Workshop

Design is the fluid embodiment of an imminent future and thus not only the reflection of crumbling realities but their insidious precursor. 

As a product of various confrontations, designers develop narratives and positions by means of collective and/or individual language. This gives rise to creative, sometimes sprawling self-designations, words, categories, subcategories, and idiomatic expressions of an expanded concept of design.

Sharp, simple, slick, sensual…

Lyrical Design, Reflective Design, Emotional Design, Disobedient Design, Ontological Design 

Which worlds do (these) language(s) represent, and how accessible are they outside (but also inside) a class meeting, an art academy, a cultural scene or a design context? When does this aim at understanding, when is it an end in itself, even demarcation? Where do we draw the line between expertise and gatekeeping in design and in how we talk about it? What is the relationship between linguistic engagement and visual design?

By assembling and embodying various texts, borrowing positions within a LARG (Live Action Reading Group), we aim to develop a potential response through (com)position. A LARG is a format we have designed that positions itself in a hybrid space between a LARP (Live Action Role Play) and a reading group. We gather different texts from design theory, poetry, critical studies, and language theory, and provide the opportunity to embody these positions within a LARG. The enacted content will be translated into a documentary form derived from the LARG.

Composition as Explanation
Design and (designing) language



















Structure Workshop:

1. Reading 
2. LARG
3. Re-Reading 

Reading (Library)

• Introduction/shared reading of a text

• Distribution of texts

• Reading task

→ Examining the text using various tools:

e.g., perspective, font, sentence structure, writing style, foreign words, footnotes, most frequently used words…

Text examples:

• Typography, Automation and the Division of Labour, Dakota Brown
• Design by Accident: For a New History of Design, Alexandra Midal

• Slippery Design, Manuel Buerger
• On Design Thinking, Maggie Gram

• Lift and Seperate: Graphic Design and the Quote Vernacular Unqoute, Barbara Glauber

• Poster: Advertisment, Art, Political Artifact, Commodity, Susan Sontag

• Die Schrift, Vilém Flusser
• Designs for the Pluriverse, Arturo Escobar

• Vom Stand der Dinge, Vilém Flusser

• DESIGN STRUGGLES Intersecting Histories, Pedagogies, and Perspectives, Claudia Mareis & Nina Paim (eds.) 

• Notes on Design Populism, Silvio Lorusso

• “Who Can Afford to Be Critical? What Can Criticality Afford?”, Alfonso de Matos

• Style is not a four letter word, Mr. Keedy

• Designer as Author, Michael Rock

• Chimeric Worlding, Tiger Dingsun

• A Present For Those Who Are Present, Rory King

• Vom Künstlermythos zur Normalisierung kreativer Prozesse: Der Beitrag des Kunstfeldes zur Genese des Kreativsubjekts, Andreas Reckwitz

 



LARG

• Preparation of a LARG (Live Action Reading Group)

• Task:

→ Write a LARG character based on the read text, "borrow" the position of the text, and try to embody it and argue from its perspective.

• LARG as a "discussion" about the relationship between language and design, allowing texts to engage in conversation.

• The LARG takes place on different levels/spaces/situations, where the chat group serves as a platform as much as the work table.

Re-Reading (Reader)
 

• Transcribing and editing the discussion into a script

→ LARG as a design tool:

What language became evident?

How can this language be visualized?

How critically do I view the language I use?

How accessible is my design language (both visually and verbally)?

What kind of visual language do I desire?

What kind of verbal language do I desire?

Do I understand all the terms I use?

Do others understand the terms I use?

How does the character formed from the text manifest visually?

• Emotional Typesetting: Visualizing the script (medium open)