Disruptive Design - Teaching:

17th-03-2021


I’ve been teaching Sustainable Design to the design students at Hogeschool voor de Kunsten Utrecht. Today we had our last session for this semester. During this lesson I sat with with two students and together did an exercise from the Circular Classroom by Dr. Leyla Acaroglu.(1)
We picked No. 17 of the Global Sustainability Goals and wrote down 10 things that were challenging for it... we picked number 17. because there wasn't enough information and examples that we could find for it being done... Also, because it seemed to be the part that mimicked the way nature works in its interior rhizomic systems.
10 problems: (not in order of importance)
1. More examples and clarity as to what No. 17 sustainable goal really means on a zoom out and zoom in level. Here is what we found from our google search. https://www.data4sdgs.org
2. Communicate without judgement (this leads to people feeling like they can't join or be part of sustainability, giving a sense of dominance of knowledge and one person, project or way of being higher than the other etc.)
3. Competition
4. Smaller companies are getting overridden because bigger companies have more resources to work. Thus, shutting out the grass-root efforts.
5. Repeat colonialism and colonial capitalism (continuing to serve the west)
6. Lack of Cultural understanding
7. Working locally can be overlooked.
8. Ways of educating and what is being educated. Teaching rather than open shared knowledge exchanges. (Also, how within each education, such as the arts, each subject is being taught separate. Leaving each on their own to tackle things independently. with a weight of having to solve the problem and come up with solutions all of their own. One ideology pitched as more important than the other, veganism etc. Breaking down a flow of shared knowledge and ways of being etc.)
9. Disconnection between the work fields.
10. Monetary constraints, access and devised.
During all of this we started to see how each of these things over lapped and interconnected together. These problems feed into each other as well as into the other sustainable goals that are written out. We shifted into exploring and proposing solutions.
1. Ongoing Self-Sustaining Communities with a focus on all ages (OSSC). Example: Like the mosque in Lombok Utrecht and how they have a place where everyone can come and there is a place for the children, young people, old people, a place for entertainment, learning and sharing values etc. This is quite common to have a place like this with this atmosphere in other countries and cultures.
2. Sharing resources: time, money, knowledge, materials, spaces, food etc. Or ‘Cruising Commoning from Cruising As’. (2)
We talked about the possible scale of these OSSC. The pros and cons... the larger they were the less personal and the longer it can take for things to happen. The important lay within it being smaller and more personal. Proposing that it can be from street to street, neighbourhood to neighbourhood. The idea that you share and care for each other through these smaller on-going networks of care. The concept that it takes a community to raise a child. One of the girls shared her story about how in South Africa when her mother had to work people from the neighbourhood would offer to take care of her and the other kids. This concept gives mothers the freedom to work but also the knowledge that is imparted to the child is divers. This mutual support of the older people in the neighbourhood caring for the younger ones, imparting their history knowledge and cultural heritage helps to value the elderly’s role in the community, keeping them a part of it and not left as a burden to carry. Bringing the two non-economical earning demographics together, giving the example from methods of project ‘Ghana Think Tank’.(3) Giving value back to local cultures, this is to discuss heritage, history, traditions and culture, that can be imparted when the attention is brought back to the local setting. The value that is placed in other countries other than the West, to know your background and where you came from. Giving a closer connection to the place and the way it worked historically keeping them. Something that isn't promoted or done a lot in western cultures, maybe because there are too many skeletons in the cupboard. But when this is done at a small sale, you look at your local resources and heritage for working with what you have, rather than importing solutions, productions or outsourcing your problems to other countries. when it is in smaller pockets the impact can be quicker and be worked within its direct environment.

What happens when these OSSC come together, such as streets, with neighbourhoods, projects and initiatives, fields of expertise, companies and countries. How would they interact with each other? We talked about again the importance of finding common values, interests and passions, and when there is something different an opening to share knowledge, support and encourage the efforts. Be welcoming care for each there and a respect for each other's passions and interests. One of the girls gave an example about being raise in a family that liked football and that were attached to a football club. The clubs can either fight or find joy and fun in sharing a drink, meal and chatting about their love for the sport rather than having conflicts around unhealthy forms of competition. Another good example is The Green Office (4) the model can be used in any university or educational platform around the globe. With the goal of supporting and connecting students and staff to act on sustainability. It’s a movement that is both grassroots and is starting to go global. Within it there is room for diversity, support and modularity.

We talked about titles: Titles in this OSSC the pros and the cons: “When you use business like titles the responsibility can end up on one person’s shoulders and the others don’t feel the need to put in as much effort.” Said one of the students. “Also, this continues to have a hierarchy in in, someone having more power over the others.” I remembered someone, I forgot who, use an analogy for titles or more like the roles of taking the leading as a it is in a performance. Some people come to the forefront at certain moments and then others take their place based on the scene and the part when their role needs to come into play. This can be replanned or as in improv this happens organically with a mutual understanding of supporting each role that is up on the stage. “I remember in scout camp each person had the name of an animal” another student said. “They picked the animal’s name based on what their role would entail and some of their personality traits.”

Well, when it came to money there was a bit of discomfort from everyone in the room. “It’s not a pleasant topic. It makes me cringe as it causes devised, and I would rather not deal with it.” True, I feel the same way, but unfortunately it is integrated within the system that we are working within to change. So, it can't be ignored and does have to be addressed and dealt with. We didn’t have too much time left so we ended on this note.

1. Dr. Leyla Acaroglu, Circular Classroom, https://circularclassroom.com,
2. Spaces of Commoning - a publication series of the academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Chapter ‘Cruising As’ Pg. 73 – 82. Pg. 75- 77. publication series of the academy of Fine Arts Vienna.
3. Ghana Think Tank, (http://www.ghanathinktank.org/about
4. The Green Office, https://www.greenofficemovement.org/green-office-case-studies/