Tackling the City's Complaints at Street-Level.
In 2010, the Toronto Complaints Choir, produced aspart of the 2010-2011 World Stage season at Harbourfront Centre, collected over1000 grievances, gripes, and annoyances from people across the city. The choirtransformed these troubles into a siren song for the disenchanted.
BMD was drawn to this concept. For us, as designers—makers, problem-solvers,optimists, a complaint is a wish that things could be better. When thePropeller Centre for the Arts invited BMD to put on an exhibition in theirstreet-level gallery in July of 2011, we wanted to do something living andinteractive that engaged the city of Toronto. We would use the space to take onthe complaints that we hoped we could help solve. It would be an experiment. Itwould be a risk.
Over the course of 12 days, BMD invited the public in to visit our pop-upstudio, inquire, collaborate, ponder, and generally meddle in whatever way theyliked: we realized that we were, more than anything, designing a message ofempowerment. Demonstrating that anyone can question the way things are, thatanyone can work to make things better, that anyone can be a designer, andmaking public the process by which we looked for solutions became one of thebest things we did about it. Democratizing the power of design is perhaps ourmost meaningful solution.
BMD’s Bureau of Doing Something About It is being led by studiodesigners Amanda Happé, Kar Yan Cheung, Chris Braden, Michal Dudek, and PaulKawai.
For media Inquiries please contact Alexis Green atgreen@brucemaudesign.com
BMD was drawn to this concept. For us, as designers—makers, problem-solvers,optimists, a complaint is a wish that things could be better. When thePropeller Centre for the Arts invited BMD to put on an exhibition in theirstreet-level gallery in July of 2011, we wanted to do something living andinteractive that engaged the city of Toronto. We would use the space to take onthe complaints that we hoped we could help solve. It would be an experiment. Itwould be a risk.
Over the course of 12 days, BMD invited the public in to visit our pop-upstudio, inquire, collaborate, ponder, and generally meddle in whatever way theyliked: we realized that we were, more than anything, designing a message ofempowerment. Demonstrating that anyone can question the way things are, thatanyone can work to make things better, that anyone can be a designer, andmaking public the process by which we looked for solutions became one of thebest things we did about it. Democratizing the power of design is perhaps ourmost meaningful solution.
BMD’s Bureau of Doing Something About It is being led by studiodesigners Amanda Happé, Kar Yan Cheung, Chris Braden, Michal Dudek, and PaulKawai.
For media Inquiries please contact Alexis Green atgreen@brucemaudesign.com
