Youtopic.
Youtopic.
Professors. Students. Dominik Harborth. Alin Köhler. Hans Höger.
Eleonora Barozzi. Nicolò Cunico. Malika Eilers. Magdalena von Gosen. Bettina Madita Böhm. Edward Downs Fyfe. Sarah Gäbelein. Matthias Koßmehl. Magdalena Michalka. Sophie Start. Lena Widmann.
Partners.
Youtopic.
Foreword. During our last meeting with the Guggenheim, we presented the results concerning the project, Youtopic. We divided these into three main subject areas: Microcosm, Tools and Travel. Using the feedback we received, we restructured the ideas into a final concept based around three main areas. The ‘Luftschloss’ for the Lange Nacht der Museen in the Atrium. ‘Youtopic Tools’ for the exhibition in the reading room and video room. ‘Toolkit’ in the Shop. These three interventions were designed in order to fit the following guidelines: Interactivity, freshness, group dynamics, group feeling, utopia relevance, design relevance and communication ability. In addition, an advertising campaign will promote the entire project inside and outside of the museum.
Exhibition.
Lange Nacht.
Youtopic tools.
Luftschloss.
Advertising.
Shop.
Corporate identity.
Toolkit.
Youtopic.
Advertising. AREA OF INTERVENTION
Corporate identity.
R osenthal
Blankenburg
Nordend Wittenau
Ahrensfelde
Niederschönhausen
Malchow
Wilhelmsruh B896
Falkenberg
Heinersdorf Pankow
B109
B158
B2
R einickendorf
111
¤ Wartenberg
Weissensee
Tegel
B96
Hohenschönhausen Prenzlauer Berg
Marzahn
L33
Wedding B96
111
B156 100
L ichtenberg
Fernsehturm Spree B1
Tiergarten
Berlin
Charlottenburg
B96
Friedrichsfelde R ummelsburg B179
Karlshorst
Kreuzberg
100
Treptow
Neukölln
Schöneberg Wilmersdorf
Biesdorf
B5
Friedrischshain
Tempelhof Baumschulenweg
Grunewald Schmargendorf
Friedenau
Sp re e
100
Niederschöneweide
113
Dahlem
B1
Oberschöneweide
Steglitz
Britz
B96
owkanal Te lt
B179
J ohannisthal Te
lt o
wk a
na
l
Buckow Mariendorf
L ankwitz
R udow
L ichterfelde Altglienicke Marienfelde
Youtopic.
Schönow
B101
L ichtenrade
0
3 km
Advertising. Corporate Identity. Corporate design. We designed a corporate identity for Youtopic because we’re sure that visibility is necessary for the succes of the exhibition.
Youtopic.
Advertising. Corporate Identity. Ribbon. By giving visitors wristbands upon entry to the exhibition a new atmosphere is created. A varied range of possibilities and applications are made available by employing this medium. Following the initial feedback from the presentation on the 17th of November, it is understood that certain aspects of this concept could be applicable. The application of a wristband to the individual visitor could include a significant amount of excess band which evokes irritation and curiosity as they explore the exhibition. This excess could later be removed, altered and applied to a larger construction. One such means of altering the excess could be that the visitor treats it as a page in the exhibition’s guestbook and writes their opinion on it before applying it to the collective form. Another could be that the band becomes a medium for their personal view on the topic of Utopia and is also added to a larger structure. This would gradually grow, developing into a blueprint or plan for Utopia. It would represent the views of each visitor throughout the course of the exhibition. Another option involves the excess being treated as a means of voting. A selection of options is made available to the visitor. They choose from these options by placing their excess band on the option most relevant to them creating a collection relevant to that option along with other visitors’ contributions. With this medium it is possible to take aspects of the theme beyond the venue itself and into the city. At specific points throughout Berlin, people can attach their excess wristband; this could serve as a form of advertising campaign, spread by the visitors themselves. This idea could integrate with the previous ones to produce a guestbook, Utopic blueprint or ballot box in any quantity in any location in Berlin and beyond. The band gives visitors the opportunity to leave something behind (the excess) and take something away with them (the band on their wrist).
Youtopic.
Exhibition. AREA OF INTERVENCTION
Youtopic tools. 1st Floor
Youtopic.
2nd Floor
Exhibition. Youtopic tools. Introduction. Our aim is to help people to understand that they have the power to change things by acting together. Why are tools a good topic concerning utopia? Because tools are always needed in order to make ideals come true. Because a tool can be concrete and abstract. Because acting is the perfect way to get involved in something. People will experience the power of practicality by using tools. Our approach wants to be in contrast to the normal way of visiting an exhibition. Usually an exhibition is a ‘do not touch’ area. In general the ‘work’ there is already done. In our space the visitors have to do the work on their own. Now we want to give visitors the opportunity to express themselves by doing. Therefore the visitors are not passive but active protagonists. We want them to return to the simple activity of using their hands.
Youtopic.
Exhibition. Youtopic tools. Tools. So they are invited to use a range of tools and materials for participating in an action. We choose these tools through consideration of the following criteria: No precise symbolism, security, universal comprehensibility and usability, materiality, functionality, group feeling and cooperation. The collection of tools will be: Scissors, staplers, screw wrenches, hole punchers and different grippers for cutting and bending.
Youtopic.
Exhibition. Youtopic tools. Materials. The materials will be: plastic ties, wire, screws, screw nuts, small meccano-like components in plastic, different fabrics and soft materials. All the tools and materials come from different areas of every day life such as ‘the office’, ‘the workshop’ and ‘the home’. Walls will be covered with a grid helping the structure to grow. At the very begining a few elements of the structure are already in place, this encourages visitors to continue working on it. The structure is constantly growing during the whole exhibition. Keenly working together on one task encompasses the dynamic sense of utopia. The process is filmed by a webcam, that documents the progression.
Youtopic.
Exhibition. Youtopic tools. Video room. Then the visitor progresses to the `video room´. In the first room the visitor was given the themes of construction and working as part of a group, in the second room they are invited to consider the importance of tools and their influence on change. There is a collection of tools hanging on the wall in a cabinet, which displays their importance. Viewing this encourages the visitor to imagine the wide range of possibilities afforded through the use of tools in general. In the room you can also watch to some videos. The videos are also treating the importance of tools but in an ironic way, telling short stories. For example the tale of Franco who escapes from prison with nothing more than a spoon. Or the ficticious story of Monsieur Pierrot who built the entire Tour Eiffel with his screw wrench.
Youtopic.
Lange Nacht. AREA OF INTERVENTION
Luftschloss. 1st Floor
Youtopic.
Lange Nacht. Luftschloss. Introduction. Utopic ideas often are dismissed as 'just hot air', but within our design, this hot air creates something tangible. This idea is most suitable as an event for the Lange Nacht. It is ambitious in scale and would require an organised structure, as well as supervision and support for the duration of its building. We propose that visitors to the Guggenheim build a 'Castle of Air' or 'Luftschloss'. By contributing their own 'hot air' and of course ideas, opinions and effort; a castle, representative of utopia, develops. Utopia is conjured from thin air, built from scratch but becomes something inspiring and real.
Youtopic.
Lange Nacht. Luftschloss.
LUFTSCHLOSS
Materials. The castle is made up of inflatable components designed to hold visitor's breath. We imagine clear plastic bubblebricks but they could also be origami/tracing paper structures, children's armbands, mirrored tiles, cloud-printed bricks or something else. This would be developed. The important thing is that the components can be tessellated together, built up easily, are cheap to produce and easy to source (as we will need a lot of them).
An alternative to inflatable bubblebricks could be structures made of transparent paper which can be blown into.
Youtopic.
Lange Nacht. Luftschloss. Means. Visitors are provided with a brick which they inflate. Preferably the visitor then attaches the brick himself but depending on complexity of the planned structure we may have to do this. Visitors will probably have to follow a plan to obtain the correct 'castle' shape. This could represent the role of design in utopia – people make the bricks (or 'means') and designers put it all together. We could build a framework to attach them to – a metal greenhouse grid or transparent fishing line strings that the components could be threaded onto. Magnets, zips, velcro, poppers, hooks etc. are other attachment possibilities. Thinking laterally, the structure could already be built and the visitors each take 'their' brick away as a souvenir.
Youtopic.
Lange Nacht. Luftschloss. Construction. A life-size castle, which people can enter, made up of the bricks of hot-air which they have made. A special atmosphere, complete with lighting and perhaps sound, makes travelling through the castle a memorable experience. Multiples in the museum shop could be an additional outcome.
Youtopic.
Lange Nacht. Luftschloss. Reason. The visitor gains a feeling of group energy and dynamism in adding to a common structure. There is scope for each brick to be personalised, perhaps with individual messages, hopes, dreams from the visitors written or drawn on the sides of, or contained within, each brick. The visitors are communicating their name and wish or plan for a better future. The Luftschloss is an impossible dream, a utopia, made reality through the efforts of a group. It’s possible that a part or replica of the castle can be taken home as a reminder of the action that took place.
Communication. Anticipation of the event could be communicated through advertising posters with strong 'castle in the air' visuals (ref. Neuschwanstein etc), promotion through the city with helium balloons, flyers etc., perhaps instructions or communication of how the castle is constructed within the atrium. Octopossibilty/Shop Multiples/Freebies: Replicas, kits, single bricks, DIY kits in the shop during and after the event.
Youtopic.
Shop. AREA OF INTERVENTION
Toolkit. 1st Floor
Youtopic.
Shop.
Toolkit. Introduction. As a product for the shop a kind of travel first aid kit was suggested, but, as we no longer have 'travel' in our project, we thought a link to the 'tool' topic would be more viable.
Youtopic.
Shop.
Toolkit. Glove. A glove which shows the most imoportant tool. Therefor on the glove is written 'toolkit'. There are other parts of words printed all over the glove, which, if you move your hand into a particular shape, become readable. In the manual you find drawings of hands which show you how to move your hand to become a certain 'tool'. It makes us look at our hands through a frame, to become conscious of what we can do with it.
Youtopic.
Shop.
Toolkit. Weekly pill box. A toolkit, declared as something else, for example a weekly pill holder, but not anymore with tools inside, just the holding shapes remain, which also fit to other things.
Manual. A toolbox, where there is no tool inside, but an explanation of how you can use certain things, for example, what else can you do with a knife, besides from cutting something. This manual can be in form of a flipbook where you can see what you can do or in form of little drawings of the item and your hands to get an overview of different possibilities.
Youtopic.
Youtopic. Youtopic.
Conclusion. Having initially explored these areas, we are confident that we can develop them further. Between now and the deadline we will continue their development resulting in a fully integrated experience for the visitor. This will encompass the Lange Nacht, Exhibition and Museum shop aspects with the inclusion of an advertising campaign to generate publicity.