The Ineptitude of the Interpretation
This is part one of a series of articles written for Dutch Design Week 2023 as part of their Creative Voices initiative. The series is titled Design Realism: Irrelevant Facts. The articles respond to two themes set by DDW: the “narrative” of Speculative and Social Design and the “mission” of Creating our Living Environment.
This first installment presents design realism as a clumsy but sympathetic voice that should be (over) heard well. The excerpt below is from the closing lines of the article.
Read the full article on DesignDigger, the journalistic platform for Dutch Design: English verion, Dutch version.
Read the full article on DesignDigger, the journalistic platform for Dutch Design: English verion, Dutch version.
“When we write about the way that careful things are muddled up and mishandled by the cack-handed, I call it design realism.”
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“Our experiences with designs should not immediately and automatically be subordinated to the concepts of those designs. In the almost confessional register of design realism, our often-overlooked lived experiences are foregrounded. In short, from the vantage of realism, what we write about when we write about design is the grubby, surly, precariousness of everyday life-with-design. Design realism does not run vein-like through the centre of design though. Instead, it quietly endures on the frayed edge, if not the underbelly, of design. When thinking about what is necessary in design means thinking about possible futures and alternative presents of our living environments, as it does now, then design realism is a sympathetic voice that should be (over) heard well.”
