»We don't have a technology problem,
we don't have a material problem,
...
We have a consumption problem.
The combination of technology and behavior creates sustainability,
future viability requires sufficient behavior.«
The issue of sustainability is a pressing one: our current standard of living is taken for granted and is worthy of expansion, yet the environmental costs threaten our very existence. There are more and more unanswered questions: How do we avoid the rebound effect? How do we define a new growth philosophy? Do people and society need a completely new self-understanding?
Consumption optimisation (efficiency/consistency) and corresponding changes in use (behaviour) are complementary; only the equal combination of both strategies can be effective. Changing individual consumption sustainably is linked to the vision of learning and practising sufficiency as a collective economic and action strategy. Such a fundamental mind shift falls within the core competence of artistic design expertise – awareness is conveyed to a large extent aesthetically, as Lucius Burckardt noted.
The Professorship of Transformative Design deals with the aesthetic and conceptual design of mindshift-enhancing products in the context of social, cultural and psychological conditions. An experimental and speculative way of working with a focus on everyday functional artefacts enables design to shift the transformation of our consumer culture from the root and to inspire a consecutive reorientation of our economic structure. The planning, design and realisation efforts focus on the idea of using product design to offer access to unfamiliar possibilities for perception, thought and action and to encourage users to adopt a sufficient lifestyle via multiple approaches.
The relevance of personal action is based on the viral effect of everyday behavioural changes and consumer decisions: Many small steps multiply in the process and, in sum, act as a catalyst for the transformation of legislation towards behaviour-centred sustainability. Smoking in public places, speed limits in city centres and environmental protection as a human right are examples of such longterm effects.
DESIGN
- Design is an omnipresent language that reaches many people (without reading books/newspapers or going to a museum)
- Design translates feelings, thoughts and ideas into products you can touch and try out
- Design can make rational contexts emotionally accessible
- Design supports the shaping of cultural developments
DESIGN PROCESS
- Inspiration is the sum of the individual and the environment
- Learning by doing – Experimentation is the best research
- Sensitive perception produces perception
- Design and discard are strung together like pearls on a necklace
To mark the 100th anniversary of BAUHAUS, every second bus stop in Weimar had a poster with the cheerful call to »rethink the world« – so the question is, what does »rethinking the world« actually mean 100 years after it was founded?
In 1993, Lucius Burckardt said in his founding speech for today's Faculty of Art and Design that the Bauhaus could neither be imitated nor repeated, but that only one thing still applies to the Bauhaus today: »tackling where it is needed«. He meant this not so much in economic or stylistic terms, but in terms of shaping society, in the sense of solidarity and ecology, BAUHAUS means research into cultural and political change. In this context, design functions as a vehicle for the reorganisation of society.
Today's Bauhaus offers scope for new visions of life beyond the interests of economic exploitation, prioritising humanity and sustainability; it offers a testing ground for joint and open-ended experiments in lifestyle change. The artistic design disciplines complement the familiar research into materials and technologies with forward-looking research into consumption and behaviour with regard to the development of a sustainable lifestyle.
Mindshift
Our world is wandering through time drunk on consumption (colloquially prosperity bubble), and the discussion on solving sustainability issues seems to be clouded accordingly. If we look at the matter soberly, the rebound effect teaches us very memorably that we will not be able to save the world with electric cars, LEDs and biokerosene, because everyday practice differs from the theoretical idea of what to do and what not to do. The CO2 burden of our lifestyle has to do with misbehaviour, the challenge is to restart our high culture. In addition to the technology shift (watch out for the rebound), we need a mind shift: a change in awareness is the prerequisite for changes in consumption and behaviour in the interests of humanity's sustainability.
We have become accustomed to the magic of technical feasibility; the environment pays the price for total comfort. Today, we need to return - as part of the mindshift - to self-efficacy, to the ability to distinguish sense from nonsense, to differentiate between necessity/necessity and luxury/abundance. This competence is a prerequisite for sufficient action/consumption. As designers, we can provide impetus by making things visible. Abstract consumption of resources in everyday life can be charmingly brought within reach through products. In terms of their classic utility function, we don't need these products any more than we need products of abundance, but in terms of their intellectual nutritional value, they are indispensable as a counter-position to mentally damaging products of abundance.
Arousing desires, making the unfamiliar, sometimes uncomfortable, palatable falls within the core competences of the applied arts. If design delivers productised perspectives, as offers, propositions, participation options, opportunities for participation, etc., if it favours the newcomer process as a vehicle in this sense, then design can contribute to the cultural mindshift. Design influences our social interaction, economic activity, the conditions of solidarity and ultimately it can even help to support politics and the shaping of a sustainable society.
Automatisms
Why would anyone screw a handle onto a stone when every stone fulfils the function of a paperweight, doorstop, emergency hammer etc. anyway?
To lift the stone, 99% of all test subjects reach for the screwed-on handle; questions about temperature or surface quality can usually only be answered with the help of the second hand. The price for simplifying the action is a shortening of perception.
The reliability of the stone with handle experiment is astonishing: no matter how absurd the handle seems, test persons are inclined to use it for gripping wherever it appears. The question of why this is so can easily be answered with comfort, habit, etc.
In the context of behaviour-centred sustainability, the stone with handle triggers interesting questions regarding the effect of automatisms (in more complex product contexts):
What is the price of simplifications?
How often are people subject to (unnoticed) automatisms of behaviour?
How does the shortening of our perception influence our consciousness?
What effect do automatisms have on our behaviour?
Do casual everyday interactions also have an influence on mental transformation?
What is the relationship between quantity and quality of influence?
Where can we as product designers help to train mindfulness?
Mindfulness
Mowing the lawn by hand brings satisfaction (especially in light of the knowledge of CO2 problems), cranking the coffee by hand does the same (even if it takes more time), the advantages of cycling over driving a car (not only in terms of CO2) are now considered state of the art on many levels. Contemplative breaks in everyday life are increasingly rare; they act as a catalyst for discovering the added value of deceleration, de-automation and de-machinisation.
Photo of a green extension cable
If you don't keep sheep, have no experience of using a scythe, don't yet own a robotic lawnmower and don't like using cylinder lawnmowers, it's not uncommon to opt for an electric lawnmower. If this decision doesn't seem very ecological in many respects, we recommend using a green lawnmower cable so that you train your attention with every use of the electric lawnmower.
While Lucius Burckardt already pointed out the questionable nature of frictionlessness 30 years ago, we all know today, in the context of the well-known triptych of sustainability–wholeness–mindfulness, that our awareness of ecological behaviour benefits from mindfulness: Mindfulness is a competence that should be trained in the interest of ecological behaviour.
As modern people are trained to be careless in many situations - often without realising it - the product designer is interested in the question of where the boundary between safety and danger lies in order to be able to meaningfully explore the scope of mindfulness training available in everyday life. The added value of incidental mindfulness training through environmental design always raises the question of the areas/niches to which everyday training can be meaningfully extended. The design of ecological products includes mindfulness training.
Products can make this awareness tangible and usable in modern everyday life. Design can provide a starting point, can help overcome entry barriers, can counteract setbacks, and supports the development of a sufficient awareness.
Paradigm shift
In the context of sustainability, we have observed that the perpetrators of environmental damage are reluctant to pay the environmental costs as the beneficiaries of the proceeds. Economic interests, so-called customary rights or privileges often stand in the way of a reorganisation of the social and cultural framework. But the world is changing and existing systems can be changed. The path consists of many small steps and, depending on the subject, design can play an important role.
Example 1
In 1980, it was still customary to protect smokers from non-smokers. On the school bus, at work, in the pub, etc., it was customary for smokers to have every freedom to smoke, and all other people who felt impaired by this had to submit. The idea that smokers had to restrict themselves was considered completely absurd. The priorities were considered irreversible – if only out of consideration for the tobacco industry – and the U-turn took almost 30 years: today, non-smokers are protected from smokers and smoking in public is strictly regulated.
Example 2
After several decades of shoe history, which followed yesterday's credo that shoes must protect and support in order to be useful at all, many shoe manufacturers and buyers are now turning to barefoot shoes, based on the well-known knowledge that walking barefoot is the healthiest way to develop the feet and maintain orthopaedic health. This step from shoes as orthoses to so-called barefoot shoes represents a remarkable paradigm shift. What began rather hesitantly and exotically in terms of product design is now aesthetically sophisticated and designed in a variety of ways; walking barefoot is now taken for granted.
Competence transfer
Competences need to be trained. If we practise understanding, practising and learning in the small everyday things, then growth can take place. Even those who want great things should start small in order to get bigger/better in the process - that's simply how humans work. Environments that cut off the little things prevent the starting signal, consecutive expansion and transfer to larger contexts. Who should be surprised if basic skills are lacking at some point?
Who hasn't seen the Deutsche Bahn sign that says, ›Please leave this room as you would like to find it‹. Nobody has the time, materials or inclination to prepare the public transport toilet as they would have liked to find it in return for using it ... in the best case scenario, the lowest common denominator is agreed without comment to remove all traces of use. What has happened? Why does the naturalness of leaving the toilet clean seem to have been lost? Even the request to name the toilet rarely works.
The omnipresence of motion detectors, infrared switches etc. damages the willingness to touch the tap again after cleaning your hands in order to close it manually: The manual tap in public spaces (see illustration of a sign) no longer works! We may smile at the loss of what we take for granted in this context and point to the availability of automated solutions, but the question nevertheless arises as to how we can counter the inflation of traditional things we take for granted.
Changing habits place new demands on the design of products: Automation may alleviate hygiene problems, but it favours the loss of a sense of responsibility and trust in self-efficacy within small and large contexts. Today, we are looking for product solutions that meet both challenges.
