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then DESIGN FOR THE COMMON GOOD
READ LIKE YOUGIVEA DAMN
Excerpts for designersedited by LINDSAY KINKADE
VO
LU
ME
1
1
0001 Ward0002 Split
Offi cfi cfi ial Ballot for General ElectionSpringfield County, ty, ty NebraskaTuesday, ay, ay November 07, 07, 07 2006
Papeleta Ofi cOfi cOfi ial para las Elecciones GeneralesCondado de Springfield, NebraskaMartes, 7 de noviembre de 2006
not fold the ballotdoble la papeleta
InstructionsInstrucciones
Do not cross out orerase, or your vote
may not count. If you make a mistake or a stray mark, ask for a new ballot from the poll workers.No tache o borre, pues esto podría invalidar su voto. Si comete un error o hace alguna otra marca, pida una papeleta nuevaa uno de los trabajadores electorales.
1/ 8
Continue votingnext sideContinúe votandoal otro lado
Joseph BarchiandJoseph HallarenBlue / Azul
Adam CramerandGreg VuocoloYellow / Amarillo
Daniel CourtanddAmy BlumhardtPurple / Púrpura
Alvin BooneandJames LianOrange / Naranja
Austin HildebrandandJames GarrittyPink / Rosa
Martin PattersonandClay LariviereGold / Oro
Elizabeth HarpandAntoine JeffersonGray / Gris
Charles LayneandAndrew KowalskiAqua / Agua
Marzena PazgierandWelton PhelpsBrown / Marrón
or write-ino por escrito:
Dennis WeifordBlue / Azul
Lloyd GarrissYellow / Amarillo
Sylvia Wentworth-FarthingtonPurple / Púrpura
John HewetsonOrange / Naranja
Victor MartinezPiPinknk / / RosaRosa
Heather PortierGold / Oro
or write-ino por escrito:
U.S. SenatorSenador de EEUU
Vote for 1 / Vote por 1
President andVice-President of theUnited StatesPresidente y vicepresidentede los Estados Unidos
Vote por 1 par
Brad PlunkardBlue / Azul
Bruce ReederYellow / Amarillo
Brad SchottPurple / Púrpura
Glen TawneyOrange / Naranja
Carroll ForrestPink / Rosa
or write-ino por escrito:
U.S. RepresentativeRepresentante de EEUU
Vote for 1 / Vote por 1
Making selectionsHaga sus selecciones
a candidate, filloval to the left of
write-in” and printname clearly on the
line.
regar un candidato, el óvalo a la izquierda
espacio designado ‘o por y escriba claramente
nombre de la persona enpunteada.
the completed into the ballotHand in the ballot
counted.Cuando termine de votar,introduzca la papeleta en lafunda protectora y entré-guela para ser contada.
Optional write-inVoto opcional por escrito
rning in the ballotgue la papeleta
Vote for 1 pair
Precinct00
Do No
To add in the ov“or writthe name dotted
Para agrerellene el del espacio escrito’el nombrla línea pu
Insert tballot into sleeve. to be coCuando termine de introduzca la papeletfunda protectora y entré-guela para ser cont
Turning Entregue
Split 0003 Poll Worker Initials _______ ________ ________ ______English / Spanish
ballot.ta.
funda protectora y entré-ada.
Fill in the oval to the left ofthe name of your choice.You must blacken the oval completely, tely, tely and do notmake any marks outside of the oval. You do nothave to vote in every race.
Rellene el óvalo que estáa la izquierda del nombrede su preferencia. Deberárellenar el óvalo totalmente y no hacer ninguna otra marca fuera del óvalo. No tiene quevotar en todas las contiendas.
Do ot out
READ LIK
E YOU
GIVE A D
AMN
THEN
DESIG
N FO
R
THE CO
MM
ON
GO
OD
then design for the common good
read like yougivea damn
About the series no book can contain everything
you need to know when setting
out on a complex mission, like
making design projects for the
common good. But a series
of readings can be a starting
point for nuanced thought
that results in knowing and
empathetic action. if in the
course of doing this type of
graphic design you come upon
other texts you think might
benefit designers in this field,
please share them with your
peers, and with the editor of
this book.
commentary In religious traditions, type is
often set in such a way that it
fills only part of the printed page
in holy books. This design is
intended to allow for thoughtful
reading and notes, or commentary.
This book, though not religious,
is also designed to facilitate
commentary. The margins
are designed to facilitate your
interaction with the text.
You are invited to mark it up
and make it your own.
LIndsaY KInKade, editor
advised by douglass scott
december, 2009.
then design for the common good
Excerpts for designers
edited by lindsay kinkade
read like yougivea damn
First things First, 1964
the critical manifesto on design for
social good, FtF is a must read for
any designer working in this area.
it outlines areas of culture where
graphic design could move beyond
advertising and it calls graphic
designers to pursue the use of their
tool for culture making in addition to
the making of their livelihoods.
21
First things First, 2000
the original manifesto was revisited
twenty-six years later by a new
generation of designers wanting to
speak out against the state of design
at that time.
27
design for the public domain, 2008
Hugues Boekraad’s review and survey of Pierre
Bernard’s graphic design work is both exhaustive
and enlightening. He interviews the designer about
his work, his goals, the practical
details of running a small design
firm, and the goal of always
doing good-looking socially
relevant graphic design.
13
the Gift, 2007
Lewis hyde’s book on creativity outlines a
history of gift-giving in multiple cultures
as a way of understanding the value of
gifts. This text on the gift process inherent
in creative work
is appropriate
for all artists,
designers, and
anyone trying to
do social good.
9
relAtionAl Aesthetics, 2002
this excerpt from nicolas Bourriaud’s book on the work
of relational artists in the 1990s analyzes the ways in
which interactive artwork was made and the ways in
which it was received. he reviews the work of many
specific artists whose work designers might look to for
precedents of how forms
of art and design create
relationships in a given space.
Bourriaud’s exploration of ‘the
encounter’ and its aftereffects
can be considered in relation
to public intervention projects
by designers working for
social causes.
35
rules for radicals,
1971
President Barack
Obama read this
text when he was doing community
organizing work in Chicago in the 1970s. It
was a seminal text for many progressive
leaders in the making. Much of the
writing about communism and socialism
is rooted in another time and context, but
the rules themselves are timeless. RFR
is a set of basic principles about human
behavior and how to shape public opinion.
53
AdditionAl
reAdings
of interest
65
the GiftLewis Hyde’s book on creativity outlines
a history of gift-giving in multiple
cultures as a way of understanding
the value of gifts. This text on the gift
process inherent in creative work is
appropriate for all artists, designers,
and anyone trying to do social good.
the gift
11
We also rightly speak of intuition or inspiration as a gift. As the artist works, some portion of his creation is bestowed upon
him. An idea pops into his head, a tune begins to play, a phrase
comes to mind, a color falls in place on the canvas. Usually, in
fact, the artist does not find himself engaged or exhilarated by the
work, nor does it seem authentic, until this gratuitous element has
appeared, so that along with any true creation comes the uncanny
sense that “I,” the artist, did not make the work. “Not I, not I, but
in his Candy Spill installations, felix Gonzalez-torres designs a formation for the candies, stipulates that the amount of them is to be ‘unlimited,’
and then allows museum-goers to take the candies. his installation is a gift that keeps on giving. These photos show the installation of the spill.
12
the gift
13
the wind that blows through me,” says D. H. Lawrence. Not all
artists emphasize the “gift” phase of their creations to the degree
that Lawrence does, but all artists feel it.
These two senses of gift refer only to the creation of the work-what we might call the inner life of art; but it is my assumption that we should
extend this way of speaking to its outer life as well, to the work
after it has left its maker’s hands.
That art that matters to us–which moves the heart, or revives the
soul, or delights the senses, or offers courage for living, however we
choose to describe the experience–that work is received by us as a
gift is received.
Even if we have paid a fee at the door of the museum or concert hall,
when we are touched by a work of art something comes to us which
has nothing to do with the price.
...
If a work of art is the emanation of its maker’s gift and if it is
received by its audience as a gift, then is it, too, a gift? I have
framed the question to imply an affirmative answer, but I doubt we
can be so categorical. Any object, any item of commerce, becomes
one kind of property or another depending on how we use it.
Even if a work of art contains the spirit of the artist’s gift, it does not follow that the work itself is a gift. It is what we make of it.
...
relAtionAl Aesthetics
his [guattari’s] definition is ideally
applicable to the practices of the
contemporary artists who create and
stage life-structures that include
working methods and ways of life, rather
than the concrete objects that once
defined the field of art. they use time as
a raw materiai. form takes priority over
things, and flows over categories: the
production of gestures is more important
than the production of material things.
today’s viewers are invited to cross
the threshold of ‘catalysing temporal
modules,’ rather than to contemplate
immanent objects that do not open on to
the world to which they refer.
Oliver Bishop-Young’s Skip Garden
in London is intended to take
streetspace back from cars. his ‘skip,’
or dumpster, is used for several
different installations that make
recreational space out of the street.
14
A gift that cannot be given away ceases to be a gift. The spirit of a gift is kept alive by its constant donation.
...
Furthermore, when gifts circulate within a group, their commerce
leaves a series of interconnected relationships in its wake, and a
kind of decentralized cohesiveness emerges.
design for the public domain
The associations that citizens freely
undertake between themselves
are often long-lasting face-to-face
relationships based on trust and
loyalty. The services that are rendered
one to another serve a common goal.
Rights and obligations are often moral
in nature and not strictly defined.
It is not for nothing that the reciprocal
relationships of civil society that
create solidarity are often called the
cement of society.
Gonzalez torres’s posters are available in unlimited quantities. Viewers can take
them and the gallery will supply more to the exhibition. The gift of an exhibition
that allows you to take a piece of it endlessly is a true gift. The spirit of it is kept
alive by its constant donation and replenishment.
design for the public domain
16
Hugues Boekraad’s review and
survey of Pierre Bernard’s graphic
design work is both exhaustive and
enlightening. He interviews the
designer about his work, his goals,
the practical details of running a
small design firm, and the goal of
always doing good-looking socially
relevant graphic design.
design for the Public d
omain
17
Design responds to events, topical matters and the ‘talk of the day’. In this way design acts as an instrument for maintaining or accelerating the
existing patterns of production, promotion and consumption of goods and
services. Its primary function is economic. And as a consequence of that,
what defines quality is success in the marketplace. This market conformism
makes design heteronomous and reactive. It is put into use in strategies on
which it has no influence. Market orientation also determines the field in
which design operates, while markets and brands free themselves from local
or national cultural frameworks and become international. In the wake of
privatization and stronger market forces in some countries, market-oriented
designing has penetrated into the public domain as a policy 47 instrument
borrowed from the private sector. In some countries, indeed, it has reached
the very apparatuses of the State itself, carrying out its classic core tasks:
defence, policing and justice, and taxation.
...
In cultural production too, the convergence ofthe public and private sectors
has had an adverse impact.
When cultural production is perceived and organized as a form of consumption, it runs the risk of losing its contours and becoming a component of the popular and flexible culture of media and events. Ultimately it becomes a building block and purveyor of a new branch of commerce, the creative industry.
First things First 2000
We propose a reversal of priorities
in favor of 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. the scope of debate
is shrinking; it must expand.
Consumerism is running
uncontested; it must be challenged
by other perspectives expressed,
in part, through the visual languages
and resources of design.
18
However much the porosity of the barriers between high and low culture
may be applauded as a form of democratization, it cannot be denied that
it jeopardizes some of the functions of art and science. The room for
experimentation, for independent thinking and research, for diversity of
intellectual styles and dissidence is increasingly limited. In this way the
public domain is seeing the same paradoxical situation as the market
sector: despite all the emphasis on distinction and identity, a clear tendency
can be discerned – in the most diverse social areas – towards greater
uniformity and standardization of the procedures and styles of designers.
The diversity of visual culture is decreasing rather than increasing.
...
Looking at this small panoramic view of design we find ourselves asking
one or two questions. The first is: do the nature and function of design
disciplines allow us to deduce possibilities and objectives that they
can realize autonomously? What is the actual value of their promise of
unobstructed invention and initiative? Is design not by its very nature a
heteronomous activity, bound hand and foot by practices, institutions and
systems which have other functions and objectives? Do we not see, in actual
practice, that design is only an instrument for more powerful players in
the social arena? Are the design disciplines not absorbed by the dominant
systems of money and power, and do they not as a consequence lose their
own profile? This book focuses on a designer who has succeeded in avoiding
the dilemma of autonomy and dependence.
Evidently it is possible to be a practising designer in a way that credibly combines relative autonomy, originality and social relevance. The prerequisite for this turns out to be a not easily achieved position of equality with clients with whom one shares certain values.
This designer moves between the state and the market in a socio-cultural
field whose dynamic allows the repeated creation of new alliances.
Bernard’s design group, Grapus,
submitted a series of nine posters,
including the two shown here,
to the 1972 Warsaw poster biennal.
The series depicts the story of a long
and bloody war in Asia. The first
poster shows the war and the second
shows the peace afterward.
design for the Public d
omain
19
design is a form of practical reason
Design takes place in the social interaction between the client, the designer
and the user.
The designer is in the middle of social reality. He plans and effects real interventions in the real world. [Papanek 1972].
His designs are produced and reproduced in series of varying sizes. Tangible
material interests assume concrete shape both during the design process and
in the result of that process. The client-designer relationship is a business
arrangement and is usually regulated on a contract basis.
design is a function of the power of imagination
The designer looks at the world not just as a field of facts but first and foremost as a field of possibilities. Design is built on an existing state of affairs but tries to change it. The
design process is a path from a given fact to a desired situation. As such,
design is an expression of the power of imagination , to which, since the
Romantic period, almost demiurgical potency has been ascribed. However,
human imagination is not a matter of creation ex nihilo.
Design is almost always a variation on existing models and forms, and in only a few cases is it true innovation.
...
Design disciplines can be classified in many ways. As objects of
design Buchanan [1992] distinguishesn between symbolic and visual
communication, material objects, activities and services, complex systems,
and environments. More usual is an arrangement according to the nature
of the design discipline or the designer’s speciality (fashion, architecture,
landscape, print media, industrial products etc.). Another arrangement
is according to types of client: politics, culture, business, nonprofit
organizations. Less common is distinguishing design activities according
to the private or public character ofthe domain to which they relate.
This division allows of a dual perspective of design, from the individual
point of view and that of the community. It corrects the methodological
individualism practised not only by many designers, but also, in their wake,
by design theoreticians and critics.
First things First 2000
Designers who devote their efforts
primarily to advertising, marketing
and brand development are
supporting, and implicitly endorsing,
a mental environment so saturated
with commercial messages that it
is changing the very way citizen-
consumers speak, think, feel, respond
and interact. to some extent we
are all helping draft a reductive and
immeasurably harmful code of public
discourse.
20
In the introduction to this chapter I pointed out the implications of this
market related methodological individualism. The effect is that designing is
seen first and foremost as an instrument for the private sector.
Producers see design as a means of seduction, marketing, branding, gaining attention, positioning, whereas consumers view it as a means of self-expression, a way of setting themselves apart from other consumers. In the private domain the chief functions of design are differentiation
and individualization. The public domain, by contrast, is the territory
of generality, of what binds people and transcends them, of their common
interests and identity. These interests are defined and sustained in an
unceasing and dialectical process of power and counterpower, of images
and counterimages, of proposals and counterproposals.
The heart of the public domain is the state, its organs and apparatuses, for it is the state, above all, that is charged with looking after the public weal. Second, the public domain encompasses the public sphere, in which state and civil society interact.
This interaction takes the form of communication amongst government
agencies and public authorities, between government agencies and public
authorities on the one hand and the public on the other, and vice versa,
and between citizens. Also part of the public domain is public space in
the physical sense. And finally the public domain includes the institutions
within which culture and knowledge are produced, distributed and
preserved. The dichotomy of the private and public domain is the starting
point of this book.
First things First, 1964
We, the undersigned, are graphic
designers, photographers and
students who have been brought up
in a world in which the techniques
and apparatus of advertising have
persistently been presented to
us as the most lucrative, effective
and desirable means of using our
talents. We have been bombarded
with publications devoted to this
belief, applauding the work of those
who have flogged their skill and
imagination to sell such things as: cat
food, stomach powders, detergent,
hair restorer, striped toothpaste,
aftershave lotion, beforeshave lotion,
slimming diets, fattening diets,
deodorants, fizzy water, cigarettes,
roll-ons, pull-ons and slip-ons.
By far the greatest effort of those
working in the advertising industry
are wasted on these trivial purposes,
which contribute little or nothing to
our national prosperity.
Louis Vuitton’s collaborative
design with artist Takashi
Murakami is an example
of a design that consumers
see as part of their own
self-expression. Carrying a
bag with this pattern is a
status marker and a way of
indicating awareness of the
art world too.
design for the Public d
omain
21
All social interaction outside the personal sphere and outside the marketplace is accounted part of the public domain. This pragmatic definition parallels the distinction, customary in the design
world, between social, political and cultural clients on the one hand and
commercial clients on the other. The public domain is the catch-all term
for the first three of these areas. The sixteen projects presented in this book
are grouped according to the various sectors of the public domain. Almost
all of Pierre Bernard’s work has been done in the public domain, and indeed
his work cannot be seen in isolation from the social, cultural and political 55
context in which it came into being.
At every stage of his career as a designer he has made his preference for public commissioners abundantly clear, even defining design as a social activity.This is why the unity of his oeuvre cannot be established simply by looking
at its themes, style, methods and values: it also requires an exposition of
the specific nature and connection of those areas of the public sector in
which and for which Bernard still works. It is the public domain that is the
unifying link in Bernard’s projects.
As a theoretical concept the public domain actually leads an uncertain
existence. The concept takes different roles in different scholarly and
scientific disciplines, and it is therefore impossible to homogenize the
various definitions into a single coherent theory – at least, to the best of my
knowledge such a theory doesn’t exist. Besides, the realities to which the
term ‘public domain’ refers are not static but everchanging. The boundaries
between the private and the public domain are not, after all, fixed: their
demarcation is at stake in a permanent political and social battle which is
fed by political ideologies. These ideologies, in turn ,resonate in academic
theorizing. That is why I shall confine myself in this introduction to a brief
exposition of a few concepts borrowed from cultural anthropology and the
theory of law that are relevant for understanding the role of communication
design in the public domain.
Pierre Bernard’s work for the French
parks system uses silhouettes from
nature to create an identity system.
Turning natural elements into graphic
forms, he creates an identity for
the place we find their origins–
the parks. This inventive identity
system for a non-commercial client
shows Bernard’s values at work.
22
design for the Public d
omain
23
the public domain and the symbolic order
Broadly speaking, the public domain is what individuals necessarily have in
common to be able to exist as individuals. The public domain is thus not
a cultural supplement, but a basic prerequisite for community living and
survival. In this sense we can speak of a public domain as soon as people
succeed in developing shared institutions such as language, family, religion,
etc. These institutions are predicated on the human capacity to symbolize:
to render the physical and social environment manageable, comprehensible
and meaningful, for without order and meaning the world would appear to
us as an unfathomable chaos experienced only through impulses or drives.
Society and survival are impossible without regulation of drives.
...
Even on this fundamental, anthropological level we can distinguish five
functions of graphic design in the context of public communication:
orientation in an environment which without signification would be a
frightening chaos to us; identification which, by allowing us to recognize
ourselves in others, allows us both to establish our own identity and to
identify with others; representation of symbolic meanings which renders
the invisible visible and the absent present for all; integration of the various
symbols and signs in a code that is valid for the whole community; and
finally valorization as a dual, circular process: the attribution or denial
of values to people, objects and characteristics (e.g. courage or cowardice,
wisdom or stupidity), and the affirmation of the value system on the basis
of which this attribution takes place.
JR’s photos of women in different
local areas are printed and installed
back into the local environment
in the form of large-scale poster
installations.
24
Symbolization constantly conquers strangeness by means of artefacts, which themselves adapt to the existing artefacts of the world we live in. For the professional designer this symbolization and adaptation are core tasks.
In our technologically highly developed culture social changes are often
introduced by developments in the sciences. Scientific or symbolic systems
construct their own reality: their object of knowledge. True, in time they do
have a real effect on daily life and social relations, but only after selective
absorption by systems such as the economy or political power.
Here again design disciplines are necessary to mediate between those systems and the world in which we live.
First things First 1964
26
The critical manifesto on design for
social good, FTF is a must read for
any designer working in this area.
It outlines areas of culture where
graphic design could move beyond
advertising and it calls graphic
designers to pursue the use of their
tool for culture making in addition
to the making of their livelihoods.
first things first, 196427
We, the undersigned, are graphic designers, photographers and students who have been brought up in a world in which the techniques and apparatus of advertising have
persistently been presented to us as the most lucrative, effective
and desirable means of using our talents. We have been bombarded
with publications devoted to this belief, applauding the work of
those who have flogged their skill and imagination to sell such
things as: cat food, stomach powders, detergent, hair restorer,
striped toothpaste, aftershave lotion, beforeshave lotion,
slimming diets, fattening diets, deodorants, fizzy water, cigarettes, roll-ons, pull-ons and slip-ons.
rules for radicals
We know intellectually that everything
is functionally interrelated, but in our
operations we segment and isolate all
values and issues. Everything about us
must be seen as the indivisible partner
of its converse, light and darkness,
good and evil, life and death.
design for the public domain
Producers see design as a means
of seduction, marketing, branding,
gaining attention, positioning, whereas
consumers view it as means of self-
expression, a way of setting themselves
apart from other soncumers. In the
private domain the chief functions
of design are differentiation and
individualization. The public domain,
by contrast, is the territory of
generality, of what binds people and
transcends them, of their common
interests and identity. These interests
are defined and sustained in an
unceasing and dialectical process of
power and counterpower, of images
and counterimages, of propsals and
counterproposals.
19 6 4
28
Logo for the
Azuero Earth Project
by stefan sagmeister.
first things first, 196429
From the new York times article on the new
typeface Clearview for highway signs:
‘the typeface is the brainchild of Don Meeker,
an environmental graphic designer, and James
Montalbano, a type designer. they set out to
fix a problem with a highway font, and their
solution — more than a decade in the making
— may end up changing a lot more than just the
view from the dashboard.
By far the greatest effort of those working in the advertising industry are wasted on these trivial purposes, which contribute little or nothing to our national prosperity.In common with an increasing numer of the general public,
we have reached a saturation point at which the high pitched
scream of consumer selling is no more than sheer noise.
We think that there are other things more worth using our skill and experience on. There are signs for streets and buildings, books and periodicals,
catalogues, instructional manuals, industrial photography,
educational aids, films, television features, scientific and industrial
publications and all the other media through which we promote
our trade, our education, our culture and our greater awareness
of the world.
30
rules for radicals
The basic requirement for the
understanding of the politics
of change is to recognize the
world as it is.
We must work with [the world] on its terms if we are to change it to the kind of world we would like it to be. We must first see the world as it is and
not as we would like it to be.
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.
With this in mind we propose to share our experience and opinions,
and to make them available to colleagues, students and others who
may be interested.
first things first, 196431
the WorldWide telesope,
designed by Artefact,
is a software that allows
scientists, educators,
students, and enthusiasts
to explore imagery of space.
32
signED,
edward Wright
Geoffrey White
William slack
Caroline Rawlence
Ian McLaren
sam Lambert
Ivor Kamlish
Gerald Jones
Bernard Higton
Brian Grimbly
John Garner
Ken Garland
anthony Froshaug
Robin Fior
Germano Facetti
Ivan dodd
Harriet Crowder
anthony Clift
Gerry Cinamon
Robert Chapman
Ray Carpenter
Ken Briggs
rules for radicals
We live in a world where ‘good’ is a value dependent on whether we want it. In the world as it is, the solution of each
problem inevitably creates a new one. In
the world as it is there are no permanent
happy or sad endings.
in Ken garland’s words, ‘Written and proclaimed at the institute of Contemporary Arts on an
evening in December 1963, the manifesto was published in January 1964. inexplicably, to me,
reverberations are still being felt.’ the published manifesto is shown here.
First things First 2000
34
A leTTer From rIck Poynor
To AdbusTers reAders:
‘last fall, Adbusters and six design magazines printed First
Things First 2000. An updated version of a 1964 declaration,
FTF 2000 states that too much design energy is being spent
to promote pointless consumerism, and too little to helping
people understand an increasingly complex and fragile
world. It was signed by 33 high-profile designers, and has
since been signed by hundreds more.
First Things First 2000 had a simple aim. We wanted it to
provoke debate. lulled by the economic boom, design has
shown little inclination of late to consider first principles.
We figured that if we gave it a big enough push – high-profile
signatories, co-publication in several magazines – it stood a
good chance of grabbing attention.
The response is tremendous. The manifesto’s message
clearly taps a deep need. seven months after its launch, the
campaign continues to roll. scores of letters – supportive,
angry, perplexed – have poured in to Adbusters, emigre, and
the other magazines. some are outraged at the signatories’
nerve. others want to know how they can add their names to
the cause.
Around the world other magazines are publishing the
text. design Week and creative review in britain; I.d.,
Print and communication Arts in the u.s.; Idea in Japan;
and, belatedly, Germany’s Form. Public events have been
organized by the American Institute of Graphic Arts, the
british design History society, and the design biennale in
brno. The manifesto is being debated everywhere in design
schools, and ken Garland, who wrote the original, reports
that even if he doesn’t bring it up, as a visiting lecturer, the
students invariably do.
The issues are out in the open. The question now is: what
next? let us know: [email protected]
The original
manifesto
was revisited
twenty-six
years later
by a new
generation
of designers
wanting to
speak out
against the
state of design
at that time.
first things first, 200035
We the undersigned, are graphic designers, art directors and visual communicators who have been raised in a world in which the techniques and apparatus of advertising have persistently been presented to us as the most lucrative, effective and desirable use of our talents.
2 0 0 0
Using the tools of graphic design for a
different message, John Briggs makes a
modest suggestion in his 2008 project with
stefan sagmeister’s Things I Have Learned in
My Life So Far workshop project.
36
first things first, 200037
Many design teachers and mentors promote this belief; the market
rewards it; a tide of books and publications reinforces it.
encouraged in this direction, designers then apply their skill and
imagination to sell dog biscuits, designer coffee, diamonds,
detergents, hair gel, cigarettes, credit cards, sneakers, butt toners,
light beer and heavy-duty recreational vehicles.
Commercial work has always paid the bills, but many graphic designers have now let it become, in large measure,what graphic designers do. One way designers can use their skills is
building educational tools. these interactive
tables by second story give visitors an
opportunity to learn more about the strategy
and technology used in World War i.
the table uses 3-D reconstructions to show
military tools, archival video footage,
and interactive projects in which visitors
can make their own propaganda.
38
this, in turn, is how the world perceives design. the profession’s time and energy is used up manufacturing demand for things that are inessential at best. Many of us have grown increasingly uncomfortable with this
view of design. designers who devote their efforts primarily to
advertising, marketing and brand development are supporting,
and implicitly endorsing, a mental environment so saturated
with commercial messages that it is changing the very way
citizen-consumers speak, think, feel, respond and interact.
to some extent we are all helping draft a reductive and immeasurably harmful code of public discourse.
first things first, 200039
there are pursuits more worthy of our problem-solving skills.Unprecedented environmental, social and cultural crises demand
our attention. Many cultural interventions, social market- ing
campaigns, books, magazines, exhibitions, educational tools,
television programs, films, charitable causes and other information
design projects urgently require our expertise and help.
We propose a reversal of priorities in favor of 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.
relAtionAl Aesthetics
these questions do not relate to
an excessively anthropomorphic
vision of art. they relate to a vision
that is quite simply human; to
the best of my knowledge, artists
intend their work to be seen by their
contemporaries... those artworks
that seem to me to be worthy of
sustained interest are the ones that
function as interstices, as space-
times governed by an economy that
goes beyond the prevailing rules for
the management of the public.
the first thing that strikes me about this generation of artists [working in the 1990s] is that they are inspired by a concern for democracy.
for art does not transcend our day
to day preoccupations; it brings us
face to face with reality through the
singularity of a relationship with the
world, through a fiction.
Andrew sloat’s typographic video project,
A More Perfect Union, shows citizens spelling
out the preamble to the Us Constitution.
this project was made during the run-up
to the historic 2008 election.
40
the new York times’ Year in ideas issue
highlights the most innovative, most
groundbreaking ideas of each year. it is an
editorial project that uses design to further
illuiminate new areas of thought. it expands
the scope of debate.
first things first, 200041
sheila Levrant de Bretteville’s take a break, out to lunch, back to work
installation about work at the rhode island Department of Labor
and training considers workers, union leaders, and managers in the
capitalist system. it relates the means of production, not the means of
consumption.
the scope of debate is shrinking; it must expand.Consumerism is running uncontested; it must be challenged by
other perspectives expressed, in part, through the visual languages
and resources of design.
In 1964, 22 visual communicators signed the original call for our
skills to be put to worthwhile use. With the explosive growth of
global commercial culture, their message has only grown more
urgent. Today, we renew their manifesto in expectation that no more
decades will pass before it is taken to heart.
signED,
Jonathan Barnbrook
nick Bell
andrew Blauvelt
Hans Bockting
Irma Boom
sheila Levrant de Bretteville
Max Bruinsma
sian Cook
Linda van deursen
Chris dixon
William drenttel
Gert dumbar
simon esterson
Vince Frost
Ken Garland
Milton Glaser
Jessica Helfand
42
steven Heller
andrew Howard
Tibor Kalman
Jeffery Keedy
Zuzana Licko
ellen Lupton
Katherine McCoy
armand Mevis
J. abbott Miller
Rick Poynor
Lucienne Roberts
erik spiekermann
Jan van Toorn
Teal Triggs
Rudy VanderLans
Bob Wilkinson
tibor Kalman’s direction of Colors magazine challenged what kinds of information could appear in magazines and how they could be displayed.
relational aesthetics
this excerpt from nicolas Bourriaud’s
book on the work of relational artists
in the 1990s analyzes the ways in
which interactive artwork was made
and the ways in which it was received.
he reviews the work of many specific
artists whose work designers might
look to for precedents of how forms
of art and design create relationships
in a given space. Bourriaud’s
exploration of ‘the encounter’ and
its aftereffects can be considered in
relation to public intervention projects
by designers working for social causes.
relational Aesthetics
45
t h e w o r k o f a r t a s s o c i a l i n t e r s t i c e
the possibility of a relational art (an art that takes as its theoretical horizon
the sphere of human interactions and its social context, rather than the
assertion of an autonomous and private symbolic space) is testimony to the
radical upheaval in aesthetic, cultural and political objectives brought about
by modern art. to outline its sociology:
this development stems essentially from the birth of a global urban culture and the extension of the urban model to almost all cultural phenomena.
the spread of urbanization, which began to take off at the end of the second
World War, allowed an extraordinary increase in social exchanges, as well
as greater individual mobility (thanks to the development of rail and road
networks, telecommunications and the gradual opening up of isolated
places, which went hand in hand with the opening up of minds). Because this
urban world’s inhabitable places are so cramped, we have also witnessed
a scaling down of furniture and objects, which have become much easier to
handle: for a long time, artworks looked like lordly luxury items in this urban
context (the dimensions of both artworks and the apartments where they
were displayed were intended to signal the distinction between their owners
and the hoi polloi), but the way their function and their mode of presentation
has evolved reveals a growing urbanization of the artistic experience. What
is collapsing before our very eyes is quite simply the pseudo-aristocratic
conception of how artworks should be displayed, which was bound up with
the feeling of having acquired a territory.
from creAtivetime in neW york
in 1993, artists and designers
‘transformed manhattan’s historic West
42nd street into a dynamic, around-the-
clock public art exhibition. in many cases,
participating artists involved passersby
and members of the community in the
actual making of their pieces.’
this piece, Everybody invites pedestrians
to sit, to be included. it creates an
inclusive territory in the urban space.
46
relational Aesthetics
47
We can, in other words, no longer regard contemporary works as a space we
have to walk through (we were shown around collections in the same way
that we were shown around great houses).
contemporary art resembles a period of time that has to be experienced, or the opening of a dialogue that never ends. the city permits and generalizes the experience of proximity: this is the tangible symbol and historical framework of the state of society, or the ‘state of encounter’, that has been ‘imposed’ on people, as Althusser puts it, as opposed to the dense and unproblematic jungle of Jean-Jacques rousseau’s state of nature.
rousseau’s jungle was such that there could be no lasting encounters.
once it had been elevated to the status of an absolute civilizational rule
this intense encounter finally gave rise to artistic practices that were in
keeping with it.
it gave rise, that is, to a form of art with intersubjectivity as its substratum. its central themes are being-together [l’etre-ensemble], the ‘encounter’ between viewer and painting, and the collective elaboration of meaning. nl Architects’ moving forest project
designed for droog’s Urban Play event
put trees in shopping carts. With trees
that are mobile, citydwellers can create
a new dialogue about new ways of
relating to the city and the availability
of green space.
48
We can leave aside the problem of the phenomenon’s historicity: art has
always been relation to some extent. it has, in other words, always been
a factor in sociability and has always been the basis for a dialogue. one
of the image’s potentials is its capacity for ‘linkage’ [reliance], to use
michel maffesoli’s term: flags, logos, icons and signs all produce empathy
and sharing, and generate links. Art (practices derived from painting
and sculpture and displayed in the form of an exhibition) proves to be
an especially appropriate expression of this civilization of proximity. it
compresses relational space, whereas
television and books send us all back to spaces where we consume in private; and whereas the theatre or the cinema bring small groups together to look at univocal images, there is in fact no live commentary on what a theatre or cinema audience is seeing (the time for discussion comes after the show).
At an exhibition, in contrast, there is always the possibility of an immediate – in both senses of the term – discussion, even when the forms on show are inert: i see, comment and move around in one space-time.
Art is a site that produces a specific sociability; what status this space has within the range of ‘states of encounter’
proposed by the Polis remains to be seen. how can an art that is centred
on the production of such modes of conviviality succeed in relaunching the
modern project of emancipation as we contemplate it? how does it allow
us to define new cultural and political goals?
Before turning to concrete examples, it is important to take a new
look at where artworks are situated within the overall system of the
economy – symbolic or material – that governs contemporary society: quite
apart from its commodified nature or semantic value, the artwork represents,
in my view, a social interstice. the term interstice was used by karl marx to
describe trading communities that escaped the framework of the capitalist
economy: barter, selling at a loss, autarkic forms of production, and so on.
design for the public domain
Design is a function of the power of
imagination: The designer looks at the
world not just as a field of facts but first
and foremost as a field of possibilities.
Design is built on an existing state of
affairs but tries to change it. The design
process is a path from a given fact to a
desired situation. As such, design is an
expression of the power of imagination,
to which, since the Romantic period,
almost demiurgical potency has been
ascribed. However, human imagination
is not a matter of creation ex nihilo.
Design is almost always a variation on
existing models and forms, and in only
a few cases is it true innovation.
design for the public domain
Design is a form of practical reason:
Design takes place in the social
interaction between the client, the
designer and the user.
The designer is in the middle of social
reality. He plans and effects real
interventions in the real world.
[papanek, 1972].
His designs are produced and
reproduced in series of varying
sizes. Tangible material interests
assume concrete shape both during
the design process and in the result
of that process. The client-designer
relationship is a business arrangement
and is usually regulated on a contract
basis.
relational Aesthetics
49
An interstice is a space in social relations which, although it fits more or less harmoniously and openly into the overall system, suggests possibilities for exchanges other than those that prevail within the system. exhibitions of contemporary art occupy precisely the same position within
the field of the trade in representations. they create free spaces and periods
of time whose rhythms are not the same as those that organize everyday
life, and they encourage an inter-human intercourse which is different to the
‘zones of communication’ that are forced upon us.
the contemporary social context restricts opportunities for interhuman
relations in that it creates spaces designed for that purpose. superloos were
invented to keep the streets clean. the same line of thinking governed the
development communicational tools while the streets of our cities were
being swept clean of all relational dross. the result is that neighbourhood
relations have been impoverished.
the general mechanization of social functions is gradually reducing our
relational space.
...
the Atm has become the transit model for the most basic social functions,
and professional behaviours are modelled on the efficiency of the machines
that are replacing them. the same machines now perform tasks that once
represented so many opportunities for exchanges, pleasure or conflict.
contemporary art is really pursuing a political project when it attempts to
move into the relational sphere by problematizing it.
...
gabriel orozco’s Ping Pond Table from 1998
creates a new way of relating to the table
itself, the other players, and to the gallery
space. it suggests possibilities for exchange
other than the prevailing ones of gaming or
the gallery.
50
An exhibition is a privileged place where instant communities like this can be established: depending on the degree of audience participation demanded by the artist, the nature of the works on show and the models of sociability that are represented or suggested, an exhibition can generate a particular ‘domain of exchanges’.
And we must judge that ‘domain of exchanges’ on the basis of aesthetic
criteria, or in other words by analysing the coherence of its form, and then
the symbolic value of the ‘world’ it offers us or the image of human relations
that it reflects.
Within this social interstice, the artist owes it to himself to take
responsibility for the symbolic models he is showing: all representation
refers to values that can be transposed into society (though contemporary
art does not so much represent as model) and inserts itself into the social
fabric rather than taking inspiration from it). Being a human activity that is
based upon commerce, art is both the object and the subject of an ethics: all
the more so in , that, unlike other human activities, its only function is to be
exposed to that commerce. Art is a state of encounter...
c o n v i v i a l i t y a n d e n c o u n t e r s
A work can function as a relational device in which there is a degree of
randomness. it can be a machine for provoking and managing individual
or collective encounters. to cite a few examples from the last two
decades, this is true of Braco dimitrijevic’s casual Passer-by series, which
disproportionally celebrates the names and faces of anonymous passers-by
on posters the size of those used for advertisements, or on busts like those
of celebrities. in the early 1970s, stephen Willats painstakingly charted the
relationships that existed between the inhabitants of a block of flats. And
much of sophie calle’s work consists of accounts of her encounters with
strangers: she follows a passer-by, searches hotel rooms after getting a
job as a chamber maid, asks blind people how they define beauty, and then,
after the event, formalizes the biographical experiments that led her to
‘collaborate’ with the people she met. We could also cite, almost at random,
on kawara’s i met series, the restaurant opened by gordon matta-clark
in 1971 (food), the dinners organized by daniel spoerri or the playful shop
opened by george Brecht and robert filliou in villefranche (la cedille qui
sourit)...
in on kawara’s I Met project, he wrote
down the name of each person he
met with from may 10, 1968 through
september 17, 1979. this bound series of
books keeps records of encounters with
others as a document his relationships.
relational Aesthetics
51
nancy dwyer’s Multiple Choice
installation at Port richmond high
school on staten island creates benches
in the school’s courtyard. the words can
be read from the classrooms above.
the courtyard becomes a micro-utopia.
social utopias and revolutionary hopes have given way to day-to-day micro-utopias and mimetic strategies: any ‘direct’ critique of society is pointless if it is based upon the illusion of a marginality that is now impossible, if not regressive.
52
Almost thirty years ago, felix guattari was already recommending the neighbourhood strategies on which contemporary artistic practices are based:
‘Just as i think it is illusory to count on the gradual transformation of society so i believe that microscopic attempts – communities, neighbourhood committees, organizing creches in universities – play an absolutely fundamental role.’ traditional critical philosophy (and especially the frankfurt school) can
no longer sustain art unless it takes the form of an archaic folklore, or of a
splendid rattle that achieves nothing.
the subversive and critical function of contemporary art is now fulfilled through the invention of individual or collective vanishing lines, and through the provisional and nomadic constructions artists use to model and distribute disturbing situations.
...
the Gift
furthermore, when gifts circulate
within a group, their commerce leaves
a series of interconnected relationships
in its wake, and a kind of decentralized
cohesiveness emerges.
relational Aesthetics
53
other artists suddenly burst into the relational fabric in more aggressive
ways. the work of douglas gordon, for example, explores the ‘wild’ dimension
of this inte(action by intervening in social space in parasitic or paradoxical
ways: he phoned customers in a cafe and sent mUltiple ‘instructions’ to
selected individuals.
the best example of how untimely communications can disrupt
communications networks is probably a piece by Angus fairhurst: with the
kind of equipment used by pirate radio stations, he established a phone
link between two art galleries. each interlocutor believed that the other had
called, and the discussions degenerated into an indescribable confusion. By
creating or exploring relational schemata, these works established relational
microterritories that could be driven into the density of the contemporary
socius; the experiences are either mediated by object-surfaces (liam
gillick’s ‘boards’, the posters created in the street by Pierre huyghe, eric
duyckaerts’ video lectures) or experienced immediately (Andrea fraser’s
exhibition tours).
t h e s u B j e c t o f t h e a r t w o r k
every artist whose work derives from relational aesthetics has his or her own
world of forms, his or her problematic and his or her trajectory: there are no
stylistic, thematic or iconographic links between them.
What they do have in common is much more determinant, namely the fact that they operate with the same practical and theoretical horizon: the sphere of interhuman relationships.
their works bring into play modes of social exchange, interaction with the
viewer inside the aesthetic experience he or she is offered, and processes
of communication in their concrete dimensions as tools that can to be used
to bring together individuals and human groups. they therefore all work
within what we might call the relational sphere, which is to today’s art what
mass production was to Pop and minimalism. they all ground their artistic
practice in a proximity which, whilst it does not belittle visuality, does
relativize its place within exhibition protocols. the artworks of the 1990s
transform the viewer into a neighbour or a direct interlocutor. it is precisely
this generation’s attitude towards communication that allows it to be defined
in relation to previous generations: whilst most artists who emerged in the
1980s (from richard Prince to Jeff koons via Jenny holzer) emphasized the
visual aspect of the media, their successors place the emphasis on contact
and tactility.
in June 2008, candy chang, an artist
and designer in new york city, used
post-it notes arranged in the shape of
a house on a store window to create
new relationships. her project, I’ve
Lived, asks neighbors to anonymously
contribute information about the size
of their apartments, the length of time
they have lived there, and the rent they
pay. While the project collects assorted
data, it is also mapping the relationships
of neighbors to one another. the project
creates a place on the street where
neighbors can contribute to the data
set, see what others pay, or start a
conversation with a stranger.
54
they emphasise immediacy in their visual writing. this phenomenon can
be explained in sociological terms if we recall that the decade that has
just ended was marked by the economic crisis and did little to encourage
spectacular or visionary experiments.
...
When we look at relational artists, we find ourselves in the presence of a group of artists who, for the first time since the emergence of conceptual art in the mid-1960s, simply do not take as their starting point some aesthetic movement from the past.
relational art is neither a ‘revival’ of some movement nor the return of a style.
it is born of the observation of the present and of a reflection on the destiny
of artistic activity. its basic hypothesis - the sphere of human relations as
site for the artwork - is without precedent in the history of art, even though
it can of course be seen, after the event, to be the obvious backdrop to all
aesthetic practice, and the modernist theme par excellence.
Anyone who needs to be convinced that interactivity is scarcely a new notion has only to reread marcel duchamp’s 1957 lecture on ‘the creative act’. the novelty lies elsewhere. it resides in the fact that for this generation of artists, intersubjectivity and
interaction are neither fashionable theoretical gadgets nor adjuncts to
(alibis for) a traditional artistic practice. they are at once a starting point and
a point of arrival. or in short the main themes that inform their work.
relational Aesthetics
55
the space in which their works are deployed is devoted entirely to interaction. it is a space for the openness (georges Bataille would have called it a ‘rent’) that inaugurates all dialogue.these artists produce relational spacetimes, interhuman experiences that
try to shake off the constraints of the ideology of mass communications;
they are in a sense spaces where we can elaborate alternative forms of
sociability, critical models and moments of constructed conviviality.
it is, however, obvious that the day of the new man of the future-oriented
manifestos and the calls for a better world ‘with vacant possession’ is well
and truly gone:
utopia is now experienced as a day-to-day subjectivity, in the real time of concrete and deliberately fragmentary experiments. the artwork now looks like a social interstice in which these experiences
and these new ‘life possibilities’ prove to be possible. inventing new relations
with our neighbours seems to be a matter of much greater urgency than
‘making tomorrows sing’.6 that is all, but it is still a lot. And it at least offers a
welcome alternative to the depressive, authoritarian and reactionary thought
that, at least in france, passes for art theory in the shape of ‘common sense’
rediscovered. And yet modernity is not dead.
56
if we define as ‘modern’ meaning a taste for aesthetic experience and
adventurous thinking, as opposed to the timid conformisms that are
defended by philosophers who are paid by the line. neo-traditionalists (the
ludicrous dave hickey’s ‘Beauty’) and militant passeistes like Jean clair.
Whether fundamentalist believers in yesterday’s good taste like it or not.
contemporary art has taken up and does represent the heritage of the
avant-gardes of the twentieth century, whilst at the same time rejecting their
dogmatism and their teleology. i have to admit that a lot of thought when into
that last sentence: it was simply time to write it.
Because modernism was steeped in an ‘oppositional imaginary’, to borrow
a phrase from gilbert durand, it worked with breaks and clashes, and
cheerfully dishonoured the past in the name of the future.
it was based on conflict, whereas the imaginary of our period is concerned with negotiations, links and coexistence.
We no longer try to make progress thanks to conflict and clashes, but by discovering new assemblages, possible relations between distinct units, and by building alliances between different partners.
relational Aesthetics
57
like social contracts, aesthetic contracts are seen for what they are: no
one expects the golden Age to be ushered in on this earth, and we are quite
happy to create modus vivendi that make possible fairer social relations,
more dense ways of life, and multiple. fruitful combinations of existence.
By the same criterion, art no longer tries to represent utopias; it is trying to
construct concrete spaces
t h e c r i t e r i o n o f c o e x i s t e n c e ( w o r k s a n d i n d i v i d u a l s )
gonzalez-torres’ art gives a central role to negotiation and to the
construction of a shared habitat. it also contains an ethics of the gaze. to
that extent, it belongs within a specific history: that of artworks that make
the viewer conscious of the context in which he or she finds himself/herself
(the happenings and ‘environments’ of the 1960s, site-specific installations).
At one gonzalez-torres exhibition, i saw visitors grabbing handfuls of sweets
and cramming as many of them as they could into their pockets: they were
being confronted with their own social behaviour, fetishism and acquisitive
worldview ... others, in contrast. did not dare to take the sweets. or waited
until those next to them took one before doing likewise.
the ‘candy spill’ works thus raise an ethical problem in a seemingly anodyne form: our relationship with authority, the use museum attendants make of their power, our sense of proportion and the nature of our relationship with the artwork.
to the extent that the latter represents an opportunity for a sensory
experience based upon exchange, it must be subject to criteria analogous
with those on which we base our evaluation of any constructed social reality.
the basis of today’s experience of art is the co-presence of spectators before
the artwork. be it actual or symbolic.
the first question we should ask when we find ourselves in the presence of an artwork is: does it allow me to exist as i look at it or does it, on the contrary, deny my existence as a subject and does its structure refuse to consider the other?
fritz haeg’s edible estates project
encourages people to tear out their
traditional lawns of grass to plant
gardens from which they can eat. he
builds alliances between neighbors and
other community members by reshaping
the urban and suburban landscape.
58
does the space-time suggested or described by this artwork, together with
the laws that govern it, correspond to my real-life aspirations? does it form
a critique of what needs critique? if there was a corresponding space-time
in reality, could i live in it? these questions do not relate to an excessively
anthropomorphic vision of art. they relate to a vision that is quite simply
human; to the best of my knowledge, artists intend their work to be seen by
their contemporaries, unless they regard themselves as living on borrowed
time or believe in a fascist-fundamentalist version of history (time closing
over its meaning and origins). on the contrary,
those artworks that seem to me to be worthy of sustained interest are the ones that function as interstices, as space-times governed by an economy that goes beyond the prevailing rules for the management of the public.
the first thing that strikes me about this generation of artists is that they are inspired by a concern for democracy. for art does not transcend our day to day preoccupations; it brings us face
to face with reality through the singularity of a relationship with the world,
through a fiction.
Andrew sloat’s project Article II shows
citizens spelling out part of the second
article of the consitution, which created
the executive branch. this section of the
article is the oath of office for President
of the United states.
relational Aesthetics
59
no one will convince me that an authoritarian art can refer its viewers to any
real–be it a fantasy or an accepted reality–other than that of an intolerant
society. in sharp contrast artists like gonzalez-torres, and now Angela
Bulloch, carsten holler, gabriel orozco or Pierre huyghe,
bring us face to face with exhibition situations inspired by a concern to ‘give everyone a chance’ thanks to forms that do not give the producer any a priori superiority (let’s call it divine-right authority) over the viewer, but which negotiate open relations that are not pre-established.
the status of the viewer alternates between that of a passive consumer, and that of a witness, an associate, a client, a guest, a co-producer and a protagonist. so we need to pay attention: we know that attitudes become forms, and we
now have to realize that forms induce models of sociability.
And the exhibition-form itself is not immune to these warnings: the
spread of ‘curiosity cabinets’ that we have been seeing for some time now,
to say nothing of the elitist attitudes of certain actors in the art world,
which reveals their holy terror of public spaces and collective aesthetic
experimentation, and their love of boudoirs that are reserved for specialists.
60
making things available does not necessarily make them banal. As with one of gonzalez-torres’ piles of sweets, there can be an ideal balance
between form and its programmed disappearance, between visual beauty
and modest gestures, between a childlike wonder at the image and the
complexity of the different levels at which it can be read. [ ... ]
the Behavioural economy of contemporary Art
‘how can you bring a classroom to life as though it were an artwork?’ asks
guattari. By asking this question, he raises the ultimate aesthetic problem.
how is aesthetics to be used, and can it possibly be injected into tissues that have been rigidified by the capitalist economy?
everything suggests that modernity was, from the late nineteenth century
onwards, constructed on the basis of the idea of ‘life as a work of art’.
As oscar Wilde put it, modernity is the moment when ‘art does not imitate
life; life imitates art’. marx was thinking along similar lines when he criticised
the classical distinction between praxis (the act of self-transformation) and
poiesis (a ‘necessary’ but servile action designed to produce or transform
matter). marx took the view that, on the contrary, praxis constantly becomes
part of poiesis, and vice versa.
georges Bataille later built his work on the critique of ‘the renunciation of
life in exchange for a function’ on which the capitalist economy is based. the
three registers of ‘science’, ‘fiction’ and ‘action’ destroy life by calibrating it
on the basis of pre-given categories.guattari’s ecosophy also postulates
that the totalization of life is a necessary preliminary to the production of
subjectivity. for guattari, subjectivity has the central role that marx ascribes
to labour, and that Bataille gives to inner experience in the individual and
collective attempt to reconstruct the lost totality.
‘the only acceptable goal of human activities,’ writes guattari, ‘is the
production of a subjectivity that constantly self-enriches its relationship
with the world.’
relational Aesthetics
61
felix gonzalez torres’ “Untitled”, 1991 provides endless copies of his prints at the Walker Art center. he turns the gallery into an
interaction between the viewers and the piece itself. Although the prints are available, the power and desirability of their form is not lost.
62
his [guattari’s] definition is ideally applicable to the practices of the contemporary artists who create and stage life-structures that include working methods and ways of life, rather than the concrete objects that once defined the field of art.
they use time as a raw materiai. form takes priority over things, and flows over categories: the production of gestures is more important than the production of material things.
in gonzalez-torres’ “Untitled” (Placebo) candy spill, viewers can take candy from the installation once they
decide to cross the line between their space in the gallery and that of the work itself. these works are as much
about the interaction created as they are about the art objects themselves.
rules for radicals
64
from The New York Times Week in Review
Know Thine Enemy August 22, 2009
By NOAM COHEN
Saul Alinsky, the Chicago activist and writer whose
street-smart tactics influenced generations of
community organizers, most famously the current
president, could not have been more clear about
which side he was on. In his 1971 text, “Rules for
Radicals,” Mr. Alinsky, who died in 1972, explains
his purpose: “What follows is for those who want
to change the world from what it is to what they
believe it should be. ‘The Prince’ was written by
Machiavelli for the Haves on how to hold power.
‘Rules for Radicals’ is written for the Have-Nots on
how to take it away.”
It is an irony of the current skirmishing about
health care that those who could be considered
Mr. Alinsky’s sworn enemies — the groups, many
industry sponsored, who are trying to shout
down Congressional town hall meetings — have
taken a page (chapters, really) from his handbook
on community organizing. In an article in The
Financial Times last week, Dick Armey, the
former Republican House majority leader, now
an organizer against the Democrats’ proposals on
health care, offered his opinion: “What I think of
Alinsky is that he was very good at what he did but
what he did was not good.”
The disruption of the town hall meetings has many
Alinsky trademarks: using spectacle to make up for
lack of numbers; targeting an individual to make a
large point; and trying to use ridicule to persuade
the undecided.
President Barack Obama read
this text by Saul Alinsky when
he was doing community
organizing work in Chicago
in the 1970s. It was a seminal
text for many progressive
leaders in the making.
Much of the writing about
comm-unism and socialism
is rooted in another time
and context, but the rules
themselves are timeless.
RFR is a set of basic principles
about human behavior and
how to shape public opinion.
rules for r
adicals65
What follows is for those who want to change the world from what it is to what they believe it should be.
...
In this book we are concerned with how to create mass
organizations to seize power and give it to the people; to
realize the democratic dream of equality, justice, peace,
cooperation, equal and full opportunities (or education, full
and useful employment, health, and the creation of those
circumstances in which man can have the chance to live by
values thai give meaning to life. We are talking about a mass
power organization which will change the world into a place
where all men and women walk erect, in the spirit of that
credo of the Spanish Civil War, “Better to die on your feet than
to live on your knees.”
This means revolution.
First things First
in common with an increasing
number of the general public, we
have reached a saturation point at
which the high pitched scream of
consumer selling is not more than
sheer noise. We think that there
are other things more worth using
our skill and experience on. there
are signs for streets and buildings,
books and periodicals, catalogues,
instructional manuals, industrial
photography, educational aids,
films, television features, scientific
and industrial publications and all
the other media through which we
promote our trade, our education,
our culture and our greater
awareness of the world.
66
rules for r
adicals67
The significant changes in history have been made by revolutions.
There are people who say that it is not revolution, but
evolution, that brings about change–but evolution is simply
the term used by nonparticipants to denote a particular
sequence of revolutions as they synthesized into a specific
major social change. In this book I propose certain general
observations, propositions, and concepts of the mechanics
of mass movements and the various stages of the cycle of
action and reaction in revolution. This is not an ideological
book except insofar as argument for change, rather than for
the status quo, can be called an ideology; different people, in
different places, in different situations and different times will
construct their own solutions and symbols of salvation for
those times...
The human spirit glows from that small inner light of doubt
whether we are right, while those who believe with complete
certainty that they possess the right are dark inside and
darken the world outside with cruelty, pain, and injustice...
To diminish the danger that ideology will deteriorate into
dogma, and
to protect the free, open, questing, and creative mind of man, as well as to allow for change, no ideology should be more specific than that of America’s founding fathers: “For the general welfare.”
relAtionAl Aesthetics
Because modernism was steeped
in ‘oppositional imagery,’ to borrow a
phrase from gilbert durand, it worked
with breaks and clashes, and cheerfully
dishonoured the past in the name of the
future. it was based on conflict, whereas
the imaginary of our period is concerned
with negotiations, links and coexistence.
We no longer try to make progress
thanks to conflict and clashes, but by
discovering new assemblages, possible
relations between distinct units, and
by building alliances between different
partners.
like social contracts, aesthetic
contracts are seen for what they are:
no one expects the golden Age to be
ushered in on this earth, and we are
quite happy to create modus vivendi that
make possible fairer social relations,
more dense ways of life, and multiple,
fruitful combinations of existence. By
the same criterion, art no longer tries
to represent utopias; it is trying to
construct concrete spaces.
design for the public domain
This book focuses on a designer who
has succeeded in avoiding the dilemma
of autonomy and dependence.
Evidently it is possible to be a practising designer in a way that credibly combines relative autonomy, originality and social relevance...
The prerequisite for this turns out to
be a not easily achieved position of
equality with clients with whom one
shares certain values. This designer
moves between the state and the market
in a socio-cultural field whose dynamic
allows the repeated creation of new
alliances.
Kirsten Mosher’s Ball Park Traffic
transforms the crossing of 22nd
Street and 9th Avenue into a
baseball park. She has intervened
in the streetscape by adding a
backstop, bases, and home plate.
This urban intervention engages
with our creative selves and
creates a small revolution in our
rushing, workaday lives.
68
Niels Bohr, the great atomic physicist, admirably stated the
civilized position on dogmatism: “Every sentence I utter must
be understood not as an affirmation, but as a question.” I will
argue that man’s hopes lie in the acceptance of the great law
of change; that a general understanding of the principles of
change will provide clues for rational action and an awareness
of the realistic relationship between means and ends and how
each determines the other.
I hope that these pages will contribute to the education of
the radicals of today, and to the conversion of hot, emotional,
impulsive passions that arc impotent and frustrating to
actions that will be calculated, purposeful, and effective.
Our enthusiasm for the sacred right of revolution is increased
and enhanced with the passage of time. The older the
revolution, the more it recedes into history, the more sacred
it becomes. Except for Thoreau’s limited remarks, our society
has given us few words of advice, few suggestions of how to
fertilize social change.
To the status quo concerned about its public image, revolution
is the only force which has no image, but instead casts a dark,
ominous shadow of things to come.
When, in the throes of their revolutionary fervor, the Have-
Nots hungrily turn to us in their first steps from starvation to
subsistence, we respond with a bewildering, unbelievable, and
meaningless conglomeration of abstractions about freedom,
morality, equality, and the danger of intellectual enslavement
by communistic ideology! This is accompanied by charitable
handouts dressed up in ribbons of moral principle and
Occasionally we will accept a revolution if it is guaranteed
to be on our side, and then only when we realize that the
revolution is inevitable. We abhor revolutions. We have
pennitted a suicidal situation to unfold wherein revolution
and communism have become one. These pages are
committed to splitting this political atom, separating this
design for the public domain
In the political sphere there is a
permanent struggle to gain entry
to the centres of power and the agenda
of political decision-making. In no
period has that struggle been more
vehement than in the second half of
the nineteenth centure and the first half
of the twentieth. The main line of this
history–it ahs continued to this day–
is the modernization and rationalization
of the political and economic system.
Civil society came to be politicized and
polarized into two camps, capitalism
and labour, and the two sides were
kept apart by the political ideologies
of liberalism and socialism.
rules for r
adicals69
identification of communism with revolution. If it were
possible for the Have-Nots of the world to recognize and
accept the idea that revolution did not ineVitably meaD
hate and war, cold or hot, from the United States, that alone
would be a great revolution in world politics and the future
of man. This is a major reason for my attempt to provide a
revolutionary handbook not cast in a communist or capitalist
mold, but as a manual 101” the Have-Nots of the world
regardless of the color of their skins or their politics.
My aim here is to suggest how to organize for power: how to get it and to use it.
I will argue that the failure to use power for a more equitable
distribution of the means of life for all people signals the end
of the revolution and the start of the counterrevolution...
All of life is partisan. There is no dispassionate objectivity.
THE IDEOLOGY OF CHANGE
An organizer working in and for an open society is in an ideological dilemma. To begin with, he does not have a fixed truth–truth to him is relative and changing; everything to him is relative and changing.
He is a political relativist. He accepts the late Justice Learned
Hand’s statement that “the mark of a free man is that ever-
gnawing inner uncertainty as to whether or not he is right.”
The consequence is that he is ever on the hunt for the causes
of man’s plight and the general propositions that help to make
some sense out of man’s irrational world.
He must constantly examine life, including his own, to get
some idea of what it is all about, and he must challenge and
test his own findings.
relAtionAl Aesthetics
...social utopias and revolutionary
hopes have given way to day-to-day
micro-utopias and mimetic strategies:
any ‘direct’ critique of society is
pointless if it is based upon the illusion
of a marginality that is now impossible,
if not regressive. Almost thirty years
ago, felix guattari was already
recommending the neighbourhood
strategies on which contemporary
artistic practices are based:
‘Just as i think it is illusory to count on the gradual transformation of society so i believe that microscopic attempts – communities, neighbourhood committees, organizing creches in universities – play an absolutely fundamental role.’
‘the only acceptable goal of human
acitivities,’ writes guattari, ‘is the
production of a subjectivity that
constantly self-enriches its relationship
with the world.’
the subversive and critical function of
contemporary art is now fulfilled through
the invention of individual or collective
vanishing lines, and through the
provisional and nomadic constructions
artists use to model and distribute
disturbing situations.
70
Irreverence, essential to questioning, is a requisite. Curiosity
becomes compulsive. His most frequent word is “why?”
Does this then mean that the organizer in a free society for
a free society is rudderless? No, I believe that he has a far
better sense of direction and compass than the c1osedsociety
organizer with his rigid political ideology. First, the free-
society organizer is loose, resilient, fluid, and on the move in a
society which is itself in a state of constant change.
To the extent that he is free from the shackles of dogma, he
can respond to the realities of the widely different situations
our society presents.
In the end he has one conviction–a belief that if people have
the power to act, in the long run they will, most of the time,
reach the right decisions...
Believing in people, the radical has the job of organizing them
so that they will have the power and opportunity to best meet
each unforeseeable future crisis as they move ahead in their
eternal search for those values of equality, justice, freedom,
peace, a deep concern for the preciousness of human life, and
all those rights and values propounded by Judaeo-Christianity
and the democratic political tradition.
Democracy is not an end but the best means toward achieving these values...
Optical scan ballots3.51
Precinct 0001 Ward 0002 Split 0003 Poll Worker Initials _______ _______English / Spanish
Offi cial Ballot for General ElectionSpringfi eld County, NebraskaTuesday, November 07, 2006
Papeleta Ofi cial para las Elecciones GeneralesCondado de Springfi eld, NebraskaMartes, 7 de noviembre de 2006
Do not fold the ballot.No doble la papeleta.
Fill in the oval to the left of the name of your choice. You must blacken the oval completely, and do not make any marks outside of the oval. You do not have to vote in every race.
Rellene el óvalo que está a la izquierda del nombre de su preferencia. Deberá rellenar el óvalo totalmente y no hacer ninguna otra marca fuera del óvalo. No tiene que votar en todas las contiendas.
InstructionsInstrucciones
Do not cross out or erase, or your vote
may not count. If you make a mistake or a stray mark, ask for a new ballot from the poll workers.No tache o borre, pues esto podría invalidar su voto. Si comete un error o hace alguna otra marca, pida una papeleta nueva a uno de los trabajadores electorales.
1 / 8
Continue votingnext sideContinúe votandoal otro lado
Joseph BarchiandJoseph HallarenBlue / Azul
Adam CramerandGreg VuocoloYellow / Amarillo
Daniel CourtandAmy BlumhardtPurple / Púrpura
Alvin BooneandJames LianOrange / Naranja
Austin HildebrandandJames GarrittyPink / Rosa
Martin PattersonandClay LariviereGold / Oro
Elizabeth HarpandAntoine JeffersonGray / Gris
Charles LayneandAndrew KowalskiAqua / Agua
Marzena PazgierandWelton PhelpsBrown / Marrón
or write-in o por escrito:
Dennis WeifordBlue / Azul
Lloyd GarrissYellow / Amarillo
Sylvia Wentworth-FarthingtonPurple / Púrpura
John HewetsonOrange / Naranja
Victor MartinezPink / Rosa
Heather PortierGold / Oro
or write-ino por escrito:
U.S. SenatorSenador de EEUU
Vote for 1 / Vote por 1
President andVice-President of the United StatesPresidente y vicepresidentede los Estados Unidos
Vote por 1 par
Brad PlunkardBlue / Azul
Bruce ReederYellow / Amarillo
Brad SchottPurple / Púrpura
Glen TawneyOrange / Naranja
Carroll ForrestPink / Rosa
or write-in o por escrito:
U.S. RepresentativeRepresentante de EEUU
Vote for 1 / Vote por 1
Making selectionsHaga sus selecciones
To add a candidate, fi ll in the oval to the left of “or write-in” and print the name clearly on the dotted line.
Para agregar un candidato, rellene el óvalo a la izquierda del espacio designado ‘o por escrito’ y escriba claramente el nombre de la persona en la línea punteada.
Insert the completed ballot into the ballot sleeve. Hand in the ballot to be counted.Cuando termine de votar, introduzca la papeleta en la funda protectora y entré-guela para ser contada.
Optional write-inVoto opcional por escrito
Turning in the ballotEntregue la papeleta
Vote for 1 pair
A noisreVselpmaS Two languages
rules for r
adicals71
Optical scan ballots3.51
Precinct 0001 Ward 0002 Split 0003 Poll Worker Initials _______ _______English / Spanish
Offi cial Ballot for General ElectionSpringfi eld County, NebraskaTuesday, November 07, 2006
Papeleta Ofi cial para las Elecciones GeneralesCondado de Springfi eld, NebraskaMartes, 7 de noviembre de 2006
Do not fold the ballot.No doble la papeleta.
Fill in the oval to the left of the name of your choice. You must blacken the oval completely, and do not make any marks outside of the oval. You do not have to vote in every race.
Rellene el óvalo que está a la izquierda del nombre de su preferencia. Deberá rellenar el óvalo totalmente y no hacer ninguna otra marca fuera del óvalo. No tiene que votar en todas las contiendas.
InstructionsInstrucciones
Do not cross out or erase, or your vote
may not count. If you make a mistake or a stray mark, ask for a new ballot from the poll workers.No tache o borre, pues esto podría invalidar su voto. Si comete un error o hace alguna otra marca, pida una papeleta nueva a uno de los trabajadores electorales.
1 / 8
Continue votingnext sideContinúe votandoal otro lado
Joseph BarchiandJoseph HallarenBlue / Azul
Adam CramerandGreg VuocoloYellow / Amarillo
Daniel CourtandAmy BlumhardtPurple / Púrpura
Alvin BooneandJames LianOrange / Naranja
Austin HildebrandandJames GarrittyPink / Rosa
Martin PattersonandClay LariviereGold / Oro
Elizabeth HarpandAntoine JeffersonGray / Gris
Charles LayneandAndrew KowalskiAqua / Agua
Marzena PazgierandWelton PhelpsBrown / Marrón
or write-in o por escrito:
Dennis WeifordBlue / Azul
Lloyd GarrissYellow / Amarillo
Sylvia Wentworth-FarthingtonPurple / Púrpura
John HewetsonOrange / Naranja
Victor MartinezPink / Rosa
Heather PortierGold / Oro
or write-ino por escrito:
U.S. SenatorSenador de EEUU
Vote for 1 / Vote por 1
President andVice-President of the United StatesPresidente y vicepresidentede los Estados Unidos
Vote por 1 par
Brad PlunkardBlue / Azul
Bruce ReederYellow / Amarillo
Brad SchottPurple / Púrpura
Glen TawneyOrange / Naranja
Carroll ForrestPink / Rosa
or write-in o por escrito:
U.S. RepresentativeRepresentante de EEUU
Vote for 1 / Vote por 1
Making selectionsHaga sus selecciones
To add a candidate, fi ll in the oval to the left of “or write-in” and print the name clearly on the dotted line.
Para agregar un candidato, rellene el óvalo a la izquierda del espacio designado ‘o por escrito’ y escriba claramente el nombre de la persona en la línea punteada.
Insert the completed ballot into the ballot sleeve. Hand in the ballot to be counted.Cuando termine de votar, introduzca la papeleta en la funda protectora y entré-guela para ser contada.
Optional write-inVoto opcional por escrito
Turning in the ballotEntregue la papeleta
Vote for 1 pair
A noisreVselpmaS Two languages
The basic requirement for the understanding of the politics of change is to recognize the world as it is. We must work with it on its terms if we are to change it to the kind of world we would like it to be.
We must first see the world as it is and not as we would like
it to be. We must see the world as all political realists have,
in terms of “what men do and not what they ought to do,” as
Machiavelli and others have put it.
It is painful to accept fully the simple fact that one begins
from where one is, that one must break free of the web of
illusions one spins about life.
Most of us view the world not as it is but as we would like it to
be. The preferred world can be seen any evening on television
in the succession of programs where the good always wins–
that is, until the late evening newscast, when suddenly we are
plunged into the world as it is.
We live in a world where “good” is a value dependent on whether we want it.
In the world as it is, the solution of each problem inevitably
creates a new one. In the world as it is there are no permanent
happy or sad endings. Such endings belong to the world
of fantasy, the world as we would like it to be, the world of
children’s fairy tales where “they lived happily ever after.”
Design for Democracy pairs
designers with local election
authorities to work on ballots
and explanatory materials.
This redesigned ballot uses
illustration to explain how
to fill it out. It also shows a
redesigned voting area to
clarify which candidate a voter
is choosing.
72
In the world as it is, the stream of events surges endlessly
onward with death as the only terminus. One never reaches
the horizon; it is always just beyond, ever beckoning onward;
it is the pursuit of life itself.
This is the world as it is. This is where you start. It is not a world of peace and beauty and dispassionate rationality, ...
Disraeli put it succinctly: “Political life must be taken as you
find it.”
Once we have moved into the world as it is then we begin
to shed fallacy after fallacy. The prime illusion we must rid
ourselves of is the conventional view in which things are seen
separate from their inevitable counterparts.
We know intellectually that everything is functionally
interrelated, but in our operations we segment and isolate all
values and issues. Everything about us must be seen as the
indivisible partner of its converse, light and darkness, good
and evil, life and death.
From the moment we are born we begin to die. Happiness
and misery are inseparable. So are peace and war. The threat
of destruction from nuclear energy conversely carries the
opportunity of peace and plenty, and so with every component
of this universe; all is paired in this enormous Noah’s Ark of
life. Life seems to lack rhyme or reason or even a shadow of
order unless we approach it with the key of converses.
rules for r
adicals73
Seeing everything in its duality, we begin to get some dim clues to direction and what it’s all about. It is in these contradictions and their incessant interacting tensions that creativity begins.
As we begin to accept the concept of contradictions we see
every problem or issue in its whole, interrelated sense. We
then recogni7..e that (or every positive there is a negative,·
and that there is nothing positive without its concomitant
negative, nor any political paradise without its negative side.
Niels Bohr pointed out that thc appearance of contradictions
was a signal that the experiment was on the right track:
“There is not much hope if we have only one difficulty, but
when we have two, we can match them off against each other.”
Bohr called this “complementarity,”
The [Condensed] Rules of Power Tactics
1
Power is not only
what you have but
what the enemy
thinks you have.
2
Never go outside the
experience of your
people.
3
Go outside of the
experience of the
enemy. Cause
confusion, fear, and
retreat.
4
Make the enemy live
up to their own book
of rules.
5
Ridicule is the most
potent weapon.
6
A good tactic is one
that your people
enjoy.
7
A tactic that drags on
too long becomes a
drag.
8
Keep the pressure
on, with different
tactics and actions,
and utilize all events
of the period for your
purpose.
9
The threat is usually
more terrifying than
the thing itself.
10
The major premise
for tactics is the
development of
operations that will
maintain a constant
pressure upon the
opposition.
11
If you push a
negative hard and
deep enough it will
break through into
its counterside;
this is based on the
principle that every
positive has its
negative.
12
The price of a
successful attack
is a constructive
alternative.
13
Pick the target, freeze
it, personalize it, and
polarize it.
74
tactics
Tactics means doing what you can with what you have. Tactics are those consciously deliberate acts by which human beings live with each other and deal with the world around them.
In the world of give and take, tactics is the art of how to take
and how to give. Here our concern is with the tactic of taking;
how the HaveNots can take power away from the Haves.
For an elementary illustration of tactics, take parts of your face
as the point of reference; your eyes, your ears, and your nose.
First the eyes; if you have organized a vast, mass-based people’s organization, you can parade it visibly before the enemy and openly show your power.
Second the ears; if your organization is small in numbers... conceal the members in the dark but raise a din and clamor that will make the listener believe that your organization numbers many more than it does.
Third, the nose;if your organization is too tiny even for noise, stink up the place.
Walid Raad’s project, The Atlas Group, has
created a story about its existence and has
justified its actions through documentation
and showing of artifacts. The Atlas Group
ostensibly ‘locates, preserves, studies,
and produces audio, visual, literary, and
other documents that shed light on the
recent history of Lebanon.’ The artist uses
traditional forms to build credibility that a
full organization produces the work.
AdditionAl reAdings of interest
read like you g
ive a dam
n
77
further reading suggestions on doing work for the common good and design intervention in public space1941 let Us now Praise famous men by James Agee and Walker evans
1964 First things First
1971 Rules for Radicals
1973 small is Beautiful: economics as if People mattered by e.f. schumacher
1997 the Power of Place: Urban landscapes as Public history by dolores hayden
2000 First things First
2002 surpassing the spectacle by carol Becker
2002 relational aesthetics by nicolas Bourriaud
2002 rural studio: samuel mockbee and an Architecture of decency by Andrea oppenheimer dean and timothy hursley
2003 citizen designer by steven heller and veronique vienne
2004 Plop: recent Projects of the Public Art fund by susan k. freedman, tom eccles, dan cameron, katy siegel, Jeffrey kastner, and Anne Wehr
2005 the interventionists: Users’ manual for the creative disruption of everyday life by nato thompson, gregory sholette, and Joseph thompson
2006 Participation ed. by claire Bishop
2006 What is graphic design for? by Alice twemlow
2007 The Gift by Lewis hyde
2007 looking closer 5: critical Writings on graphic design by michael Beirut, William drenttel, and steven heller
2008 A guide to democracy in America by yates mckee, Anne Pasternak, gregory sholette, and liam gillick
2008 droog event 2: Urban Play by droog
2008 My work is not my work: Pierre Bernard–Design for the public domain by Hugues Boekraad
2009 design revolution: 100 Products that empower People by emily Pilloton
78
the Gift
That art that matters to us– which moves the heart, or revives the soul, or delights the senses, or offers courage for living, however we choose to describe the experience–that work is received by us as a gift is received.
relAtionAl Aesthetics
...contemporary artists
... create and stage life-
structures that include
working methods and
ways of life, rather than
the concrete objects
that once defined the
field of art. they use
time as a raw materiai.
form takes priority
over things, and flows
over categories: the
production of gestures
is more important than
the production of
material things.
read like you g
ive a dam
n
79
design for the public domain
Evidently it is possible to be a practising designer in a way that credibly combines relative autonomy, originality and social relevance...
Pierre Bernard’s work for the French
parks system uses silhouettes from
nature to create a system of symbols.
Turning natural elements into graphic
symbols, he creates an identity sytem
for the place we find the origins of the
symbols–the parks. This inventive
identity system for a non-commercial
client shows Bernard’s values at work.
the new York times’ Year in ideas issue
highlights the most innovative, most
groundbreaking ideas of each year. it is an
editorial project that uses design to further
illuiminate new areas of thought. it expands
the scope of debate.
80
First things First 2000
We propose a reversal of priorities in favor of 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. The scope of debate is shrinking; it must expand.
read like you g
ive a dam
n
81
rules for radicals
What follows is for those who want to change the world from what it is to what they believe it should be.
relAtionAl Aesthetics
‘Just as i think it is
illusory to count
on the gradual
transformation of
society so i believe
that microscopic
attempts –
communities,
neighbourhood
committees,
organizing creches
in universities –
play an absolutely
fundamental role.’
82
read like you g
ive a dam
n
83
First things First 2000
Designers who devote their efforts primarily to advertising, marketing and brand development are supporting, and implicitly endorsing, a mental environment so saturated with commercial messages that it is changing the very way citizen-consumers speak, think, feel, respond and interact. To some extent we are all helping draft a reductive and immeasurably harmful code of public discourse.
84
read like you g
ive a dam
n
85
relAtionAl Aesthetics
...social utopias and
revolutionary
hopes have given way to
day-to-day micro-utopias
and mimetic strategies:
any ‘direct’ critique of
society is
pointless if it is based
upon the illusion of
a marginality that is
now impossible, if not
regressive. Almost
thirty years ago, felix
guattari was already
recommending the
neighbourhood strategies
on which contemporary
artistic practices are
based.
86
Andrew sloat’s project Article II shows
citizens spelling out part of the second
article of the consitution, which created
the executive branch. this section of the
article is the oath of office for President
of the United states.
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ive a dam
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87
88
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89
gabriel orozco’s Ping Pond Table from 1998
creates a new way of relating to the table
itself, the other players, and to the gallery
space. it suggests possibilities for exchange
other than the prevailing ones of gaming or
the gallery.
90
the Gift
Furthermore, when gifts circulate within a group, their commerce leaves a series of interconnected relationships in its wake, and a kind of decentralized cohesiveness emerges.
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92
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Using the tools of graphic design for a
different message, John Briggs makes a
modest suggestion in his 2008 project with
stefan sagmeister’s Things I Have Learned in
My Life So Far workshop project.
94
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95
relAtionAl Aesthetics
...contemporary artists who create
and stage life-structures that include
working methods and ways of life, rather
than the concrete objects that once
defined the field of art. they use time as
a raw materiai. form takes priority over
things, and flows over categories: the
production of gestures is more important
than the production of material things.
96
design for the public domain
In the political sphere there is a permanent struggle to gain entry to the centres of power and the agenda of political decision-making. In no period has that struggle been more vehement than in the second half of the nineteenth centure and the first half of the twentieth.
coloPhon
Chapparal Pro The Gift by Lewis Hyde
Prensa My work is not my work: Pierre Bernard–Design for the public domain by Hugues Boekraad
Chronicle First things First
Akkurat relational Aesthetics by nicolas Bourriaud
Caecilia Rules for Radicals
X
then DESIGN FOR THE COMMON GOOD
READ LIKE YOUGIVEA DAMN
Excerpts for designersedited by LINDSAY KINKADE
VO
LU
ME
1
1
0001 Ward0002 Split
Offi cfi cfi ial Ballot for General ElectionSpringfield County, ty, ty NebraskaTuesday, ay, ay November 07, 07, 07 2006
Papeleta Ofi cOfi cOfi ial para las Elecciones GeneralesCondado de Springfield, NebraskaMartes, 7 de noviembre de 2006
not fold the ballotdoble la papeleta
InstructionsInstrucciones
Do not cross out orerase, or your vote
may not count. If you make a mistake or a stray mark, ask for a new ballot from the poll workers.No tache o borre, pues esto podría invalidar su voto. Si comete un error o hace alguna otra marca, pida una papeleta nuevaa uno de los trabajadores electorales.
1/ 8
Continue votingnext sideContinúe votandoal otro lado
Joseph BarchiandJoseph HallarenBlue / Azul
Adam CramerandGreg VuocoloYellow / Amarillo
Daniel CourtanddAmy BlumhardtPurple / Púrpura
Alvin BooneandJames LianOrange / Naranja
Austin HildebrandandJames GarrittyPink / Rosa
Martin PattersonandClay LariviereGold / Oro
Elizabeth HarpandAntoine JeffersonGray / Gris
Charles LayneandAndrew KowalskiAqua / Agua
Marzena PazgierandWelton PhelpsBrown / Marrón
or write-ino por escrito:
Dennis WeifordBlue / Azul
Lloyd GarrissYellow / Amarillo
Sylvia Wentworth-FarthingtonPurple / Púrpura
John HewetsonOrange / Naranja
Victor MartinezPiPinknk / / RosaRosa
Heather PortierGold / Oro
or write-ino por escrito:
U.S. SenatorSenador de EEUU
Vote for 1 / Vote por 1
President andVice-President of theUnited StatesPresidente y vicepresidentede los Estados Unidos
Vote por 1 par
Brad PlunkardBlue / Azul
Bruce ReederYellow / Amarillo
Brad SchottPurple / Púrpura
Glen TawneyOrange / Naranja
Carroll ForrestPink / Rosa
or write-ino por escrito:
U.S. RepresentativeRepresentante de EEUU
Vote for 1 / Vote por 1
Making selectionsHaga sus selecciones
a candidate, filloval to the left of
write-in” and printname clearly on the
line.
regar un candidato, el óvalo a la izquierda
espacio designado ‘o por y escriba claramente
nombre de la persona enpunteada.
the completed into the ballotHand in the ballot
counted.Cuando termine de votar,introduzca la papeleta en lafunda protectora y entré-guela para ser contada.
Optional write-inVoto opcional por escrito
rning in the ballotgue la papeleta
Vote for 1 pair
Precinct00
Do No
To add in the ov“or writthe name dotted
Para agrerellene el del espacio escrito’el nombrla línea pu
Insert tballot into sleeve. to be coCuando termine de introduzca la papeletfunda protectora y entré-guela para ser cont
Turning Entregue
Split 0003 Poll Worker Initials _______ ________ ________ ______English / Spanish
ballot.ta.
funda protectora y entré-ada.
Fill in the oval to the left ofthe name of your choice.You must blacken the oval completely, tely, tely and do notmake any marks outside of the oval. You do nothave to vote in every race.
Rellene el óvalo que estáa la izquierda del nombrede su preferencia. Deberárellenar el óvalo totalmente y no hacer ninguna otra marca fuera del óvalo. No tiene quevotar en todas las contiendas.
Do ot out
READ LIK
E YOU
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AMN
THEN
DESIG
N FO
R
THE CO
MM
ON
GO
OD