©2010 Transplant / Mathieu Lehanneur Pyramid of Age in Transplant.

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The 14th of August 2010, Transplant opened the exhibition of the first Ideal Lab´theme; Longer Participation. Longer Participation is locating design taking as a departure point the social challenge of the western world, that the elder generation might become bigger than the present working generation. After a life of working, and with little experience of using modern communication tools, motivated elders can get isolated. The exhibited designs in Transplant is proposing ways of reintegrating this valuable knowledge in our society.

The exhibition can be viewed Tuesdays to Fridays 12h-14h until the 30th of September  2010 (outside these times, visits by reservation only). The full exhibition catalog is available for downloading (pdf).

©2010 Transplant/Opening Longer Participation

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The opening of Longer Participation attracted a wide audience. The senior visitors had the opportunity to contribute to the “Sensing Dale” project with more personal stories that were added to the dedicated blog. Inspired by the presented results, the audience opened up a frisky discussion around the urban development of the town centre. The exhibition shows projects of:
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©2010 Transplant/Sensing Dale Workshop with Charlotte Grum

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The process and the results of the “Sensing Dale” workshop with Charlotte Grum/ artist/ Denmark
The workshop results can be followed on the Ideal Lab´Longer Participation Blog.

©2010 Transplant/age pyramid Norway by Mathieu Lehanneur
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©2010 Transplant/age pyramid Fjaler and Europe by Mathieu Lehanneur

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The “Age of the World Pyramids” of Fjaler, Norway and Europe by Mathieu Lehanneur/ designer/ France.

An Age Pyramid is a snapshot of the inhabitants in a specific place at a certain year. You can find yourself in the pyramid and see large social shifts and events. Mathieu Lehanneur who first developed the Age of the World Pyramids for Issey Miyake with the ceramic producer Vallauris, developed three new models for the Longer Participation exhibition; the demographic pyramids of Fjaler, Norway and Europe in 2007. The Fjaler and Europe models are presented as rendered images in the exhibition, while the age pyramid of Norway, which was produced by Shape in CNC production, is exhibited as a sculpture.

©2010 Auger&Loizeau/Afterlife

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The “Afterlife” by Auger & Loizeau/ speculative designers, UK.

The design presented are personal versions of how to use ones own residue energy in an object post mortum. The designers, James Auger and Jimmy Loizeau, held a lecture about the project in Transplant in July. You can read more about the lecture here…

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©2010 Erwin Olaf

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The photo series “Mature” of Erwin Olaf/ photographer and movie maker/ The Netherlands.
“Mature” is a series of 10 photographies. All of them are visible in the exhibition catalog which is available for downloading as pdf below.
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The exhibition opening was covered by the local newspaper.

More projects within the Longer Participation theme will be developed until the end of the year 2010. The present exhibition will be open for visitors until the 30.09.2010.

Ideal Lab´Longer Participation is funded by:
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Ideal Lab´Longer Participation is supported by:

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You can download the catalog of the exhibition in English as pdf here.

©2010 Transplant / James Auger & Jimmy Loizeau.

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The British design duo James Auger and Jimmy Loizeau, both Transplant Coaches in Speculative Design and Robotics, take part in the Ideal Lab´ theme Longer Participation. The 26th of July 2010 they held a lecture on their work, with focus on the project “Afterlife”. The projects of Auger/Loizeau focus less on “bringing products to market, making them desirable and therefore sellable”, instead they develop and disseminate speculative and critical products and services in the hope “to instigate a broader analysis of what it means to exist in a technology rich environment both today and in the near future.”
In Transplant Auger/Loizeau worked on a new series of products within the Longer Participation theme.

©2010 Transplant / Lecture Auger-Loizeau.

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The “Afterlife” project of James Auger and Jimmy Loizeau “offers a technologically mediated service providing a tangible expression of life after death. Under normal circumstances after death, the human body would be assimilated back into the natural system. The Afterlife device intervenes during this process to harness the chemical potential and convert it into usable electrical energy via a microbial fuel cell – a device that uses an electromechanical reaction to generate electricity from organic matter.
This electricity is contained within a familiar dry cell battery.”

©2010 Transplant / Afterlife objects.

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During their project and the lecture, people were asked what they would run with the electricity of a loved one. The objects which people chose were shown at Transplant and opened up a discussion about the project among the participants.

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The interest in Auger/Loizeau´s project “Afterlife” was immediate and found its reflection the day after the lecture at Transplant on the front page of the regional newspaper, which at once brought the project to a bigger audience.
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The “Afterlife” project will be presented at Transplant during the exhibition of “Longer Participation”, which opens the 14.08.2010.

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Longer Participation, the first theme in the design & research program Ideal Lab’ is launched.

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About Longer Participation:
The population is aging and have longer active lives through improved health.

From a certain age, humans can be left outside of the community as well as from an economic standpoint. In this program Transplant asks: “How can we make the older generation participate longer in the community?”. In order to give an answer to this, we wish to develop the program: “Participate Longer”. Each person which has a “normal functioning” mind, also has a creative soul. This means that anyone is able to influence society, assuming that they have the technical aides and the competence to use these tools, to materialize their ideas. Senior citizens do not always have these aides nor the skills to use them, due to this they are often ignored during a creative process. Even more the main part of the senior would be in touch with technology (a survey show that between September 2008 and  March 2009 the 55-65 year old users grew more than 550%). By ignoring them, we create a deeper generational gaps and lose opportunities to develop better systems and profit from of their knowledge and life experiences.

From June 2010 until December 2010, the participants of the program will have produced a series of products/processes, answering to the theme problematics. The series will be developed as product design, space design (interior/exterior), creation of organization, service, processes… Events, exhibitions, gatherings, workshops, where most of the time the public can take part, will be organized to enrich the project. Stemming products like books or videos will be edited to keep tracks of the experiences and make the research available to a larger public.

Please contact us if you’re interested to join the program as a producer, a designer or a senior citizen.

The participants of Longer Participation are:
Charlotte Grum (artist, Dk), Mathieu Lehanneur (designer, Fr), James Auger & Jimmy Loizeau (designer & design consultants UK), Erwin Olaf (photographer, NL), invited artists from FRAC de Lorraine (Fr), Ralston & Bau (designers, No), Rainer Rosegger (sociologist, Au), Dingemoen Barneskule (No), Fjaler Kommune (No), Senior citizens of Dale i Sunnfjord and HAFS (No).

© 2010 Transplant / Introduction meeting of Ideal Lab’ Participate Longer.

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Introduction meeting about the Participating Longer theme

For the first time the Ideal Lab´and the theme Longer Participation was introduced to the public. People were informed about the Ideal Lab´and Longer Participation and about the different projects within the theme in which they can participate. This introduction meeting set the base for the two projects “Illuminate Dale” and “Craft+Design”.

Illuminate Dale/the project explores new outside lighting design solutions using the example of Dale.
Craft+Design/the project combines and explores the crafts knowledge of elders with contemporary design.

Upcoming events
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5-7.07.2010: Mathieu Lehanneur / Fr

© 2010 Matthieu Lehanneur / Participant to Ideal Lab’
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The french designer Mathieu Lehanneur, known for example for his air-filter “Andrea”, will visit Transplant. He will make researches on the theme Longer Participation during his stay. Mathieu Lehanneur will be accompanied by the french magazine “Le Figaro Madame”.

13-14.07.2010: Workshop with Charlotte Grum / Dk

© 2010 Charlotte Grum / participant to Ideal Lab’.

Transplant will organize the workshop “Emotional Mapping Dale” with the danish artist Charlotte Grum.  Charlotte Grum is holding a two day workshop with citizens of Dale i Sunnfjord to define the urban space in the village. On the  first day of the workshop, participants will be asked to point out places in Dale with which they connect a personal emotional memory. On the second day of the workshop, participants will be asked to define their personal important atmospheric spots in Dale. Both workshop days will include a tour through Dale with a summarizing meeting afterward. The result will be a map of Dale which will be based on individual lives and subjective experiences rather than material functions and institutions. This insight information about the social texture of Dale can inspire town planning and design processes, such as the light project “Illuminate Dale”.

Register to participate here or at 577 352 00

26-27.07.2010: James Auger & Jimmy Loizeau / UK

© 2010 Auger Loizeau / Participants to Ideal Lab’.
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The British designer and PhD candidate at the RCA London James Auger, known for example for his work “Afterlife”,  and the design consultant Jimmy Loizeau, who teaches at Goldsmiths and the RCA, will visit Transplant. They will make design research on the theme Longer Participation during their stay.
The 26.07.2010 at 17h Auger/Loizeau will give a lecture/session. You’ll be able to participate to the design research project “Afterlife” that will be presented during the lecture. More info.

14.08.2010: Opening of the exhibition Longer Participation

The full program will follow.

This program is funded by:

© 2010 Auger Loizeau / Participants to Ideal Lab’.

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The english designers team James Auger and Jimmy Loizeau will come to Transplant in July 2010 and make design research within the theme of Longer Participation of Ideal Lab’.

26.07 / Public lecture James Auger & Jimmy Loizeau

The British designer and PHD candidate at the RCA London James Auger, known for example for his work “Afterlife”,  and the design consultant Jimmy Loizeau, who teaches at Goldsmiths and the RCA, will visit Transplant. They will make design research on the theme Longer Participation during their stay. The 26/07 at 17h Auger/Loizeau will give a lecture/session. You’ll be able to participate to the design research project “Afterlife” that will be presented during the lecture. For more info.

© Transplant Coaches / Ambra Trotto

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27 participants from 10 different nationalities, with completely different professional backgrounds, bravely accepted to participate to this experimental Rights through Making workshop. The online workshop is an experiment that started Monday May 3rd and will finish Saturday May 8th. The theme was; “Design a wearable means dedicated to elderly people, which empowers people towards the values expressed in the article 26 of the UDHR (rights to education)”. This workshop is the start-up of the project Longer Participation, part of Transplant, Ideal Lab’.

Rights through Making is an international research project, which started in 2007 and whose founders are the Eindhoven University of Technology, Department of Industrial Design (the Netherlands) and the University of Florence, Department of Technologies of Architecture and Design “P. Spadolini” (Italy).  The scope is to promote a new way of thinking elicited by products that empower people towards the realization of the values expressed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. By bringing together designers from different cultures, the communication about the declaration through doing, i.e. designing together, is enhanced: we believe in communication through working together. Words often divide, work unites. Improving communication is also about culture, in this case the culture of doing. We are rapidly losing essential design craftsmanship, saper fare. By using these skills in the context of the newest technology they acquire a new dimension that will safeguard their survival, and indeed, guarantee their expansion.

This experiment aims to explore and validate the Rights through Making approach in a virtual collaboration.  Instead of inviting designers to work together in a same place, we propose that the design process happens online and everybody contributes to it, by submitting his point of view to a common design space. This minimizes discussions and maximize constructiveness.

Transplant, whose design team has given a decisive contribution, hosts a preview of this event in this internet site, which will be then uploaded in the Rights through Making internet platform, to be launched in July.

by Ambra Trotto, cand. PhD, head of program/Transplant Coach