Form follows what?

The brief? Design a one-piece functional object. My position? Criticize functionalism with an functionally ambiguous object…

When I received the brief, I knew I wanted to take an alternative path than following the brief, so I wrote to my friend and mentor from Colombia, Alfredo Gutiérrez Borrero, so that he could suggest me some references to strengthen the argument, the story behind the object. His suggestion were exactly what I needed to aim my project successfully: an article from Jan Michl called Form Follows What?, reason why this post is called the same; a reflection around affordances, both from the behavioral psychology background and the design background (first introduced by Don Norman); and, last but not least, the first part of the movie The Gods Must be Crazy, in which an isolated tribe in the Kalahari desert have an encounter with a Coca-Cola bottle, and end up finding diverse uses to it (none of them being containing liquid!). After I digested (or tried to) this different references, I also included one that came to my mind, in the structuring of the general concept: the collection of impossible objects made by Jacques Carelman.

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So, what was my argument? A designer cannot design the way people use things, but can suggest different functions that the object can afford. I think the case of the movie is very important here, because something as simple and obvious as a bottle is absolutely re-interpreted in use, and even what we can consider obvious practical functions (as containing or grabbing) are ignored… this also says a lot about how we are culturally determined to perceive what objects can afford (Donald Norman – perceived affordances).

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And what do the impossible objects have to do with all this mess? Well, I believe they are not impossible (I understand the irony intended by Carelman, off course), their are just possible on different uses than the ones we are used to on the objects he tries to represent.

My outcome is an object that tries to be a bottle, but doesn’t get to be one for its overture at both extremes… what would you use it for? Answer in the comments please!

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Support Conversation. Donate Time.

… that was the question I posed on an intervention I made in the city of Eindhoven, seeking to create a distraction in the middle of the consumerist rush that the people live on Saturdays (specially around this days of the year!). A distraction that would put people to think about what is valuable for them, what is value in their lives, and challenge themselves to donate one of their most valuable resources: time. Donate for what cause? To preserve conversation as the most basic, yet fulfilling activity of the human being.

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-Is it Tea? -asked a woman.

-Yes, I also have tea, do you want a cup? -I answered.

-No, I mean that if this is is a campaign for drinking tea?

-Hm, no.

-Then, what is the brand? -asked the woman visibly confused.

-There is no brand, is just a coffee and tea giveaway, all for the cause of conversation.

The poor woman was so confused… she could not imagine something unlinked to a corporate image; but, even worse, it surprised me that after that short conversation, the woman felt less interest on joining the conversation; is like if she, as the classic consumer, liked to be targeted by brands and companies, and was more open to have a relation with a brand (as consumer), than having a relation with a person (as equals)…

Thoughts from Riga

From the 7th to the 12th of November, in Riga, the MakeDesign Riga – Dutch Design made in Latvia workshop took place, getting together students from the Design Academy Eindhoven and the Academy of Arts of Latvia to collaborate in projects with different craftsmen from the country. It consisted of an intense week of collaborative work in order to deliver several products and projects, to be exhibited the last day on a pop-up exhibition on the the Birza Museum, which also served as a working space for the diverse working groups during the week.

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Dutch Design?

The first surprise of the week came just few hours after landing, on a dinner hosted by the Dutch consul in Riga, and who expected the ‘dutch designers’ from the Design Academy and got visibly surprised when noticing that none of the participants was dutch. But the implications of this went further than the surprise, for it made us think about what did it mean to represent dutch design without being dutch and how could this collaboration work evidence that mark.

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No time to think… just to make!

On this short-time-format workshops, there is no much time to think or analyze about the question, but to experiment in the making to find the answers in an empirical way. This was the case of the workshop, for there was no time for stopping to think, or if you did, then you would be left behind. Some may argue that I am treating the thinking and the making as separate entities, while we should consider the making as a way of thinking (and the thinking as a way of making), and I would agree; the practical way of research we applied in the workshop, reflects the idea of the thinking and the making as an integrated entity in the process of design, rather than individual issues that require different contexts. (Rick Poynor said that making is a form of thinking and Heidegger that thinking is a craft, so there is a relevant background on design theory and philosophy around it).

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The importance of collaboration

Another fact that got highly reinforced in the workshop, was the importance of collaboration with different stakeholders. Working, both with the students from the Academy of Art from Latvia, the craftsman and the different groups of students and tutors, gave intense feedback to every project, permitting them to grow exponentially from the state where they were at the beginning of the week. In my case, I had some vague ideas of what I wanted to do, also with some presumptions of what Riga and Latvia were; but it made a huge difference when I started to understand the reality of the locals by guidance of my Latvian team mates, and evolved the project (which passed from being my project, to being our project). But the collaboration with the craftsman was also crucial, specially in my case, in which I was working with the proactive Vilnis Vincevics, who participated in every stage of the process of our project, from the thinking to the sketching and making.

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So, bottom line, if I had been said at the beginning of the year that I was going to Riga at the end of the year I would have not believed it (and also would have asked, where is Riga? -sorry Latvian friends, now I know much more than that!); but probably that is the most amazing part of all the experience, for you do not know what to expect of something that you do not know much about, and you usually get surprised. In this case I did got gladly surprised, specially by the human beings that where around the whole workshop and did not let us feel us cold as the thermometer said. Many thanks to all.

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Complete photo galleries:

http://gallery.me.com/calderonp#100054

http://gallery.me.com/calderonp#100061

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El mito del ‘dutch design’

Hace 3 semanas, en Eindhoven, tuvo lugar la 10ma semana del diseño holandés (Dutch Design Week), uno de los eventos de diseño más importante en Europa. Semanas antes del evento, se generan grandes expectativas en distintos sectores industriales y académicos, al respecto de lo que allí se presentara; no era muy distinto para mi, teniendo en cuenta que fue el primer evento de diseño de esa magnitud al que he asistido. En primera instancia, podría decir que fue una gran desilusión, pues yo venía con la idea (lización…) del diseño holandés de Droog, Jurgen Bey, Maarten Baas, Hella Jongerius, Marcel Wanders y otros que, me vengo a dar cuenta, son una pequeña minoría en un mar de generalidades: son, en realidad, la excepción a la regla. Si, en Holanda se produce tanta basura como en Colombia y, según entiendo, en el resto del mundo; pero siempre sobresale una que otra joya entre tanta basura. Mesas, sillas, mesas, sillas, lámparas, sillas, lámparas… ¿aburrido? Imagínese estar viendo lo mismo una y otra vez.

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Para aprender de Holanda

En Colombia es común asumir dos posturas opuestas, pero igualmente nocivas, frente a lo que viene de otros países: un grupo de personas hacen las veces de nuevos indígenas, recordando la ingenuidad de nuestros ancestros, que se asombraban al primer espejo que veían y rendían sus tributos al blanco; por otro lado, están quienes rechazan con vehemencia cualquier iniciativa proveniente de otro país, proclamando una (¿falsa?) idea de identidad nacional (lo cual me recuerda un excelente artículo publicado en el Malpensante acerca de las pretensiones de identidad en Colombia). Ambos casos, insisto, igualmente nocivos, se ven principalmente reflejados en lo proveniente de Europa, y el diseño no solo no es ajeno a esto, sino que es un claro ejemplo de esta situación.

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Ahora, procuremos tomar una distancia de estas posiciones y veamos qué podemos aprender de casos exitosos de diseño, como lo es el caso holandés. Comienzo la publicación procurando des-mitificar el diseño holandés, sin desconocer todo lo que hay que aprender de éste (no en vano estudio en uno de los baluartes del ‘dutch design‘, la Design Academy de Eindhoven). Creo que uno de los aspectos que más debemos aprender del diseño holandés es la capacidad de asumir tantas visiones distintas del diseño, sin afectarse entre ellas (ni pisarse los talones); en un mismo país se ven casos de diseño crítico, como Jugen Bey, y en la sala de al lado casos de diseño comercial de una firma como Van Berlo. Algunos pensarán que acá no se dan discusiones alrededor del diseño y de lo que los diseñadores deben hacer pero, por el contrario, la discusión se da igual que en Colombia, solo que acá no dejan que eso los detenga en hacer su trabajo. En conclusión, las distintas posturas no impiden que cada diseñador haga lo suyo, y las condiciones están para que lo haga de manera sobresaliente.

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Ahora, creo que una de las cosas que más debemos aprender del diseño holandés, es creer en lo que hacemos. Que soy un diseñador y me dió por hacer una puntilla, pues tengo que creer que esa puntilla es realmente única y debo proyectarlo en la manera en que comunico mi trabajo (no en vano, los diseñadores acá hacen referencia a ‘su trabajo’, como algo realmente valioso e importante). Sin complejos, el diseñador holandés (no necesariamente holandés, pero formado bajo los principios del dutch design) se enfrenta a todos los proyectos con la seguridad de ser la persona idónea para enfrentar el reto que se le ponga en frente, mientras que en Colombia aún luchamos por explicarle a la gente qué es lo que hace un diseñador (cosa que tampoco hemos logrado hacer con éxito). En Colombia hay casos valiosísimos de diseño de distintos tipos, pero si ni nosotros, autores de los proyectos, creemos en ellos ¿qué esperamos que crean las demás personas al respecto? Pero vale aclarar que esto comienza en la escuela: la Galería de graduación de la Design Academy de Eindhoven es, quizás, uno de los eventos más taquilleros de la DDW, siendo, por lo demás, de los más costosos (10Euros); en esta, vemos el gran cuidado que se le da a mostrar el trabajo que cada estudiante hace, sin descuidar detalle alguno. Por tener la figura de exhibición, algunos lo catalogan como arte, pero creo que es sencillamente una manera de mostrar lo que hacemos y darle la importancia que creemos que se merece.

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¿Puro mito?

Entonces, se preguntarán algunos, ¿eso del ‘diseño holandés’ es solo un mito? No; hay que traerlo a la tierra y  saber que hacen tanta basura como en cualquier lugar del mundo, pero la disposición que tienen frente a lo que hacen les permite salir adelante en distintas áreas del diseño, y es eso lo que podríamos aprender en Colombia. De hecho, me atrevo a decir que en Colombia (y en general en los países no-industrializados) no hacemos tanta basura aún, entonces tenemos una oportunidad valiosa para generar proyectos con verdadero valor para nuestro entorno, solo hace falta crear y creer en lo que hacemos.

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Galería completa de fotos:

http://gallery.me.com/calderonp#100046