Empower People

I come from a mainly agricultural country (Argentina, in the south of the Americas.) However, I did not realise it until I went to travel because I was raised in a big capital city, Buenos Aires. On my travels, mainly in the countryside and little towns in southern Latin America, I realised how the lives of other people were interconnected with mine, directly or indirectly, how I affected them and vice-versa. I also found how vast naturally developed spaces were affected by machines and human pollution. I came back to the city after about a year of traveling, to study at the local university there. I started with the feeling that I should thank infinitely all those people working in the countryside, transporting goods, working at the factories, constructing, writing and designing books, without forgetting other living species for giving raw materials and food to allow me and a small bunch to study whatever we wanted. It sounds as though a whole system is there to support us in doing what we are doing. I think the least we can do is to show respect. In the type of economy we live in we are all interconnected in a way.

 

Of course there is a responsibility if we do not want to make our clothes, grow our food, build our houses, kill the animals we eat, etc. and there are other people there doing these things for us. We have the opportunities not just because of our parents, but other people we may or not know. I would prefer to work hard for them, because they deserve it, we owe a retribution to them, them is us, the same with natural resources, without them there is no us, we are not separated, we are part of them.

 

It is interesting how we may perceive the world, citing Ben Barker (blog entry human/nature, 5^th march 2009): In fact we know that we are gods, wielding the power of technology and bestowing pitiful benevolence on other inhabitants of Earth.

The problem then, our intelligence means we draw a line between us and everything else. We struggle to connect ourselves to nature. We are technology, retching forwards, morally confused and born into a world that is not ready for us. Is there a way to actually care about Earth, to connect to nature (beyond ourselves) and truly feel it, or would we just be kidding ourselves?

So if we are gods, then, gods have never been so confused. If we talk about pitiful benevolence and ask ourselves if we care about the earth, or it is really just about us, we could continue finding refuge in excuses and continue with the delusional.

I assent with Jane T (blog entry 21^st March 2009): we are now ignorant to the influence that we have over our planets delicate structure and the consequences of our behaviour that will inevitably impact us. Insects are the stitches that hold together the very fabric of our planet.

The economic system has become so big and complicated that it is difficult to comprehend. It is easy to feel like we are little ants and that the best they can do is to follow the crowd. It is paradoxical because in the present time our society does not believe in crowds or groups, but in the individual. You have to be outstanding and unique, but follow the crowd. Advertising and media created the belief that this schizophrenic way is best for survival. In the mid time the rulers, the big companies, collide in their psychosis, seeking more profit, more power, they are also trying to survive. As I see it, big entrepreneurs and powerful companies have developed a psychotic economic system where there is no remorse for all the damage caused in the name of profit, and we, the followers, are replicating it. Nobody seems to care much about anybody else, so we can consume anything at all without guilt. If we feel guilt, we feel powerless anyway to do something. And so many entries in the blog confirm this.

 

Objects have the power to shape social imaginaries and engage sensations, we have a social responsibility and should feel empowered. How do we balance the cognitive conflict between individual vanity on the part of a designer and institutionalized pressures of the produced material world?

 Put another way, designers are a product of the material society we all have constructed. If designs expose perceptions of reality, we are creating a cultural identity as well. If the future is being planned via certain institutions, are designers visualizing a future that has already happened? If this is the case we then have the hope and privileges of uncertainty.

It is important not to dismiss the power of our actions, and to empower people. By designing for people that 'nobody seems to care' (however this is not true), we are caring about them, making them relevant, giving them a voice.