Education

Give the Dog a Bone by Lucas Maassen & Margriet Craens

Date: 6th December, 10-15:30h

Location: Thapae East

Group: max 12 person

Fee: 750 THB/ person

Working language: English

Designers Profile: Although Lucas Maassen was educated as a designer and Margriet Craens as a visual artist, for both of them conceptual thinking is the starting point for their work. By collaborating they can mix their ways of working. 

Key to the work of Lucas Maassen is a process of validation through apparent perception. To what extent are aspects of scale and matter fundamental to determine and pronounce typological objects? In a highly playful manner, Maassen manipulates the parameters of conceiving objects; deriving from recognizable functionality into a fictional realm of attributed economic value as limited or as matter, both effectively quantitative realities, he qualitatively measures these up to apparent conditions of the imaginary. 

The starting point for her work is the double view with which she looks at the world around her. Simultaneously she sees the humour as well as the tragedy. Her work seems to question our reality, but at the same time points out that it’s tricky to decide what is reality and what is illusion, because both only exist because of a personal belief in one or the other. 


Content:     

Dogs are walking around everywhere in the city of Chiang Mai. They stroll around the block or lay on the pavement, being cute and waiting to be fed. For this workshop we ask ourselves how can these dogs be more useful? They have plenty of time, so they could do some work in exchange for a sausage. Maybe they can polish your shoes, post a letter or cut the tofu for your pad thai? Of course they don’t have the skills for it, so they need the right tools to make it work. 

At Give the Dog a Bone participants are going to think of tasks for the dogs and make analogue machine prototypes or tools for them. In the end we will test them on the street dogs. 


The workshop resembles the way Lucas Maassen and Margriet Craens worked with the elephants for the project The Elephant Factory which exhibited in the Here and There groupshow at TCDC Chiang Mai. The project is about creating a factory which allows elephants to produce their own products and earn a living, therefore be more independent from humans. It discusses the way labour works in this world and how we can emancipate animals to be part of our economic system on a more equal basis. On the other hand it is also about optimising the world for yourself based on your personal skills.

The workshop combines this conceptual starting point, and works in the fields of future design and social design. Also the workshop is very hands on. You produce your own tool, or you can choose to work together with somebody, its up to you. Basic materials to build the prototype will be provided by the workshop. 

At the end of the workshop participants can take home their machines and tools they have built. 


Program:

10.00-10.45 introduction Lucas Maassen and Margriet Craens + workshop explanation

10:45-12:00 sketch designs

12:00-12:30 lunch break

12:30-15:00 build prototypes

15:00-15:30 test machines/tools on the street dogs

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Organized by
Here and There