Otto von Busch

Quasi-Quisling: co-design and the assembly of collaborateurs

In recent years, various critiques of participative approaches to design processes have been presented. Participatory urban planning has been subject to a specific form of criticism, which posits that such processes are ‘post-political’, inasmuch as they merely legitimise the power and political agendas of elites. In reviewing a case of participatory urban planning in Gothenburg, Sweden, this article suggests that actor-network theory can be operationalised as an alternative means to account for democratic deficiencies of co-design practices. It thus uses the concept of translation to describe how the original interests of participants may be betrayed, as successive translations cause objectives to drift. It also suggests that the key agency in these unfortunate betrayals is not human, but emerges through the material modes of collaboration. The article thus endeavours to contribute to the debate on how co-design processes may become more effective means to democratise urban planning and design.

Generation Open: Contested Creativity and Capabilities

ABSTRACTOpen design has emerged as a topic generated by a new logic of thinking: the internet with its rhizomatic creative networks and open software. Over the last decades the network has become a new conceptual technology by which to think and describe the world in a new way, and collaborative networks have also become the main actors in the new economy, generating questions of what ‘open’ actually means. As a new generation of knowledge and design workers set out to engage with networked and post-Fordist labour they also generate new forms of conflict. The power over standards and protocols guides the use of the creative platforms, both enabling collaborative and co-creative design as well as shaping it according to the aims of those setting the standard. Similarly, on an organizational and political scale it seems open design may ‘bite back’ in an increasingly conflicting form of ‘immaterial labour’, fragmenting any organized resistance and making every creative act freely exploitable under the irresi...ABSTRACT Open design has emerged as a topic generated by a new logic of thinking: the internet with its rhizomatic creative networks and open software. Over the last decades the network has become a new conceptual technology by which to think and describe the world in a new way, and collaborative networks have also become the main actors in the new economy, generating questions of what ‘open’ actually means. As a new generation of knowledge and design workers set out to engage with networked and post-Fordist labour they also generate new forms of conflict. The power over standards and protocols guides the use of the creative platforms, both enabling collaborative and co-creative design as well as shaping it according to the aims of those setting the standard. Similarly, on an organizational and political scale it seems open design may ‘bite back’ in an increasingly conflicting form of ‘immaterial labour’, fragmenting any organized resistance and making every creative act freely exploitable under the irresistible slogan of ‘open’. Today, we may be seeing a new class of precarious and ‘free’ creative work being produced by a ‘cognitarian’ or ‘hacker’ class, revealing the creative industries as the low-wage sweatshops they are. Open design may make us feel free, yet that does not mean we are not controlled. It may be obvious, but open does not only mean free or shared, but also exposed, unsettled and contested.

Molecular management: Protocols in the maker culture

ABSTRACT Early industrialism was influenced by the organization of cottage industries, and in a similar vein, many of todays creative industries emerge largely from networked small-scale initiatives or cultural scenes. Collaborations and interactions are the backbone of the contemporary Do-It-Yourself (DIY) or ‘maker culture’, a distributed milieu of open software programmers and hardware hackers, but also crafters, backyard tinkerers, hobbyists and homesteaders. The scene is held together by micro-management tactics, or ‘molecular’ management, using protocols to guide collaborative innovation and shared craft practices, forming an emergent and innovative creative cottage industry. The maker culture is thus less of a DIY and more a do-it-together culture, merging collaborative play and interactions, often for the sake of shared curiosity. The mindset of the participants is that of the explorative craftsman; using a practical attitude of sharing ideas, methods and skills among practitioners, and the interactions are managed in a flat and meshworked manner through the use of protocols. The text specifically examines the protocols of the maker movement, finding an immediate connection between hardware protocols, like the ‘makers bill of rights’ guiding the principles of open source hardware, and the principles reflected in the social protocols of two hacker spaces. The maker culture is not only a loose network of dispersed tinkerers, it is also a close-knit molecular assemblage of materials, tools, skills and makers.

Engaged Design and the Practice of Fashion Hacking: The Examples of Giana Gonzalez and Dale Sko

AbstractThis article draws attention to how hacking, as a mode of practice, can be applied to fashion design processes. Hacking, originating from the world of software programming, features characteristics that could be of essential value when departing on participatory, engaged or sustainable fashion endeavors beyond the modes of production we see common in the industry today. Being networked and collaborative, hacking is a constructive practice rather than subversive and can be a complementary modus operandi to the workings of the traditionally hierarchical fashion system. The first part of the article examines the origins and methods of hacking and their application outside of the computer world. The second part applies these ideas to fashion design and examines two cases: Giana Gonzalez project “Hacking-Couture” and a workshop organized by the author at a shoe factory in Dale, Norway. The article finishes with a short discussion on how fashion hacking can act as a tool for empowerment and cultivation ...Abstract This article draws attention to how hacking, as a mode of practice, can be applied to fashion design processes. Hacking, originating from the world of software programming, features characteristics that could be of essential value when departing on participatory, engaged or sustainable fashion endeavors beyond the modes of production we see common in the industry today. Being networked and collaborative, hacking is a constructive practice rather than subversive and can be a complementary modus operandi to the workings of the traditionally hierarchical fashion system. The first part of the article examines the origins and methods of hacking and their application outside of the computer world. The second part applies these ideas to fashion design and examines two cases: Giana Gonzalez project “Hacking-Couture” and a workshop organized by the author at a shoe factory in Dale, Norway. The article finishes with a short discussion on how fashion hacking can act as a tool for empowerment and cultivation of craftsmanship among people who were once only “passive” consumers.

Collaborative Craft Capabilities: The Bodyhood of Shared Skills

AbstractWith the rise of the Internet, skills, patterns, and ideas are being shared more widely among people engaged in the crafts, which seems to break with some of the underlying assumptions about the lone genius craftsman. Much discourse about craft has been focused on the hands of the artisan, or the “tacit” knowledge used by the maker, but as crafters collaborate in a larger extent some other perspectives could be of use, especially since the surrounding environment seems to take a more active involvement in the production than the mere maker. Increasing Internet prevalence has made this even more obvious, as do-it-yourself instruction and the sharing of skills are abundant in craft forums online, blurring the borders between influences, makers, and situated modes of production. This article examines some concepts and metaphors by which some of the potentials of craft collaborations could be understood. Combining theories of cognition from super-organisms like ant colonies and their “bodyhood” with t...Abstract With the rise of the Internet, skills, patterns, and ideas are being shared more widely among people engaged in the crafts, which seems to break with some of the underlying assumptions about the lone genius craftsman. Much discourse about craft has been focused on the hands of the artisan, or the “tacit” knowledge used by the maker, but as crafters collaborate in a larger extent some other perspectives could be of use, especially since the surrounding environment seems to take a more active involvement in the production than the mere maker. Increasing Internet prevalence has made this even more obvious, as do-it-yourself instruction and the sharing of skills are abundant in craft forums online, blurring the borders between influences, makers, and situated modes of production. This article examines some concepts and metaphors by which some of the potentials of craft collaborations could be understood. Combining theories of cognition from super-organisms like ant colonies and their “bodyhood” with the “capabilities approach” of Amartya Sen and the concept of educational sloyd, the text builds an associative framework for a perspective on how collaborations actualize new craft capabilities. In conclusion, the article proposes a wider understanding of do-it-yourself activities as a shared endeavor toward expanded collaborative capabilities; do-it-together rather than yourself.

In the making : the 'Power to the People' workshop track at Crafting the Future

ABSTRACT Over the last decade several projects and exhibitions have explored how crafts can play a central role for empowerment through social development, innovation and entrepreneurship. In order to facilitate this, there is a need to explore how craft practices can act as tools for empowerment, both in research and practice. The ‘Power to the People’ track at the European Academy of Design Conference in Gothenburg 2013 tried to answer on this challenge with a series craft-based seminars, each centred on a participants proposed craft or ‘Paper of Practice’. This formed a series of practice-based seminars that mixed hands-on activities and discussion, centred on and emerging from the very act of doing.

Zen and the Abstract Machine of Knitting

Abstract When approaching the crafts, especially knitting, the crafts long history and refined traditional techniques can easily give the impression that everything has already been invented, or at least that innovation is limited and specific to certain forms, either in patterns or technology. However, a craft like knitting should not be too dissimilar to chess, where young masters will beat their predecessors because they find new, clever paths through the immense possibilities of the game. Crafts like knitting are not usually connected to the idea of progress, yet innovation is an inherent but often overlooked part of the practice, and rarely do we encounter new methods at the very material level. This article approaches knitting with a Deleuzoguattarian perspective and frames the “virtual” mechanisms behind knitting that could be tweaked and tuned in order to power innovation. Comparing knitting to the protocols of software or the “Zen” of the loops themselves may add a theoretical framework to help expose new dimensions of the underlying diagrams of knitting. With such an approach we may better understand the capacities with which to “hack” the abstract machine of knitting, as we can see in the works of artists like Amy Twigger Holroyd and Rudiger Schlömer.AbstractWhen approaching the crafts, especially knitting, the crafts long history and refined traditional techniques can easily give the impression that everything has already been invented, or at least that innovation is limited and specific to certain forms, either in patterns or technology. However, a craft like knitting should not be too dissimilar to chess, where young masters will beat their predecessors because they find new, clever paths through the immense possibilities of the game. Crafts like knitting are not usually connected to the idea of progress, yet innovation is an inherent but often overlooked part of the practice, and rarely do we encounter new methods at the very material level. This article approaches knitting with a Deleuzoguattarian perspective and frames the “virtual” mechanisms behind knitting that could be tweaked and tuned in order to power innovation. Comparing knitting to the protocols of software or the “Zen” of the loops themselves may add a theoretical framework to help e...

Man–machine–music: Resonances of craft and technology in a study of guitar building

Craft is often discussed from the perspective of the maker or artisan, but seldom addresses the assemblage of other agents involved, like materials and tools, and how they affect the outcome. One way to examine this issue could be to use a Deleuzoguattarian perspective in order to draw attention to the role of the various vibrating parts of an assemblage on an individual as well as an abstract level. This article argues that a musical interpretation of the process of craft can help render visible several agents involved in the shaping of a guitar, an assemblage composed of intentions, craftsmanship, material and tools. Juxtaposing David Pye’s notions of ‘workmanship of risk’ and ‘workmanship of certainty’, the works of luthiers reveal several traits of what Deleuze and Guattari called the ‘nomadic sciences’, which, in turn, can point towards more polyphonic perspectives on research in the crafts. The text offers an associative application of the Deleuzoguattarian concepts to expose how several ‘kinetic melodies’ can help expose guitar building as a craft in resonance with contemporary technologies.