Designing Politics: the limits of design
Pushpa Arabindoo2016
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Abstract
What are the limits of design in addressing the political and/or when has design not been enough? This question lies at the heart of Designing Politics, an ongoing project at Theatrum Mundi. Now in its third year of organising ideas challenges in cities around the world, Theatrum Mundi gathered a group of architects, academics, artists and activists in May 2016 to reflect on the questions it asks, and the fundamental relationship between design and politics. Below is a short introduction to the broader programme of work that emerged from 2012 and so far has produced three challenges: New York (2014), London (2015) and Rio de Janeiro ( ). This provides a background to the reflections that follow. 'movement' in different ways: dancers and choreographers, transport planners, and people involved in social movements and activism. Fresh on the heels of the Occupy Movement that spread around the globe, this group wondered what it might look like for a design challenge to address major political questions. Two years later, that idea formed the basis for the first in Theatrum Mundi's series of ideas challenges on 'Designing Politics': 'Designing for Free Speech' based in New York. This was a purposefully provocative consideration of the intensification of the privatisation and securitisation of urban space, against the politics of the Occupy Movement and similar long-standing counter-publics. The challenge asked, Can we design for free speech? What are the limits of formal design in relationship to the USA Constitution's Second Amendment? What was exciting as an organisation was to see the responses. Some took up the notion that to design for free speech was to literally enhance the voice -that is to design physical elements that would make someone's voice louder in a public space so that they could share what was on their mind. Others suggested there is no space for free speech anymore in New York, and so proposed in satirical fashion the construction of a floating agora in the Hudson river: free speech in exile. Still others suggested that proposing the idea that one could 'design' for 'free speech' is preposterous to begin with -suggesting it amounted to social engineering. For this group, free speech was a legal or constitutional issue, not one related to physical design or performative or visual cultures. For Theatrum Mundi, the breadth and explosive imagination put into the challenge was as exciting as it was a sign that thinking the relationship of design to politics remains an important task. The fact that there were people offering critique of the very question Theatrum Mundi was asking is a signal of the importance in putting it out there for debate. In 2015, Theatrum Mundi organised the second ideas challenge 'Designing the Urban Commons' in London. This iteration followed the same method as in New York. However, it asked a question about ownership, stewardship and collective practice in relationship to the historic question of the What can the 'street' learn from the 'stage'?
