The concept of a situated practice was first introduced in the MDEF course. It runs pretty contrary to the industry-oriented approach of user experience design that was taught at my previous school. Considering that I came to IAAC because it was very difficult for me to align this approach with my interests and values, it makes a lot of sense that I came to like situated design practices a lot—a practice developed within a certain space by individuals who have a deep understanding of their context, rather than a top-down, one-size-fits-all solution.
Unfortunately, to develop such a practice, a certain kind of environment is necessary, and the way our governments currently run the markets does not encourage these. However, this does not mean it cannot be done. In the context of this course, we were introduced to four groups or individuals who have cultivated such a practice for themselves.
I don’t want to go into the details too much for the different practices since it would quickly go beyond the scope of this reflection. Instead, I will try to convey the general vibe of the day through pictures when I have some and then go on to quickly summarize what was most important to me.
A falconer showed us two of his falcons and talked about his work at the airport. Somehow, it was deeply satisfying to me that training falcons is still a widely practiced method of clearing an airport of other birds. I found myself deeply impressed by this man, but part of that can probably be attributed to the falcon on his arm.
The artists living at Cal Negre showed us their workshop and talked about their individual practices. Later, we made lunch—which was delicious, by the way—and took some time to enjoy the sun.
The visit to Cal Negre was, to me, one of the most vivid days of the IAAC course to this day. We were confronted with more than one situated design practice that day.
An old farmer named Jaume, a neighbor of the artists at Cal Negre, showed us how he had turned his old house and farm partly into an exhibition to preserve the heritage of his context, which was quite emotional. He also let us collect some crops from his field so we could make lunch later on.
In the afternoon, we took a short bike trip through the beautiful area around the mouth of the River Llobregat, visiting some ruins and lookout spots that looked thoroughly breathtaking in the golden light of the afternoon sun.
Borders are an arbitrary construct, yet they dictate who gets to live safely and who doesn’t—pure chance. Refugee camps, though created out of crisis, often become makeshift communities where people share resources and support each other for survival.
For me, this lecture was pretty hard to digest, but it is incredibly important work to shed light on the inhumane conditions present in these contexts. The small spark of something that this lesson gave me is that interdependence can emerge under extreme conditions.
Before visiting the collective, we took a beautiful walk through Montjuïc, slowly reaching and adjusting ourselves to the area where our hosts for the day are situated.
The FOC space was incredibly unique and inspiring. It is located in the top floor of an abandoned industrial building that they somehow renovated and made into a space for artists to work on their projects and for the Jokkoo collective to make music as well as organize and host events.
We spent some time there recording sounds we could make with different objects we found at the space which was a lot of fun. We then went on to synthesize(?) music from these sounds. I don’t understand a lot about music but it was a great collaborative experience anyway.
https://youtube.com/shorts/6xQ-auEF9LI
In my head, the word ‘unhinged’ has never appeared so often as in the session we had with this man and I am still somewhere between despising his seeming lack of giving any fuck at all and admiring his considerable amount of being true to himself.
Social media was never a particular interest of me, and I used to mostly see it as a necessary evil that must be kept as marginal as possible because it is a distraction from what is real. Ben has offered a 180° completely contrary perspective to that. He doesn’t waste time on social media because he deeply enjoys it. He calls himself a troll and a shitposter and what not and is very much successful with that. His way of treating the internet made me think a lot about how we still don’t really know how to use the internet well as a society and that it would probably make a lot of sense to establish some common ground at some point.
On the same day we had a lesson of communicating ideas, which helped me put Ben into context. What I took away is that the internet as a technology that enables everyone to tell a story, giving rise to an unimaginable amount of perspectives and diversifying content by magnitudes only works the way we imagine if we actually contribute. It is a bit like voting in a democracy: if you don’t participate, you give up your voice and someone else will use that vacuum that you leave instead.