Design in Helsinki

A few weeks ago I attended the EGOS conference in Helsinki – the European Group for Organization Studies, in Helsinki largely because the city is the 2012 City of Design. Thematising ‘design’, the conference contained many more streams than one could attend, with around 1800 delegates. I was part of the stream ‘Artifacts in Art, Design, and Organization’ convened by Stefan Meisiek, Daved Barry and Roberto Verganti. I contributed a session, with some convening myself (see photo) and with Ian King contributed a discussion on design, fashion and the organization. We had three objectives: (i) to unpack the concept of ‘fashion’, which is as relevant to the deep patterning of the global economy as it is the various acts of organizational self-presentation (i.e. dressing); (ii) to use the concept of ‘dressing’ (a ‘shifter’, as Roman Jakobson would say) to explore the symmetries between the self-presentation of the organization (how the organization ‘clothes’ itself) and the individual agent (how our modes of self-presentation articulate our shifting relation to the organization). We also discussed the way organizations in the global economy do not just wish to endure, or become fixed entities, but to embody the ontology of fashion – have the facility to move, change, respond and develop critical shifts in consumer desire; operate with an instantaneous market mobility and viral-like self-generating appeal. Fashion involves both aesthetics and commerce, both triviality and profound symbolic significance, and the interpenetration of strategic business and romance. We had some great moments of interaction and sessions of creativity (see the board in the photo – don’t miss my sculptural contribution in the form of the mobile coat stand).

Jonathan Vickery : 27 Jul 2012 09:23 |  Comments (0) |  Report a problem