Pirates of theDanube
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Hello! Thanks Melinda for invi3ng us here. We run a small design studio in London (mostly!) called Superflux.
description
A workshop at Kitchen Budapest, April 2011
Transcript of Pirates of theDanube
Hello! Thanks Melinda for invi3ng us here. We run a small design studio in London (mostly!) called Superflux.
We design for Emerging technologies, Societies in flux, The imminently probable.
Place the drawing at the back of a piece of paper. Here’s a liDle pub drawing of our vision for Superflux -‐ of how we work. Through our Consultancy we work hands on with clients to design interac3ons: products, experiences or services. And through the Lab we like to push the boundaries and do more experimental work -‐ we explore the poten3al and also implica3ons of new and emerging technologies on our everyday lives -‐ we do this research because it furthers the discipline, our interests and helps us con3nue to grow and push boundaries.. And that bright spot where they overlap is what we call the ‘sweet spot’ where -‐ the merger of the now and the possible future can lead to what you might call: “innova3on”.
Consultancy Superflux Lab
FUTURENOWSWEET
SPOT
Superflux Ltd | London, UK | 2011
Strategy
Innovation Workshops
Films
Stories
Experience Prototypes
Concept Scenarios
Design Futurscaping
Ideas
Here’s a neater version of the same :)
Clients and Commissioners
A glimpse of our clients and commissioners
.And some examples of our work. We explore the poten3als and implica3ons of emerging technologies on society and the environment. Our work takes the form of applica3ons and products, but also stories, films, images and props.
THE BENTWOOD CHAIRby Michael Thonet
So whats the workshop about. Let us start with some context. Tradi3onally the role of the designer in industrial society is to drive economic growth by adding value to, and or, aiding in the produc3on of goods and services. When Michael Thonet first introduced his bentwood chair (the '14' now known today as the '214' chair) in Vienna in 1859, liDle did he know that he had created what would become the first mass-‐produced chair in the world.
“The interesting thing is the product, not the person."James Dyson
And the design industry that followed has tradi3onally seen the role of designer help in the design and delivery of consumer products that are defined by brands and markets in the ‘free economy’.
BUT... THINGS ARE CHANGING!
AS DESIGNERS, HOW DO WE SHIFT PARAMETERS AND STILL MONETISE? IS IT POSSIBLE?
We are experiencing some changes in that system: current stormy economic environment, and with the forecast for more trouble on the horizon in the form of over popula3on, peak oil and global warming to name but a few, Europe: credit crunch, crisis, rescue plans where are we heading, as designers what is our role in this change landscape: We are taught to mone3se -‐ but in these changes 3mes, how do we shi[ the parameters and s3ll mone3se?
Trade Union Demonstration, Budapest, April 9, 2011
Even here, in Hungary things are no different. Just few days ago you had a big trade union protest. While EU finance ministers on Saturday met in Godollo, Hungary to defend harsh austerity measures as a necessary means to defeat the current debt crisis, thousands of trade union members marched in the main city to protest against austerity those same measures.)
1st Peak Oil Graph
Demand is staying the same or rising, while supply is staying the same, so that pushes the price. Since the economy is changing so rapidly -‐ and in turn our everyday lives, we’d like this workshop to address this issue by raising a set of ques3ons.
What alternative roles might designers take?
What new strategies and ideas might the ‘design community‘ employ in response to these challenges?
This raises some key ques3ons.
DOTT DESIGN PROJECT | LED BY JOHN THACKARA, UK h"p://www.do"07.com/
Mobile Shelter for the Homeless | Paul Elkins
h"p://www.fastcompany.com/1594990/a-‐mobile-‐homeless-‐shelter-‐you-‐wouldnt-‐mind-‐living-‐inSure, the 225-‐pound shelter is Eny and has no room to stand, but that's not the point. It provides everything you need, including a kichen, rest/sleeping area, and makeshiI washroom, and it can be easily carted around from street to street. The roof also acts as a raincatcher, and a tank collects water for later use. An overflow feature lets excess water drain to the ground. At the very least, the mobile homeless shelter beats grocery-‐cart living-‐-‐or even, say, renEng a studio in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. And we can imagine that the cart could be useful at fesEvals-‐-‐i.e. Burning Man-‐-‐where protecEon from the elements is criEcal.
Ark.Inc | Jon Ardern
h"p://www.jonardern.com/projects/ark-‐inc/index.html
RECYCLED RIGS: Abandoned Oil Platforms as Ocean Mini-Cities?
What happens when we move from severing corporate interests to the interests of the community?
Or where they both meet?
Bank on a Boat | Luzia Moraes
h"p://on.wsj.com/qTdIOL
Most bank managers fret about bad loans or a run on deposits. Luzia Moraes has to worry about a leak in the hull, bandits and rainstorms that keep clients away for weeks. Ms. Moraes, a 43-year-old former housewife, is at the helm of a swashbuckling new venture in Brazil—as manager of the first floating bank branch on the Amazon river system. From a riverboat, she peddles banking services in a frontier where people don’t have much money—let alone experience with ATMs, savings accounts or personal loans. besides supporting a bank branch and carrying passengers, the 125-foot, triple-decker Voyager III stocks 500 tons of beans, chicken, bleach and other goods that it sells over a 1,000-mile course and a dozen ports of call.
Protei, a robotic solution to oil spills | Cesar Harada & Team
h"ps://sites.google.com/a/opensailing.net/protei/home
RECYCLED RIGS: Abandoned Oil Platforms as Ocean Mini-Cities?
How can new tools of rapid prototyping, bio-hacking, and DIY culture as a whole be used to create new economies?
Maker Bot and London Hackspace Meetup
h"p://www.makerbot.com/
DIYBio | New York Group
h"p://diybionyc.blogspot.com/DIYBio, NYC: The day started out auspiciously, with the Tompkins Square Greenmarket giving us a primo spot on Avenue A to set up our DNA ExtracEon Party table. We laid out all our supplies-‐ dish detergent, plasEc champagne glasses, salt, meat tenderizer, etc.-‐ on our bright green table with a cool poster of our logo in front. The day was sunny and perfect for DNA-‐making. -‐ What are you doing?" and when we replied "extracEng DNA" the second quesEon was always "Why, what can you DO with it?" The answer they seemed to like best was "test it to see if the fruit was geneEcally engineered". The second most popular answer was "if all the strawberries on earth were wiped out, you could recreate them with what's in your li"le test tube-‐ just like Jurassic Park but without the bloodshed".
Environmental Health Clinic | Natalie Jeremijenko
RECYCLED RIGS: Abandoned Oil Platforms as Ocean Mini-Cities?
What services might we design if our constraints move from concerns about legal implications to personal ethical considerations?
Slave City | Atelier Van Lieshout
h"p://www.archdaily.com/30114/slave-‐city-‐atelier-‐van-‐lieshout/
A concept for a self-‐sustaining, zero-‐carbon prison city, SlaveCity can be described as a sinister distopian project, which is very ra3onal, efficient and profitable (7 billion euro net profit per year). It is a green town where everything is recycled and a city that does not squander the world’s resources. Values, ethics, aesthe3cs, moral, food, energy, economics, organiza3on, management and market are turned upside-‐down, mixed and reformulated and designed into a town of 200.000 inhabitants. The ‘inhabitants’ work for seven hours each day in office jobs and seven hours in the fields of inside the workshop, before being allowed three hours of relaxa3on before they sleep for seven hours.
Recycled Rigs: Abandoned Oil Platforms as Ocean Mini-Cities | Ku Yee Kee and Hor Sue-Wern
h"p://dornob.com/recycled-‐rigs-‐abandoned-‐oil-‐plaaorms-‐as-‐ocean-‐mini-‐ciEes/
It is hard to believe that there are companies capable of crea3ng (rela3vely) robust structures far out at sea, (usually) capable of withstanding extreme weather and las3ng for decades or longer. But their use in harves3ng ‘black gold’ from the ocean floor is limited, as alterna3ves are (hopefully) developed and spill risks increasingly recognized. Here is one vision for how one turn such relics into semi-‐submerged habitats and give them a new architectural lease on life.
RECYCLED RIGS: Abandoned Oil Platforms as Ocean Mini-Cities?
If instead of designing for the free market, what if we designed for the street, or black market?
Pan-City Feral Cider Business | Power of 8
h"p://powerof8.org.uk/?p=587
Home Restaurant | Budapest
“Wherever there is a fundamental disagreement about what is right as well as a connection to the global market, deviant entrepreneurs are there to meet the unfulfilled demand.
In meeting our collective desires, they see the differences in notions of public good, morality, and health as bankable market opportunities”
PIRATES OF THE DANUBE
In the context of these ques3ons, we’d like to propose the workshop for the next three days, as ‘Pirates of the Danube’.
YOU ARE THE PIRATES!
Pirates of the DanubeMainstream
EconomyDeviant
Economy
Human Trafficking
ShellApple
In this workshop you, the designers and makers and technologists, all par3cipants will explore this rather interes3ng space between the ‘main stream’ and ‘deviant’ economies.
Pirates of the DanubeMainstreamEconomy
DeviantEconomyIllegalInformal
Plojng an exploratory course though the ocean of ethical, moral and legal ambiguity: From organ farming to home restaurants and copyright infringement to river piracy.
InformalEconomy
dumpster diving
copyright infringement
Pirates of the Danube
squat parEes
secret cinema
guerilla gardening
home restaurantsfreecycle
foraging
street hawking
couch surfing
allotments
open source soIware
street art
IllegalEconomy
human trafficking
drug sellingsmuggling
organ selling
pirate radio
Hawala
malware
river piracy corrupEon
Here are some examples of what might be considered ‘informal’ and what might be ‘illegal’ and things which fall on the edges of the too. We con3nue to think of those grey areas in between these different economies.
Legal and ethically neutral
Legal but ethically problematic Illegal and ethically problematic
Illegal but ethically neutral
Pirates of the DanubeInformalEconomy
IllegalEconomy
Now here’s the challenge. We want you to create your projects while thinking deeply about the ethical implica3ons of that idea. Some3mes an economic idea might be ethically neutral but illegal, while at other 3mes it might be ethically problema3c and s3ll neutral. Could we as designers consider such consequences of our work too? (and as a note, some,mes four quadrants can be quite good.)
Your Location: The Danube
[Par,cipants will select a specific area of interest within this larger theme and create design proposals and prototypes during the workshop. A trip to the Danube with appropriate pirate-‐gear might be necessary.]
Get your pirate gear on and lets set sail!
“Forget trying to pass for normal. Get weird. Get way weird. Get dangerously weird. Put every ounce of horsepower you have behind it. Don't become a well-rounded person. Well-rounded people are smooth and dull. Become a thoroughly spiky person. Grow spikes from every angle. Stick in their throats like a pufferfish."
Bruce Sterling
Thank You@superflux | [email protected]
