Idea PikaPika X “Design as Communication: Eames Strategies by Oscar Guayabero”.
On February 27th, 2013, we kicked off the third season of IDEAPIKAPIKA with Oscar Guayabero in VITRA´s showroom. Below are the key ideas of his speech.
Oscar Guyabero considers that a Design and / or Architecture Study in order to be good should work on five main areas: Creation, production, sale, archiving and research. The creation and production phases are well developed, but instead we are very bad sellers. But as Oscar says, “If there are no customers, there is no design”.
The disciplines of research and archive, applied both on the finished product and on the work processes, are poorly developed. Oscar Guayabero decided to dedicate himself to both. He is a designer, but he describes himself as “para-designer”. Actually what he does is tell stories and he does it through objects, writing, facilities, books, curating exhibitions and also through teaching, publishing articles, enabling platforms, and more.
The idea behind Oscar Guayabero’s speech, was to investigate the strategies of Charles and Ray Eames, understanding DESIGN as COMMUNICATION. To achieve this, he focused on three concepts: Circus, Film and War Rooms.
Both Eames where interested in the CIRCUS as a discipline and for the multiplicity of actions that occur in it. In the three-ring circus the observer is unable to see all of the action at once, but he is able to keep some parts of it and most importantly,he can create new connections between them.
When they asked Charles Eames “What is design?” He replied with disjointed sentences but with a global sense like: “Design is a plan to place elements in the best way to achieve a particular purpose. Eventually everything connects: people, ideas, objects; admitting the influence of those who came before. The quality of the connections is the key to the quality of the resulting design. ”
One of the foundations of their work was to understand everything: objects, places, movies, etc.. as a communication project following a specific strategy: “When you overload the user with information, you expand the menú options and new connections are established.”
The Eames were interested in the large capacity of narrative and communication of the CINEMA, The Eames softened technology transforming it into a domestic and familiar show.
The WAR ROOMS or the SITUATIONS ROOMS, for the Eames, have to do with CONTROL. We’re talking about the 50s, the Cold War; these are rooms with large SIMULTANEITY of data so politicians can make decisions in real time. For them, the multiplicity of details generates a whole.
“Now we know that we only lose control of what we create if we refuse to take responsibility for the direction and discipline of the use of our creations” (Charles Eames).
The Eames created environments of multiple stimuli and high-sensory intensity so the user would not focus on a single concept and thus challenge him to assume new ideas and most importantly, connect them with each other. They were interested in both the concepts themselves, as to relate them to others who at first had no connection.
They understood noise in positive, as a distortion factor of the message. Simultaneous messages lower the guard to the most rational prejudices of the user and it is then that he allows the entry of new ideas.
For the Eames the DESIGN was not just a profession, but a way of life. For the Eames,design was to give. The work of the Eames, did not end when a building was built; the documentation was part of the project.
As Oscar says, “The best project of the Eames are the Eames.”