Charny, Daniel [Speaker] (2013) On the action of designing, making and fixing. In: Design Indaba Conference 2013; 27 Feb - 1 Mar 2013, Cape Town, South Africa.

Abstract

At Design Indaba Conference 2013, Daniel Charny inspires future “makers”, explores unconventional ways of presenting content and talks about “fixing”. Charny is more interested in the action of designing rather than the products that design endeavours produce. Since 1992 he has been learning how to teach design and its processes to various people. Through education, Charny explores unconventional exhibition models, storytelling, different design contexts, borders of contemporary design and new formats of generating content. Each project for me generates a new template and a new way to reach more people instead of repeating traditional formats, Charny says. Charny is also interested in looking at how a collection can become meaningful and how using the mode of exhibiting design can become a way of understanding the impact of design on many lives. The Power of Making explores that. The exhibition, commissioned by the Victoria and Alfred Museum in London, looked at contemporary issues of craft and how perceptions of it can be updated. I believe craft is everywhere. It’s one of the most important things to understand in order to negotiate the future, says Charny. The exhibition looked further at whether there are similarities between master craftsmen and people who, in some way or another, use a form of craft every day. Through the celebration of the breadth and depth of craft and the linking of skills to imagination, Power of Making became the most attended free exhibition in the history of the Victoria and Alfred Museum with more than 320 000 visitors. Charny launched the website for his latest project “Fixperts” on stage at Design Indaba Conference 2013. In collaboration with designer James Carrigan, the duo developed an initiative to try and get the action of “fixing” back into society. Fixing is a type of making that is very accessible and we need to embrace this concept, Charny says. Fixperts aims to look at the kind of impact a designer can make on someone’s life and connects designers with people who need a little help. Designers are challenged to identify a problem or something that could be improved, no matter how big or small, and use flexible thinking to make life easer for another person.

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