Cultivating Chilean Creativity: An Interview with Fab Lab Santiago
The National Council of Culture and Arts, Chile has announced details of the Chilean Pavilion at the first London Design Biennale taking place from 7-27 September 2016. The Chilean contribution, entitled The Counter Culture Room, is presented by the manufacturing lab Fab Lab Santiago and draws on the concept of Synergy Cybernetics (CYBERSYN). After Nyne spoke to some key members from Fab Lab Santiago to find out more about the project.
Can you give After Nyne a brief look into how Fab Lab has developed, and the main goals behind the lab?
After living in Europe for a couple of years, Tomas and I realised that Fab Lab’s ability to transform ideas into prototypes was a great way to engage with our Latin-American background. We realised that we could use design and applied innovation to explore questions related to our society. For us, Fab Lab is not about machines, technology and 3D printing, it’s about engaging with and contributing to society. We are fabricating society, let’s say.
In general terms, Fab Lab Santiago is a cutting edge exploration space focused on design projects and research. The platform has three programmatic foci: academic, social and professional fields. Fab Lab Santiago is member of the international fablab network (fablabs.io) and works with several different social foundations, academic institutions and government agencies in Chile.
In addition, FabLab Santiago was recognized as “Centre of Entrepreneurship & Innovation 2015” by the National Council for Culture and the Arts (CNCA) and it will be the host for the 13th International Fab Lab Conference and Festival FAB13 in 2017.Fab Lab Santiago has also been awarded several national and international grants such as FONDART, CORFO and Ille de France, used to develop three different scale projects: City and Territory (Smart Cities), Matter and Space, Devices and Gadgets.
Could you talk more about the history of Chilean design and how you see it developing?
Like many Latin America countries, Chile often uses foreign models as a guide; we interpret these models and use the elements that work for us. In many ways, we are still discovering our way. Despite this, nowadays you can see a stronger Chilean identity in Chilean architecture, design and even cinema production.
Chile is a border, a line, a sort of island hanging from the Andes, therefore our history is tied to design, it is necessary when you think about our isolated environment. Perhaps the most influential element to Chilean design identity is its precariousness. This absence give us the energy to innovate. We know how to work using this absence as part of the final expression of everything. If designers understand this phenomena, then they can use it as a way to express architectural concepts of our inner tectonic.
Can you talk through the work for the London Design Biennale, how did the Counter Culture Room come about and what inspired the work?
As mentioned before, the geography of Chile creates an isolated setting. It’s an extremely intense environment, with frequent natural disasters such as earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, downpours and so on. This curious territory is almost falling from the continent into the ocean because the Andes Mountains push us to the horizon.
The way we have built our society is based on a sense of emergency, scarcity and a timeless feeling. As a consequence, we’re not able to understand the importance of design as a tool for transforming societies. As a matter of fact, design is relevant for us because it develops from a sense of precariousness; thus, we can say that our country is always dealing with Utopia.
Allende’s government was a real approximation of Utopia’s island. He created a vision, which demanded design to form and offer a sense of reality to his ideas. Cybersyn was one of the strongest examples of this. A multidisciplinary team formed of designers, engineers, scientists and even politicians attempted to organize a societal, economic and production model to dilute the centralized power and to disseminate it amongst the community. The “brain” of Chile’s Utopia was a series of technological, industrial, graphic and communication designs that celebrated the human, testifying that design constantly yearns to approach More’s island, expanding the body of cultural knowledge with the intent to improve our lives.
The Cybersyn Project was a piece of work for the social and political revolution. The revolution aimed to transform the way people were governed – it was a counterculture revolution. Cybersyn presented a new organizational system for our society, showing an understanding the significance of the Internet almost forty-five years ago, a truly innovative concept.
The main idea behind the Counter Culture Room at the London Design Biennale is to provide an understanding of this mythological project through an experience of the historical context and the operation room itself. The narrative will explore the relevance of this project, and the way in which it developed our understanding of the world, changing our vision from the mechanical world (Newton) to the digital world (Einstein).
How do you think the Counter Culture Room will help Chilean creators, and how do you see the lab progressing in the next few years?
It is too high-sounding to think that this installation will help creators. If we can convey our concept we will be satisfied.
In terms of Fab Lab Santiago, we are working hard to generate a space that contributes to public issues, in order to promote public policies. Within these targets, hosting the 13th International Fab Lab Conference and Festival FAB13 in 2017 is an incredible opportunity to create a transversal platform to work with governments, private companies, academic institutions, creators and the fablab international network to crystallize the idea of fabricating society.
The Counter Culture Room London Design Biennale 7 – 27 September 2016
