Perfectly matching this years topic “Rising design from Africa & Southern America“, The Love School Project was invited to the Salone Satellite, which of course is a great honour to the project and all its participants. Berlin University of Arts will show the results among other current projects from the last semester, curated by Ineke Hans.
Tag: UdK
Talk at DGTF Conference, Halle Burg Giebichenstein
At this year’s conference of the German Foundation for Design Theory and Research I was invited to speak about the projects I conducted with the University of Arts Berlin in Nairobi, Kenya. In my talk I presented theses and conclusions I draw from the experience of the collaborative work we did there to address a more contemporary, just and realistic approach towards international development and how design could actually contribute towards this change.
Paper at Making Futures Conference, Plymouth
I was invited to speak at the conference, contributing to the slot “Making Thinking – Crafting Education”. Read the abstract here. For more info, please visit the website of the conference.
Project Lead for Nyendo.Lernen NGO
Starting in October I will take over the project management for the work with the CIFEFA schools in Kangemi and Kawangware, Nairobi, Kenya. The cooperation will be run through Supernova Institute as one of our coop’s pilot projects, trying to build networks both in Nairobi and within Africa connecting people from similar projects. Our first attempt is to implement urban gardening structures in a big co-creation workshop in early 2018, that have beed designed by participants of the Regenerate! project during my professorship Berlin University of Arts. I am super happy to join the team and hopefully will be able to create resourceful synergies!
The Love School Project at State of Design
With great appreciation we announce our participation at State of Design. We will show the project at the Vollgut Lager of Kindl Brewery from June 1 – 4. Anna Badur and I will talk about the project on June 2, 4.30 pm.
The Love School Project – Documentation Published
You can download your e-book HERE
REGENERATE ! – Fluid Community Food Systems. Interdisciplinary Project with Wajukuu Arts Project, Kenya and the Department of Architecture, UdK, Berlin
„Cities have a crucial role to play as catalysts of the system change we need. They can embody a new story about development and progress in which the health of biodiversity, foodsheds and watersheds are key indicators of success. A city is most healthy as a meeting place for change agents, outliers, and shadow networks. The healthy city is about participation, not spectacle. Connecting is itself a form of innovation.“ John Thackara
By acknowledging the city as a living system where things grow organically, offering a new human centered fluidity, we will approach its territories as a fertile ground for community regeneration and a healthy (fair, resilient, circular, sustainable) local food system, while understanding ourselves as agents of change by designing and producing genuine urban abundance.
This living city is already emerging with new kinds of infrastructures: food coops, collective urban gardening and farming, craft breweries etc. We will kick off the semester with a Berlin wide field research, exploring and identifying key elements for local food systems in a community context (production, transformation, distribution, consumption). We will visit and interview grass roots initiatives, start-ups, farmers, community gardens, local producers etc., cook and eat together, explore the different set-ups of community and share it all in a collective map, which will be the starting point for the semester project.
Inspired by emerging disciplines like permaculture, transition and regenerative design, the goal of this project is to experience a socially engaged design practice and to establish a systemic understanding of the topic by investigating different scenarios: we will work with an allotment garden and analyze its specific structures and rules and how these shape its community; we will explore the potential of the „house of statistics“ at Alexanderplatz, a building and space whose purpose still needs to be defined and we will address our thinking towards the very special constraints of the slums in Nairobi and its consequences for community purposes.
The systemic approach will allow us to think at different scales (Berlin/Nairobi) and help us to decolonize knowledge (and design) and to understand, how we can share knowledge and resources in fairer, healthier way.
We will approach these scenarios with questions like:
– How to propose new food products & service systems (PPS) that regenerate local economies as well as communities?
– How to use mobile & lean structures to establish resilient and circular food systems that will not be affected by politics, real estate speculation etc.?
– How to help people to take back the city by establishing shared food production/transformation/systems?
with Virginie Gailing, Prof. Markus Bader,St. Oberholz, KDI, Barefoot Solutions, NGO Nyendo, Edgeryders’ OpenVillage
The Love School Project @ Republica!
While the exhibition of “The Love School Project” is still running, Antony and I will give a Talk at Republica in May, sharing our insights and plans for the future of the project. Looking forward to a big audience and great feedback!
Berlin Design Digest – Essay & Project
To celebrate the ten-year anniversary of UNESCO naming Berlin a “City of Design”, the editors Robert Eysoldt, a strategic and creative consultant, and Raban Ruddigkeit, a designer and editor, have assembled 100 successful projects, products, and processes by 75 Berlin agencies, design labs, public initiatives, networks, and universities, which currently connect Berlin with the world in “The Berlin Design Digest”, published by Slanted.
I am very honored to not only present “The ShitShow”, one of 6 unconventional projects that were developed during the Hacking Utopia project at UdK, but also having been invited to write an essay about a topic I think to be relevant in the current design debate. The text reflects the contemporality of the ever so famous design thinking framework and demands for the design community to step up and reclaim their expertise, while adjusting the creative innovation processes to the current needs of a world in crisis, including self reflection, embodied cognition and focus on taboos – it’s about time to come clean.
The Love School Project – Exhibition at Gallery 1.1. & Auction
THE LOVE SCHOOL PROJECT
co-creation and design for transformation
VERNISSAGE Thursday · May 4, 2017 · 7pm
EXHIBITION May 5 – 10, 2017
weekend 12pm – 7pm · weekdays 5pm – 9pm
Galerie erstererster · Pappelalle 69 · 10437 Berlin
AUCTION unitedcharity.de/Specials/The-Love-School-Project
PRESENTING Louis Bindernagel · Anna Drewes
Martin Fenske · Georgia von le Fort · Julius Führer
Dario Iannone · Antony Karori · Agnes Kelm
Yannik Rohloff · Anna Ryzhova · Pauline Schlautmann
& Kids from Love School · Kawangware · Nairobi · Kenya
SUPERVISION Prof. Susanne Stauch · Anna Badur
SUPPORT Antony Karori · NGO Nyendo · German Embassy
theloveschoolproject.cre8tives.org
Campus Collisions – When I die, how will you celebrate me? UdK, Berlin
A JOURNEY THROUGH FUNERAL CULTURE HERITAGE IN DIFFERENT CULTURES
Text by Jan Janas
(1) In our Western Christian-based world funeral is a place full of black color and sad faces. It is a very boring and dull ritual disembodied of its original spiritual meaning.
(2) In our Collision we have asked ourselves how to re-interpret funerals in a more contemporary and globalized way, following its long-lasting ritualistic heritage, but without focusing on one worldview, one religion, or one tradition alone.
(3) It appears that celebration and respect are the key words to be taken into consideration. Celebration of live in all its facets—with dead being a part of it, a part of the balance like Yin and Yang. And respect for the missed one and, in a way, for all the deads.
(4) In a research on what different cultures around the world think about death, we’d like to take you on a etymological tour that is the start of a re-designed 21st century funeral.
(5) In Japan, WABI-SABI is a therm that expresses the acceptance of the natural cycle of growth and decay. It is an aesthetic term that refers to the beauty of „patina“ or „usage“ over brand new.
(6) In ancient Greek, LETHE is a river underworld that, when drunk from, made souls forget the sufferings of life.
(7) In Old English, DUSTSCEAWUNG (literally „contemplation of the dust“), is a reflection on former civilizations and peoples, and on the knowledge that all things will turn to dust.
(8) In French, SILLAGE refers to the scent that lingers in air, the trail left in water, the impression made in space after something or someone has been gone; the trace of someone’s perfume.
(9) In Welsch, HIRAETH means the homesickness for a home to which you cannot return, a home which maybe never was; the nostalgia, the yearning, the grief for the lost places of your past.
(10) In the hebraic world, MIZPAH is the deep emotional bond between people, especially those separated by distance or death.
(11) While in German, KUMMERSPECK is the excess weight gained from emotional overeating. Literally, grief bacon.
(12) In Portugiese-speaking countries, especially Brasil, SAUDADE is „the love the remains“: a nostalgic longing to be near again to something or someone that is distant.
(13) Taking into consideration the various rituals around the world and the most deepest human needs for a funeral goodbye to their loved ones, we have had fun in re-designing ceremonies and are happy to exhibit them for your pleasure.
SEED (Marilia Afxentiou, Louis Bruno Bindernagel, Hannah Möser, Mizu Sugai, Yannik Rohloff, Cindy Valdez, Patricia Wagner)
CONNECT (Ruth Biene, Jasmin Erb, Tal Golan Hazan, Jan Janas, Abena Karhan, Ivana Kolak, Pablo Martinez, Yasemin Ozkaynak, Momme Ries, Tim Süßbauer, Vi Nghiem Tuong)
OGS / OPEN GRIEF SPACE (Zoe Agathos, Louis Bruno Bindernagel, Forough Fami, Nikko Forteza Rumpf, Julius Führer, Grete Smitaite, Eicke Arved Zinke)
Concept and Supervision:
GastProf. Susanne Stauch, IPP, UdK
Virginie Gailing, Strategic Design & REDEATH.ORG
Sabine Schneider, Fashion/Costumedesign & Dance Pedagogy
with students from GWK, Product, Fashion, Art, Costume, Choreography/Dance, Musical/Show
Marilia Afxentiou, Zoe Agathos, Ruth Biene, Louis Bruno Bindernagel, Jasmin Erb, Forough Fami, Nikko Forteza Rumpf, Julius Führer, Tal Golan Hazan, Jan Janas, Abena Karhan, Ivana Kolak, Pablo Martinez, Hannah Möser, Vi Nghiem Tuong, Yasemen Ozkaynak, Momme Ries, Yannik Rohloff, Grete Smitaite, Mizu Sugai, Tim Süßbauer, Cindy Valdez, Patricia Wagner, Eicke Arved Zinke
The Love School Project, BA design project, UdK, Berlin
Besides the financial support of the school in Nairobi, the goal of the project is diverse: it’s an experiment in co-creation as a new and empowering way to work together internationally, it will sensitize the students to see their work as a creative service in a client relationship and it offers the kids from the Love School Center the opportunity to participate in the purchase of the the grounds and thus support their feeling of self-efficacy. For all participants this project will be an inspiring, mind expanding experience.
With a focus on craft, material understanding and form development the project is dedicated to the number Pi = 3,14… The work will be mostly in porcelain and fine metals, wood and fabric are possible as well. Besides the design process the question of value of those materials, the necessity of new products and the relation to a global social context will be reflected. There is a cooperation with the „Love School Center“ in the Slum Kangemi in Nairobi, Kenya. Through the NGO „NYENDO“ we have the artist and a coordinator Anthony Karori on-site, who will work with the children around the topic of pi and will create drawings, collages, photographs etc. together. In exchange with the students from UdK these first interpretations will be taken up and developed further aesthetically, functionally and formally. The students will be in touch with the kids on a regular basis through skype and the finished design objects will be sold in an auction at the end of the semester. The revenue serves the purchase of land on which the Love School Center stands which is in danger of being cleared out due to speculation.
Concept & Supervision: GastProf. Susanne Stauch, IPP, ID2, UdK
Partner: Irmgard Wutte/ Nyendo NGO
Financial Support: Martin Bisicky & Dominik Becker
Hacking Utopia Talk #1 – Design and Politics for Tomorrow, designtransfer, Berlin
Sabine Junginger and Caroline Paulick-Thiel both did an amazing job in explaining the complexity of policy making and how designers can get involved and how design can and should grow into the realm of social transformation. They are both involved with the initiative politics for tomorrow. Looking forward to further cooperation! Thanks to Designtransfer UdK to make this evening happen.
Hacking Utopia – interdisciplinary project with GWK, Edgeryders’ research project #OpenCare and Startnext, UdK, Berlin
We had a very intense 3 day kick-off workshop in Sauen with 11 product design and 10 GWK students diving into the topic of #OpenCare and how this relates to hacking, people on the move, mental resilience, food cultures and their own lives. The project is contributing its research and design results to the project OP3N CARE, which is funded by the European Commission under the Horizon 2020 framework programme. We have very ambitious goals: working interdisciplinary within the university and in collaboration with the online community Edgeryders, this project is rooted in a real world context. StartNext is another partner, offering us input and support to create high quality campaigns to crowdfund the design results. Those will be shown at designtransfer, UdK in July 2016 and in a final exhibition of the research project in Milan and London in 2017. Another great opportunity for the students is the chance to apply for a fellowship to get further support on their ideas, e.g. by CERN. To find out about the project, visit the OP3N Care Community for deep content and interest in the research or the Hacking Utopia website for a general overview of our project work
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Porcelain Evolution Lab – BA design project, UdK, Berlin
This project was dedicated to surface design as a haptic-functional and sensual-adeptable Interface between human and object.
The students approached the design process in three designated steps: supposedly inspiring experiments to get a touch and feel for the material were the starting point, followed and accompanied by a research and concept phase. These three methods eventually merged. Towards the end, of course, when the ideas were tangible, the students focused on parameters, proportions and practicability. The process was meant to be understood as an experimental evolution from analog through digital towards hybrid states. The aim was to develop surface structures that are known from other contexts and are transformed or sampled as such to cause irritation, so far only visually adeptable structures that reach a new quality in porcelain, structures that oscillate between grace and feature. The project is documented on this website.
We will show the results at Galerie erstererster, Pappelallee 69, 10437 Berlin
OPENING 23.04.2016 19.00
EXHIBITION 24. – 26.04.2016, Sun 12.00 – 19.00 & Mon/Tue 17.00 – 21.00
PARTICIPANTS Moriel Blau /Tomma Suki Hinrichsen /Parinaz Jabirian /Emilia Knabe /Markus Koistinen / Laureanne Kootstra /Dennis-Thong Nguyen / Clara Poeverlein / Hyein Pyo / Julius Terhedebrügge
WITH Dipl.Des. Laura Straßer / Dip.Des. Daniel Schulze
Campus Collisions – Kinetic Sound Objects, UdK, Berlin
In a on week short project I collided with the Jazz musician Tilmann Dehnhard and my dear colleague form the basic laboratory in our faculty, Johanna Dehio. It was a lot of fun to support the enthusiastic students from various fields (dance, architecture, social- and business communications etc.) in building the awkward and fun sound hullabaloo machine parade. See for yourself
Guest Professor at UdK Berlin
Starting in October I will hold a guest professorship at the University of Arts, Berlin. I am very much looking forward to this great opportunity and I am currently preparing the curriculum. This winter semester we will work at the PORCELAIN EVOLUTION LAB. For the summer semester 2016 I am preparing a project in the area of social transformation. It is a huge coop. The students will work in interdisciplinary teams of product designers and social- and business communicaters, we work with StartNext, my friend Nadia El-Imam from Edgeryders who runs a research project on OpenCare and Ezio Manzini. The project will be accompanied by exhibitions and talks at Designtransfer. Check out the growing website around it here: HACKING UTOPIA.
How 3D-printing Affects Design Amazing Functional Research at UdK
Yesterday I attended the semester presentation of ID5, run by my former supervisor Prof. Burkhard Schmitz who created an impressive overview of functional studies with his students. Back in 2007/2008 when I was working at my isopt porcelain project he would already preach the necessity of focusing on new possibilities to integrate function into the geometry of the designed artifact which is an important and basic insight that I pass on to my students as well.
I really hope the results of that show will be published in a book as it would be a wonderful tool to communicate the interconnectedness of material, production process and function resulting in an aesthetic that is pure and obvious.
Self Efficacy Through Opposition – Prof. Dr. Harald Welzer at UdK
After the recommendation by Prof. Dieter Raffler back last summer to read the book “think yourself – instructions to oppositions” by Harald Welzer I was grateful to have finally found a public figure who speaks the truth about the failure of our system, the need for each single person to start and get our hands dirty and especially to become active opposers of obvious manipulation that only serves the profit of the few while destroying our environment and resources. And so of course, I had to go and see him in person in the old library at UdK. Welzer is a very smart and eloquent social scientist who knows how to lead (and win) a discussion. However, the victory went to one student who pointed out that while we all sit here and talk about sustainability, why do we need to have all the light bulbs turned on in the room, this said, he turned half of the light off and earned a big applause. I highly recommend to read this book and spread the word. My students in Dessau were very inspired as well.
>> Prof. Dr. Welzer at Futurzwei
