- Failure as a concept à failure linked to personality is a new invention
- We are all bound to fail!
- Failure is not always a bad thing
- Desire paths - “A desire path is a path created by usage, not a pre-determined path. Normally these paths are created by people taking shortcuts across fields to get from point A to point B more quickly” (Gaston Bachlard)
- Just because something has been used for its desired purpose or worked out in the way that we had hoped, does not mean that it is a failure, just that it has a new meaning. Potentially something that we can learn from
- Sometimes the desired purpose of ‘something’ (product/large scale object) is not fully finished until it is tried out/used by the audience it was intended for.
- Have you ever hacked anything? --> Died my hair, transformed a dress into a skirt, use of make-up, tattoos, piercings, jewellery.
- Hacking is the idea of changing something; whether in appearance or use to make it more effective.
- Samuel Beckett
- Astro Teller- uses the word ‘moon-shot’ to keep their visions big. Run at the hardest parts of the process first. Teller and his team have thought of and tested many different projects, however, due to different reasons they have not survived for one reason or another, so they had to ‘kill the project’. They may go back to the project at a later date, but for the time being they have hit a dead wall and cannot go any further with the project at that current time. “shifting your perspective is more important than being smart”. Biggest question asked – “what will happen to me if I fail” --> (will people laugh at me). “We believe in dreams at the moon-shot factory”. “we can create a future that is in our dreams”. https://www.ted.com/talks/astro_teller_the_unexpected_benefit_of_celebrating_failure
Task-
Read- ‘failure as art and art as history as failure’- Martins
Listen- ‘Least resistance: how desire paths can lead to better design’ 99% invisible
Bring- Two examples from your practice where work has failed
Over enrichment week, keep a record of desire paths that you find in your everyday lives, think about the ones that you use, ones you see others use and write a 200 word reflection on how these paths help us navigate the world.