The Kindred Design on Globalization
The Feral Experimental Exhibition describes several topics from different designers. The
show therefore describes the content of the presentations alongside all the designs, the
consequences to both the surrounding and the design itself. The topics areas addressed are the
cooperative design, the design involving speculation the design that engages people through
participation and the one through each person is involved.
The speculative design process does not concentrate on a given problem that needs to be
addressed. The design focuses on a given starting point that is very influential upon which a
given design emanates (Galeffi, 2009, 199-200).
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Participatory design was initially referred to as the Cooperative design (Co-design)
(Karakas, 2011). This design basically incorporates every player in a given field in the
development of a particular design in order to ensure the outcomes are relevant. Those involved
in this scenario include those who employee people, the general public, clients, partners and the
consumers (Steen, 2013, 201).
Interaction Design addresses the issue of how people carry out themselves in a given
field. It develops systems, services, information technology and the surroundings (Karakas,
2011, 199). This design mainly organizes the digital world to enhance its utilization by the
people
Exploratory Experimental Design tries to solve a particular problem in research
especially in areas with very limited or no research work having been carried out at all. The main
aim is to come up with new ideas or add new information to the already existing one.
Kindred Spirits is a design that is a cooperative research project which was designed in
collaboration with the people of the drug rehabilitation clinic in Netherlands (Matisoff &
Edwards, 2014, 133). The design was developed by Susana CamaraLeret hence became part of
the research project of the government. The project was intended to portray an imaginary clinical
setting composed of a mixture of creatures with different characters. The design specifically tries
to explain about a person who is self-centered and shares the attitudes, features, beliefs and
feelings only with oneself. The Kindred spirit comes into two forms that include a crustacean
with claws to handle anything and a trumpet-like creature that speaks to the hearts of the people.
The crustacean offers a relaxing environment hence good to listen to. This is in relation to its
brainwaves that offer that conducive environment which makes someone feel relaxed. On the
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other hand, trumpet-like creature is very cooperative and listens to every issue. This creature
therefore influences the surrounding hence one is able to appreciate and give in to the every
event
Therefore, Kindred spirits is the close relationship between the normal needs of every
creature and the excellent and most appealing needs in our everyday life. Consequently, Kindred
spirit project harmonizes both what people imagine about and what they desire in real life
situation. It also develops hands on feeling in order to make people have other options in life in
future. As a result of this design, people are made to reform especially in things that they are so
used to.
The main agenda of this design is to influence how people think hence change their
mindset. This is mainly achieved by making someone feel relaxed in the mind hence be able to
influence others through conversation. The design involves contribution in the comprehension
and development of very important roles for the designers in very many aspects. With this
approach, those involved especially the designers have to play a critical role in sorting out
challenges in the society hence the beginning of the introduction of this design. Through this
design therefore, the designers are well equipped with the necessary skills to come up with
solutions to every problem. In addition, the designers are able to make the economy more
competitive through the strategic role design. This eventually benefits both the designers and the
society which becomes more flexible. Besides, the strategic designers will come up with new
ways of solving problems that had never been imagined of.
Kindred spirit design is therefore applied in coming up with appropriate solution to
globalization. According to Guy (1997), globalization sorts out problems in the society by
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offering a chance for enhancement in flexibility, improvement in quality and generation of better
ways of designing liberalization of economic trade. He further states that globalization involves
interaction of several aspects in the society especially in the advancement of information
technology, advancement in the strategic moves especially in the manufacturing industry.
Furthermore, he suggests that consumer culture results from the exponential growth of demand.
The design profession is imbricated in this process because it creates a demand for its services
through the excessive production typical of market expansion. In addition, he defends market
expansion, rarely discusses the eco-effects of design innovation/over-production. Julier (1997)
believes the consumer is a self-determining agent involved in the “exercise of private, personal
choice within the market”, but he also concedes that consumerism “concerns the manipulation of
needs and wants by dominant institutions”.
Rather than seeing inequality as the most apt term to describe how contemporary
capitalism creates unequal relations between producers and consumers, Julier (1997) suggests
that the concept of mutuality better characterizes the closeness that exists among the different
form of economies that are present on earth. The varied views about reduction of the world into a
very small village states that the world has to comply with the requirements of the multinational
bodies in the whole world. The view of this idea is that such kind of ruling means that the
developing countries are only being forced to adopt foreign values that do not belong to them.
Therefore the big challenge is how to address the question as to whether reduction of the world
into a very small village has any help to the third world countries. The argument is that, the
reduction of the world into a very small village has only helped specific people.
According to Gui (1997), who was influential in the Design for Need and Appropriate
Technology debates of the 1970s and 1980s, sees the effects of globalization on design as being a
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very important part towards improving people’s lives around the world. The writer therefore
supports industrialization and designing as the means to bringing development in both the
developed and the developing countries in the world. To begin with, Bonsiepe (1997) relates
underdevelopment of most countries to the selfishness of some multinational organization whose
interest is to exploit countries around the world. The writer further states that the reduction of the
world into a very small village is the main reason as to why the developing countries are very
poor. This also applies to some countries in the western nations. In addition, the writer reports
that, reduction of the world into a very small village is the reason as to why there is increased
rate of pollution of the environment. Therefore, these organizations embrace capitalism and
always think that the resources are always present and should be exploited. In addition, they
perceive environmental pollution as a very insignificant factor.
While Julier (1997) provides a useful description of how globalisation operates in design,
he does not address the tensions and inequalities produced by globalisation. In contrast, Bonsiepe
( 1997) agrees that these approach of utilizing resources around the world due to the reduction of
the world into a very small village is the main cause why people have no power to express how
this move is affecting the environment. The writer is against all forms of this design especially
the ones involved in promoting this ideology to the entire world. The writer further rubbishes the
current move for different nations to associate in terms of what they consume. He further states
that, independence beyond just choosing or deciding on what one wants to consume.
Market as a euphemism that obscures how corporations exert power over consumers,
while exploiting the notion of consumer sovereignty for profit. The main concern rising from the
world reducing into a global village is whether the current move promotes independence among
nations or just countries that depend on others for survival. The writer therefore relates this move
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to the artistic work in a theatre in that reduction of the world into a very small village is not
beneficial to the common people but to the few who are in control of all the affairs. In further
analysis of the fetishisation of designed objects he draws attention to design’s role in branding to
penetrate world markets in globalisation.
Third, a key factor in the proliferation of design through branding, Foster argues, is the
expanded role of the media and computing in the promotion of consumerism. On this basis, he
argues that the inflation of design creates passivity in citizens, moulding them as consumers
whose social role is reduced to making choices.
Within a context of the design globalised world, Foster observes a recurrence of the past
ways of doing business in the current society and that the people involved are not ready to
change their ways of thinking. The writer does not see any positive thing about this move but
rather exploitation of people, meaning they “exist in the shadow of old genres”, He argues
spectral artworks suggest regret for what has been lost. He says that this works reconcile so
many forgotten works of art hence they make someone remember about the past sufferings
making someone see no meaning of advancement from the past into the present world., and
according to conflicting perspectives products. Artworks that evoke historical precedents also
prompt memories of alternatives to globalization, and thereby interrupt the totalizing impulses of
globalisation. In other words, alternatives exist in historical references that, although incomplete,
are available to develop as viable substitutes to the socio-cultural dominance of global capital.
Foster defines such options as a mix between the future and the present. He contends that
unresolved issues of the past are revisited in contemporary spectral artworks. Although Foster
concedes the spectral quality of such artworks may be a “weak critique”, he insists they question
the concepts that underpin globalisation by recalling the “wish symbols” and “forfeited dreams”
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of the culture in which it occurs assumptions about the structural coherence of the field of visual
art in relation to society in the contemporary context of globalization.
Bonsiepe (1997) and Julier (1997) perceive globalization differently thus, Bonsiepe
relates the economic decline of some nations to certain multinational companies who have
selfish interests. The author perceives reduction of the world into a very small village as a way in
which people look at the different blessings of wealth that countries own in both the developing
and the developing countries. He further observes that, globalization results into enhanced
environmental mass wastage due to need for amassing wealth by every individual. To such
people who exploit resources, their main agenda is utilizing the resources without caring about
tomorrow especially the effect it has to the environment. While Julier (1997) provides a useful
description of how globalisation operates in design, he does not address the tensions and
inequalities produced by globalisation. In contrast, Bonsiepe (1997) contends that the design
should always focus on responsible use of the resources in order to take care of the future
generations and also how to conserve and preserve the environment.
Conclusion
Designers and the public in particular develop their understanding of the world, the
design of a toaster, and other people according to implicit theoretical frameworks. The world
operates differently hence one need to understand different theories in order to comprehend these
uncertainties. Planning in terms of designing therefore depends on having a fairly accurate
understanding of the factors influencing a design situation.
In most cases, when researchers talk about a theory, they are actually talking about ideas
that are relied on to understand a situation, but that have also been formalized in a philosophy or
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‘capital-T’ theory. Externalizing implicit or unconscious theories is an important part of research
because it makes ideas and assumptions open and available for questions to be asked about them
without a formalized theory that pulls together many separate indistinct thoughts or assumptions.
Therefore design researchers cannot really analyze or criticize their own and others’ designs and
ideas.
In any research work, determination of the success of the design used is vital. Economic
growth therefore based on productivity is the highest social value. This means that design
success is evaluated solely within a quantitative framework according to economic measures. On
the other hand, positivist refers to the fact the only information that is true is that information that
has been researched through a scientific process.
Positivism follows scientific method in its rejection of all sources of data that cannot be
backed up with empirical evidence. Positivist design analysis, therefore, holds that design, like
science, can only be based on objective truths or universal laws. The focus on economic growth
to evaluate a design’s success and the scientisation of design analysis rejects reflexivity in design
practice and therefore the critical premises of experimental design (Fry, 1994, 89-100).
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References
Benyus, Janine M., Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature (New York: HarperCollins,
2002). First published by William Morrow, 1997.
Bonsiepe, Gui, Interface: An Approach to Design, ed. Dawn Barrett (Maastricht: Jan van Eyck
Akademie, Department of Design, 1999).
Draxler, Helmut, ‘Letting Loos(e): Institutional Critique and Design’, Art after Conceptual Art,
ed.s
Fry, Tony, Remakings: Ecology, Design, Philosophy (Sydney: Envirobook, 1994). Winschiers-
Theophilus, Heike & Bidwell, Nicola J. & Blake, Edwin, ‘Community Consensus:
Design Beyond Participation’, Design Issues, Vol. 28, No. 3, (2012) 89–100.
