However annoying and ideologised, the green cliché has served its purpose, driving into the public consciousness an awareness of the need to change behaviour. It is now time for designers to get rid of the last vestiges of sanctimony and do what they do best: help society's next step towards a new normalcy that incorporates an environmentally responsible attitude in everyday life. It is time for environmentally responsible, fair trade-based, ecological, sustainable, ethical, reduced-footprint, energy-efficient, zero-waste, bioregional, biodegradable, recyclable design to be less ascetic and more human and vulnerable. If outrageousness, especially of the badass kind, is still hard to find (except perhaps in gaudy, speedy, expensive big boys' toys like the Tesla Roadster or the Czeers MK1 solar-powered speedboat...), the real world needs a dose of that kind of thing, too.
There are so many other fantastic quotes -- like "environmentally responsible design should be like dark chocolate: delicious and sensual, yet still good for the health of body and soul" -- that you should really just go ahead and read the whole thing.
OK SO i admit that I find MOMA and all things MOMA a bit pretentious, but "let's make environmentally responsible, fair trade-based, ecological, sustainable, ethical, reduced-footprint, energy-efficient, zero-waste, bioregional, biodegradable, recyclable design" more VULNERABLE???? What exactly does THAT mean?
ReplyDeleteUm, yes. The more I think about that, the more I admit it's kind of problematic - and if I had been her editor (which she probably didn't have) hopefully I would have suggested another word. Maybe something along the lines of "humanistic"? I'd like to think that this is what she was going for -- the idea that green design should be more about people and our various vulnerabilities, if you will, and less about some prescribed notion of right and wrong. Vulnerable in the sense that sustainability should be more emotional and less strictly logical (in her vernacular, ascetic). It's a stretch, I know! But I tried.
DeleteOne more note... Antonelli wrote: "Design's goal is to enable us to live life to the full while taking advantage of all the possibilities provided to us by contemporary technology. Ideology, instead, is limiting, the enemy of the elasticity that is required of us today. Through designers' work, we will be able to outgrow the need for any kind of green ideology. Sustainability will become normal, integrated in all the other aspects that make life worth living, like humour, imagination, vision, curiosity, humanity and love."
ReplyDeleteNow that's a quote I could like!