Jerszy Seymour

MAP MAPPING THE DESIGN WORLD Quarterly/1 October - December 2012 FORM FOLLOWS FOCO MAX BORKA: 100 EXAMPLES OF SOCIAL DESIGN 2 MAP 1 MAP 1 3 Form Follows Foquismo A Manifesto (of sorts) Che, Streetart by Dolk (Lundgren). To many it may still be invisible. If one consi- society: slick, glamorous, luxurious, or simply also results in overproduction, a program- to be utopian and therefore invalid, one of authorities- to the foundation of Skateistan, of the 2005 European Heroes by Time Magazine. constantly comment and complement each exploited; an imaginativeness, enthusiasm ders our present condition humaine, it may also practical objects of desire, good-looking and med obsoleteness of goods, and a market that the main objectives of Mapping The Design not just Afghanistan’s first skatepark and big- Far less measurable, but all the more impor- other, this magazine has set itself the aim of and even joyfulness that totally refutes the come too late - its effect being that of the pro- highly seductive, but also lethal and perilous is oversaturated — the only way out: conquer World is to demonstrate how a rapidly growing gest sports facility, but also the world’s first tant, is the way in which Rama, Mockus and concentrating on what printed matter is best cynicism, despair and dreariness that often verbial drop of water on a hot plate. And yet — ‘formes fatales’ that promise heaven, but new territories. Not only does this have disast- number of initiatives is proving the contrary. skateboard school. The initiators aim to use the initiators of Skateistan almost single-han- at: delve deep. Different from so many other accompanies social design. it’s coming: a Massive Change! Look at Egypt! are a one-way ticket to its antipode. rous consequences in terms of working condi- And as a part of Mapping, this new magazine ‘skateboarding as a hook’, not only to lure the dedly changed the course of history by resis- design magazines it will not present itself as From the Facebook revolution that triggered Arab tions or waste, with design being an offspring aspires to be a catalyzer that helps synchronize youngsters into other classroom activities, ting and opposing the reigning mood in their a kind of shopping mall in glossy 2D, with KALEISDOSCOPIC Spring, to the Potato Revolution raised by Greek FROM TOOL TO FOOL from the West, other cultures have been wiped all that flapping. but also to break down social barriers. Near- country, in their effort to redesign a worldwide every new spread serving as another vitri- farmers with the help of the Internet - a whole away entirely. Such is the power of this globa- ly 40% of the students are girls, in one of the perception of these countries, by giving a sign ne, but serve as a discussion platform, com- Several other citeria have been used in this new way of living is rapidly imposing itself, Of late, these corporate and luxury industries lization, that the hope of creating and culti- PRIMAL SOUP world’s most gender-biased societies. Many are of Hope, and demonstrating that all is not bining the vastness of scope of a book with selection, such as the fact that, apart from with its own logic and dialectics, and based on a have become more popular and powerful than vating a Design Dialect, as a local variant on also illiterate, while others are the children of lost, that things can be done differently, des- a gazette’s capacity of being fast, cheap and one or two exceptions, and in order to stick as vision on design that is radically different from ever. Their territory has expanded such that it a universal design Esperanto, seems the only As Vilèm Flusser wrote: “The future will above government ministers. perate as the situation may seem. readily available, a bit like the cahiers did it in close to reality as possible, we almost exclusi- the one we were used to, serving the whole of has totally appropriated the realm of design, option for most cultures left. all be a matter of design.” Indeed, but what the past. Most importantly: it will also try to vely opted for projects that were beyond the society, and not just the –interests of just some leaving little room for dissidents. But paral- kind of design? It will have to descend to a TOTALITARIAN In trying to give them some more visibility to redraw and adjust the world map of design, in phase of mere concept and vision and had groups and the happy few. lel to its explosive conquering of the globe, FOCO ‘zero degree’, the primal soup from where these projects Mapping the Design World pro- function of real urgencies, and needs. materialised in production and other forms of an implosion imposed itself on the semantic it can question why it is there and what it is While integrating Skateistan in the first issue ject also wants to serve as a Think Tank and action. And we can only hope that the over- RHIZOME level, reducing design to little more than a lub- All along this process, and in order to incre- about, the axioms that up till now were at the of this new Magazine, as one of a multitude of Future Lab, combining all the media at its dis- TOPSY-TURVY all image that resorts is that of a Social Design ricant that helps to realize a scarcely hidden ase its market or fight the crisis, the ruling origin of design strategies, and the capitalism examples that have to illustrate the extraordina- posal, from print, over digital, to a traveling that does not just stand for one ideology, and That this movement may still be passing agenda: ‘Sell whatever to whoever in whatever design world, already expanded the last word that is their driving force. It will no longer ry dynamics and variety of tactics within Soci- Mapping Meeting Point, that serves as a plat- The starting point for this first issue for that does not point out an absolute answer. unnoticed also has to do with its underlying way’. Still pretending to be a tool –brandishing in the magical formula Form follows Function accept to be reduced to an industrial object, al Design, we were well aware that many may form for conferences and workshops, cons- instance was to show 100 projects from an Social Design is not one, but many. Instead of structure. It has the weak and diffuse morpho- truisms such as ‘Form follows Function’ - its to Finance and Fashion, Fun, Funk & Fuck, Fic- system or process, while its practitioners will wonder why we consider it to be design at all, tantly changing and adapting its formula, in equal number of countries, with a clear pre- being mono-cultural, anchored on the west, logy of a Rhizome, which Gilles Deleuze and status doesn’t exceed that of a useful fool. tion & Friction, or Fury & Fairy. Many also no longer tolerate to be treated like consumers used as they aree to a definition in which design function of it were it ends up. That will also be ference for regions largely off the conven- it is multicultural and kaleidoscopic. It refu- Félix Guattari already referred to in their visi- started Greening themselves, or getting more or users. It will be a total philosophy, reconsi- limits itself to tables, chairs, cars and fashion, the case in Liège, where the first issue of the tional design radar, such as Afghanistan or ses to remain a design for the happy few, and onary Capitalism and Schizophrenia 40 years DESIGN DIALECTS responsible. But their actions often remind of dering the codes, conventions, and subcutane- or even to luxury versions of these objects of desi- magazine will be launched, and the platform Zambia. Positive discrimination also deter- focuses on the other 90% instead, the mar- ago, a nomadic network of thin roots and trying to fix a car while it is still full speed on ous mechanisms that steer society, rituals and re. To them we would like to say that we consi- will be living its world first as part of Reci- mined the selection of an average of one ginalized and neglected, the third and fourth sprouts that moves underground. One might Some more innate handicaps of this system the road, totally out of control. Other F-words habits. It will create a new alphabet that allows der anything to be design that is a tool for living, procity, the 7th Biennial for Design and Social project per country, giving the same value to world coming first. also compare it to a volatile cloud, constantly recently got the overhand, causing a worldwide urgently need to get absolute priority if design us to study how shapes are formed, and deve- and therefore also Skateistan, as well as the pro- Innovation. Meant to be more than just a place inconspicuous places as the Faroe- and Lofo- changing into new configurations. It has no crisis, which even the most hard-core cannot really plans to get social, such as Famine, lop a science and praxis that focus on living ject launched by Edi Rama, when he had taken where visitors can meet and greet, and find out ten Islands as to the USA, Russia and China. VIOLATING center, or rather a center that is everywhere an ignore. To mention only a few of these: in its Favela, Fai-da-te and even Foco or Foquismo, and the habitat in general, including favela office as the mayor of the capital of Albania, about Reciprocity’s programme, this Meeting Finally, rather than going for the most impor- nowhere at all- old hierarchies are gone.

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