studio makkink & bey: softnews project

softnews project installation image © designboom

studio makkink & bey are exhibiting softnews project as part of the exhibition and social action intitiative efeito D (D-effect) at experimentadesign lisboa 09. efeito D aims to raise awareness and provide a new source of income to finance the activities of diferenças – a children’s development centre that helps and supports children with cognitive and development problems.

for their softnews project, studio makkink & bey looked at a different way of recording and delivering news. based on the tradition of portugal’s lover’s handkerchiefs and working with the down syndrome community, softnews handkerchiefs are sewn with the text and images of news reports from all over the world. the handkerchiefs are sold as unique translations of history, whereby the news finds a new meaning and destination.

‘words have more than one meaning. indeed, it is often the translation of the storyteller or audience which makes information more interesting. news can also have more than one meaning. there are different sides to every story and numerous people involved in communicating the facts can distort information to create new narratives.‘ – SM&B

singer sewing machine which has hand drawn logos and is covered is pieces of tape image © designboom