BCNDesign

The Design History Foundation is a private institution that was established last year in Barcelona. It seeks to promote, support and disseminate the work of design historians in Spain and Latin America. Its aim is to help in the establishment and development of the History of Design through  research, postgraduate and training workshops, conferences and symposia, exhibitions and publications. One of the key aims of the Foundation is to enhance the visibility of the History of Design as an area of historical studies.

The DHF has worked closely with the recently launched Barcelona Disseny Hub, curating the poster exhibition Col.lecció del Gabinet de les Arts Gràfiques, and putting together a new study collection of over 1000 Spanish posters.

I believe Barcelona’s DHF will be a great platform to promote a better understanding of design and to showcase what design historical approaches can contribute to thinking through visual and material culture. Through the Board of Trustees, we’re establishing a range of institutional links with national museums, and the Graphic Arts exhibition currently on show at the Palau del Marquès de Llió (Montcada 12, Barcelona) is its first major public outcome.

Launched just under two weeks ago, the Designer’s Review of Books promises to be a nice place to hang around and browse the online shelves. The DRB was founded, is edited and written (mostly) by Andy Polaine, an interaction designer, journalist and lecturer, but it features guest reviewers as well for more specialist pieces. Here’s what Andy says about his project:

Although there are several good design websites that occasionally have book reviews, there didn’t seem to be a single place online where you could get constant updates and reviews of new (and sometimes old) design books.

The reviews are grouped under 2D, 3D, Interactive and Motion, and so far the 3D aspect is under-represented, although that will probably be addressed as more articles are posted.

There are still only a handful of reviews on the site, but they are for the most part quite detailed, giving a good overview of the books’ contents and with some welcome pics of interior spreads. While more descriptive than critical in tone, they provide a helpful indication of what the books are about and of their approach. So it’s not quite yet the design equivalent of the LRB, but a great initiative nonetheless. Keep reading.

Second Life architecture

I’ve just come across a fascinating article by Tyler Pace on the Design Philosophy Politics website: ‘Digital life identity crisis: tales of security and sustainability’.

While the issue of sustainability is a pressing one and is now solidly embedded in contemporary design thinking, it is still rare to find an article such as this one, which carries over the issues into what we are still calling the ‘virtual world’. Pace’s comments make it clear that we are using an incorrect, and misleading, terminology. There’s no such thing as a virtual world, there’s just the world. Here’s some food for thought:

Linden Labs, producers of the popular social virtual world Second Life, expressed their consumption problems in 2006.

“We’re running out of power for the square feet of rack space that we’ve got machines in. We can’t for example use [blade] servers right now because they would simply require more electricity than you could get for the floor space they occupy.”

Identity information in Second Life is more complex than a traditional web application as “residents” of Second Life own clothing, chairs, cars and pretty much anything else you can imagine. All of this accessory information becomes part of the identity maintained by the Second Life servers, thereby requiring vast amounts of electricity. Popular technology blogger Nicholar Carr calculated that Second Life avatars consume as much electricity as the average Brazilian citizen.

On a parallel tack, I’ve received a very interesting call for papers sent out by the online journal Design Philosophy Papers, on the need for design history to address sustainability as a historical and historiographical issue. Full details below.

CALL FOR PAPERS

Design History Futures – Sustaining What?

to be edited by Karin Jaschke, Paul Denison and Tara Andrews
in association with Anne-Marie Willis

SUMMARY:
Modern lifestyles and material cultures made possible by design are now being seen as so deeply implicated in unsustainability that a re-writing of design history seems inevitable.

Conversely, a revitalised, critical design history could play a major role in providing an intellectual framework for new, redirective design practices.

How does awareness of sustainability and unsustainability affect design history?
What does this mean for specific areas of research: histories of product design, architecture, fashion, graphics, material and visual cultures, etc.?
What part has design history itself played in the development of unsustainability?

Submit 200 word abstracts by 12 Dec 2008 to:
Anne-Marie Willis, Editor, Design Philosophy Papers  amwillis@teamdes.com.au

FULL TEXT:
Design history has evolved over recent decades through engagement with matters of concern like class, gender and the postcolonial. In turn, critical design histories have contributed to new ways of understanding the world around us. Today, the matter of concern is sustainability: an issue that is almost too large in its implications to be grasped outright. It presents a challenge that is new in scope and kind. Design history cannot remain unaffected by this.

Design historians are well aware of the role design has played in making the modern world. Yet the modern lifestyles and material cultures made possible by design are now being seen as so deeply implicated in unsustainability that on these grounds alone a re-writing of design history seems inevitable. Modes of practice and thought, social and economic contexts, and the ideological premises of past design practice need to be addressed anew.

At the same time, this raises the question of design history’s own disciplinary past, present, and future. Design histories have used and perpetuated ways of thinking that have fed directly into current, unsustainable design practice, including notions of progress, newness, and obsolescence, ‘iconic design’, and the star-designer or ‘starchitect’. Historians of design thus need to consider the implications of their value-systems.

Climate change, resource depletion, and pollution will lead to major changes in modern lifestyles in the near future. Design has a major ethical and professional stake in this transition and the direction it will take.

We propose that a revitalised, critical design history could play a major role in providing an intellectual framework for new, redirective design practices. Thus we ask the following questions, and invite papers that address them:

•       How does awareness of sustainability and unsustainability affect design history?

•       What insights could be gained by re-reading design’s past through perspectives of sustainability and unsustainability?

•       Could design history contribute to a more developed understanding of sustainability and unsustainability?

•       Are there past writers who have already done this? Is their work relevant to today?

•       Have we overlooked historical subjects that are of importance to the sustainability debate?

•       What part has design history itself played in the development of unsustainability?

•       Do we need radically new ways of thinking to understand the role that design has played in bringing about the present unsustainable state of the world?

•       What does this mean for specific areas of research: histories of product design, architecture, fashion, graphics, material and visual cultures, etc.?

•       Is there an ethical imperative for historians to reconsider their disciplinary approach with view to sustainability? Does this imperative undercut notions of impartiality?

•       Where are the blind-spots in design historiography that may hinder a real rethinking of design history?

•       What methods and approaches from other disciplines or traditions of thinking could offer ways of understanding our unsustainable past that might be relevant to the historical study of design?

SCHEDULE
Abstracts (200 words) due by: 12 Dec 2008
Select and invite full papers by: 19 Dec
First drafts of papers due by: 13 March  2009
Papers refereed by: 3 April
Final drafts due by: 24 April
Publication online by: 22 May

SUBMIT ABSTRACTS TO:
Anne-Marie Willis
Editor, Design Philosophy Papers
amwillis@teamdes.com.au
www.desphilosophy.com <http://www.desphilosophy.com>

spain emotion exhibition at the Spanish Embassy in Roppongi, Tokyo.

Designboom offers images of a collection of furniture designed by ex-designer Martí Guixé for
Barcelona furniture label, ‘Mixing Media‘, on show at the Claska Hotel’s gallery as part of Tokyo Design Week 08.

The Spanish presence in Tokyo this year included Jaime Hayón‘s latest porcelain designs for Lladró, which (dis?)graced the boutique’s windows on Ginza. Around these and other presentations, a series of talks, rather stereotypically entitled spain-emotion, took place under the auspices of the Spanish Institute for Foreign Trade, ICEX. Their centerpiece was the exhibition of the same name curated by Hector Serrano at the Spanish Embassy in Roppongi, showcasing the best of current Spanish design.

It was really great to see such a solid and well-represented Spanish presence in Japan. But my take on the best of Spanish design in Tokyo last week? The brash, wonderfully colourful appearance of our beloved Chupa-Chups, as shown in these pictures I took in Ginza:

Saturday 15 November 2008
7:30pm to 11pm
Ticket: 5 euros (includes drink)
IAAC (Institut d’arquitectura avançada de Catalunya)
C/Pujades 102 baixos, Poble Nou. 08005, Barcelona
Metro: Línea 4 (Bogatell ó Llacuna)

http://www.pecha-kucha.org/cities/barcelona

After the success of Vol.1 and Vol.2, Pecha Kucha Night Barcelona returns, this time taking place at the IAAC (Institut d’arquitectura avançada de Catalunya). Participants will include the design studio 2creativo, the architect Ethel Baraona, sustainable design consultant Leonora Oppenheim and graphic designer and illustrator Miguel Ángel Moya.

The first Pecha Kucha Night in Barcelona took place in July at the Edificio Fórum and was followed by a second evening in September at the Maremagnum.

Yale information designer Edward Tufte introduced us all, many years ago, to the joys of graphically stunning data visualisation. Now IBM’s beta software Many Eyes is available online for anyone to use, offering various alternatives for the graphic organisation of data. One of its most appealing features is the text visualisation option, which crunches through a text file and turns it into word clouds or tree structures, according to the number of instances any given word appears in the text. The ‘Wordle’ (see picture above) and ‘Cloud’ visualisations are informative and pretty, but the ‘Tree’ structure allows for specific word searches within a text and then presents a schematic visualisation of its structural use throughout the text.

I have uploaded two files of recent speeches by Barcelona’s Mayor Jordi Hereu, curious to see what the official vision of the city actually looks like. Not surprisingly, words such as ‘social’, ‘public’, ‘services’, ‘neighbourhood’ and ‘creativity’ loom large.

Most of the visualisations are interactive, you can visit the page here and play around with them – searches for specific words in the Word Tree are especially rewarding.

I have just come across a piece that William Drenttel wrote for Design Observer earlier this month. It was in response to an all-male, all-white, all-Anglo jury panel put together by Adbusters magazine for the One Flag graphic design competition. I copy some excerpts below, you can read the whole piece here.

This is a competition for a flag to represent global citizenship — in this, the year of Barack Obama; the year of the 45th anniversary celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech; and the year we celebrate the 88th anniversary of the U.S. 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote. While the examples are rooted in American cultural experience, the principle — and the conclusion — remains the same: this is not the time for such limited vision. What winner would be proud of such an achievement, cast in these harsh terms?

[...] I’m writing this here not to further abuse Adbusters, but to forcefully argue that this should not happen again. It is time for organizations to encourage diversity as a part of developing new ideas, excellence and a richness in the future of design — an increased focus on multiculturalism, gender equality and globalism is more than appropriate in these times. Designers should take a personal pledge that they will not participate in events or initiatives that do not include participation by others, whether of sex, color or language. It’s a simple step, but it’s time.

Adbusters has acknowledged the problem and is reportedly working on selecting a more diverse panel.

Volume 2 of Pecha-Kucha Night is taking place in Barcelona on 26 September. Since it was first held in Tokyo in 2003, Pecha-Kucha has gone viral and now regularly takes place in over 150 cities worldwide, offering a great platform for designers and creative professionals to showcase their work and meet each other.

Following the set format of this global phenomenon, participants will make short presentations, speaking to 20 images of their work, each shown for 20 seconds each – giving 6 minutes 40 seconds of fame before the next presenter is up, followed by two hours of intensive networking, drink in hand. Next Friday there will be presentations by industrial designer Ernest Perera, gastronomist Juan Ortega, web designer Gavin Dudeney, and design studio Brosmind, among others.

The event is bilingual, taking place in Spanish and English.

Friday 26 September 2008
8pm to 11pm
Ticket: 5 euros (includes drink)
Maremagnum, Barcelona
Metro: Línea 3 (Drassanes)

The website Diseño Iberoamericano (disenoiberoamericano.com) has just published a short overview article by Spanish design historian Ainhoa Martin, on the poster designs for the 1929 Exposición Iberoamericana de Sevilla: Diseño gráfico en 1929. La promoción de la Exposición Ibero Americana de Sevilla . The event took place at the same time as Barcelona’s International Exhibition, and was co-ordinated jointly by the government of dictator Miguel Primo de Rivera under the umbrella organisation ‘Exposición General Española’.

Beyond the interest of its immediate subject matter, Martin’s article points out the difficulties design historians face when conducting archival research in Spain. In this particular case, Martin notes that there has been no effort to bring together documentary sources, that are mostly privately held, into one public archive:

Hay que anotar que la revisión de las fuentes primarias ha mostrado un panorama desolador. No se ha apreciado que las administraciones tengan interés en recuperar la documentación que se conserva en manos privadas y crear un archivo formalizado que recoja específicamente las aportaciones de propaganda y diseño gráfico de la Exposición.

This, of course, only applies to the material still in existence. Most of the papers and documentation relating to the 1929 Exhibition in Sevilla were burned in 1936 when the city was flooded, to provide heating for refugees. At least one could argue that there was a humanitarian cause for the bonfire. I still remember my shock when I first came across a similar story in Valencia, but in that case, the documents were burned to make paella. We might not have a lot of time for archives, but we’re great with food.

Pradell by Andreu Balius, 2000.

Luc Devroye is a Professor at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, and a very cool dude too, by the sound of it. Of the many appealing links on his website, which I’ve yet to explore fully, the ones I can’t wait to click on are ‘Abolish conference papers’, ‘No blind refereeing’,  ‘Bring on the drugs’ (possibly to help with refereeing blindly) and a poem called Sarkokaka.

But more to the point, he has published a pretty comprehensive directory of type design in Catalunya that he calls ‘The Catalan Font Scene’. He also has a Basque Scene page, and a Spanish Scene one. Prof Devroye adds a note explaining that he has ‘split the Spanish contributions politically (in)correctly into three parts, the Spanish page, a Catalan page and a Basque page’. Clearly, living in Canada makes one sensitive to that kind of stuff.

Anyway, the website offers font directories for many countries and languages, along with bibliograhical suggestions and an open invitation for type designers to join him for a drink at his place in Montreal. Did I say he was a dude?