The vision of a drawing board made from recycled plastic goes far beyond the actual board itself. The true concept of the board is to create a communicative link between folk living in a cape town informal settlement, industry and us designers.
as a designer who has never lived in an informal settlement, never weathered a cape storm in crossroads with my 2 kids. insecurely wondering if tomorrow tb, gangsta's or aids will come a knocking. i cannot begin to grasp the complex problems faced when trying to improve such an environment. its almost arrogant of me to impose my middle class, fish hoek upbringing on such a sensitive set of circumstances. Judith my wonderful domestic worker who has a home built by the new south African wunder design institute.(sarcastic for those out of townee's - we all know wunder is German and Germans are supposedly precise.) she tells me the rain pours through her walls during a storm. so the wunder design institute champions zippo the horse - boogger all. They seem to champion the rain through the freaking walls of her supposedly brand new rdp house. - a back handed politician in the mix. - mmmmmm me thinks. not so preciouse.
The recycled plastic drawing board represents - a better life through better design. it will hopefully come to represent a communicative link, a creative work station. outside affluent designers imposing a better way of living for squatter camp inhabitants. these designers who have never had to survive a cape town informal settlement night. cannot ever impose a system on an informal settlement family man exposed to the brutality of his everyday life. only this man, living in the circumstance can suggest realistic improvements, only he can inform the outside world of his and his families daily plight. and suggest minute improvements to this daily dilemma. from waking upbat 4am, dressing his kids to his 10km walk through squaller to the transport terminus. he is confronted with a thousand suggestions to improve these million and 1 design possibilities.
my proposal is to introduce this recycled plastic drawing board into the community centers of these settlements. industry, government the man with a buck in his pocket can pay a minimum price for every drawing eventually harvested from this system. and those ideas that are revolutionary can be taken forward and the informal settlement creator of these proposed ideas brought on board to see his vision from concept to reality. a direct link can be immediately made between improving the informal settlement environment, better design and cash is king in the pocket. - a drawing is worth a thousand words.
if the board eventually starts finding its way into homes as a creative workstation so much the better. i have shown a picture of San rock art in the jpgs above. many uninformed folks understanding of this art is that its basic and childlike. this concept is furthest from reality.
the fact that all rock paintings are derived from immediate , reality experiences make them dynamic . perspective, front on, side on, fore shortening are all displayed in rock art pictures thousands of years old. Most rock art is a unique 1 off . the renaissance painters where shouting eureka with these concepts a few hundred years ago. this is testament enough at the power of a drawing. the San artist speaking to their gods have also managed to communicate to us through time. with scholars still trying to code the exact messages sent all those years ago.
i have also included in my jpg a word in 20 different languages. unless you speak the language the word chair will mean nothing to you. however the picture of a chair is universally understood immediately. this idea has Merritt - i am currently speaking to various sponsors to make this concept a reality - i am also speaking to you if you have read this far - maybe you can help with a suggestion to get this from thought to actuality.
the concept of Bling your board will help improve the board as it progesses from wright brothers , to spitfire and eventually super sonic jet - whats next?
