Look, I feel like we’ve all been a bit down these past few months; lockdown with winter added to the mix wasn’t an ideal scenario. It’s cold, grey, and we can’t leave the house. I became very distant toward design and my own practice, but I want to stress that this hasn’t been a wasted term, despite feeling that it has. I’d love to say that I used to time effectively and picked up various new hobbies and my life is absolutely perfect but that just isn’t true. What I did do, was read a little more. Admittedly I still haven’t read much but it has been an exponential increase since last term, or if we’re being honest, since I was about 16. Ironically one of the main books that I got engrossed in was ‘In Praise of Idleness’ by Bertrand Russell; a collection of essays written during his lifetime. For the purpose of this blog post I’m going to focus on the the first essay in the book; with the same heading as the book title (link below) however it is a collection that I would highly recommend to anyone interested. Despite written in 1932 it’s principals are eerily relevant today. Essentially Russell argues that too much emphasis has been placed on the value of ‘hard work’ and argues the importance of having free time to explore hobbies/interests without the focus of monetary gain/value. Comparatively against that ‘rise and grind’ mentality that we see today, where we’re pressured to monetise everything that we do and create. “In a world where no one is compelled to work more than four hours a day, every person possessed of scientific curiosity will be able to indulge in it, and every painter will be able to paint without starving.” B.Russell, ‘In Praise of Idleness’ p.14 Obviously, this is living in a hypothetical world and our life is inherently centred around money and so I do completely understand where the ‘rise and grind’ mindset comes from. However, this ethos made me reconsider my approach to my design and practice. Like I mentioned earlier, I have been seeing, not necessarily a lack of creativity, but a lack of motivation towards design. Unintentionally I had taken a step back from playing an active role in (digital) design; instead I found myself drawing more and reverted back to a sort of creativity that I hadn’t looked to in a while. This was also around the time that the Sarah Everard case was emerging, which eventually turned into Kill the Bill protests, so activism and protests stormed the front of my mind. Here, I also want to mention that I had the pleasure to help a flatmate with their campaign for SU elections a few weeks prior as I think it better explains the thought process I experienced. Despite having been interested in activism and politics for years, this was the first time I had considered combining the two with my own work as a designer. Sustainability of my own design has always been a thought during my creative practice but for some reason when it came to activism and politics my brain had compartmentalised the two into completely separate categories, only over this period of intense activism had I first really thought of bringing both ‘passions’ together. Recently I also read ‘The Politics of Design’ (Ruben Pater) which also was along this same path of combining the two areas; in it, it essentially argues that all design is, without fail, political. I should add that I feel as though this conclusion says more about our sOciEtY rather than the entirety of design and it’s principals. The book touches on a myriad of examples where politics and design have impacted each other; which creates a really good overview of a lot of interesting topics, annoyingly it’s a little brief for my liking but still good nonetheless. Here I would like to talk about how visual language, especially in the age of the internet have impacted protests and activism. For instance Pepe the Frog has been prevalent in various movements; most notably the alt-right since the 2016 Trump campaign, which Trump himself acknowledged, furthering the message that the ‘symbol’ communicated and represented. Where, in this example, the symbol was largely confined to an online presence, it rarely made a physical appearance in the ‘real world’, in Honk Kong it was a different story. Pepe was reclaimed by pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong in 2019; the symbol of Pepe was remoulded and brought into the ‘real world’ taking up ‘real space’. Graffiti, masks and protest signs were created; the entire meaning of the same symbol is a completely different one to the one we see in America and alt-righters. Although it’s the “same” image, the differences are clear - despite having the same origin, the manipulation from both ‘movements’ of the motif have differed drastically. Using motifs and symbols to uniform a protest is not a new concept, but the addition of internet culture has created a ton of new possibilities. A notable symbol that we see in tangent with protests and activism is the fist, designed for the Black Lives Matter movement. However, I want to distinguish the difference between the fist and Pepe; the fist was created specifically for the movement, it’s creation and purpose serve the same meaning. But when we look to Pepe, it wasn’t created with a message to convey; instead it spread on the internet, becoming a well known image to which each group/movement could co-opt for their own political purpose separately. I think during this period of time, despite looking back I didn’t ‘physically’ create that much; my mentality has shifted. I had time to reflect on what drives me and my creativity without actively participating in design itself. Taking this time to understand why I do what I do is an important factor for everyone and anyone’s creative practice, which is probably an opportunity only a privileged few would have been able to experience prior to this pandemic. Amber Cape BA Graphic and Media Design :)
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Surveillance Capitalism, Algorithms, Data: understanding my role as a designer in the 21st Century4/11/2021 Hello, my name is Sofia, and I am a student from BA Graphic and Media Design. In this blog post that you are reading right now, I would like to lightly touch upon the topic of “Technologies, Practice + Space” in regard to my own DPS experience so far.
Prior to this DPS year, my thought about design’s role in our society or different industries was fairly simple: it should solve a problem, it should satisfy the clients’ need, it should bring value to the users, etc. But most importantly, I never believed in the concept that design can change the world. This is definitely an arguable statement, but I would like to say that my DPS experience has added more complexity and layers to my “understatement” about design. Since the DPS year began in the midst of a global disaster (the infamous COVID-19 pandemic), I knew that my professional study experience would take a huge turn from what I originally expected- and so, as anticipated, everything was moved to the digital world. This was also how I became even more addicted to the Internet, and more aware of all the aspects of what technologies can bring to our life- whether being positive, negative or a complex mix of both. A collaborative remote work I participated was an app development project, where user interface and interactions are the core of my design practice. At the beginning I treated it solely as an experience to learn new skills. However, after delving into the details and processes of app development and specifically interaction design, I began to notice some interesting situations. For example, after releasing the app we received quite a few responses saying that by having a “sign-up page” (which is very common in apps nowadays) would lead to a certain level of distrust since they think that their information would likely be leaked or sold to those giant tech-companies such as Google or Facebook, and we were seemingly identical to what they call a “Data Sucker”. Not only I was shocked to see this kind of feedback because my team did not have any intention with our users’ data, but I was also intrigued by the fact that such a small design decision could impact the perception and behaviours of our audience. This experience brought me to this Netflix documentary, called The Social Dilemma, where ex-executives & designers from tech-giants were interviewed about the fundamental design and development processes that construct our apps nowadays. The content was both informing and alarming to me, since I realised how these subtle modern app design principles have such an impact on the way we socialise, and they have become the new “addictive tools” that manipulate the audiences and their information. In addition to this, it is common practice that the developers would collect user analytics to tailor and provide better app experiences. Although the positive aspect of it is quite obvious being a method to help creating a better service, there is also huge concerns over what and how much data/user information an organization can obtain and what can they do with them. A good example would be the “Facebook-Cambridge Analytica data scandal”, where the data of millions of Facebook users were collected without their consent by Cambridge Analytica, mainly for political advertising. With this hideous incident in mind and a certain loss of trust, I suppose I should not have been so surprised to see the negative reaction and attitude from our users towards the simple “sign-up page”. How much power can these tech-companies have over the handling of individual’s personal information? To what extent can we be “watched” without being abused by the organisation’s monetisation power? Lastly, how can design generate the power to help changing this “industry standard” of practice? These questions might not have definite answers, but I personally enjoyed in asking them. Furthermore, the combination of all mentioned above would lead to the most important aspect of a business- monetisation. Monetisation for tech-companies and app developers nowadays heavily revolve around the area of advertisement. In order to provide a platform that serves for both the advertiser and the users, these apps and technologies needed a well-designed system that attracts & retains the users and also further extends the potentials by adding algorithms to the existing equation. The inclusion of algorithms was inevitable, due to the fact that we are now living under “the age of surveillance capitalism” (it’s also a book by Shoshana Zuboff, highly recommend) and also the era of quantifying literarily everything (21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari). Not only the apps or technological services have become highly profitable platforms for advertisement, but it has also evolved the complexity of the product itself. An example mentioned in Yuval Noah Harari’s book was how our music preferences can be quantified and used as data; the algorithm and AI can create music based on your most listened compositions, which might lead to the disappearance of “real” singers or song writers. This might sound intimidating, but there have been several rumours about how Spotify has been creating “fake” singers and suggesting them to different users on their platform. Our data and preferences have separated each user from each other as far as it has ever been, in other words, I could open my YouTube account and the home page would look completely different from my brother’s because of how complex YouTube algorithms have become. The evolution of algorithms and quantification of everything have brought more fear and uncertainty to our concerns over the future of technology. I also wonder what role can design play in the ever-growing complexity within these fields, and exactly how much power are designers able to hold in order to bring any change. These snippets of my experiences and readings provided me some perspectives to how design and technology are heavily reliant on each other, and how the combination of both could bring such an impact to the mass. This has inspired me to delve further into my responsibilities and capabilities as a designer in the 21st century- to understand and consider the ethical, environmental, social, political perspectives along with the heavily networked + fast paced technological developments. Sofia Wang 18007066 References: The Social Dilemma: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaaC57tcci0&ab_channel=Netflix 21 Lessons for the 21st Century- Yuval Noah Harari The Age of Surveillance Capitalism- Shoshana Zuboff I’m Jo-An, an aspiring art director and filmmaker from the design for art direction course at LCC. Now that we are almost halfway through 2021, I would agree that this year hasn’t turned out the way we thought it would. During my first internship, I was working from home since the second national lockdown. Live brief Selfridges and Self-initiated projects also turn into weekly group virtual meetings. As a student, in this professional and practical learning year, we are still in the midst of a tectonic shift in how we learn and work in the post-pandemic world. But what will we learn or take away from this while the new remote world we’re in? What do these changes mean for the learning profession? In January 2021, with the third national lockdown, I felt a bit of shock to the fact knowing that we would still be working from home for an unknown time. Soon after, the Film London website announces new guidance and restriction for crews filming in public spaces in London. In February, I had an experience of a day on a film set in Battersea Park with the crew and production process for my SIP performance short film. Have you been enjoying teamwork in the pandemic? Do you prefer working with others remotely or in person? These are some questions that have put me in a reality check and on a quest to make this collaborative film very engaging remotely and successfully. It is also the first time I feel much anxiety about physical and subtle barriers during the filming pre-preparation. The challenges of casting virtually and scouting locations through google maps have taught me what can happen when things go wrong. During the weekly virtual meetings with the crew, I feel a lack of commitment, lack of feedback, and disconnection. The moment I realised directing and making film remotely to all the lockdown rules was a massive learning curve for all involved. Each crew has different personalities, different levels of collaboration, and degrees of conflict. I believe that virtual communication required more time and effort. I recently inspired by film director David Fincher, a director obsessed with perfection no matter how many it takes and is never satisfied. Not only was Fincher’s work distinct and inventive, but also his appreciation for everything. He always watches everything and listens to everything. Watching his documentary gives me some critical lessons on understanding and encouraging input from everyone. Spend more time to communicate with the intention and learn to listen. No matter the medium, you can always choose to create bridges, demands, and cares for team members. A shake of the head or the tone of voice are ways we decode other people’s interests. When we rely on digital communication via social media or email, more and more of our communication is digital, the human interaction notably absent, and misunderstanding or miscommunication can happen sometimes. It is way easier to focus in my working process when I am doing editing, a sound designer doing sound work, and we are all in the same place together. But when we are all separated and watching clips alone, the timeline for work becomes longer, hard to communicate, and we need to check in on each other constantly. SIP gives me the chance to think about what new collaboration skills or techniques I need to learn as a filmmaker and director. During the time, I tried to look into references and thought a lot about making it easier to communicate and engage remotely actively. “For most people, moving into the digital world to communicate means experiencing significant loss of clarity, ease, and depth.” - Nick Morgen. Months ago, I read the book “Can you hear me?: How to connect with people in a virtual world” written by Nick Morgen. He argues that while virtual communication will never be as rich or intuitive as a face-to-face meeting. I gain some very thoughtful insights and solutions, such as creating trust in a virtual context, overcoming emotional distance, and being more independent professional when your team or colleagues aren’t nearby. “Will we work in a completely digital environment, like characters in a game?” - Martin van Der Linden Do we still need a physical workspace to work? Recently I read a very interesting article from the visual design festival in Dezeen. Van der Linden is the founder of Tokyo-based Van Der Architects. He speculates on the impact it might have on office spaces and wonders whether physical workspaces will become entirely digital. Today with the coronavirus crisis, companies, media industries, and agencies face problems in using their workspaces. By forcing many people to work remotely, the transformation moves from “analogue-digital” to “digital-analogue”. Perhaps, the lockdown exposes the downsides in working from home. Humans are socially distanced, lack physical relationships, and of course, spend more and more time on screen and social media. With these, in the digital world, we are become players and controllers of the game, sitting behind computers hitting at the keyboards. For most of this pandemic, virtual workplace bias probably already existed. Perhaps, more and more interactions happen digitally. But I believe our physical distancing does not stop us from building social connections if there is still a great deal of meta-communication in Digital workplaces. Understanding the new rules of engagement, creating intentional space for relationships, and building a new communication skill set can demand our future collaboration and digitally-driven age. Jo An Li
Design for Art Direction jouannarchive.com/ References Image, 1. Ravenscroft, T. (2020) 'Weston Williamson + Partners envisions social-distancing office', Dezeen. Available at: www.dezeen.com/2020/05/14/weston-williamson-social-distancing-office/ (Accessed: 6 April 2021) Image, 2. Ravenscroft, T. (2020) 'Weston Williamson + Partners envisions social-distancing office', Dezeen. Available at: www.dezeen.com/2020/05/14/weston-williamson-social-distancing-office/ (Accessed: 6 April 2021) Variety (2021) Ben Affleck Interviews David Fincher On His Work Ethic, Legacy And Mank | Director on Directors. Available at:www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzN7cLFgZ-A (Accessed: 6 April 2021) Meerman Scott, D. (2018) David Meerman Scott's blog, 'Can you hear me? : How to connect with people in a virtual world' Available at: www.davidmeermanscott.com/blog/can-you-hear-me-how-to-connect-with-people-in-a-virtual-world (Accessed: 7 April 2021) Hobson, B. (2020) 'Will we work in a completely digital environment, like characters in a game? asks Martin van der Linden', Dezeen. Available at: www.dezeen.com/2020/05/22/post-coronavirus-digital-office-one-minute-architecture-vdf/ (Accessed: 7 April 2021) Hello, I’m Khushi and I’m on the Illustration & Visual Media Course. Over the past year I’ve been working on my own illustration practise and opening an online store. I’ve also worked for two charities, and made an animation for an OCD charity and a set of icons and a poster for a Parkinson’s charity. I first heard about the decolonisation of art when we discussed it in Community of Practice. I've learnt that decolonisation in the context of creative practice is important within art. An important part of decolonised design is thinking about the audience and their backgrounds, not just socio-economic background or national background but ethnicities and cultural backgrounds. A very good way to illustrate this is something very topical at the moment - covid and vaccinations against covid infection. BAME groups have shown a low uptake in vaccination. This is possibly because of how people perceive vaccination in these communities. Different ethnicities and people from different backgrounds perceive things in different ways which Is specific to their background. In the BAME community there is reported concern about side effects of the vaccine and the harm it can cause to them, its efficacy and necessity. Of course there are lots of conspiracy theories around covid vaccination, such as the origins of the virus eg how people think it was made in a lab as biological warfare. However these BAME people are not conspiracy theorists or anti-vaxxers, the fact that there is vaccine hesitancy within these communities reflects how the public healthcare system has not been effective in conveying these messages to people. Also, there is a lack of faith in the healthcare system within BAME communities because in the past, research on black people has employed some unethical practices. Also, not enough people from a BAME background have been involved in the research for vaccine trials, and traditionally in clinical research. Therefore, it makes sense that BAME people would be skeptical of the vaccine. To add to this, a lot of these people have not had good experiences with the healthcare system due to systemic discrimination and racism. All of this and perhaps more are responsible for ‘vaccine hesitancy’. Therefore, any awareness campaign that aims to address this issue, would have to consider all of this. People from a BAME background should be involved in such poster awareness campaigns as they are acutely aware of these issues. If you have non-BAME people produce these materials, they will be viewing this through their eyes and there is a risk that it may not be culturally relevant then. The messages in those campaigns need to be consistent with issues that are culturally specific to the BAME people. This is a good example of how decolonising the preparation of the awareness artwork is absolutely essential if it is to be useful at all. There are also deeply entrenched western methods of creative practice. Have you heard of any impressionists from Africa? Or a surrealist from India? Or a sculptor from China? No, because traditional Eastern art forms are often labelled as ‘crafts’ which is belittling the artistic practice or creativity of local artists. Of course this is not confined to art. A good example of this is mathematics. When we were in school, almost all over the world we are taught ‘traditional’ (western) methods of addition and multiplication, algebra, trigonometry etc. Not many people speak of other equally robust mathematical practices. For example, Vedic maths. This is a set of mathematical principles described in the ancient Indian vedas (scriptures). We’ve always been taught to use long multiplication to square numbers, which takes a while and is unnecessarily complicated. Vedic maths however, provides very simple ways of squaring numbers. E.g. squaring a 2 digit number ending in 5 is accomplished by splitting the number into 2 digits and multiplying the number on the left hand side by the number following it and for the right hand side, it is a simple square of 5 which we know is 25. Then, you simply join the two digits together. For example: Teachers in the UK always told me that this method was incorrect and that I would lose marks for my ‘working out’ if I didn’t use the traditional long multiplication method. However, as you can see, the Vedic maths method is pretty robust and accomplishes in a fraction of the time what you would accomplish with the long method.
Obviously this is not an example of the decolonisation of art however this is an example of a wider need for acceptance of equally appropriate non-western methods within multiple disciplines including creative practice. There are other elements of decolonisation which I am aware of, and I recognise that they will impact my creative practice. For example, as illustrated above, if I am working on a creative piece which is relevant to a particular culture, I might pass it on to someone I know of that cultural background, as it would be more fitting for them to work on the project. Also, after looking at my bookshelves, I have realised the majority of my books are by western authors. This doesn’t mean that I’m not going to think of non-western practice in my creative designs, but it makes me acutely aware that this is an issue to pay attention to every time I am working on a creative brief. I plan to now read books from a range of authors from different backgrounds, as opposed to just reading the ‘popular’ or ‘recommended’ western art books. Movements in art often reflect changes in society. Perhaps the necessity of decolonisation of art reflects what needs to be done within society at large. Some change seems to be happening… but it is not enough. - Khushi Inamdar Illustration & Visual Media https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/what-does-it-mean-to-decolonize-design/ https://www.bmj.com/content/372/bmj.n513 https://www.decolonisingdesign.com/actions-and-interventions/publications/2018/what-a-decolonisation-of-design-involves-by-ahmed-ansari/ Hi everyone, I'm Kaja Moll, a Graphic and Media Design student from LCC. Since my last post here, I have been very lucky to get an internship in Amsterdam, in a social design studio called Burobraak. It has been 3 months now as I am working with them, and I got an opportunity to work on a variety of projects tackling social, cultural, and political issues. This experience has certainly helped me to understand a designer’s role in a complex world. Burobraak is an exceptional place filled with people that are dedicated to social design. The idea is to make other people’s lives better - to improve our world but starting from what is closest to us. That’s something I’ve learnt here – that maybe we can’t change the whole world straight away, but we definitely can start local and change our surroundings - improve the lives of our neighbours and friends. The first task I got when I started my internship at Burobraak was to make research about famous Dutch naval heroes. I wasn’t told what the purpose of the research was, but that was intentional – to use my fresh mind for the upcoming project, which then turned out to be about the decolonization of street names in Amsterdam. For the research, I was asked to prepare some basic information about a few Dutch admirals. What’s interesting, during my research I didn’t come across any controversial articles and information. It was purely about the particular person, their colonial achievements, and the wars they fought in. On the basic sites such as Wikipedia, there was no word about the damage these people have done and the consequences of their actions. That has shown me how even the internet can be biased, not showing us balanced information and objectivity. The research was also about finding a relation between those people and the city of Amsterdam. I found out that there are many streets/places in Amsterdam named after those people. There is even a separate neighbourhood dedicated to the Dutch admirals - Admiraal de Ruijterweg. The next task was to focus on the controversy around these people and that’s when I started to see where this project is going. During my research, I came across many articles about the disputes that colonization brings to the Netherlands. Because of the country’s history, it’s a huge debate topic here and I suppose it will be for a long time, cause many Dutch people still try to deny their controversial history. On the other hand, more and more people start to talk about it, emphasizing the need to reevaluate our history. During my research, I came across many articles about how the Dutch respond to the current debate about postcolonialism. For the last couple of years, this issue has been given more and more attention. Following the police killing of George Floyd in the US, which has fueled the Black Lives Matter movement around the globe, many countries have seen protests against police violence and racism. Including the Netherlands, where protesters called for the removal of colonial-era statues, buildings, and street names, reevaluating their colonial past. Considering all of this, the questions arise: What should be done with the controversial monuments? Should they be toppled like the statue of slave trader Edward Colston in Bristol, England? Should they be modified so they can respond to the changing views on our history? Or should they be left just the way they are? This question could be only answered with an objective debate, taking into account various views and backgrounds. For some, this is not questionable that these monuments should fall. Others see this as an act of vandalism, chaining themselves to the monuments, claiming to “protect history” (as it happened in Cape Town with the Jan van Riebeeck's statue). Others, like historians Jürgen Zimmerer and Arnold Bartetzky, would prefer to see the monuments left in their original location, all while determining ways to draw attention to them and explain their historical context. Anyways, people start to act and we can see more and more radical movements across the country. Like in the town of Hoorn, north of Amsterdam, where around 500 protesters gathered to call for the removal of a statue of 17th-century colonial-era Dutch officer Jan Pieterszoon Coen. Or like in Rotterdam, where a group of activists left graffiti on the statue of Piet Hein and the Witte de With Art Centre in Rotterdam (see pictures above). The vandalism was meant as criticism on "the glorification of Dutch colonialism”. And some of these events bring an action. Like the Witte de With Art Centre in Rotterdam which in July 2020 announced to change its name for Kunstinstituut Melly. Whether it’s a way to compensate for the shameful past is a question. Still, it’s good to see some questioning and changes happening around the world. With time, I found out that the research I was preparing was for a new project coming - The Street Names Project. It focuses on decolonizing the street names in Amsterdam, with a special interest in those located in the Zeehelden and Admiralenbuurt neighbourhoods. The project was initiated by the City Council of Amsterdam in a collaboration with Master students from the University of Amsterdam. In December 2020 they researched the street names, provided a historical context, and more objective information about people that the streets were named after. They presented their ideas in a form of project proposals and based on that, the two best projects have been chosen.
Burobraak, together with Van Gisteren - an office for public history projects - have worked to implement those ideas in real life and create a meaningful project for decolonising street names. While I was looking forward to taking part in the project, I didn’t get the chance to contribute. After preparing the project proposal and sending it to the City Council, we waited many weeks for a response. I a result, everything started way longer than planned. Anyway, I’m glad I could at least find out more about the project, as it has inspired my research about decolonisation. This kind of approach to deal with a controversial past has spoken to me. During my time in Amsterdam, I have experienced the power of design in shaping such changes. I understood that we, not only designers but the whole of humanity, should question everything – reevaluate our past to shape a better future. |
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