Conference paper
Transakzio Denbora: The Timing of transaction
Summit of Donostia/San Sebastian
organized by Arteleku and Consonni

Discussing design matters in San Sebastian. What design? Which San Sebastian?
The office for Tele(communication), Historicity & Mobility is a design network
based in Rotterdam. We thought we were creating public identity programmes for cultural manifestations and local policies. Soon questions about identity and different notions of public became points of investigation in the projects. How can we think of one identity? Is it still valid to think in terms of identities? Who is the public? And why do we think these people are
interested in our (the policymakers’, the designers’) ideas.

proposal identityprogramm Rotterdam2001 / design t(c),h&m

In Rotterdam we witnessed a social and cultural revolt. It became visible at the
last May elections when the Populist politician Pim Fortuyn and his party won in both local and national elections. Less than a year later, all that is connected to a sense of quality, or to the vulnerable is suspect. Populistic motives govern. And so a new ‘Kulturkammer’ exists as never before.
Suddenly we talk about ‘High-Art’ and popular cultural events as oppositional realities, enclosed within their own forums. Atragic and unintended outcome of High and Low discussions. I do not think this is an incident, or just a regional, or national process. People have become disconnected from each other and from their environment. Global culture alienates people from their everyday reality especially as it is communicated? (mediated) through media. The haves find their way out with through luxurous consumption of the authentic; the have-nots through their rebellion against all that is institutionalized.

Antonio Carluccio’s “Goes wild” cookbook

Lately I met two people who both rebelled (for different motives) against the
institutionalized and bureauratized global reality. Fred, a very ordinary man,
and Linda, a highly concerned woman. Fred came out of the closet, he felt excluded. He isn’t hobbying in the basement anymore, he now works on the first floor. In fact, Fred is more a username that performs as the highly popular ordinary man. Not to be mistaken with the English working
class hero, Fred is not socio-economically bound. He is fundamentally non-instiutional, colourfully dressed, could be extreme or different in various ways but is most of all a middle-of-the-road white man. Fred ís this populistic revolt within us. Fred represents the voice of the silent majority that wants to re-conquer and redefine cities as exclusively their cities, culture as exclusively their culture. Fred is freed from his politically-not-correct stigma, he is allowed to reject all that is not in his private interest. Fred hates critical thinking, abstract painting or foreign language art videos in public art institutions. Fred likes national retro and figurative art, and thinks everything
should be (commodified) entertainment.
Linda is concerned. She is concerned about her identity. She is the ultimate role
model. Sensitive about both the sweat shops and her own looks. Wearing that exclusive Anti-shirt from famous Amsterdam designers.

Anti shirt

Linda doesn’t know that she protests against her own way of life. Inescapable, trapped in the media reality that absorbs everything, even her protest.

Linda and friends

Although she is not really opposed to an international way of life – travelling is a basic ingredient within her total identity –, she feels that ‘International Style’ should only be an icon and not a force running her life. What matters is her desire for individuality
rather than solidarity. The pitiful situation of a sweat shop conflicts with her
universal – but in fact western – desire. Linda’s contribution to the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) stands for a concern to all remote injustice. The Anti-globalist movement has become a mediatic religion, the participation in a collective penance.
Linda and Fred live in various European cities. Their lives are sucked into a reality that influences them, but which they can’t influence.

UNDO it yourself / www.tchm.nl/undo
/ design t(c),h&m

Many more different people have become disconnected from their history, or their future. Asense of place is lost. Juggled between the global and the local, between a titanium-cast museum brand and the celebration of local folklore, between fashionable life-styles and conservative populism. And it becomes even more complex when these opposing elements are brought together in media-cocktails. The multi-local global approach of Warner Brothers bringing out National Evergreens.

‘Ja Zuster Nee Zuster’-movie by WB

Or the city of The Hague launching a publicity campaign to improve the Moroccans’ image (developped by a commercial advertising agency and offered to many cities, with same characters’ local faces to be filled in).

brochure“How friendly are maroccans? The Hague edition

Within this perverted framework people want to find their way out.
Acity is not a brand. It is a place where people live and work. An accumulation
of stories, experiences and practices, message boards for cultural exchange.
Yet visual culture is dominated by mediocre commercial images and symbols. In
this heavily competitive reality everybody tries to be visible. But do we have to adapt to this overarticulation of images and signs? Are counterstrategies needed or can we find a new place within the commercial and institutionalized reality? New Urban camouflage, disappearing and appearing as trojan horses.

discussionmodels for Centre for the Arts, relating cultural activity to commercial
activity / design t(c),h&m

We want to inform each other, and we want to be informed. Culture as a kiosk,
not as a set of exclusive domains, shareware instead of a commodity.
Signs should be inclusive and accessible. Branding is exclusive. City branding
is a commercial strategy of domination and imposing labels. Both Fred and Linda will be excluded.
How to connect Linda, Fred and all those others to city developments without alianating them? Through big museums, opera buildings or big commercial music theatres? Communication is interaction not bricks. Instead of a decision making instrument, it can be a public experiment of channelling, presenting and exchanging people’s desires and experiences.That’s not a brand but an investment in engagement. No, it doesn’t sell, but then, there is nothing to buy back either!