MIAMI, FL.- Design Miami/ announced an extensive roster of groundbreaking Design Performances to take place continuously throughout it 2007 Miami event this December. Ten of the world’s most innovative emerging and established designers and design institutions have been invited to create new work onsite, in public and in real time.

The Design Performances at Design Miami/ 07 will transform visitors from passive spectators into participants in the creation of design objects. The program extends the “Performance/Process” theme explored during Design Miami/ Basel 07 by focusing not just on the designer’s function in the creative process, but also on the performative role served by the consumer, who activates or “completes” a given design object by means of his or her hands-on involvement. The Design Performances shift the emphasis away from the design object itself toward the notion of design as a charged, lived experience.

Design Performances will be presented daily between 12:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. All performances will take place in the Loft Building, 3627 NE 1st Court and Chatham Building, 155 NE 40th Street, with the exception of the glassLab, which will occupy part of Oak Plaza. See Design Miami/ Show guide for a map.

Design Performances will include:

Wieki Somers: “Surrounded by Objects”

Wieki Somers will reveal the subtle interplay in her work between function, content and materials through a live demonstration of her Bath Boat under construction, along with a film set in her studio that will illustrate material processes and her use of found objects. Somers is bringing a boat builder from The Netherlands to demonstrate how the wood of the boat is steamed and bent.

Stuart Haygarth: “Drop Chandelier”

Over the three-and-a-half days of Design Miami/, Stuart Haygarth will use the base portion of plastic bottles from different brands of bottled water to create a chandelier shaped like a water droplet. Visitors can leave their empty water bottles with Haygarth to incorporate into his chandelier.

Tobias Wong, Josée LEpage & Aric Chen: “As Long as it Lasts”

“As Long as it Lasts” will be Design Miami/’s first pop-up tattoo parlor, offering visitors the opportunity to get a tattoo, inked by a licensed professional, in one of eight specially-commissioned designs created by prominent artists and designers, including: Vito Acconci/Acconci Studio, Tord Boontje & Andrew Allenson, Juergen Mayer H, Lawrence Weiner, Hella Jongerius, Yves Behar, 5.5 Designers, and Kaws. How far will art and design lovers go?

Studio Libertiny: “What is Nature?”

This collective of young designers based in the Netherlands will glue together stacks of printed scrap paper—page by page, one on top of the other—until a large wood-like block is formed; the paper is returned to its pre-industrial state, while maintaining traces of its manmade past. The resurrected wood will be turned on a lathe and carved by hand to create unique bowls. Visitors are invited to participate in the gluing and carving processes.

Jason Miller: “Better Than You Remember”

Working with a hypnotist, Jason Miller will ask Design Miami/ visitors to remember and describe meaningful domestic objects from their pasts. These remembered objects will serve as a starting point for Miller to create new designs in a process he describes as “rummaging through a metaphysical thrift store.”

Peter Marigold: “Split”

Rooted in DIY improvisation and natural geometric patterns, Peter Marigold will create a special edition of his Split series of individualistic shelves, tables and storage towers.

Utilizing locally sourced timber and allowing the natural quirks of the wood to dictate the final shape of the object, each Split will be a unique memento of his project in Miami.

Tanya Aguiñiga: “Hardcore Softness”

Visitors will assist Tanya in creating felt skins to transform an industrially made chair into a unique work of handicraft. By hand-rubbing natural fleece with ecologically friendly soap and water, participants will experience how hand felting becomes a means for seamless upholstery and a tool for changing the characteristics of iconic mass-produced consumer goods.

Joseph Heidecker: Photobooth Furniture

Joseph Heidecker’s playful sensibility will be on display as he constructs a new series of design Miami/ photo-booth seating. Visitors can participate by having their photo taken in the booth, thus becoming memorialized in his design.

ECAL (Ecole cantonale d’art de lausanne): “ice cream party”

ECAL’s Industrial Design Department presents a reinterpretation of the ice cream cone, designed by student Delphine Frey and created in conjunction with French porcelain company Bernardaud. The cone will be available during several ice cream parties throughout Design Miami/.

Corning Glass Museum & Vitra Design Museum: “GlassLab”

These two institutions are collaborating to show the glass making process in action. Using mobile glassblowing equipment developed by Corning, the Campana Brothers, Sigga Heimis, Constentin & Laurene Boym and Paul Haigh will experiment with new glass designs developed specifically for this project.

Design Miami/ 2007 will take place at the Moore Building in the Miami Design District, on 40th Street at NE 2nd Avenue, Miami, Florida 33137. The show will be open to the public from Friday, December 7 - Sunday, December 9 from 11:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m. Invitation only events will occur during the evening hours.