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Today I was thinking on the power of the tools...

You know hoe they say you better give fish away than fishing nets...

And also I have been thinking as to why I am so annoyed by capitalism, when so many corporations have been so large and successful, it makes me think there must be something good about them, or perhaps very intelligent at least.

I have been thinking about the relationship between capital and ignorance, and how much of its collection/accumulation is based on a relationship of knowledge/ignorance, where the capitalist capitalise on its customers ignorance, and how its played about in problem solving.

Ikea.

The compound of these sticks or ideas: problem solving, knowledge and success has lead me to rethink the good in contemporary paradigms of success, and how design has played a role in this achievement. Obviously I have not been thinking about this because I care or because I have so much spare time that I like to think of the unthinkable, but because nowadays and probably trough history, there's always a struggle between who is dominated and who dominates. Still I wouldn't like to produce a unilateral tale, but I would like to talk about the idea the domination occurs throughout our daily life, in different situations, with different implications/consequences. For so lets not talk about the idea of becoming a dominatrix nor a submissive, but at identifying and possibly playing with these different roles. Now you might think: what a detour! But really, my point is that there are design strategies to produce change within these dynamics, albeit not simple ones.

Why is there Ikea so successful when it produces such a huge mobilization of resources in the middle of a huge environmental crisis? Or why is the World Bank such a powerful institution when it has produced so much harm? (obviously I can argue these two here, find your own literature)

Well the truth is that they provide solutions to problems. And I can't be here hypercritical since I can't actually explain to you what is a solution or what is a problem, or whether we should care about these two concepts, which I know is problematic, but hey, I am sorry, I need to simplify. So my point is that they allow for life processes to continue, thus they eliminate a barrier whether this is physical or physiological or a combination of the two.
Oblivious to this problematic too, I want to claim the value of expertise in the democratic/democratization of society, for it eradicates ignorance. I am not claiming that knowledge is the panacea (hell no), but it expands our knowledge. Tools that provide knowledge in our contemporary society are varied and super, highly traded, like books, magazines, pamphlets, computers, etc. List is long, but they have the power to distribute ideas but not actions, they are a bit like a brain without a body, and they easily buy into the Kantian combo (mind body separation). For so we need something more substantial, we need a tool or better, a net. This is not only the creation of objects out of the accumulation of knowledge, but the compounded value of added objects, agencies, territories, subjectivities and synergies. I like for so the power of the map, as they make reality understandable (not comprehensible) and by their very nature they tell so much about aesthetics as they do about politics. But still they remain provocations and by no means they necessarily can be called democratic, which for me is synonym of equality.

The achievement of a more democratic society mean we cannot ditch capitalism as we cannot ditch inequality, since we can't, but we have to strive for change, for life is not about life or death but about the changes of substance from one state to another, hence becoming something else. It is democracy in relation with capitalism that quite successfully allows the play of these forces, but please, by no means we can affirm there is no misery, as there is plenty, and not only there is, but we are entangled in it production/reproduction most likely without being aware. It is also worthy to note that I am speaking from a position of privilege, as I am a man, white, middle-class fully recognized citizen, but I have had the luck of turning out to be gay, which has given me a different point of view on things, different from the straight gaze, which by no means is exclusively been informed by my sexuality, but it has been a defining factor (please lets no simplify or move into the realm of labels for they do no good in the endeavor of elucidating).

Moreover if we aspire to equality we need to be able to map our condition, to learn about difference an put it into play. This act will make us aware and it will also allow us put at our disposition a set of tools, i.e. mapping seasons would allow us to grow the food we wanted on the suitable periods, so the map to an extent enables the instrumentalization of reality to produce a certain set of predicted, desired results. The mapping of realities and the identification of situations allows us to identify what is that we want to act upon, for which we need an action plan or better put; a manual.

Manuals can be of great value if they posses a diagnostic value, this is, they present you with the information in relation to your problem and they present you with a series of solution which can be applied. Once this identification is done, this handled expertise can be implemented. Think of Ikea. They let you flick trough their entire catalog (I need storage) and they let you choose by providing range (you feel empowered by choice, since you can evaluate and choose, have the power to select). After that, in exchange of currency, they send you the goods (the cheapest available), which are no fancy, but they follow the (darkest) highest modernist claim, form follows function. When the goods arrive you can put them together by following a manual, which empowers you to build, with the tools provided (you are the own creator and perpetrator of your own prefabricated reality). This might sound very much like despotism, but it is as close is it gets to the idea of availability trough (un)free-market logics/logistics (low price, high volume of production, availability, accessibility). It is this depletion of the individualization of  resources that achieve this miracle of affordability, by the depreciation of labor and the creation of clear cut parts that can be assembled by the very consumers of the neighborhood. I know it sounds depressing, but I wanted to exalt the manual rather than decimate it.

The manual is a tool that allows for the performance of knowledge, or transferred expertise in the set-by-step illustration of concepts/ideas. It is a democratization of knowledge-action, in which tools as well as processes lay naked for the hand in need. It also provide a false illusion of autonomy, which explodes the object into parts and reveals it intimate engineered parts (structural porn).

Yo might think that this makes no sense, or that its out of touch with reality, but I believe that the manual has the potential to generate equality, awareness and diagnosis. Whether the ill needs to be cured, is a question that I dare not to ask.


xoxox