Collective Connections

supervisors
Amy Franceschini
Nitzan Cohen

teaser text
Collective Connections proposes a path toward our shared benefit in a post- industrial society. Enacted through agency instilling objects which incite hierarchical change to create a society where designers work in wildly alternative formats.

the aim
After identifying the dissonance within conventional industrial design, it is important to highlight forms of common design practice which could then be proposed out of workshop generated insights. This new design methodology would ideally bring people toward each other and the things existing in their surrounding. Finally, this new way forward would be manifested through people working with things, with others, and with their hands.

the context
To achieve a form of design which would foster shared benefit, people should be given tools to create change for themselves. The partner organization REX, is a great example of where people, political interconnection, design, and objects intersect in an accessible format.

The chair has been used as a research artefact throughout the project and is:

→ a familiar and accessible object (understandable for many)
→ symbolic of designer hierarchy (manufacturing-related impact + status)
→ a place in a system of power (“a seat at the table”)

the approach
Assuming the role of “designer as frame-maker”, the designer was able to facilitate connection between people and the things around them on the streets of Bolzano, using half-way chair frames. These low entry point artefacts incited action from participants. From the generated outcomes, the chairs were used as symbolic seats and commentary on positions within intergovernmental systems—resulting in the alternative New G8 Summit.