Some reflections on my design philosophy in relation to the design field and to Artistic Research, and how this continuously shapes and reshapes the topic for my PhD
Objects are all around us. Some of them make us happy, others make us sad, some cause frustration and anger, while other objects we hardly notice; they are just there, almost invisible to us in their obviousness. From the moment we are born to the day we die we are surrounded by and in contact with objects. Some of them shape us physically, like my wedding ring making a dent in my finger, or the scar my daughter still has on her forehead after the forceps used during giving birth to her. Other objects shape us mentally, like the omnipresent mobile phone providing us with endless entertainment and making us really bad at doing nothing and letting the mind flow freely. Other objects, like tools, we use to shape, create and change.
The starting point of my PhD project is my interest in this intimate and intertwined relationship between human and designed objects. I am becoming increasingly aware of how the human need to shape and design the surroundings turns back on us and changes us, and as a consequence also becoming more critical towards design itself. What are the objects we surround ourselves with and what kind of relationships do we have with them? In what ways are we shaped by the objects we interact with and how is this affecting the world around us?
I come from a traditional design background where design is viewed upon as problem solving, and I used to design products and furniture. I became so tired of the image of the designer saving the world through design, of design being limited to the production of profitable objects, and I applied for this PhD with a project that is not about problem solving, not about designing products and furniture and not about creating profitable products. I look back at my first year as an artistic researcher and see that I have been in a deconstruction mode and in opposition to much of what I believe is the fundament of traditional design. I have explored and read, thought and discussed, created and written. I have felt both inspired and insecure, switching between feeling that I am breaking with my previous design practice, and at the same time feeling that it is all starting to fall into place. A lot of questions spin in my head: What is design? What is design for me? What role can design have in society? What is my project really about? What does it mean to explore something through design? Now that I have the concept of artistic research more under my skin, I realize that this, artistic research, is exactly what I am doing. Because I do not search for solutions and answers, I rather search for questions and want to open up a space for reflection – both for myself in the process of doing artistic research, and for the people that interact with and are exposed to the works emerging from this research. It is tempting to borrow Henk Bergdorff’s concept of unfinished thinking in relation to how I experience being immersed in Artistic research. « Artistic research is more directed at a not-knowing, or a not-yet-knowing. It creates room for that which is unexpected – the idea that all things could be different. (...) Art invites us and allows us to linger at the frontier of what there is, and it gives us an outlook on what might be. » This way of framing artistic research gives a great freedom to explore. A quick google search for a definition of research, without the prefix artistic, results in this:
1: careful or diligent search
2: studious inquiry or examination
especially: investigation or experimentation aimed at the discovery and interpretation of facts, revision of accepted theories or laws in the light of new facts, or practical application of such new or revised theories or laws
3: the collecting of information about a particular subject
(https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/research)
Describing research as investigation or experimentation aimed at the discovery and interpretation of facts, revision of accepted theories or laws resonates with me. It makes a lot of sense in connection to the theme for my project where I am taking a closer look at objects we so often take for granted, reflecting on the meaning and effect they have on us. Design is not neutral; so much is hidden and embedded in designed objects. I am becoming increasingly aware of how design is being used as a tool for manifesting and materializing politics, shape desired behaviour and delivering solutions. Design of efficiency, of functionality, of profitability, of obedience. This awareness leads me to a desire to reimagine and speculate, to explore the open ended and unfinished that embrace multiple perspectives.
I am currently focusing on objects that we use to shape our surroundings, like tools, because even though tools are by no means neutral, they still inhabit a possibility for us to create and shape things that do not yet exist. They represent an open-endedness that connects well with my desire of working with design as a tool for exploring alternatives.
As a way of exploring the intimate relation we have with designed objects, I looked at Maslow's hierarchy of needs – a theory in psychology proposed by Abraham Maslow in his paper "A Theory of Human Motivation" (1943). It is often visualized as a pyramid with the most fundamental needs at the bottom and the need for self-actualization at the top. The essence of his theory is that individuals’ most basic needs must be met before they become motivated to achieve higher level needs. I started imagining what kind of objects might represent the human needs on the different levels of the pyramid. A simple tool like the hammer belongs to the bottom of the pyramid, and is, like other kinds of tools, an extension of the body. A hammer makes us stronger and more powerful and has the potential to create and destroy. What do people do with a hammer? What kinds of hammers exists and what do they symbolize? In March 2020 I will be part of the SAR2020 conference presenting the project THE DIVINE HAMMER: REIMAGINING THE POWER OF DESIGN as part of my PhD. What follows is an outline of this project:
The hammer is the protagonist in my exhibition and performance lecture where I will show unfinished work and experiments. As an audience you will meet a hammer so enormous that you are forced to cooperate as a collective to be able to maneuver it. You will encounter hammers made of hammer-unlikely materials, and you might also be confronted by some disobedient hammers.
According to archaeological findings, the use of a simple hammer dates to around 3.3 million years ago and might be the oldest tool (Harmand, 2011). Both an important device for gods such as Thor and Hercules, and the symbol of man’s strength and endurance; The hammer is saturated with symbolism to the point of cliché, and yet a well-suited artefact for exploring the human need to shape, create, break and control. How has the hammer shaped the world around us, and how has it shaped us? The evidence of humanity’s impact on the planet is overwhelming as we are immersed in a planetary climate change crisis caused by human made systems and designs. Have we used the hammer too much? What if we stop dividing things into subjects and objects putting ourselves on top with the hammer in our hand, and realize that materials, objects, living creatures and non-living things all have agency and value?
To create the world we want to live in, we need positive, collective imagining. I believe designers and artists can be catalysts in the process, making alternative realities more imaginable through our ability to materialize things that do not yet exist. Yes, art and design are a hammer, but let ́s reimagine what kind of hammer this could be.
I just started working on this project. I learned how to make plaster moulds that I will use to cast hammers in different materials. I experience how the reflections happen in the process, in action, and how working with this creates links and connections to other parts of my PhD. View slideshow of the process so far.
