The text message that overthrew a government.

The Massive Change Project

explores the legacy and potential, the promise and power of design in improving the welfare of humanity. It originated as a collaboration between Bruce Mau Design and the Institute without Boundaries in which we researched the capacities and limitations of human efforts to change the world for the better.

Massive Change in America

From September 16th - December 31st, 2006, the Massive Change Exhibition came to life in Chicago at the Museum of Contemporary Art. In addition to the exhibition, the MCA featured symposia, performances, education programs, and related exhibitions. If you missed this extraordinary exhibition, join the discussion on this Massive Change Blog with articles and resources documenting Massive Change worldwide.

The Designers of Massive Change

Massive Change is a project by Bruce Mau Design and the Institute without Boundaries. Meet the people who originated and co-authored the project.

Massive Change Project Partners

The institutions and partners involved in making Massive Change happen.

Tour the Exhibition

Visit the exhibition in pictures, and see why Massive Change was the most visited exhibition in the history of the Vancouver Art Gallery.

Introduction

There are two reasons to know more about Massive Change: to be changed and to make change. The events, the book, and our growing online community are short cuts to provocative thinking about the power and promise of design. Massive Change will change how you think about possibilities, for the world, and for your own family, community, company and country.

Design Economies

Instead of structuring our project around professional design disciplines, like graphic design and industrial design, we looked at design from the perspective of the citizen. Design economies are the regions of our lives that are being transformed, and in some cases invented, by new capacity designed to shape the world.

• The Urban Economy
• The Movement Economy
• The information Economy
• The Energy Economy
• The Image Economy
• The Market Economy
• The Materials Economy
• The Military Economy
• The Manufacturing Economy
• The Living Economy
• Wealth and Politics

Massive Change Newsletter

Every week, or at least quite frequently, we publish the Massive Change newsletter. Join the mailing list to keep pace with developments in the field of global design. Or review all the archived newsletters.

Massive Change Radio

As part of the research for Massive Change, Institute without Boundaries team member Jennifer Leonard, created and hosted Massive Change Radio. Once a week she interviewed world leaders on the front lines of implementing Massive Change. The program was broadcast on the University of Toronto's CIUT 89.5 FM from September 2003 to June 2004. The entire season of multidisciplinary interviews is archived for download.

Massive Change in Action

Massive Change in Action is an online educational project about our human ability to create positive change in the world through the power and promise of design. It is aimed at high school students and teachers who want to produce a new breed of change maker - citizens who think as designers. These people would be, in the words of inventor and philosopher Buckminster Fuller, a "synthesis of artist, inventor, mechanic, objective economist, and evolutionary strategist."

Get the Massive Change book

Published worldwide by Phaidon, Massive Change - by Bruce Mau, Jennifer Leonard, and the Institute without Boundaries - is not about the world of design, it's about the design of the world. Intended to provoke debate and discussion about the future of design culture, Massive Change is a modern illustrated primer on the new inventions, technologies, and events that are affecting human culture worldwide.

Massive Change: The Future of Global Design. Bruce Mau with Jennifer Leonard and the Institute without Boundaries. Phaidon, 2004.

Global Visionaries Symposium

On November 18, 2006, the City of Chicago Department of the Environment and the Museum of Contemporary Art will produce the Global Visionaries Symposium: Massive Change and the City. This one-day event, framed by the City as a place for change, is co-moderated by Bruce Mau and John Callaway. The symposium includes conversations with global visionaries - including Stewart Brand, futurist Hazel Henderson, and biologist John Todd - whose work has had a seminal influence on the conception of the Massive Change project. Mayor Richard M. Daley will present each speaker with a City of Chicago Global Visionaries Award following the symposium.