materials for a manifesto (temporary post)

manifesto vs aphorisms

demonstrate don’t manipulate

—

know / come clean about / who you are in and behind and around your work.
how did it/you come to this.
I am not good about this.

—

scale.
for books, small books should not feel like a large book shrunk down.
nor the reverse.
and yet this, too, depends.

—

don’t fuss too much about composition (in the layout sense), if (1) there is a robust grid and (2) other pages provide visual context.

—

3 is better than 2.
if four, group : 2+1+1
if five, group : 3+1+1, or 2+2+1

—

“Instead of shooting arrows at someone else’s target, which I’ve never been very good at, I make my own target around wherever my arrow happens to have landed. You shoot your arrow and then you paint your bulls eye around it, and therefore you have hit the target dead centre.”
—Brian Eno
see https://austinkleon.com/2018/10/15/arrows-and-targets/

—

design is a relationship with others and with the materials of design (words, pictures, pixels, code, messages, channels, partners, vendors, everything one has ever seen or touched or heard).
let it all in, as necessary.

—

Let every activity have at its centre some moments of interruption.
— The Notebooks of Simone Weil, Vol. I, translated by Arthur Wills (1956) : 96

—

“To draw back before the object we are pursuing. Only what is indirect is effective…”
— Simone Weil, The Notebooks of, translated from the French by Arthur Wills (1956, 2004) : 169

—

Beauty. One cannot say that it is a “perspective” order. It tears us away from the point of view.
— Simone Weil. The Notebooks of. Translated by Arthur Wills (1956): 232

Beauty is the ultimate defense against complexity. Beauty is our most reliable guide...
David Gelernter, Machine Beauty : Elegance and the heart of technology (1998) : 22 –

—

To be confronted by with things is a liberation of the mind.
Simone Weil (1909-1943), First and last notebooks. translated by Richard Rees. 1970 : 40

The unity of a work of art must be ceaselessly in peril and still be preserved at each instant.
— Simone Weil (1909-43), Lectures on Philosophy (translation 1978): 187

composition of a poem: thought without language, for the choice of words takes place without the help of words.
The Notebooks of Simone Weil, Vol. I, translated by Arthur Wills (1956) : 37

—

The concrete presence of seeking, clarity, balance, spacial energy, entry of light, layering, material and precision, measurement, vertical/horizontal and proportion, harmony within itself and the drawing of thoughts are in my mind essential terms of architectonic thinking. The constructed space is open in all directions. Architecture begins before architecture.
Heinz Tesar, Notate

—

Architecture has its own realm. It has a special physical relationship with life. I do not think of it primarily as either a message or a symbol, but as an envelope and background for life which goes on in and around it, a sensitive container for the rhythm of footsteps on the floor, for the concentration of work, for the silence of sleep.
Peter Zumthor

—

There’s nothing like putting stuff in boxes. (or something to that effect)
Muriel Cooper (somewhere)

—

Has the scope for exploration been defined in a way that the space of possibilities includes high-quality solutions?
Karl T. Ulrich, Design : Creation of Artifacts in Society (2005-11)
aside — useful, important book, this.

—

...an immaculate surface that leaves no room for dialogue...
— Robin Kinross, on the “modern”, in Fellow Readers (1994)

—

You can't learn physics or other sciences without doing experiments. The same holds for graphic design.
— Malcolm Grear, Inside | Outside : From the basics to the practice of graphic design, Second Edition (2006) : 26

—

I don't often remember portfolios, but I remember people.
— Adrian Shaughnessy, Portfolios

—

I try to be as stupid as possible regarding my profession, which means I try to look at as few design magazines as possible. I don't use the word "success," neither do I use the word "failure." Good design needs bad design and vice versa. For me, design is simply that human activity that sometimes — rarely — is able to communicate.
Ettore Sottsass (founder, Sottsass Associati)
“A conversation about the good, the bad, and the ugly.”
Wired 9.01 (January 2001)

—

to practice in all things a certain sprezzatura [nonchalance], so as to conceal all art and make whatever is done or said appear to be without effort and almost without any thought about it. And I believe much grace comes of this...
ex Baldesar Castiglione, The Book of the Courtier (1528)

—

Man, Robert Frost said thinkin’ was just putting one thing beside another and lookin’ at ’em. What you call ramblin’ is what I call thinkin’...
K.C. Constantine, Bottom Liner Blues (Mysterious Press, 1993).

—

There’s another way to make a movie, which is the way that Eisenstein suggested a movie should be made. This method has nothing to do with following the protagonist around but rather is a succession of images juxtaposed so that the contrast between these images moves the story forward in the mind of the audience. This is a fairly succinct rendition of Eisenstein's theory of montage; it is also the first thing I know about film direction; it is also the first thing I know about film directing, virtually the only thing I know about film directing.

You always want to tell the story in cuts. Which is to say, through a juxtaposition of images that are basically uninflected. A shot of a teacup. A shot of a spoon. A short of a fork. A shot of a door. Let the cut tell the story. Because otherwise you have not got dramatic action, you have narration...

The work of the director is the work of constructing the shot list from the script. The work on the set is nothing… It is the plan that makes the movie.

The purpose of technique is to free the unconscious. If you follow the rules ploddingly, they will allow your unconscious to be free. That’s true creativity. If not, you will be fettered by your conscious mind. Because the conscious mind always wants to be liked and wants to be interesting. The conscious mind is going to suggest the obvious, the cliché, because these things offer the security of having succeeded in the past.

ex David Mamet, On Directing Film (1991)

for Tuesday, 8 December

 
We will discuss the show, and work (new, or process books in progress).

Also, create your own design/art manifesto, minimum five points.

You may want to review other design manifestos we have examined, including

1. The First Things First Manifesto (Ken Garland, 1963)
2. The First Things First Manfesto (2000) and
3. A 38-Point Design Manifesto (Opsys, 2020)

Process books,
need by the day (not yet scheduled) of the end-of-semester evaluations); for those printing via Lulu (Nate, May, Paige) printed version (pdf acceptable if book on order and not yet received).
grades due Sunday 20 December

 

senior show, installations

May Funda

Adrift — Book series
My work is about depicting animals in their natural habitats and evoking feelings of being surrounded by them, as if the viewer is in the image as well. The reason I chose to focus on aquatic animals is because they always seemed mysterious to me. They’re beautiful and complicated, and the ocean they live in is so unexplored. The majority of organisms alive currently live under the ocean, and most of the ocean is unexplored. I wanted to use colors that helped convey the peaceful feeling of each image, and the text in each image is supposed to complement the visuals. I used text taken from spreads in my final book that I printed last semester, to keep some continuity, and I repurposed them to fit the images I’ve added or changed for this book. My goal is to be experimental with the placement of text, using colors and font styles that complement the rhythm of the images from one page to the next.

---

Nate Cioffi

Broken Amend/ments
This project explores the degradation of meaning through repetition and reinterpretation over time. Each of these works represents a multi-poster series. The process starts by formally typesetting each constitutional amendment. After this, the font size is systematically increased with each poster causing the language to become distorted.
This is symbolic of the repeated reinterpretation of the laws over the decades, distorting original intents, and covering up racial injustices that are written into those laws. This project raises the question, is it time to rewrite the oldest constitution?

Frustration & Isolation
These works have come out of my own reflections on feelings of anger, frustration, and isolation in 2020.

YOU ARE HERE!
This project explores the idea that we are all together in our shared feelings of loneliness, frustration, and isolation during this unforgettable year.

January 20, 2017 - January 20, 2021
This poster is inspired by the 45th presidential term’s approach to tradition and prerequisite.

Screaming for 60 Seconds
This book and poster combo look to encapsulate the feeling of a good scream.

---

Paige Dempster, Nihilist Dogs

Nihilist Dogs There must be a meaning to life, but I have no clue what it is or what it even could be. I was filled with this existential dread about halfway through the semester, making it difficult to take care of myself beyond basic survival, let alone produce any sort of meaningful work. I have a bad habit of letting my emotions bleed into my art, as well as the lifelong artsy quirk of doodling in the margins of my notebook, so I put the two together and began drawing these strange looking dogs and combining them with garish handwritten text expressing a nihilist world view, then I finally cut the images up into small books. The liveliness of the dogs combined with the animated yet existential text create a stark contrast that make them hard to ignore, and the books cut the image up to make them hard to understand, but able to vaguely piece together if meditated on for long enough, just like life. I knew from the beginning that I wanted these to be small books so people could take a little bit of this sentiment with them, so I included a fully pieced together image as a sticker to encourage people
 

notes, week of 1 and 3 December

 
Nate, Paige and May install their work for senior show.
 

---

A 38-Point Design Manifesto

1. Style Sucks. Leave your attitude behind.
2. Raw is Beautiful. It demands and commands attention to process.
3. Seeing from Below. Kill the top down view and start building new grounds, platforms, and supports for others to succeed and for life to grow.
4. Flow, not Form. Effects and impacts are what matter most.
5. Systems, not style...

and so on... at nodesignonstolen.land

read through to end, where there's a kind of colophon / explanation.

They tweet @lowlowtide

—

Nude emblems (re: Adam's missing-image pages) —

German philosopher, theologian and physician Nicolaus Taurellus (1547-1606), his Emblemata Physico Ethica (1595). See description by peacay at BibliOdyssey (published 2005).

The entirety can be seen here (scroll down for the "blank emblem" pages).

aside —
peacay / bibliodyssey appears to be no longer active, but the blog was wonderful in its heyday —
Bibliodyssey;
also at tumblr and
flickr

—

Changing Paradigms: Designing for a Sustainable Future
Peter Stebbing and Ursula Tischner, eds.
Cumulus Think Tank, Publication No 1 pdf
Cumulus Association (about)
 

notes, week of 17-19 november

 
aside —

I continue to post comments to seminarians’ blog posts, sometimes a day or two (or even more) after a post might originally have been made.

---

on Tuesday 17 November,
Nate’s Amendments posters prompted consideration of the order in which things are encountered/seen.
If in a codex book, the designer/author/maker has some (but not total) control over what is seen first, what next.
If things are deployed out in the world, and if there is sufficient stylistic or other similarity or other identifying marks among them, the encounters might (will) be random. Say, if six items are in the world, the order in which they are seen can not be predicted; nor can we assume that all six will be seen.
This is a feature/opportunity, not a glitch/failure.

We also discussed beauty and its role in (1) attracting attention and, perhaps (2) signaling that something is worth attention.

I (John) maintained that ugliness can achieve the same end, always, of course, depending. All designed objects (and situations) exist in relation to other designed (and undesigned) objects and situations. Everything is relative — to other things, time, the particulars of the encounter, personal histories and biases and needs and expectations...

—

writing / markmaking / asemic writing

Rowan read some of their writing under way, for their knee, belly and foot casts. The reading sounded smooth, eloquent; perhaps the delivery was smoother than the writing, if it were stammered across the surface of page or plaster-cloth.

The writing surface/landscape is definitely not an ordinary sheet of 8.5x11 paper, ruled or not. It is not flat, and it has imperfections/texture etc. The writing might want to reflect and even be guided, to some degree, by its surface terrain. Think of writing as perambulation, or walking.

detail of dustjacket design, Peter Handke, Mein Jahr in der Niemandsbucht / Ein Märchen aus den neuen Zeiten (Surhkamp Verlag, 1994); American edition My Year in the No-Man’s-Bay (New York, 1998, minus the subtitle A fairy tale from the new times.
discussion of this cover, and the role of working memory in reading, at this Design Stories blog post from 2010.

Think too of different kinds of marks, including asemic writing (that is, writing without semantic meaning, containing no identifiable words with dictionary senses).

Perhaps also relevant are crossed letters (cross-writing), encountered in the nineteenth century (and presumably before and since, and evidently most used by women writers), as a means of economizing on paper. Here is an example, from wikipedia :

From Caroline Weston to Deborah Weston; Friday, March 3, 1837

During class, I pointed to this photograph (here cropped and rotated -90º) of a Beethoven manuscript, spoiled by ink —

“Beethoven’s manuscripts exhibited in Berlin. They think this one was burnt by a candle & he put it out with ink - the only liquid to hand.”

source (@e_sparrows at twitter)

—

Talmudic commentaries; polyglot bibles

Pertinent (?) to Adam’s post of sketched layouts, inspired/suggested by a commentary-encrusted page from the Talmud, are images from the Complutensian Polyglot Bible, at archive.org. One is shown below.

my comment to Adam’s post —

Can the frames contain asemic writing, as well as readable text?
There is something performative about these layout drafts — as if the framing/layout were as, or more important than, anything that might be said in those surrounding "boxes."
This relates to the bower nest / bower box idea: the frame is what matters, the interior, beside the point (or only secondary).

---

5 Takeaways From EoD’s Ecology + Design Panel Discussions
At the AIGA Design Conference, we covered eco-conscious design practices, visual sustainability, design beyond capitalism + more
Margaret Andersen
AIGA Eye on Design (November 11, 2020)
 

notes, week of 10-12 November

Thursday 12 November

We review work in progress and, at 9:45, will join a Google Hangouts presentation by Mary Ellen Lepionka on Beverly’s Indigenous People

Mary Ellen Lepionka of Gloucester is an independent scholar researching the history of Cape Ann from the last Ice Age to around 1700 for a book on the subject. Some chapters have been published at capeannhistory.org
 

---

On Tuesday 10 November, we watched and discussed a video presentation by designer/artist Kristen Mallia, whose Memory Device installation was in the 301 “Frame” window. That presentation (and some explanatory text and images) can be found at https://www.montserrat.edu/portfolio-item/kristen-mallia/

She talked a lot about process, documentation, obsession, collecting, writing — the importance of accumulation of material for use now and for one's “future self”. It’s a great talk.

More on that project, and much else, at her website rarevaluables and instagram @fireballdelicious.
 

---

Relating to Nate’s project, and to Leslie’s, this image, received from a friend —

I do not know its source (and — surprisingly — find no similar photographs of lost/destroyed MAGA hats, out there).
 

---

These references came up during discussion of work on Tuesday. They pertain in particular to Leslie’s work.

1. Powers of 10 (Charles and Ray Eames, 1977)
   especially for Leslie, in terms of development of an idea of quantity, through a sequence of pages.
2. Ed Fella (AIGA Medalist)
   see slideshow in that AIGA page, and his book
   Letters on America (2000) in seminar room
   EdFella-Yestoday (seems to be his work!)
    

---

The Katherine Small Gallery in Somerville —
gallery, bookshop, &c., — hard to describe... so start with
about or
@ksmallgallery
 

notes, week of 3 and 5 November (and beyond)

no class Tuesday 3 November

Vote.

See prompts for process documentation, in preceding post.
 

---

for Leslie —

1. “Don’t Eat the Breakfast Cereal. It’s Made of Plastic.”
   Robin Frohardt has turned a vacant space in Times Square into a colorful installation that slyly doubles as an eco-warning. Puppets have their moment, too.
   Laura Collins-Hughes. NYTimes. Arts section. November 1, 2020
   www.nytimes.com/2020/11/01/theater/plastic-bag-store-times-square.html
   (don’t miss the comments),
   and (without comments) here (pdf)
   in print on November 2, 2020, C5 with the headline: This Grocery Stocks an Environmental Message.
2. “Millions of face masks are being thrown away during COVID-19. Here’s how to choose the best one for the planet”
   Mayuri Wijayasundara. The Conversation. October 11, 2020
   here
   [this article offers some figures, and maybe ideas for locating more figures.]

---

looking forward, to Thursday 12 November

Mary Ellen Lepionka joins the seminars to talk about Beverly's Indigenous People
9:45 – 11:00am, Google Hangouts
details
 

process documenation prompts (subject to revision)

these are prompts for the process (documentation) book, which should document not only what, but the how and why; discuss the turns, the trails that were lost, or came to an end.
good to start now, with these questions and thinkings — and writing.

there is some circularity and repetition in these prompts, not to mention biases of my own.
 

---

basics

name
title of thesis project
280 character (max) abstract/summary of the project (where it stands now)
first or second semester of seminar? if first, will there be a second?
if taken as studio elective, what is/was your intention for doing so? (how did you want this experience to work for you?)

background

what brought you to the idea for the work under way?
what remains of that initial impulse? has the work taken on a life or turns of its own, into new (perhaps unfamiliar) territory?
has it remained largely as initially envisioned (to the extent that it was envisioned)?
is that ok?

how would you characterize this work and/or this phase of this work ?
e.g., design exercise; investigation; experiment; personal discovery; survey of the ground, etc.
elaborate.

has this process changed your mind, about your work, your assumptions, your starting point(s)?

sources
what have been your sources (of ideas, raw material, ideas, language, images) ?
these might be triggers or prompts, interests/ideas you’ve since left behind, abandoned, jettisoned.
they might (some of them) be suited to a bibliography.

transformation
degree to which you are transforming your source material.
repeating or rephrasing it?
selecting, repurposing? intentionally mis-purposing? turning it upside down, inside out?

this latter question, ultimately, has to do with transformation; rather than a “report” on sources, or repackaging (but no further transformation): are you taking elements (selected) of your source material into new territory?

more on context

who might see/encounter/engage with the work(s), and how, in what formats and what circumstances.

how does work done in and around Design Seminar, relate (or not, or complement) work done in other classes and in your internship?
how does it relate to current circumstances (including Covid social distancing etc., economic precarity, election-year and other politics, social circumstances (Black Lives Matter, Me Too to name two).

how do you contextualize this work?
how do you want people, and which people, in which ways, to relate to your work?
(this question probably relates directly to your 280 character (max) abstract)
what is the proper context for this work? other designers? non designer audience?
are you preaching? to the converted?
how does it relate to other designed objects?
in what “situations” might the work be inserted?

how is this work like/unlike other work, that addresses similar issues?
 

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this post subject to revisions, additions, deletions.
 

notes, week of 27-29 October

reviews, via Google Meet, Wednesday evening, 28 October.

6:00   Leslie
6:30   Paige
7:00   May
7:30   Rowan
8:00   Nate
8:30   Adam

reviewers: John Colan, Blyth Hazen, Jesse Kahn, John McVey

Each student will be invited to join the Google Meet review immediately before their scheduled time (so be ready). Students will give a concise summary of their intentions and where they are in their work, and present that work (via “presentation” — not of screen, but of open tabs, or from a google slideshow that you have prepared in your drive).

We will “rehearse” procedures during seminar on Tuesday 27 October. (I will demonstrate the use of google’s “slideshow” function at this time.)

It is expected and critical that thesis proposals be updated to reflect where projects are now, rather than what was imagined about them back in May. Think of these updated proposals as a progress report – they need not be long (one “page” might be sufficient). Reviewers will read the proposals/progress reports in advance of the reviews. Either post updates to blog, or send to me, who will add them to the respective proposals pages.

Seminar will meet on Thursday a.m., perhaps in part for debriefings; no classes next Tuesday 3 November (election day).
 

---

reminder

Each week, I post notes that variously include information pertaining to seminar discussions, asides, and links to resources/work relating to individuals’ work-in-progress.
View these by clicking on posts “labeled” John.

I do also comment on students’ blog posts, and not always on the day that post was created.
 

notes, week of 20 and 22 October

agenda for Thursday 22 October :

1. consider work and thinking in progress;
2. decide time slots for panel reviews, Wednesday evening 28 October (reviewers John Colan, Jesse Kahn, Blyth Hazen)
3. join presentation by Jonathan Gangle on Diagrammatic Logic and the Visual Arts, 9:45-11:00am (via google meet, will provide meeting info in advance)
4. discuss “due-diligence” research/presentations (didn’t get to this on Tuesday);

some diagram links, looked at in class (start with Mirzakhani) —

1. “A Tenacious Explorer of Abstract Surfaces :
   Maryam Mirzakhani’s monumental work draws deep connections between topology, geometry and dynamical systems.”
   Erica Klarreich, Quanta Magazine (August 12, 2014)
   here
   scroll down to see her diagram, and absolutely watch the video (less than 3 minutes), noting at 2:30 her drawing diagrams on the floor
   more Mirzakhani links
2. “Multiple Blackboards: Where Theory Meets Chalk, Dust Flies : A Photo Survey of the Blackboards of Mathematicians”
   Photographs by Jessica Wynne, Text by Dennis Overbye. The New York Times (September 23, 2019)
   here
3. Feynman Diagrams
   wikipedia
   David Kaiser, “Physics and Feynman’s Diagrams”
   In the hands of a postwar generation, a tool intended to lead quantum electrodynamics out of a decades-long morass helped transform physics
   American Scientist 93 (March-April 2005)
   here
4. The Diagram
   online literary magazine (since 2000), features diagrams along with the poetry, microfictions, some reviews.
   most recent issue
   also tweets at @EL_DIAGRAM

---

agenda for Tuesday 20 October :

1. consider work and thinking in progress;
2. discuss panel reviews (next week, either Weds evening or Thurs a.m.);
3. discuss “due-diligence” research/presentations;
4. decide whether we will participate in Rocco Gangle’s presentation on diagrammatic logic/diagrammatics (on Thursday; see attachment (O’Sullivan, “On the Diagram,” which is optional reading))

update/overhaul thesis proposals, to bring them into line with where your project currently is.
a tweet-length summary/abstract will help, particularly for our panel reviewers.

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So writing is the method of using the word as bait: the word fishing for whatever is not word. When this non-word—between the lines—takes the bait, something has been written. Once whatever is between the lines is caught, the word can be tossed way in relief. But that’s where the analogy ends: the non-word, taking the bait, incorporates it. So what saves you is writing absentmindedly.

I don’t want to have the terrible limitation of those who live merely from what can make sense. Not I: I want an invented truth.

ex Clarice Lispector. Água Viva (Stefan Tobler trans, 2012) : 15

---

some links from last week’s discussions

social messaging (Leslie's project) —
@lesliedamidesigns

---

Hebrew typography (Adam’s project) —

1. a botanical alphabet
   DAAAAAAAAAAZY / Lichen Candelarius
   ex Jean Pierre Bergeret (1751-1813). Phytonomatotechnie universelle (1783-84)
   here
   VEXNWAGEHPULÆ, VEXNUAGEHRULÆ...
   the key
2. Oded Ezer
   works, opens to The Message (2001), but explore other as well.
   fonts
3. David Tartakover (Israeli designer, b. 1941)
   his page at information center for israeli art

apples (apple trees, wood; Adam’s project) —

Michael Pollan talks about the history of the apple here

---

string, wire, knots (Rowan’s project) —

1. J. D. Leechman and M. R. Harrington. String Records of the Northwest. (Indian Notes and Monographs, 1921)
   here
2. ...the winding of thread or yarn amongst the nails has doubtless its especial meaning...
   in Frederick Thomas Elworthy, The Evil Eye: An Account of this Ancient and Widespread Superstition (1895)
   here
3. works by Georgia Dickie
   at Cooper Cole Gallery
   and own website (be sure to scroll down, to see larger work, outside)
4. prison art (woven cigarette packages)... working with what’s at hand
   images

---

on turtles (May’s project) —

I came back. I’m thinking about turtles. Once I said by pure intuition that the turtle was a dinosauric animal. Later I read that it really is. I have the strangest thoughts. One day I’ll paint turtles. They interest me a lot. All living things, except man, are a scandal of astonishment: we were modelled and a lot of raw material was left over — it — and so the beasts were formed. Why a turtle? Maybe the title of what I’m writing you should a little like that and in the form of a question: “What about turtles?” You who are reading me would say: it’s true that it’s been a long time since I thought about turtles.

ex Clarice Lispector. Água Viva (Stefan Tobler trans, 2012) : 48

---

structures, book (Paige’s project) —

Takanashi Yutaka ( 高梨豊 )
book, showing three images at a time (basically two books bound (two spines) as one, their pages interleaved)
overview
e.g., Tokyo-jin here

notes, week of 13 and 15 October

Tuesday 13 October

agenda —
work and thinking in progress;
discuss Laranjo’s “Design Systems” essay;
discuss schedule (visiting philosopher on Thurs 22 October; panel reviews later in month)

Thursday 15 October

to do the work that didn’t happen on Tuesday!
 

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looking ahead

Thursday 22 October
joining with Senior Studio Arts Seminar for presentation by / discussion with Rocco Gangle, Professor of Philosophy at Endicott College
on diagrammatics, diagrammatic logic, diagrammatic reasoning...

we have been provided with a couple of readings, which I have printed and deposited on the seminar table. the second of the two is not mandatory, but is “worth looking over.” I expect the readings, and/or any preparation in advance of Professor Gangle’s presentation, will change (and will alert you when/if they do).

1. Simon O’Sullivan, “On the Diagram (and a Practice of Diagrammatics),” in Karin Schneider and Begum Yasar, eds., Situational Diagram (2016) : 13-25
2. Louis H. Kauffman, “The Mathematics of Charles Sanders Peirce,” Cybernetics & Human Knowing 8:1-2 (2001): 79-110
   Kauffman, by the way, is a mathematician at the University of Illinois (his academic homepage); the author of a charmingly illustrated book on knot theory — On Knots, Annals Study No. 115, Princeton University Press (1987) (copy in the design seminar room); and “plays a mean clarinet” with the ChickenFat Klezmer Orchestra in Chicago.

Wednesday evening, 28 October
panel reviews
to be confirmed

notes, week of 6 and 8 october

Thursday, 8 October...
No classes in morning, to accommodate a Faculty Meeting...
that I will not be attending, and so have reserved the morning for one-on-one meetings with any seminarian who would like this.
See google calendar/meet notification regarding details, and the scheduled thirty-minute slots.
these meetings are optional, not obligatory.

The reading for Tuesday (that (almost?) no one read for this week, will be discussed next Tuesday, 13 October.
Please have thoughts about, or prompted by, that reading —
Francisco Laranjo, “Graphic Design Systems, and The Systems of Graphic Design” in
Modes of Criticism 5 / Design Systems

Photocopies of print edition on the table in the Design Seminar room.
same text at modesofcriticism.org/graphic-design-systems/

The essay begins with a discussion of the grid, and specifically of Josef Müller-Brockmann his Grid Systems (1981)

I have left a photocopy of the title, table of contents and some other pages from that volume.

Of greatest interest is “grid and design philosophy” (page 10), whose English-language version is given below :

• The use of the grid as an ordering system is the expression of a certain mental attitude inasmuch as it shows that the designer conceives his work in terms that are constructive and oriented to the future.
• This is the expression of a professional ethos: the designer’s work should have the clearly intelligible, objective, functional, and aesthetic quality of mathematical thinking.
• His work should thus be a contribution to general culture and itself form part of it.
• Constructivist design that is capable of analysis and reproduction can influence and enhance the taste of a society and the way it conceives forms and colors. Design that is objective, committed to the common weal, well composed, and refined constitutes the basis of democratic behavior.
• Constructivist design means the conversion of design laws into practical solutions. Work done systematically and in accordance with strict formal principles makes those demands for directness, intelligibility, and the integration of all factors that are also vital in sociopolitical life.
• Working with the grid system means submitting to laws of universal validity.
• The use of the grid system implies the will to systematize, to clarify
  the will to penetrate to the essentials, to concentrate
  the will to cultivate objectivity instead of subjectivity
  the will to rationalize the creative and technical production processes
  the will to integrate elements of color, form, and material
  the will to achieve architectural dominion over surface and space
  the will to adopt a positive, forward-looking attitude
  the recognition of the importance of education and the effect of work devised in a constructive and creative spirit.
• Every visual creative work is a manifestation of the character of the designer. It is a reflection of his knowledge, his ability, and his mentality.

Müller-Brockmann (book and photocopies) can be found on table in the Seminar Room.
Also on the table (and open to a nice identity exercise) is David Reinfurt and Robert Wiesenberger their monograph Muriel Cooper (2017), on that important designer whose work was inflected by, and played with, grids and similar systems.
something about Cooper (and the book) here
more about Cooper, in the MIT archives, in Madeleine Morley’s essay “Looking Back on Muriel Cooper’s Visions of the Future”.
 

notes, 29 September, 1 October

we talked about walking, and how it might relate to writing (and even drawing).

mention was made of Thomas A. Clark his “poem” (sort of) “In Praise of Walking” —
a photocopy is on table in seminar room, from where it first appeared (a book titled The Unpainted Landscape).
it also can be found here and there on the internet

there is of course the famous Paul Klee idea “A drawing is simply a line going for a walk.”
here

boustrophedon
boustrophēdón “ox-turning” from βοῦς, bous, “ox”, στροφή, strophē, “turn” and the adverbial suffix -δόν, “like, in the manner of”; that is, turning like oxen in ploughing) is a type of bi-directional text...
common way of writing in stone in ancient Greece...
wikipedia

palimpsest
a manuscript page, either from a scroll or a book, from which the text has been scraped or washed off so that the page can be reused for another document...
wikipedia
the term can be (and is) used figuratively, e.g., for how humans write erase rewrite etc their activities on the land...

disabilities

“Individuals with disabilities make up a third to half of all people killed by law enforcement officers, according to a report by the Ruderman Family Foundation analyzing data from 2013-2015.”
“Black and Disabled: How Racial Discrimination Is Amplified by Ableism“
‘Being black and disabled, we get treated like we are disposable.’
Sherina Poyyail, re:set (June 8, 2020)

What Can a Body Do?
Amanda Cacchia’s essay to that exhibit at Haverford College
catalogue to that exhibit (pdf)

and blindness

Perkins School for the Blind
(in Watertown, near Cambridge)
great museum, that is currently closed because of Covid-19, but well worth a visit
(I believe was open only Tues and Thurs, limited hours).

whales! and menopause!

“Failing to find common ground in the human world, Steinke turns to the natural one. She takes an immediate interest in pilot whales and orcas, the only other animals known to undergo menopause.”
ex Sarah Manguso’s review of Darcey Steinke. Flash Count Diary : Menopause and the Vindication of Natural Life (2019)
“Where Are All the Books About Menopause? For women, aging is framed as a series of losses—of fertility, of sexuality, of beauty. But it can be a liberation, too.”
Sarah Manguso. The New Yorker (June 17, 2019)
here

notes, 22-24 september

for Tuesday 29 September,
read the first (introductory) chapter “Who Is the World Built For,”
in Sarah Hendren her What Can a Body Do? : How We Meet the Built World (2020)
have some thoughts about or prompted by your reading, perhaps written down (in margins?)

in room : Rowan, Adam, May
remote : Paige, Leslie, Nate

have changed who might normally be in room/remote, because of absences last Thursday.
“remote” people are welcome to come in, perhaps can sit in studio area (so that we can maintain social distancing)

if showing work, please do so via the course blog, or as “presentation” from google drive.
we know that holding work up to laptop/phone camera is less than optimal (but sometimes can’t be helped)

—

Sara Hendren
accessible icon project
more, on same

Alterpodium
with Amanda Cachia / March 2014–ongoing

from Hendren‘s “Who Is the World Built For” —

1. ...that she lives with the disabling conditions of the world... (6)
2. Designers work from what’s called a brief... at its best, a brief is packed with questions that can be addressed by any number of methods... (7)
3. But how do you make a charismatic thing... (8)
4. discussion of “normal” pp 10-14
5. aside (disability, might include other factors too, including history of slavery, economic/social class, etc...)
6. discussion of art, philosophy poetry vs engineering (18)
7. personal factors of “misfit” — autism spectrum, dyslexia, chronic depression... (19)
8. the author’s social life filling up with “people who are blind or deaf or use wheelchairs—and whose everyday routines were also replete with tools” — the importance of such encounters, conversations, new perspectives (21)
9. the dynamics of a design class : dyads of teacher and student, the triad of teacher + student + the “thing we’re building together” (22)
10. “A shared material task will direct everyone‘s gaze to the work at hand, but good collaborations are structured by relationships that you can’t just assume. They don’t arrive without effort. They’re also built.” (23)
11. on iterations (not just discussing the possibilities and debating choices in the abstract) (24
12. things, stuff (that’s not yet junk or trash) : “It is the very nature of all our stuff to give us help.” (25)
13. relationship of tools to the body (26-27)
14. “...design can include making something new, but it can also include unmaking the world as it is, or perhaps remaking it, with parts and systems alike.” (28)
15. more on the body, and the in/stability of that body... Deleuze on Spinoza on “what can a body do?” (29-30)
16. the vantage point of the untypical — “...many nondisabled people have never really considered that disability as an experience myight indeed be... a generative and restless vantage — a view on the world...” (31)

and, related somewhat (if only tangentially) to Hendren’s chapter —

‘There is a fear that this will eradicate dwarfism’ The controversy over a new growth drug
A new treatment could help children with achondroplasia, the most common form of dwarfism, grow taller and avoid health problems in later life. But there are concerns about whether this is ethical
Emine Saner. The Guardian (28 September 2020)

—

things / discarded things

duck/duct tape
Duct tape (also called duck tape, from the material it was originally made of) is cloth- or scrim-backed pressure-sensitive tape, often coated with polyethylene.
wikipedia

Hari-Kuyō (Japanese: 針供養) is the Japanese Buddhist and Shinto Festival of Broken Needles
wikipedia
this in relation to “junk,” trash, people’s relationships to the things that have aided/comforted them, but have outlived their usefulness.

Ode to Broken Things / Pablo Neruda (1904-1973)
many translations out there; this is nice, because of the wunderkammern shown with it

Jenny Odell,
Bureau of Suspended Objects
related tumblr

—

ICD-10 / Mental Health classifications/codes

ICD-10
International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems 10th Revision (ICD-10)
Chapter V, Mental and behavioural disorders
(F00-F99)
Incl.: disorders of psychological development

ICD-10 Mental Health Billable Diagnosis Codes in Alphabetical Order by Description
 

15/17 september

for Tuesday 17 September,
read (and have some thoughts about, or prompted by)
Vilém Flusser his essay “About the Word Design” (from his The Shape of Things: A Philosophy of Design, 1999)
and
Jarrett Fuller, his review essay “Against Design?” at Design Observer (July 17, 2019)

want to see work or materials (particularly by those who haven’t shown yet); updated proposals where there’ve been changes; and tweet-length abstracts/summaries.

—

thanks Leslie for pointing to
First Things First Manifesto (2020)
scroll down to end, for this —
“This manifesto is a living document. Help us rewrite the manifesto by adding your voice. We believe the First Things First Manifesto should reflect collective thoughts on what the world needs and where design plays a role within that world.”

—

8 September, p.s.

This post repeats what was in e-mail sent out, minutes ago.

first off, keys alas won't be in your mailboxes until tomorrow. there's a form to sign, get it to me when you can.

still waiting for titles and tweet-length summaries of your thesis proposals (140 characters, up to 280).

for Thursday, read and consider :

1. First Things First
   Ken Garland (1963)
2. First Things First Manifesto
   Emigre 51, 1999
   (these relate in particular to Leslie's work)
   be aware of the Emigre collection at Letterform Archive
   and
   
3. Heinrich von Kleist, "On the gradual completion of thoughts during speech"
   in the Bosch series type specimen book that you have received via e-mail and in hard copy
   the text is only six pages long, internal (not pdf) page 11-17.
   it concerns thinking as stammering things out, and connects with last week's comparison of the mind to the Magic 8-Ball.
   and
   primarily for Leslie, but for others if interested,
4. Generation Anthropocene: How humans have altered the planet for ever
   Robert Macfarlane. The Guardian (1 April 2016)
   a kind of overview of the environmental moment (pre pandemic, pre Black Lives Matter, pre economic recession etc)

September 8/10

scheduled google meet for tomorrow 8:15 — class starts at 8:20.

three students in room (Adam, May, Nate), three remote (Leslie, Paige, Rowan).
those who are coming into H-309, please bring laptop if you have.
and please be on time.

---

I will continue to move updated thesis proposals from regular posts, to the respective “designers, proposals” pages.

As I read and think about these, the gap between an “artist statement,” and a “thesis proposal,” comes to mind. The first is after-the-fact, retrospective. The second — tentative, ambitious, even stammering — is before-the-fact, actionable. The first helps provide an avenue/perspective into work that exists; the second a provisional, prospective approach to work that has yet to come into being. I suppose these two roles are not mutually exclusive; but they’re worth thinking about.

---

From CND to Hollywood: the ruthlessly brilliant designs of Ken Garland
The graphic designer who decried consumerism with a call-to-arms manifesto has won a lifetime achievement award. He talks about his career highs – and why so much modern design is ‘utterly mindless’
Oliver Wainright. The Guardian. 7 September 2020
here

The First Things First Manifesto
 

syllabus, update

The syllabus can be found at canvas, where it will be subject to tweaks etc.

I have been adding thesis proposals and updates, to your respective pages devoted to those, as I receive them.

update (4 September)
During our first meeting Thursday 3 September, we decided to go a second route: three students in the room and three remote, for each meeting, alternating who is where from meeting to meeting.

This arrangement is subject to change, of course, and any student preferring to remote in, on a day they would ordinarily be in the room, is welcome to do so.

for Tuesday 8 September —

1. updated thesis proposals
   (include title and tweet-length summary (used to be 140 characters, now up to 280);
2. read and consider etymologies of the words thesis and experiment/experimental
   (from the OED and from etymonline)
   and
   
3. have something to show of your work
   (sketches, references, analogues, previous and related work)
    

the room, etc.

Here is what the room looks like, at present (Thursday afternoon, 27 August).

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

There are five work tables (one under the window, the rest in back studio area). The two tables with computers on them are for anyone. I understand that four people want to work in this space, so we should be able to allocate the tables equitably.

Yes, there are too many chairs for the room. We'll deal with that later!

---

As we approach our first meeting next Thursday, I have been working in and straightening the room, and contemplating how we should use the space for group meetings.

I now believe that at least in the beginning, we should meet only three students in the room at one time. We could do this two ways:

1. the first day by having three people present, and three people coming in via Google Meet.
2. divide the morning up into two sections, 8:20-9:35, and 9:45-11:00.
   For the first session, three people are present in the room, and three come in via remote. We switch who is in the room, and who not, for the second session.
   But is this too complicated?

I wonder what you — all six of you — think. I'm also mindful that two people are returning for second semester of seminar, and four are completely new to the space and routine.

---

I hope to receive updated proposals from everyone over the next few days, and well in advance of our first meeting.

thinkings

 
While the College is still developing plans and protocols for the Fall 2020 semester, I want to float these initial thoughts about Design Seminar and how it will work. I welcome your thoughts on any and all of this, not to mention things I’ve not addressed and that matter to you.

19 July addition —

Much, even most, of this semester may be remote, in terms of meetings. We cannot know as of now, Sunday 19 July.
Studio work will go on in college studio spaces that are yours, in H-309 and elsewhere. We will together decide how best to proceed.

1. studio space —
   All of the H-309 seminar room (not only the studio area in back), will function primarily as studio space.
2. group meetings —
   I do not know how frequently we will meet as a group, in the same physical room. I do expect us to meet as a group, via remote channel like zoom or Google Meet, once and even twice a week.
3. The group meetings will have two main purposes:
   (1) discussion of each student’s ongoing work, and
   (2) discussion of readings (or viewings, etc.), some of which would pertain to an individual student’s work, and even be selected/assigned by those students.
4. How will the physical space work, for group meetings, whether in person or remote?
   I hope that each student has access to a laptop, iPad or other device, so that we would conduct our meetings, even if in person, as if in a zoom/meet meeting. In this way, students who are not present for the group meeting, can still participate.
   I anticipate that where we do meet, as a group, in the same room, we would move tables or any needed furniture as needed, to facilitate that meeting.
5. one-on-one meetings —
   We — I, the instructor, and each student — will meet at least once a week, one-on-one, remote or in person.
6. seminar blog —
   We will continue to post work on this blog; we might also use Google Drive, uploading files as PDFs, primarily)
7. Canvas —
   If we use Canvas, it will be primarily (or only) as a calendar/scheduling tool (and perhaps for its attendance function).
8. panel reviews —
   As in previous years, seminarians present their work to a panel of design (and other?) faculty, at least twice during the semester, typically in the evening. These reviews will likely happen via a remote/online channel.
9. guest/visiting designers —
   Also as in previous years, guests/visiting designers will participate in seminar, this semester via zoom/Google Meet.
   One who comes to mind, is Emma Fanning of Little Fox Design and @littlefoxdesignstudio.

Design Seminar achieves some different aims, for different students. Some are more oriented to professional practice in graphic or interactive design; others are on different paths.

It is my — and surely our — goal to make Seminar work for each student. Our focus will be on each student’s exploration of interests and directions, and bringing these investigations to strong formal conclusions, or series of conclusions, with learning happening at every stage of the process.

Regarding laptops, please advise if you do not have, or do not have dependable internet access. (Keep in mind that there are two computers/monitors in the seminar room (studio area), and it is not impossible that more might be secured.)