DesignEdge shows no edge

Tan Hee Hui, Contributor, Kuala Lumpur

Audience boos and heckles were frequently to be heard at the annual IdN Conference, this year titled DesignEdge'05, held at the Suntec Convention Centre in Singapore recently.

The conference was, in fact, designed with little edge and the predominant mood was one of tedium.

This despite the event being organized by the hip and trendy design-based IdN Magazine from Hong Kong.

Divided into three segments, the conference comprised some talks in the morning and an expo divided into seven pavilions showcasing interactive installations, performances and screenings, as well as shops and exhibits.

These covered diverse interests and media connected with design, such as urban culture, print, art, interactive installations, music, animation and fashion.

According to IdN, the expo was intended to "show how complementary each element is to the other, and how misleading labels can be in this New Age of accommodation and cooperation".

Among the popular left-of-centre and left-field designers participating were Ben Drury (from the U.K. -- popular for his collaborations with U.N.K.L.E, MoWax Arts and Futura), The Designers' Republic (U.S.), FeedTank (U.S.), Maharishi (U.K.), Kuzuki Kuraishi (Japan) and DELTA (The Netherlands).

Some of them gave talks that sounded very much like they were excessively fond of the sound of their own voices.

Most of the speakers seemed to have misinterpreted the conference's overall purpose of addressing design issues.

Instead, most of the presentations were akin to retrospective showcases of the respective designers' works.

Heck, the members of the audience could have easily visited a museum if they had wanted this.

Worse, most of the speakers had no agendas or papers to present, and not even a single work-in-progress was showcased.

The members of the audience eventually could no longer take it and vented their frustration aloud when Kuzuki Kuraishi took to the stage.

He was booed for not giving any sort of presentation worthy of the name. Instead, he just relied on a question-and-answer session as an apparent short-cut way of getting things done.

It was quite irrelevant that no prior information had been given on his work.

This prompted a chagrined member of the audience member to shout out "I paid so much and traveled all the way to Singapore for this nonsense."

"It's obvious he didn't do his homework before coming to the conference," said another disgruntled member of the audience, Ronie Johann from Malaysia. "His replies to questions were vague and without depth. Maybe it was due to the language barrier, I don't know."

Kuraishi is a well-known graphic designer who produces pieces for the popular occult clothing label Bape.

He has also produced many collaborative works with popular collectives like U.N.K.L.E, Neighborhood, Surrender, Adidas and Visvim.

Despite all the outcry, the members of the audience nevertheless enjoyed their time with Rostarr from the U.S.

Rostarr, the moniker given to himself by Romon Yang, quickly engaged the audience with his video presentation of him drawing skillfully with his two hands at once and his work-in-progress presentations.

He also revealed that he seldom used a computer for his works. Instead, he usually used the free-hand style.

A prolific artist with many successful exhibitions and commissioned works by Nike, ESPN, Wieden and Kennedy, among others, graphic designer Rostarr is however more widely known as a painter.

His abstract images come from a natural process that create works of art by utilizing digital and analog technologies and techniques.

Besides sharing anecdotes about his passion for his design endeavors, Yang also revealed that he once used the Rostarr moniker to hide his true identity.

This was because Americans had once held Asian designers in low regard, he said from the stage.

But not anymore, as his moniker has caught on among his fans and became Yang's claim to fame.

Also engaging were The Designers' Republic who, after a presentation of their work, indulged in a lively question-and- answer session with the audience.

Although many of the questions from the audience sounded frivolous, the bantering exchanges provided relief after too many staid talks.

In fact, there were so many such talks that they provided frequent grounds for bitching among audience members both inside and outside the convention hall.

The discontented voices were even heard in the corridors of the venue's adjoining shopping mall during intermissions and also after the event had ended.

"That conference sucked!" a Malaysian told this writer while boarding a coach back to Kuala Lumpur.

Thankfully, the expo proved to be the saving grace of the conference overall.

The "live" showcases, exhibits and shops attracted a large audience that stayed on until closing time.

Some designers showed their mettle by working on new works on the spot, to the spectators' delight.

"At least this is engaging," said one audience member.