A participatory experiation: Concept & evolution

In September 2006 Design Event 07 made a call for submissions from designers in the North-East. A new product was launched every 3.5 minutes last year. But the age of throw-away products is coming to an end. This poses an important challenge to designers. Design&Made, a collective of NE designer-makers rose to the challenge. I was engaged to help facilitate with the collective to find a focus for an exhibition. At the outset and throughout the evolution of this exhibition we adopted a co-design philosophy, designing together, sharing creativity. Some guiding principles emerged:

We felt participation was essential (between the designers, between designers and the public/social networks)

The beauty and joy of making should be celebrated

Where possible, locally sourced found/recycled or virgin materials would be used

We wanted a dynamic event where the experience was of equal importance as the exhibits

Further workshops led to a mapping of the possibilities. This continued with the designer-makers playing, experimenting, discovering and enjoying making their interventions and marks on diverse local materials. Some held participatory events in their workshops. Strange copper jelly moulds emerged from recycled copper heating tanks. Others went harvesting the spoils of the seashore. Yet others sourced unwanted goods on Freecycle. Collaborations emerged, energy ebbed and flowed and things began to manifest themselves. This energy revealed itself in a new brand, delight in. The exhibition was finally christened, delight in design, reflecting the ebulent mood of all those involved.

It is the essence of Odelight¹ that we are really trying to capture. Many objects in our lives no longer delight, they are gathered around us like fragments of our consumer personality. After a while, hardly noticed. Then discarded, abandoned, valueless. If we care to examine this detritus of the Consumer Age, if we stop, if we dare to pick it up, if we bend it, caress it. Then we might just feel differently.

Delight in design isn't an end, but a beginning of new possibilities, objects setting out on fresh journeys, people traveling with them too. There have been previous commentaries on the joy of making with what the German philosopher Martin Heidegger calls Opresent-at-hand¹ converting it into Oready-at-hand¹ ¬ from the Arte Povera (Poor Art) and Anti-Design of 1960s Italy to the New British Design of the 1980s (think Ron Arad, Tom Dixon), and more recently Dutch initiatives like Eternally Yours and Droog Design. Yet each time and place has to find its own way forward. I believe delight in design is Newcastle¹s and the North-East¹s tentative steps to discover its path. Although several weeks away from final exhibition I am confident that delight in design will be a catalyst for much more to come in the future. It is a starting point for everyone in the region to rediscover the joy of making and doing, not consuming. Part exhibition, participatory workshops, special events and relaxation space, delight in design really will be an experience. Especially if YOU come along and get stuck in!

Alastair Fuad-Luke Facilitator & Co-curator

Alastair Fuad-Luke is a sustainable design consultant, facilitator, lecturer, & writer. He is author of The Eco-Design Handbook, 2002, 2005, and contributor to the international debate about design and sustainability. Currently he is Project Manager for DEEDS (Design Education & Sustainability, www.deedsproject.org), supported by the EU Leonardo da Vinci programme, and Senior Lecturer at the University College for the Creative Arts, Farnham, UK, www.ucreative.ac.uk. He has also lectured in the Europe, USA, New Zealand and Australia. He works with diverse clients in Denmark, France and the UK.

As a design Oactivist¹, he is the founder of SLow, a web site exploring Oslow design ( www.slowdesign.org); Vice President of New York based SlowLab (www.slowlab.org); a former member of the Advisory Board for the 10th & 11th Towards Sustainable Product Development conference, the Centre for Sustainable Design (www.cfsd.org ), UK. He is passionate about society-wide engagement with design as a means to live a more fulfilling, sustainable life, while respecting our bio-diverse planet.

Alastair Fuad-Luke
Brixham
Devon, UK
+44(0)1803 883683
fuadluke@dial.pipex.com