Ontwerpplatform
Lu Liang
Grafisch ontwerper Lu Liang was verantwoordelijk voor het ontwerp van de communicatiemiddelen bij Made by Us, op de Architectuurbiënnale in Shenzhen (2013), en de tentoonstelling Wat is Nederland. Haar studio The Excercises richtte ze op tijdens haar studie aan de Werkplaats Typografie in Arnhem, waar ze in 2011 afstudeerde. The Excercises werkt samen met een grote verscheidenheid aan organisaties en kunstenaars, ontwerpers en bedrijven met een gedeelde interesse in de relatie tussen taal een object, tekst en beeld.
Made by Us - Architectuurbiënnale Shenzhen 2013
Het Nieuwe Instituut heeft in samenwerking met de Nederlandse onderzoeksgroep The Mobile City een dialoog rond smart cities opgezet tussen Chinese en Nederlandse architecten, mediamakers en ontwerpers. Het project Made By Us is gelanceerd tijdens de Beijing Design Week in september 2013 in samenwerking met het China Millennium Monument Museum of Digital Arts (CMoDA).
Wat is Nederland
In de tentoonstelling _Wat is Nederland. 14 deelnames aan de Wereldtentoonstelling_ schetste curator Stephan Petermann (AMO, de onderzoekscomponent van architectenbureau OMA) een overzicht van 14 Nederlandse bijdragen aan de Wereldtentoonstellingen sinds 1910. De onderling verschillende paviljoens werden door AMO omgezet in een serie maquettes.
Lu Liang: "The is represented by the word hand (English), main (French), Hand (German), ruka (Russian), 手（Chinese), etc. The same concept but became incomprehensible when one heard in a foreign language. This given example proves the arbitrary relationship between language and things. My interest --which is clearly shown in my profession---lays in questioning that arbitrariness.
Language has the ability to manipulate how we see, because of the artificial link between things and the words that describe it. Ferdinand de Saussure asserted the arbitrariness of the sign--which is, the essentially, circumstantial, conventional and historical nature of the bond between the signifier (e.g. a word) and the signified (the object or concept represented).
Soon the Chinese Scholar's Rock emerged as the questioner of that arbitrariness... The rocks have long been admired in China, not only for their striking aesthetic quality, but equally for their resemblance to nature, figures or mythical creatures. Any word appropriated to the rock defined its meaning. Thus they mean everything and nothing. It seems we couldn't find any language to represent these rocks, nor categorize them. This lead me to the question: Is this way--the only way we know-- to perceive knowledge?
Graphic design, just as the Scholars rock, have the power to "manipulate" the contents through a visual language. It can creats new ways of representation and categorization, thus challenge the connection between "words" and "things".
The case of "Wat is Nederland", was a good example of categorizing things in different ways, especially for such a massive amount of contents. I designed a typological way to frame the many different kinds of contents, from manifestation to the government budget sheets, from artworks to economic analyses. Yet the most interesting and challenging part was to implement all these typologies on a 3D level."