Flow

Recently, (and those of you who know me can vouch for this) I have been caught in a maelstrom of activity due to the volley of family visits to Copenhagen. Thanks to these visits I got to visit the Danish Design Centre's exhibit call Flow. It is about consumer responsibility. For those of you have not visited it, I highly recommend it. It really is an eye-opener.

It is designed like a supermarket with products lined along the shelf. However, none of the products have any brand to distinguish them from any others. All products are equal, plain white with just a label with the name of the product. This is not a supermarket where they sell regular products but rather what society needs.

Milk cartons containing 'tolerance', cream cartons containing '1/4th pint of unconditional love', boxes containing 'commercial-free space', perfume bottles containing 'good vibes', cigarette packets containing 'addiction liberators', cans containing 'meaningfulness' and 'silence', medicine boxes containing 'stress killers' and 'time for each other', and disposable syringes with 'collective consciousness'.

I think that last one is really significant. I wish we could all inject our society with collective consciousness. In the exhibit, they quote Anne Lappe, "Everytime you spend money, you are casting a vote for the kind of world you want." I guess democracy is everywhere, huh?