PART ONE | Massive Change at the MCA

Introduction

Design has emerged as one of the world’s most powerful forces. It has placed us at the begining of a new, unprecedented period of human possiblity, where all economies and ecologies are becoming global, relational and interconnected. In order to understand and harness these emerging forces, there is an urgent need to articulate precisely what we are doing to ourselves and to our world. This is the ambition of Massive Change. Massive Change is a celebration of our global capacities but also a cautious look at our limitations. It encompasses the utopian and dystopian possibilities of this emerging world, in which even nature is no longer outside the reach of our manipulation.

For many of us design is invisible. We live in a world that is so thoroughly configured by human effort that design has become second nature, ever-present, inevitable, taken for granted. And yet, the power of design to transform and effect every aspect of daily life is gaining widespread public awareness. No longer associated simple with objects and appearances, design is increasingly understood in a much wider sense as the human capacity to plan and produce desire outcomes. Engineered as an international project in multiple disciplines and media, Massive Change: The Future of Global Design will map the new capacity, power, and promise of design.

Massive Change explores paradigm-shifting events, ideas, and people, investigating the capacities and ethical dilemmas of design in ten sections called design economies. Its purpose is to map the current state of design and help us evolve a global society that can direct and control emerging technologies and social forces to achieve the most positive outcome. We must ask ourselves: Now that we can do anything, what will we do?