Trust Design Talk 4: Public Trust - Podcast

Talking about Public Trust; from left, Tim Vermeulen, Henry Mentink, Ronald Rietveld, Scott Burnham, Michiel de Lange

To mark the launch of the fourth issue of the Trust Design publication series, Public Trust, Premsela, Volume magazine and the Social Cities of tomorrow conference joined forces to discuss trust, design and how shared services, shared space and the public good influence, are impacted by, issues of trust in society.

During the evening's discussion Premsela's Tim Vermeulen spoke with researcher and writer Scott Burnham, project manager of Premsela’s Trust Design project; Ronald Rietveld of Rietveld Landscape, Michiel de Lange, co-founder of the Mobile City and a new media lecturer at Utrecht University; and Henry Mentink, co-founder of MyWheels. The podcast of the discussion and an audience Q&A afterwards is available here.

Trust Design: Public Trust, Discussion at Social Cities of Tomorrow, Amsterdam

Trust Design Publication 4: Public Trust

We're pleased to announce that the latest issue of the Trust Design publication series is out. In issue four, we focus on the relationship between trust and design in an era of increasing privatization.

Both society and industry has undergone a steady transition from public to private interests in recent decades. What impact has this had on trust? From the privatization of national assets to the confusing hybrid of public-private spaces the Occupy protesters encountered, we are quickly having to re-learn relationships between private and public interests.

What role does design play - what role could it play - in bridging the divide and increasing levels of trust between these two seemingly opposing realms of private and public interest. 

In the face of an ever-privatized world, things such as collaborative consumption and the sharing economy are emerging as new systems the hold the potential to increase personal and societal trust. 

As the introduction to the issue states:

In an era of tension and shifting allegiances between public and private interests, the key ingredient in these systems is that the assets used as collateral to build and extend trust in these new interactions is our private possessions and resources. Domestic objects, tools and spare rooms, personal cars and parking spaces, and personal time and labor – these fundamentally private resources are becoming public assets, extended publicly through these systems ... 

The loss of trust in our social, financial, and governmental systems was a catalyzing force to discover new values, and new ways of creating and extending trust, outside of existing damaged systems. Through the micro-networks created by the sharing economy, a sense of a shift at the macro-level comes into focus – a reintroduction of trust at the public level, through numerous personal exchanges. Ultimately, we are discovering a new social cohesion of trust. If, as Putnam argued, the loss of social association has damaged our social capital, perhaps the new social circles being created online by the use of our personal assets are creating new stores of social capital – new communities of trust.

- Scott Burnham, "The Publicization of Trust"

In addition to the usual focus on the relationship between trust and design, in this issue we extend the investigation into what role trust plays in an increasingly privatized world. Featured in this issue are the following authors and articles:

• Scott Burnham - The Publicization of Trust
• Cameron Tonkinwise - Sharing Trust: Tasteful Designs of Social Systems
• Albert Canigueral, Natalie Ortiz, Antonin Leonard - Trust is the New Currency
• Neal Gorenflo, Jeremy Adam Smith - Ten Ways our World is Becoming More Shareable
• Scott Burnham - Private Public Tensions
• Rebar - Commonspace
• Aditya Dev Sood - Process, Protest and the Public Good
• Anna Badur - In-Between Places
• Therese Granlund - Trust in the Public Domain

Trust Design: Public Trust is published in conjunction with Volume 30 - more information can be found here.

Talking Private, Public and Pizza at Social Cities

Premsela, the Netherlands Institute for Design and Fashion, will host a panel discussion on design and trust on Wednesday 15 February at 6pm at the architecture centre ARCAM in Amsterdam. It takes place in connection with the conference Social Cities of Tomorrow.

Coinciding with the discussion will be the launch of Volume magazine’s fourth and last Trust Design supplement. The series has been produced in cooperation with Premsela. The Arcam discussion and magazine supplement will focus on the private vs the public.

Over pizza and drinks, Premsela's Tim Vermeulen will speak to the researcher and writer Scott Burnham, project manager of Premsela’s Trust Design project; Michiel de Lange, co-founder of the Mobile City and a new media lecturer at Utrecht University; and Henry Mentink, co-founder of MyWheels. Come and listen, participate in the discussion, and enjoy a slice of pizza. Admission, pizza and drinks are free.

Due to limited seating please RSVP to rsvp@premsela.org

Trust Design is a Premsela research project set up to investigate the relationship between trust and design. How can design respond to the contemporary crisis of confidence? What are the components of trust? Can you design trust? And can you trust design?

Date: Wednesday 15 February

Time: 6pm – 7pm

Location: ARCAM

Address: Prins Hendrikkade 600, Amsterdam

Talking Trust, Design and Faith at Dutch Design Week

Discussion participants (from left) Mathieu Frossard, Corien Pompe, Matthijs van Dijk, Scott Burnham, Tim Vermeulen

As part of Dutch Design Week 2011 in Eindhoven, Premsela’s Trust Design and Volume magazine explored the relationship between trust, faith and design in a special edition of the Trust Design debates.

Taking part in the discussion of trust and faith in relation to design was Trust Design project director Scott Burnham; Corien Pompe, Volvo’s chief colour and material designer; Matthijs van Dijk, professor of industrial design at the TU Delft and the author of Vision in Design; designer Mathieu Frossard, student at the Design Academy Eindhoven's IM Masters. The morning discussion was moderated by Premsela's Tim Vermeulen.

To listen to the event and the ensuing discussion between panelists, you can download the podcast here.

For those who wish to remain with the written word, you can read an abbreviated version of Scott Burnham’s introduction to the discussion below.

Scott Burnham

Faith Is Trust: An Introduction

Faith and trust hold great power in our world, equally able to help individuals and entire nations prosper, or tear them apart. Religious scholars have found that the two words were used interchangeably in early translations of numerous religious tomes.

Given the historical companionship of these two words, and their contemporary power and importance, it is necessary to explore their relationship more closely to understand how some of their share qualities may be extended into design.

Faith is in the DNA of design history. The origin of what we know as graphic design today can be traced to the 14th century ‘illuminations’ of religious texts transcribed into calfskin tomes for the Church and wealthy patrons. The motivation of these early designers to create “prayer made manifest” carries through to the design profession today – bringing intangible ideas and information into the physical realm.

The typography used in Gutenberg’s printing press – and its inaugural Bible – was influenced “by practices of proportion and ratio handed down by the scribes and calligraphers of religious manuscripts”, notes Daniel Kantor in his book Graphic Design and Religion.

Faith gave us the most resilient pieces of design, perhaps the first piece of open design - the cross. From highly ornate Catholic or Russian Orthodox crosses to two sticks tied together atop a grave in the desert, its symbolism and intent remains coherent within wide variations of materiality. The cross is the manifestation of a belief in physical form.

Faith is connection to a promise. Whether a religious object or public sign, it’s manifestation is an article of belief in that promise. Much the same can be said about design. Design is ideas, beliefs and promises, manifested in physical form. So as we contemplate issues of trust and design, let us share the enquiry today with faith and design.

Trust is a promise. Sustainability is a promise. Green design is a promise. As is cradle to cradle... there is a long list of promises design makes. The object may not hold the promise in itself, but it is a connection to a promise. Here, the mechanics of faith can be found. Design creates faith. A manifestation of belief. A connection to a promise.

If we consider the almost religious-like devotion many show towards design – from Apple products to Eames chairs – we are already experiencing a form of faith, and devotion, if not outright worship, in design. Are we, as some would argue, replacing our spiritual needs with consumerism or is the quality, the experience of the design we surround ourselves with creating this devout connection for us?

After all, it is the continual interaction with objects and images that makes one religious in a particular manner. Define that religion however you like.

As British academic and author Terry Eagleton says, “What we consume now is not objects or events, but our experience of them.”

If we are indeed creating vehicles of experience, or vehicles of a promise, the responsibility lies with designers to decide which experiences we create - which promise we connect to. Faith is connection to a promise. As with the 14th century Illuminations, faith and design meet when a promise is made manifest. We have a responsibility to make sure that promise is trust.

Trust Design and Faith Discussion, Dutch Design Week 2011

Trust Design Publication 3: Trust, Design and Faith

We're pleased to announce that the latest issue of the Trust Design publication series is out. For issue three, we focus on the relationship between trust, design, and faith.

Faith and trust are the underpinnings of almost all our sociological and personal constructs, yet both can be allusive goals or attributes. What role does faith have in our relationship with design? Can the mechanisms of faith be used to enable trust through design? Apple has created an almost quasi-religion around its products through design, while contemporary faith-based organisations are turning to design as a way to increase and strengthen their role in society.

In addition to discussing Trust Design’s central exploration of the relationship between trust and design, we extend the conversation to debate the role of faith – spiritual or otherwise – within trust and design.

Featured in this issue are the following authors and articles: 

• Scott Burnham - Faith Is Trust
• Andrew Breitenberg - Uthixo Luthando
• Mathieu Frossard - In Design We Trust
• Nigel Cross - The Utopian Design Policy Of The Shakers
• Garðar Eyjólfsson & Thomas Vally - The New System
• Kenneth Fitzgerald - I Believe In Design
• Adrien Petrucci - Deity Emergency

Excerpts from the issue will appear on this site once the hard copy makes its way to subscribers - Trust Design: Faith is Trust is published in conjunction with Volume 29 - more information can be found here.