The Goldsmiths Design group at the Salone Satellite 2009 arrived in Milan with 4 bags of hand luggage, containing their computers and printers, and a miscellany of tape, pens, stickers, sketchbooks and white paper. On arrival at their booth, they built their space by scavenging the rubbish of the other exhibitors, creating tables, desks and chairs.
Planning of what to show that best represented Goldsmiths began about a month ago. They decided to create an interactive studio, asking the public what they want next from design.
By showing the process the group hope their workshop opens up scope for interaction with the public. Each day they orchestrate several short projects, generally lasting no more than a couple of hours. Russ Martin of the group was delighted at how their events entice the public in “acting as starting points for discussions”. And their approach is a success, you can see the interest this group is creating just by the volume of the crowd they draw.
They work quickly, they are not shy to move on and throw things away. In regards to process Stuart Bannocks surmised that “stuff might work, it can be dropped at any time and that is okay, it either works or it doesn’t. You’ve just got to keep moving”.
After walking the length of Heathrow Airport across the Salone, I arrived at the Goldsmith’s booth in the middle of their lunch. Warmly welcomed and given a seat comprised of a shipping crate with a bubble wrap cushion, I joined them around their DIY table.
I quickly discovered that these guys enjoy being busy, the walls of the space covered in remnants of previous events, including ‘Italian to English’ phrase badges designed to help with communicating during a Salone visit. Question cards filled in by the public are plastered across the walls, asking what people would like to see next in design. The answers were put together by Sam Hill to create the group manifesto.
The lunchtime chat was about that day’s most recent event called Chair = Chicken. Stuart handed me a small piece of paper printed with an image of a chair and invited me to eat it…“because it tastes like chicken”. Smiles appeared across the table as I hesitantly put the item in my mouth and sure enough the chair tasted like chicken. The texture of the paper was that of candy floss or rice paper and the flavour was that of Pot Noodle.
The maestro of this project is Milan Matthey, a strand of his ongoing project, My Computer Feeds Me. Goldsmiths 09 had photographed chairs, tables, lighting and storage in the Salone and translated them into edibles. Each item was allocated a flavour, chairs=chicken, tables=tomato, lighting=whisky, storage=caramel.
Using a bog standard Epson printer, empty cartridges are filled with a mixture of edible, flavoured ink to print the furniture motifs onto edible printing paper. The paper is a form of potato starch and Milan advised it can even be purchased in your local Sainsbury’s (UK…).
The event itself was approached as a performance. Milan dressed up in full Chef whites as he printed off variety of edible delights, describing himself cheerfully as a “digital chef”. The edible designs were handed out to the eagerly queuing public inviting the public to “taste design” posing the question: “what does design taste like?” This lasted no more than an hour and then it was time to move on.
The group make it clear that these events are tools to engage discussion with the public. Julia de Klerk described their approach as a combination of fun and seriousness, “it is good to have a tool to create discussion, by giving a bit of a performance”.
These guys love to chat, working within and making the most of current online social networking, uploading discussions and events onto Flickr and Twitter.
The ongoing dialogue of their space is continually evolving. Standing outside the space and looking in with Russ Martin he views the space as “totally movable and re-arrangable”. Whist talking I see a visitor come into the space asking to take a print off the wall, Goldsmiths 09 were more than happy for people to pick thinks up and take them away.
To see what they are up to next I would get there quick as on the final day they plan make a feature of breaking down their space and leaving on the dot at 6.30pm Monday evening. They are producing a publication documenting the event and continuing their online stream of ideas with plans to return next year.
hello@goldsmiths09.co.uk
milan.metthey@hotmail.com
www.goldsmiths09.co.uk
Salone Satellite
Rho-Fiera, Milan
Stand B34 (the stand with the crowd)
9.30am – 6.30pm