DESIGNED IN TAIWAN

A man tests a set of radio frequency-triggered, color-changing light bulbs. A woman adjusts a small clock that looks like three electric sockets. Another man puts the finishing touches on a roach trap made from traditional paper cutting techniques to resemble the miniature houses used in ceremonies to comfort the spirits of the dead. These three were among several dozen designers putting the finishing touches on their displays for the second annual Taiwan Designers’ Week (台灣設計師週), which opened last Saturday and runs through Friday.

This year’s main exhibition is divided into eight sections at the Xinyi Public Assembly Hall (信義公民會館). There are also one exhibition section each at Taipei Artist Village (台北國際藝術村) and at the XueXue Institute (學學文創志業) in Neihu.

The all-volunteer event was initiated last year by Taiwan Designers’ Web (台灣設計師連線, TWDW), a network of designers from across the country, many of whom work as industrial designers making products for large business and feel their creativity is stifled at work.

With more than 250 participating groups and individual designers and 10 exhibition sections this year, compared to 100 entrants and seven sections last year, Taiwan Designers’ Week is clearly expanding. Last year’s fair only featured works by industrial and lifestyle product designers, but this year’s includes fashion and jewelry designers and film directors, as well as visual and graphic designers. Each of the 10 sections is curated by a loosely organized group and organized around concepts such as “On and Off,” “The Wall,” and “The Scholar’s Study.”

“Some [of this year’s] designs cost NT$100,000 or NT$300,000 [to make],” said Joyce Chou (周湘雲) the event’s executive director and a design researcher for Pega Design & Engineering. Many designers keep their participation a secret from their employers, she noted. Some took time off from work to prepare; others have bosses who would rather not see their employees’ energies divided between work and side projects.

One of last year’s products, a collection of benches created under the aegis of the design collective Dian Shin Refreshment (點心設計), received an iF product design award and has since been featured at the prestigious International Furniture Fair of Milan.

This year, Dian Shin Refreshment (點心設計) has invited 50 designers to make stationary inspired by the aesthetics of China’s Song and Qing dynasties. The results include a pen holder-cum-sundial that also tells your fortune for the day, and a bookshelf that looks like a window frame from a pre-modern wooden house.

The On and Off concept was conceived of as an attempt to get participating designers thinking out of the box, as it were.

“We try to answer the question of whether or not we can escape from binary logic and create designs that are more in tune with the nuanced changes in human emotions and senses,” explained Harry Wu (吳佳勳), the On and Off section’s curator and a designer for Pega Design and Engineering.

Items in this section include Tech Tap, a faucet-shaped device that pours light instead of water into two “cups” and emits music that sounds like trickling water. The glasses are rigged with LED lights and “receive” the music and light as if they were tangible materials. Another interesting invention is a keyboard bearing the unintelligible characters of a “Martian language” (火星文). Visitors can type messages that are displayed on a monitor and can be printed out as a sticker.