roots itself in physical shape, but is produced in new circumstances and through
the assembly of a new public.
Nevertheless, the formation of publics does not come ex nihilo and the designer
must work consciously to bring the settings together. Some points could be drawn
from both the Italyan Avlusu and Merimetsa projects.
Working with local collaborators is crucial as they have overview, knowledge, skill
and connections to the community. To rush into the community with wild enthu-
siasm is good as it is often contagious, but there is also a need for structured plan-
ning together and trying to think some steps ahead. Oda Projesi had been working
with the neighbours for several years and knew the situation very well, so we
worked together on the various parts of the project. In the case of Merimetsa, the
artist I collaborated with had previously taught painting at the centre and knew
both the institution and the clients well and many of the latter had been her stu-
dents. In regard to institutions, perhaps motivation and understanding from the
leaders and staff is most important, because without them nothing will be able to
happen, especially not in the long run. From my point of view as a designer, the
aspired goal was the encouragement and development of personal skills and self-
enhancement for the clients and to open common action spaces where new possi-
bilities could emerge, rather than criticizing overall structures or relations to mo-
dernity.
Once again, to return to skills and action spaces, there is a smaller chance for things
going completely “wrong” when focusing on the reinforcement of craft skills. Still,
the designer, or any agent of change, faces a great dilemma when introducing his or
hers perhaps most prestigious and valuable gift to the community and to then take
it back when leaving. This gift is hope. When coming into a project and showing
that everything is possible, the disempowerment can come after the change agent
leaves when suddenly things goes back to normal. One could argue that also Cargo
Cults can provide new ideas, but the most important thing when running a project
like this is to find the energy flows to hook up the project to. The most crucial proc-
ess the designer can work on is the question of sustaining a successful project –
how will it keep on running after the designer leaves. Here the plug-in aspect is
crucial and to identify where the future energy will come from, once the project is
over.
In the case of Merimetsa this role fell on the local fashion academy, which did not
find any place for the project within its curriculum or workshop program. This was
of course a major setback to the maintenance aspect of the overall project, but
should not diminish the otherwise working processes. Hopefully, someone can
take the process from here and set the alchemic process alight again, creating new
engagements for self-enhancement and reorganizing the design and production of
the fashion “believers”.
&
In this chapter we have seen how various lines of practice can be organized in
other ways than the traditional stratified “cathedral” model. Heresy, liberation the-
ology, fashion activism and communal self-enhancement offer us more “bazaar-
like” concepts of organization, where collaborative practices are highlighted and
where “lifestyles” are built from a praxis stemming from below. We have seen the
theology of liberation organize its conception of church through a network of
small base communities, anchoring the faith in the local social situations rather