»Per(l)mutare ad absurdum« by Sina Gösele and Amyra Radwan explores protest language and resistant design through generative methods. By playfully generating absurd demands, they testify to the loss of political left/centre/right orientation, which is reflected in protest language and symbolism. The web-based protest generator permutates slogans, impositions and hype neologisms. In a rapid acupuncture of trigger points, the generated digital artefacts transform into absurd works between concrete poetry, design and net art.

As an analogy to social change, the designers reinterpret the natural creation of pearls. The grain of sand that ends up in a seashell is covered with many mother-of-pearl layers. In this way, the metaphorical sand in the social gears becomes part of the mollusc’s body. The pearl has been appropriated by mankind as a body ornament, a status symbol and a gift from nature. With a curious, speculative view, Gösele and Radwan examine the pearl as a product of non-human resilience and protest. The pearl becomes a resistant, vibrant pixel that is constantly rearranged and deconstructed. Unexpected connections emerge from this perspective between pearls, protest, permutation and design.

The website was exhibited as part of the exhibition »Mix & Clash – Ein gestalterisches Systemfrikassee« in the »Pop-Up Raum der Kreativgesellschaft« in Hamburg, curated by Katharina Wanke, Sina Gösele and me.

Visit: www.perlmutare.net