Podcast Episode 089

Episode 089 of the Near Future Laboratory Podcast is an in-depth conversation with guest Silvio Lorusso, a designer, artist, and writer based in Lisbon. Our discussion centers around the complex relationship between design, disillusionment, and the evolving role of design in society, as Silvio has articulated in his recent book 'What Design Can't Do', a critique of the rhetorical expectations placed upon design.

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In Episode 089 I get into an in-depth conversation with guest Silvio Lorusso, a designer, artist, and writer based in Lisbon. Our discussion centers around the complex relationship between design, disillusionment, and the evolving role of design in society, as Silvio has articulated in his recent book What Design Can’t Do, a critique of the rhetorical expectations placed upon design. We consider the future and past inspirations relevant to the field of Design and cover various facets of design culture, including the loss of material practices, the socio-economic impacts of design evolution, and the melancholic nostalgia among designers today. We bet into the cultural significance of memes, the backlash against crypto art, and the generational gap in the perception of technological advancements. We also get to share personal anecdotes from our professional experiences, and come to share a kind of hopeful aspiration mixed with skepticism towards the promises of modern design and technology. A fun conversation!

I’ve added What Design Can’t Do to the gradually growing archive of the hundreds of books in and around the Near Future Laboratory Studio Library

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Highlights

00:00 Introduction to Design and Disillusion
01:11 Personal Journey and Design Evolution
02:33 The Detachment from Material Practice
04:21 Challenges in Modern Design
12:26 The Everyday Designer
15:23 Historical Perspective on Design Rhetoric
25:08 Generational Reflections on Design
32:04 The Shift in Dreams
32:31 Imagination and Dystopia
34:52 Radical Imagination and the Past
39:39 Crypto and Community Vibes
49:47 The Role of Memes in Culture
50:54 Conclusion and Reflections

Why do I blog this?
In focusing on creating preferable conditions, the discipline of design is optimistic by default. And yet, vernacular manifestations of skepticism, dissatisfaction and even resentment toward design abound. Instead of systematically discarding them, can these sad passions shed a valuable light on the blind spots of the field? Can disillusion be something more than disillusionment? Can it become an emotional method to unveil design's dysfunctions and contradictions? Author Silvio Lorusso looks into historical and present manifestations of design disillusion to shorten the gap between expectations and reality when it comes to the everyday practice of designers. Using humorous and irreverent visuals, often containing jokes about design, Lorusso constructs thoughtful dichotomies on such topics as synthesis and autonomy, power and impotence, and aspirations and compromise. The result is an amusing yet academic consideration of the design profession and its future.