Research team: Martina Fineder, Thomas Geisler, and Sebastian Hackenschmidt
The research project Nomadic Future III takes the increasing current demand for do-it-yourself instructions for furniture and furnishings as an occasion to trace
the movement from its origins up to the present day. The publications Nomadic Furniture I & II by Victor Papanek and James Hennessey (1973/74) and Enzo Mari's Autoprogettazione project (1974) are important references
and starting points in exploring the changing conditions in which DIY design today presents itself as a contemporary phenomenon.
The fact that development and production processes in design have fundamentally changed since the 1970s is easily verifiable
by looking at present-day methods and means of production. But how does the new DIY movement relate to the socio-cultural
motives of the '70s, the criticism of mass production and mass consumption, of Modernist rationalism? What are the motives
that inform production today? Is it the demand for more self-determination and participation, a decentralization of the production
of goods deemed necessary for the sake of sustainability, is it economic conditions?
For decades, the DIY method has been considered as an alternative design strategy not least because it facilitates a more
immediate—and hence more easily manageable—interface between design, production, and use. The current and ongoing quest for
socially and ecologically committed design urgently calls for a more intensive interrogation of the method. Following the
exhibition Nomadic Furniture 3.0: New Liberated Living? at the MAK (12.6.–6.10.2013), current tendencies in the DIY movement and its historical and theoretical foundations were then
compiled and presented in a publication as part of the research project.
Research team: Martina Fineder, Thomas Geisler, and Sebastian Hackenschmidt
