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April 23, 2004
Authorship 3
3. the responsible designer
a. "The designer, as initiator or working partner, shares responsibility with the writer for the production of meaning..." (p127) Does the ědesigner as authorî idea allow designers to reconsider their own practice and take on a more responsible role (and therefore more responsibility) for their production of media? Rather than the service industry that does what it's told, might graphic design become more responsible for it's outcomes.
b. Is "designer as author" a response to designers having "something to say" being creative yet not having a medium in which to say it, is the self-initiated design project art or design? In creating self-initiated projects and writing the text is it possible for designers to actually damage meaning. (two instances; a T-shirt show, and a series of posters about September 11. Both acted as though they might be social commectary or art but were actually demonstrations by designers of their work and style of work - is this art or can it confuse what art is?
Posted by Neal Haslem at 03:46 PM
Authorship 2
2. creative pairings
a. "Burdick brought writers and designers together in more or less sympathetic pairings intended to 'explore and exploit the priveleged position of authorship'" (p126) - is this analogous to the designer/writer pairings that often take place in the advertising industry? or the programmer/designer pairings of multimedia design?
b. If we (Graphic Designers) want designers to become writers, why do we not want architects to become designers?
Posted by Neal Haslem at 03:45 PM
Authorship 1
1. moving forward
a. Is the "designer as author" idea an attempt to raise the profile and increase the scope of graphic design as a profession? Has it come from a desire to expand the role of the designer to encompass other areas (writing, directing, facilitating, etc). Is this an effort to maintain the validity of the profession, at a time when it can be seen as being under threatened by a ubiquity of design-software empowered ěgraphic designersî?
b. How does "designer as author" allow design to move forward? "Instead the graphic designer could be conceived as the language worker equipped to actively initiate projects..."(p124) Is there a position in our society/profession for such a designer?
c. "By transferring the authority of the text back to the author, by focussing on the voice, presence becomes a limiting factor, containing and categorizing the work. The author as origin, authority, and ultimate owner of the text guards against the free will of the reader" (p147) Michael Rock suggesting that the designer as author could be detrimental to empowering the audience and creating open-ended atifacts of meaning.
Posted by Neal Haslem at 03:44 PM
Authorship 0
Which paragraph is most relevant to your own topic?
For me...
"(Michael Rock) points out, unarguably, that the few clear examples of design authorship are the exception rather than the rule.... He proposes three alternatives - designer as translator, designer as performer, designer as director - as better models to describe the processes usually involved in design activity." (p147)
..since it seems to hint at a way forward for design that does not necessary involve designer as author (star) but does expand the role and give freedom to move within that role. I think we talked one week about technology as freeing designers expand their role / profession / responsibilities.
Posted by Neal Haslem at 03:43 PM
April 22, 2004
what I like and don't like... is this useful?
What I don’t like
(never really like talking about what I do and dont like - always thought it was the start of becoming a fashion nazi, or just a plain nazi....maybe it is the opposite of that though and is the only way to fight that)
What I don’t like
(never really like talking about what I do and dont like - always thought it was the start of becoming a fashion nazi, or just a plain nazi....maybe it is the opposite of that though and is the only way to fight that)
certainty
refinement
smartness
lying
duplicity
pretense (though I do like playfulness)
new clean living
interior design as in magazines about ID
middle class snobs ( though I might be one)
being told what to do and think
feeling left out
feeling like I have to fit in
telling people that there is a better way
design wankers (who are they? purists?)
ponces
mean-ness
manipulation
emphasis on money
giving service people a hard time
feeling you have a right to be served
supercilliousness
feeling “better than”
modern communication methods
marketing methods
spin
evryone for themselves
flying in over LA (too many people)
first looking online and googling things (too much too many)
having to say “I’m sure”
telling people what to do
people who tell you where it’s “at”
snobby groups
patronising groups
dismissing the naive as worthless
violence
conflict
dumdness and chest-beating that leads to the above
anger
people who think they are better than other people
judging
capital punishment
prisons (that act create serial criminals)
class dynamics
ideologues
blind followers of a political group (whatever persuasion)
committing myself
bullying
being made to feel a fool
being exposed, feeling unprotected
when I can’t get my computer to work
forgetting names and things
when my bike doesn’t start
having a bad back
telling people I’ve got a bad back
over-indulgence and excess (ruth’s BBQ)
thoughtless consumption
being stuck in the city for weeks and weeks
sitting around watching TV for ever
missing my friends
losing friends
telling people what I really think
confronting people
saying “no”
engaging in conflict
pitching myself
justifying myself
going in to boardroom meetings
boardroom manouvering
things that call themselves art but arn’t
doing things badly because of economic/time pressure
lying to the client
over-selling
under-delivering
not being able to sing
feeling responsible for capsizing the boat
letting down the team
letting anyone down
being on my own
feeling stupid
the way I get so easily embarrased
advertising that tells people what to do
magazines that sell “lifestyles”
people who try and turn life into “lifestyle”
not seeing much live performance stuff
not being able to afford to travel
people telling me I need to prepare for my retirement
someone taking my job and being paid a lot more
enterprise bargaining
haggling
concealment
not being able to talk about stuff
not knowing what other people are earning
not being able to trust other people
when trust dissappears
people who think they know
not being able to do stuff
not doing everything myself
not being included
computer generated half-tone screens and rosettes
Design Graphics
style
people who think they know me
being mis-understood
being over-looked
not being taken seriously
typeface snobbery
design snobbery
people who think it’s OK to rip other people off
being questioned
having to defend myself
people criticising my work
what I do like
the bush
some colour combinations
things that mean more than one thing
things that don’t have a verbalized meaning
people that say one or a few words and yet have said everything
honesty
playfulness
inefficiency
making things
making things work
understanding things
crafting things - roughly
rough craft
the things left over
the unintentioned
the sun
the outdoors
pleasing people
riding bikes
feeling free
being underground
noise
very empty spaces
the desert
being praised
fitting in
things people have done themselves
looking at the stars
communicating clearly
being above the clouds
everything to some degree
talking
taking photos of things
solving problems
jury-rigging things
old things
things I have known for some time (history)
the colour and light patterns at the bottom of the pool
raw materials
rough finish
minimalism
the non-precious
screen-printing
fixing things
things of uncertain meaning
the juxtaposed
the 3 peso note
things that have not been commodified
chidrens takes on stuff
unknowing design
feeling needed and connected
helping other people feel needed and connected
taking the other point of view
going over to the other camp
teaching
seeing people excitedby new stuff
doing it all myself
being in control
experiencing new things
learning new things
people who don’t know
acceptance of others
not to be ruled by money
watching people’s faces
a lot of art
not much design
details and things seen in minutae
correlations between nature and humans
wild weather
having a purpose
Neil Young - sometimes
DIY culture
the energy of youth
Posted by Neal Haslem at 11:09 PM
April 08, 2004
add to "to read" pile
Keith Deverell: Artificiality of Photoshop
Have you read the book 'Imagination' by Richad Bach?
Posted by Neal Haslem at 02:05 PM
Public Space
title:
The role, responsibilities and future of CD in public space.
triggers:
communication / design / public space
abstract:
The role of Communication Design in creating public space (whether virtual or real). What responsibilities does CD have to accept in taking part in public space? Does CD show an awareness of public space? How might CD help to better achieve its aims of effective communication, adequate transferral of meaning, aiding and augmenting discourse, creating more interesting and creative spaces, reducing mental strain in highly urbanised spaces, reducing antagonistic marketing practices (eg fear, body image, self-image, pecking order, bullying, teasing, ordering, commanding, insulting, marginalisation, ideology pushing, racial stereotyping, gender stereotyping, promotes monoculture, supporting dominant paradigm, anti-democratic, didactic, religious stereotyping, individualism, divide and conquer, etc), helping to develop new practices/languages in line with utopian future directions. Are there possibilities of new CD languages and forms that might perhaps help to empower greater human connectivity and communication?
Posted by Neal Haslem at 01:45 PM
thoughts on 100
Ideas so far have involved re-configuring billboards, or news-stands....well initially they stretched to "the body", or miltary camoflage systems... anyway what about streetscape...
Streetscape: analyse a streetscape, including rubbish, signage, graffiti, murals, road signs, hoardings, posters, flyers, adverts etc.
Explore, analyse and revisit that streetscape using alternative imagery and text.
Posted by Neal Haslem at 01:39 PM
painting prouns
and another utopian connection - which also connects back around to Andrew Benjamins architecture talk the other day at RMIT....
The alluring idea of a composition actually providing a leverage to the future?
"...broadened MalevichÔ's Suprematist credo of pure painting as spiritually transcendent into an interdisciplinary system of two-dimensional, architectonic forms rendered in painted collages, drawings, and prints, with both utopian and utilitarian aspirations."
on El Lissitzky
Posted by Neal Haslem at 12:35 PM
Timelines
This thing might be worth more of a look.
I like the way it uses information design, interactivity and layout to investigate possibilities of effecting greater understanding of (in this case) history...
PM A-D & The Composing Room: Timelines in Context
Posted by Neal Haslem at 12:25 PM
The 70's utopians
I started thinking about Utopian ideals, I found this on google:
Alternative Traditions in the Contemporary Arts: Perkins essay
Sal and I were talking about the US in Iraq and the Romans in Britain and Hadrians wall and the Scots and the Israelis with their wall and the fact/feeling that the millenium turned and nothing has changed....is it OK to be a utopian?
Posted by Neal Haslem at 11:58 AM
April 07, 2004
Design Research
I tried Googling "Design Research":
First I got:
This site is intended to act as a resource for those researching graphic and interactive design related issues...
then I got:
If a job is worth doing, it's worth doing well....
It's been an interesting morning
Posted by Neal Haslem at 10:33 AM
Art & Design?
"or any of the other image-scavengers and recyclers who infest the wretchedly stylish woods of an already decayed, pulped-out postmodernism."
in the Guardian today
This is Robert Hughes talking Lucien Freud - and slamming Saatchi and the BritPak. Hughes' always been a purist but I'm starting to think that he knows what's going on...
I respond to this article as a call to reality, quality, meaning...I suppose a bit of a manifesto in itself.
It's not that I necessarily prefer Freuds work to Tracy Emins, or find it more relevant, I've always found Koons stuff invigoratingly "anti", but perhaps there's something here about realities, and false realities, false gods even...
Posted by Neal Haslem at 09:18 AM
Cairns
You know how strong a cairn is visually/mentally?
Of course you need a fairly (visibly) pristine environment, but in the act of making a sign and putting just one stone on another (i'm not really talking about those huge cairns that you might see holding up a survey marker or on top of a hill, I mean those almost insignificant ones that might remind you that you are on a track in the absence of other signs) a very strong sign is constructed. As humans we're naturally very aware of an object in our environment that can only be made by another human (almost like dogs and scent) It "sticks out" as a human construction and takes on meaning, some meaning, like a pair of inverted comas with nothing in between ( " " ) - it is a holder of meaning, we might not be sure what meaning.
If this were a graphic object what form would it take?
Does this class as an object that invites discourse rather than shut it down?
ps This is not a cairn. I have to buy a digital camera - I hate their lack of clarity and I can't afford it but I think I have to get one....
Posted by Neal Haslem at 01:33 AM