When talking about time within the design/production frame of reference, we arrive at the notion of process – a series of actions taking place throughout a stretch of time or a given “lapse of time“. In an increasingly global production scenario, speed and acceleration are synonymous with “added value”. Eager to maximize cost-effectiveness, mainstream production is reduced to churning out irrelevant variations on existing models, old ideas with a revamped look. Perpetuating yesterday’s paradigms, these objects reflect nothing of present day needs and are therefore inadequate to meet them, as time-consuming exercises in critical analysis, multidisciplinary exchanges and research fall by the wayside.
Lapse in Time spotlights young designers who have chosen the opposite route, uncompromising designers whose work is grounded on highly individual, in-depth thinking and boundary-defying creative elasticity. Pursuing innovation and cutting-edge experimentation at the crossroads of design, cognitive sciences, environmental concerns and intercultural exchange, they strive towards a change in paradigm, one that is also temporal. Though unique in vision and attitude, they share a common trait: that of operating on a wholly different “lapse of time”. They choose slow-evolving projects over consumerist rush, making fewer but better, more relevant, products.
Presented as a “timeline” of works in progress, each designers’ work is singularly expressive as well as subversive in its challenge of standard industrial production. Lapse in Time showcases these strong, distinct design statements and their radical perspective of product design at the junction of art, science, sustainability and socio-cultural insight. It wants to pause for a moment and invite a critical outlook on everyday objects.
STATE OF THE ARTS | 10.09.09 | 18:00-19:00
Debate about Lapse in Time exhibition
The design of the future is going to be fabulous, fury, furious and fun. It will be a tool for love, a superhero ready to do battle for good and for evil. It will ask why it exists and what its purpose in life is. It will stick its middle finger up, run through the woods naked, and save the world.
Jerszy Seymour
moderator — Tulga Beyerle
participants — Constantin Boym;
Hans Maier-Aichen;
James Auger;
Katharina Wahl;
Nacho Carbonell;
Studio Glithero;
Lounging Space
Palácio Braamcamp
