Category: Participation

THE INVASION

People ignore what they don’t want to hear, creating a resonance chamber that increases the consumption of incomplete information; this allows the “fourth power” (the media) to manipulate the opinions of the masses and generate conformism.

For this reason, we created a digital platform that allows citizens to share digital and analogue tools, with the objective of generating awareness and critical thinking about information, and sharing the blueprint for the organisation of virtual and physical workshops.

The platform has three main components:

Projects: wherein anyone can share initiatives -with their blueprints- that aim to raise awareness on the information we consume daily (most pictures are from an intervention we made, called Conspiranoic).

Apps: apps and plugins to help us detect fake news and the veracity of information.

Forum: a space where people can discuss about the information they receive and compare it.

INJERTO [Graft / Rhizome]

In a country between two oceans, I’ve realised there exists a failed attempt of growing up. People live from a unique point of view, constantly avoiding different perspectives and the opportunity of discussion.

Everyone thinks that they are right and classify a lot of topics as untouchable. There’s no freedom expression, and people just follow a given idea. But I’m done. I’m done seeing how ordinary decisions affect the future of my country . I know I can be part of the change, we can be active regarding those challenges.

We can make liberate people, so they can openly share their ideas and opinions without fear of judgement or change, and overall, that they can understand and accept different ideas and perspectives, see the world from different points of view, be critical and be able to argue their personal ones. All of this for our society, our country Colombia.

That’s way I’m here; I’m injerto [Graft/Rhizome] and I’ve come to change this story.

 

*Injerto is an open and participatory fanzine used to discuss topics that are considered untouchable and open people to perspectives outside of their own; the pictures are of the first iteration of the project, where students of the Jorge Tadeo Lozano University shared their views on feminism and abortion.

Average Everydayness

During a few weeks, a series of interviews were made to collect what the people feel while working. This project explores the role of the designer as an archeologist of potential virtues in common jobs. With the question “what do the people feel in a typical work day” in mind, the designer creates a framework for interviews where he explores the feelings and perceptions of a common job based on personal experiences.

Jobs in the service sector are by definition repetitive, and in a time when automatization and technology are replacing large number of human jobs, the project extracts human feeling as a material to create new hybrid artefacts. Each object is a cadavre exquis of 3 different sensations, from 3 different jobs.

In this scenario, we are not just re-defining the role of the designer, but we are also looking for new types of materiality.

Move the Neighborhood! – with children

What happens when we include children in the design and development of public urban spaces? What are their dreams and visions for commons when they are given the chance to imagine, build and express their ideas?

This pratice lead research project “Move the neighbourhood!” explores chidrens engagement with public space through a collaborative process co-designing and building a public site in a local community. The aim is to discover if and how co-design of urban spaces in collaboration with children can contribute to better locally integrated playful outdoor spaces. In other words the project asks: Will the involvement of the children through project asks: Will the involvement of the children through a co-design process impact their following use the outdoor space?

The video depicts a pilot study where children from the youth club Rubinen was invited to participate in the design and construction of a temporary urban installation. The process also tested methods of collageing and mapping ideas. Finally it worked as a visible statement in the community ensuring local support for the further involvement of children in the urban renewal process giving children a voice into the many agendas and stakeholders at play.

The experimentation  is part of a collaborative research project  between three Danish research institutions University of Copenhagen, School of Archiecture and University of Southern Denmark  and a municipal areal renewal initiative in Sydhavnen, Copenhagen, Denmark.

A·BORDO en el proyecto de la gente

A·BORDO en el proyecto de la gente (ON·BOARD people’s projects)

We call A·Bordo the fact of gathering knowledge, convening communities and mobilizing resources to design and create spaces that provide significant benefits.

On each case we created a multidisciplinary group who developed significant projects, in a collaborative way, related to space, network, service and/or product design that give openness to creative processes in vulnerable (or not) communities.

At A·BORDO we work sustainably by: an appreciative gaze that highlights the benefits of the community; an exchange of knowledge within a creative scenario that articulates participatory, colaborative and multidisciplinary methodologies; and mobilizing resources amongst different organizations. This process results in a collective learning of new routes originating in other contexts’ creation.

One of the people’s projects was:

COMParte

Cultural and Entrepreneurship Hub

During three months of work between the Santa Rosa’s neighborhood inhabitants (San Cristobal – Bogotá) and the different organizations involved (Madre del Divíno Amor Church and Proyectar sin Fronteras -PSF) a spiritual, cultural and entrepreneurship hub was created, through A·Bordo methodology, inside the church facilities.

This initiative began with the idea to build networking-connections amongst institutions to strengthen their value offers and in order to benefit the personal and community development. It was possible to involve young people and adults in a hub designed for and by the community. Moreover, we connected them with institutions, organizations and groups which are working to benefit the community. This way, “we attract and impact in a positive way for the community by strengthening their family nucleus and project of life” (COMParte presentation).

Through the On·Board methodology, leaders of organization, different groups and members of the community designed and made the hub structure, indoors areas, characteristics of each room and the image of COMParte. At the end, in the opening day, not only a celebration took place, also a feedback meting to think about the future.

“Since its opening Center COMParte has carried out about 27 activities with the groups that belong to the project. Some of these activities with the support or/and alliance with other institutions” (COMParte presentation).

https://www.facebook.com/A.Bordo.EEPG/

R-Urban

R-URBAN is a bottom-up strategy that explores the possibilities of enhancing the capacity of urban resilience by introducing a network of resident-run facilities to create complementarities between key fields of activity (economy, housing, urban agriculture, culture). R-Urban initiates locally closed ecological cycles that will support the emergence of alternative models of living, producing and consuming.
R-urban in Hackney Wick established a collective and participatory process leading to the creation of a new public ‘recycling’ facility centred around ecological and civic practices while exploring issues around mobile urbanism and reversible use of vacant urban sites.
To overcome the current crises (climate, resources, economic, demographic), we must, as philosopher Andre Gorz says, ‘produce what we consume and consume what we produce’. This balance between production and consumption through local sustainable sourcing can not occur without changes in the living and working lifestyles of citizens who must be involved in these changes through collaborative practices supporting each other through local networks.

Ridley’s

Ridley’s was a project by The Decorators in collaboration with Atelier Chan Chan. It was a public realm intervention that combined food and architecture, featuring a food-for-food exchange organism. Ideally located alongside a street market, Ridley’s worked within the market’s existing infrastructure to negotiate its social and economic contingencies.

Ridley’s was a collaborative project that destabilized the traditional format of the restaurant where the boundaries between “designer”, “producer” and “consumer” tore apart to give way to new roles: everyone was a maker, a fundamental cog of the food system. Creating its own alternative economy, Ridley’s demonstrated that architecture can be more than a commodity, socially engaged and influential. By expanding its tools and modes of practice and borrowing from the procedures of informal and spontaneous exchange systems.

Visitors to the restaurant became part of a cycle. £3s worth of market produce from our shopping list could be exchanged for the dish of the day at lunch or £15 provided an evening meal,with diners getting back a £5 food shopping voucher for use at the market. The produce collected at lunch was used to cook dinner, the money made at dinner was used to get ingredients for the following day’s lunch, and the voucher given with the dinner brought people back to the market long after the intervention was over. Ridley’s was a self-sufficient restaurant, co-existing with the market, the traders and its neighbours.

A line-up of local chefs created daily menus using market produce only. Diners sat at a communal table high above the market. Meals prepared in the ground floor kitchen, the hub of exchange and production, were raised by a mechanical table up to the guests above. This scenographic journey emphasised the vertical transformation of the raw food at market level to the cooked meals at the elevated podium above. The temporary summer installation was an opportunity to imagine an alternative socio-economic programme for the public realm.

Carpentry by Sam Trice
 Identity and graphic design by Guglielmo Rossi
 Thanks to the photographers: Dosfotos, Rachel Ferriman, Jessie Levene.

www.ridleys.org

Zuider Festival

Zuider Festival is a free festival of art and music based in Enschede, NL. Since 2012, the festival is organised annually by artist collectives Studio Complex and Hangarrrrrr during one weekend around the end of summer. Based on a strong belief in DIY culture, the festival invites local and international creatives to collaborate on producing the festival in content and shape in reaction to a conceptual framework set by the organising collectives. Previous editions have included the themes of ‘Vlucht’ (dutch: escape), ‘Sustainability’ and ‘Collaboratorium’. This year’s edition took place under the title ‘Gone to Croatan’, a symbol for respecting given situations, acting consciously, adventure, being different and self-empowerment.

Zuider Festival is organised on a property which has been squatted by Studio Complex in 2012. A former car repair shop of approximately 3000 square meters and ca. 3 ha of land make up the ground of Studio Complex. The neighboring warehouse of Hangarrrrrr is used in agreement with the city council. By now, the two collectives have developed close  ties and collaborate on common projects. In 2015, Studio Complex and Hangarrrrrr have received a substantial grant from the Mondriaan Fund.

Studio Complex has evolved from an illegalised squat to being widely accepted by the city council who owns the property on Cromhoffsbleekweg in Enschede. The city and neighborhood councils support Zuider Festival financially.

Originating from a tradition of squatting, self-empowerment and Do-It-Yourself mentality, Zuider Festival is produced collaboratively by local and visiting makers and creatives. Each edition of Zuider Festival unfolds an inclusive space where makers and visitors are encouraged to act freely. A general lack of financial pressure through clever sourcing of free materials and public grants allows for imagination and experimentation to become central to processes of creation.

The content of the festival is shaped by its participants. This year’s festival has seen a carnival with self-built roller coaster, a staged freak show, a tattoo booth, laughing yoga, screen printing workshops, an open podium poetry slam, as well as a multitude of performances by DIY musicians and noise artists, amongst a variety of other activities.

 

https://www.zuiderfestival.nl

 

Video by: Mya Hang (https://vimeo.com/mykkur)

Photo credits: Studio Complex & Hangarrrrrr

Chrisp Street on Air

Chrisp Street Market, Poplar

November 2013 – April 2014

Chrisp Street on Air was a research project based on a series of actions we undertook in Chrisp Street Market to emphasise the market’s relevance as a public and civic space at the heart of community life.

First, in order to capture the many voices of Chrisp Street, we set up a radio station in an empty unit at the market. The broadcasts were an attempt to understand the mechanics of the market and the surrounding area and pose questions about its future. The podcasts are available for listening on the Chrisp Street On Air website and also on iTunes.

The radio series was used as research to inform a programme of events and activities that took place in the market square. The events drew from the particular history of the area and were developed in collaboration with key local cultural partners such as The Lansbury Amateur Boxing Club, Poplar Film, Bow Arts, Spotlight and others.

New market stalls were built to host the programme of events, which included boxing, music and cinema. The new stalls emphasised the social character of the place and provided infrastructure for outdoor eating (even in cold winter days).

With Guglielmo Rossi we developed an identity for the project, based on the handwriting of one of the market stall holders. It was used to advertise the events with stencils on the market walls and columns, event leaflets, and a Chrisp Street Menu of the food available in the area.

At a time of change for the area, Chrisp Street on Air provided an opportunity to celebrate and record the distinctive character of Chrisp Street Market.

Photo credits: Dosfotos / Philipp Ebeling

Chrisp Street On Air was supported by Tower Hamlets Council and the Mayor of London’s Portas Pilot Programme, which is nurturing town teams and helping increase the vibrancy and growth of high streets across London.

Project Team: The Decorators in collaboration with Tom Keeley, Guglielmo Rossi, Mikel Burgui and Ashley McCormick. Website design by Guglielmo Rossi. Programming by Joe Davis. Mixing by James Latimer.

www.chrispstreetonair.com

Decolonizing Agriculture

The countryside, providing food for the city, has been the counterpart for the urban development, this inversely proportional balance between environments and resources carved out both urban and rural spaces. Designing for rural areas today means renegotiating these borders. While worldwide rural areas are becoming more and more dependent on technology and tools which belong to the urban development, urban environments are searching for sustainable ways to develop and evolve.

 

Intervention to build a bottom-up understanding of genetics, engaging farmers through the language of folk crafts

 

Today most of us live far from food production and agricultural landscape. On one hand, this could be a positive sign: it means that our society is advanced enough to feed everybody with the work of few. On the other hand, this gap is the fertile soil for the proliferation of an image of rural territories which influences directly the contemporary context but has more to do with commercial suggestions, rather than with present or past realities.

In this context, seeds are one of the most critical technology: plant varieties are bred, selected, designed to behave and to produce under certain precise conditions. They can be considered the minimum designed unit which influences and reproduces the condition which is designed for. It is as if the “design” of the aseptic condition of the laboratory has been extended as an ideal environment to the whole agricultural landscape.

In order to introduce a different understanding of seeds, we searched for those practices which shape the landscape and constitute the identity of people living there.

Different kind of folk crafts survived, losing their meaning and becoming a folklore fetish. Nevertheless, folk crafts represent the medium of dialogue to unveil a designed pattern of production and to connect local inhabitants with a common activity.

We worked with embroidery, which is the main craft survived in the case-study area. An embroidered tablecloth illustrating the topic of seeds ownership was the first outcome of this re-appropriation of tools. Produced by farmers, it is the result of a dialogue that connects all the actors and interests of this production chain. The tablecloth serves as a tool to engage on current issues, to have an interaction with those people otherwise excluded from technological innovation. These actors who still have the knowledge of a different culture, increasingly marginal, in which we can trace the roots of our culture but also the possibility of a different one.

Crafts’ languages need to be upset in order to play again a social role, they represent the attitude of a lost world which is now struggling to access new layers of technology: mechanical, chemical and genomic ones. We involved communities through their capabilities to create their own language by using a manufacture, a driver to appropriate and to interpret their reality. The speculative thought of genetic innovations confront with the people, multiplying perspectives and offering other solutions.