DesignTalks 2022 - Barbara - Iceland Design and Architecture

Barbara will be speaking at DesignTalks 2022, the international conference and signature event of DesignMarch, exploring how design and architecture can help imagine and propose alternative futures and promote change.

“Barbara - a tale of transformation” is a near future design fiction based on an eponymous short story by Garðar Eyjólfsson. It recounts snippets of the first few decades of Barbara’s life and certain transformations she undergoes. The project is intended as a collaborative venue for various designers and artists to reflect on the intertwining possibilities between humans, technology, culture and the environment. Fragmented translations and manifestations from the “Barbara” research will pop up here and there in the (un)foreseeable future exploring various platforms, formats and media. Barbara will be represented through the assemblage of a graphic novel, narration and musical composition for Design Talks 2022.

Design Fiction Text and Music: Garðar Eyjólfsson
Illustrations: Janosch Bela Kratz

Garðar Eyjólfsson holds an B.A (Honours) degree in Product Design from Central Saint Martins, London and a M.A (Cum Laude) Contextual Design from Design Academy Eindhoven. He mixes contextual, critical and narrative research in his work as a means to explore & translate zeitgeist topics. Utilizing a variety of mediums to manifest his voice, ranging from; artefacts, scenography, curation, fiction, video, performance, dialog and writing. Garðar is heavily involved in academia. He was the program director of BA Product Design at the Iceland University of the Arts (2012-2017) and program director of MA Design Explorations & Translations program (2017-2020) at the same institution. In addition, Garðar also lectures and conducts workshops in various universities across the globe. Balancing academia with studio practices, his work ranges from developing his own projects, curating exhibitions, advising in the public and private sector, project managing and conducting workshops. Garðar also writes in various publications and gives public talks across platforms, often in the form of lectures and dialog in conferences, symposiums and radio.

Janosch Bela Kratz is a communication designer from Germany, currently based in Reykjavík. He holds an M.A degree in Design in “Explorations & Translations” from the Iceland University of the Arts and will graduate from the Communication design department at the University of the Arts Karlsruhe, Germany, in 2022. Ways of reading, understanding and questioning the world around us, its biases, channels and ideals are part of his research and practice. He works mainly with fiction to draw possible futures based on research of contemporary and past cultural changes. His work involves video, performance, animation, illustration, editorial, web design, graphic design, fictional writing, costume design and artefacts. Content fields in which he feels comfortable to work are post-human feminism, interspecies relationships, inclusive communication, the far and the close and superfiction.

designmarch

DesignTalks 2022 will take place in Harpa on the 4th of May and is curated by Hlin Helga Guðlaugsdóttir. This year the event will be moderated by Marcus Fairs, editor-in-chief and founder of Dezeen, connecting the conversations to a wider context, highlighting its relevance to an audience across professional fields.

The programme will be an exploration of resilient approaches, regeneration and reconnection with traditional crafts and indigenious wisdom, experiments rewiring and rethinking current systems, the design of data and information, extended realities and speculation into the future as a form of creative and critical reflection of the now.

“It will be a celebration of imagination - and a moment for deep thinking.” - curator Hlin Helga