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Lebanese Politics Get a Beautifully Simple Treatment With 'Union' Radio

by Leila Brillson on December 15, 2010 at 08:10 AM

union radio
A truly beautiful design object joins exquisite aesthetics and purpose, while also questioning (or embracing) the way living things interact with the material world. The "Union" radio successfully marries utility and art, but then does something particularly tricky; despite being a functioning art piece, it also comments on Lebanon's political discord without being overtly partisan. Designer Nanar Kradjian successfully brings the personal, visual and global into play with a simple table radio, shown recently at Saint-Étienne Biennale 2010.

The radio features color-coded knobs and dials, each relating to a different party's flags. Six listeners can sit at a table, each wearing colored headphones, and tune into the stations that they like. When the earbuds are plugged in, all six can control the station and its respective volume. But, once the headphones are removed, the shared output creates a cacophony, blasting the channels through the one speaker. (Note the gorgeous pattern of the speaker output, as well.) The channels become indiscernible -- much like, Kradjian thinks, the noisy political discussion of dissonant parties in Lebanon.

Sure, gathering people of different politics around the table to listen to a radio is highly unlikely, but Kradjian's minimalistic cube suggests that, possibly, many voices can be heard at once -- just not by everyone, and not without the speaker (or pundit) taking his or her turn.

Tags: art, design, lebanese, lebanon, NanarKradjian, radio, SaintEtienneBiennial, top, UnionRadio

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