Tentatively entitled ‘Ungrey QWorlds, these London Design Biennale 2021 \ Design in an Age of Crisis \ Neville Brody eight interlinked proposals selected here for the London Design Biennale 2021 are all curated to be complementary and connected, interplaying as pressing 8 Proposals: themes, dynamic experiences, and vital opportunities. They all respond in some way to the greying of our worlds, be they urban, rural, creative or cultural. These Design: An instrument for social projects are designed to begin a process of mitigating this greyness, reintegrating colour, difference, and risk. They are all largely conceived as immersive, active, and revelation and an enabling catalyst interactive experiences for the visitor as a way to reveal realities and possibilities, and will be supported by for social action online platforms delivering information and community- building resources. Any or all of these proposals are entirely tangible and feasible, intrinsically linked and working in harmony with each other to maximise responses and harness vital discussions. AAC Neville Brody 6/09/2020 AAC The rapidly-increasing spread of grey over green not tion would also be to create a water capture mechanism London Design Biennale 2021 \ Design in an Age of Crisis \ Neville Brody only threatens our cities, but by extension the entire in the Fountain Courtyard designed around the use of planet and our futures on it. Learning to farm our urban fabric ‘sails’ that funnel rainwater into one or more water environment is an important element of any plans for a butts for use in irrigation, reflecting the site’s historic Proposal 1: sustainable planet. connections to sailing. Extending and promoting the idea of and need for urban There would be an associated online element, with a greening and the detailing of an ‘edible’ London where mobile app allowing users to monitor the beds and be Farmable London: Design to green every opportunity to grow food is mapped and enabled, informed when produce was ready to be harvested, al- Somerset House will be converted into an allotment for lowing them to help in return for fresh food. the duration of the Biennale. With Bill Thompson and Katie Thornburrow our urban space This is a scalable strategy, and would range from green- ing the entire courtyard, to building an (hydroponic) allotment in one specific room, to giving each visitor a Note: images/sketches currently in preparation seed box and a plan. Depending on the scale, one op- 1 Our lives and societies are increasingly patterned and We propose a room of surprise and shimmer. Nothing London Design Biennale 2021 \ Design in an Age of Crisis \ Neville Brody controlled, and the extent of our scope for adventure, will be expected: partner and guest providers will create discovery and expression is being actively reduced. scenarios, experiences and events for the visitor that This process ensures regulated environments for profit unsettle and thrill, unnerve and inspire. Proposal 2: and control in a globalised race to standardisation. In a With Jane Gauntlett global distribution model, difference is the enemy. Decomplexification is necessary for this model of least De/Convention: Design to resistance to survive, leading to an increasingly entropic Note: images/sketches currently in preparation culture. Diversity and complexity are the constant and necessary oppositional tactics to counter this, leading re-engage complexity, expression through vigilant serendipity to a new renaissance of negentropy, the maintenance of complexity and and imagination unpredictability. 2 Our lives and selves are increasingly observed, Inside the booth is also a microphone linked to an London Design Biennale 2021 \ Design in an Age of Crisis \ Neville Brody analysed, judged and exploited by normalised online radio station, Radio Freedom. This is highlighted technologies and AI. to visitors who are encouraged to broadcast freely. Focusing on and amplifying one aspect of this, in London Alongside the booth is a wall where visitors can write, on a typical day we are photographed and our details draw or express what they choose. Proposal 3: held for governance or commercial gain well over 400 The function of the booth is learning through immersion, times a day. a process intended to reveal hidden realities and Revisiting an installation I created in 2012 for the Design opportunities. The Freedom Space: From Museum’s Super Contemporary show, the Freedom With Carolina Stenstrum IN LONDON YOU ARE CAUGHT ON CAMERA AN AVERAGE OF 400 Space will be completely reinvented and upgraded for TIMES A DAY. CURRENTLY THIS IS THE HIGHEST RATE OF SURVEILLANCE ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD. BUT THAT’S NOT THE contemporary narratives. The levels of surveillance, ONLY WAY YOU ARE MONITORED. YOU ARE TRACKED EVERY concealment to revelation through TIME YOU USE A CREDIT CARD, MAKE A TELEPHONE CALL, SEND AN EMAIL, USE THE INTERNET, SEARCH WITH GOOGLE, MAKE OR observation and profile assumption we live under has Below left: RECEIVE A MOBILE PHONE CALL. YOUR ACTIVITIES ARE LOGGED EVERY TIME YOU TAKE OUT A SUBSCRIPTION, TRAVEL, APPLY increased exponentially since that time. Original poster which prompted the Freedom Booth FOR A JOB, TAKE POLITICAL ACTION, COME INTO CONTACT WITH THE POLICE, TAKE A TRIP IN A CAR, VISIT THE DOCTOR, VOTE, SIGN UP FOR A LOYALTY CARD, TAKE OUT INSURANCE, JOIN THE design The inside of the central booth is brightly lit and filled Below: EDUCATION SYSTEM. with wall to wall cameras, 400 in total. Each of these Sketch representing the original booth and its focus and YOU ARE ALWAYS BEING WATCHED. IT’S LOGGED SOMEWHERE. cameras are synchronised and take an individual image THEY KNOW WHO YOU ARE AND WHERE YOU’RE HIDING. intentions SURVEILLANCE TO BROADCAST. REVERSE THE TOOLS OF every few seconds which are instantly stitched together to form a timed mosaic, which is in turn published Over page: online. Any visitor is able to view the image based on the The final booth and interior cameras from the original time they entered the booth. installation PROTECT ME FROM MYSELF DATAVEILLANCE IN LONDON YOU ARE CAUGHT ON CAMERA AN AVERAGE OF 400 TIMES A DAY. CURRENTLY THIS IS THE HIGHEST RATE OF SURVEILLANCE ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD. BUT THAT’S NOT THE ONLY WAY YOU ARE MONITORED. YOU ARE TRACKED EVERY TIME YOU USE A CREDIT CARD, MAKE A TELEPHONE CALL, SEND AN EMAIL, USE THE INTERNET, SEARCH WITH GOOGLE, MAKE OR RECEIVE A MOBILE PHONE CALL. YOUR ACTIVITIES ARE LOGGED EVERY TIME YOU 3 TAKE OUT A SUBSCRIPTION, Inside the booth a wall of security cameras will TRAVEL, APPLY FOR A JOB, take and broadcast multiple images of you. The result is viewed on the external screen two TAKE POLITICAL ACTION, minutes later, and is viewable on the Freedom COME INTO CONTACT WITH A Freedom Radio stream is being fed from the interior of the booth to the external radio speaker THE POLICE, TAKE A TRIP IN A and to the site. Express yourself, you are free! A live blog and manifesto are accessible on the CAR, VISIT THE DOCTOR, site. Take pictures and upload them. Post your VOTE, SIGN UP for and use thoughts. The Freedom Wall is there for your thoughts. A LOYALTY CARD, TAKE OUT Each week these expressions will be posted on Flickr through the Freedom site. INSURANCE, JOIN THE At www.thefreedomspace.com you will be able to access Freedom Radio, view the Freedom Wall, EDUCATION SYSTEM. YOU see the output of the 400 security cameras and ARE ALWAYS BEING join in the discussion. WATCHED. IT’S LOGGED SURVEILLANCE TO BROADCAST REVERSE THE TOOLS OF OBSERVATION AND RECORD SOMEWHERE. THEY KNOW TO SPEAK NOT OBEY WHO YOU ARE and they know WHERE YOU’RE HIDING. In London, you are likely to be photographed on CCTV at least 400 times a day. This image shows only 60% of that total. Our sense of reality and reference has shifted, and then affix to a pre-designated tile on a grid marked out London Design Biennale 2021 \ Design in an Age of Crisis \ Neville Brody we are no longer able to separate shared digital imagina- on the wall. tions from our physical worlds. Similarly, our increasing For LDB, we would select a suitable environment to map reliance on digital existences means that for the first onto a different space, either ideally from outside the UK Proposal 4: time in millennia we are living in a post-archaeological or from within another space at Somerset House. This era, where the tools of creativity and production will experience would simultaneously be created virtually as remain, but what is produced with them will have van- a parallel and comparative experience. The Hollowdeck (name TBD): Design ished, much like the body painting or vocal expression of our ancestors has done. Below: Revisiting an installation created for the PaperArt ex- Our studio in 1999, mapped then using the best to expose and explore realities hibition held at the Leopold-Hoesch-Museum in Dûren, technology available tiling separate images. Now this Germany, one physical space was procedurally mapped would be created with a 360º camera as printed tiles onto a different space throughout the Over page: duration of the show until the final day when the space Example of how the montaged image was divided and had been fully recreated. In the case of the PaperArt shared for recreation in Düren installation, we transported a 360º image of our studio in London to a large room in the museum in Germany, placing a fax machine in the centre of the room and 4 faxing a new tile every morning for the security guard to In 2010, we curated a major festival, the Anti Design How can the ADF operate as a time portal for today’s London Design Biennale 2021 \ Design in an Age of Crisis \ Neville Brody Festival, across ten venues in East London that would concerns and cultural production? What sorts of time question the increasing imposition of quantitative travel do we need to face and disrupt the future? risk criteria as the sole way to assess investment in With Cecilia Wee creative design, art and media.