Ian Anderson, who’s the founder of the Designers Republic, was invited to come and talk for the Amsterdam Conferences at Experimenta Design, Amsterdam.
TDR is known for its anti-establishment aesthetics, while Ian Anderson’s still embracing the consumerism.
As you problably know, TDR does a lot of commercial work for huge brands such as Coca-Cola, Activision Inc and Warp Recordings. But through Ian Andersons art exhibitions, he’s “commenting” on the consumerism and the fact that the whole world is centered around a buy/consume mentality, which of course can be understood as a provocative comment against the consumerism. As he explains: “It’s more an observation and a desire to inspire people to think for themselves rather than a provocation.”
His interest in the consumerism issue, is not about getting people to think that they need things they never knew they wanted. It’s about the control. Like in one of his exhibitions called “Customized Terror”, there was a poster with the word “flesh”. This was not saying that you shouldn’t eat meat. The purpose of the message was to get people to be aware of the ramifications of their actions.
So he’s in some way stepping out of the whole discussion of right or wrong, and has placed himself as some kind of neutral player in the whole discussion concerning the consumerism issue. But of course there will always be different opinions and different ways of looking at his role he has put himself in. Although I think his role in this issue will always be understood, as some kind of contradiction to itself. The Designers Republic
posting by Daniel Norregaard