A Look at Mau's Massive Change

[21 September 2006 - BusinessWeek] The renowned Toronto designer's show at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago challenges design to solve the world's problems. ... What do a featherless chicken, Wal-Mart's (WMT) logistics system, and an economic theory on homeownership have in common? To Bruce Mau, they all demonstrate the power of design-oriented thinking in the innovation process. These examples and far more are packed into Massive Change, the multimedia exhibit that made its U.S. debut Sept. 16 at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. The exhibit is the brainchild of Mau, a Toronto designer internationally renowned for his graphics work. But of all the points the show makes, and it makes many, the most obvious is how far design reaches in our lives, beyond visual expression and product development. The show presents design as a method of creative problem-solving that can be applied to large social problems such as hunger, housing shortages, or energy for the Third World. "We have to liberate design from fixating on the visual," says Mau. "Instead we wanted to think about design as the capacity to effect change." More