Mumbai Day 16 & 17: India Design Forum
For the past two days I've attended the India Design Forum conference, an annual event organized by the Coimbatore Centre for Contemporary Arts (CoCCA). Similar to a TED event, IDF attempts to bring local and international design experts together in two days of presentations, discussions, and lectures in the heart of Mumbai.
While I will soon detail my reactions to the conference, I wanted to first post a video shown today by Marije Vogelzang, an "eating designer" from the Netherlands. While I initially expected a presentation from Ms. Vogelzang to showcase the art of culinary design, I was surprised by the true nature (and power) of her craft. Using food as a social catalyst, she designs highly unorthodox events with public, collaborative, and ameliorative ends. Though much of her work indeed centers on nutriment itself, her careful design of the dining environment seeks to re-configure social norms though highly simple (but never simplistic) means, questioning and re-imagining the seemingly banal task of eating with friends, colleagues, or strangers.
As an example of the tremendously powerful impact of her work, I have linked a video below which showcases a project she created for Dutch Design Days in Budapest. The breathtakingly subtle yet commanding tendencies of her designs are very well portrayed in this six-minute video.
Work of this calibre forces me to question the hubris of architects who, after years spent toiling in some of the world's finest academic institutions, profess that multi-million-dollar skyscrapers and elaborate geometric forms are the only means by which to positively impact society and, by extension, the urban environment. Ms. Vogelzang's powerful concept, paired with an absolute minimum of physical construction, produces an event which is profoundly moving and socially impactful.
Contemporary architectural practice needs to turn itself from the production of images and icons, and re-orient toward the invisible, the social, and the temporal: aspects of the urban environment too often overlooked in today's surface-obsessed society.