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LightnessOfDesign

‘Subtle! Subtle!
To the point of formlessness.
Spiritlike! Spiritlike!’
(The Art of War)

Increasingly I’m drawn to artefacts with low design footprints, adjustments and interventions that tread ever so lightly— twists, swerves and diversions. The tiny alterations that ‘détourné’ environments and systems, make them work in your favour. It becomes really competitive— how paired-down can one get? What is the most elegant intervention, the one that writes the designer virtually out of the equation? It explains my obsession with bricolage (bricoleur, to swerve) and cybernetics (steersperson); two design sensibilities that bizarrely resemble Roland Barthes old clarion call: ‘Death of the Author’.

Check out Joshua Klein’s vending machine for crows— it's brilliant on so many levels. A bio-cultural UI with a low design footprint. Two diverse flows and systems are hooked up and diverted for alternative purposes.

design | hacking | bricolage | interface