DEMOCRATIC DESIGN MODELS FOR ALL

Justin McGuirk, editor of Icon Magazine, this month writes about Internet-based knowledge sharing systems that are influencing conventional systems for design (superstar creates, many consume). Click on the image below to get a larger version of his text. He does not specifically mention theatre institutes in his brief introduction, but does state,

Machine-like institutions run by professional monopolies will be broken down. It's a change that has profound implications for social systems such as education and healthcare

For an example of what he's talking about, follow this link to a review of Mydeco.com. This interior design website has 30,000 users producing hundreds of thousands of interior designs using real furniture, voting for their favourites and blogging about design.

These models, which are slowly emerging, grass-roots style, are challenging the widely upheld notion that the designer is a celebrity. National theatre, for a long time, has been a few people selecting work for the nation and world to see. Mydeco, amongst others offers a model of an alternative solution to this rather hierarchical way of making national theatre.