Design is more than a field of political action, it is a bridge between political theory and political action. Human beings are political because they cannot not be social; it is equally the case that to be human (no matter how defined) is to design… Read more…
Raising children is a sacred mission in that it is communal and material and life affirming. But it is also exhausting and fraught with little contradictions that numb and undermine all your hard work, all the time. … The trouble is we are raising our children in naturalised artificial environments that largely do not care in the comprehensive, consistent way we aspire to as parents… Read more…
Most Haitians live short, brutal lives. Inhabitants of this small Caribbean island nation can expect to live about 50 years mainly without adequate housing, electrical power, running water, basic sanitation or heath care… Read more…
Urban unspeak seems to package its solutions with yes/no or good/bad ease. The unspeak – the thought that stops thinking – justifies ever more expenditure on the inner city, and concentration or uneven distribution of resources… Read more…
In the second of our interviews on redirective practice, Lisa Norton discusses a knowledge-exchange project with a stone-carving community in Fujian Province, China, and issues of teaching design in an art school… Read more…
As voters and consumers we are merely invited to choose, never to dream. …. it should be every citizen’s duty to envision beneficial ways of living. This would require a radical overhaul of the education system and an alternative to the political and economic discourse that has led us to the brink of disaster… Read more…
The rate at which the condition of unsustainability is expanding and becoming structurally embedded, is totally outstripping the creation of responses, technically, culturally and politically. Much that travels under the heading of ‘sustainability’ is still token, partial and underdeveloped. … what is often being sustained is the unsustainable. … If we are to have any choices about the form of the future we want … then ‘we’ have no option but to act with greater imagination, energy and purpose… Read more…
Myrtle Avenue, NY, photo by DJ Huppatz for his review ‘Design in the Divided City’
To design ‘environmentally improved’ versions of existing products or buildings will not deliver a condition of sustainment. This is because current ‘practices and products of ‘sustainability’ just cannot displace the sheer mass of the unsustainable… Read more…
Not only are existing identity systems unusable for people who need to manage hundreds of digital locks and keys, they create excessive amounts of digital waste… Read more…
“Don’t touch that!” Pat spun around on her swivel chair and faced him. “Put it back!”
“What will you do if I don’t?” he said, grabbing her neck and holding the cutter, blade retracted, to her throat… Read more…
