Design Workshop: "Broken But Not Defeated: Repair as Design Methodology and Social Practice"
Channel: Ezgi Atay
Date: 2013-01-17

DESIGN WORKSHOP AND EXHIBITION ON THE OCCASION OF ISTANBUL DESIGN BIENNALE

ORGANIZED BY KUAD GALLERY

WORKSHOP AND EXHIBITION CONDUCTED AND CO-CURATED BY:
LYDIA MATTHEWS, Director of the Curatorial Design Research Lab and Professor of Visual Culture at Parsons The New School for Design, NYC.

NATALIA RADYWYL, Fellow at Project for Public Spaces, NYC, Research Associate at the Victorian Eco-Innovation Lab, University of Melbourne, and Adjunct Research Fellow at Swinburne University of Technology, Australia

DATES: 10, 11, 17, 18 November 2012

"Broken But Not Defeated: Repair as Design Methodology and Social Practice"

On the occasion of Design Biennale in İstanbul Kuad Gallery has organized a unique opportunity and invites designers, design teachers, post-graduate design students as well as students to participate in a Seminar of Contemporary Design led by Lydia Matthews, Director of the Curatorial Design Research Lab and Professor of Visual Culture at Parsons The New School for Design, NYC and Natalia Radywyl, Fellow at Project for Public Spaces, NYC and Research Associate at the Victorian Eco-Innovation Lab, University of Melbourne and Adjunct Research Fellow at Swinburn University of Technology, Australia
The field of design is progressing intensely in ways that require new skills, concepts, competencies, formation tools and higher levels of professionalism. Kuad Gallery is convinced that today's design concepts and forms are closely related to contemporary art concepts and forms, and therefore embodies interdisciplinary interaction in its program.


PROGRAMME:
Day One (Saturday, Nov. 10, 11am-5pm): CULTURAL CONTEXT/ GROUP BRAINSTORMING EXERCISES. An introductory lecture conceptually "framing" contemporary repair practices, considering how this topic is currently theorized/practiced by designers, multi-disciplinary critical writers/philosophers, diverse craftspeople around the world, as well as contemporary art/design curators. Hands-on exercises will be done in groups to expand conventional thinking; design teams will be formed to collaboratively envision new possibilities for objects using participants' diverse sets of skills. We will focus on mapping the specific life cycles of objects and the potential renewal of those materials/ systems through upcycling. 

Day Two (Sunday, Nov. 11, noon-5pm): FROM OBJECTS TO SYSTEM PROPOSALS. Small design teams will generate repair proposals through a process of collaborative negotiation: some whimsical, others practical, but all addressing how upcycled objects can remedy specific local problems. Individual and group critique will be offered to help refine and expand thinking.

Day Three: (Saturday, Nov. 17, noon-5pm) PROTOTYPE FABRICATION. This day will be devoted to thinking through hands-on making: we will begin to actually fabricate repaired objects/systems. Critique and discussion about how to further enhance the potentials of these prototypes.

Day Four: (Sunday, Nov. 18, noon-5pm) OBJECT TO SYSTEM: SCALING UP. The final day of this workshop will address how to take a prototype and "scale it up": i.e., to find a way to have it make a broader impact on its communities. How will these prototypes be made more accessible to a wider public? The day will conclude with a discussion on how to produce an appropriate an online exhibition platform could help realize these prototypes on a larger scale.