Can Online Shopping Bring Down Governments?

In Spring 2021, Daniel Holler and I were asked to lead a day-long, fully remote workshop for the interdisciplinary symposium “Textures of Sustainability” at Zurich University of the Arts, which was open to students from all design bachelor’s programmes.

The goal of the workshop was to guide the students through a little-explored topic at ZHdK: Incorporating a political dimension into their work as designers. In the workshop, they learned practical design methodologies, how to approach abstract political and social issues and how to make the best use of their skills to promote social sustainability in design.

The day started with a theoretical introduction to the subject, after which they were thrown into the deep end by having to carry out their project, by approaching a current social or political issue. For this part of the course, the students had received, before the start of the workshop, a budget of CHF 50.– to buy an object online (i.e. Aliexpress or the Darknet), which had to represent something obscure, random, and/or already carry a political sub-context of their choice. The object was the cornerstone and inspiration for the practical project. In just three hours they managed to conduct research, write a concept, apply a design methodology and construct prototypes in the form of videos, mock-up websites, installations, and public experiments.

The projects were able to be situated beyond their designer sphere at ZHdK and created frameworks allowing people to participate and debate. The students were able to learn how to bear responsibility as designers towards political and social sustainability – and also have fun.

The students were able to explore a world different from the one they are used to at ZHdK: How designers can create frameworks for other people to participate in political and social issues. In just three hours they learned hands-on what it means to design with a social and political dimension and how to exert one’s responsibility towards political and social sustainability. Most importantly, the students actively participated in questioning their role as designers in today’s world, realizing that often design is part of the problem that it claims to solve.