OuDePo

Abstract

We instituted an Ouvroir de Design Potentielle (OuDePO), that is, a Workshop/Laboratory to Explore the Potential of Design, in the Design Department at Goldsmiths (University of London). The OuDePo was formed to initiate a pataphysical curriculum in order to have a ‘ludo-critical’ purchase on design and designing; and, in particular, the part design plays in enacting deleterious neo-liberal programmes (harming the natural world and producing iniquitous and hurtful social (dis)order). This publication outlines the thought behind the pataphysical design curriculum of the OuDePo, it includes a number of essays that distil the lectures given during the 10 week project set and also contains a record and description of the ‘seriously ludic’ project work of 13 ouvroirs (workshops) which were formed in the course of the project (viz. ‘Pataphysical Responses to some of the most Urgent and Intractable Problems of our Age’). The project ran from 10 Palotin146 (St Forficule, Barnabite) to 28 Gidouille 146 (Poche du Père Ubu)