Marco Monterzino at Designersblock 2012

For the last 8 months, Marco Monterzino has somewhat avoided to design a product, a service or a trend. Marco was struck by the August 2011 riots that occurred in London and started to question himself: “What were the rioters in question standing up and revolting for?’ ‘What was the role of the loot and the products in those events?”

As a young designer of products, it was the right time for him to stop and think.

Eventually all the outcomes of his project work as “memorials” and their function is to make the transient tangible, long lived and accessible for the politically disillusioned.

In Marco’s own words:

THE DIY POWER TOOL

“It is by shaping the everyday little things that one can influence and contribute in shaping the larger scale of community and society. The drill and the megaphone should then be found in the same toolbox. In my opinion fixing at home and protesting in the streets share a common frame of mind in the notion of empowerment.”

THE BILLBOARD CAMPAIGN

The project was selected for the one-month talent campaign “Getinframe” on digital billboards in central London. Instead of advertisement: “DIY political engagement”!
“For one year I have researched and observed the real world to design something as powerful as a megaphone to create discourse in the public space. Eventually thanks to the digital billboards as an interactive media, I had a chance to share my work and talk about “DIY political engagement” with an even larger audience.”

THE ARK OF MANY VOICES

“The Ark is a reflection of the ethnographic research and the experience at the “Tent City of St Pauls”. It embodies the new form of political engagement in which the citizens ‘take the burden of politics themselves’. The Ark was tested during an intervention which has been exhibited at the Guardian News Media Gallery.”

 

The Ark of Many Voices: “the procession” from Marco Monterzino on Vimeo.

Want to see more about Marco’s work? Click here.
And do check out his blog! Here.