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Designing Memory: What prevents past tragedies from recurring—objects or ideas?

2010-02-26T18:54:00.019+02:00

This post is a quick English translation of an article I originally wrote in Turkish, which was published by Radikal Newspaper's monthly Design supplement on 28 February 2010.

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Last January witnessed hundreds of people gather in front of the Agos Newspaper headquarters for the third anniversary of Hrant Dink's assassination. The slain journalist's son Arat Dink delivered an impromptu speech to those who gathered in memory of his father. Halfway through his public address, he pointed toward the Agos offices and said the following: "Placed inside is a memorial bust depicting my father. I want to demolish it. I like people, not busts." These words, which may first come across as a sentimental outcry, in effect indicate an important call for designers. They may even be perceived as a contemporary design critique regarding the problematic relationship between 'memory', and artifacts that are designed to keep it alive.

If the essential purpose is to remember and commemorate past tragedies, and perhaps to also prevent their recurrence, how effectively this purpose is served by object-oriented design 'solutions' is highly questionable. Be it a bust or a museum, it is possible to argue that more than keeping the memory of past tragedies alive, these 'objects,' on the contrary, bury them forever in the depths of history. Recent history is teeming with case examples whereby such tragedies end up being instrumentalized in order to serve a number of very different purposes. Relatively more innocent forms of such instrumentalization are embodied by the phenomenon of dark tourism. Yet worst cases occur when such objects are employed as props in rituals, which then lead to the mobilization of masses that often create new tragedies. Here, it would be apt to tune into Kemal, who is the main character of Orhan Pamuk's last novel Museum of Innocence. How does he elaborate on his idea of founding a museum in memory of his lost love?

"I want to teach not only the Turkish people but the world at large how to take pride in life. I have traveled, and seen for myself: Western peoples know well how to take pride, while others live in shame. But when things we are ashamed of in life are exhibited in museums, they instantly turn into things that are to be taken pride in" (2008. İstanbul: İletişim Yayıncılık A.Ş. Pages 571-2).

Nükhet İpekçi showing her father's bloody shirt to TV cameras

Another recent event that helped museum discussions in Turkey gain momentum was the 30th anniversary of Abdi İpekçi's assassination. The slain newspaper editor's daughter Nükhet İpekçi exhibited to TV cameras his father's bloody shirt in demand for justice. By doing so, she kickstarted discussions of founding a museum in memory of slain journalists like İpekçi and Dink. An idea that quickly gained popularity was that this museum should display objects which used to belong to those journalists. But perhaps the most interesting remark as part of this larger debate came from another assassinated journalist Uğur Mumcu's daughter Özge Mumcu. She said that such museum should display not only objects, but also ideas.

The notion of 'ideas' that Mumcu put forth vis-à-vis that of 'objects' points toward new horizons for design's relationship to memory. In fact, the past few years have witnessed works of design that adopt novel approaches regarding this relationship. These works focus on representing ideas and helping them to be openly articulated. A recent example to those works is Rafael Lozano Hemmer's "Voz Alta" (Loud Voice) project, which was installed in Mexico City in 2008. Hemmer says he was briefed to design a piece in memory of the 40th anniversary of the Tlatelolco student massacre. What the Mexican artist did was not to generate yet another object-oriented 'solution,' but instead allow people to voice their opinions through a system that consisted of a few components. As these people were sharing their statements with the wider public, they also practically controlled a 10 kW projector, which the artist installed at the "Plaza de las Tres Culturas" square where the massacre had taken place. What is more, the intensity of the light sent out by this projector would change according to that of the soundwaves transmitted through the megaphone. If the megaphone was silent, the projector did not send out any light. When the light at the square was dimmed, then the three projectors across the square at the rooftop of the Cultural Center would start to work. These projectors would turn into light the sounds of the interviews with survivors, old radio recordings and popular songs from the time of the massacre. By doing so, this work was able to blend together memories from a past tragedy and the everyday reality of the present. And, in case anyone was curious about what was actually being said into the megaphone, all statements that went into the system were broadcast through a local radio station called UNAM. The "Voz Alta" project witnessed thousands of people participate without any moderation or censorship. Naturally, the messages transmitted through the megaphone ranged from marriage proposals to statements coming from survivors of the massacre.

View from Rafael Lozano-Hemmer's "Voz Alta" project.
(Photo: Antimodular Research and Alejandro Blázquez)

Last year's urban riots in Greece witnessed young protesters utilize, in a rather unforeseen way, a monument depicting one of the most respected heroes of the country. What the protesters did was to take down the bust of the anti-Nazi hero Kostas Perrikos, in order to use it as a building block in their barricades against the police force. This unique choice was put under scrutiny by old revolutionaries, who accused the youth of being ignorant toward history, and of disrespecting past heroes. However, may we not suggest that the young protesters in Greece, just like Arat Dink, realized what purpose is really served by busts? As far as design is concerned, recent history suggests that such objects do not 'perform' so successfully in preventing the recurrence of past tragedies. Therefore, what 'users' could better do is perhaps to attribute new roles to those stagnant objects; to somehow give life to them by demolishing the myths that they have long been in the center of. And, designers' contribution may happen by producing dynamic mediators that will help ideas and emotions to be freely communicated.

Enough is enough

2010-02-13T21:06:00.008+02:00

10 Things To Do For Ensuring a Boring Conference Paper Presentation:

1. Read from your paper.
2. Use pedantic phrases like ”Several scholars have argued.”
3. Read out loud things that are already written on your slides as part of your visual presentation.
4. Never include the personal dimension, or adopt a conversational tone (e.g. I did this, if you ask me, etc).
5. Make it obvious when you are changing slides (includes telling someone else to do the job)
6. Try to continue when the moderator tells you that your time is about to be over.
7. Make sure that the content of your talk sticks firmly to that of the written paper, which you have previously submitted to the conference.
8. Use only images and text on your slides.
9. Include on your slides text that is larger than a few lines long block-quote.
10. Only inform, and give an account of matters. Never criticize, interpret or make projections for the future.

Fast-realized design ideas challenge mass-produced industrial designs

2010-01-31T21:01:00.022+02:00

This post is a quick English translation of an article I originally wrote in Turkish, which was published by Radikal Newspaper's monthly Design supplement on 31 January 2010.

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"Always go to your customer with at least three alternatives" is perhaps the most well-known advice given to design students as they prepare to embark on their professional career. The initial stages of a typical design process indeed witness a quantitative variety in alternatives. But as the process draws to a close, the number of ideas in consideration gradually decreases, eventually falling to one. Quite naturally, this decrease is quantity assumed to give birth to an increase in quality: after all, the commercial world's first and foremost expectation from designers is unique and flawless designs that are apt for being manufactured by the error-intolerant process of mass-production.

While a typical design process displays the above characteristics, a number of recent examples of practice suggest that some designers choose to maintain a contrary approach. These designers are not interested in providing the 'customer' with a single flawless design idea that is to be mass-produced. Instead, they are in pursuit of realizing as many of their design ideas as possible, with or without flaws. This is precisely why they strive to finalize their design processes as quickly as possible. They steal the notion of 'rapidity' away from the industrial context, where it typically connotes a 'systematic efficiency' and 'perfection.' Fostering an affection for intuitiveness, they bestow this notion to the studio-workshop realm. Thus they shift focus away from working for industrial mass-production toward fast-realizing their design ideas.

The first project which I believe exemplifies this recent trend is ”speed-furniture” by the Israel-based design studio Godspeed. These designers conceive and finalize each of their furniture designs within a duration of only one hour. They use scrap pieces of wood reclaimed from carpenters in Tel Aviv as raw material for their designs. A similar example from the field of furniture design is Martino Gamper's "100 Chairs in 100 Days." The London-based Italian designer maintains an approach akin to that of Godspeed to create brand new chairs using material he locally reclaims. As part of his design process he uses some pieces just as they are, while he subjects others to radical changes according to new roles he conceives for them.

The cover of Şerifcan Özcan's Ten Plus One project portfolio

For diversity's sake I now want to mention an example from graphic design: The New York based designer Şerifcan Özcan's ”Ten Plus One.” The project comprises eleven different design ideas, realized from scratch in eleven hours. Özcan says what led to this project was nothing but the pressure exerted by a school deadline. Upon realizing that he was short of projects for a thick enough portfolio, the designer came up with the idea for ”Ten Plus One.” Ironically, the designer was even contacted by one customer who was interested in buying one of his 'one-hour' designs.

As suggested by the above examples, the approach that I have called 'fast-realized design ideas' follows a process which ensures the full execution of design works within a short and/or limited time frame. As part of such process, the traditionally distinct phases of 'design' and 'production' merge into one another, blurring the distinction between the notions of 'prototype' and 'end-product.' It can easily be argued that these works compromise on the characteristic of 'flawlessness,' which is essentially assumed of the end-products of a conventional design process. In fact, the very flaws caused by these unique fast design processes often serve as a positive quality; an 'added-value' of sorts. It is this phenomenon that places such works somewhere in the intersecting worlds of arts, craft and design.

A packaging design from Şerifcan Özcan's Ten Plus One project portfolio

Are these designers influenced in any way by a specific stream of critical thought? At first glance we can suggest that designers have, with the aid of the recent crisis, finally acknowledged their historical role as consumerism's driving force. In the light of the above examples, could we not suggest that designers have realized that the relentless demand imposed on them by the industry for creating 'flawless' and 'unique' designs has turned their creative process into a vicious cycle? It is possible to argue that by hacking those two key notions of 'flawlessness' and 'uniqueness', these designers aim to break the creative bottleneck and the above mentioned vicious cycle. More cynical views may suggest that these designers instrumentalize the prestige often attributed to 'designed' objects. Some may go even further to argue that they exploit this prestige, not unlike what their 'star designer' colleagues have done throughout the last few decades, this time through a more underground manner; with a touch of 'planned imperfectness.' Whatever perspective we may maintain as we look at this trend, what all of its examples boldly underline is that we are witnessing a reversal of the traditional hegemony of 'product' over 'process,' whereby the latter is on the rise as the more valuable asset compared to the former.

'Designing for what?' rather than 'designing what?'; or The Designer's Disciplinary Anxiety

2009-12-27T18:52:00.030+02:00

This post is the English translation of an article I wrote in Turkish, which was published by Radikal Newspaper's monthly Design supplement on 27 December 2009.

Cover of I.D. Magazine's June 2009 issue. (Copyright: Kenzo Minami.)

The last month of the year witnessed I.D. Magazine (USA’s oldest product design magazine) cease publication after 55 years. The fall of such a symbolic institution took the product design world--especially, its young and aspiring design students--by storm. Most reactions on the web portray anticipatory lamentation with a touch of anxiety, best captured by a blogger who says he is "scared for the future of design in the US." I, on the contrary, suggest that this development can be interpreted as one of the first calls for an inevitable transformation towards a brighter future for design, let alone as a sign for a darker one. Let me explain.

Last September, Jon Kolko from the San Francisco based studio Frog Design told of his impressions after the IDSA Miami Conference: "the IDSA is now essentially irrelevant." In order to lay the grounds for his argument, he pointed to a number of developments concerning design's position in the developed West: First, product-oriented design services, which have been provided largely by 'Western' designers up until today, are now demanded by the industry from designers in the developing world (especially Asia). To be sure, the primary reason for this shift has to do with the fact that the costs for the latter's services are much less than that of the former's. Second, the professional expertise necessary to handle industrial processes with confidence is increasing in depth. Subjects like materials science and manufacturing technologies, which were until recently considered to be well within the professional scope of designers, now require high levels of specialization, transcending the range of a conventional product designer's competencies. Add to those the rapid advances in digital components and networked services, which has already led to their enormous expansion to include the traditional commodity "product" as a detail, a prop. The question that sums up all these observations is "does the conventional role of designers (in the developed world) who entirely rely their practices on specific branches of the industry (hence, categorized as 'industrial designers') really continue to hold any relevance at all, let alone that of their professional organization? Product-oriented 'solutions' that used to lie at the core of their profession are fast fleeing to India and China; the increasing digitalization in their own culture is shifting the focus of the practice from material to immaterial value creation; the scientific knowledge presented as part of their design education is limited to the traditional frame marked by "wood, metals, plastics and composites"... If that be the case; if designing products/graphics/textiles is losing relevance in the West, what is replacing it?

A view from the IDSA Miami conference, entitled 'Project Infusion' (Copyright IDSA)

Before jumping to any conclusions, we first need to ask the right question: that is, 'designing for what?' rather than 'designing what?' It was precisely the former question posed by Bruce and Stephanie M. Tharp, in an article they wrote last February, entitled "The 4 Fields of Industrial Design: (No, not furniture, trans, consumer electronics, & toys)." For reasons not unlike those put forth by Jan Kolko, they suggest "commercial design," "responsible design," "discursive design," and "experimental design" as the four new fields. What they boldly underline in their article is that today's designers should focus on not only what the end-result/product of the design process will be (e.g. product, graphics, textile), but more importantly, for what primary purpose it will actually be used (e.g. to create commercial value, to improve lives of the underprivileged, to experiment with materials, to start a discussion). And so should design education and its institutions, by reforming their curricula according to recent shifts in global culture.

To be sure, new proposals toward a taxonomic and/or academic reform do not only come from design spheres. Another example comes from Mark C. Taylor, professor of religion at Columbia University, who wrote an Op-Ed article last April for the New York Times. In his article he proposes a six-step action plan for transforming higher education into one that fosters innovative and agile individuals who could address crucial needs emerging from contemporary issues. In the second step--perhaps the most relevant one to our discussion--he suggests the following:

Abolish permanent departments, even for undergraduate education, and create problem-focused programs. These constantly evolving programs would have sunset clauses, and every seven years each one should be evaluated and either abolished, continued or significantly changed. It is possible to imagine a broad range of topics around which such zones of inquiry could be organized: Mind, Body, Law, Information, Networks, Language, Space, Time, Media, Money, Life and Water.

Assuming that Taylor's groundbreaking action plan will soon be realized in all areas of higher education may sound a little too idealistic. However, why should we not be able to start pursuing such idealism in the relatively narrower realm of design education? Even the very idea itself is extremely exciting: Imagine that four-year long, conventional product/graphic/textile design departments give way to brisk and temporary ones focused on crucial issues such as 'drought in Konya Basin,' 'floods in Istanbul's outskirts,' 'communication problems between government officers and locals due to regional language differences'... Does design not have any words to say, or any 'added-value' to create, regarding such matters?

Generative Design: Toward a World of 'Unique Copies'

2009-12-26T14:28:00.010+02:00

This post is the English translation of an article I wrote in Turkish, which was published by Radikal Newspaper's monthly Design supplement on 29 November 2009. Images are taken from Kram/Weisshaar's website.

Breeding Table No. 7 (Photo: Frank Stolle)

Art critic Rosalind Krauss was posing the following questions almost a quarter century ago: "What would it look like not to repress the concept of the copy? What would it look like to produce a work that acted out of the discourse of reproductions without originals?"* A contemporary approach named 'generative design' is creating the very culture of 'reproductions without originals' Krauss was envisioning.

Recent technological advances provide designers with the possibility of modeling not only the form but also the 'DNA' of artifacts. This is precisely what is of primary concern to 'generative design': how to design not only the artifacts themselves but, more importantly, the processes that will produce those artifacts. Therefore, what 'generative design' actually designs--thanks to software such as Processing and Mathematica--are algorithmic processes, which then result in the production of unique products.

Stockholm based design studio Kram/Weisshaar's project ‘Breeding Tables’ is one of the best examples to generative design. Clemens Weisshaar and Reed Kram intend to revert the conventional idea that has long since lain at the heart of industrial product design profession: coming up with 'original' designs for mass-production. Their goal instead is to be able to create an infinite number of unique products--in the case of this specific project, tables. In order to do so, the duo turn to contemporary manufacturing technologies. Eventually what they design is a process, which is based on a computer code developed specifically for this project. Forms that are distinct from one another are physically manufactured by laser-cutting and steel-bending machines which are again controlled entirely by computers. To be more clear, each process results in table legs that each have a unique geometry.

The diagram showing parameters set by the Breeding Tables software

(Image: KRAM/WEISSHAAR)

It is important to examine in further detail the impact brought about by 'generative design' with respect to the ethical and legal issues that evolve around the concept of intellectual property. The notion of 'the copy' continues to have nightmarish connotations for designers in newly industrialized societies, due for the most part to the loopholes in intellectual property law and/or the application thereof. (An example is Turkey where professional designers are currently lobbying in order to fill such loopholes. Their effort resulted in a draft law that was presented to the Parliament last February, which suggested that all designs, officially patented or not, should be protected by law.) However, there is another side of the coin: the fundamental shift brought about by the Information Society paradigm opens up for debate the very established notions such as 'intellectual property.' A popular example to such debate evolves around the 'open-source' phenomenon, which has enabled individuals to share the fruits of their creative processes with one another with almost no legal protection. As a result, especially in the post-industrial West, conventional design processes that focus entirely on the 'end-product' are increasingly abandoned. The pioneers of 'generative design' also hint at a future where designers adopt process-oriented approaches: exploit possibilities presented by the latest technology, and work with time as their new medium--and information, their new material. Furthermore, advances in manufacturing technologies reduce the cost differences between mass-producing the same product, and fast-producing unique products--in other words, "rapid prototyping". As Kram/Weisshaar’s 'Breeding Tables' shows, generative design does not aim to produce an infinite number of copies based a single, unique design but rather pursues to create infinitely many originals without being based on an initial prototype. This is precisely why the validity of the notion 'end-product' is threatened by such projects: in the last analysis, the commercial value/intellectual property to be protected by law is not the 'end-product' but rather the design process (including the software and algorithm) that allows designers to create those products.

Generative design stands out also as a strong alternative to the recent method of 'mass-customization', which is often preferred by designers who aim to provide a diversity of alternatives to the end-user. The sneaker giants such as Nike and Converse, who popularly prefer to use such method establish platforms on their websites with the claim of allowing users design their own unique sneakers. Here, their aim seems to be to increase the number of unique options for end-users and perhaps include them in the design process. However, to what extent this aim is accomplished is rather questionable. As many color, texture, pattern options as 'mass-production' can claim to provide, the number of truly unique products defines a limited domain. Additionally, it could be suggested that such method delegates a good portion of design tasks to users, which in turn consumes their time and energy. Given that generative design invalidates the very notions of 'originality' and 'copy' by allowing the production of an infinite number of unique copies, it would not be unfair to suggest that it will soon surpass methods like 'mass-customization'. Finally, the world of "unique copies" Krauss was talking about twenty years ago, seems to have been realized by 'generative design'--and in a rather legal and ethical way, too.

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*Krauss, Rosalind E. 1986. The Originality of the Avant-garde and Other Modernist Myths. MA: The MIT Press.

I come from "The Idiot Factory"

2009-04-17T15:48:00.000+03:00

Life in Stockholm is pretty easy to get by for the most part, it is rare that one experiences social tension or feels unsafe in public. However, as I walked through the doors of the Central Train Station several days ago, I felt a weight of unease fall down on me. My reason for being there was to do some fieldwork for one of the courses I am taking, as a part of which my group and I are to propose a new media art/design project for the Central Station. I was going to take a bunch of photos/videos, interview people, and who knows, maybe even do some situationist private detecting if I had enough motivation to. You might think that it was natural for me to feel uneasy being involved in such 'suspicious-looking' activities, in a major public space, with a Turkish passport, in the wake of 9/11 or 7/7 or 11/26, etc. Surprisingly enough, it was not my nationality, but rather the school I attend, that gave me the shivers. Let me explain why.

About three weeks ago, Anna Odell, a 35-year-old student from Konstfack faked to commit suicide by trying to jump off a bridge in Stockholm. Let's tune in to thelocal.se for the rest of the story:

As a part of her final project before graduation, Odell pretended she was going to jump off a bridge to commit suicide. Horrified witnesses called police, who then tried to restrain the kicking and screaming Odell. After arriving at the hospital’s psychiatric ward, Odell proceeded to scream at the medical staff who attempted to help her, even spitting in the faces of several nurses. She was eventually restrained on a gurney and given drugs to calm her down, remaining in the hospital overnight as doctors attempted to diagnose her psychiatric condition.

The whole thing caused a big public outburst with citizens saying that they cannot possibly believe that this is a part of an academically-approved project, which means it is being funded by Swedish taxpayers' money. Views ranged from inquisitions saying why art students cannot just paint nice pictures instead of doing such crazy things to doctors saying that the artist is "welcome to come back so I can give her a shot of Haloperidol, and then we’ll see how much fun she has. That would make a great installation.” All in all, this hot issue evolving around Konstfack was beginning to cool down, just when a second 'incident' took place to set things off once again.

Last week, Sweden's minister of culture Lena Elisabeth Adelsohn Liljeroth visited an exhibition in central Stockholm to witness an artwork that was apparently not her cup of tea. The work was a performance video that showed the artist--in disguise under the nickname 'NUG'--breaking train windows and tagging in the subway. She went on further with her fury to ask the gallery owner for more details about the creator of this work, upon which she was informed that it was another Konstfack student behind 'the heinous act'.

Now, SL, the urban transport authority in Stockholm, claims that travelers and customers feel offended, and asks for a compensation 100000 SEK (approx. 10000 euros) for both the moral and the material damages this act has caused. Dr. Ivar Björkman, president of Konstfack airs on major TV channels to answer questions, and school is visited by reporters. One of the viewer comments on the Dagens Nyheter--a major daily Swedish newspaper--website, calls Konstfack "The Idiot Factory".

Considering the fact that the Konstfack campus is an old telephone factory, the second half of that analogy might not be so irrelevant after all. And my group and me will try to do our best to substantiate the first half of the analogy.

Reflections after the 2009 Stockholm Furniture Fair

2009-02-26T23:39:00.008+02:00

Those of you that are obsessed with furniture fairs, and have missed the Stockholm one that took place recently, can sit back and relax. Call it the crises or a design-bottleneck, what I have seen during my recent visit to the Stockholm Furniture Fair was not so satisfactory. However, a couple of projects I stumbled upon at the fair helped confirm an emerging trend I have been observing in a number of design fields. It is a trend I call by the name "mass-production of design ideas"--artefacts that are executed within a very limited timeframe—where, this very characteristic of the artefact's design process is also being used as a way to promote it.

One example to this trend comes from the Israeli design studio Godspeed, who exhibited at the fair a furniture series by the name "speed-furniture". To describe briefly, the material used to make these pieces is waste wood that had been reclaimed from Tel Aviv carpenters. How this project specifically relates to our trend is that all "speed-furniture" is produced from scratch within a time limit of one hour.

Another example from the fair to what I call "mass-production of design ideas" was a project carried out in University of Gävle's 'Design and Wood Technology Programme'. Here, participants of a ten-day workshop produced unique pieces within this limited timeframe. Similar to Godspeed's case, they had defined material limitations too, using only lycra and birch.

Of course, these two examples do not stand alone to represent the trend we have been discussing. Another example that comes to mind from the field of furniture design is the "100 Chairs in 100 Days" project by Gamper Martino. For the sake of diversity, another example I'd like to give is from a graphic designer named Serifcan Ozcan, who has created a ten-hour portfolio of ten works, by generating a new project each hour-- and, afterwards, ironically sold one of those projects to a client. I would prefer not going into further detail about these since both projects could be studied in detail via the hyperlinks I've provided. I would rather use the rest of this entry to give my own viewpoint on this emerging trend in design.

According to my interpretation this phenomenon has several sides to it. First of all, designers have been realizing, for a good while now, that they are not only designing for mass-production, but also mass-consumption. With the ongoing crises, designers are very well aware of the fact that they have long been operating along the paradigm of the throwaway culture. Therefore this approach to design might as well be their reaction to this very paradigm.

A more cynical view might suggest that an increasing number of designers are aware of the prestige that is attached to the 'designed' object. They might as well be exploiting this opportunity, much like star designers have in the past two decades, though this time in an underground fashion, with a 'designed sloppiness' approach.

A view based on the labor and economics side of things, which is not very far away from what we have discussed in the above paragraphs, could provide another interpretation. As manufacturing processes become more automatized and globalization of capital is on the rise, the traditional definitions of blue- and white-collar labor are going through a major shift. The flexible markets and the conditions brought up by globalization are pushing forward for a shift in the division and distribution of white-collar jobs. Today businesses talk about the outsourcing of consultancy work, such as design—just like they were starting to talk, a few decades ago, about the outsourcing of manufacturing (blue-collar). Design is increasingly being given as a by-product of the whole consultancy package provided by companies. This is especially evident in the services offered by competent businesses from developing countries.

The examples we have discussed above, might be considered as one type of reaction to these recent phenomena. Can there be another way to react? Ronald Jones suggests the "experience design approach" as another way, where designers develop their skills in an interdisciplinary manner, and move away from an object-oriented practice towards one that focuses on creating intangible commodities. In his article "Are You Experienced?" he provides more insight to this :

its [experience design as a 'business art'] emergence will quicken as China and India begin acting on the obvious, giving design away for free because their economic advantage is with mass-manufacturing, not designing prototypes for mobile phones. China and India’s efficiency at mass-producing physical commodities frees up small but growing sectors of the Western design community to create and distribute intangible commodities, including experiences.

In the wake of these recent phenomena, what is your take on the future? Will we see a furniture fair where exhibited pieces are being designed and executed in real-time? How about an 'experience fair' of "intangible commodities"?

On Alchohol Consumption and Automotive Design

2008-12-19T12:54:00.007+02:00

A recent pattern of innovation I've been recognizing is related to businesses' attempts to prevent undesirable use scenarios of their products/services, caused by users under the influence of alcohol. Among several examples are new cellphones developed by LG, Samsung and Nokia, that aim to prevent drunk phone calls. Another recent example comes from the online giant Google, whose e-mailing service Googlemail now has a feature called Mail Goggles to "prevent many of you out there from sending messages you wish you hadn't".

These new product and service features are well-celebrated by online communities and have discovered a channel of innovation that could potentially spread amongst other businesses. I myself have to admit that I find these new features very interesting, but unfortunately, at the same time, trivial.

While drunk-phoning and e-mailing could potentially cause regrettable consequences, there is another area of products/services where preventing these consequences could be even more crucial. If you wonder what that area is, I guess, the phrase "drunk-driving" would be enough to strike a chord--in my opinion, the sociography that has evolved around automobiles desperately awaits a similar kind of innovation to be translated into a mainstream practice.

Donald A. Norman coins the term "forcing functions" to indicate certain functions that are inscribed in a product, which prevent undesirable shifts of direction in the use-scenario of that product ["The Design of Everyday Things." (Basic Books, New York, 1988). Pages 132-40.] A simple example he uses is on the types of cars whose door can only be locked by using the car-key, as opposed to a car that locks itself automatically, which would result in forgetful drivers getting locked out.

One cannot help but wonder why similar kinds of features are not studied and developed by the car industry. Hopefully design has a couple more tricks--than just styling--up its sleeve. Could adding a couple of relevant "forcing functions" result in the reduction of accidents caused by drunk-driving?

But, then again, as a civilization, we would be running other risks; like losing the profits generated by the hospitalization of accident victims, car repairs and purchase of new cars. Right?

`Smash up your car, the insurance will do the rest!' Indeed, the car is without doubt one of the main foci of daily and long-term waste, both private and collective. Not only is it so by its systematically reduced use-value, its systematically increased prestige and fashion coefficient, and the outrageous sums invested in it, but -- without doubt much more deeply than this -- by the spectacular collective sacrifice of sheet-metal, machinery and human lives in the Accident. The Accident: that gigantic `happening', the finest offered by consumer society, through which society affords itself in the ritual destruction of materials and life the proof of its excessive affluence (a proof a contrario, but one that is much more effective in the depths of the imagination than the direct proof by accumulation). [Jean Baudrillard. "The Consumer Society: Myths and Structures." (Sage, London, England, 1998). Page 48.]

Verbal Functionality

2008-11-12T16:32:00.008+02:00

All of us designers are probably familiar with the importance given to functionality by Scandinavian Design in general. After spending a couple of months in Stockholm, I now know that, for Swedes, functionality is much more than just an important element of design. It is, rather, a lifestyle. How I've come to understand this is due to a pattern I've been realizing: The Swedish way of naming places. Let me exemplify my point, by using comparisons here and there:

-What are the names of most popular art & design schools in London? Central Saint Martins, Goldsmiths, etc.
-What is the name of the art & design school I go to in Stockholm? “Konstfack”. [Art (Konst) Faculty (fack)]. Simple as that. The neighborhood where Konstfack is located now was previously a production site for Ericsson. So guess what it is called: Telefonplan. ("Telefon" means telephone, and "plan" means square) More examples come from streetnames surrounding this place: Microphoneway, Telephoneway.

-What are some of the most famous cultural centers in London called? Royal Albert Hall, Barbican Arts Center, etc.
-Stockholm’s biggest cultural center is named Kulturhuset. [Culture (Kultur) House (huset)].

-How do we call London's hub of transport? King's cross, Liverpool Street, etc.
-Stockholm’s hub of transport is named T-centralen, T standing for Tunnelbana, which means "the tube". The most central train station is called Centralstation.

-The most central square in London? Picadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, etc.
-Guess how they call the central square in Stockholm: Centralplan ("plan" meaning square)

-Sweden's famous menswear brand is named DressMann. The newspaper vendor you can find in all stations in Stockholm is called "Pressbyrån" ("byrån" meaning bureau/office), etc., etc...

So what do all these add up to? A total stranger who speaks Swedish at beginners' level can, very easily, find his/her way around the city, the moment he/she sets foot in there. In the Swedish capital there are almost no places named after dynasties, wars, important historical dates, figures, events, etc. (Or maybe, to avoid exaggeration, I have to admit to having seen an Olof Palme street somewhere in the city).

I can hear you say "What's the relevance of all these to us designers?" Well, we just have to realize that function, form and content do not follow one another, but are rather integral parts of a much bigger picture, and a holistic mindset--often an ideology.

Pay As You Murder

2008-10-16T01:12:00.004+03:00

I don't feel like writing too much about the image you see below. The scene, captured last August, is from a store that belongs to one of the largest supermarket chains in Turkey.

It may be true that nationalism has always had its place in recent history as the basis of a niche market. However, current affairs of the last decade have been used as an excellent opportunity on which such ideas have thrived exceptionally, hence a field day for some people. Turkey, showing a similar "progress" along the same lines with most countries in the world, has been the setting to a race among institutions to see who could erect the largest flag. The demand for the national symbol grew exponentially during the course of a series of national rallies. Someone spotted the trend and worked accordingly: A section for Turkish flags; the mass consumption of nationalism.

In the wake of the recent events in Turkey, I believe today it is more meaningful to reconsider what everyday scenes like this one really tell us. I'm not knowledgeable on what kind of deals are available from this store, but I'm quite sure we can all pay as we murder.

Extension of Life or Extension of Business-as-usual?

2008-10-02T00:41:00.004+03:00

While I am pro-technology, in the sense that I keep an optimism towards its potential contribution to the planet's well-being, I have recently come across a perspective that I could not avoid to contradict.

I have to note that I fully respect the scientific developments and believe that they should be used in order to enrich the quality of human life—which will eventually cause its extension on average. The fact that, in the last 5 or 6 decades, space technology has adopted the mission of leading all those scientific developments, makes that particular field a very important one.

Besides all this, I am a true believer in the inspirationality of that significant moment in the history of humankind when a member of our species set foot on the moon, and named, for the first time,—not his city, country or continent but instead;—the whole Earth as 'home'. I was first introduced to this fact while reading The Revenge of Gaia, by James Lovelock, who acknowledges that this dramatic change in the perception of 'home' has contributed dearly to the green cause on a subconscious level.

However, while I was carrying out a little research about these two topics of enormous importance, I came across the video below, which is a live recording of Peter Diamandis' speech. His perception of space missions, extension of life, affluence of the mankind, and especially, "the things we hold value on this planet" were not a match with those of mine. Please watch the video and see for yourself.

Uncomfortable Ideas: How Close Are They?

2008-09-30T15:09:00.005+03:00

"It is not too early to think about the future difficulties that intelligent and emotional machines may give rise to. There are numerous practical, moral, legal, and ethical issues to think about. Most are still far in the future, but that is a good reason to start now – so that when problems arrive, we will be ready."

This is how a cognitive scientist named Donald A. Norman, in his 2004 book Emotional Design, briefly touches upon different dimensions to consider about possible scientific developments in the future. A very similar hypothetical question was raised by Magnus Lindkvist (the head of our course "Trendspotting and Future Thinking" at Konstfack) when he told us not to "be afraid of uncomfortable ideas", to which he provided an example by naming a possible future debate as "sex robots in the shape of children".

Personally, I can't say this debate would be much to my surprise. Ethics are not at the top of many people's lists even today, and this creates even more controversy if those people are in a powerful position in the society. And I'm not even talking about child pornography here—at least not in the traditional sense.

Take the marketing and advertisement business, for instance. In Turkey, there are, apparently, no rules whatsoever regulating the abuse of children as a marketing tool. Therefore most of the largest brands are free to develop marketing strategies that are mainly based on children (e.g. using them as main characters). And if those brands were ones that sell diapers, infant food or toys, etc. I maybe might have had more sympathy for them. However, one of those brands is in the business of providing mobile communications services. That's a bit out of context, huh?

One cannot find a good reason behind such abuse—other than breeding fresh new generations of greedy consumers. It could very well be argued that this is as valid an ethical debate as "sex robots in the shape of children"—or, at least, that such "uncomfortable ideas" are closer to us than we think they would be.

Avoiding the Risk of Ritualization

2008-09-29T16:05:00.002+03:00

In some parts of the world, Sunday, the 21st of September, was "exhaustless"—namely 'World Car Free Day'. For instance, Brusselleers enjoyed a day of bicycle-riding as an area of 160 km2 in the Belgian capital was closed to motor transport from 9AM to 7PM. In Hungary, people could ride on trains for free just by showing their automobile licenses.

As the current debate around sustainability gets hotter, we witness more and more initiatives being taken to raise awareness. Besides the 'Car Free Day' mentioned above, we have a 'Buy Nothing' day, an 'Earth Hour', and who knows what else? (You're welcome to add what you know under Comments)

However, it is always a valid question whether all these 'holy' days of sustainability do any concrete good. Do they really help change our traits? Or are they just about doing the 'in' thing nowadays, when none of us wants to be left behind in the trendy game of being green? These were some issues touched upon also by a research project named "Energy Futures", carried out by a trio of interns at Interactive Institute.

The outcomes of this research were several scenarios with which the interns foresaw a future where sustainability and being green had totally translated itself into a religion. One could see the obvious link between those scenarios and today's designated-days of being green.

To provide an example, one of those scenarios included a day of covering your electronic devices with tape; in another one people would send a red smoke out to the sky as an almost-tribal ritual. They might look too-fictitious to you, but looking at the facts above, this kind of a future could be much closer than we think. It is up to us who claim to be working towards a positive future, to avoid the risk of ritualization—by aiming for deeper change in traits, instead of trying to affect moods/even behaviours for the short term.

A review on Don Norman's book "Emotional Design"

2008-09-17T18:10:00.014+03:00

The first book we had to read as students of the Experience Design MA course at Konstfack, was Emotional Design, written by the cognitive scientist Donald A. Norman. As an interdisciplinarian he has been working both as a professor at Northwestern, and consultant to many design-oriented businesses (e.g. Apple) where he brought a new approach that emphasizes usability and user-centered design.

In his book, Norman provides us with three levels of design: Visceral (related to appearance and first impressions) behavioral (about usability and user experience) and reflective (about our memories, previous experiences, stories and narratives we could tell). Then he goes on further to advocate his theory that a good design has to “excel on all three levels”.

Given the contemporary hype about sustainable/socially-responsible design, it is possible to see this book as a reminder for designers to the idea that using sustainable materials and processes does not always make designs qualify as 'good.' In other words, one shouldn't take human factors and psychology for granted while giving great importance to minimizing his/her impact on the environment. Norman's theories provide an interesting perspective in that sense.

However, I would like to give some thoughts on the coherence of the examples Norman gives to substantiate his theory. Unfortunately, most of the products he talks about do not perform even at a mediocre degree, and surely not an excellent one, on those three levels. Take Starck’s Squeezer, which illustrates the book's cover, for example. Norman argues that this is an extremely successful product, although he confesses that some parts wear out because of acid; although he has really used it once and displays it on his window; and, although, even the designer of this product has said that it is not meant to squeeze lemons. It is possible to ask many questions to contradict this perspective: If the product is not being used, or not even meant to be used, how is one going to taste the pleasure? If its usability is not high, or its parts wear out, does that still mean the design excels on all three levels? In summary, if it is so pleasurable only to look at and display on one’s window, is this an art object (e.g. sculpture) or a designed product?

Another argument Norman makes is could be defined as ‘love vs. hate’ during our experiences with products. He gives the Mini Cooper as an example for the ‘love’ side, claiming the flaws of this product might be ignored because it is so cute and fun. However, on the ‘hate’ side, he talks about how people hate computers and can even get physical with them when their usability is low. I believe this argument is not strong enough since the substantiation of its two sides are not equally coherent. On the ‘love’ side, the determining factor is cuteness and fun, whereas on the ‘hate’ side it is usability and functionality. The former are much more subjective and abstract whereas the latter are more scientific and concrete. Had Norman said that we love products because it is such a pleasure to use them; or as another option, had he claimed that we hate them when they are ugly and not fun to use, his argument would have been much stronger in its own sense.

Of course, this is not to underestimate the whole book. For instance, one of Norman's arguments that is much stronger and more convincing was about the notion of kitsch. In his own words: “Kitschy objects ... do not pretend to be art—they are aids to memory.” This is a unique perspective compared to that of an artist’s or an aestheticist’s, one that perceives souvenir objects as ‘product’s and evaluating them mainly by their function, rather than their looks.

It would not be unfair to say that the book is one of a strictly material-oriented nature. However, it is quite impossible to interpret the material world solely on the design level. Given the interdisciplinarian Norman is, one would expect from him to indicate several more paragraphs on matters related to sister disciplines, for example one sub-section could be about: the influence of marketing and advertisement on our visceral level. Similar to this neglect, in the last chapter, he makes a strong distinction between technology, and political&social sciences; saying that technology is not the one that creates problems—with the argument that our world’s problems should be solved by politics and social sciences. One would have a right to expect a much more holistic approach from him. As a result of all these, the book runs the risk of being perceived as the 'bible of materialism', a cure for the post-modern consumer society's guilt of having bought too many useless things.

In the last chapters, Norman does a great job of informing us about the latest developments in the field of robotics and raises a few ethical questions worth thinking about. There's a lot of 'stuff' to give designers an urge to do further individual research about the topics mentioned. To sum up—without losing the critical eye—it is a very useful read for any designer that would like to see beyond the conventional approach.

LondOn to LondOff: How a design choice helps Boris Johnson turn off London

2008-07-07T18:29:00.001+03:00

While I was on my flight back home after spending two months in the British capital, minds of undecided Londoners were probably occupied by last-minute evaluations of mayoral candidates. The most popular among those who ran for mayor were the then-present mayor Ken Livingstone, and the great grandson of a Turkish journalist Boris Johnson.

Like most elections of our day, the guy nobody seemed to 'like' and 'want to be elected'—'the guy on the right'—was the winner.

When I came back to the British capital 6 weeks later, ceremonies had been done, offices had changed hands and even urgent drastic measures had already been taken—the most famous being against alcohol use on-board public transport.

Interpreting Johnson's statements during his campaign, one could easily see that he saw London as going mad and out-of-track. His first decisions as the mayor only approved this understanding of his politics. What also helped me double-check this approval was a sticker that caught my eye on a red double-decker.

While Livingstone was on duty, and I was taking at least four buses a day, I had become very familiar with the stickers that read LondOn. I would see them every now and then when I lifted my head up from my book and had a brief eye-rest. I have to admit that this kind of color choice in the typesetting of the capital's name jazzed me up a little, in other words, turned me on.

However, this time, Johnson was in control and I was taking a city bus from where the airport shuttle had left me. Involuntarily I stumbled upon the stickers on top of the bus window and BAM! London was no more LondOn.

Call it designer over-sensitivity or the careful eye of the outsider, what matters is that this choice of color use—what seemed like a minor detail about graphic design—served the purpose. Along with the alcohol ban, I, as the other passengers, had become a good boy. Transport in London was much safer now.

Utilising resources: Product design in 1940s Britain

2008-07-01T10:45:00.005+03:00

This lecture was only one of the many fruitful outcomes of the invaluable time I spent with Pli Design earlier this year. It is about the 'Utility Scheme's; legislations that put design, manufacturing and trade of certain products under the strict control of the British government during and just after World War II. (You may click here to read a review on this lecture, by Christopher Pett from Pli)

It was first delivered on 18 June 2008, in Rich Mix venue London, during 'Green and Thrifty' event hosted by London Remade as part of the 'Love London' festival. Now this lecture is here for everyone to enjoy. Any thoughts and comments are welcome.

Green dictatorship

2008-06-25T16:14:00.015+03:00

It was exactly a week ago today that I was trying to make a point at London Remade's 'Green and Thrifty' seminar, about a political-economic pendulum swinging back and forth between two polar opposites: A no-holds-barred free market; and total state intervention. Trying to derive a lesson from the Utility Scheme, one of my main arguements was that no matter how benign the intentions of an authoritarian action are, history shows us that the public never fully abides by what has been put forward as mandatory. It is very interesting to see that this argument can in fact strike a chord in today's current affairs.

A recent piece of news talks about a decision by the German civic authorities to make solar panels mandatory in the town of Marburg. This legislation sets a rule for "every new house or those whose roofs or heating systems are being renovated to install solar panels".

Looks like killing two birds with one stone: Battling climate change and surviving at a time when energy prices are soaring. Nothing wrong up to this point? Don't be so quick to judge.

Just like its predecessors from history has shown us, this legislation too, has not been greeted with a warm welcome by some townspeople, if not many.

"We are facing a green dictatorship but nobody dares to say anything," said opposition politican Hermann Uchtmann.

"It's not by force that one gets people to comply," said Haus und Grund, an association of property owners.

In the talk about the Utility Scheme, I was calling such government intervention paternalistic, very similar to the initiative a father would take for his children, with positive intentions but without asking their opinion. (pater=father)

An important question arises from this metaphor: As the children of Mother Earth, can we save our mother—and, of course, ourselves—on our own? Or will we have to wait for our father to take control and abide by what he thinks is best?

An evening with the maker of 'The Story of Stuff'

2008-06-01T21:22:00.018+03:00

Annie Leonard, the genious behind the short movie ‘The Story of Stuff’, was in Istanbul on May 31st for a screening of the movie. I was among the few lucky Istanbulites–nothing related to being invited, due to people’s lack of awareness!–who were able to watch the movie with her, after which, a Q&A session took place.

I already had a question in mind as I approached the movie theatre, since I had watched the movie several times–thanks to its brilliant webpage. What preoccupied my mind was about something which I had come to realize after looking at what socially and environmentally aware thinkers has said back in the 50s and 60s: We today cannot help but refer greatly to their studies, go against what they’ve gone against, and circulate around the same terms: Corporatism, consumerism, planned & perceived obsolescence, etc.

After this analysis, my question to her was about what she would give as an answer to what I keep asking myself: “Have we failed in coping with these menaces, and if we have, what has gone wrong?”

Annie was so sincere to avoid merry optimism, and agree with the fact that we have been failing and going worse. She strongly emphasised that having a soft spot for green issues is not enough, and the important thing is to see the big picture, “the economic undermine”, as she called it. Feeling the need to addressing my general criticism on a personal level, she underlined how she sees her contribution to the movement to be: She said that, most important of all, she feels responsible to the world as a U.S. citizen. Because, she added, besides all the export of garbage the U.S. has been carrying out in the course of the last 50 years, she pointed to the fact that her country has also been increasingly exporting its way of thinking and lifestyle. She told that this is what particularly worries her the most, and it has recently been approved when she saw “20 billboards of Sex and The City in the Istanbul Airport”.

Well, I think she has definitely had another major contribution: Articulating these issues with a very down to earth tone, in an easy to grasp and accessible format. Follow this link to another article to learn more about her work.

Nokia New Phone Concept & dyeing one’s whiskers green

2008-05-25T20:22:00.003+03:00

A daily digest I received from a design mailgroup highly praised a new phone concept that's recently been developed by the mobile giant Nokia. The introductory post went into further detail to prove how breakthrough the concept was: "works with solar energy, calculates the hazardous substances on the apple you're going to eat, never gets dirty and cleans the dirt around it, the Nokia of the future..."

"Calculates the hazardous substances on the apple you're going to eat"? With all due respect to the hard work being put into nanotechnology and similar scientific developments, I find it impossible not to stand aghast at the way they're being used by the industry. It reveals a good deal about the pathetic situation our civilization— and, in particular, the design profession — is in.

I'm sure that at some point any designer has been told they're problem solvers. How about a different perception of this notion? In the light of this Nokia example, it's time to face the fact that what we do is to create solutions to create further problems. Rachel Carson's inspirational text Silent Spring tells us about Lewis Carroll's metaphor for such an attitude:

This system, however—deliberately poisoning our food, then policing the result—is too reminiscent of Lewis Carroll’s White Knight who thought of ‘a plan to dye one’s whiskers green, and always use so large a fan that they could not be seen’. The ultimate answer is to use less toxic chemicals so that the public hazard from their misuse is greatly reduced.

It's already time we start taking a holistic approach to the problems our civilization has caused. Wouldn't it be a more "breakthrough concept" if, for example, Nokia started a fund to prevent pollution or use of chemicals in agriculture, etc.

Click here to watch the introductory video for Morph—Nokia's New Phone Concept.

May Day—The Wall Reveals All

2008-05-13T15:22:00.003+03:00

"Turkey welcomes you". That's how the slogan for the country's tourism campaign goes. Whether with open arms, or nightsticks and tear gas might vary depending on what part of the year the visit takes place. And May 1st surely falls in to the latter category.

On my way back from some long time spent abroad, my native Turkey had given me "its warmest welcome" on that very day. While it seemed like another Labor Day pitched battle for us natives, it may have not been so for the unfortunate tourists who were exposed to the fury of the police. "Isn't the cold war over?" they might have been asking. Not on this land, folks.

In here, the cold war goes on everyday, between any two parties: Secular-Islamist, Sunni-Alevi, Turk-Kurd, Istanbulite-Anatolian, Fenerbahce-Galatasaray, rapper-punk, so on and so forth. There's an ongoing tension — on the bus, in the streets — that's waiting to get physical any moment. But only very few of these positions can face hostility from any layer of the society. And among those positions, the most suppressed and marginalized of all, is the left and its values (special thanks go to the 1980 coup).

It was during that same 80s oppressive atmosphere when words like devrim (revolution), örgüt (organization) and eylem (action) have been forced out from Turkish people's everyday vocabulary. They went on to live in the children's names, today serving as a litmus test for whose parents were revolutionaries back in the day. Today, the resistance those words still have to endure is by itself a substantial proof of the ongoing "cold war".

This May 2nd 2008 photo taken on Istiklal Caddesi — one of the "battlefields" of May 1st — leads one to similar analyses. The wall is of a famous electronics' store, and written on it, is the word devrim (revolution), possibly a souvenir from the previous day's incidents. As seen in the photo, the store's answer to this "marginalized" word is a sticker that strikes back with three weapons: Football — opium of the masses, the national flag, and the corporate logo. What a trio.

Keep Britain Tidy

2008-05-12T22:47:00.002+03:00

I truly adore reading leftover material, and my latest experience was even more pleasurable for being about green issues. Taking a look at an abandoned April 12th issue of The Times, I learned about Bill Bryson’s launch of a three year campaign against street littering. Take a look at this article to see how serious his commitment to “Keep Britain Tidy” is.

“London is now the dirtiest city in Europe as well as the costliest.” Now, that is some paradox.

Turning over the pages, I noticed that at least three of them were dedicated to green issues. One was about the paper giving away free Vivienne Westwood green bags, but the coupon was already torn, and I realized that I had missed out. After all, this is exactly what I love about reading leftovers, seeing how other people have interacted with such material gives you a peak through this little window into their lives.

This issue also had some impressive pictures from around the UK, showing chunks of litter left outdoors, and these were enough to make the point. I could not go without publishing a photo of my neighbour’s front yard here along with this post. So if you’re also concerned about this particular issue, join in on the squeal.

Back to the future: Lessons from half a century ago, for brighter prospects

2008-05-09T22:35:00.002+03:00

I have been developing a special interest in looking into the WWII and post-WWII years alongside a general investigation into green issues. I believe there’s a lot to learn from that period of history, which was more or less when our present economical order was established. (I have previously written about Utility Furniture, a British government scheme carried out during and recently after the Second World War.) Two books I have recently read—The Waste Makers by Vance Packard (1959), and The Silent Spring by Rachel Carson (1962)—made me rethink what we today have no problem to settle with.

When I first came to London, I was quite amazed at what I saw in the capital’s parks. I was able to walk around with the company of squirrels and foxes, sharing the greens with them. Thinking of thousands of cats and dogs wandering around in cities in my native Turkey, this was quite a paradigm shift in terms of what a metropolis can accommodate as street animals. Reading Silent Spring further startled me, when I learned about how normal it was to have many other animals as part of urban life in the sixties. This book was written when this natural harmony all started to fall apart, it includes some of the first resistance attempts against cruel industrialization:

The ‘control of nature’ is a phrase conceived in arrogance, born of the Neanderthal age of biology and philosophy, when it was supposed that nature exists for the convenience of man. The concepts and practices of applied entomology for the most part date from that Stone Age of science. It is our alarming misfortune that so primitive a science has armed itself with the most modern and terrible weapons, and that in turning them against the insects it has also turned them against the earth.

If a visit to the electronics store today still gets you all mixed up, welcome to the club. Nowadays, it requires a good deal of effort to keep up with the pace of “development” in consumer goods. Nevertheless, one has to admit that no matter how amazed we might get at these new products, we have adapted so that we now accept that, for instance, an appliance we buy today will be out-dated in 6-12 months. But The Waste Makers was written at a time when concepts like “the consumerist society” and “planned obsolescence” were just introduced and still subject to debate. Therefore, like Carson, Packard finds things, which we are nowadays dull about, very difficult to understand:

How can the modern consumer choose plywood furniture intelligently—in the absence of a wood-labelling law—when wood labelled ‘driftwood walnut’ or ‘silver oak’ contains neither walnut not oak?

These two books belong to a time when people did not settle with the life the “common” understanding of economic growth and development had to offer them. It is a pity that nowadays that understanding is more or less the same, but the majority of people are okay to settle with it.

One question comes up after reminiscence: Did it, and does it still, have to be this way?

An extra digit to years, a spark of hope for us

2008-04-11T13:40:00.001+03:00

A recent article in The New York Times compares today’s environmental challenge with times of war and scarcity. Having addressed the issue with an identical comparison in a previous post, it’s amazing to see how two points made in conclusion to the same analogy can be so different. For those people who don’t have time to read the whole Times article, below is an excerpt to sum up the point it’s trying to make:

“Survivalism, it seems, is not just for survivalists anymore.
Faced with a confluence of diverse threats — a tanking economy, a housing crisis, looming environmental disasters, and a sharp spike in oil prices — people who do not consider themselves extremists are starting to discuss doomsday measures once associated with the social fringes.

They stockpile or grow food in case of a supply breakdown, or buy precious metals in case of economic collapse. Some try to take their houses off the electricity grid, or plan safe houses far away. The point is not to drop out of society, but to be prepared in case the future turns out like something out of “An Inconvenient Truth,” if not “Mad Max.”
…
“If all these planets line up and things do get really bad,” Mr. Marcom said, “those who have not prepared will be trapped in the city with thousands of other people needing food and propane and everything else.”
…
Esteemed economists debate whether the credit crisis could result in a complete meltdown of the financial system. A former vice president of the United States informs us that global warming could result in mass flooding, disease and starvation, perhaps even a new Ice Age.”

In response to this pessimistic survivalist perspective, I would like to point to a symbolic and simple, but nevertheless very inspirational idea. It comes from The Long Now Foundation, about which I’ve first learned in John Grant’s book The Green Marketing Manifesto. Let’s take a look at this excerpt from the book to get a grasp of this nice little idea:

“One of their many great ideas was to give a fifth digit to the years: 02008. For a generation overshadowed by the millenium, this gives us room to breathe again. It shows us a much longer horizon, because the next significant landmark in this dating scheme is not the decade (or whatever we will call 2010-2019) or even century, it is the year 10000. A pessimistic view would be that we’d be lucky to make it to that date without a crisis or change of such biblical proportions that we start the calendar over again. If the sort of civilization that dates itself makes it, at all. But for now (a long now), just adding that zero makes you see the world differently”

I hope this sparks a little optimism and encourages us to continue giving our best efforts while addressing the issue.

Get your copy of Plan A, because there's no Plan B

2008-04-11T11:28:00.001+03:00

I think most of my colleagues would agree that encounters with marketers may not always turn out to be the most pleasurable. You might get the feeling that you are being taken for granted. A stereotype is that you are the designer with no clue whatsoever about how to earn money, and if you are a designer with a soft spot for green issues, green designer, that makes you twice naive. Well, there’s now a ‘dictionary’ for you to avoid getting lost in translation: The Green Marketing Manifesto

John Grant’s latest book was what I found in my hand as I first set foot in Pli. Having done a great deal of reading about green design, this was my first green read on a field other than my own. To be sincere, seeing the words green and marketing together was about to get me started with my prejudices, of which there was no sign once I started turning the first pages.

However, the strength of this book does not just come from its ability to make peace between the two concepts that have previously been seen as polar opposites, or the fact that it is really up-to-date with the latest examples from the Web 2.0. It is derived from the inspirational way that it has a balanced tone, avoiding both dreamy optimism and dark pessimism. It does not leave it at only a clear diagnosis, but comes up with an endless number of solutions. It is full of marketing and business ideas and, attention colleagues, you can even find tips for possible new design ideas, which is something you might not always expect from an author who’s not a designer.

Grant is in my native Istanbul as I’m typing these words, where he will present his ideas before the most cruel marketers of the city. Good luck John, I hope you can initiate a sparkle of change!

Forgive me father, for I have sinned

2008-04-01T17:08:00.001+03:00

The breaking news were delivered by German weekly newspaper Die Zeit: Philippe Starck is “fed up with his job and plans to retire in two years”. The renowned designer went on further to claim that “design is dead and his work ‘unnecessary’”.

Well, there are people who hate the French designer and others who adore him, as is the case with star names in any business. Some of those tree huggers out there might even be celebrating. Blogs are filled with outraged people arguing that they will not accept Starck’s confession, for he has done so much damage and made so much money out of it. I will approach this piece of breaking news from another angle.

Change is good, and there is no right timing for it. It is great that Starck had his sudden change of heart today, rather than tomorrow. His confession is to be appreciated.

However, there’s another problem here, which is the content of the confession. One could still feel the arrogance in words like “in the future there will be no more designers”.

It seems like Starck has made a thorough analysis of what he has been doing, but not of what he could do in the future, using his skills. He still thinks that there is only one way of designing–which is his way–and now that he has realized it is causing too much damage, he thinks the world will be better off without it.

What he misses is that there is a whole lot more ways he can design, and help reduce his past damage while doing so.

I am not going to advise him to take a look at what socially and environmentally responsible designers from all around the world have been up to.

I am actually going to recommend him to take a businessman, named Ray Anderson, as his role model. Mr. Anderson has had his sudden change of heart about a decade ago, and instead of throwing in the towel, he has continued doing what he does the best, but this time doing it responsibly.

Take a look at this excerpt from the documentary ‘The Corporation’, and see for yourself.

A world under bombardment

2008-03-27T18:37:00.001+02:00

While Londoners were fleeing the city during the long Easter weekend, this was actually a good time for a foreigner like me to check out what’s hot in the capital’s museums. Victoria and Albert was, of course, in the top of my list. This was where I happened to see two pieces of furniture that belonged to a period which I think is very much worth looking furhter into—a period that witnessed a movement called the Utility Furniture Scheme.

Starting in the UK, during the harsh conditions of mid-WWII and lasting for a decade, this scheme was basically a reaction to the material shortages (specifically timber) experienced in furniture production. The main objective was to bring about a more responsible approach to furniture design, so that scarce available resources were used in a sensible way. The reach of its precautions went as far as restricting furniture purchase only to newly-weds and people who had been bombed out.

As arid as this period of British design history might seem to be, I think there lays an inspirational experience for us designers of the 21st century. As the designers of a nation under heavy bombardment and siege—therefore extremely severe conditions—how would you design and develop products that will not bring further destruction to the resources of your country, and which are still beautiful, durable and functional? (Here, I think the designs being beautiful is exceptionally important, since this will help people hold on to life).

Frankly, it is not so difficult to make a comparison between that period of recent history and today. As nonsense as it would be to impose the oppressive restrictions of that time, it is fair to request from today’s designers to ask themselves this question while doing their job: Does the world need a table, a chair, etc. made of “x material”?

And some further questions arise:
Do we have to wait for wartime conditions to act?
If wartime is what urgently requires the sensible and responsible usage of resources of a nation then, in terms of resource usage, are we not in wartime?

Just think of the whole world as a single nation.

Link to the Wikipedia article about the Utility Furniture Scheme

Easy being green

2008-03-19T19:15:00.001+02:00

A recent piece of writing I had read in a Turkish newspaper reveals it all about a personal greenwash. The Stockholm correspondent of this newspaper had sent an article about the poshness of being green in the Swedish capital, in which she told how “in” it was to go down on the street, to the recycling bin, and finally to recycle your waste, and let everyone see you during the process.

While that seems to be the case in Western Europe, one would find it really difficult to hold onto a green lifestyle in Turkey, since there is a huge lack of awareness of the issue. However, as careless are the businesses and people in Turkey about sustainability, a newcomer to the UK might get just as tired of seeing so many words like green, eco, sustainable, etc. It’s big business here.

While it may now be considered a breakthrough move for a Turkish company to call itself green, it’s not differentiating enough to be green here in the UK—and generally in most of Western Europe. In fact, it is actually “easy being green”.

The thing is, what we had considered to be diverse a decade ago, is not as diverse today. Transportation is much faster, as is communication, which allows a crazy flow of information all around the world. What all this brings as a side effect is that there is now a much more vague definition to being unique. We cannot be sure anymore that what nourishes us is not an inspiration for someone else too.

In an environment where everyone is green, maybe it is best to be as transparent as possible about the way you do business–or you live your life in general—and let the ones around you make the judgement. (So goes the general approach of Pli Design, as Christopher Pett puts it.)

Do the Stockholmers really care about the environment and strive to do their part, or are they just showing off in a street catwalk?

Are the businesses here really green, or is it just the marketability of the word itself what makes them green?

Lastly, and more controversially, do the customers really want to know if the companies they prefer are really green, or are they are comfortable enough only to be seen carrying a logo of a company which is known to be green?

After all, it’s not that easy being transparent.