Ruin in Reverse is a graduation thesis project developed for the MA Design Program in HDK Gothenburg University. The project was developed from October 2016 to May 2017.
Ruin in Reverse explores how design can contribute to bridge the concepts of cultural heritage and human rights in military conflicts context.
The projects reflects on the design role in discourses that reinforce the clash-of-civilisation argument and opens up a framework for a critical discussion on the potential of design practice to contribute in this issue. Using the Syria war as an example, Ruin in Reverse criticises the Western way to depict destruction and people’s suffering and to frame cultural heritage discourse: practices that might reinforce the ideologies that lead to more war and destruction.
The project was developed under an experimental process that connects material exploration to theoretical research. It started with the construction of a rubble pile as an attempt to materialise the images on war spread in media and social media. The following process explored the rubble components through the re-enactment of practices related to cultural heritage such as archaeology, museology and archiving. The process ended up in conversations with displaced persons from Syria. The interview script were inspired by methods of mapping used in a new approach of cultural heritage which considers everyday places and ordinary people as important as monuments and artefacts.
The documentation of the material exploration and research became a performative narrative that combined videos and images related to both the content and the process: representations of war and cultural heritage destruction as well representations of the process around the rubble, such as photography, archiving systems, 3D models and performative videos. The narration connected these materials in a performative way. This website aims to translate this sort of performative narrative to a publication format.
Ruin in Reverse is an experimental design process that can be seen as a framework for situating design in relation to contemporary cultural heritage practices as well as a performative narrative that aims to visualise complex topics. This process also challenges the boundaries between design and other disciplines such as art, archaeology and anthropology, suggesting trans-disciplinarity as a way to intervene in social issues.
Andrea Malanski is a Sweden-based designer. Her projects are focused in narrative environments and visual communication. Her current research focuses on design processes and tools within the broader understandings and issues related to heritage practices. Such perspectives aim to blur the boundaries between design and non-design disciplines, as in anthropology and archaeology with a specific focus on historical and contemporary social issues. She holds a Master’s degree in Design, HDK Gothenburg University.
Thank you to Onkar Kular, Henric Benesch, Markus Miessen e Jonas Fridén for tutorial support and feedback of this project.