Design Futures

BBC's Victorian Slums I've recently finished watching BBC's Victorian Slums, a 5-part 'reality' show where a group of 21st-century Brits move into a Victorian Work House,  painstakingly brought back to life in the heart of London's East End . The Work House was a place for those with little prospect of a living wage, or a sickness or disability that prevented them from working. Starting from the 1850's to the 1890's, each episode reflects political and industrial changes through each passing decade. The slum dwellers, made up of modern families, couples, single mothers, the disabled etc, experience Victorian hardship and insecurity first-hand, facing the grim reality of life for the urban poor and the truly squalor side of the industrial revolution. Watching the programme, there were some uncomfortable parallels within our modern society that I drew on. Work was on a temporary basis, much like our present 'zero-hour contracts', and fo

I have been reading Darian Leader's latest book, 'Hands - what we do with them and why'. Psychoanalyst Leader reflects on the hand and how we have always kept them busy. He argues that our hands, through sensory touch and exploration, have helped evolve and shape the world around us. Looking at the history of civilisation and child development, Leader argues that our hands have a conscience of their own. But why and what might this reveal about ourselves? I aim to explore our hands as tools to question and create, thus evolve us. Our hands have evolved us from the first-man and define us from animals. It is through the sensory nerves of our fingers that we explore and feel; through hand-writing, painting, sewing, our hands busy themselves as we reflect and express ourselves. Taken into our connected era, our hands fidget with our smartphones as we wait for the bus. (Before smartphones it was newspapers, cigarettes etc). The device works on tap and swipe gestures but

"The premise behind the Throw and Grow Flower Grenade, is the masters of 'guerilla gardening'. The grenade shaped, clay pot contains buttercup, poppy and ryegrass seeds with the idea being to drop them in desolate places so the pot smashes and the seeds can grow and create life! The biodegradable nature of clay will dissolve when it rains. So now you can drop those flower grenades any time you see a patch of unloved wasteland, and not be accused of littering, or worse... This guerilla tactic will be in the name of Mother Nature!" Whilst this product has good intention, the act of the masculine in the shape of a grenade, of war, fails to be critical in design. The act of war itself is defuturing.  The act of nature needs to be about love/kindness, creating/making and nurturing/joyance.

I have always loved this quote but it seems much more poignant now.

Alienation, Artist  Naikos N It has been a heavy few days, which have felt like weeks. I've been in the deep throes of Tony Fry's Design as Politics and have a clearer understanding of the mechanics of what is essentially a defuturing Capitalist Democracy we live in, one dominated by consumer demands as "... the result of incremental designed action and thinking without vision or critical reflection over a period of time". Along with the reading, the Easter holidays have involved spending time with siblings and extended family. They are examples of the hard working, aspirant middle-class families Fry talks about, who have been conditionally inscribed to 'being-in-the-world', technocentrics fused to their smartphones. The subject of when our children should start walking to school without guardianship comes up. I'm all for my daughter's independence and feel she's ready at the start of Year 6. "No, no!", one of my elder sister&#

My Masters has been on much calmer ground, having discovered Tony Fry. Hallelujah, a design theorist and philosopher, voicing similar issues and searching for solutions.  He has brought clarity and vigour into my research.  As a person who considered themselves fairly intelligent, I realise how little I know and how much more I need to know. More profoundly, I've discovered that some of my initial views were incorrect. Indeed I was a raving hippy activist! The Masters has been a personal journey. Where before I felt a bit of a rough diamond, I feel a little more polished. As passionate as I am about my subject, I  now understand that no-one wants to hear rhetoric; they simply switch off. It feels good to talk about my research in a calm, informed and academic manner where people feel more compelled to listen. I cringe when I look back. I wasn't/am not a Luddite but believing that we are becoming cyborgs with the increasing adoption of 'connected' technology or that tech