COMPOSITION AS EXPLANATION 2023
in collaboration with Insa Deist

Workshop

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.

Poster of students works in order of appearance: Maite Schönherr, Magali Greif, Elias Charné