Summer school Rewire with

design student in Shanghai

Re:Wire by BoomWehmeyer

In July 2009, Judith van den Boom and Gunter Wehmeyer from studio BoomWehmeyer hosted their first project experiment with a Dutch student on Chinese location from their Shanghai workspace. As part of BoomWehmeyer's research project Re:Wire they set up a 5 week work program for an selected design student who would undergo the Re:Wire process by taking part in fieldwork, examining diverse habitat layers and subjects in an unknown surrounding and transform this into the own wiring of developing design language.

Project / BoomWehmeyer's project Re:Wire came into action out of their own personal design concern. Judith and Gunter worked intensive in divers design fields and cross cultural in China, Netherlands and other places. They developed a network of creatives and ways of working that felt being used in different ways then seeing it real potential of design and people, ready for a future context where design evolves into a more human and environment centered service.

The project sets out from one theme of Re:wire where different designfields connect into through real-time projects and design can awaken, activate and rewire new significant positions in peoples lives. The Re:Wire project brings out new future prospects for design by bringing together different layers and develop them with sharp projects topics for new design parameters.

The research project is set out in real-time project stages covering a year work. Partly to develop a book with co-authors on the rewire subject to activate readers to react themselves and make personal changes to inspire their environment. 

The 5-week China student project was in collaboration with BA product design student Marianne Meijer, 23,  from the Academy of Art & Design in Arnhem (NL). She was invited to come after a series of teaching at this academy. It was her first trip so far out of her comfort zone and with being a 2nd year student shaping and learning her position, this was an experiment from mutual ways.

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Safety-zone / The student program was set up with a emphases on deepening research and knowledge. A diversity of daily new assignments in full work program. Weekly themes focussed on the diverse habitat layers, concluding in  end-week information presentations to process everything. 

In a city changing so quick on multiple levels as Shanghai, Marianne processed her work through topics such as City Fabric focussed on meaning, position, infrastructure, scale and future of the city, Material City focussed on use, abilities, material, history, what builds the city and prototyping and Human City focussed on it's people, conversations with who lives there, how they move, think, public versus personal, position themselves and use their habitat.

Some day assignments brought her to spend a full day in a same block in the city, spending the day from 5 AM until midnight in the same streets. Viewing and connecting with the people, who is living here, activities, habits, history, future, public space, behavior and differences. On other days she would conduct an interview with a chinese creative to understand the deeper layers in people's perspectives or collect materials from the street to analyze and process these into her prototypes.

Continuing this for five weeks builded up into zooming in gradually from XL Megacity into XS Micro material views. Through filtering, collecting, modeling, searching and processing all information she transformed this into wiring her own position.  Finalizing her work with a Re-act week with a final point of transformation into prototyping models, book print and a new wired design position. Marianne concluded her position with a focus on the subjects Safety-zone and Mobile Customs and currently develops her new ways in her own design fields.

Finding new work ways by working outside personal design methods, re-positioning ourselves. Combining the personal strengths with a direct and open relation to  the habitat surrounding us.

Rewiring connections to awaken and activate designers and its audience with their changing world and possibilities, thinking outside their zone.  BoomWehmeyer seeks actively people to work together on new approaches, challenging each other outside personal design zones. Taking new risks were designers go beyond a new product or city skin but dig deeper into future scenario's, needs and habitats. Activating together a new core essentials that design can provide for our habitat

Also in the Netherlands/China there are programs the coming months with diverse activities on Re:Wire program. If you wish to know more, join them or have questions please contact BoomWehmeyer.

Re:Wire  /  City Fabric  /  Multiplicity  /  LoVeTokyo  / Clinics