More Craziness, Please!

Design students from the world’s first Master’s programme in Play and Design stage the con-tribution of Design School Kolding to Milan Design Week 2018.

A table laid with a cornucopia of colours, a mountain of dishes, glasses and flasks that blend with aromas, sounds, light and water inviting spectators to let go of t heir inhibitions and plunge into the universe of childhood. Using the world’s largest playground for design as a setting, Design School Kolding’s contribution to Milan Design Week 2018 directs the spotlight upon the universe of play and sets the stage for an interactive and dynamic hands-on dialogue.

The installation The Play focusses on play which, according to Design School Kolding’s Helle Marie Skovbjerg, the first professor in play in Scandinavia, is a vital tool in designing solutions:

- Design that incorporates something crazy and silly knows what it’s all about, for play represents exactly this interface between the rational and the irrational, and that’s what makes it so valuable. This is what can push us forward and transcend our conventional codes and norms regarding how things ought to be.

The point is to create exceptional play design
The Play is choreographed by the first batch of students enrolled in the Master’s programme Design for Play and originated in a workshop in which the team explored the inner nature of colours in an El Dorado of tableware arranged as a still life. The installation is an improvised snapshot of challenges that the students may encounter during their studies. - It is primarily about equipping students to create excellent play design − to incorporate re-search into the specific education we provide. When designing for play we are able to explore emotions, states of mind or relationships between people, and that's where it becomes really exciting, says Helle Marie Skovbjerg.

The brand-new Master’s programme in Design for Play, which was launched in 2017, is interna-tionally unique and is rooted in a strong Scandinavian design tradition. The course was devel-oped in close collaboration with the LEGO Foundation and the LEGO Group, and some of the most talented designers, researchers and knowledge partners in the world are affiliated with the programme. The ambition of Design for Play is to create a Scandinavian centre for play and design as a model of how design research and design education based on play can generate change.

Anticipation of the concept of play and design led to an award nomination
The first time Design School Kolding initiated the concept of play and design was at last year's Milan Design Week with the creation of a classic supermarket filled with spinoffs of well-known products for the consumer market, designed and manufactured from waste products from companies. The exhibition the Super Supermarket was nominated for a Milan Design Award and selected as a "must-see" by exhibit organisers.

You can experience The Play at the vibrant centre of Milano, Ventura Future, Viale Abruzzi 42, during Milan Design Week 17–22 April 2018.

The exhibition is open 10:00−20:00 Monday-Saturday, 10:00−18:00 on Sunday.

The official opening is Thursday 19 April at 19:00.

Curator: Tina Midtgaard
Artistic director Rune Fjord
Play design: Students from Design for Play

We gratefully acknowledge the support of the LEGO Foundation, the Augustinus Foundation, Kolding Municipality, Designit and KVADRAT.

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