touch and taste. You translate the aspects of sounds into different forms.
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We also tackled the creation of roles that would work as possibilities for people to engage with Sonodeconstructuralism in order for the ism to manifest. We designed a ‘do it yourself’ performance with them in a built up environment, giving instructions for each role to perform. However, we have not really pushed it forward after that and it was problematic because it took us into another new direction, one of the many we took. Our Monday presentation went to on that and it went sort of well, but it was also messy and applied in an artificial environment, not really being applied out there in the world, and in a system as a small scale.
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Another conclusion is that social behaviour related to sound is very connected to the Nudge Theory (Thaler and Sunstein, 2009). This theory analyses how people behave and argues that is possible to reinforce and indirectly suggest certain actions and that this is more effective than directly giving instructions. Moreover, it affirms that the different ways of thinking may lead people to make mistakes because of preconceived ideas, false notions or other people’s influence. The biggest example of persisting in an error just because the rest is doing the same is the experiment with playing a strong alarm sound. The alarm was played for approximately three minutes and it was a very loud and unpleasant sound and, although some people did know that it was a specific person playing it, nobody did anything for most of the time. When one person left the room, others started to leave as well. However, no one complained because no one else did, which was not the best interest for everyone.
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Our main struggle was because sound is such a broad subject and you could tackle it from so many different perspectives that, because our initial intention for the ism was not so specific, we were going around in circles, researching and working with sounds in too many different ways and that would not correlate later on. We also struggled to separate sound from the goal of the -ism. Because it was generic, it became difficult to understand the real intentions of the –ism and the outputs lacked ‘design resolutions’.
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Personally, I believe that what we wanted ultimately was too vague. It became clear to me that the ism could be much more powerful if it was less general and broad, because sound is everywhere, you could engage with it in many different ways, and, many of the times, that is exactly what got in our way. I believe this project affected my practice in the sense that I was asked to design something completely different from my previous background. It was the project in which I explored most different ways to express an idea by doing collages, videos, role-playing, sound recordings, building models, among other things. This project made me engage and change the environment and also engage with people, be less scared of going crazy. It also made me defy the educational institution, which is something completely out of my comfort zone. We decided to present our project in the way that we have been caring it: challenging and loud. The presentation was annoying, had barely any slides and by doing that, I realised that you not always have to please the tutors and taking chances with your practice is necessary.
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///// Under the Baobab
Under the baobab
Under the Baobab is a strategy game designed to facilitate the visualisation of goals and imagined futures. It acts as a tool for visualization, understanding the impact of data and importance of decentralized decisionmaking. The game uses inspiration from profound African and Senegalese traditions - Ubedehe, Teranga and the Baobab tree and it is embedded in their customs, by using familiar agents, such as the seeds and the symbol of the Baobab.
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CATEGORY DISCS
CLEAR DISCS
SMALL BAOBAB
SEEDS
THE BAOBAB
Orange and Senegal can visually depict the possible opportunities for decentralised growth. It is a way of communicating invaluable information between villages, enabling them to interpret and develop their own response. The game can be remodelled and adapted in Senegalese villages. When personalising the game, a village can decide its own categories for growth according to its existing individual circumstances and micro-culture. A village has the opportunity to create categories of goals that reflects their unique identity.
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[How the game works] Receives category disc, which can be:
Elect a player to be the Village Elder. The village pays one seed from the category they are wish to invest.
The Village Elder gives the community a Village profile and the Baobab seeds to every category.
Opportunity: an investment from the village resources in order to grow. Often gains more seeds.
The village must collectively use the Small Baobab to design a tree that reflects the strategy of ideal growth for the community, using the small baobab discs.
Discussion of strengths and weaknesses of their given village
The village elder and the village need to keep track of the influx and expenditure of baobab seeds with the investment chart. 44
If a category has no seeds, players skip their turn and place a clear disc on the base. They may fill the empty category with a seed from the Morale category.
If there are no more Morale seeds, you must forfeit all of the seeds earned and return to the initial amount on the Village profile. If in some categories there are less seeds than what your village began with, you do not receive more.
Event: situation that demands the village to forfeit or receive seeds in accordance to the circumstances.
Drawback: a clear disc will be placed on the Baobab tree
Benefit: the disc will be placed on the Baobab tree.
Every 10 turns (5 years of progress), the Village Elder will call a Village meeting to discuss and review the progress so far.
Not invest: place a Clear disc on the Baobab base.
At the end, the community should review their journey and the development of their village. After 100 turns the Baobab will be a map of how the village has evolved. Have a discussion with the Village Elder to reflect on the process of the game.
Keep the disc for future investment.(one disc only at a given time) The disc can be replaced and released in any turn. Every turn the disc is kept, players pay 1 morale seed. Wish to invest, but do not have the necessary seeds, they can:
Invest: pay the written amount of seeds and place the Baobab disc on the base.
Pay from other category double amount of seeds.
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We were given the orange brief and from the start, I had a mind-set on humanizing data, taking into consideration Senegalese identity and a non-imperialist or prejudicial approach to the matter. I do not have the habit of working with data, or graphs and figures and all the sort of information that we were provided, so the whole idea of giving data a ‘human face’ was there from the beginning in order to make it more approachable. Because we struggled so much to understand the data itself and the complexity of this system, we came up with a tool to aid their decision making process and the community development with the data provided by Orange, translating data and future planning into less scary and ‘abstract’ concepts. Moreover, it is an education tool, which follows the idea of learning through playing and bringing people together, since that is one of the premises of board games.
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Our process was interesting, because we tried to understand Senegalese culture as much as we could without being there, through music, food, movies, objects, etc. We interview Senegalese people about their country and the people in it and we realised that we had a lot of ‘imperialist’ assumptions about Senegal, which proved not to be true. We discovered that Senegalese people deeply believe in togetherness, living as a community and aiding each other. We also engaged with data, going to exhibitions, doing our networked self, and building human profiles through speculation with data. We watched a movie situated in Senegal and speculated about the Senegalese charactors and their future, which brought us even closer to their reality.
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In this project, I did something current in my practice, which is finding something to base the project on, which in this case was the Baobab tree. This tree is meaningful to Senegalese people and it is a place for discussions and decisionmaking. Baobab, the Tree of Life, is not only fruitful but serves to be an all giving and sustainable source in African life. The Baobab tree takes 200 years to bear fruit. They are stable and ever watching guardians of time. We researched a lot of material related to this tree, even built our own at the studio, creating a Senegalese environment for us to make our own decisions.
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[lasts over 200 years]
[fruits very benefitial] [spiritual symbol]
[large]
[stores water] [resilient]
[simple harvesting]
[hub of discussion]
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The project went really well in the way that we achieved most of our initial goals and managed to respect Senegalese culture. We received good feedback from the client and the tutors because we designed a complex game, which tackled various issues of the brief. This project was my most successful one, although it was really out of my comfort zone. I struggled dealing with such abstract concepts and not being able to do first hand research. It was challenging working with a complex and real system. In addition, it reafirmed to me the value of the process, because our engaging with data and Senegal led the way through the project. Some moments I questioned our focus, because I was doing things that I would not normally consider as relevant for the outcome, such as planting flowers and seing their circle of life in order to aid our own decision making.
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We did not struggled with the structure and design of the game itself, but in claryfing our idea. Some of our dificulties were: boring presentation, explaining and testing the game more, not having enough communication tools to clarify the aims of the project and not showing the outcomes of the system created.
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After our presentation, I reflected on the things we lacked on and decide to play the game with more people. By testing the game again, I was able verify its level of complexity and how many levels of future planing it tackles. You could see that people would start envisioning their future in a more naive way, without checking their resources carefully and not making necessarilly thoughful and well-planned investments throughout time. After some time playing it, people would start to make better decisions and realise that their initial vision might have not been the best one, which already raised an awareness about how Under the Baobab develops the hability to plan and to tackle decisions. In addition to that, the level of discussion and cooperation between the players aided the process of investing and aiming at a commom growth. It also showed some aspects of the game that could be improved on in the future, such as the length of the match and the lack of initial goals. One initiative towards improving that would be, for example, to include some Future profiles in the game, establishing some goals the player would have to achieve, in order to build the Visions tree with more awareness, not just ought of personal ideals. Moreover, it would create a further interest in engaging with the game, because you would be able to see your goals and plan the journey towards that. 56
REALITY constantly generates
DATA the game creates an
UNDERSTANDING facilitates the visualisation of
GOALS which can be achieved by
SHORT TERM DECISION
LONG TERM DECISION
which are made together in
COMMUNITY which generates a
DECENTRALIZED GROWTH creating different scales of goals, which creates
FUTURE A
FUTURE B
..... in order to achieve this imagined future, work in
COMMUNITY discussing ideas and sharing resources as a
HUB 57
Looking at the possibilities of Under the Baobab, one of the possible future scenarios would be the creation of a hub, online and offline, connecting the villages by something fun and relatable as a board game and their commom development. An online network could be created in order to connect the villages, where they could receive and share information on data, goals, ideas, visions, tips, resources and by doing this, improve the relation between them. It could also present the results of the game at the villages, a livestream for example, sharing the ideal future, showing which one is growing the most, in which areas, what are they investing on and what aspect needs further attention. By creating this colaborative network, the villages can raise an awareness about the challenges they face, get attention from politicians and investidors and cooperate with each other to grow. The game can then be used to translate a vision into real life progress: • The possibility of transforming vision to action is brought to life using the speculative future of the villages. This enables the village to examine what is possible, probable, plausible and preferable. • Using the common language of growth to communicate between villages and resources. • Spotting opportunities within the data which correlates with the village vision.
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Under the baobab started as a tool, but it can be inserted in a much more complex system. The game creates a playful hub of decision making, in which everyone can engaged with. In addition to that, this generates ideas and shares visions to the people in charge for the maintance and development of the village. With the creation of the Under the Baoab Hub, the discussions that would have taken place in this environment could be transfered to more complex contexts.
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///// A.G. [after goldsmiths]
A.G. [after goldsmiths]
My previous background at Federal University of Ceara (UFC) was much more related to the regular assumption about design, using softwares in order to produce objects and graphic pieces. After this study abroad year at Goldsmiths, my approach to design could not be more different. It has been continually challenging for me, since it is so distant from what I was previously studying. I learned to ask ‘what if’ instead of ‘what’.
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I began to understand concepts such as hacking a system, subverting ideias, engaging with people and my surroudings and, by doing so, pushing the boundaries of what my design practice was and what it could become. Moreover, I started to reflect on the concept of designing ideas and experiences, not necessarily things. Subvert my own reality instead of just challenging things around me. I am now engaging with design as this powerful speculative tool, capable of altering systems of multiple scales around me. I even face my own practice with a speculative approach now, envisioning future scenarios and thinking in terms of possibility and probability. In addition, critically reflecting my practice, I was able to identify my strengths and struggles.
Some of my strengths and struggles
good process strong research software skills interdisciplinarity systematic thinking
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difficulty to focus too broad indecisive tries to hard to please overthinker
Ideas, creation and/or subvertion of systems, problem solving.
Final product, usually something concrete that could be sold.
UFC
Technical Theoretical Industry- based Concrete
GOLDSMITHS
my practice
Artistic Experimental Speculative Substantial
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Most of the times throughout the year, I would not find the answer in the computer. I would not even find it at the studio. I would have to leave, explore the city, engage with people and find new ways to craft. Every project brought something to enrich my personal experimentation and I learned the importance of documenting every step. As a result, I did things that were not present in my practice before, such as film, collage and performance. In addition, my university in Brazil does not have as many workshops, so it was essential for me to spend time there and enhance making skills.
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I began to detach my practice from the education environment. I have always been the student that follows the brief, does everything in order to please tutors, will follow everything said at a tutorial and will not deviate from the expected behaviour at University. After this past year, I started to defy the institution itself. Things such as following what I considered important from the tutorial, walking around campus being pulled in a leash and hand-cuffed, defying the brief and giving a presentation that would make everyone in the room annoyed and confused on purpose. Everything was really liberating for my practice to develop.
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Regarding my design practice, I have adopted a speculative approach to it, focused on the future and open to possibilities, admitting that it is going to evolve as time goes by. The creative process and experiments in that sense mean the most to me, and it is where I like to spend most time and dedicate most effort.
At this moment, analysing my projects and interests, I enjoy working with identity and especially defying preconceived perceptions and assumptions. I inhabit the territories of product and graphic design and I like overlaying structures from different worlds, for example relating furniture to sociological theories. This year I also became interested in designing performances, interactions. Moreover, I enjoy slightly twisting the environment and seing the effects of it, on the people who inhabit it and the environment itself. As a conclusion, I engage with simple inputs that can change systems around us, or at least the perception of them.
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