Here the outcome of the workshop .ORG – Architecture for art and design education. The proposals we elaborated on the day are reconsidering the Royal College of Art in economic and spatial terms, taking into consideration upcoming cuts in its budget.
To find out about our suggestions, ranging from RCA: Royal Condominium of Art to RCA: Royal Consultancy Agency, download the booklet:
- online version
- booklet for print (print on A4 double sided)
As it previously occurred, Department 21 has abandoned its physical face once again. It is dormant again, waiting for new possibilities to emerge. It is still unclear what form D21 will take from next term on, although the RCA has reserved a space for it on the third floor of the Stevens Building.
Here we finally publish the proposal we wrote in collaboration with CA&D tutors David Blamey and Debbie Cook and Learning & Teaching Coordinator Chris Mitchell:
Pilot Project: Interdepartmental Space 2010/11
This proposal is for the establishment of a pilot interdepartmental space for interdisciplinary learning and teaching in the Stevens Building. The establishment of such a space would build on the experiences and evidence gathered during the 6 week Department 21 experiment and respond to increasing College-wide student demands to develop new models for learning and teaching. For example, in a recent survey of students 87% thought that it was either important or very important that a space like Department 21 exists within the RCA.
This represents an opportunity to develop and test new models of cross-disciplinary education, while making efficient use of a space that has been set aside for accommodating increased student numbers.
Errata corrige: The title of David Blamey and Debbie Cook’s contribution to the book should be Departed 21.
It was a fantastic ten days marathon! Thank you to everyone who made it happen!
Chai Singalavanij and Prapat Jiwarangsan celebrate the end of the show by preparing delicious Thai food.
Ruth Potts from the new economics foundation, theorist and designer Adriana Eysler, the Carrotworkers’ Collective, and colour artist Seainin Passi reevaluate the value of labour and discuss cultures of resistance.
These are the key points that emerged during the discussion (transcribed by Shirley Surya):
1. Cultures of resistance in the form of re-imagining our relationship with the material world such that we reject mass consumption for a more ecological relationship by re-organising our lives and how we exchange goods. This requires a redefinition of well-being, to see that the disconnection from the world around us is undermining our sense of well-being. The basic objectives of society is to create conditions in which people can flourish, grow, and live long happy lives.
2. The arts and cultural industries play an important role in re-imagining such new relationships, in enabling society to make a leap in imagination, to show the possibility of another world in which we can be more engaged and invigorated in our interaction with people, materials and the environment.
3. The question of innovation always comes up – but to what end? Within these environmental limits, how do we create a new kind of creativity? Innovation can be small and diverse, drawing inspiration from the past, such as collective memory from the past.
4. Are universities still the centres of critiques where rethinking takes place? If this isn’t the space, where is it? Thus the need to create new spaces for discourse and action – in networks of people and tapping on systems such as the museum or gallery systems where people want things to be done differently by allowing small innovations, perceptions can change. It’s about connecting people, creating a dialogue that becomes very powerful as it creates a focal point. Different think-and-do tanks should be connected and open up space to increase the amount of inspirations and connections.
5. When we try to change things, should we think about changing ourselves? What’s the basis of our own practice?
These are some of the references we shared on the day:
The Work Foundation
Offers research, consultancy and advocacy to make workplaces more effective, successful and fulfilling.
The Young Foundation
A centre for social innovation based in London.
The Soul at Work – From Alienation to Autonomy
by Franco Berardi
Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire
by Michael Hardt & Antonio Negri
Commonwealth
by Michael Hardt & Antonio Negri
justfortheloveofit.org The freeconomy community
Promotes skillsharing
21 hours – Why a shorter working week can help us all to flourish in the 21st century
by new economics foundation
A Bit Rich – Calculating the real value to society of different professions
by new economics foundation
Here a few of the things on sustainability and design that we discussed with Sophie Thomas of thomas.matthews:
- implementing sustainability into your designs means that you need to understand the whole process your ‘product’ goes through
- once you understood the whole process, this knowledge can feed into changing the design brief you have been given
- 80% of the impact of a product is influenced by its design
- find out what are your own principles, understand them and act according to them
- design your research into your projects
And here a few references that we shared:
Cradle To Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things
by By William McDonough & Michael Braungart
Chemistry Innovation Knowledge Transfer Network (CIKTN)
Three Trees Don’t Make A Forest – with a large knowledge bank on sustainability for the design community
PhD student and mother Jessica Jenkins hosts SMALL TALK, a session dedicated to thinking creatively about how children, design and research can meet successfully. With guests Donna Brennan, Ekua McMorris and Heather Peak.
Download the leaflet advocating for an RCA children’s centre: small_talk_poster
Guerilla crits. Interdiciplinary encounters: student-led conversations with practioners about their work. Led by Dialogues in Design, a team of research students from the History of Design Department.
During a Q&A session, Barbara Stevini reveals the inner mechanics, debates and decisions that drove the Artist Placement Group, which she co-founded in 1966.
Simon Elvins, Julie Hill & Tom Mower from St. Pierre & Miquelon discuss their practice and how collaboration keeps them on track.
Here a few notes on what Simon, Julie and Tom shared with us:
Read one of the texts, which Barbara Steveni shared with us:
Read more ›
MA History of Design graduates present their dissertations for discussion. Their research ranges from the decorative arts of India and Japan to digital design in the contemporary museum. This new generation of design historians are expanding the subject beyond its conventional themes and geographies, pointing to new ideas and changing themes in culture.
PhD researcher Stephen Knott (Goldsmithing, Silversmithing, Metalwork & Jewellery + History of Design) leads a painting-by-numbers workshop introducing participants to the various manifestations of amateur practice today. The workshop includes a 1 hour speed-painting-by-numbers session and a participatory painting-by-numbers kit filled in by willing visitors.
Glenn Adamson, in conversation with Stephen Knott, presents a talk on De-skilling in amateur art, craft and design practice.
Six independent, bottom-up educational initiatives share their experiences of experimenting with different systems of teaching, radically reassessing accepted modes of knowledge distribution: Critical Practice, FLAG, Interdisciplinary Critical Forum, Parallel School, Thinking & Practice Group and Department 21.
Here some of the things that were discussed on the day:
Getting started
Communication
Artists, designers discuss the significance of food in their respective practices and in a broader theoretical context, speculating on the future role and ideological implications of design in the production of food: Marie Paysant-Le Roux, Rebecca Lane, Therese Mørch-Jørgensen, Brigit Connolly, Anaïs Tondeur, Danielle Inga, and Cathrine Kramer.
All day long: post-modern British-Asian food by Jan Lun Lee & Bart Marett.
9 enlarged xerographies of 9 pages from the D21 book, and the book itself were included in RARA’s exhibition in the context of the London Festival of Architecture. Thank you Sam.
A workshop with Roberto Bottazzi ad Finn Williams on the relationship between the spatial organisation of the RCA and the upcoming consistent cuts in its budget.
To find out about our suggestions, ranging from RCA: Royal Condominium of Art to RCA: Royal Consultancy Agency, download the booklet:
- online version
- booklet for print (on A4 double sided)
Click the image for more information, or purchase direclty for £7 incl. postage:
