Ex Libris: The Public Workshop

2025
Research, UX/UI, Woodworking, Exhibition/Performance, Printmaking

Ex Libris: The Public Workshop is a speculative framework for organizing communal workspaces that prioritize reuse over production. At its core is a web platform that hosts a living inventory of tools, how-to documents, and shared resources—each contributed by individuals, not institutions. The site is designed to grow through participation, offering downloadable PDFs that teach people how to repair, build, and repurpose using materials already in circulation. This network serves as an alternative to market-based systems, shifting focus from product consumption to access, skill-building, and material responsibility.

In this imagined near-future, the collapse of industrial manufacturing leaves behind vacant infrastructure and an overwhelming volume of discarded goods. Instead of contributing to cycles of waste, Ex Libris proposes a system of care and reuse, where tools are inventoried and knowledge is shared freely. The digital platform becomes a decentralized library—guided by principles from library science, usufruct systems, and stigmergy—that allows users to coordinate indirectly, trace each other’s contributions, and build collaboratively without hierarchy. The design prioritizes accessibility, transparency, and adaptability across devices and contexts, functioning as both a learning tool and a survival strategy.

This project is rooted in material-oriented thinking, rejecting the idea that sustainability can be achieved through more "ethical" consumption. The goal is not to produce new objects, but to build new systems of making—systems that allow communities to sustain themselves with what already exists. Through acts like sharing a broom design or uploading instructions to fix a broken chair, Ex Libris invites participants to reimagine what design can do when it no longer serves the market. The workshop begins digitally, but its true form will take shape when the tools, people, and space converge to form a working system of mutual care and material stewardship.

REN GEISLER

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