IDW 2021

Interdisciplinary workshops architecture fine arts heritage studies interior architecture product development urbanism and spatial planning 5 #1 The Humour Of Collective Representation - (designing the sense of humour) by Ola-Dele Kuku ‘The society is a system - a social system and we learn from the study of physics that disorder in a system al- ways increases with time. This is evident today in our cultural evolution that reflects the current persisting global phenomenon of socio-cultural conflicts, which I have described as the contemporary conflict culture. Within the realm of how things relate, conflict emerg- es as a significant catalyst that usually instigates the dynamics of change and reform, rather than the means to stability or reunion. Therefore, conflicts can be manifested as a familiar interdependent relation- ship involving constraints relative obligations or the balance between wishes and fulfilments. Hence, the affiliation to the built environment by the individual is manifested by means of subjective analytic trans- lation of experiences, actions and endeavour which in turn reveals a behavioural response and attitude towards that environment’. This cultural transformation is being sustained by an amazing development in technology that has been produced due to the conflict phenomenon (particu- larly in armed conflict) via design application, applied architecture and applied social engineering. It is a projection of the new application era where design thinking today has become a prominent application rather than a product! The workshop exercise will use this platform to investigate ‘Humour’ (which is perhaps the most neglected of the senses) as a design application that focuses on socio-cultural constraints, communication and behavioural response for an urban intervention – with reference to divisions in society and diversity within the community. The intervention will be based on use of words, symbols, sound as media that appeal to the senses and tools for generating a collective representation. (extract from ‘Out of Nothing’ - 2020 / Question Architecture, UK) Image 1 ‘The Book Wheel’ (1996) installation view - The Nigerian Pavilion at the 15th International Architecture Exhibition, Venice Biennale 2016 Image 2 ‘Agenda Setting’ - neon series (2016) installation view - The Nigerian Pavilion at the 15th International Architecture Exhibition, Venice Biennale 2016 Image 3 ‘Time Garden’ 1 - the Antwerp museum project (1999) installation proposal - courtesy Middelheim Museum Antwerp 1 2 3