Design Futures

"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...