Notes from Week 2, Politics VS Design Lecture

In stage 1

-Where do you fit in stylistically or in terms of approaches and theories, historical context and own subject?

-On an MA think about objectives of your work, what could shape it, politics, technology, economic or social (society/cultural) influences

-What is relevant to you?

-Current pandemic, the desire for escapism

-There are interconnected problems, environmental issues, how to print, where is the paper sourced, what printing dyes will be used

Politics Vs Design

-Is your MA influenced by politics or does your work have a political agenda?

-Pick your subject and do not assume the viewer has the same knowledge as you. Have empathy with the audience.

-El Lissitzky, Beat the whites with the red wedge, 1919

-Lissitzky started to make propaganda posters in the changing time of Russian communism whilst Wassily Kandinsky left Russia against the new political ideas.

-Lissitzky adapted to survive the new political climate he lived in.

-Do we see ourselves as social engineers?

-How do we see our roles?

-What do we want to happen as a consequence of our work?

-Are you engaged in a form of social engineering?

-Your own world view shows through your work

-There is a responsibility of gender stereotypes and what you are saying to the audience

-When Germany was economically depressed, modernism was a solution

-David Boyles book, Authenticity: Brands, Fakes, Spin and the Lust for Real Life looks at our revolt against spin and fakeness and our hunt for 'realness'

-Richard Rogers said, Music without beauty is just noise

-Can design have a direct impact on Politics?

Saatchi and Saatchi, Labour isnt working 1978

-Der Furher's Face (Disney, 1943), Education For Death (Disney 1943) and Nips the Nips (Warner Bros, 1944) films were used as propaganda during the war

-Questions art as democracy, who funds it?

-Jonathan Barnbrook believes design shapes the way we see the world and can facilitate social change, he also states design is not just cool it has the potential to change society.

-Adbusters, Jonathan Barnbrook showing designers working to create positive social change

-Is there a political agenda today?

-To what extent is your studio work politically motivated?

-Would you describe yourself as a social engineer?

-Is the role of your MA Design to improve or influence society?