D I S T R I B U T E D D E S I G N¶
In the present most products we buy travel thousands of kilometres before they reach the consumer. They are produced in huge factories out of materials that also travel long distances before reaching the factory for mass production of standardised products that leave no room for individualisation, repair or knowledge about the origins or process.
Distributed Design is a novel approach to design which utilises global connectivity to move data, instead of product. The approach rethinks how goods are produced and from what materials whilst aiming to enhance the customer’s relationship with their products - Distributed Design Market Platform (Distributed Design Market Platform, 2018)
Distributed Design has its origins in maker culture and celebrates tinkering, hacking and serious play but it also has the potential to reduce the environmental and social impact of manufacturing and engage consumers to become active citizens through making. The central question is not only how objects and data themselves can be distributed, but also value and power. The contemporary distributed designer needs to be able to embody multiple perspectives but instead of the nodes being those of customers and clients they must also include communities, objects, rivers, companies, and all living beings. Designing this way is an opportunity to experience and become aware of the complex systems behind things, which in turn can change your mindset. - Driven by Distributed Design: Nat Hunter and Gareth Owen Lloyd from Other Today (www.youtube.com, n.d.)
More than 70 percent of a product’s environmental impact is decided in the design phase.* This makes design and designers a key factor in the circular transition. Distributed design can help fuel that transition - DDC – Danish Design Center (DDC – Danish Design Center, 2021)
Distributed design is a design approach that involves decentralizing the design process by dividing labor and sharing information digitally. Instead of shipping materials and products around the world, data is shared to enable local production using locally sourced and sustainable materials. In distributed design, users are empowered to take ownership of their products on a whole new level, and the relationship between designer and user is transformed. Users can impact the design by sharing feedback, ideas, and suggestions, which allows for a closer collaboration between designer and user. This design approach can result in products that are more sustainable, durable, and in tune with the needs of the consumer.
Distributed design offers designers the opportunity to rethink how they design, produce and consume products, and to take responsibility for designing products that are durable, repairable, and reusable. By designing and producing products locally, using locally sourced and sustainable materials, designers can significantly reduce the ecological footprint of their products. The relationship between designer and user is also transformed in distributed design, with users empowered to take ownership of their products and impact the design. By sharing information and opening up the design process, designers can establish closer collaborations with users, which can lead to the creation of products that are more in tune with consumer needs. The challenge for designers is to be willing to open up their design process and truly listen to their users in order to create products with a positive social and environmental impact.
Dialogue as a design tool “It is no longer an authoritarian relationship. I’m no longer selling you a chair that you can’t change. I’m making the chair open source, and we can have a dialogue about how that chair should be made for you,” says product designer Alex Kimber. (DDC – Danish Design Center, 2020)
It was really great to have a course in Distributed Design with Sally and Olga. It was when I found the Distributed Design Platform and started learning more about this that I actually found the Master in Design for Emergent Futures. Coming from a background in furniture and product design where I was questioning the practice with how things are made, where and why that Distributed Design caught my attention of looking at other ways to produce things locally and minimizing the impact of materials, production and transportation.
R E F L E C T I O N T R E E
The goal of the Reflection tree is to help you to evaluate a selected project so you can understand your project’s impact in relation to the Distributed Design Platform values. By reflecting on the values, you can identify your project’s alignment with Distributed Design; the impact you’re already creating in your project; and begin to identify what you might like to improve on in the short, mid- and longterm. Responses to the Reflection Tree will also help us as a platform provide better resources to support you on your journey to creating a project that is open, collaborative, regenerative, and ecosystemic.
It has three main features: the Distributed Design Platform values; a space for resources and reflections; and a summary evaluation space. The values move from basic to more complex approaches. Meanwhile, the intervention stages are divided into the design phase, production phase, lifecycle and end of life phase and, lastly, wider or spill over effects. Also, the last phase relates to your intervention’s overall impact and your capacity to apply systemic design. In practice, we know that you likely will never move through these stages in a unilateral direction, but will go back and forth between them, i.e. between the design and production phase while you test your prototype.
Using the reflection tree on the project Future Cravings that is a dinner experience where the tableware and food courses are made of the same ingredients with a special focus on waste and regenerative resources. The dinner includes a performative aspect as a playful prompt to ink the experience in memory and as a springboard for critical conversation. The first event focused on the subject of plastic waste in the sea, and we invited organisations and individuals with a background in this subject to attend. Our hope is that through this dinner, we can have a conversation that allows us all to ideate differently around this subject and perhaps find clues / solutions that we might not have otherwise. In a way this is us trying out a new methodology for climate action, based on the original problem solving forum: the dinner table (or the fire pit depending on how far back you go). For me this exercise was a really good way to reflect on a project, looking at what we think are important values to work from and questioning how intact they are within the project. It is always difficult to rate yourself or projects you are working on objectively, although this became secondary for me when doing this exercise, as it instead became good questions to ask along the way to understand what else can be done to make the project better and move in the desired direction to benefit as many as possible.
We also did an exercise where we shared our values within the class, something I can find difficult to pinpoint concretely sometimes as there are many that are important to me, but it was a good exercise to find words that communicate them. We then in groups had a chosen value that we were to analyse and reflect on where I together with four others worked with Curiosity and inclusivity. We had a long dialogue about why curiosity is an important value and how it could lead to inclusivity. Curiosity has existential cores of beings and other living things to survive, without it we wouldnt have a reason to live and evolve I think. It is also an important contribitor to collaboration, to be curious of other people, things and perspectives with an empathy for other ways and thoughts from those we have ourselves. Curiosity is therfor also a channel to inclusivity. For us to be curiosu and inclusive it is though important to have time and mental space to be able to be curious. If in a space where you only have time and space to survive the day, if from stress, mental health or economic situations curiosity has less space. We also agreed to some extent that inclusivity is a consious act that needs to be practiced. We spoke about many more things and this assignment was a very good way to dig deep into a word that we call value and think are important, and many times use without really reflecting on what we mean by it and what impcat it can have, both positive and negative.
L E A R N I N G S K I L L S
When doing the Reflection Tree and Value assignment it helped to be able to look at yourself, projects and values with an analytical and critical mind. It gives different perspectives and looks at both positive and negative impacts.
D Y N A M I C S
Within our group we had different ways of understanding and tackling things this created impactful and interesting discussions that helped us look at things from many different perspectives and get a broader understanding. I very much appreciate the differences within the group and how we had meaningful discussions due to these differences.
I N T E R A C T I O N S
When working with the value assignment I took on the roll to start writing down & illustrating what we were talking about. It is a roll I agree with as I communicate strongly visually, it didn’t influence my opinion per say about the topic, more inspired me more.
R E F E R E N C E S
DDC – Danish Design Center. (2020). How might distributed design change the designer’s role? [online] Available at: https://ddc.dk/how-might-distributed-design-change-the-designers-role/ [Accessed 14 Apr. 2023].
DDC – Danish Design Center. (2021). Distributed design: You have the power – we have the tool. [online] Available at: https://ddc.dk/distributed-design-you-have-the-power-we-have-the-tool/# [Accessed 14 Apr. 2023].
Distributed Design Market Platform. (2018). About - Distributed Design Market Platform. [online] Available at: https://distributeddesign.eu/about/.
www.youtube.com. (n.d.). Driven by Distributed Design: Nat Hunter and Gareth Owen Lloyd from Other Today. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pNhwKDWVy8 [Accessed 14 Apr. 2023].