Manifesto
The School of Redesign invites designers and thinkers to redesign the limits of their own practice and offer a new intervention in the future.
Design in the Middle is the School’s current ongoing project.
Why redesign?
In place of the widely spread notion of the empty canvas, redesign starts off from a canvas that is already full. Given the scope of objects, systems and structures, that over-populate our everyday life, every act of intervention is already an act of redesign.
What is the objective of the School of Redesign?
When the conditions that allow civil imagination to thrive are poor, our sense of agency is seriously damaged. The School of Redesign contributes to the formulation of a new human right: The right to imagine our future.
By creating a framework, in which one can articulate and design diverse and yet-to-come forms of governance, coexistence, ownership and fellowship, the School wishes to restore our vulnerable ability to imagine. The imagination is a channel to the unconscious, which is an open gate to be more perceptive of the future than by the logical mind. We believe that imagination can offer new ways to probe the future, and receive the hidden parts of it.
Can we make sure that the imagination of one is not the nightmare of another?
We can’t. But we believe that an open and an inclusive process can balance itself in a public arena of shared thoughts and discourse. We believe that when people feel free to speak their minds and share their imagination, they should also accept other, even contrasting, ideas and visions.
About the on-going project: DESIGN IN THE MIDDLE
Where is the Middle?
The Middle stands for the Middle East and the Eastern Mediterranean Coast, demarcating the extended geopolitical scope of the project. The Middle stretches beyond the limiting notion of physical borders, that were outlined in the aftermath of wars.
Design in the Middle does it better?
The conventional diplomacy, negotiations and talks have failed to come up with innovative solutions to long-lasting conflicts. In their place, the Middle applies diverse creative tools, in order to encourage imaginative, yet applicable, solutions to long-standing issues, like borders, dividing walls, water sources, freedom of movement, language barriers, information mobility, and cultural exchanges. By positioning design in the Middle, the project aims at generating unique dynamics between people, a dynamics that leaders should follow.
We redesign maps, visual symbols, services, rituals, public and private spaces, online social platforms, and offline meeting points. In our highly designed every day, we believe that redesign interventions can make a significant change.
Design in the Middle invites designers to stop limiting their incredible professional abilities to their clients’ briefs and take part in a far more ambitious project – Redesigning futures – from, and for, the Middle.
Who can redesign?
Design in the Middle is an inclusive framework. We encourage designers and expat-designers from the Middle East, to contribute to our collective effort in imagining and designing alternative futures.