Don't Panic
1 June - 13 July 2007
Don't Panic featured films, architectural projects, design products and installations by recent graduates and tutors from the Royal College of Art, curated by Gerrard O'Carroll. These addressed the realities of contemporary life that architects and designers usually ignore: fear, danger and the fragility of human behaviour. It embraced and celebrated a world full of contradiction and complication, a society obsessed with youth, beauty, media and celebrity, a society where what we believe to be true has more value than empirical truth, a society obsessed with itself and its own desires, a society searching for instant gratification, a society in which fewer than 50% of us describe ourselves as happy.
Artists whose work featured included Elio Caccavale, Joel Dunmore, Dunne and Raby, Jordy Fu, Andrea Goecke, Catherine Guiral + Quentin Walesch, Tomas Klassnik, Nicola Koller, Mathias Megyeri, Metro, David Pierce, Sally Quinn, Tanya Rainsley, Tim Simpson and Noam Toran.
Don't Panic was supported by the late John Eldridge, who was a passionate enthusiast for architecture and his generosity entirely characteristic of him. The exhibition was a fitting tribute to his spirit of adventure and inquiry.
Exhibitors
ELIO CACAVALE (graduated RCA 2003) www.eliocaccavale.com
Elio Caccavale, born 1975 in Naples, Italy, studied Product Design at
Glasgow School of Art before going on to the Royal College of Art to
complete a master in Design Products. He has since divided his time
between consultancy, research, teaching and writing. His projects
typically involve collaboration with natural scientists, social
scientists and biomedical ethicists and explore the emerging
biotechnologies and the effects that they might have on life in the
future.
Elio has exhibited his work and lectured internationally. He has
recently presented his work at the World Forum on Science and
Civilization organized by The James Martin Institute (part of the
University of Oxford) and at the ESRC Genomics Policy and Research
Forum (part of the University of Edinburgh).
Elio teaches Product Design at Central Saint Martins College of Art and
Design (part of the University of the Arts). He is also visiting
lecturer on the MA Design Interactions course at the Royal College of
Art. He is currently a researcher in the Interaction Research Studio
(Design Department) at Goldsmiths College (part of the University of
London) working on The Material Beliefs project. He has though as
visiting lecturer at the Architectural Association. He is currently
contributing with Professor Michael Reiss (Chief Executive of Science
Learning Centre London) to the forthcoming 'Creative Encounters' book
to be published by the Wellcome Trust London. Elio work has received
the Wellcome Trust Sciart Award and the I.D. Design Award.
UTILITY PETS (Series of products with accompanying film, 2004)
Utility Pets is an experimental project that uses products to draw
attention to the ethical consequences of xenotransplantation - the
transplantation of animal organs into humans. In the not-so-distant
future, Elio imagined that shortly after birth, people will be given a
piglet with their own DNA engineered into it. The pig, known as a
"knockout" pig in the scientific jargon, is a form of living insurance
policy - an organ bank. This project explores what kind of new objects
might be needed if the pig lives in the home with its owner's family.
The Utility Pet products include a low-resolution TV exclusively for pigs, which they can control themselves; a pig toy with a microphone and a radio handset allowing the owner to listen to the pig enjoying itself; a smoke-filtering device allowing a person to smoke in front of the pig without it suffering the consequences of passive smoking; and a comforter - a psychological product made from the snout of the sacrificed pig, which serves as a memento after the xenotransplantation has been carried out, and helps people come to terms with the contradictory feelings generated by this complex situation.
JOEL DUNMORE (graduated RCA 2005)
Joel Dunmore studied at The Bartlett School of Architecture and The Royal College of Art, where he pursued his fascination with fictional documentaries. Joel's design projects have been inspired and driven equally by prophetic news articles, literary narratives, and by an instinctive tendency towards dynamic concepts and sculptural forms. His deeply ironic project Grief or Relief won the Keppie Design and National Grid Transco Awards 2005. Joel's work has previously been exhibited at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin, the London Design Week and at the Venice Biennale of Architecture.
I DIDN'T KNOW YOU BUT I MISS YOU (Mixed media, 2007)
What unites our nation these days other than fear and grief? Princess
Diana, The Soham murders and 7/7 bring busloads of tourists; grief and
horror are part of our leisure culture- ' a good day out' is had by
all. So much pleasure can be had from so much misery. Might Stratford
re-invent itself as a focus for national grief unity? Wind turbines and
giraffes employed to produce infrasound at a frequency that stimulates
feelings of sadness and melancholy, ensure the tourists leave feeling
sated. Meanwhile this captured audience might conceal a darker side. A
DNA laboratory collects our samples and dispenses life-expectancy
probability, predicting our tourist's genetic chances of a slow and
painful death.
DUNNE AND RABY www.dunneandraby.co.uk
Professor Anthony Dunne & Fiona Raby use products and services as a medium to stimulate discussion and debate amongst designers, industry and the public about the social, cultural and ethical implications of emerging technologies. Many of their projects are collaborative, working with industrial research labs, academia and cultural institutions to design both speculative products and services. Projects include: Hertzian Tales, a combination of essays and design proposals exploring the aesthetic meanings of electronic objects (published 1999); Weeds, Aliens and Other Stories (with Micahel Anastassiades), a collection of psychological furniture for the home and garden (published 2000); FLIRT, a European Union funded research project investigating location-based services for mobile phones (published 2000); and Placebo, a collection of electronic objects which explore mental well-being in relation to domestic electromagnetic fields (published 2001). BioLand their current research project investigates how a critical design approach can be applied to the field of biotechnology. Anthony and Fiona were founding members of the CRD Research Studio at the Royal College of Art (1994-2002), Anthony is currently Professor and Head of Design Interaction at The Royal College of Art, and Fiona runs design studios in both Design Interaction and Architecture. Design Noir: The Secret Life of Electronic Objects was published by August/Birkhauser in 2001.
EVIDENCE DOLLS (Installation, 2005)
How will
dating change when DNA analysis can reveal the presence of undesirable
genes? Evidence Dolls are hypothetical products sold in a fictional
shopping mall called Bioland. The Dolls were commissioned by the
Pompidou Centre for the D-Day exhibition in 2005. The project consists
of one hundred specially designed dolls used to provoke discussion
amongst a group of young single women about the impact of genetic
technology on their lifestyle. The Dolls come in three versions based
on penis size (small, medium and large). A black indelible marker
allows women to note down interesting characteristics of their lover.
Hair, toenail clippings, saliva, and sperm can be collected and stored
in the penis drawer.
YU JORDY FU (graduated RCA 2005)
Yu Jordy Fu had her first solo art exhibition at the age of six and has since published two books and participated in many international exhibitions. Before coming to London to continue her studies Jordy was trained as a pianist and TV presenter. She has a degree in Art and Design from Central Saint Martins College of Art and a Masters in architecture from the Royal College of Art London. Jordy's work in the exhibition continues her interest in design that meets peoples' dreams, engages their emotions and transforms their desires into delights.
HALLELUJAH FAMILY® (Paper model, 2006)
Hallelujah family®
is a response to the changing notion of family and the sharp increase
in homelessness. Jordy Fu proposes a new company, Family®, specialising
in the commodification of ‘family moments’ that operates a town in
which hybrids of homes and essential facilities replace traditional
housing and in which everyone is contracted to take specific Family®
roles. Hallelujah Family® captures a Sunday breakfast in the
HomeChurch of Family® town. Widows are preparing breakfast on an
elongated cooking altar, single parent children are sat in big angel
chairs, divorcees meet singletons while milking the Family® cows and
everyone worships the Family® flowers that act as memorials to all the
Family® members who are no longer with us. Let the warmth of Family®
embrace you!
ANDREA GOECKE (graduated RCA 2004)
Andrea Goecke completed a Masters in Interior Architecture in Denmark
and Germany, before moving to London. With a 2-year scholarship from
the German DAAD she then studied at the Royal College of Art where she
won the DIN associates design prize, was nominated for the RIBA Silver
Medal and shortlisted for the Archiprix International Award for the
‘world’s best architectural graduates’. Her thesis project CUTE
POLITICS was exhibited at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin, the
Lighthouse in Glasgow and at the Venice Biennale of Architecture.
Adventure> (3D Architectural Graffiti and political toys, 2007)
Cute Politics responds to the growing population of Kidults,
who refuse to grow up, and who typically prefer to vote for reality TV
contestants than for politicians. Recognising the current failure and
the future potential of politics in this forever young society, the
architectural proposal is for a new town hall housed within a 3D
graffiti-tag. Within this urban spectacle, political parties attempt to
gain electoral advantage by translating their traditional manifestoes
into an engaging, interactive experience, and to re-educate this
entertainment-spoiled generation in the process.
CATHERINE GUIRAL + QUENTIN WALESCH (graduates RCA 2007)
After having respectively studied at the Ecole Nationale des Arts
Décoratifs, CalArts, Universität der Künste Berlin and the Central
Saint-Martins, Catherine Guiral and Quentin Walesch met at the Royal
College of Art where they have since designed the RCA Architecture
Annual for the 10th Architecture Biennale in Venice and the Royal
Overseas League catalogue amongst various projects. Their mutual
interests lies in a mélange of theory and practice and the duo combines their different approaches to the métier
of Design to neglect the expected and ordinary. In 2005, Catherine was
selected as one of the top 25 Young Designers by US magazine Step. Her
articles have been published on Limited Language and the ERG in
Brussels and her work presented at the Jeune Création Show in Paris.
Quentin went to New-York to work with Stefan Sagmeister Inc. His
collaborative work with Peter Zizka for Medico International’s
anti-landmine campaign was exhibited at the foreign ministry in Berlin
and the Kunsthall Rotterdam amongst others. He has won first prizes
from the Art Directors Club Germany and Europe.
ATAXOMANIA, (Installation, mixed materials, 3.5 x 12 m, 2007)
Following the commission for the graphics of the exhibition, Ataxomania is a 12 meter-long façade created especially for Don’t Panic.
Given the intrinsic nature of the exhibition, C+Q crafted an object of
seduction and release as a way to provide the visitors with a space of
primeval self-expression.
TOMAS KLASSNIK (graduated RCA 2006)
Tomas Klassnik studied architecture at Cambridge University and the Royal College of Art where he was awarded the DIN associates design prize and received a distinction for his dissertation ‘Corridors and Perception’. Nominated for the RIBA silver medal, he has worked for Reiser and Umemoto NY, Ian Simpson Architects, FAT and the AOC. Thomas teaches interior and spatial design at Chelsea College of Art, has edited the London Architecture Diary and exhibited at the Architecture Foundation and the 2006 Venice architecture Biennale. www.klassnik.com
THE GREAT INDOORS (Installation, 2007)
In The Great Indoors Tomas Klassnik suggests a landscape
of tarmac fields and breezeblock villas populated by an enervated elite
who never leave the house. Sustained by a diet of uncensored electronic
stimulation and takeaway meals delivered by low paid immigrant labour,
communication between these two parties seeps out through the walls of
the house itself, avoiding any requirement for direct physical interaction.
Klassnik’s installation in the Yard’s outdoor space is a breeze
block faced shed whose roof is pierced by a timber ladder extending 12m
into the sky above. From here you can chat to your neighbours through
the built in megaphone, temporarily escaping the hermetic interior of
your breezeblock villa.
Nicola Koller
DRIVING WITH THE JONES (Film, 2007 and Architectural Drawings)
This film explores a world in which the English countryside might
finally succumb to tragi-pathogens, falling EEC subsides and ever
decreasing profits. Might the Ministry for agriculture form a
desperate alliance with ‘Ferret Homes’ to preserve the countryside as
an aesthetic experience only? Lifestyle value is given to the 4 million
cheap and fast homes we now require with farmers re-employed as
invigilators of this rural arena, providing polished visions of rolling
hills to be viewed from the rear view mirror of our 4 x 4 as we drive
through a new suburban wallpaper of motorway roundabouts.
MATTHIAS MEGYERI (graduated RCA 2003) www.sweetdreamssecurity.com
Coming from a political poster design background, studying visual
communication in Gunter Rambow’s class in Germany before doing MA in
design-products at the Royal College of Art, Matthias started to use
products as vehicles to explore social issues and contradictions in
human behaviour. His naive starting point is a documentary approach
with thousands of photographs of how people live and the everyday
environment. Addressing 250 UK chief police officers at their annual Secured by Design
conference in Hinckley Leicestershire is as important to his work as
collaborating with traditional, family run companies like HY Squire
& Sons, signing an international licensing deal with a mass market
distributor or working on one-off bespoke installations for private
clients. His Sweet Dreams Security™ limited edition products
are sold worldwide in shops ranging from Colette and MoMA stores to
Paul Smith and are permanently installed at Hoxton Square, London, THC,
Tokyo, SESC, Sao Paulo. Matthias’ work has been published and exhibited
internationally, of which the ‘SAFE – Design Takes on Risk’ show at the
MoMA in NY was a highlight.
SWEET DREAMS SECURITY™ Est. 2003 (Installation, 2007)
The number of households protected by burglar alarms has doubled in the
UK since 1992, with the global market share for intruder alarm systems
exceeding $2.5 billion. In 2003, Matthias Aron Megyeri formed a
commercial company and brand, Sweet Dreams Security™,
to intervene in the ever-expanding home security market with critical
reworkings of traditional domestic defenses. Promising to ‘spread
mental wellbeing through non-threatening design’, Sweet Dreams Security™
is both a business and a research project investigating paranoia and
its relationship with consumer motivation. Are the desire for
‘cosiness’, (sentimental ornaments, garden gnomes, frilly curtains) and
the growing demand for security, contradictory impulses or related
symptoms of a misguided faith in retail ‘therapy’*? Sweet Dreams Security™
products, from Victorian railings with grinning-bunny finials in place
of spikes to padlock’s shaped like Teddy bears, combine the worlds of
kitsch and crime prevention, adjusting the classic dogma ‘form follows
function’ to embrace psychological as well as ergonomic need.
*27.9 million UK consumers suffer from above normal levels of stress or depression.
METRO www.metro.co.uk
Metro was launched in March 1999 as a free, colour newspaper for morning commuters. At first it was only available in London, but now commuters in 13 of Britain's major cities can pick up a free copy of Metro as they travel to work in the morning. Every weekday morning some 1.12million copies are distributed across the UK making Metro the world's largest free newspaper and the fourth biggest newspaper in the UK.
SELECTION OF FRONT COVERS 2000-2007
Metro has no political axe to grind. In it’s 8 years of existence it
has looked at the lives of modern workers, and perhaps more than any
other paper reflects the perhaps unofficial concerns of the capitol.
DAVID PIERCE (graduated RCA 2005)
David Pierce graduated from the Royal College of Art with a Masters in
Architecture and the Bartlett School of Architecture, University
College London. While at the RCA David won the Award for Design Process
and exhibited and lectured at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin
during the Transmediale International Exhibition. In 2006 the Victoria
& Albert Museum commissioned David Pierce and Jonathan Dallas to
design two temporary structures to celebrate the opening of the Jameel
Gallery of Middle Eastern Art which were exhibited during the summer of
2006.
SHATTERED BODIES & EXQUISITE CORPSES (Architectural model and implants, 2007)
Burial and cremation are no longer viable for the final disposition of
the dead; cemeteries are overcrowded and crematoria highly polluting.
David Pierce proposes two future procedures: The first is ecological
and will help the UK achieve sustainability targets; internal
prosthetics are extracted before the body is freeze-dried and shattered
producing biodegradable 'compost'. The second is for the defiant that
have invested both pain and money on cosmetic surgery; carefully
planned aesthetic-suicide ensures their physical perfection is
preserved long after their death. Along with a collection of objects
recovered from corpses, the exhibit focuses on the new architectural
infrastructure that these procedures require, including a body
processing plant, a series of chapels and a catacomb.
SALLY QUINN (graduated RCA 2004)
Sally Quinn was awarded first class honours for her Masters degree in
Architectural Design at the University of Edinburgh before receiving an
MA in Architecture and Interiors at the Royal College of Art. She has
tutored at Brighton and Nottingham Universities and is currently
working with Fashion Architecture Taste in London. Sally’s Blood Sense
project exhibited here was short-listed for the Helen Hamlyn Award and
received the runner-up prize for the National Grid Transco Creative
Thinking for a Responsible Future Award.
BLOOD SENCE (Architectural model, 2007 and altered corset, 2004)
Sally Quinn’s Blood Sense
project is a response to the dependence of our ageing population on an
increasingly unreliable blood supply. Fears over shortages of clean
blood and an increasing reliance on the regenerative power of stem
cells will become catalysts for new markets in biological storage. The Blood Sense
exhibit includes a detailed model of a 200m high bio-archive tower
bleeding into a corset that celebrates menstrual secretion. Layers of
the building are peeled away to reveal the paths of donors, laboratory
staff and visitors, hygienically interwoven with sterile mass-storage
volumes that cryo-preserve blood and other body products. The corset is
a fashion item, worn by a donor to exhibit their uncontaminated blood.
TANYA RAINSLEY (graduated RCA 2006)
Born in London, Tanya completed an art foundation before going on to
study architecture at the Bartlett, UCL. Following her degree she
worked in various small practices in London and Amsterdam. Her
exhibited project, ‘Mother Hackney’
deals with disappointment at the failure of science to deliver the
future we were promised and was awarded the Hamilton Prize for Design
Process and nominated for the RIBA Silver medal. It was first
exhibited at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2006. She currently
works with Future Systems, London.
MOTHER HACKNEY (Architectural model/Diorama 2006)
Science is failing to provide for our technological needs; therefore
Tanya Rainsley proposes that we must look to Mother Earth and her
sisters the stars to support us in our electrical addictions. Tanya’s
project focuses on Hackney’s future energy needs. The centre piece of
the scheme is a local nuclear power source surrounded by an
electromagnetic Lido in which to physically experience one’s aura
within the cosmos. Visitors float in the energised waters of the
cooling towers, bask in the earth's field on the electromagnetic beach
of auras and observe the stars through the astrological web of the
electrical substation. The auric conversation between Hackney’s
inhabitants and Gaia’s energies relieves the fear that the Mother Earth
is in crisis.
TIM SIMPSON (graduated RCA 2006) www.timsimpson.net
is a young British designer. He studied at Kingston University [Product
and Furniture Design] and then MA Design Products at the Royal College
of Art, he has lived and studied in London for the past 5 years. The
medium of Tim's work is diverse, from products, to film and
installation pieces. Rich in narrative and cultural observation, his
work often acknowledges a brutal truth or reality that exists within
society, which is usually conveyed with dry humour and wit. He is
currently working on the next Natural Deselection project, as well as a
new film piece entitled Suspenseful Products. His work has been
exhibited at the London Design Museum and at the Venice Architecture
Biennale. Thames.
SUBVERSIVE SIGHTSEEING (Coin operated telescope, 2006)
As tourists we are hyper receptive to the city landscape. There is a
cinematic sense of scale and permanence that comes from looking at
tall, vastly built cities. We dream, fantasise and wonder. Subversive
Sightseeing is a coin-operated, tourist telescope but through it you
see a film of an unravelling sequence of epic catastrophes. In the
distance a crane collapses, a mushroom cloud appears on the horizon,
and a capsule on the London Eye dangles precariously over the Thames.
As a public, sight-specific installation, in June 2006 the telescope
was placed upon Hungerford Bridge in London on the exact location the
film was shot. By exploiting our trust in the built architectural
landscape, the device is intended to recognise the cinematic ingenuity
of our fantasies, and the ramifications events such as 9/11 have on our
collective imaginations.
NOAM TORAN (graduated RCA 2001) www.noamtoran.com
Born in Las Cruces, New Mexico, Noam Toran studied fine art and
combined commissions with set designs for theatre and film before
receiving an MA in design at the Royal College of Art in London. Noam
creates films and installations which use the language of products and
their distinctive position in culture as a means with which to
investigate anomalies in human behaviour; anomalies which specifically
reflect a retaliation against imposed social conformity. Often the
products are developed for individuals as vehicles for self-expression
and a celebration of uniqueness based on personal “quirks”, desires
and fantasies. The work serves to simultaneously expand upon the
conflict between citizens, corporations and popular culture and to
question the role of objects (and their designers) as protagonists of
conventionality. In almost all his work there is a darkly humorous
conflict: What types of identity do we project onto objects? How and
why do we subvert objects in order for them to achieve more complex
functionality? What does this reveal about the human condition and the
systems that organize society? His recent work has been exhibited in
London, Tokyo, Stockholm, Berlin, Paris and Jerusalem and has been
published internationally. He currently teaches at the Royal College of
Art.
DESIRE MANAGEMENT (Film, 2004-2006)
Desire Management
is an installation and film celebrating the use of products as
platforms for dissident behaviour. In the project, the domestic space
is defined as the last private frontier, a place where alienated people
use bespoke appliances to engage in unorthodox experiences. Based on
real testimonials and news reports, the objects created attempt to
reveal the inherent need for expression and identity formation in the
face of conformity. The installation was originally shown at the Venice
Architecture Biennale in Summer 2004. The project was commissioned by
the CNAC Pompidou as part of the D.Day – Design Aujourd’hui exhibition and was screened at the 2005 Raindance Film Festival. In collaboration with Director of Photography Per Tingleff.
OBJECT FOR LONELY MEN (Film, 2001)
The film tells the story of a man so obsessed with Godard’s A Bout de Souffle
that he designs and builds a tray which reflects the physical language
of the film. The tray is made from a single sheet of vacuum formed
plastic and has recesses which house the objects that the man interacts
with. The objects include a mannequin head which resembles Jean Seberg
(the female lead), a gun, hat, telephone, Herald Tribune newspaper,
sunglasses, ashtray, steering wheel, rear view mirror and a pack of
Gitanes non-filtered cigarettes. The tray serves as an outlet for the
man’s desires; it allows him to directly channel the influence of the
movie on his fantasies into physical action.
GERRARD O’CARROLL (Curator)
Architect, Writer and
Curator and Tutor in Architecture at the Royal College of Art, formed a
design studio at the RCA in 2001 with Fiona Raby as a reaction to what
they felt was a dated modernist status quo in design education and
thinking. All the architectural projects in Don’t Panic
began life in this studio. Gerrard has designed and curated design
shows for the British Council (2004) and with Nigel Coates, Babylondon
at the Venice Biennale (2006) and in currently designing and producing
The Great Exhibition to celebrate 150 years of The Royal college in a
pavilion in Kensington Gardens, June 2007.
Don't Panic featured films, architectural projects, design products and installations by recent graduates and tutors from the Royal College of Art, curated by Gerrard O'Carroll. These addressed the realities of contemporary life that architects and designers usually ignore: fear, danger and the fragility of human behaviour. It embraced and celebrated a world full of contradiction and complication, a society obsessed with youth, beauty, media and celebrity, a society where what we believe to be true has more value than empirical truth, a society obsessed with itself and its own desires, a society searching for instant gratification, a society in which fewer than 50% of us describe ourselves as happy.
Artists whose work featured included Elio Caccavale, Joel Dunmore, Dunne and Raby, Jordy Fu, Andrea Goecke, Catherine Guiral + Quentin Walesch, Tomas Klassnik, Nicola Koller, Mathias Megyeri, Metro, David Pierce, Sally Quinn, Tanya Rainsley, Tim Simpson and Noam Toran.
Don't Panic was supported by the late John Eldridge, who was a passionate enthusiast for architecture and his generosity entirely characteristic of him. The exhibition was a fitting tribute to his spirit of adventure and inquiry.
Exhibitors
ELIO CACAVALE (graduated RCA 2003) www.eliocaccavale.com
Elio Caccavale, born 1975 in Naples, Italy, studied Product Design at
Glasgow School of Art before going on to the Royal College of Art to
complete a master in Design Products. He has since divided his time
between consultancy, research, teaching and writing. His projects
typically involve collaboration with natural scientists, social
scientists and biomedical ethicists and explore the emerging
biotechnologies and the effects that they might have on life in the
future.
Elio has exhibited his work and lectured internationally. He has
recently presented his work at the World Forum on Science and
Civilization organized by The James Martin Institute (part of the
University of Oxford) and at the ESRC Genomics Policy and Research
Forum (part of the University of Edinburgh).
Elio teaches Product Design at Central Saint Martins College of Art and
Design (part of the University of the Arts). He is also visiting
lecturer on the MA Design Interactions course at the Royal College of
Art. He is currently a researcher in the Interaction Research Studio
(Design Department) at Goldsmiths College (part of the University of
London) working on The Material Beliefs project. He has though as
visiting lecturer at the Architectural Association. He is currently
contributing with Professor Michael Reiss (Chief Executive of Science
Learning Centre London) to the forthcoming 'Creative Encounters' book
to be published by the Wellcome Trust London. Elio work has received
the Wellcome Trust Sciart Award and the I.D. Design Award.
UTILITY PETS (Series of products with accompanying film, 2004)
Utility Pets is an experimental project that uses products to draw
attention to the ethical consequences of xenotransplantation - the
transplantation of animal organs into humans. In the not-so-distant
future, Elio imagined that shortly after birth, people will be given a
piglet with their own DNA engineered into it. The pig, known as a
"knockout" pig in the scientific jargon, is a form of living insurance
policy - an organ bank. This project explores what kind of new objects
might be needed if the pig lives in the home with its owner's family.
The Utility Pet products include a low-resolution TV exclusively for pigs, which they can control themselves; a pig toy with a microphone and a radio handset allowing the owner to listen to the pig enjoying itself; a smoke-filtering device allowing a person to smoke in front of the pig without it suffering the consequences of passive smoking; and a comforter - a psychological product made from the snout of the sacrificed pig, which serves as a memento after the xenotransplantation has been carried out, and helps people come to terms with the contradictory feelings generated by this complex situation.
JOEL DUNMORE (graduated RCA 2005)
Joel Dunmore studied at The Bartlett School of Architecture and The Royal College of Art, where he pursued his fascination with fictional documentaries. Joel's design projects have been inspired and driven equally by prophetic news articles, literary narratives, and by an instinctive tendency towards dynamic concepts and sculptural forms. His deeply ironic project Grief or Relief won the Keppie Design and National Grid Transco Awards 2005. Joel's work has previously been exhibited at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin, the London Design Week and at the Venice Biennale of Architecture.
I DIDN'T KNOW YOU BUT I MISS YOU (Mixed media, 2007)
What unites our nation these days other than fear and grief? Princess
Diana, The Soham murders and 7/7 bring busloads of tourists; grief and
horror are part of our leisure culture- ' a good day out' is had by
all. So much pleasure can be had from so much misery. Might Stratford
re-invent itself as a focus for national grief unity? Wind turbines and
giraffes employed to produce infrasound at a frequency that stimulates
feelings of sadness and melancholy, ensure the tourists leave feeling
sated. Meanwhile this captured audience might conceal a darker side. A
DNA laboratory collects our samples and dispenses life-expectancy
probability, predicting our tourist's genetic chances of a slow and
painful death.
DUNNE AND RABY www.dunneandraby.co.uk
Professor Anthony Dunne & Fiona Raby use products and services as a medium to stimulate discussion and debate amongst designers, industry and the public about the social, cultural and ethical implications of emerging technologies. Many of their projects are collaborative, working with industrial research labs, academia and cultural institutions to design both speculative products and services. Projects include: Hertzian Tales, a combination of essays and design proposals exploring the aesthetic meanings of electronic objects (published 1999); Weeds, Aliens and Other Stories (with Micahel Anastassiades), a collection of psychological furniture for the home and garden (published 2000); FLIRT, a European Union funded research project investigating location-based services for mobile phones (published 2000); and Placebo, a collection of electronic objects which explore mental well-being in relation to domestic electromagnetic fields (published 2001). BioLand their current research project investigates how a critical design approach can be applied to the field of biotechnology. Anthony and Fiona were founding members of the CRD Research Studio at the Royal College of Art (1994-2002), Anthony is currently Professor and Head of Design Interaction at The Royal College of Art, and Fiona runs design studios in both Design Interaction and Architecture. Design Noir: The Secret Life of Electronic Objects was published by August/Birkhauser in 2001.
EVIDENCE DOLLS (Installation, 2005)
How will
dating change when DNA analysis can reveal the presence of undesirable
genes? Evidence Dolls are hypothetical products sold in a fictional
shopping mall called Bioland. The Dolls were commissioned by the
Pompidou Centre for the D-Day exhibition in 2005. The project consists
of one hundred specially designed dolls used to provoke discussion
amongst a group of young single women about the impact of genetic
technology on their lifestyle. The Dolls come in three versions based
on penis size (small, medium and large). A black indelible marker
allows women to note down interesting characteristics of their lover.
Hair, toenail clippings, saliva, and sperm can be collected and stored
in the penis drawer.
YU JORDY FU (graduated RCA 2005)
Yu Jordy Fu had her first solo art exhibition at the age of six and has since published two books and participated in many international exhibitions. Before coming to London to continue her studies Jordy was trained as a pianist and TV presenter. She has a degree in Art and Design from Central Saint Martins College of Art and a Masters in architecture from the Royal College of Art London. Jordy's work in the exhibition continues her interest in design that meets peoples' dreams, engages their emotions and transforms their desires into delights.
HALLELUJAH FAMILY® (Paper model, 2006)
Hallelujah family®
is a response to the changing notion of family and the sharp increase
in homelessness. Jordy Fu proposes a new company, Family®, specialising
in the commodification of ‘family moments’ that operates a town in
which hybrids of homes and essential facilities replace traditional
housing and in which everyone is contracted to take specific Family®
roles. Hallelujah Family® captures a Sunday breakfast in the
HomeChurch of Family® town. Widows are preparing breakfast on an
elongated cooking altar, single parent children are sat in big angel
chairs, divorcees meet singletons while milking the Family® cows and
everyone worships the Family® flowers that act as memorials to all the
Family® members who are no longer with us. Let the warmth of Family®
embrace you!
ANDREA GOECKE (graduated RCA 2004)
Andrea Goecke completed a Masters in Interior Architecture in Denmark
and Germany, before moving to London. With a 2-year scholarship from
the German DAAD she then studied at the Royal College of Art where she
won the DIN associates design prize, was nominated for the RIBA Silver
Medal and shortlisted for the Archiprix International Award for the
‘world’s best architectural graduates’. Her thesis project CUTE
POLITICS was exhibited at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin, the
Lighthouse in Glasgow and at the Venice Biennale of Architecture.
Adventure> (3D Architectural Graffiti and political toys, 2007)
Cute Politics responds to the growing population of Kidults,
who refuse to grow up, and who typically prefer to vote for reality TV
contestants than for politicians. Recognising the current failure and
the future potential of politics in this forever young society, the
architectural proposal is for a new town hall housed within a 3D
graffiti-tag. Within this urban spectacle, political parties attempt to
gain electoral advantage by translating their traditional manifestoes
into an engaging, interactive experience, and to re-educate this
entertainment-spoiled generation in the process.
CATHERINE GUIRAL + QUENTIN WALESCH (graduates RCA 2007)
After having respectively studied at the Ecole Nationale des Arts
Décoratifs, CalArts, Universität der Künste Berlin and the Central
Saint-Martins, Catherine Guiral and Quentin Walesch met at the Royal
College of Art where they have since designed the RCA Architecture
Annual for the 10th Architecture Biennale in Venice and the Royal
Overseas League catalogue amongst various projects. Their mutual
interests lies in a mélange of theory and practice and the duo combines their different approaches to the métier
of Design to neglect the expected and ordinary. In 2005, Catherine was
selected as one of the top 25 Young Designers by US magazine Step. Her
articles have been published on Limited Language and the ERG in
Brussels and her work presented at the Jeune Création Show in Paris.
Quentin went to New-York to work with Stefan Sagmeister Inc. His
collaborative work with Peter Zizka for Medico International’s
anti-landmine campaign was exhibited at the foreign ministry in Berlin
and the Kunsthall Rotterdam amongst others. He has won first prizes
from the Art Directors Club Germany and Europe.
ATAXOMANIA, (Installation, mixed materials, 3.5 x 12 m, 2007)
Following the commission for the graphics of the exhibition, Ataxomania is a 12 meter-long façade created especially for Don’t Panic.
Given the intrinsic nature of the exhibition, C+Q crafted an object of
seduction and release as a way to provide the visitors with a space of
primeval self-expression.
TOMAS KLASSNIK (graduated RCA 2006)
Tomas Klassnik studied architecture at Cambridge University and the Royal College of Art where he was awarded the DIN associates design prize and received a distinction for his dissertation ‘Corridors and Perception’. Nominated for the RIBA silver medal, he has worked for Reiser and Umemoto NY, Ian Simpson Architects, FAT and the AOC. Thomas teaches interior and spatial design at Chelsea College of Art, has edited the London Architecture Diary and exhibited at the Architecture Foundation and the 2006 Venice architecture Biennale. www.klassnik.com
THE GREAT INDOORS (Installation, 2007)
In The Great Indoors Tomas Klassnik suggests a landscape
of tarmac fields and breezeblock villas populated by an enervated elite
who never leave the house. Sustained by a diet of uncensored electronic
stimulation and takeaway meals delivered by low paid immigrant labour,
communication between these two parties seeps out through the walls of
the house itself, avoiding any requirement for direct physical interaction.
Klassnik’s installation in the Yard’s outdoor space is a breeze
block faced shed whose roof is pierced by a timber ladder extending 12m
into the sky above. From here you can chat to your neighbours through
the built in megaphone, temporarily escaping the hermetic interior of
your breezeblock villa.
Nicola Koller
DRIVING WITH THE JONES (Film, 2007 and Architectural Drawings)
This film explores a world in which the English countryside might
finally succumb to tragi-pathogens, falling EEC subsides and ever
decreasing profits. Might the Ministry for agriculture form a
desperate alliance with ‘Ferret Homes’ to preserve the countryside as
an aesthetic experience only? Lifestyle value is given to the 4 million
cheap and fast homes we now require with farmers re-employed as
invigilators of this rural arena, providing polished visions of rolling
hills to be viewed from the rear view mirror of our 4 x 4 as we drive
through a new suburban wallpaper of motorway roundabouts.
MATTHIAS MEGYERI (graduated RCA 2003) www.sweetdreamssecurity.com
Coming from a political poster design background, studying visual
communication in Gunter Rambow’s class in Germany before doing MA in
design-products at the Royal College of Art, Matthias started to use
products as vehicles to explore social issues and contradictions in
human behaviour. His naive starting point is a documentary approach
with thousands of photographs of how people live and the everyday
environment. Addressing 250 UK chief police officers at their annual Secured by Design
conference in Hinckley Leicestershire is as important to his work as
collaborating with traditional, family run companies like HY Squire
& Sons, signing an international licensing deal with a mass market
distributor or working on one-off bespoke installations for private
clients. His Sweet Dreams Security™ limited edition products
are sold worldwide in shops ranging from Colette and MoMA stores to
Paul Smith and are permanently installed at Hoxton Square, London, THC,
Tokyo, SESC, Sao Paulo. Matthias’ work has been published and exhibited
internationally, of which the ‘SAFE – Design Takes on Risk’ show at the
MoMA in NY was a highlight.
SWEET DREAMS SECURITY™ Est. 2003 (Installation, 2007)
The number of households protected by burglar alarms has doubled in the
UK since 1992, with the global market share for intruder alarm systems
exceeding $2.5 billion. In 2003, Matthias Aron Megyeri formed a
commercial company and brand, Sweet Dreams Security™,
to intervene in the ever-expanding home security market with critical
reworkings of traditional domestic defenses. Promising to ‘spread
mental wellbeing through non-threatening design’, Sweet Dreams Security™
is both a business and a research project investigating paranoia and
its relationship with consumer motivation. Are the desire for
‘cosiness’, (sentimental ornaments, garden gnomes, frilly curtains) and
the growing demand for security, contradictory impulses or related
symptoms of a misguided faith in retail ‘therapy’*? Sweet Dreams Security™
products, from Victorian railings with grinning-bunny finials in place
of spikes to padlock’s shaped like Teddy bears, combine the worlds of
kitsch and crime prevention, adjusting the classic dogma ‘form follows
function’ to embrace psychological as well as ergonomic need.
*27.9 million UK consumers suffer from above normal levels of stress or depression.
METRO www.metro.co.uk
Metro was launched in March 1999 as a free, colour newspaper for morning commuters. At first it was only available in London, but now commuters in 13 of Britain's major cities can pick up a free copy of Metro as they travel to work in the morning. Every weekday morning some 1.12million copies are distributed across the UK making Metro the world's largest free newspaper and the fourth biggest newspaper in the UK.
SELECTION OF FRONT COVERS 2000-2007
Metro has no political axe to grind. In it’s 8 years of existence it
has looked at the lives of modern workers, and perhaps more than any
other paper reflects the perhaps unofficial concerns of the capitol.
DAVID PIERCE (graduated RCA 2005)
David Pierce graduated from the Royal College of Art with a Masters in
Architecture and the Bartlett School of Architecture, University
College London. While at the RCA David won the Award for Design Process
and exhibited and lectured at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin
during the Transmediale International Exhibition. In 2006 the Victoria
& Albert Museum commissioned David Pierce and Jonathan Dallas to
design two temporary structures to celebrate the opening of the Jameel
Gallery of Middle Eastern Art which were exhibited during the summer of
2006.
SHATTERED BODIES & EXQUISITE CORPSES (Architectural model and implants, 2007)
Burial and cremation are no longer viable for the final disposition of
the dead; cemeteries are overcrowded and crematoria highly polluting.
David Pierce proposes two future procedures: The first is ecological
and will help the UK achieve sustainability targets; internal
prosthetics are extracted before the body is freeze-dried and shattered
producing biodegradable 'compost'. The second is for the defiant that
have invested both pain and money on cosmetic surgery; carefully
planned aesthetic-suicide ensures their physical perfection is
preserved long after their death. Along with a collection of objects
recovered from corpses, the exhibit focuses on the new architectural
infrastructure that these procedures require, including a body
processing plant, a series of chapels and a catacomb.
SALLY QUINN (graduated RCA 2004)
Sally Quinn was awarded first class honours for her Masters degree in
Architectural Design at the University of Edinburgh before receiving an
MA in Architecture and Interiors at the Royal College of Art. She has
tutored at Brighton and Nottingham Universities and is currently
working with Fashion Architecture Taste in London. Sally’s Blood Sense
project exhibited here was short-listed for the Helen Hamlyn Award and
received the runner-up prize for the National Grid Transco Creative
Thinking for a Responsible Future Award.
BLOOD SENCE (Architectural model, 2007 and altered corset, 2004)
Sally Quinn’s Blood Sense
project is a response to the dependence of our ageing population on an
increasingly unreliable blood supply. Fears over shortages of clean
blood and an increasing reliance on the regenerative power of stem
cells will become catalysts for new markets in biological storage. The Blood Sense
exhibit includes a detailed model of a 200m high bio-archive tower
bleeding into a corset that celebrates menstrual secretion. Layers of
the building are peeled away to reveal the paths of donors, laboratory
staff and visitors, hygienically interwoven with sterile mass-storage
volumes that cryo-preserve blood and other body products. The corset is
a fashion item, worn by a donor to exhibit their uncontaminated blood.
TANYA RAINSLEY (graduated RCA 2006)
Born in London, Tanya completed an art foundation before going on to
study architecture at the Bartlett, UCL. Following her degree she
worked in various small practices in London and Amsterdam. Her
exhibited project, ‘Mother Hackney’
deals with disappointment at the failure of science to deliver the
future we were promised and was awarded the Hamilton Prize for Design
Process and nominated for the RIBA Silver medal. It was first
exhibited at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2006. She currently
works with Future Systems, London.
MOTHER HACKNEY (Architectural model/Diorama 2006)
Science is failing to provide for our technological needs; therefore
Tanya Rainsley proposes that we must look to Mother Earth and her
sisters the stars to support us in our electrical addictions. Tanya’s
project focuses on Hackney’s future energy needs. The centre piece of
the scheme is a local nuclear power source surrounded by an
electromagnetic Lido in which to physically experience one’s aura
within the cosmos. Visitors float in the energised waters of the
cooling towers, bask in the earth's field on the electromagnetic beach
of auras and observe the stars through the astrological web of the
electrical substation. The auric conversation between Hackney’s
inhabitants and Gaia’s energies relieves the fear that the Mother Earth
is in crisis.
TIM SIMPSON (graduated RCA 2006) www.timsimpson.net
is a young British designer. He studied at Kingston University [Product
and Furniture Design] and then MA Design Products at the Royal College
of Art, he has lived and studied in London for the past 5 years. The
medium of Tim's work is diverse, from products, to film and
installation pieces. Rich in narrative and cultural observation, his
work often acknowledges a brutal truth or reality that exists within
society, which is usually conveyed with dry humour and wit. He is
currently working on the next Natural Deselection project, as well as a
new film piece entitled Suspenseful Products. His work has been
exhibited at the London Design Museum and at the Venice Architecture
Biennale. Thames.
SUBVERSIVE SIGHTSEEING (Coin operated telescope, 2006)
As tourists we are hyper receptive to the city landscape. There is a
cinematic sense of scale and permanence that comes from looking at
tall, vastly built cities. We dream, fantasise and wonder. Subversive
Sightseeing is a coin-operated, tourist telescope but through it you
see a film of an unravelling sequence of epic catastrophes. In the
distance a crane collapses, a mushroom cloud appears on the horizon,
and a capsule on the London Eye dangles precariously over the Thames.
As a public, sight-specific installation, in June 2006 the telescope
was placed upon Hungerford Bridge in London on the exact location the
film was shot. By exploiting our trust in the built architectural
landscape, the device is intended to recognise the cinematic ingenuity
of our fantasies, and the ramifications events such as 9/11 have on our
collective imaginations.
NOAM TORAN (graduated RCA 2001) www.noamtoran.com
Born in Las Cruces, New Mexico, Noam Toran studied fine art and
combined commissions with set designs for theatre and film before
receiving an MA in design at the Royal College of Art in London. Noam
creates films and installations which use the language of products and
their distinctive position in culture as a means with which to
investigate anomalies in human behaviour; anomalies which specifically
reflect a retaliation against imposed social conformity. Often the
products are developed for individuals as vehicles for self-expression
and a celebration of uniqueness based on personal “quirks”, desires
and fantasies. The work serves to simultaneously expand upon the
conflict between citizens, corporations and popular culture and to
question the role of objects (and their designers) as protagonists of
conventionality. In almost all his work there is a darkly humorous
conflict: What types of identity do we project onto objects? How and
why do we subvert objects in order for them to achieve more complex
functionality? What does this reveal about the human condition and the
systems that organize society? His recent work has been exhibited in
London, Tokyo, Stockholm, Berlin, Paris and Jerusalem and has been
published internationally. He currently teaches at the Royal College of
Art.
DESIRE MANAGEMENT (Film, 2004-2006)
Desire Management
is an installation and film celebrating the use of products as
platforms for dissident behaviour. In the project, the domestic space
is defined as the last private frontier, a place where alienated people
use bespoke appliances to engage in unorthodox experiences. Based on
real testimonials and news reports, the objects created attempt to
reveal the inherent need for expression and identity formation in the
face of conformity. The installation was originally shown at the Venice
Architecture Biennale in Summer 2004. The project was commissioned by
the CNAC Pompidou as part of the D.Day – Design Aujourd’hui exhibition and was screened at the 2005 Raindance Film Festival. In collaboration with Director of Photography Per Tingleff.
OBJECT FOR LONELY MEN (Film, 2001)
The film tells the story of a man so obsessed with Godard’s A Bout de Souffle
that he designs and builds a tray which reflects the physical language
of the film. The tray is made from a single sheet of vacuum formed
plastic and has recesses which house the objects that the man interacts
with. The objects include a mannequin head which resembles Jean Seberg
(the female lead), a gun, hat, telephone, Herald Tribune newspaper,
sunglasses, ashtray, steering wheel, rear view mirror and a pack of
Gitanes non-filtered cigarettes. The tray serves as an outlet for the
man’s desires; it allows him to directly channel the influence of the
movie on his fantasies into physical action.
GERRARD O’CARROLL (Curator)
Architect, Writer and
Curator and Tutor in Architecture at the Royal College of Art, formed a
design studio at the RCA in 2001 with Fiona Raby as a reaction to what
they felt was a dated modernist status quo in design education and
thinking. All the architectural projects in Don’t Panic
began life in this studio. Gerrard has designed and curated design
shows for the British Council (2004) and with Nigel Coates, Babylondon
at the Venice Biennale (2006) and in currently designing and producing
The Great Exhibition to celebrate 150 years of The Royal college in a
pavilion in Kensington Gardens, June 2007.
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