Oivallus report 1: "New ideas originate in the boundaries of different fields. In the future, challenges will be solved in learning networks."

The goal of Oivallus is to make governmental decision-making in education policies meet the future needs of Finnish industries. What will working life be like in the 2020s? What kinds of knowledge and skills will the labor market and entrepreneurship require? The project seeks to explore and outline progressive operating and learning environments.

Oivallus report 1:

“If you are not in real time, you’re dead.” –Kevin Kelly

Waves of development, such as globalisation, climate change, the growing complexity and dynamics of systems, as well as changes in life values shape our operating environment – how we work, what companies do, what industries produce, and what sort of housing and urban conditions we live in.

The first Oivallus report asserts, for example, that in the future work will require more creativity and interdisciplinary thinking and doing, the motivation behind entrepreneurship will lie in a purposeful life instead of mere profit, the collaboration between different generations will become closer, and the public sector will increasingly develop services together with citizens and companies.

“You are what you share.” –Charles Leadbeater

In many areas, the future remains a mystery. However, one trend is clear: we will respond to the waves of development by networking with and learning from a range of experts and actors in different fields. These systems of interconnected people and organisations are known as learning networks.

“Anticipating the future is not about guessing, but about creating it.” –Oivallus

Oivallus report 1: Currently forest industry provides around one third of the net export revenues of Finland (The Finnish Forest Industries Federation, 2009). What will forest (www.upmforestlife.com) mean to Finland in the future?

Oivallus report 1: "What is Oivallus ('a sudden insight' in Finnish)?" – A project exploring the future of education in a networked economy.

Oivallus report 1: "A new target or method of use is as good an innovation as a completely new one." Experimental cooking mechanisms and mixes of ingredients make the cornerstone of the molecular kitchen at restaurant Luomo in Helsinki.

Oivallus report 2

While the first part of the Oivallus project looked at future operating and learning environments, the next one focuses on the competence needs of businesses.

“Future working life allows different ways for reaching the desired end results.” –Oivallus

The needed proficiencies will be different in the future because the ways of working are changing. Jobs are becoming less and less routine, and increasingly few of them can be done ‘by the book’. The future working life resembles film making: work is done on a project basis in collaboration with various contributors. There is also a tendency of tasks becoming more variable.

“All business will be ‘green’ business.” –Oivallus

In order to succeed, industries need to acquire environmental, technology, business and service competencies. It is also becoming increasingly important to focus on user experiences.

“The right conditions enable groups and their members to shine.” –Oivallus

Network skills and the ability to obtain, utilise and share knowledge lay the foundations of future work. At best, a learning network can use its extended knowledge-base to identify new opportunities and find solutions for contemporary challenges – the key is to work together with people of different backgrounds and capabilities. Learning from one another and building on existing ideas are skills that require practicing. These competences should be developed from early on and throughout education.

Oivallus report 2: "Skill synergies arise in groups. Future education will support working together."

Oivallus report 2: "What will we need to know or learn?"

The third and final stage of the Oivallus project will dig deeper into what kind of education will prepare people for work in the 2020s. The concluding report is to be published in May 2011.

Fiona Raby and Anthony Dunne at their London home office.

Working somewhere in between art and science, you aim to generate discussion about the relationship between technology and people. How would you define the role and purpose of design? And how do you define critical design?

AD: The question of art and design is problematic. A lot of people want to see us as artists, but we definitely see ourselves as designers trying to push the discipline forward, asking questions about design and through it. In fact, we launched the term critical design ten years ago in order to describe our work. Sometimes people think it simply means criticism; that we are negative about everything, anti-consumerist and against design. Some people relate it to critical theory; to Frankfurt school and anti-capitalist thinking. We are definitely aware of it, but then again not in that category either. Critical design is about critical thinking – about not taking things at face value. It’s about questioning things, and trying to understand what’s behind them. In essence, our objective is to use design as a means for applying skepticism to society at large.

a/b – "a sort of a manifesto that positions what we do in relation to how most people understand design" by Dunne and Raby. Typography by OK Do.

You have compared design to art, using film and literature as examples of genres that are critical yet create pleasure. What do you think design and art can learn from each other?

AD: I think that art shouldn’t need to exist. In an ideal, utopian world, everyday life would be so rich, meaningful and challenging that we wouldn’t need this separate category called art. I kind of feel that art exists because design has failed. Learning from artists, designers should become bolder, more imaginative and critical. I’m not sure if art needs to learn from design, though.

“I kind of feel that art exists because design has failed.”

Having talked about “the aesthetics of use” in your work, how would you compare this to the traditional notion of aesthetics? And how do you think the role of aesthetics changes from art to design?

AD: Rather than considering aesthetics only from a visual point of view, we are interested in the aesthetics – the poetry – of experience when interacting with products. A good example of this is the Truth Phone which can generate an adventure through a voice stress analyser revealing if the person you’re talking with is lying. I think that the best experiences bust out from their medium. This applies to art and literature, and it should apply to design, too.

In your books, you also mention placebo projects and the engineering of poetic products. Could you open up these concepts a little bit?

AD: The placebo effect is based on the idea that, instead of changing reality, the perception of reality is changed. This also relates to the idea of designing “poetic” products that modify our perception of and relationship with life. Our aim is to activate the imagination and to juxtapose poetic design and ways of thinking with the more traditional problem solving approach. We are interested in questions like why does art have to be separated from everyday life, or why can’t objects generate philosophical experiences on a daily basis?

We think that your work shows interest towards the invisible but also the unexplained. Do you agree? What do you feel is the importance of exploring the unreal in addition to the real?

AD: Yes. As a student I became interested in the aesthetic possibilities of electronic objects. In the early 90s, designers were still thinking of them as typical objects that just needed to have a nice shape and a convenient choice of materials. Through research, we discovered that electronic objects are special in that they transmit and are surrounded by electromagnetic fields which are invisible yet concrete. We thought: why not design products that draw attention to these fields in a poetic way – in a way that inspires people? In general, our work is considered unreal by many. But how do you define reality? Do real products need to be mass-produced and sold in a shop? The relationship between “real-real” and “unreal-real” is something that we are very interested in at the moment. Who decides what’s real and what’s not? And why are conceptual products less real than non-conceptual products? One can argue that even hallucinations are real in one person’s mind.

“In general, our work is considered unreal by many. But how do you define reality?”

Something that we are exploring in the OK Do Science Poems project, is the role of designers in scientific processes. You have said that designers shouldn’t have to wait until scientific ideas become technology as they could engage with science in a more speculative way. Can the field of science learn from the field of design? And vice versa?

AD: Developments within science, particularly life sciences, have potential to carry such dramatic impact on our lives that not only designers but all kinds of professionals need to explore their effects. As designers, we should try to influence how science becomes technology, making it more human for example. It would also be important to have debates with the public, and even the government, about different technological features before they are actualised. We see this as a shift away from designing applications – what designers are trained to do – to designing implications.

“As designers, we should try to influence how science becomes technology.”

How did you end up working with electronics?

AD: While doing a degree in industrial design in the early 80s, I became fascinated by the challenges and possibilities that electronics were creating. However, during my BA studies, I wasn’t allowed to do an electronics project, because the evaluators were only able to assess forms designed around mechanics. It was during those days that the form and the function were becoming disconnected. One of the reasons I went to RCA was that instead of designing surfaces, I could explore products from a more complex point of view, reflecting psychological, emotional, poetic and imaginative ideas.

Nowadays it seems like everybody is having a multidisciplinary approach to design projects. Do you often collaborate with experts from different fields when you work in areas such as the electromagnetic sphere?

AD & FR: We have dialogues but we don’t really collaborate. And when we implement a concept, we consider which skills we need to outsource – these can vary from programming and carpentering to film-making and psychological expertise. Our work is mostly self-initiated, and even when we work with companies, the projects are always designer-led. However, we are very open to exchange ideas with different people.

We couldn’t agree more on your statement that design should not just ask how sleek or usable some object is, but what it actually inclines us to do. Would you say that you aim to design behaviour?

AD: I think a lot of designers think that design is neutral but the fact is that all design is constructed and ideological and there is nothing natural or neutral about it. We purposefully create unnatural, awkward, exaggerated and not-that-friendly objects in order to point out that design is artificial and it always involves decisions. Therefore, I’d say that instead of designing objects that stimulate behaviour, we design objects that stimulate questions.

AD & FR: Our objects don’t make sense and fit into the system, but instead they create another parallel world of alternative reality that makes you question the existing system and its values. We design objects that nobody wants for now. However, it’s not that we are anti-industrial. Quite the opposite, we wish to ask why people seek philosophical pleasure from art and not from manufactured design products. Is it because the industry is too narrow, because people are too boring, or because the designers don’t want to create such products?

“All design is constructed and ideological and there is nothing natural or neutral about it.”

What are you working on at the moment?

AD: One of our ongoing projects looks at the future of food. The idea is that, as the planet becomes over-populated and food becomes an issue, rather than relying on governments and big industries to solve it, small groups of people – “foragers” – would get together. These teams would include hackers, guerilla gardeners, amateur horticulturalists and synthetic biologists, and they would develop devices to externalise their digestive system in order to be able to digest leaves, grass and other things that are undigestible at the moment. Alternatively, leaves and grass could be modified so that they would suit our systems.

We like your work because it stimulates discussion on the social, cultural and ethical implications of existing and emerging technologies. Have you examined how designers and the industry have reacted to it?

AD: We have received quite aggressive reactions from designers, especially of older generations. Many of them think that design without industry is art, unreal or fantasy, and they get upset about assigning new roles to design – probably out of feeling threatened. On the other hand, we feel that the industry is, in some way, quite positive about our approach to decouple design from the industrial agenda and link it to other contexts, like the poetical one. At RCA, we do many industry projects and have figured that companies are really interested in learning to think differently about what they do and about applying fresh thinking that translates into tangible objects.

The Statistical Clock (left) checks the BBC website for technologically mediated fatalities and speaks them out loud. S.O.C.D (Sexual Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) is for people who enjoy porn but feel a bit guilty watching it, or think that it's wrong. Photo by the courtesy of Francis Ware.

In Design Noir (2001), you wrote that “beneath the glossy surface of official design lurks a dark and strange world driven by real human needs”. Do you feel that contemporary products do not match people’s needs – and has this improved since you wrote Design Noir? Do you think that people are reacting to that themselves and how should they be involved in design processes?

AD: I think the internet has expanded the range of possibilities for pleasure and for fulfilling one’s personal desires and fantasies, no matter how strange you are. But this still doesn’t apply to products, which remain essentially functional. However, the background or the infrastructure of products has definitely transformed. Before, if you were obsessed about something unusual – like I was about strange radio cultures – it was hard to find any information about it.

AD & FR: Involving people in design processes relates to the do-it-yourself culture which we are not so interested in. Everyone can start making and modifying things themselves, but we believe it’s important to have experts who can do special and beautiful things that are beyond the abilities of non-professionals.

AD: I get annoyed when people think that the DIY culture has made professionals useless. However, there are a lot of independent – yet professional – designers out there who offer radical products they create on their own.

FR: They are like activists; bottom-up designers. We like the story of activism, that there is room for free inventors. A good example is designer Panamarenko, who creates alternative flying machines that are conceptual yet functional, in theory.

We think that the line between a DIY designer and an independent professional can sometimes be quite difficult to draw. How do you define a design professional?

Someone who is committed to the highest possible standards (technical, aesthetic, ethical) and the huge effort it takes to achieve them. Professional design is also about being aware of a bigger historical story than yourself and analysing how your practice contributes to it and extends it. It’s about getting paid for what you do, rather than doing it as a hobby.

What is the motivation or reason for the corporate futurologists to “keep us in place” instead of exploring new territories and approaches that, according to your ideas, might make people more engaged through “complicated pleasure”?

AD & FR: The reason is that their job is to enforce the capitalist system and make sure that the sales remain high. Creating something unusual would be risky and expensive. In some areas, like furniture, this kind of experimentation might take place – Vitra’s Slow Chair designed by Bouroullec brothers is a good example – but not in electronics. Apple is active in some sense, but quite stuck to its aesthetics as well. Too many companies are driven by geeky men. If women had more power in the field, electronic objects would be more compelling.

“Too many companies are driven by geeky men. If women did more in the field, electronic objects would be more compelling.”

Why do you think electronic objects and systems are such an effective vehicle for expressing our desires and needs, and making existentialist choices?

AD: Our everyday life is mediated by social interaction much entangled with technology – for better or worse. The electronic objects and systems have integrated themselves so intimately into our lives that they have become a very powerful media. We do interact with chairs and tables as well, but the social impact of electronics is stronger: they work their way into our systems, conversations and relationships. They have become very entangled with our deepest selves.

FR: At the same time, electronics are overtaking human qualities and the potential of technology is often exploited for efficiency and profit.

AD: For example, it’s quite rude that you can be sent email at any time of the day.

Technology is often seen as either the opposite of human or as an extension of human. Many people feel embarrassed about using a certain technology, like online dating services, or about using technology too much. What do you think is the relationship between technology and identity?

AD & FR: We don’t think that the young generations view technology as something external anymore. For them, technology is an invisible media for living. And this internalisation actually becomes a platform for new type of activity that might, for example, be uninformed about life before the internet. Today’s generations make new assumptions such as that everybody has the right to photograph or videotape anybody else – and if you don’t approve that, you are a freak.

Coffee and meringues with John Thackara at Café Esplanad, Helsinki.

At OK Do, we have thought a lot about the role of design. What is your definition of design and its purpose?

I resist making definitions. Herbert Simon said: “Design is the first signal of human intention”. So, for me, it’s less important to define design than to figure out how we want the world to be – and how to achieve that.

You have said that design should look for questions rather than answers. Could you tell us more about your thoughts on this?

Designers have been trained to believe that their job is to produce artefacts – which can be a piece of print, a website or a product. The trouble is that these often have negative consequences for the biosphere. If you live in a culture that celebrates personal authorship and novelty, then you’re more or less committed to making new things. But that age is over.

How do you feel that the current ideas of a designer and design need to change in order to make the future good and sustainable?

Rather than thinking about the designer’s new role, it’s more important to engage in conversations with people who are actively looking for ways to organise daily life in more efficient and joyful ways. Working with those people will make your contribution as a designer meaningful. Introspection is boring. The pressure is for less, not more, stuff – of all kinds. We all need to avoid production rather than expand it.

It’s interesting to think what role education has in shaping designers’ goals. What kinds of emphases do you think are needed in design (and other) teaching?

I recently gave a talk in Helsinki to a group of people who are setting up Aalto University. I proposed that the university should stand for something more than “innovation” and “creativity” in abstract. I suggested that it should stand for an unconditional respect for life, and for the conditions that support life. It follows that design schools should be more open for interaction with the rest of the world. There’s a huge amount of design work to be done to achieve the intensive use of urban land, the redevelopment of brownfield sites and the use of wasted space – both public and private.

“A university should stand for an unconditional respect for life, and for the conditions that support life.”

As you have said, the transition to sustainability is no longer about messages, it’s about activity. Do you think we should communicate less?

The world is increasingly saturated with communication – so much so, that it becomes ever harder to make sense of what’s happening, or to make priorities. More importantly, communication impacts the biosphere. It’s not a choice between paper or digital because the life cycles of both print and digital media have positive and negative impacts. Both need to become more sustainable: http://www.sustainablecommunication.org/.

On your website, it reads that design schools should collaborate with grassroots and regional organisations, helping them to grow and develop. What is your message to the students who would rather travel to the other side of the world?

Doing things in the community you know best is more productive than traveling to the other side of the globe to “help poor people”. Locally you can get more deeply into the subject, and make a positive contribution to the community.

“Doing things in the community you know best is most productive.”

We feel like it’s an inherent quality in people (like us) to start their own thing. Then again, you encourage people not to start a new organisation but find a well-organised project with good local roots, and join that one. How would you encourage designers to hook up with others?

Setting up and running an organisation, even a small one, takes a huge amount of energy. My tip for you: find an issue that interests you and collaborate with people who are a source of positive energy. If the work begins to accumulate, then think about starting a more formal structure like a business. But do the projects first.

Our activities include organising seminars around topical design issues. What makes people attend your event, the Doors – how do you bring them together?

The most important thing is to pose a question that excites people, that seems meaningful. That question becomes a shared focus for a wide variety of people to join the conversation. We have stopped organizing Doors as a huge group of people sitting passively in a room listening to others talk. Our focus in recent years has been projects and events that become the occasion for a two-way exchange of ideas and experiences. This was the concept of City Eco Lab that we did in France last year, for example: it was all about real-life grassroots projects that included permaculture, mushrooms, spin-farming, open money, peak protein, alternative trade networks, dry toilets, sustainable urban drainage, alternate reality games, watershed planning, seed banks, de-motorisation and VeloWalas! In the event grassroot organisations collaborated with designers to improve their existing projects.

We’ve also heard you state that collaborative innovation is the way of the future – but it needs to be organised. Can you name examples of projects that have managed to do just this?

The Middlesbrough food growing project in Dott 07 is a good example of what I mean here. The idea was born out of my interest in food and cities. But it took David Barrie, our producer, to locate and talk to the town officials and a whole variety of citzens and persuade them to join the experiment.  The project was all about organizing people to grow food – a cultural intervention with a lot of help from a good city government, which enabled us to do bigger things.

Organising projects that involve people with different backgrounds can be challenging at times. How do you go on with communal design projects – what’s the design process like i.e. who initiates and how and what kind of methods can be used?

I don’t use a fixed method: I talk to people and ask what challenges they face in their project, and whether they would like some help from designers.  In my experience you can too easily fall in love with methods and stop talking to people!

“You can too easily fall in love with design methods and stop talking to people.”

Would you say that collaborative innovation builds on openness and what’s your view on the open sharing of design ideas in general? How and where should they be shared (online, “on site”, through the grapevine etc.)?

I never copyright anything myself. In my work as a newspaper journalist I quickly learned that yesterday’s story is old news and has little value, so journalists don’t worry about protecting their finished work. We go and look for the next good story. I think the same approach would liberate many designers. If you want to gain respect, put ideas out in the world. Some designers make money with authorship but it’s very dispiriting if that’s regarded as a norm. Openness is more fun.

Finally, we’d like to hear your views on the most important qualities a designer should possess?

Learn to ask good questions. Learn to listen well. Learn to look for real people who have ambition and positive energy. Learn how to coordinate mixed groups of people in co-design activities – or find someone else with that talent and make him or her your partner.  In summary, get out of the tent and get real!

See John’s further thoughts and recent work at www.doorsofperception.com.