The GARDENER is a rollator (walker) that reminds a person with dementia of his/her/their passion for gardening and the wonderful smells of childhood and spring, allowing him/her/them to plant and care for flowers with gardening gloves, shovel, watering can.
There are currently more than 55 million people living with dementia worldwide, and nearly 10 million new cases are added each year. Aside from limited medical options to address this largest pandemic (before and after Covid-19), ageism is on the rise. Therefore, it is important to make society aware of this disease phenomenon in order to promote a sensitive approach to critical design. At the same time, it is about questioning the design of everyday utensils of the Silver Generation in its aesthetics.
The artistic works on art and dementia by Ruth Mateus-Berr and Pia Scharler aim to,
1. raise awareness for the topic of dementia - for example with the now around 20 designed rollators as critical design: here it is not about usability, but the objects draw attention to the needs of those affected, who want to remain part of our society, have the right to be crazy and have fun and want to be addressed by a different aesthetic,
2. to create possibilities for people with dementia, relatives and caregivers to create well-being with art as a method. In doing so, biographical references are taken up in a haptic-aesthetic way, such as the former hobby of gardening, playing table tennis or tennis, or the profession of drumming. At the same time, the objects also draw attention to the need for interaction and the disappearance of loneliness. But there are also examples that are symbolic of dementia, such as the "Shredded Memory" rollator. Others address the need for the LBTQ community to be allowed to live love in old age. Other rollators cite designer furniture, such as that of the Campana brothers, the Thonet company, or Zanotta, or artists such as Meret Oppenheim or Donald Judd. AI can also be found in some of the designs.
