The Stigmergy-Family-Studio project is an educational experiment set up by the Italian designer Martina Muzi, on show at the 4th Istanbul Design Biennial until 4 November 2018. The first stage of this process of structuring and deconstruction of knowledge was created together with students from the Course of Social Design from the Design Academy of Eindhoven. Between January and September 2018, Muzi and eight students examined the contemporary expression of Chinese, Turkish and Dutch design, recreating a contemprary Silk Road.
Stigmergy Family Studio is an educational experiment conceived as an evolving archive
On display at the 4th Istanbul Design Biennial, the project initiated by Martina Muzi uses design as a complementary language to traditional critical practices.
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- Salvatore Peluso
- 16 October 2018
- Eindhoven / Istanbul
The research analyses 21st-century productive and commercial ecosystems, and derivative social systems, and emerges in multiform situations which range from manufacture to family-run businesses in Istanbul to large-scale digital commercial platforms such as Alibaba. The course has been set up as a continuously-transforming archive. An initial set of materials, case studies and tests have been re-elaborated for the construction of a physical prototype. In the analysis of reality, design is a language which compliments traditional instruments of criticism, and the formulation of a project, or rather the designing of an object, is only part of a wider-ranging way of thinking. The work carried out by the students has been stored in a digital platform and will serve as the cue for the next stage of experimentation.
Made up of old music cassettes and walkie-talkies, the prototype offers an analogue version of forums and chats
The device bypasses modern communication systems, cellular networks and internet, while maintaining the same logic. It can therefore be used in countries which do not have a telematic infrastructure
“The device communicates a criticism on the topic of data collection. By creating the experience of internet by outdated technologies, it suggests a scenario where the world wide web becomes antiquated and new technologies has yet to come because big data”
Let’s imagine if archaeologist of the future looks at our time. Apart from an economic system that revolves around consuming and producing in a context of globalization, what would they see if we zoom-in on production?
The designer initially established a production criterion of 5 minutes / 5 euros / 500 grams. Heim has created an archive of various shapes and objects, which she uses to make casts. The resulting objects become the fragments of a single production system.
The material culture of a place – in this case the City of Istanbul – forms part of her geography and tradition. Here, design is seen as an instrument to tell a story.
The digital Shaman belongs simultaneously in two realities: physical and digital. Its aim is to create a bridge between the two dimensions
“Our bodies and minds are digitalised from pre-birth. We are forced into the network to exist eternally. It is therefore essential that we learn how and where we float through this realm in order to embrace both realities in the hope that we can once again exist grounded and whole.”
The project invites participants to become aware of our hybrid condition and moves towards an integration of these two realities.
Unku is the result of research into global logistics and on the local dynamics of markets in Instanbul.
Jurk conceived the project as a collection and stratification of experiences.
“The project translates the historic to the modern system and intends to incite a new consumer mentality to widen their own choices and completing the end product with their own material experience in combination with a support infrastructure” ha spiegato Jurk
The project examines the ritual of the toast, a gesture of cordiality, celebration and political negotiation. The designer analyses this form of communication and completes it with specific objects. Design is complementary to verbal and gestural language.
“Why, exactly, do we take a moment to clink glasses before we drink?”
Filling the glasses, drinking and toasting as a sign of “agreement reached”: prototypes and performances form part of a silent play of strategies.
The designer has created a manufacturing model to be positioned directly within shops, taking its cue from the unique qualities of the buyer to create the required object.
Daude tells us: “All theories that are locating the human in the centre of design are inventing and creating a new standardised, idealised and artificial human. Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man or Le Corbusier's Modulor consider the human body as the reference measure for design and architecture, creating a representation of a norm – a uniform and sterilised silhouette that is erases all diversity, characters, peculiarities and uniqueness of the human body”
Let's create our own standards!
“There is a frequency range that humans focus better on: the one closer to human voices. The other sound frequencies are still audible of course, but not entirely understandable when they are accumulated in our environments. What if we translate these frequencies into more understandable and organised sounds?”
The prototype listens, translates and stores the sounds which accumulate in space and which often cannot be heard by the human ear
The designer has developed a modular system, designed as an organism which over time can change and grown, and which has a heart, a brain and limbs. The project manipulates sound and makes it visible and generates new sound landscapes which could not previously be perceived
The project examines the act of sitting in public and renders it a dynamic and playful act. Weidner studies the manufacturing process and the new relationships that a seat can generate.
The bench is also examined in its digital dimension: it is geo-localised and allows for interaction with other users located in different environments
“It explores the possibility to produce the same bench in different ways depending on the profile, skills and knowledge of the user and to allow he/she/they to purchase a fully constructed bench or one to be self-made” says Weidner