Nylon Borders

Nylon Borders – L.A.R.P.
Two-day workshop by Trojan Horse at Luonnos project space, Helsinki
Tuesday November 22, and Thursday November 24, 2022 17-20
info@trojanhorse.fi

REGISTER HERE: https://forms.gle/LegAy2LFdrRNEQdFA

*

Nylon Borders is a Live Action Role-Play (L.A.R.P.) exploring questions related to socio-economic class and identity in the field of design. Through asking and addressing questions related to everyday struggles and inherent positions of power, the Nylon Borders L.A.R.P. explores how inequality is produced and reinforced in education, media and everyday work of designers.

As a process the L.A.R.P. frames an possibility for design practitioners to critically explore identity and power from a creative and safe place of suspension and play. Practicing the suspension of the determined or judging self, allows us to listen to others, and better unfold the knowledge within the group. 

Within the discourse of design, we question what kind of knowledge is accepted, and whose voices are properly heard. We understand that the possibility to define how a more desirable future reality should look like, must be filtered through an intersectional lens of personal awareness of privilege and power. The L.A.R.P. aims to explore how life experiences – as existential and material vulnerabilities – can be better taken into an account in design culture and education.

Nylon Borders L.A.R.P. consists of two intensive workshop days that make space for researching, writing and playing, as well as documenting the process and debriefing collectively what happened.

Workshop 1 – Tuesday November 22, 17:00–20:00
– Introduction to Live Action Role-Play
– Discussing the background reading
– World-building through creating characters and framing the history and back-story of the L.A.R.P.

Workshop 2 – Thursday November 24, 17:00–20:00
– NYLON borders L.A.R.P.
– Debriefing the L.A.R.P.
– Reviewing the collectively produced documentation (notes, texts, drawings and photos.)

*

Nylon Borders L.A.R.P. is a continuation of Trojan Horse collective’s research on role-playing as a research tool. We have previously organized two significant role-plays Nörttimuotoilusymposium in 2017 and Foreign Affects and in 2018. In 2019 Kaisa, Ott and Tommi edited, wrote and designed the book ‘Borrowing Positions – Role-playing Design and Architecture’ in which role-playing is framed as a research tool for design and architecture. The motivation behind these initiatives was to see if L.A.R.P. could function as a method and experimental platform for testing out ideas designers and architects are not brave enough (or able) to voice in daily practice. We asked: Could it be possible to participate in discussions openly and without the fear of ridicule and failure? Who or what shapes the roles of designers and architects in a contemporary society? How can we illuminate the power structures and responsibility behind taking, building or defining roles as designers and architects? How flexible are these roles?