Blog Assignment 9: Politics of Design: the Cold War, modernism + democrac

I will demonstrate that Lynx and the ideology that pulling women is of the utmost importance in today's society. With the lack of world wars and international strife the branding of today has shifted from the political to the ideological. Technology has given the everyday civilian more access to so much more information than in the days of WW1 and WW2 that consumerism has to take a different approach. Selling 'sex' is the most common form of this today and is used to sell almost everything. One great proof of this is Lynx deodorant saying through its branding that if you use it you will pull girls. As shown below this is demonstrated on the container with a mathematical formula suggesting that if science proves it this must be true. In fact one man believed this so fervently he sued lynx after 7 years of using the product and failing to get a girlfriend.*

 So while the method has shifted this is still driving forward the ultimate goal of consumerism, which drives capitalism.

*Ben Spencer (Oct. 31 2009). Man sues Lynx after failing to pull in seven years. Retrieved Oct 1 2011 from http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/weird-news/2009/10/31/man-sues-lynx-after-failing-to-pull-in-seven-years-86908-21786843/

Blog Assignment 8: Modernism: standardisation, rationalisation, and the search for the universal

I will altercate that design today is both an art and a science and that it is a result of function x economy. This equation states that design is driven from the technology available today and the products ability to be manufactured easily and cheaply. A great example of this is the skyscraper that we see on every corner of the modern world. As Raizman said in "The first machine age of Europe"*, "The equation of progress with standardized apartment blocks and minimal metal and glass furnishings designed for mechanized mass production might best be seen as a response to the needs of a monolithic public during times of economic hardship."

 As we can see above this simple and affordable design has been adopted everywhere and is the face of our cities. The manufacturing technology allowed the construction of these towering structures at a low cost and so drove this minimalistic design. However with technology bringing cheaper ways to do things it also brings the ability to create beauty in new and exciting forms.

As seen here the once straight lines of the classic skyscraper have been twisted into new beautiful forms by the hand of technology. Expressing that art is as much a part of design today as science and in many cases they are the same thing.

*Raizman, D. (2004). The First Machine Age in Europe, in History of Modern Design (pp. 166-191) New Jersey: Prentice Hall Inc.

Blog Assignment 7: Narratives of Progress

I will argue that social networks such as facebook is the creation of the most real symbolic universe to date. The social network creates this online world for people where everything is displayed for them; who is their friend, who's a friend of a friend, whether or not they or someone else is in a relationship, etc. As Khilstedt said in Utopia realized* "technology was capable of creating a perfect society" and in facebook we are seeing this come true. This exactly organizes the social world as comprehensible and connected and is a place where one feels comfortable and safe as they know this universe as it is all displayed for them. As more people use this network it becomes more real for them and start to have more effect on their real lives. The media uses this to place advertising and such to feed off of this and designers are heavily involved in the creation and change of these social networks as they understand what the public wants hence their success.

*Kihlstedt, F. (1986). Utopia Realized: The World’s Fairs of the 1930s in Imagining Tomorrow: History Technology, and the American Future (pp.97-118). Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.

Blog Assignment 6: Modern Vision

Authentic works of art these days are not seen in the manufactured world. People do not create an item once for one person as this is more effort for less profit which is what more artisans are focussing on now. Their is more of a sense of once you get an item that is mass produced, one must place their own authenticity on it by way of customising it. Their may well be a million sets of headphones like mine but if I paint my own design on them then their are none that look exactly like mine and I have now placed my own authenticity on that item. So where Walter Benjamin says “To an ever greater degree the work of art reproduced becomes the work of art designed for reproducibility. From a photographic negative, for example, one can make any number of prints; to ask for the authentic print makes no sense.”* and "In principle a work of art has always been reproducible. Man-made artefacts could always be imitated by man."* The key word here being imitated and not identical copies as we see today. While I agree that the authentic has changed and disappeared from the manufacturers hand I believe that we are entering an age where we become our own artisans for authenticity. That we take what has been mass produced and bought by millions and we make it our own and therefore make it authentic. So really I do believe that there is a role for the ‘authentic’ in an age of digital design and manufacture but it comes after this stage.

Blog Assignment 5: Colour—abstraction, perception and modernity

Colour Vision, in my opinion best seen in the above example of colour contrast where the same colour will look different to our eye depending on the surrounding colour. Our colour vision, our ability to perceive colour is something that has been experimented on by many over the centuries including painters and scientists and mathematicians. This colour contrast according to John Gage in Colours of the Mind* said that it was Leodardo da Vinci who first noticed this and himself said, "The mutual reaction of colours placed close to each other so when their appearance changes more or less noticeably, has long been noticed by painters and has been labelled contrast by them."* So painters have been aware of this for a long time and have been using it in their work to use surrounding colours to alter the appearance of others in our perceived colour vision.

*Gage, J. (1993). Colours of the Mind in Colour and Culture: Practice and Meaning from Antiquity to Abstraction (pp.191-212). New York: Thames and Hudson.

Blog Assignment 4: Ornament or Nature

The iphone one of the most used pieces of technology today shows exactly this quote of "The evolution of
culture is synonymous with the removal of ornament from objects of daily use.” It shows how as we evolve and our technology increases the need for ornamentation decreases in fact the aesthetics of the iphone are as minimalistic as possible proving that now less ornamentation is beauty in our eyes. It all stems from this design for practicality where ornament has no place, ornament does not fit the shape of your hand or give useful clear information. Adolf Loos said "We have outgrown ornament, we have struggled through to a state without ornament. Behold, the time is at hand, fulfilment awaits us." Even he knew that we were moving past the need for ornament and moving on to the more practical, the minimal, and in our eyes now, the beautiful.

Blog Assignment 3 (Ornament Constructed)

Pistol with singing-bird Ornamental watch in the shape of a flintlock double-barrelled pistol Rochat, Geneva - ca. 1810. 

“Construction should be decorated. Decoration should never be purposely constructed.”
The above watch is the perfect example of ornament or decoration constructed. Anyone who actually attempted to wear this would have quite the weight on their wrist not to mention hitting everything anywhere near it. This watch is obviously not practical in the least and the actual clock looks as if it was added as an afterthought. All of the colours and gold embellishments add to the idea that this is never meant to be worn just looked at so what purpose could it serve in being a watch.
When anything is designed it should be designed for its use first and formost so as to fulfill its purpose. Decoration can then be added to make it asthetically pleasing. By turning something that looks good into another tool or object you are going to create something that is never going to work even remotely well and is ultimately useless as anything but an ornament.