Social
Spaces

On Wednesday, 8th of December, we organised a workshop together with the NGO Eeland about their project Go 2030. Funded by the P&V Foundation, this project aims to present the world of 2030 through the eyes of the youth. What better way to do it than through art? The project will involve 5 cities in Limburg, and each youth group will be guided by an artist who will help them translate their story into an artwork. In the end, the 5 works will come together in a “gesamtkunstwerk”.

The purpose of the workshop on Wednesday was to define the project’s creative concept together with the partners (Z33, Stichting P&V, FLACC, Villa Basta, Media Lab, Social Spaces). We created a bunch of visual cards that related more or less to the concept of future and, after splitting them into 2 groups, we asked the participants to choose 25 cards that envision the future. Common themes were chosen between the groups, such as pollution and ecology, the importance of innovation, the diffusion of virtuality in our daily lives, the idea of the Big Brother..

Last Wednesday I went to Amsterdam at the Mediamatic event on the use of mobile media in cultural organisations. It was a long day showcasing the latest mobile trends and apps, aiming to inspire cultural operators to invest more and dare when it comes to mobiles. I missed a more balanced approach to mobile media, as I think it’s important to use them as part of a strategy, and not just bet on the fact that smart phones are cool gadgets.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed Nancy Proctor‘s [head of mobile strategy & initiatives at the Smithsonian Institution] presentation about metrics of success in designing mobile social media. According to her, a mobile program should answer at least one of these questions :
- Is it making the museum more relevant?
- Is it improving the quality of the collections, events or museum experience?
- Does it make the museum and its activities more sustainable?

Check out here presentation here, with more ideas on crowdsourcing and mobile social media as art.

A good presentation on trends in the mobile media was made by Jason Da Ponte [ex BBC mobile, currently managing "the swarm"]. Check it out here: it touches upon multi-screens, location services and subphones. If you don’t get too much from the slideshow (it’s very visual) you can see a talk of Da Ponte at a Tate conference.

A very successful presentation was the one by Nalden, who described the way the “new generation” interacts with art and culture. Here is a summary of his talk.

One of the most interesting moments was the DO-pitches. Eight projects were presented to the public, including Jon Stam’s Imaginary Museum. The big winner of the pitch was Spot What’s Hot – a mobile app that lets users to capture and share cool things in their city.

If you want to listen to all the speakers from the Mediamatic event, there is already an audio recording on the website and soon video presentations will follow. Enjoy!

Next wednesday I participate in a conference that explores the relations between design, craft and society, called Design met Wortels. It is organised by a local heritage organisation Tapisplein. Curator is the talented social designer Laura Braspenning. The program can be found here. The description is in Dutch:
Heeft handwerk een toekomst? Ambacht klinkt stoffig in de oren, maar tegelijk is handwerk opnieuw hip! Tal van initiatieven zetten handgemaakt design in de picture, jong talent gaat opnieuw aan de slag met eeuwenoude technieken en tradities, de heropleving is een feit.

Maar hoe willen we in de 21ste toekomst verder werk maken van ambachtelijk design? Is handwerk een werkwoord? Hoe kan de erfgoedsector het kapitaal aan vaardigheden veilig stellen voor de toekomst? Hoe kunnen we inspelen op nieuwe technieken en ambachtelijke kennis inzetten in industriële productie? Wat is de taak van (kunst)onderwijsinstellingen? Waar zitten de noden en de potenties? Tijd voor debat en reflectie!

Deze trefdag wil inspireren door tal van boeiende cases en beleidsmakers, onderwijsinstellingen, organisaties en ontwerpers uit te nodigen het gesprek aan te gaan. In een cross-over tussen de sectoren cultureel erfgoed, design, onderwijs en creatieve economie starten we de praktijk- en beleidsdiscussie op.

CoDesign: International Journal of CoCreation in Design and the Arts invites academic and design practitioners to submit papers for a special issue. The theme of the issue is Socially Responsive Design – understanding the differences between service design, social design and social innovation and identifying tools and methods for designing and evaluating social change.

The concept of social responsibility, the notion that an individual, group of individuals or organisations has responsibility to society, may be topical but has been around as long as humanity. The benefit of such responsibility to society was described by Darwin, who argued that: “Although a high standard of morality gives but a slight or no advantage to each individual man and his children over the other men of the same tribe…an advancement in the standard of morality will certainly give an immense advantage to one tribe over another (and therefore those within it).”

Darwin is talking in terms of competition rather than altruism or empathy, his argument is nevertheless clear; those societies made up of individuals that accept inclusive, collective goals and responsibilities are more likely to be prosperous and self-sustaining than those that don’t.

A century later the idea that design has a responsibility to society and environment was crucially defined by Papanek, who argued alongside contemporaries, such as Buckminster Fuller and EF Schumacher, that: “Design has become the most powerful tool with which man shapes his tools and environments (and, by extension, society and himself).”

Given the enormous impact of design, Papanek addressed the conscience of the designer and argued that they should seek to make a positive contribution to society and the environment by focusing on six core themes: