Faculty of Design Design and Society B-PD226 AY 1819 | Cultural and Contextual Studies | Week 12 LASALLE College of the Arts Faculty of Design LASALLE College of the Arts This lecture will explore the role of design within society by examining design manifestoes throughout history as well as concepts such “citizen designer” (Heller and Vienne), “adversarial design” (Disalvo) and “social responsibility”. Faculty of Design LASALLE College of the Arts 2 Paradigms of Design Market-driven design & innovation ● ● Industrial economy model of production and consumption Technologically driven Socially useful design ● Led by social needs ● Social economy model that is not geared to private profitability ○ ● Provide goods & services to passive consumers Thorpe, Adam and Lorraine Gamman. “Design with society: why socially responsive design is good enough.” CoDesign, Vol. 7, Nos. 3-4, 2011, 217. William Morris, Walter Gropius, Buckminster Fuller, Victor Papanek, Richard Buchanan, John Thackara, Nigel Whiteley, Bruce Mau. Faculty of Design LASALLE College of the Arts Design Manifestos A written statement of the beliefs and aims of a group of people (e.g. designers, artists, creative practitioners) about society and their role within it. ● The Socialist League Manifesto (1885) ● The Futurist Manifesto (1909) ● First Things First (1964 and 2000) ● The Copenhagen Letter (2017) Faculty of Design LASALLE College of the Arts The Socialist League Manifesto by William Morris & E. Belfort Bax, 1885. “Fellow Citizens, We come before you as a body advocating the principles of Revolutionary International Socialism; that is, we seek a change in the basis of Society - a change which would destroy the distinctions of classes and nationalities… the land, the capital, the machinery, factories, workshops, stores, means of transit, mines, banking, all means of production and distribution of wealth, must be declared and treated as the common property of all”. Resource: https://www.marxists.org/archive/morris/works/1885/manifst2.htm Faculty of Design LASALLE College of the Arts The Futurist Manifesto by F. T. Marinetti, 1909. “ 4. We declare that the splendor of the world has been enriched by a new beauty: the beauty of speed. A racing automobile with its bonnet adorned with great tubes like serpents with explosive breath ... a roaring motor car which seems to run on machine-gun fire, is more beautiful than the Victory of Samothrace”. Resource: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/20_02_09_the_futuri st_manifesto.pdf Faculty of Design LASALLE College of the Arts First Things First by Ken Garland, 1964. “We do not advocate the abolition of high pressure consumer advertising: this is not feasible. Nor do we want to take any of the fun out of life. But we are proposing a reversal of priorities in favour of the more useful and more lasting forms of communication. We hope that our society will tire of gimmick merchants, status salesmen, and hidden persuaders, and that the prior call on our skills will be for worthwhile purposes”. Resource: http://www.designishistory.com/1960/first-things-first/ Faculty of Design Resource: http://www.manifestoproject.it/adbusters/ LASALLE College of the Arts “We propose a reversal of priorities in favor of a more useful, lasting and democratic forms of communication - a mindshift away from product marketing and toward the exploration and production of a new kind of meaning… Consumerism is running uncontested; it must be challenged by other perspectives expressed, in part, through the visual languages and resources of design”. Faculty of Design Resource: https://copenhagenletter.org/ LASALLE College of the Arts Faculty of Design LASALLE College of the Arts Read: Chapter “Consumer-led Design” in Design for Society by Nigel Whiteley. 1994. Modern period: ● ● “impersonal design” based on function & ergonomics Design shouldn’t reflect user personality, taste, aspirations! “Design in the Modernist world - supposedly rational, unsentimental, functional and serious - was about how architects and designers felt people should live; it did not grow out of the way people do live (11). Faculty of Design LASALLE College of the Arts Modernist Typeforms Nesting Tables by Josef Albers Chair B33 by Marcel Breuer, 1927-28. Faculty of Design LASALLE College of the Arts The impact of marketing on design as a lifestyle accessory. Example: the Swatch watch. “The company started by identifying a market that lay between cheap digital watches and the expensive brand names. The pricing was crucial: too cheap and the Swatch would not be taken seriously; too dear and ti would not be bought in the way that was planned. The Swatch was, from the first collection in 1983, marketed as a fashion accessory: you choose your watch to suit what you are wearing and where you are going” (24). Faculty of Design LASALLE College of the Arts Whiteley: Design as a lifestyle accessory “Everyone needs more than one Swatch. They need two, three, four because it is not so much a watch as a fashion accessory”. (Swatch chairman in Whiteley, 24) Swatch watches released between the years 1983 - 85. Source: https://www.swatch.com/en_sg/watches/ Faculty of Design LASALLE College of the Arts “In an age of mass production when everything must be planned and designed, design has become the most powerful tool with which man shapes his tools and environments (and by extension, society and himself). This demands high social and moral responsibility from the designer. It also demands greater understanding of the people by those who practise design and more insight into the design process by the public”. Faculty of Design LASALLE College of the Arts Tin Can Radio Receiver by Victor Papanek and George Seeger, early 1960s. “When human wants do not exist, we invent them: 14-carat golf tees, mink-covered toilet seats, electric carving knives and electronic nail polish dryers are fostered and sold to an unsuspecting public who consent to this perversion of design and taste”. Victor Papanek, “Do-it-Yourself Murder: Social and Moral Responsibilities of Design”, SDO Journal 1960. Faculty of Design Tetrakaidecahedral by Victor Papanek, 1973 - 75. LASALLE College of the Arts Faculty of Design Problematizing ‘Social’ or ‘Humanitarian’ Design Should design be understood in terms of a problem - solution dynamic? How to ensure that solutions from the developed world technologies, ideas, etc - are appropriate for other places, cultures, lifestyles, etc? LASALLE College of the Arts Faculty of Design LASALLE College of the Arts “A designer must be professionally, culturally, and socially responsible for the impact of his or her design” (Heller). “We have trained a profession that feels political or social concerns are either extraneous to our work, or inappropriate” (Katherine McCoy). Faculty of Design LASALLE College of the Arts Design is, “... in fact, profoundly political…” It is the material expression of power It shapes social interaction It indicates what kind of objects, artefacts, spaces, and so on that people use to define their culture (material culture) It organizes how those objects, artefacts etc. are distributed and managed across a group of people (material economy) Faculty of Design LASALLE College of the Arts “Socially Responsible” Design? “... socially responsible designers know what values drive them. They are motivated by their personal experiences, politics, morals, or other influences that compel them to seek collaborations with like-minded organizations or to promote causes they care about. They also question the effects of their work” (Andrew Shea) Faculty of Design LASALLE College of the Arts “Socially Responsible” Design? From Andrew Shea: ● ● ● ● Designing With - creating partnerships to build empathy Collaborations across Disciplines building multidisciplinary teams Measuring Impact - recording conditions at the start of the project and how they changed Sharing Insights - case studies, toolkits, workshops or talks Faculty of Design Lifestraw: Solution or More Problems? How Lifestraw works LASALLE College of the Arts https://www.designother90.org/ Faculty of Design Measuring Socially Responsible Design: Melles, Gavin, Ian de Vere and Vanja Misic. “Socially responsible design: thinking beyond the triple bottom line to socially responsive and sustainable product design”. CoDesign, Vol. 7, Nos. 3-4, 2011, 149. LASALLE College of the Arts Faculty of Design “Increasing social awareness” X Responsible production X Anticipating social consequence of use X Democratization of the design process X Shifting away from the commercial context LASALLE College of the Arts Faculty of Design LASALLE College of the Arts The role of the designer in socially responsible design: “... the facilitator of flexible solutions that meet local needs and resources.” Melles, Gavin, Ian de Vere and Vanja Misic. “Socially responsible design: thinking beyond the triple bottom line to socially responsive and sustainable product design”. CoDesign, Vol. 7, Nos. 3-4, 2011, 149. Faculty of Design LASALLE College of the Arts Homeless Vehicle by Krzysztof Wodiczko, 1989-90. “As a result of Reagan’s policies, about 100,000 homeless people appeared in New York, although official data indicated 75,000. I was surrounded by those people and immersed in the fumes of drugs sold in the unheated and half-ruined building in which I lived. I was also in contact with groups that helped the homeless, which is why, as a designer of industrial forms, I decided to act on it” Source: https://culture.pl/en/work/homeless-vehicle-krzysztof-wodiczkowww.youtube.com/watch?v=NJlgfsFX3W0 Faculty of Design LASALLE College of the Arts Homeless Vehicle by Krzysztof Wodiczko, 1989-90. “This vehicle is not a solution of the homeless crisis. It is an emergency tool for people who have no options, and an intellectual tool, as it articulates the complex situation of the homeless. It doesn’t represent them as garbage-collecting bums, but as people who use a device intended for specific purposes – which should not exist in a civilised world. This vehicle has a life-saving and didactic function, it finds a form for that which no one wants so know and see”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HE_reC74xA Faculty of Design Material Matters: A Future Furniture Fair by DROOG, 2012. LASALLE College of the Arts “Our economic system is in turmoil. Our resources are becoming scarce. In the meantime, we stick to the same economic models, producing more products, producing more waste. What if, in an alternative economic model, income tax is replaced with tax on raw materials? What would this mean for the design industry? Will designers offer alternative ways of creating materials, will they specialize in upcycling, concentrate on services, go digital, or do something else?” Source: https://www.droog.com/project/material-matters-future-furniture-fair Faculty of Design LASALLE College of the Arts Uses nature's leftovers to make products. featuring Wild bone china by Christien Meindertsma for Droog https://vimeo.com/580 02334 Sells objects designed for your whole life and beyond. featuring impermanence by anothermountainman A game that satisfies your need for shopping without the option of buying anything. Creates new objects with used goods. featuring Rag chair by Tejo Remy for Droog Faculty of Design LASALLE College of the Arts Chemhound by Natalie Jeremijenko and UCSD students, 2006. “The possibilities of creatively appropriating technology toward new ends and engaging the public in political issues through compelling technological things” (diSalvo, 1). Faculty of Design LASALLE College of the Arts Build Kindness not Walls by Jessica Walsh and Timothy Goodman, 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJlgfsFX3W0 Faculty of Design LASALLE College of the Arts Socially Responsive Design: “The notion that the designer… can be responsible for the success of failure of social innovation initiatives, is unrealistic.” Thorpe, Adam and Lorraine Gamman. “Design with society: why socially responsive design is good enough.” CoDesign, Vol. 7, Nos. 3-4, 2011. Faculty of Design LASALLE College of the Arts Socially Responsive Design Preventing dependency ● Resulting from ○ ○ ○ ● Inappropriate solutions Technically complex products Lack participation In the form of ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ Financial Technical Material Manufacturing & supply Social SEE: www.designagainstcrime.com for Socially Responsive design methods and projects. Faculty of Design LASALLE College of the Arts Socially Responsive Design From ‘need-based’ ● ● Identifying needs Assuming responsibility to solve problems To ‘asset-based’ design model ● ● Work with other social actors Leverage the community’s assets to effect positive change Faculty of Design LASALLE College of the Arts Socially Responsive Design Outputs ● ‘Infrastructuring’ the process ○ ● so the design process can carry on even when the designer (or any of the actors) has left ‘Slow prototyping’ ○ the long and slow process of creating connections between different actors, developing design objectives, to achieve further societal goals. Faculty of Design LASALLE College of the Arts The role of the designer in socially responsive design: “... to enable other actors in the co-design process to develop and build their own capacity and resilience, and to draw upon their own assets, rather than focus only on unmet needs.” Thorpe, Adam and Lorraine Gamman. “Design with society: why socially responsive design is good enough.” CoDesign, Vol. 7, Nos. 3-4, 2011. Faculty of Design Designing with People Related terms Participatory design, co-design, design activism, design anthropology LASALLE College of the Arts Faculty of Design http://www.servicedesigntools.org/taxonomy/term/1 LASALLE College of the Arts Faculty of Design LASALLE College of the Arts End.
