Design method: Gentle Intervention
Gentle Intervention is a design method in which an existing process is influenced by a 'small'/'subtle' interference. After the intervention the artist takes on a more observing role; observing (and recording) the more or less unpredictable situations as they unfold.
"Rather than products, these people are designing situations, intervening in existing arrangements, framing everyday activities in ways that make us think of them, unexpectedly, as 'design'.”
http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/conceptual-design-building-a-social-conscience
Example: Koet Koet (Coot)
Semâ Bekirovic
http://www.semabekirovic.nl/html/koet.html
An artist who makes use of the gentle intervention design method is Sema Bekirovic. Her work 'Koet' (Coot) consists of a series of photos of coots building a nest. Bekirovic influenced this common process in a subtle way by placing all sorts of personal objects in the vicinity of the birds' 'domain'; some objects were picked by the birds and used for building the nest.
The coots' nest shows in a simple way how deconstruction and decay passes into the construction of something new. Not only Bekirovic' stuff, but also other discarded objects and waste from our consumer culture change into 'natural' building bricks for someone's new home.
As already mentioned, typical for the gentle intervention design method is the observing role of the artist; in this case registering the instinctive and inventive, and for the artist unpredictable way the coots design their nest with all things available.
Example: Surprise
Johan Rijpma
http://vimeo.com/15897905
File Also Under: "Using Rules"
Rules:
*The recording starts when the balloon is still in the room.
*The balloon is thrown out of the window by hand.
*The balloon has to be in the camera's frame at all time.
*The recording is being made from the position in front of the window only.
*The recordings stops when the balloon leaves the frame or explodes.
