Quirky Design
A collection of notes of Lalya Gaye's presentation on Quirky Designs
On Thursday morning Lalya presented to use different examples of successful and unsuccessful design projects that were critical or had a social change.
Utopia through state-driven design:
Folkhemmet (Swedish for "home for the people") → Embrace new technologies and architecture with the goal of creating a living space where everyone can enjoy a good life (→ paradise)
Critical Design:
Critical design embodies fears and possibilities. It does not always have a function, instead it illustrates a fear and causes people to express criticism.
Dunne & Raby
Natalie Jeremjienko
Breathless Corset, Kristin O'Friel → embodying pollution
Dissolving Memory, Sarah Wisniewska → representation of dementia with the goal to cause empathy
EnduraSphere(TM), The Yes Men → imitate representatives of authorities and of companies to provoke public to critique such organisation and ask why not?
Design experiments in alternative lifestyles (mobility):
paraSite, Michael Rakowitz
Homeless Vehicle Project, Krzysztof Wodiczko
Design for development through accessibility (water and information):
The PlayPump, Ronnie Stuiver → example of bad ethnographic design and of an unsuccessful concept
Hippo Water Roller, Pettie Petzer and Johan Jonker → reusing infrastructure that exists, example of a successful Permaculture Design.
Principles that you can learn from these examples:
- Participatory design: empower stakeholders and users with workshops (lazy option) for example → users have to feel like they have ownership to your designs too
- Long-term study: make iterative processes (cycles)
- Price
- Redundancy of information: how can people from different cultures and ages understand the information
- Playfulness vs Practicality: design has to fit in the user's life and is not allowed to be cumbersome
- What existing solutions are there already?: use already existing materials and tools if possible
- Related work outside of usual channels
- No solution fits all
- Admit failure: if something fails, admit it and don't sit on it
- Disrupt when / where needed but adapt / be humble where / when needed