An experiment to understand and reflect our dependence on digital tools.

Concept

People have gotten used to be glued to their screens. We are staring at screens while sitting on the breakfast table. We spend hours on our desks at work, in front of screens. When trying to relax after work, we look at screens. Often, we spend more time in front of screens than under the sun.
But what happens when we need to do without all these screens? That is what a group of young design students from the Art Center College of Design wanted to find out when they paid Berlin a visit in late 2014. They were asking themselves:

'How will our lives change if we get rid of all our digital helpers and move to a city we have never been to before?'

Exploring the city for six weeks, the students learned first-hand what effects a 'digital detox' had on their perceptions, understanding, and workflow. During that period, the students gave up on using the internet, their laptops, smartphones and all the other gadgets that had usually let them stay connected. Instead, printed maps, post cards and public telephones were the name of the game.

Hauptstadt Frottage and letterpress

At the beginning of the project, students had to re-orientate themselves and explore substitutes for the digital tools they were so used to. To create images of their surroundings they started to literally print on site. 'Stolpersteine', 'Kleingartenschilder' and bullet holes in the Brandenburg Gate—using the frottage technique, sites were captured using just paper and pencil. This rendered a new experience for the students who were used to simply taking pictures instead of meticulously documenting surfaces with their bare hands.
To create large-sized, high-resolution prints without using computers, students further explored traditional printing techniques. This led them to Erik Spiekermann's letterpress workshop p98a where they learnt about analogue typesetting technology and the craftsmanship necessary to operate the printing machines.

Urban Haiku and final exhibition

To present their work to the broader public, the project closed with an open exhibition in the Art Center Studio at Bikini Berlin. In addition to presenting their work, students engaged with the audience, asking, what it would take them 'to unplug'. Finally, all frottage drawings were published in a journal that was released on November 8, the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall.

Return to the connected world

Initially, living unplugged was an almost painful experience for the participants. It made abundantly clear how reliant they were on digital communication channels and devices—quickly sending a text message to friend, glancing at a virtual map to find the right way, playing a game to kill time in the subway—once all this disappears, a new awareness for their own surroundings developed. However, after some weeks of digital detox, the students started to recognized the beauty, spontaneity and intimacy of the everyday life that had been buried under digital distractions before.
Ultimately, the students left Berlin with a new and refined understanding of their creative toolbox and the clarity that there is more in it than just a digital hammer.

Facts

Project duration
12 weeks

Project participants
12 students – Art Center College of Design, Pasadena

Carried out and organised by:
Nik Hafermaas, Simon Johnston, Erik Spiekermann, Dirk-Mario Boltz