Pilloton speaks this Thursday as part of the IMA’s Planet Indy series.  Here, she muses on a few questions in advance of her visit:

Q: What have you learned about the relationship between thoughtful design and the solving of large social problems?

We have learned that thoughtful design can address large social problems, but works best on a small scale. Instead of saying “how can design solve homelessness?” we’ve found that the best design initiatives are actually micro-local, that they address things on a very small scale for a defined group of people in our own backyards, and these solutions can serve as models for others to do the same in their own backyards. One million people with one design solution each will always be better than one person’s solution for one million people.

Q: In 2010, you toured the country in an Airstream trailer engaging with people about design.  What did you learn from that experience?

We learned a lot about how misunderstood design is among the general public, and how disconnected that is from the desire of the next generation to do good. People viewed examples of brilliant humanitarian design as “inventions,” or “the next million dollar idea,” rather than the result of a human-centered process that really does have impact. Students, on the other hand, took to the road show naturally, seeing the power that creativity can have on everyday lives. On a more practical note, we learned that two people and a dog, for 75 days in a confined space with no water or kitchen, is not a fun way to live. But we definitely have some good stories.

Q: As a designer and educator, what are you up to right now in Bertie County, North Carolina?  And why did you choose to take your energy to a rural community?

My partner Matthew Miller and I both have resumes that say we’re designers/builders, and the day-to-day schedules of high school shop teachers. We teach our Studio H curriculum within the public high school, offering students one year (two semesters + summer build) intensive design and construction education, put towards big built community architecture projects. We love working in a rural place like Bertie County because the impact we can have is exponential. There is such a need to do things differently, and to break the instinct to do the same things done in the same ways since the 1800′s. Design is an opportunity to shift the ways in which we view the future of Bertie County, or any place labeled economically challenged or resource-poor.

Pilloton’s talk at the IMA is also part of the fascinating IndyTalks series.  The post-talk Q&A period will be focused on Indianapolis specifically: how can design thinking make this city a better place to work, learn and live?

Benjamin and Gaston gave a talk at the Museum after the install, where they showcased both their knowledge of architecture and commitment to their process as well as their wicked senses of humor. In case you missed it, here is the lecture. And if you haven’t seen Gravity’s Loom, get to the Museum as soon as you can!

Its soaring columnar heights were barely vaulted enough to contain my adolescent angst.  But like all meaningful architecture, its shape still resonates thanks to a combination of gravity, memory, and epic presence.

Clowes is the work of modernist architect Evans Woollen, the subject of a feast of retrospection over the next few days in Indianapolis, his birth place.

Tonight at 7 pm, he speaks at The Toby, “analyzing the themes and intentions of his life’s work in design.”

A show opening at iMOCA tomorrow night features world-class photography of Woollen’s work—another great way to experience his six-decade career.

To top it off, take a Saturday afternoon tour of Woollen’s residential projects, offered by Indiana Landmarks.

If you don’t attend any of these events, do this, at least: slow down next time you drive by the Minton-Capehart Federal Building in the 500 block of Pennsylvania Street – noted for its “inverse ziggurat form” in the “brutalist” style.  Consider the courage and vision needed to imagine and execute such a structure (whether you like it or not).  And think of Mr. Evans Woollen…

Call it a mod beehive, a jaunty porous blob, a bold yellow organ.  In the hands of Greg Lynn, form reigns…with materiality a close second.  Lynn is credited with coining the term “blob architecture.”

I first heard the name Greg Lynn last year while reading a piece in The New York Times Magazine about architects with an ardor for sailing.  Guys like Lynn and Frank Gehry regularly hit the waves in sleek, complex contraptions in a true test of human-made forms vs. the energies of nature’s elements.

Preview Lynn’s design perspective with this recording of a talk at the Univ. of Michigan.

So what’s Crispin’s mission at the IMA? To present a taboo-busting film he co-directed called It is Fine! EVERYTHING IS FINE! It’s a journey into the psyche of a kinky, bloodthirsty guy with cerebral palsy. Crispin calls the film a response to the question: “What does it mean when a culture does not properly process taboo?”

He’s referring to the fact that the major film studios tend to pre-censor material that is darkly ambiguous or productively disturbing, thus preventing our ability to wonder, question and learn from cinema.

So Crispin has taken the making of challenging films into his own hands. He uses the proceeds from his roles in films like Hot Tub Time Machine to fund independent film projects at his new sound stage in Prague.

Joe Shearer of the local website The Film Yap did a great interview with Crispin (to be posted soon) in which Crispin expounds on his mission as an artist.

Crispin’s Toby April 24 appearance will include the 74-minute film, a one-hour narrated slide show, Q&A, and book signing. He is committed answering every fan question if it takes all night. Tickets are $15 for IMA members and $20 for non-members. It’s open seating; doors open at 6:30 pm.

This culturally adventurous event is co-sponsored by Big Car, Indianapolis International Film Festival, and the Naptown Roller Girls – some of whom will act as ushers, rolling up and down The Toby’s steep aisles.

Racer Xtasy (via Marc L)

What’s your favorite (or least favorite) Crispin role?

Sottsass and the members of the collective, including young architect Michele De Lucchi, broke through the “tyranny” of modernist taste by making furniture made from leopard print plastic laminate, celluloids, neon tubes and zinc-plated sheet-metals, jazzed up with spangles, glitter, and crazy color combos. Memphis got its power from the ubiquitous cheese of consumer culture.  The old guard modernists turned their noses at the flamboyant movement; the mass media ate it up.

Then, in 1985, at the height of Memphis’ popularity and influence, Sottsass walked away, like a Super Bowl-winning quarterback who turns in his cleets when you’d least expect.  Memphis left the design world in an identity crisis.  Was modernism dead forever?  How long can one subsist on glitter, and can it feed the soul?  What to do when the avant-garde is no longer so?

Thursday, October 30, come to the IMA to hear the rest of this story, as told by Penny Sparke, professor of design history at Kingston University in London.  Sparke will spin the tale of what happened after Memphis and how European designers, no matter how fragmented, marched onward with the reinvention of industrial and product design.

Sparke’s talk is an appetizer for an exhibition opening next March to the IMA: European Design since 1985: Shaping the New Century.  Visit the IMA next spring and you will enter a fun house of chairs, lamps, teakettles and knifeblocks you never thought possible.  Stay tuned to the IMA blog over the next few months for more design chatter.