Olga Konik (PL)
Olga Konik graduated from the Jagiellonian University with a BA in Romance Philology and BA and MA in Design from the Faculty of Industrial Forms, Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow. She is currently a student at the Doctoral School of her alma mater. In her projects she explores the theme of creative handiwork as a sustainable strategy. She is interested in repair, intimate human relationships with everyday objects and circular economy. She is working at the intersection of design, research and art. She co-founded an association Kolektyw Artystycznych Form Eksperymentalnych (KAFE).
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Design for repair / repair the design
Repair was once a natural part of the life of objects, designed to last and to be maintained. In the time of mass production and mass consumption, it is easier, cheaper and more exciting to replace broken or obsolete product with a new one. Repair seems to be a domain of activists, craft makers, old school cobblers and seamstresses. But the environmental crisis is making us look for new values for design, and with a new wave of sustainable products and approaches, repair brings new perspectives and values also for designers. In my speech I would like to present research about common threads between design and repair. How can designers engage in repair processes? Can they design more repairable objects? Can they design a repair itself? How can they make a customer/user engage with their belongings through maintenance and repair? What can an act of repair teach us? In my talk I will try to answer these questions with a wide range of examples of projects, products and initiatives that revolve around repair and design. These examples vary from a business and circular economy perspective, through social initiatives, design school projects, towards critical and speculative approaches.