Dutch Design Week 2018
If not us, then who ?
I returned to Eindhoven this year for my second experience of DDW and in this post I recount my highlights from this years edition of the festival. Since I had been there before, I was expecting to be pleasantly surprised by the range and quality of design I discovered. Since it’s conception twelve years ago as a non commercial fair where design, industry and business all meet, the festival has progressed to be one of the highlights on the european design calendar. The festival exhibits works from vast different areas of design and seeks to provoke our thinking in challenging our conception of the modern world.
This year I started my adventure at the opening night of the graduate exhibition. This is arguably one of the main features of the week as it creates a space for design students to open engagement with industry professionals and businesses about the ideas they have in imposing their work on an greater scale. There was so much amazing work at DDW that I just couldn’t cover everything I seen so instead I’ve chosen my personal highlights and discussed them in more detail.
Design Academy Graduation Exhibition
The graduate show was situated in the eastern area of Eindhoven in the Campina. The festival makes use of several large scale industrial buildings which are creatively brought to life throughout the length of the festival. Eindhoven is the home to many large industrial buildings which makes a festival of this size even more creative with exhibitors utilising this space to make it really come to life. Many of these buildings were previously owned by Phillips the tech giant still homed in Eindhoven and founded in 1891 by Gerard Philips.
This work is an installation raising awareness and inviting discussion about the gruelling office hours that are the norm in Japan. The phenomenon of “karoshi”: death from overwork. The piece explored the life of Matsuri Takahashi, a young woman who worked at the top of a japanese advertising agency. After tweeting “When you’re at the office 20 hours a day you don’t even know what you’re living for anymore”, she killed herself a week later. Sadly this is one of many stories. After proposing a design intervention to empower employees to see letters and words on blinds that Matsuri had wrote online could help address the issue of karoshi. The narrative installation tells a story around the design proposal, starting with tracing Matsuri’s twitter posts and it continues to the collection of correspondence with Japanese working people.
Camilo shows how our saturation of daily life with digital technology has changed the way we see ourselves generating existential crises, anxiety, and disconnection. In an era of excess information he conceives an AI platform in which we can document and talk to ourselves about our own thoughts. “AN I” is a device that allows you to have conversations with yourself that you wouldn’t like to have with someone else. The digital version of “yourself” knows you, understands and learns from you. Taking care of yourself should not only constitute a principle but also a constant practice. After all we have to learn to look after number one and realise we aren’t all perfect when trying to understand ourselves more. I particularly enjoyed this concept. Sometimes it is hard to stop, take check of ourselves and accept our flaws. We must realise that we should speak to ourselves in the same way we would speak to others and most of the time one can admit we are not this way inclined.
Fraser conceives a “memorial” stick that contains data you have selected to share with loved ones when you die. Fraser drew from different personal experiences for inspiration for the project after not being able to access a loved ones priceless photographs who had passed. The average internet user has around 90 online accounts. What happens with these after death ? Some information you want to keep alive and some things you would rather see deleted. “Data Mortis” is an online service that takes care of such personal online data in an appropriate manner. Apart from the function that ends all accounts with one click, the system offers a cloud for all documents you would want to safe guard. After your passing the files would be transferred to the memory stick and those who have it in the mail can plug it in and remember you. Through a talk and Q&A Fraser spoke at length about social medias use of remembrance and how this can be hard for some people. It’s hard to delete a loved one’s online presence and with our lives being continued to be lived and documented online the work suggests how we might alternatively remember those who have passed on.
Thank you for the sun!
On a particularly sunny day in Eindhoven I was cycling into city centre when I encountered a mini inner city beach which immediately caught my attention. In a post fossil fuel world the installation invited visitors to think about energy and how they used it. This is a spot where people came together to shop, relax and encouraged them to consider what will happen when everything related to energy consumption is redesigned.
The warm and lighted spot had sand, deckchairs, towels and parasols turned the centre into a nice attraction to gather thoughts and process how we might rethink petrol stations when they become obsolete in the not so distant future. I took this opportunity to rest some tired legs and pretend I was on a sunny beach for a bit, why not eh ?
Innovation Powerhouse
The Strijp area in Eindhoven is homed to a few of the biggest old philips factories which constituted the biggest body of work during the festival. This was where the industrial section showed innovations that were coming to life and in progress. At this talk Renault showed how they are rethinking how goods and services are delivered in cities with its Ez-Pro concept. This concept explores how drivers drive vehicles that are then consisted of mini pods.
Each service is headed up by a human operated “leader pod” and a convoy of driverless robo-pods which can either follow each other as a platoon or move independently. Both vehicles can also operate as pop up shops, food vendors giving light to all sorts of retail opportunities. Renault hopes to contribute to there being fewer vehicles on the road,a problem that we must address in society today. The vehicles could be connected to a city infrastructure like traffic lights to ensure a smoother traffic flow and more efficient deliveries. With our retail activity forever evolving and migrating online this offers a unique insight into the future.
“As e-commerce continues to explode, consumers want immediate delivery, retailers need to manage delivery costs, and cities continue to look for new ways of managing intensified traffic and congestion.”
Feed your ego
As a user experience designer I’m continually questioning how we interact with technology and if there is a better way we can improve systems and experiences. This professional curiosity extends in to my personal life and keeps me intrigued about the way in which we participate in social media and how we align to brands.
This interactive exhibition offered users the opportunity to take a picture, post it on Instagram and watch as the positive reactions start to flood in. However upon pressing the button for the second time you brace yourself for a stream of negative comments. Füssman’s installation builds awareness of technology’s influence in our daily lives. Despite this being a staged experience, the confrontation with the stream of negative reactions and its emotional effects were all too real. The link between social media and mental health is all too real with instagram reported to be one of the worst for your mental health. It is important we are conscious of our use of it as this work highlights.
Another year…
As I stated at the beginning of this post I think it would be impossible to put in everything I seen and taken in. After visiting for a second time I reckon I’ll be going again next year. The festival oozes with creative satisfaction and motivation. After being caught up in the hum drum of a busy working life and feeling rather worn out, this provided me with an oh so meaningful holiday for my mind.
As the sun set on my last night in Eindhoven I took some time to take check of myself and everything I had taken in. The most recent UN Climate change report warns we have 12 years to limit a climate change catastrophe. It appears that designers are coming up with some answers in to how we go about evolving our lives to start to incite change. The world as we know it will continue to drastically change and it is up to us to challenge our governments, social norms and address change in the right way.
If not us, then who ?
I really enjoyed Dutch design week and I hope you have enjoyed reading about my experience !
If you enjoyed reading this, please feel free to give me a clap and share the story with others!
