NO QUO

2015-2016 DesignInquiry Fellows

Posted on by emilyluce
grapefruit2a 

DesignInquiry is pleased to announce the 2015-2016 DesignInquiry Fellows.

Chris Fox
Jonanthan Novak
Arzu Ozkal
Tricia Treacy
Joshual Unikel
The Calderwood Collective (Steve Bowden, Neil Patel, Peter Evonuk)

DesignInquiry Fellows begin their fellowship at NO QUO and continue a year-long engagement with DI projects, programs and people. The fellowship allows for longer conversations, expanded networks and radical access, all with the intention of developing and sharing new perspectives and outcomes on urgent and timely topics.

DesignInquiry wishes to acknowledge and thank the Moser Family Foundation and the DesignInquiry community in its support of the new Fellowship program. Thank you for fostering the interdisciplinary discourse of design.

Nine Predictions of a No Quo Exchange

Posted on by Denise Gonzales Crisp

1
Two crates of grapefruit.

2
Five groups of five people, (one group includes DI Vinalhaven regular Obi, a white standard poodle), convene to venture answers to one of five queries: How might “Quo” feel to the touch? What might “No” smell like? At what rate of frequency do the words “No Quo” need to be repeated in order to invert the syntax to “Quo No?” What materials, shapes, elements would comprise a No Quo uniform? Finally and importantly, What’s for lunch? (Obi is in this group.) The inquirers discussing the first question stop abruptly, finding themselves at an impasse. Two people adamantly hold that Quo’s tactile properties resemble that of velvet, plush, or faux suede. Another person in the group insists that Quo feels neither soft nor is pliable, but rather, is bumpy and rigid. The two others say that it feels like an orb laminated in sandpaper. Group members reluctantly agree to start over.

Continue reading →

DI Vinalhaven 2015 : COLLABORATIVE ONSITE PUBLISHING / COUNTER-PROJECT

Posted on by Gail Swanlund

Quid Pro Quo is Latin for an exchange of goods or services, where one transfer is contingent upon the other, like tit for tat. Status Quo upholds the existing state of affairs, same-old, same-old. NO QUO considers an uneven give and take, open to practices where making something out of nothing or any imbalance of expectations, power, materials or process can become a constraint as well as an opportunity. NO QUO suggests that instead of doing what’s expected, the status quo, design could be an act of going overboard and producing an excess of what’s required, or eliminating the thing altogether.

DesignInquiry 2015: NO QUO carries on DI’s “Decade of Agitation”: we agitate beyond the prescribed & patrolled borders of professional & academic design(s). Where do NO QUO relations exist and how does the designer respond? What is “counter” to “status quo”? How does NO QUO expand the conversation? What form does NO QUO take?

A COLLABORATIVE PROJECT.

Contact us at info@designinquiry.net and we will send you a questionnaire in which you may propose how you would like to inform/question/develop/inspire this year’s collaborative onsite NO QUO publishing venture/counter-project.

Work/sharing/planning will begin immediately. Skills and contributions will be fluid and vital; we’ll work together to explore and embody the topic’s inscrutable corners and spaces. Propose your approach and your point of view. We will contact you to indicate if your proposal has been accepted, i.e. expands the mix of contributions and agitations to NO QUO. Participants will be accepted until the very limited spaces in this [ production-oriented ] DesignInquiry fills.

DesignInquiry NO QUO
June 14–20, 2015
Costs: $1000 = Registration, Housing, Food; Some drinks are free.

—

References:

Stein, Maurice R, and Larry Miller. Blueprint for Counter Education. Garden City, N.Y: Doubleday, 1970. Print.
O.P. Lyons and C.H. Healey, Publisher. The Wind (newspaper) Vinalhaven, ME.
Ono, Yoko. Grapefruit. Tokyo, Japan: Wunternaum Press, 1964. Print.
Ulrich Obrist, Hans. DO IT.