design in the age of change hack! your culture

Arnoud Bladergroen @thinkfresher

This presentation was held at the Pechu Kucha #10 event at Temporary Art Center Eindhoven, the Netherlands www.facebook.com/pechukuchaeindhoven

Do you panic and freak out when you think about today’s challenges? Or do you just go numb, like so many people nowadays? We need you to care and to share a positive and creative outlook. (And that might be the real meaning of the controversial Dutch word ‘participatiemaatschappij’)

Changing your perspective can literally change the world. It is about shifting paradigms and thinking in a new way. This picture of the upside down map best describes what this story is about.

A quote by Wayne Dyer that goes well with the slide before. It was also featured in the TrendRede 2013 (www.trendrede.nl).

One focal point of the changing world is the way we live in it. Do we continue our hierarchical relation with nature or do we (re-)accept that we are truly a part of it?

The circular economy is a concept that talks about reusage and elimination of waste . You can find more information (and cool movies) here: http://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/

A crucial debate in transforming to the circular economy is the question of ownership and incentive. What if we don’t buy a lightbulb but instead lease it? In this way the manufacturer will be stimulated to take responsibily for the whole lifecycle of the product instead of just making and selling it.

A very cool example of sustainability and social enterprising is the Fair Phone. This Dutch project (supported through Waag Society Amsterdam) tries to create a smartphone with minimal harm to people and planet (www.fairphone.com)

Another exponent of the new world and the need for a different perpective is the Bitcoin movement. Although a somewhat controversial model, it shows that there can be a monetary system running outside the control of nations and national banks.

Restarting Britain is a project by UK’s The Design Commision and aims to bring in new ideas and a new vision about current challenges in British society. It’s time for Restarting Holland!

This Metro newspaper campaign (Canada) taps into one of the biggest trends of the new economy: the value of sharing instead of owning (See also: Daan Roosegaarde: ‘delen is het nieuwe hebben’)

Technology is one of the key enablers of today’s developments in society. The people in Silicon Valley have coined their own buzzword for it..

.. but we should stay aware of the impact of technology on the human mind. Does it enhance our live or does it narrow it? This slide is taken from a presentation by Ze Frank, who speaks about how mobile phones make us part of new reality but also take us away from the existing one

In order to come up with meaningful ideas for a brave new world, we should encourage ourselves to use both our left and right brains.. (campaign image by Mercedes)

... and this is where Design Thinking comes in. Instead of thinking about a chair as purely an object of design, we should try to think holistically about everything that connects it to the world around it

One of the tools that Design Thinking provides for this is the socalled ‘Empathy Map’. It encourages its users to explore the emotional experience that people can have with a product or service

More and more it becomes obvious that trust is the real glue that holds together society and social structures. Reputation is everything, transparency becomes the norm.

We find a broader set of values replacing the dominance of money. It’s the nature of the relationship between people, products and places that becomes decisive.

We should approach the world today as a diverse and complex pool of people, ideas and values that everyone can contribute to and take something away from. Let’s break down the barriers of origin, race, sex, occupation and connect people to a common cause.

#DTHack

Dutch Design Week 2013During the Dutch Design Week, we will be present with our ‘living lab’ to try and engage people into connecting and cocreating solutions for a new and better world. If you like to join us, please check here for more information: http://www.ddw.nl/event.php?eventID=dc5e16aef4a9249912316cb67a6b2b71