AA. VV., REAL REVIEW 6 – JUST IN TIME, 2018

The challenges to our species have never been more obvious, yet the required actions have never seemed more impossible. After several decades, Just-in-Time production (only making what you need, only when you need it) has become a generalised model. We now expect everything on demand, from clothing to houses, and food to friends.

The unreal magic by which objects come into being has also changed our relationship with the process of making. Increasingly, we are more interested in the how than the what, with even inferior artisanal and bespoke commanding a premium.

Will we be able to redress social inequality, dampen the effects of global warming and reinvent democracy just in time?

How do we design value? MARIANA MAZZUCATO reviews the metrics of innovation. Poet EMILY TODER reviews the movement of the robot, while TOYO ITO reviews medieval light and the symbolism of grief. US-based Jamaican author GARNETTE CADOGAN reviews walking while Black, and FEMINIST ARCHITECTURE COLLABORATIVE review artificial hymens. STEPHEN ARMSTRONG reviews DELIVEROO’s dark kitchens and ARMATURE GLOBALE review the contemporary European photographic identity, including work by SATOSHI FUJIWARA.

Also in the issue: JACK SELF reviews the digital playlist and the world of nootropic smart drugs. ADAM NATHANIEL FURMAN reviews the role of class in building preservation, with a related photographic essay by THEO SIMPSON. Architect ASSAF KIMMEL reviews being just in time, while ELEANOR PENNY reviews the state of dictatorships today. Artists TAUBA AUERBACH and ÉLIANE RADIGUE review patience, and TIM IVISON reviews American communes.