Tools¹ to play² – Toys³ to work⁴ with⁵

Take a tool and (un)follow the instructions

Tools: something that helps you to do a particular activity  Play: spend time doing an enjoyable and/or entertaining activity   Toys: object to play with  
Work: be engaged in physical or mental activity in order to achieve a result; do work.   With: accompanied by (another person or thing).  

The first physical tools in human history occurred around the stone age. We need tools to build, to sew to cook, to repair etc. But when people use tools to transform physical and virtual materials, at the same time tools transform users, as it is nicely described in Andrew Blauvelt’s essay Tool. (or Post-Production for Graphic Designer). His particular transformation of design tools and designer’s milieu, caused a shift of the role; from designer- translator, who provides a service by adjusting and interpreting content, to the designer- editor, producer, researcher, programmer and hacker.

In print writing, the tools you generate are rhetorical; they demonstrate and convince. In computer writing, the tools you generate are processes; they simulate and decide.

What other notions of relationships could be approached?

What are you curious to explore in a tool?

Have you ever startetd a staring contest with yourself?

You can use tools everywhere and every time. You can be inspired by this tools or make your own one.

Roleplaying


How would you describe yourself in three words?
How would someone else describe you in three words?
What do you feel conflicted, confused, excited or proud about?
Who would you be as a tool?
Or what are you curious to explore in a tool?
What do you do?
are you physical, digital, do you have buttons? an interface?
Do you have a specific function, powers?
Can you evolve, mutate?
How does your tool’s body feel?
Are you comfortable?
Are you in control?
Where do you come from?
What does your past look like, describe a fond memory?
Where are you?
How do you relate to the world you are part of?
Do you have ambitions?

In digital times where we don't know anymore how the tools work and we all talk about processes. In this publication the readers have access to use and build tools of their own.

Categories for your role


Use:
Goal:
Specificity:
Mutation:

What tool can you imagine?

What are the features, quirks and glitches?

How would it be used and by whom?

How do the tools of our emerging tool ecology relate to each other?

Can a strategy come from another place than the absence of something?

Whole Earth catalog

   wholeearthcatalog
They activate body and mind in different ways, from walking and boxing, to writing and listening. They are invitations to transform yourself into an octopus, to have a staring contest with yourself, or to mess around like a child. They ask you to get lost by, for instance, cleaning a very persistent stain or following a complete stranger.

No deleting


1.


Everything is to be documented. Everything is recorded in text, pictures or sound and archived for all to see. Conversations, thoughts, planning, communication with the outside, meetings or sources of inspiration for example. Dropbox folders or Google Docs can be created to which everyone has access. have access to.

2.
Nothing should be deleted. Files are moved to archives instead of deleted. Text passages are crossed out or commented on instead of overwritten

3.
Individual voices should not be blured. A method is defined to make the different voices recognisable. to make the different voices recognisable. For example handwriting: writing in different colours different fonts

4.
thoughts and uncertainties should be be introduced into the text. Common documents are not seen as being set in stone, but rather as being in process and subject to change. The material is left open for returns returns, so it does not necessarily fit into a linear into a linear narrative structure and and in this way makes the process visible. Notes take on a dialogical form, that is, questions are asked and statements questions are asked and statements commented on. Instead of having to come to a consensus, contradictions are left unresolved.
In design research, understanding how people think is far more useful than simply what they think. When working in foreign cultures, this can be incredibly challenging. Without sharing the same cultural, religious and linguistic backgrounds, it’s critical to spend extra time understanding how and why people make decisions. In these circumstances, I often use visual mapping — a simple but powerful research tool.
×

A dialogue between you, the publication and your sourounding

Hello! Where am I and who am I sitting opposite?

TpTw: The conversation is between you, me, the publication 'Tools to play - toys to work with' and your environment.

What is behind your title Tools to play - toys to work with?

TPTW: I focus on the techniques and methods that interact and stimulate our curiosity in relationships with each other, with ourselves but also with our spatial environment. The publication is meant to serve as an impulse to become active and to call for creation. Different event cards call for the following actions, among others: to care, to connect, to fail, to feel, to play, to share.

So let me get this straight, you are providing a toolbox that shows tools that can be useful in relationships?

TPTW: Exactly. I'm moving away from the so-called user-centred design, which pretends to be individual to the buyer, to relationship-oriented design. It should give the user tools that they can use and also expand themselves!

Can you give an example?

TPTW: The walk as an exercise and a method of reckoning is one of my favourite tools! The aim of the exercise is to reflect on observations and to sharpen perception. It can, for example, stimulate discussions about public spaces and the relationship to nature, problems of use and planning. Several unknown people go for a walk - instead of talking and processing the verbal information, the focus is on their own thoughts, emotions and impulses. Similar to the V-effect, you put yourself in an uncomfortable situation.

I have another question, what do you mean by the V-effect?

TPTW: With the Verfremdungseffekt (alienation effect), Berthold Brecht describes a method in theatre to put the familiar in a different light. The action is interrupted, for example, by comments or time jumps. Contradictions are thus made visible and a more critical and conscious perception of what is shown is made possible. Characters step out of character and turn to the audience to discuss what has happened.

In your publication, the viewers become actors by putting themselves together. Am I right in saying that?

TPTW: Exactly! It allows for active intervention and emphasises the interaction between the tools and the users, between the curation of content already made and possible additions, between the space of performance, the space of publication and the space of application.

In some exhibitions, displays are seen as purely conveying knowledge that convey meanings. Where do you stand on this?

TPTW: I am not just a publication, I am also a display - a display that is meant to stimulate dialogue! Each:r curates their own publication, it is not closed, but can and should be able to be expanded. I don't think much of pure knowledge transfer, it's much more stimulating to break down hierarchies among the exhibits and it's not about coming to THE conclusion. It is crucial to ask the question: What does the display communicate? In my case, it is very important that people are encouraged to play, to question and to enter into dialogue. Through interaction, the actors reveal themselves and become visible in the exhibition context! For me, it is not about offering a monologue toolbox that can only be used in a certain way. Rather, I am concerned with the potential and sharpening of observation!

You mention active observation and the significance of it. Can you elaborate on that?

TPTW: In the context of an exhibition, observation and perception can only be applied to what is visible. But a curation always means a decision for voices and against others. It's a process of selecting, of arranging and relating. I think it's important to see the possibilities beyond the spatial limits of an exhibition and, in my case, the limits of a publication.

What do you mean by that?

TPTW: Starting from the question: who is speaking, we have to learn to listen. Museums can organise discussion groups where the actors get their own voice. And not be retold by curatorial voice(s) as in many cases. It is important to make transparent how the curation was done and by whom. Simply making it visible does little good if we are not actively listening. In my toolbox I have taken some exercises from the book 'A Sound Education - 100 exercises in Listening and Sound-Making' by R. Schafer. Originally designed for music theory and studenting, it provides methods that are transferable to everyday situations.

I don't want to worry you, but how do you get people activated? Is it not conceivable that people just stand in front of it and don't get into action?

TPTW: That is an important question! And also the first partial answer. It's about asking questions! Asking questions is great. You are no longer just a spectator, but become an actor in the performative process and part of the collective performance and curator of your own publication.

So you are display, performance and publication in one?

TPTW: Not always at the same time, but yes, you could put it that way.

Thank you very much for the interview!

TPTW: Thank you! See you soon!