Dodo.org. Kuva Sasa Tkalcan.
The theme for the Design Capital project makes you think about the use of public space, elitism in the creative field and doing things together like in the good old days.
The theme for Helsinki’s World Design Capital year in 2012 is Open Helsinki. The city space is open for everyone, and anybody can make him or herself a designer for a year. Yay! I can finally realize my installation “My May Day at the Parliament House” and “Esplanade Park in Orange” and continue my career as a graffiti artist also in broad daylight! Or can I?
“Open Helsinki means that we actually live what we teach in the application for World Design Capital. Taking being open seriously, telling everyone what it means to be the design capital and how small and big actions create a real capital without centralized direction,” phrases City of Helsinki cultural director PEKKA TIMONEN.
Dodo.org. Kuva Sasa Tkalcan.
When Helsinki was elected in Singapore last November, Mayor JUSSI PAJUNEN invited “every citizen, business and organization in Helsinki as well as visiting design professionals and enthusiasts to join the preparations and events for 2012.”
Challenging definition
So far, the actual meaning of the invitation is a bit blurry. If I decide to thank Pajunen for the invitation and accept it, where do I sign up? Will there be a reservation service on Helsinki’s website for free-to-use spaces in 2012? Will the city pay for water, port-a-potties and wi-fi if I decide to host an exhibition, club or outdoor installation? Can I pick up empty invitations from the Market Square’s Helsinki info and upload my own press release onto the Cultural Office website?
Design, by definition, adds something to everyday things – usability, form, flare. Can you set exceptions to rules when you are spending the whole year celebrating design? Can I legally spread event posters all over electrical boxes, tram stops and walls? What if I declare that what I’m posting is hand-made design, photo art, service design or graphic design? Who gets to say what design is in 2012?
The City of Helsinki is facing a huge challenge, but also an opportunity. It’s hard to draw the line when you send an open invitation to decorate the city but at the same time want to keep the city space clean and pleasant for all citizens. Pajunen recognizes the task at hand.
“It’s a huge challenge for us to make the city of Helsinki, as well as the other cities in the project, better through design both socially and culturally as well as financially,” he says.
Dodo.org. Kuva Sasa Tkalcan.
From necessity to diversity
However, the possibilities are greater than the challenges. Small experiments can become mainstream if the city encourages individuals to act and build their own experience of a public city space. Environmental organization Dodo decided to take over a patch of land by Pasila railway station and started a renegade vegetable garden. Maintenance men and other neighbors looked at them funny for a while, but in the end the young gardeners got good tips about unused frames and buckets.
Pumpkins, Jerusalem artichokes and carrots ripened through the summer, and in the fall Dodo set up a long table next to the tracks for a harvest party. Again without asking permission. People used the city like they wanted to, and nobody really had anything bad to say about the in every way successful project.
Examples of functioning communities can also be found abroad. In 2014, the European Capital of Culture will be Umeå, located in Northern Sweden. The people there have for long been able to take part in planning their hometown’s services and culture. In practice this has allowed 400 students to compose a libretto in a blog-based system and the city library’s services to be shared and developed with the citizens of surrounding communities. The same politics of openness will soon shape Finland’s capital.
“Loose structures and social relations are key for a design capital. It’s also the only way to weave ourselves and others into the mix. After all, we are the whole world’s design capital,” Timonen ponders the scale of openness.
Open Helsinki is also our Helsinki. The city is open when people build entertainment, services and aesthetic experiences for themselves, starting with their own needs and realized to their own liking. That’s when the basic message of design will be relayed also to non-designers.
Text Simo Vassinen Photos Sasa Tkalcan Translation Jyri Paavilainen
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Helsinki was elected World Design Capital 2012 in November 2009. A series of articles in We Are Helsinki will detail Helsinki’s journey towards the design year 2012. www.wdc2012helsinki.fi
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